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4 Tips To Help You Avoid Online Shopping Scams

Maria Loreto
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4 Tips To Help You Avoid Online Shopping Scams

As online shopping becomes more popular, so do scams. Here are some basic tips that’ll help you protect yourself.

The more we shop online, the more sophisticated online scamming becomes, especially when there’s tons of offers and we’re just trying to buy something before someone else takes it.

Despite the crazy vibes that come with the holiday shopping season, it’s important to check everything twice. Scammers work their hardest during this time of year, accurately predicting that people will be more willing to spend their money.

Here are a few basic tips that will help you avoid online shopping scams.

Be extra safe

When buying from stores you don’t normally buy from, be wary of your data. Check through the site’s privacy and security section. Use your credit card over your debit card and don’t store your card information on the site’s database, since this can get hacked. While it’s annoying to have to look for your card every time you want to shop, if you’re buying something from a website that you don’t know all that well it’s best to stay safe.

Tips To Help You Avoid Online Shopping Scams
Photo by rawpixel.com

Watch out for social media based stores

Apps like Instagram have popularized app based shopping, connecting you with stores that seem to contain items that are tailor made for you, but that may not be all that legitimate. While most of the ads that appear on your stories and news feed have some sort of endorsement from the app, it’s always important to look up the store’s website, check for user comments and scroll through their security and return policies.

Make your purchases from home

One of the oldest security recommendations from tech experts is to conduct all of your internet important business from home, while under the protection of your password protected Wi-Fi. While most of the time there’s nothing wrong with using public Wi-Fi, when you’re shopping and entering sensitive information, it’s best to be sure that no one is able to look in.

RELATED: 5 Basic Tips That’ll Help You Protect Your Online Data

Tips To Help You Avoid Online Shopping Scams
Photo by Max Pixel

Don’t trust deals that are too good to be true

Crazy and unrealistic discounts are one of the most basic scamming red flags. While it’s likely that some stores offer great discounts during this time of the year, if the discount is over half of the original price, check that everything looks legitimate before you make your purchase. Compare and contrast prices and look up other shoppers’ comments and input. Trust your instincts and don’t buy the first thing that looks good.

Is CBD An Effective Way To Treat Hangovers?

Maria Loreto
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Is CBD An Effective Way To Treat Hangovers?

Among the many claims that surround CBD, its ability to treat hangovers is one of the most inviting. Here’s what experts say.

Hangovers are awful and really hard to treat. While there are all sorts of pills and drinks that claim to fix your body, not to mention an endless stream of home remedies, most of the time, what works best is sleep, water and time.

One of the many, many claims that surround CBD is the compound’s ability to treat hangovers. While there’s no way to know definitively, since the research isn’t there yet, some experts have provided reasons why CBD could provide relief from some of the worst symptoms of hangovers.

Some of the main benefits that CBD provides coincide with many of the symptoms produced by hangovers. Unpleasant side effects like trouble sleeping, nausea, heightened anxiety, headaches and sore muscles are common for hangovers, and are known ailments that CBD can help relieve.

RELATED: Types Of Marijuana Known To Ease A Hangover

Jennifer Landa, MD, spoke with PopSugar and explained that CBD interacts with neuron pathways in the brain that affect nausea, pain and appetite. “Phytocannabinoids interact with the endocannabinoid (EC) system,” Landa said. “In the body, there are compounds that bind to the EC receptors. The main two are called 2-AG and anandamide.” CBD increases the presence of these transmitters in your brain, which is why the compound has been so positively received for people who suffer from these conditions on a regular basis.

CBD & Hair Loss
Photo by IRA_EVVA/Getty Images

While all of this information paints CBD as a very competent hangover cure, there’s still much work and research to be done before a conclusion can be drawn. Hangovers, despite the fact that they affect a large percentage of drinkers, remain mysterious and misunderstood. It’s known that dehydration plays a big role since ethanol, the alcohol in your drinks, depletes your body of fluids. But a large part of your hangover symptoms are also influenced by your genes and the way in which your body processes toxins.

