Monday, October 7, 2024
Home Blog Page 1245

Japan’s Annual Festival Of The Penis Is Here And It’s Amazing

Sam Jones
-
0
Japan’s Annual Festival Of The Penis Is Here And It’s Amazing

It’s not the size of your festival, it’s what you do with it.  Did we say penis festival?

Every spring, thousands visit the town of Kawasaki, Japan to partake in the Kanamara Matsuri, or “Festival of the Steel Phallus.” That’s right, it’s a literal dick-fest.

Festival-goers tote giant penis shrines on their shoulders, wear their best penis-themed outfits and eat, you guess it, phallic foods.

It isn’t just a quirky Burning Man copycat, but rather a serious affair with a rich cultural history. The festival was organized in the 70’s by the priests of Kanayama Jinja, a “place where couples prayed for fertility and marital harmony; during the Edo era, from the 17th to 19th centuries, sex workers would come and pray to be rid of the STIs that they picked up in the course of the job,” according to the Independent.

Its welcoming, lighthearted spirit isn’t meant to be obscene, but to celebrate fertility and diversity of life, as Kimiko Nakamura, former chief priestess at the shrine told the Independent:

“Officials who handle human rights from City Hall have come to the festival and handed out pamphlets, promoting this festival as a LGBT-positive, non-discriminatory event. This event has deep, wide roots in that kind of thinking, and we don’t want anybody to take it another way. We consider that there should be no discrimination against anybody including LGBT people, men, women, or people who aren’t either. Anybody should be able to come to this festival and enjoy it.”

Everyone from grandmas to small children attend the event. It may seem like a street party straight out of the bachelorette section of your local sex toy store, but it’s all meant in good, clean fun.

[gravityform id=”13″ title=”false” description=”true”]

5 Things You Need To Know About Kansas City’s Marijuana Ordinance

Mike Adams
-
0
5 Things You Need To Know About Kansas City’s Marijuana Ordinance

While Kansas City voted last week to eliminate the penalties associated with small time pot possession — putting this offense in the same classification as the average traffic ticket — the new ordinance has not exactly created a free-for-all with respect to the cannabis plant. In fact, there are still plenty of ways for the average citizen to get jammed up in the criminal justice.

Here are a few things you should about the new law and what it means overall for those people popped for pot possession.

First of all, the ordinance does not legalize marijuana in any way. The initiative that was approved last Tuesday by a majority of the voters simply forces the Kansas City Police Department to issue a $25 ticket to anyone caught in possession of up to 35 grams of pot. However, those people busted for this offense will still be required to appear in court, perhaps even running the risk of being slapped with a drug conviction.

Secondly, even though the new ordinance, which took effect last Wednesday, only looks to penalize petty pot offenders to the tune of $25, some of these folks will also be made to cough up an additional $48.50 for court cost. Depending on the circumstances, some pot cases could be dealt with in other counties, bringing about the possibility for higher penalties.

City Prosecutor Linda Miller told the Kansas City Star that there might be an “unintended consequence” for those offenders who opt to pay the $25 fine as opposed to having a lawyer plead their case. Since jail time is no longer an option for this offense, indigent defendants are no longer offered a public defender to assist them in a plea arrangement. This could cause some defendants to simply accept the conviction without understanding that even a minor drug-related blemish on their record could prevent them from qualifying for opportunities pertaining to education and employment.

What’s more is Legal Aid services are no longer available to those who violate the city’s pot laws. The local chapter of NORML, which is responsible for putting the decriminalization initiative on the ballot in last week’s special election, says it is currently working to assemble a team of pro-bono attorneys willing to go to bat for pot offenders unable to hire legal counsel on their own. However, it could be months before any sort of program is in place.

Perhaps the most important aspect of Kansas City’s new decriminalization ordinance is it changes absolutely nothing for those folks who get tangled up with Missouri State Police. These officers will continue to lean on state law, which makes possession of up to 35 grams a misdemeanor punishable with up to a year in jail and fines reaching $2,000.

