With a name like Tommy G. Thompson, you’re bound to end up doing something worthy of fame or notoriety. But you probably wouldn’t guess that ol’ Tommy T. was once one of the greatest treasure hunters of his day — and not in the 18th century pirate kind of way. A real, modern day treasure hunter.
After finding a “trove of gold” in the Atlantic Ocean in 1988, Thompson recruited 160 investors to help him pull it up from the ocean. The three tons of gold was aboard the S.S. Central America, a ship that sank 8,000 feet to the sea floor in 1857.
But he wasn’t a swashbuckler. Thompson was methodical and scientific in his excavation of the treasure, learning not only about the riches below but the cultural history of the shipwreck. When things started to sour between him and his investors, who accused him of stealing the loot, Thompson disappeared completely for years.
It turns out, the modern-day Blackbeard was hiding out in a mansion in Florida, the Washington Post reported in January:
“They paid rent for the multi-million dollar Vero Beach property in cold, sweaty cash that had become damp and moldy after being buried underground, according to court documents from 2013 that were unsealed this week. Thompson kept at least 12 disposable cellphones — each assigned to a different person or purpose.”
Now that he’s been tracked down and hauled in, Thompson is being held in an Ohio jail cell until he tells authorities where the gold went, and is being fined $1,000 a day until he spills its whereabouts. His former investors think he’s hiding it in a trust account for his kids. But he swears he doesn’t know where it is.
The synthetic drug, called “synthetic marijuana,” responsible for turning parts of New York City into a raucous scene straight out of the Night of the Living Dead over the summer originated from a laboratory operated by one of Big Phama’s top companies.
A report published this week by the New England Journal of Medicine shows that Pfizer, one of leading pharmaceutical companies in the world, inadvertently had a heavy hand in the barrage of “Spice” overdoses that took place in New York this past July, sending more than 30 seriously ill people to the emergency room.
Indeed, the event the media described as a “zombie” outbreak was fueled by a synthetic cannabinoid called AMB-FUBINACA, which the report indicates was first patented by Pfizer around seven years ago. Although the drug company was never able to bring the its experiment in cannabis medicine to the consumer market, public knowledge of its existence, reportedly, is what led to it being recreated in foreign labs all over the globe.
It was recently revealed that this drug, which has been described in online forums as “out of this world potent,” is 85 times stronger than the psychoactive compound of the cannabis plant known as tetrahydrocannabinols or THC.
What’s more is that while the substance (and others marketed as “K2”) is often put in the same rankings as marijuana, medical experts say it is actually much more dangerous, since it can come with some brutal side effects, including seizures, psychosis and even death.
In short, scientists want the drug culture to understand that cannabis and the garbage chalked up to be its synthetic counterpart is not even close to the same in terms of safety.
“There is this false idea out there that these drugs are safe, because no one overdoses on marijuana,” study author Roy Gerona, a clinical chemist at the University of California, San Francisco, told the New York Times.
There is tremendous opportunity on the black market for AMB-FUBINCA, with 1 kilogram having the potential to earn a street dealer as much as $500,000, according to the NY Times.
Christmas songs tend to lean into the jazzy and operatic. Cheery show tunes belted by ringing, swallow-you-whole crooners. They deck the halls and jingle all the way.
Those same songs repeated in your ears year after year can be comforting. But they can also be cringe worthy, inducing some serious claustrophobia. If that’s the case, these Christmas hip hop songs are here to save your cheer. The genre has embraced the holiday spirit like few others. Here are the essential tracks to celebrate this winter.
1. Run-DMC—“Christmas in Hollis”
Like many rap trends Run-DMC established, “Christmas in Hollis” is ground zero for Christmas hip hop tracks. Its inclusion in movies like Less Than Zero and Die Hard raised its profile, but it didn’t need it. This tracks bangs like the best Run-DMC tracks do.
2. Kanye West Ft. CyHi Da Prince, Teyana Taylor—“Christmas in Harlem”
The embedded version of Ye’s Christmas staple is the bare bones, vanilla version. During his slew of G.O.O.D. Friday releases, Kanye released an essential remix, which featured a reunited Dipset and Pusha T and Big Sean. Here it is. It’s worth your time.
3. Ying Yang Twins—“Deck Da Club”
This is the Ying Yang Twins, arbiters of ATL crunk. What a delightful, wonderful flip this is.