RELATED: 5 Simple Ways Marijuana Can Help You Smash A Hangover

While some experts believe that there’s some validity to CBD as a treatment for hangovers, others are more negative. “There is absolutely no evidence, nor any rationale, why CBD should be effective to cure a hangover,” says Dr. Jordan Tishler, head of the medical advisory board at CannabisMD and frequent Fresh Toast contributor.

If you’re a person who suffers from severe headaches and anxiety when they get a hangover, some CBD oil might provide relief. Don’t expect CBD to work miracles, though. The best way to treat a hangover is to prevent it. The night of, watch your alcohol intake and drink consistent water as you drink your alcohol.

The MORE Act Legalizing Marijuana Is Doomed — Here’s Why

Mike Adams
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The MORE Act Legalizing Marijuana Is Doomed — Here’s Why

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said in the past that he has absolutely no intention of legalizing marijuana.

The cannabis community rejoiced last month on the heels of news that Congress would, for the first time in American history, take a vote on a bill that would legalize marijuana at the national level. 

The measure supposedly inching us closer to a time when weed is legal for everyone in the U.S. is called the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement Act (MORE). The goal of the measure is to eliminate the cannabis plant from the Controlled Substances Act, expunge the criminal records of petty pot offenders and invest tax dollars into repairing the communities most ravaged by the drug war shenanigans of yesteryear. And while the bill passed a key House committee with ease, setting it up to be discussed before the full House, it is doomed to fail, and quite miserably, mind you, regardless of what happens from here.

Cannabis advocacy groups gunning for legal weed across the nation have all but suggested that the MORE Act is the best thing to happen to the movement since the SAFE Act. Wait, what happened with that bill anyway? These people want the country to believe that Congress is finally stepping up on the cannabis issue and essentially champing at the bit to make sure that every man, woman and child (ok, maybe not the kids) has access to marijuana without getting persecuted by the police.

But the thing is, the majority of Congress isn’t yet interested in ending prohibition. Whatever hope that pot-loving Americans may have had for a greener tomorrow, well, they’re just going to have to wait a little longer. This isn’t going to be their year.

RELATED: House Judiciary Committee Just Approved Historic Bill To Legalize Marijuana

What cannabis advocates failed to divulge after the MORE Act found approval by the House Judiciary Committee is that while it may get some floor time in front of the full House — hell, it may even pass with flying colors — the measure is going to end up getting shredded, torched and perhaps also forced to endure many unspeakable, cruel acts before it is buried in the backyard of the U.S. capitol so that Republicans can dance on its grave.

Photo by KellyJHall/Getty Images

The Senate has absolutely no intention of giving this bill the time of day. How do we know? Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the gatekeeper to getting these types of measures the necessary floor time, has said in the past that he has absolutely no intention of legalizing marijuana. The most he was willing to go is legal hemp, which he did last year when he made industrial hemp production part of a larger Farm Bill. But as for marijuana, “It is a different plant, which I choose not to embrace,” he said.

RELATED: Here’s Everything You Need To Know About The Marijuana STATES Act

For all of you thinking, never say never, McConnell may surprise us all in the 11th hour, let me be clear on exactly why that’s not going to happen. How quickly we have forgotten the SAFE Act. Wait, there’s that name again. This measure was simply designed to give banks the freedom to do business with the cannabis industry without risking prosecution at the hands of the federal government. It would not legalize marijuana, it wouldn’t change any of the pot laws at all. It would only prevent banks from getting into trouble for money laundering, which in turn would give marijuana businesses access to bank accounts. The measure passed the full House a couple of months ago, and the Senate still hasn’t given it any consideration. Sadly, chances are the SAFE Act is dead in the water.

So, if McConnell isn’t even willing to entertain a simple banking bill for the cannabis trade, why on Earth would he all of a sudden stand up in support of a measure that would tear down the walls of pot prohibition nationwide? He wouldn’t. And even if it did get a vote, which it won’t, the Democrats would never be able to keep it from being devoured by the jowls of Republican domination. 