[gravityform id=”13″ title=”false” description=”true”]

Gossip: Bradley Cooper And Irina Shayk Separate As They Welcome Baby; Janet Jackson Divorce Payday

Naughty Gossip
-
0
Gossip: Bradley Cooper And Irina Shayk Separate As They Welcome Baby; Janet Jackson Divorce Payday

Bradley Cooper and Irina Shayk welcomed their first child two weeks ago, but they are no longer a couple.

“Bradley and Irina slit before the baby was bon. They are still great friends and will raise the baby together but they are no longer a couple,” sources tell Naughty Gossip. “They love each other and respect each other but they are not together.”

Russian model Irina, 31, and Bradley, 42, did not find out the baby’s sex before the birth, instead opting for a surprise. They have yet to reveal the baby’s name or gender.

Irina Shayk has been keeping a low profily lately but she recently turned up at a farmer’s market in LA with her mother, Olga.

Irina was photographed looking svelte while shopping with her mother on March 30, but kept the news of the birth quiet while she recuperated.

She was previously said to be relishing her first pregnancy.

A source explained: ‘She has some major cravings and is indulging in all of them. She loves being pregnant and seeing her and Bradley’s baby grow in her belly.’

Janet Jackson Held Out in Her Marriage Just Long Enough to Cash In on Her Prenup

Janet Jackson split from Wissam Al Mana may have earned her a substantial payday. Now, Janet has coins all on her own — but Wissam has many, many more. His estimated net worth is at $1 billion while Ms. Jackson’s is estimated at $175 million.

“Janet did have a prenup with Wissam and they’re typically structured with 5-year and 10-year checkpoints — the longer you’re married, the more money you receive. She isn’t stupid,” sources tell Naughty Gossip. “Timing is everything. Janet and Wissam separated right at the 5-year mark.”

The baby factor also should play a significant role in Janet’s final payout.

[gravityform id=”13″ title=”false” description=”true”]

Love the fresh dirt we bring over daily from Naughty Gossip? Let us know in the comments!

Uruguay Will Become First Country To Allow Pharmacies To Sell Weed Over The Counter

Taylor Berman
-
0
Uruguay Will Become First Country To Allow Pharmacies To Sell Weed Over The Counter

On Thursday, Uruguay announced that it will become the first country in the world to sell marijuana over the counter in pharmacies. As High Times notes, the move comes four years after President José Mujica completely legalized the drug in the nation.

“Cannabis will be dispensed in pharmacies starting in the month of July,” president of the National Drug Board, Juan Andres Roballo, said at a press conference.

To qualify for the new program, medical marijuana patients will have to join a national registry. Initially, they’ll be able to purchase 40 grams a month, set at a price of $1.30 per gram, in five-gram containers. Later, 10-gram-containers may become available.

Sixteen drugstores will sell the legal marijuana, which will be grown in state-supervised fields to “guarantee the quality and the purity of the product.”

[High Times]

Alabama Horse Has To Drink A Beer A Day For Its Health

TFT Editors
-
0
Alabama Horse Has To Drink A Beer A Day For Its Health

Generally speaking, beer is not something prescribed by medical professionals. While delicious and refreshing, the health benefits of beer—aside from its ability to help you relax—would appear to be minimal.  But this Alabama horse has to drink a beer a day for its health.

Related Stories: The Aggressive Turkey Known As Downtown Tom Is Causing Problems In California 


AL.com reports that ol’ Mac—a 20-something-year-old horse who lives at King’s Home in Chelsea, Alabama, a non-profit that provides help to women and children who have been abused—has something called Cushings disease, which inhibits his ability to naturally sweat. To help with this ailment, his vet told his keepers to give him a beer each day.

“Beer has ingredients that can open the pores and help them sweat,” King’s Home Development Director John Tidwell told AL.com.

Tidwell reached out to Jason Malone, the co-founder of a local brewery called Good People, to ask about beer donations. The offer was one Malone couldn’t refuse.