4. Eazy E—Merry Muthaphukkin Christmas
“Christmas in Compton.” Combining one of the clearest purveyors of gangster rap with jingle bells and Christmas bars results in funny, subversive raps.
5. Kurtis Blow—“Christmas Rappin”
A bit cheesy, heavy on rappity-rapping, but still charms your pants off, like Kurtis Blow always does.
6. Atmosphere—“If I Was Santa Claus”
Earnest and endearing, this Atmosphere track invites holiday reflection more than celebration.
7. Run the Jewels—“A Christmas Fucking Miracle”
A feel-good yuletide for the family. Just kidding. As Run the Jewels do, it’s menacing yet reassuring about the real possibilities of a Christmas miracle. Also Killer Mike as Santa Claus should replace every suburban mall Santa across the country.
8. Ludacris—“Ludacrismas”
Christmas songs tend to celebrate snow and cold weather difficulties. This gets dull for Southerners and why we have Ludacris to create our anthems.
9. Jim Jones—“Ballin’ On Xmas”
Jim Jones made an entire Christmas album called A Dipset X-mas. It’s the best Christmas album ever made. There will be no other arguments.
10. OutKast—“Player’s Ball”
At 18 years old, Andre and Big Boi made every Christmas I’ve ever had seem boring and mediocre. Take me to the Player’s Ball.
11. The Treacherous Three—“Santa Rap”
Reality check from the 80s.
12. Juelz Santana & Starr—“Jingle Bellz”
Eradicates all previous versions and recordings of “Jingle Bells.”
13. DMX—“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Remix)”
The best Christmas rap of all-time. That DMX still hasn’t recorded a Christmas album remixing the classics should be considered a national tragedy.
Dooma Wendschuh is a bold entrepreneur. How bold? The Canadian businessman is throwing down the gauntlet to the trillion-dollar alcohol industry with a line of cannabis-based beverages.
Province, a Toronto-based cannabis startup, is creating a line of beverages that Wendschuh is convinced will put a serious dent in the booze business.
In 2017, Province plans on launching two products: A beer brewed from cannabis (which will contain alcohol but no active compounds from the marijuana plant) and a line of alcohol-free beers brewed from cannabis which will get you high instead of drunk. In 2018 the company will launch its first spirit product.
“Essentially, we are providing social equality t0 the cannabis consumer,” he said. “We envision a cannabis enthusiast sitting at the same table at the same restaurant as an alcohol drinker. It just seems normal to me.”
It won’t be easy, Wendschuh admits. But he’s more than ready for the battle.
“We are calling our alcohol-free cannabis products an alcohol killer,” Wendschuh told The Fresh Toast. “But in truth, innovative brewing and distilling technology like ours is exactly what the adult beverage business needs to stay relevant in a world where consumers are increasingly concerned with health, longevity and productivity and where per capita consumption of alcohol is declining year over year in the developed world.”
Bold words. But Wendschuh is geared up for the battle. “Alcohol companies are worried. They know use of their products is down. They also know that cannabis is healthier and safer.”
The global alcoholic beverage market is expected to grow from $1,198 billion today to $1,451.6 billion in 2020, according to P&S Market Research, an international analytics firm. In the U.S., the alcoholic beverage industry is estimated at more than $200 billion.
Can the nascent marijuana industry compete with the big boys of booze?
“While the alcohol beverage category has looked insulated from cannabis thus far — from a revenue perspective — with the legal market still in its infancy we think the risk to alcoholic beverage consumption will become increasingly apparent,” according to Vivien Azer, senior analyst for Cowen and Co., an investment research firm.
According to Azer, the 10-year trend show that men in particular are substituting alcohol with marijuana.
Photo courtesy of Province
In Washington, where marijuana has been legal recreationally since 2014, the industry generated $2 million in tax revenue its first year compared with the $30 million beer sales. One year later, cannabis revenue skyrocketed to $65 million. Revenue from beer taxes was $31 million, hardly a statistical blip.
“Over the last decade, while we have seen a rise in drinkers who use cannabis, we have also seen declines in cannabis users who drink,” Azer wrote. “Nonetheless, there is undeniable overlap, as close to nine million adult consumers used cannabis with their most recent alcoholic beverage occasion.”
The alcohol industry is taking notice.