RELATED: What Needs To Happen For Marijuana To Become Legal At The Federal Level

Don’t believe the hype. The MORE Act, while an admirable attempt at legalizing marijuana in America, will not be going the distance in 2019. The bill probably won’t even receive a fair shot in the next session.

The best chance the U.S. has at any significant change concerning the national pot laws will depend on the outcome of the 2020 election. McConnell and several other Senate Republicans stand to be voted out. Therefore, as long as the Democrats can find a way to gain control of the Senate, the country will be in decent shape on the issue of marijuana reform. Of course, it is always possible that the Republicans could use marijuana legalization next year as a sneaky attempt to win over the voters. But that doesn’t appear to be the plan just yet. 

For now, it’s still business as usual in D.C.

Should E Sports Pros Be Tested For Cannabis

Rudy Sanchez
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Should E Sports Pros Be Tested For Cannabis

Detractors argue marijuana is a gaming performance enhancing drug, and that its consumption shouldn’t be promoted, especially since many fans are minors.

So far in 2019, pro gamers have competed for over $196 million in prize money. And that’s just the top of the digital iceberg. Gamers are racking in real-world loot through lucrative endorsements and revenue from streaming on sites such as YouTube and Twitch. With the growth in professional gaming, it’s little wonder pro gamers are drug tested just like their athletic counterparts.

While testing for some substances makes sense, the drug testing used by many leagues detects marijuana. This has prompted some to ask if cannabis should be banned, while detractors argue it’s a gaming performance enhancing drug, and that its consumption shouldn’t be promoted, especially since many fans are minors.

A major concern for both gaming organizers as well as athletic associations is the integrity of their sport, providing all competitors with a level playing field and severely punishing cheaters. Some pro gamers have admitted to using stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin as performance enhancing drugs (PED), prompting leagues and teams to begin banning and testing for these substances. While these and other stimulants are prohibited for their ability to give gamers an edge, they are also banned to dissuade young people from abusing drugs to gain an advantage in sports.

Organizations such as the Electronic Sports League (ESL) work with athletic anti-doping agencies at the international and country level. Many times, the ESL adopt the same list of prohibited substances, which include cannabis and most natural and synthetic cannabinoids, with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) expressly making an exemption for CBD.

Is Marijuana A Gaming Performance Enhancing Drug?

Some argue that marijuana is counterproductive at enhancing gaming performance, with others pointing to some of marijuana’s effects as being actually advantageous to gaming, slowing motor skills and response times.

RELATED: Science: Cannabis Does Not Make You Lazy After All

Another argument put forth by proponents of a marijuana ban also point to the youthful audience and the potential for pros to serve as role models, saying that cannabis use is illegal and harmful and competitors should set an example of virtuous living.

Electronic Sports Pros Are Tested For Cannabis, But Should They Be?
Photo by Lucas Ortiz via Unsplash

Some gamers, however, report that consuming pot gives them a competitive boost, allowing them to remain calm in even the most frenetic matches. Marijuana’s ability to relieve inflammation and pain can allow gamers to continue playing longer than they would have otherwise. Marijuana also has the ability to inspire more creativity, which is  commonly cited among gamers as a positive effect on their performance, as it leads them to conjure inventive strategies and tactics on the cyber battlefield.

RELATED: The Science Behind Marijuana And Gaming Performance

The detection methods for pot in e-sports, if present, are not Olympic-level. Saliva samples are the norm, and therapeutic use exemptions are available for banned substances with a physician’s note, although it’s unknown if an e-sports competitor has yet applied for and/or received a cannabis exemption. The focus and priority is in-competition use of banned substances, so pro gamers generally don’t have to fear repercussions for a post-tournament joint.

The e-sports scene is still evolving and there is as yet a uniform standard for drug policy across different leagues, tournaments, and games. We may however see a convergence in standards as pro gaming matures and cannabis’ impact on performance is better understood.