But what kind of beer does Mac prefer? “Apparently, he’s a big fan of IPAs,” Malone told AL.com. “He’ll be our biggest, literally and figuratively, IPA fan.”

While many horses love the taste of beer, possibly because it consists of ingredients such as barley and hops, which resemble the grains in horse feeds. The alcoholic content is not a concern, as horses do not get drunk easily, if at all. Their livers process alcohol extremely rapidly because they naturally produce large amounts of alcohol dehydrogenase. This is an enzyme that breaks down the products of fermentation, which occurs in the horse’s large intestine during normal digestion. It quickly converts all forms of alcohol to carbohydrates to be used for energy.

So despite this Alabama horse has to drink a beer a day for his health, you should not do for your horse, or pets. This is not an encouragement for people to provide horses or any other animal with alcoholic beverages. It is dangerous for pets.

Man Fined For Walking His Snake in Park Without A Leash

Taylor Berman
-
0
Man Fined For Walking His Snake in Park Without A Leash

If you take your pet to a park in South Dakota, you better put a leash on it…even it can’t technically run. Otherwise you might end up like Jerry Kimball, who was ticketed on April 1 for letting his four-month old Fire Bee Ball Python slither in the grass of park in Sioux Falls.

“It was April Fool’s Day, so I thought he was playing a joke,” Kimball told the Argus Leader. “They’re not fast creatures. They’re not going to run away.”

The $190 fine for “animals running at large” didn’t bother Kimball so much as the park Animal Control Officer’s proposal that he put a leash on the snake. “He was literally asking me to put a rope around my snake,” Kimball said. “I was like ‘dude, no.’ I was dumbfounded.”

While it obviously wasn’t “running,” a spokeswoman for Animal Control told the Argus Leader the snake was still technically “at large.”

“If it’s in public and it’s not on a leash, it’s at large,”Julie DeJong said. “The ordinance doesn’t really distinguish between animals.”

The incident was apparently prompted by a woman who saw another of Kimball’s snakes and called Animal Control. While DeJong suggested that Kimball should take people’s fear of snakes into consideration before taking his pets in public, he thinks that’s all the more reson to show the world his snakes.

“That’s my purpose in life: To let people know that snakes aren’t killers,” Kimball said. “What better way to give back than to help people understand these misunderstood creatures.”

Here’s Some Weird Sh*t Uber Passengers Left Behind

Maria Loreto
-
0
Here’s Some Weird Sh*t Uber Passengers Left Behind

Uber cars and subways are like magnets for your most precious objects. Leaving an important item behind  is something that’s happened to most of us. If we think a little we can recall the moment vividly: stepping out of the car in the middle of a snowy day, saying your goodbyes to the driver, patting yourself down to check that you’ve got all your stuff with you, and then the dread when you realize that your Uber just drove off with your phone, wallet and scarf.

A couple of years ago, if you left something in a cab or a subway you could just start mourning that loss right away. There was no way in hell that you were ever going to get that back. Uber recently introduced a Lost & Found index that lists all the lost items people have forgotten about and the cities where it happened. There are a lot of phones and wallets on the list, you know the usual, but there’s also a lot of random shit.

The Uber Lost & Found index is divided into different categories that range from most forgettable items, which logically include phones, wallets and IDs, to the days where people are most forgetful, (Sundays obviously) to the weirdest items left behind. Which are very weird, check these out:

  • A lobster
  • Paintings
  • Laser
  • Hot Cheetos
  • Wedding Outfit
  • Violin
  • Potted Plant
  • Cape
  • Smoke Machine
  • Paycheck
  • Valuable Nordic walking poles

Thanks for that juicy information Uber! We have so many questions.

If you recognize any of these items, maybe you’re their original owner. Uber has thought of that too, prepping this video that lists the necessary steps you need to take so you can get your stuff back. 