The Boston Beer Company — famous for its Sam Adams brand — and the Brown-Forman Company — makers of Jack Daniel’s — have warned investors that progressive marijuana laws will “adversely impact the demand” for beer and spirits.
“It is possible that legal marijuana usage could adversely impact the demand for the company’s products. We also believe that impacts the craft beer industry,” the Boston Beer Company disclosed in its regulatory filing earlier this year.
And it’s not just the alcohol industry taking notice. Consumers are wising up, too. According to a Pew Research survey, 69 percent of Americans believe that alcohol is more harmful to a person’s health than marijuana. Only 15 percent believe cannabis is worse. If marijuana became as widely available as alcohol, 63 percent still believe booze would be the greater societal harm.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 37,000 deaths per year in the U.S. are attributed to alcohol use alone (this figure does not include accidental deaths). The CDC does not even have a category for deaths caused by the use of marijuana.
For Wendschuh, it is this health data that resonates most.
“When I was a college student at Princeton, I was a member of the 21 Club. In order to gain entry into this exclusive club, you had to drink 21 beer in 42 minutes. It was perceived as a real achievement. But we were poisoning ourselves,” he recalled.
“So this is personal to me. Why are so many people, especially young people, poisoning themselves? Well, what we want to do at Province is to change the paradigm,” he said. “Given a choice, I think most intelligent people would choose a less toxic, less harmful psychoactive – especially if they could get that same alcohol-like feeling, which is exactly what Province delivers.”
Azer, the analyst at Cowen agrees with this prediction. “We are watchful of substitution with alcohol, as incidence among men in the U.S. has fallen 0.1 percentage points in the last five years, while cannabis incidence has risen by 2.65 percentage points. With the legal market still in its infancy, we think the risk to alcoholic beverage consumption will become increasingly apparent,” she wrote in the 110-page report.
Will alcohol brands make the shift and compete in the cannabis market?
Constellation Brands, the booze behemoth behind brands such as Corona beer and Svedka vodka, is keeping its options open.
“We’re looking at it,” according to Constellation CEO Rob Sands. “There are going to be alcoholic beverages that will also contain cannabis. Why wouldn’t big business, so to speak, be acutely interested in a category of that magnitude? If there’s a lot of money involved, it’s not going to be left to small mom-and-pops.”
Wendschuh’s vision for Province, to be sure, is not a mom-and-pop operation. “Our goal is changing the world, to give the next generation a choice we never had” he said. “Even if it means we have to disrupt an entire industry.”
A Trump voter, a Clinton voter, and a Stein voter walk up to a bong… Nope, it’s not a joke.
Cut, the people behind “Grandmas Smoking Weed for the First Time,” now bring you this bizarro alternate reality where three people with differing political views sit down to smoke together.
Matt, on the far left, is Team Jill Stein. Lauren voted for Hillary Clinton, and Ryan, on right, voted Donald Trump. Lauren teaches Ryan how to smoke out of a bong for the first time. “I very much like marijuana, because it very much helps my anxiety,” she says. “Which is perfect for this situation.”
Come Together!
As five, 10, and 30 minutes go by, the trio attempts to put into words their political reasonings. “I don’t know where I was going with that, but I like what I just put down,” Ryan says after trying to defend his vote.
They then play a game called “Common Ground,” and are handed Facebook-style thumbs up and down and posed with generic topics. From oral sex, Game of Thrones, Beyonce and the show Supernatural, somehow they all managed to disagree — until they reached Zac Efron. Three thumbs up. From there, things got a little easier, or they were just getting higher: The Electoral College got all thumbs down, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson got all thumbs up, as did Bernie Sanders.
Their final takeaway from all of this, besides a really solid high and some snacks: “Quit casting the other person as the villain,” Matt says. Talk to each other, and bring a bong.
Watch their full adventure in elevated political discourse, here:
What tube do we have to jump down to enter this gaming level? Spotted in San Francisco’s Lower Haight neighborhood, a game of Super Mario Brothers played out on the second story of a building — and no one will fess up to this noble feat.
“Dan Jackson, a Lower Haight resident, was walking down Haight Street near Fillmore Street around 5:45pm when he noticed it. It appears someone was playing Super Mario Bros., projected onto the wall above Love Haight Computers, next to a CVS pharmacy.”