Marijuana Cuts Migraine And Headache Pain In Half

Brendan Bures
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Marijuana Cuts Migraine And Headache Pain In Half

Scientists determined inhaled marijuana reduced the severity of self-reported pain 47.3% for headaches and 49.6% for migraines.

Next time you feel the effects of a headache or migraine coming on, you might skip the Tylenol and smoke some cannabis. That’s because inhaling marijuana nearly cuts headache and migraine pain in half, according to a recent study.

Published in The Journal of Pain, this research represents the first study to utilize big data in analyzing the role cannabis plays in managing pain from headaches and migraines. Using archival data from the Strainprint—an app in which patients track their symptoms before and after using medical marijuana—scientists determined inhaled marijuana reduced the severity of self-reported pain 47.3% for headaches and 49.6% for migraines.

“We were motivated to do this study because a substantial number of people say they use cannabis for headache and migraine, but surprisingly few studies had addressed the topic,” said study lead author Carrie Cuttler, an assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University.

RELATED: What You Need To Know About The Healing Benefits Of Marijuana’s CBG

Instead of documenting the before and after data points in real time, previous research asked patients to recall how marijuana affected the severity of past headaches. A clinical trial, as Science Daily first reported, found that cannabis could be more effective at reducing headache pain than ibuprofen, though the researchers used nabilone, a synthetic cannabinoid drug, in the trial.

Study Finds Cannabis Use Disorder Declining Among Daily Marijuana Users
Photo by gradyreese/Getty Images

 

However, in the Washington State study, 1,300 patients who used the app more than 12,200 times submitted information about their headache before and after marijuana use, while 653 patients used the app over 7,400 times to track their changes in migraine pain.

More conventional treatments can cause an “overuse headache,” which can cause patients’ headaches to worsen over time. But researchers found no such result in patients using cannabis. They did, however, find patients consuming more marijuana over time, indicating they may be developing a tolerance to the plant. In addition, the study reported a difference in headache reduction between genders, with significantly more sessions involving men (90%) than women (89.1%).

RELATED: Consuming Medical Marijuana Is Proven To Help Migraine Sufferers

Patients received no additional benefits when using cannabis strains with higher or lower THC and CBD concentrations. As the plant contains more than 100 cannabinoids outside THC and CBD, researchers believe this indicates other cannabis elements like terpenes could be playing a factor. The study did report that concentrates, like oil, elicited stronger decreases in headache severity than marijuana flower.

“I suspect there are some slight overestimates of effectiveness,” Cuttler said. “My hope is that this research will motivate researchers to take on the difficult work of conducting placebo-controlled trials. In the meantime, this at least gives medical cannabis patients and their doctors a little more information about what they might expect from using cannabis to manage these conditions.”

This Week’s Music: Bad Bunny, Maggie Rogers And The Weeknd

Maria Loreto
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This Week’s Music: Bad Bunny, Maggie Rogers And The Weeknd

This week’s songs feature Bad Bunny’s newest bop, a lovely Maggie Rogers love song and The Weeknd’s latest.

This Week’s Music is a weekly column that discusses the weeks’ best, worst, and most interesting songs. We try to select songs of different artists and genres to keep things interesting and to please a variety of music fans.

This week’s songs feature Bad Bunny’s latest bop, a lovely Maggie Rogers love song and The Weeknd’s last song, which is kind of a snooze. Have a listen:

Reggaeton

Bad Bunny – Vete

After a big year filled with collaborations and beloved solo work comes another probable hit. “Vete” is another Bad Bunny anthem, featuring his standard dose of heartbreak and anger that makes his work all the better and accessible. Aside from his collaborations with all sorts of great musicians, Bad Bunny stands out because there’s something special about his willingness to be emotional and vulnerable, a rarity when compared to his Reggaeton counterparts.