[gravityform id=”13″ title=”false” description=”true”]

How Local Farmers Want To Impact Recreational Marijuana In Massachusetts

Brendan Bures
-
0
How Local Farmers Want To Impact Recreational Marijuana In Massachusetts

Since Massachusetts recently passing recreational marijuana usage laws, many questions still need solving in terms of the state’s cannabis infrastructure. One of those, as depicted in this recent Boston Globe feature, revolves around the marijuana crop itself. In other words, who’s going to grow the green?

One group in Massachusetts who wants in the game is local farmers. Unfortunately they’re finding a high barrier to entry thanks to state laws and local resistance. State medicinal marijuana laws were passed and instituted a high cost to enter the market: more than $30,000 in licensing fees and growers had to establish proof they had at least a quarter million in the bank.

In addition, all state medical marijuana businesses must be vertically integrated, so it’s easy to record from seed to sale. All grow operations must also be under “locked, limited-access areas,” which has led to an influx of electricity-dependent greenhouses and indoor facilities.

Via Boston Globe:

Worse still, the nascent medical marijuana industry, thanks to state rules, is dominated by a small number of well-financed companies. AmeriCann, a publicly traded Denver corporation, plans to build a million-square-foot growing facility in Freetown, near Fall River. When completed, it will be one of the largest of its kind in the country. And these existing companies will likely get first crack at recreational marijuana licenses. According to the ballot language, new cultivation operators like [local farmer Ted] Dobson will have to wait a full two years after the program starts to apply for a license.

According to the Globe, while Massachusetts has become hotbed for the tech scene, it’s also been fruitful land for agriculture. There has actually been a rise in the number of farms recently within the state. So it would make the Commonwealth a great area for small, artisanal farms growing cannabis outdoors.

Thanks to Colorado, there’s proof this has potential.

Via the Globe:

After Colorado voters legalized cannabis in 2012, Pueblo County, a struggling rural region in the southern part of the state, allowed farmers to grow marijuana without complicated reviews or approvals. Now the county boasts a 36-acre field of cannabis behind high-security fencing, plus 21 other acres of marijuana being grown in greenhouses and indoor grow facilities. … [County Commissioner Sal] Pace says the county has enjoyed a boom—and collected enough tax revenue to award a scholarship to every Pueblo high school student who wishes to attend a local college.

As the inroads to recreational marijuana are being built in Massachusetts, the local agriculture community is a group worthy of inclusion. Now it’ sup to those in the state to do just that.

[gravityform id=”13″ title=”false” description=”true”]

David Peel: Marijuana And Counterculture Icon, Gone But Never Forgotten

Brendan Bures
-
0
David Peel: Marijuana And Counterculture Icon, Gone But Never Forgotten

David Peel, the iconic street musician, John Lennon pal, subversive counterculture icon, has passed away at 73.

The artist suffered a massive heart attack last week and died Thursday, his longtime friend Jeff S. Levy confirmed to Billboard.

Peel was an iconoclast and gained notoriety for his revolutionary pro-cannabis stance through his music. Peel and his Lower East Side band scored offbeat hits with songs like “I Like Marijuana” and “Show Me The Way To Get Stoned” on their debut record Have A Marijuana. The group’s sophomore record American Revolution was more direct with its political stance with a track named “Legalize Marijuana.”

Peel and the Lower East Side recorded their music live on the street. That attitude eventually led to Peel meeting Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Via Billboard:

According to Lennon biographer Ray Coleman, Lennon recalled himself and Ono joining Peel to sing in the streets. “It was arranged for us to meet him, but it seemed like a happening,” Lennon said. “And he was suddenly there and we started singing with him in the street. And we got moved on by the police, and it was all very wonderful. That was it. He was such a great guy, you know. We loved his music and his spirit and everything. His whole philosophy of street and everything.”

Lennon would go on to sign Peel to The Beatles’ Apple Records label, where his Lower East Side drew resistance for their first record under the label, The Pope Smokes Dope. Lennon would also appear alongside Peel during a spot in 1971’s John Sinclair’s Freedom Rally and a couple performances on The David Frost Show.