Jackson tweeted a video of the game in progress:
omg you guys someone is playing Super Mario Bros projected on the side of a building at Haight and Fillmore #LHSFpic.twitter.com/3SK5syGhL7
Most of the San Francisco based blogs have either contacted Love Haight Computers to find out who was behind this spectacular setup, or called for hotline tips from readers who might know more, but so far none have cracked the Mario mystery. Can’t imagine that the computer geeks downstairs would have anything to do with projecting a retro Nintendo game on the side of their building, but we’ll leave that to the local detectives.
San Francisco has a history with the Super Mario franchise. Everyone knows Koopatraz State Prison is based on the real-life Alcatraz. Luigi also visits the city in Mario is Missing! Throughout the game, he collects tips and tidbits from the locals, like “This city was named for Saint Francis of Assisi in 1776” and, “If you’re wandering around in a fog and feeling crabby, have some Dungeness crab on San Francisco sourdough.” Perhaps whoever hooks the projector up next will give that one a try.
Cupcakes illicit all sorts of euphoria. But on a day when it’s your CIVIC DUTY to eat one, the feelings of joy can be overwhelming. In honor of National Cupcake Day (Dec. 15), here are some dogs that exhibit the feelings we have a hard time expressing when confronted with frosting.
No, I didn’t hold a joint in my nether regions. I sprayed two squirts of THC-infused coconut oil onto my vagina… and that’s how I got my vagina high.
Recently I got my vagina stoned. No, I didn’t do some impressive kegels where I held a joint in my nether regions. Instead, I sprayed two squirts of THC-infused coconut oil onto my vagina… and waited.
I was introduced to “magic vagine oil,” as my friend calls it, at a boat party. We were sitting there, having a great lady chat, when she stood up and asked, “Who wants to make their vagina feel tingly?” Like a good dealer, she had samples of her product for every woman there. Not a shy bunch, we proceeded to stand in the middle of a body of water and rub oil that smells like weed onto our junk. Like ladies do.
Afterwards, we were told that it would take thirty to sixty minutes in order to feel the weed oil’s effects. However, since we weren’t actually touching ourselves in a kind of female circle jerk– you wish!– it is hard to tell how much our lady bits were being affected. One woman, however, looked particularly happy while sitting on the floor of the boat. She told me to join her, and I realized that I was particularly sensitive to the vibrations of the boat.
Turns out, boats are the world’s most expensive vibrators.
Yet I wasn’t fully satisfied. I wanted a more intense experience. That’s how I ended up in Union Square Park, huddling under my umbrella during a downpour, trying to find my vagina weed dealer. Oh, the things we do for drugs.
Once I finally made it home and dried myself off, it was time to get wet again. In a different way. I pulled down my shorts, put five good squirts of weed oil onto my hand, and rubbed it all over. “Inright, outright, upright, downright, happy all the time,” as the kids in Bible School say.
At this point, I have to give you some insider info about my anatomy. I’m one of the five to ten percent of women who identify as anorgasmic. In other words, I can feel a whole bunch of pleasure with my bits, but have never experienced a large climax.
That’s why I was so excited about the THC-infused oil. The stuff is supposed to produce results. It even has a legal equivalent, Foria Pleasure, which is sold in California. The product is described as “a therapeutic oil designed to enhance female pleasure and is made with all natural liquid coconut oil (MCT) and purified pharmaceutical-grade cannabis oil.”
According to the Foria website, “younger, more sexually active women often reported an overall heightened and intensified experience, both leading up to and including orgasm, older testers have reported a sense of reconnection with their sexuality, a greater ease in accessing climax followed by a restful night’s sleep.” In other words, your vagina gets high, while your brain stays clear of the paranoia that can often be associated with smoking weed. Obviously, I am excited to give my *cough* illegal New York version a test drive.
Trying not to get my orgasmic hopes up too high, I coated my vagina and vulva in the oil, waited 45 minutes, and then put on some porn.
(What? Who said that? I am a lady!)
I don’t want to tease you, so I’ll say upfront that I didn’t have a mind-blowing orgasm. But that’s okay. That’s my standard experience. However, I did experience heightened sexual pleasure, and for me, that’s a big deal. My vagina and vulva are far more sensitive to the touch, and I feel hornier in general. In fact, I am aroused as much as when someone else is there with me… but I’m having solo sexy time. Cue “Feelin’ Myself.”