Pop

Maggie Rogers – Love You For A Long Time

RELATED: This Week’s Music: HAIM, Jhené Aiko And Grimes

“Love You For A Long Time” has all the dips and grooves of a good Maggie Rogers song; there’s the catchy chorus and the amazing vocalizations, the careful musical arrangements and then that positivity that makes her music feel so transcendent. It’s also the kind of song that gets better as you listen to it, finding new beats and arrangements to like and to find unique.

The Weeknd – Heartless

Leaning heavily on trap, “Heartless” is filled with anger and destructiveness, a recipe that usually makes for a great The Weeknd song. The end result is kind of hollow and repetitive, hiding the singer’s great voice and showing off an arrangement of beats and sounds that sound like hundreds of other songs.

Cannabis Consumers Are More Politically Active Than Abstainers

Terry Hacienda
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Cannabis Consumers Are More Politically Active Than Abstainers

The more the federal government cracks down on marijuana, the more marijuana consumers will protest.

The next time you attend a political rally or street protest, don’t be too surprised if you smell a wisp of marijuana smoke in the air. Research suggests cannabis consumers are politically active and more willing to protest than Americans who abstain from the herb.

In a 33-page thesis published on BEARdocs, Baylor University’s repository for scholastic projects, author Jake M. Kane finds “marijuana users are more likely to publicly protest as well as attend political rallies than those who abstain from using.” Kane’s research, titled The Politics of Pot: Marijuana Use and the Potential for Collective Action, demonstrates that years of anti-marijuana rhetoric from the science and political communities have spurred a growing skepticism and cynicism regarding cannabis regulations. That skepticism has spread to other political issues.

RELATED: Why Marijuana’s Illegal Classification Is Based On Politics, Not Science

As Kane writes in his abstract:

“Marijuana and its legal status occupy a lengthy and controversial place in United States history. Penalties for marijuana use and distribution have increased in severity alongside the number of individuals who annually consume the drug. This has spurred skepticism regarding the effectiveness of prohibitive drug policy, especially when considering the harsh consequences that penalties place on individuals. To the dismay of the federal government, skepticism has manifested into political action by American state governments that have begun legalizing marijuana use for medicinal and recreational purposes.

“Using nationally representative data from the Baylor Religion Survey, I find marijuana users are more likely to publicly protest as well as attend political rallies than those who abstain from using. These findings hold true for public protest when separating the sample by political party identification. However, political rally attendance only shows significant relationships for marijuana users who describe themselves as politically independent.”

RELATED: Joe Biden Isn’t Sure If Marijuana Is A ‘Gateway Drug’ — It’s Not

Kane suggests the more the federal government cracks down on the cannabis industry, the more tens of thousands of marijuana consumers will protest. “The repercussions of prohibition and the penalties attributed to it have had an alarming and eye-opening effect on multiple factions of American society over time,” Kane writes. “With continued efforts by the United States federal government to stifle legalization progress at lower levels of government, further research regarding the individual and societal effects of marijuana are needed more than ever to inform a peculiar discrepancy in policy that has the ability to affect a significant number of American citizens.”

5 Basic Tips That’ll Help You Protect Your Online Data

Maria Loreto
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5 Basic Tips That’ll Help You Protect Your Online Data

Most of our important information can be found online. Here are some basic tips to keep your personal data safe.

Long gone are the days when your middle name could be your one and only password. Now, each website comes with a disclaimer of all the rules your passwords must follow and the knowledge that reusing them could make it easier for you to get hacked.

Luckily, most of us are growing more and more tech savvy, learning about safe and unsafe ways to be online. While there are experts out there who know how to download software and apps that make their tech safer, most of us with internet access can still take better care of our online data.

Here are 5 basic tricks that’ll help you protect your data:

Download a password manager

There’s some mixed opinions on password managers, especially since you’re hiding all your passwords in an app that’s protected by yet another password. If someone cracks that code then they have access to all of your data. Still, most people get so confused with their passwords that they choose to repeat them or to use basic ones, exposing their sensitive information to lots of harm. Having a password manager is a good way of keeping your internet records in check.