Peel would continue his stance as a counterculture icon late into his life. He made appearances again as a street musician during the Occupy Wall Street movement and recorded a song titled “I Can’t Breathe,” as response to Eric Garner’s death.

“A lot of people come up to me and say, ‘Peel, I thought you were dead,'” he told the New York Times in 2012, adding that he would continue to perform in public “until the day I drop dead and go to rock & roll heaven.”

[gravityform id=”13″ title=”false” description=”true”]

Effortless Gourmet Breakfast: Cannabis-Spiked Chia Seed Pudding

Danielle Guercio
-
0
Effortless Gourmet Breakfast: Cannabis-Spiked Chia Seed Pudding

Chia seed is much more than a fad food and an ’80s gag gift. It was and is a major part of the indigenous food culture of South America, like potatoes and quinoa, they were born and bred there. The reasons why civilizations cultivated it for so long is that it’s a wonderful energy source that has lots of very good for you essential fatty acids.

Chia puddings and gels are a great way to start a hot summer morning, you make it once and have five days of cooling, refreshing breakfasts. Usually I stock up some different fruits to eat it with, especially fresh coconut meat (rare), Ataulfo mango (the best) and dragonfruit, all local favorites where I live. Ataulfo mangoes and dragonfruits are also from the same general sphere of influence, and they pair so wonderfully with a creamy and crunchy scoop of chia.

Adding small doses of cannabis to your morning meal or mid morning snack can be a great way to medicate without any effort, and if you use it for pain management or neurodivergent therapy, you’re starting your day on a healthy note.

Chia Pudding With Fruit

Danielle Guercio 2011

Makes five ¼ cup servings, 5mg THC per serving

  • 3 Tbs Chia seeds
  • 1 cup Coconut Milk
  • ¼ tsp Vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp Honey
  • 1 tsp Cannabis infused glycerin tincture*
  • Fruit of choice (dragonfruit pictured)
  • Coconut chips, turmeric, sesame seeds, and honey for garnish
Photos by Maria Penaloza

In a clean jar, dispense vanilla, glycerin and honey. Add a splash of warm water and stir until dissolved. Add chia seeds and coconut milk. You can use black or white chia seeds, and you can also use any non-dairy milk that you’d like.

Adding your own sweetener is best since the tincture has some sweetness to it, a pre-sweetened store bought product may come out a bit too sugary.

Photos by Maria Penaloza

Stir well and refrigerate overnight. The mixture will thicken and turn into a creamy gel. Spoon into a small bowl or to be fancy, the shell of the fruit you’re topping it with. Try not to have more than one serving the first few times you eat it, if you overdo it, you’ll have issues. Top with fruit, I like to use ⅔ the amount of fruit to chia. Sprinkle with sesame seeds, coconut chips, and honey for an extra tasty and gorgeous finish.

*Cannabis Infused Glycerin Tincture

In an oven safe container double sealed with foil, decarboxylate 3.5 grams finely ground cannabis at 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Put cannabis in a mason jar or vacuum sealed bag, pour over 2 oz vegetable Glycerin and seal tightly.Place in a water bath at just under boiling for 1 hour. Strain and keep contents in a sterilized container. Stores indefinitely in freezer.

Photos by Maria Penaloza

You’ll eat this as quickly as you prepare it, it’s very effortless and still looks impressive, exciting, and even a little inspiring. I can’t think of a better way to kick things off no matter what time you wake up.

Photos: Maria Penaloza

[gravityform id=”13″ title=”false” description=”true”]

1...1,2441,2451,246...1,419Page 1,245 of 1,419

Don't Miss Your Weekly Dose of The Fresh Toast.

Stay informed with exclusive news briefs delivered directly to your inbox every Friday.

We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.

The Fresh Toast is an award-winning lifestyle & health platform with a side of cannabis. We work hard each day to bring uplifting and informative information about culture, weed, celebrity, tech and medical marijuana.

© Copyright @2020