Overall, I recommend getting your vag stoned. Especially if you live in California, where you can purchase Floria without the hassle of meeting a weed dealer in the pouring rain.
A word of caution: do not use this product if you want to have sex with latex condoms afterwards. The coconut oil will degrade the latex, and you’ll be too worried about getting pregnant to enjoy yourself. So when your vagina gets the munchies, don’t feed it a dick. Go get some chips, relax, and let your man do all the work, instead.
Rounding out the Top 5 most searched recipes: Brussels sprouts, hashbrown casserole, guacamole and chicken marsala.
Say what you will about retro foods. They may be artery clogging, GMO-laced and not nearly as Instargrammable as that rainbow bagel you just inhaled, but they’re making a comeback. Google has unveiled its Year In Search for 2016 and green bean casserole topped the list of recipe searches in the U.S.. That’s a huge departure from last year’s winner: pumpkin seeds.
Rounding out the Top 5 most searched recipes: Brussels sprouts, hashbrown casserole, guacamole and chicken marsala. The top cocktail searches are way less diverse.
For the second year in a row, sangria tops the list (it ranked third in 2014) followed by martini, strawberry daiquiri, Sex on the Beach and mojito. Apparently, Spring Break is year-round for some people.
Here’s where things get interesting. The beer searches reveal consumers are becoming way more curious about craft beer. Budweiser came it at number one, where it’s been since 2014. And, yes, Coors is close behind. But in third place we have Treehouse Brewing, followed by Delirium Tremons (this could actually be referring to ethanol withdrawal, but our money is on the Belgium beer) and Snake Venom beer. Last year, Gose and grapefruit beers ranked high (no Coors in sight). These recent results are a complete departure from those just two years ago, where Budweiser, Corono, Keystone, Miller and Blue Moon ruled the Top 5.
Lest we forget about food guilt, calorie searches are a cornerstone of internet sleuthing. And this year, the Top 5 results reflect our collective attempts to try and be healthier. And boring. Most people wanted to know how many calories are packed into a Big Mac (if you have to ask, you probably shouldn’t eat one). But after that, it’s a downward spiral into another, way less caloric world: Coors, quinoa, a glass of wine and eggplant. Sounds like a really sad dinner for two. For comparison, we were much more carefree and loose with our food choices last year. Top calorie searches included: Toasted Graham Latte (introduced by Starbucks in September 2015), followed by Palm Breeze, Starbucks Flat White, Grilled Stuft Nachos (upon their triumphant return to Taco Bell) and Little Caesars Bacon Wrapped Deep Dish. It’s a safe assumption that we considered 2015 our binge year.
Even in the time of Trump, it’s a bad idea to publicly accept an inflatable sex doll at a major industry event if you’re a prominent politician. Alas, this was a lesson learned too late by Economy Minister Luis Felipe Cespedes. The Chilean politician is sorry he posed with inflatable sex doll.
Tuesday night, Cespedes appeared at the annual dinner for Chile’s Manufacturers’ and Exporters Association, where Roberto Fantuzzi, the head of the association, gave him the inflatable sex toy. The “joke” appears to be the sign pasted over the doll’s mouth, which read “To stimulate the economy” in Spanish.
Si Bachelet no le pide la renuncia a Luis Felipe Céspedes, la señal es super clara: Nos vulneran a diario y no importa. #Asexma. Y Guillier👎 pic.twitter.com/9EPQg1CjvW
— Ballestrinque ☔ | Arriba de la Jaraneta (@NicoChiessa) December 14, 2016
Para quien no lo conoce, el min de economía, Luis Felipe Cespedes, es el de traje gris, que está punteando una mona inflable #Asexmapic.twitter.com/gxeBn0a2tw
“What a shameful job to hand an inflatable doll to Minister Cespedes ‘to stimulate the economy,”’journalist Consuelo Saavedra wrote on Twitter.
President Michelle Bachelet also weighed in on Twitter. ”The fight for respect for women has been a key principle of my two terms in office. What happened at the Asexma dinner can’t be tolerated,” she wrote.
Cespedes has since apologized, saying he was “caught by surprise” by the reaction, according to the BBC. Fantuzzi has also apologized.
Province, a Toronto-based cannabis startup, is creating a line of beverages that Wendschuh is convinced will put a serious dent in the booze business.