RELATED: Social Media Is Crazy So Here’s How You Can Download Or Delete Your Online Data

Instagram Is Developing An App Just For Shopping
Photo by rawpixel.com

Eliminate apps you no longer use

Unless you clean your phone periodically, there’s probably dozens of stagnant apps in there that you no longer use. These apps consume your phone’s memory, dry up your battery and, most important, collect a lot of personal data. It’s way too easy for these apps to get access to your camera and other areas of your phone.

Turn off your lock screen notifications

Messaging, email and social media apps can release private information on your phone’s lock screen, so it’s important to disable this feature or at least make it more private. On either Android or iOS, these changes can be made by heading over to the Settings and Notifications section and choosing to hide content on lock-screen.

RELATED: How To Ensure Your Online Passwords Haven’t Been Stolen

online dating
Photo by Adrianna Calvo via Pexels

Turn off your location

For some reason, your smartphone constantly wants to see where you are and what you’re doing, making your life super easy to track. There’s no reason why your phone should act as a 24/7 tracking device, so turn off your location when it’s not necessary. Another perk of having your GPS location turned off is the fact that your battery will last longer.

Watch what you put up online

There’s no need for every one of your posts to show your location or for people to have access to your personal information. Keep your social media profiles as clean as possible, and consider turning your profiles to private.

5 Tips That'll Help You Protect Your Online Data
Photo courtesy of freestocks.org

If you want to have public social media, ensure that private information such as your phone and email are protected and hidden. Another thing that can protect you is to avoid linking accounts together or using Facebook logins when joining a new app. While these practices make it easier for you to create new profiles, they end up exposing your personal information.

Here’s Why You Should Take CBD With Food

Rudy Sanchez
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0
Here’s Why You Should Take CBD With Food

The type of food you consume can make a large difference in the amount of CBD that gets absorbed into the body. Here’s what works best.

It’s not uncommon to take some medications and supplements with food. Sometimes, certain substances can cause nausea on an empty stomach, in other cases, compounds are more effective when taken at mealtime. With interest in cannabidiol (CBD) growing and legal in Canada and the U.S., consumers interested in trying a product infused with the cannabinoid are asking how best to consume CBD, including whether or not to take it with food.

Research into the compound and how it reacts when taken with a meal has found that cannabidiol is actually much more effective and bioavailable when paired with food, and that the type of food taken with CBD also has an impact on its efficacy.

A recently published medical study conducted by the University of Minnesota looked at a small group of 8 epilepsy patients taking 99% pure CBD capsules. One group took their capsules on an empty stomach, the other took CBD with a high fat breakfast burrito, with researchers then drawing blood and comparing samples. After 2 weeks, the groups switched with researchers continuing to monitor blood. The study found that CBD taken with food, specifically a high fat meal, increased absorption and availability. The team found that there was four times the amount of CBD in patients who ate a burrito versus those who took CBD while fasting.

RELATED: Is Legal Marijuana Creating More Junk Food Junkies?

“The type of food can make a large difference in the amount of CBD that gets absorbed into the body. Although fatty foods can increase the absorption of CBD, it can also increase the variability as not all meals contain the same amount of fat,” said Angela Birnbaum in a press release announcing the study’s publication, a professor in the College of Pharmacy and study co-author.

Here's Why You Should Take CBD With Food
Photo by Dan Gold via Unsplash

For patients with epilepsy, having a consistent supply of CBD in their body is critical, and part of what prompted researchers to conduct this study. Improving the delivery of CBD also helps reduce medication costs, the study’s authors further noted.

RELATED: How Greasy Foods Might Make CBD More Effective

Consumers trying CBD to treat conditions such as inflammation, pain, anxiety, and sleeplessness may benefit from taking CBD with food, specifically those foods higher in fat, like a breakfast burrito. At best, more CBD gets absorbed into the body, making it more effective. At worst, you get to eat a tasty burrito.

Meme Of The Week: ‘Baby Yoda’ Becomes The Internet’s Favorite Source Of Cuteness

Maria Loreto
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0
Meme Of The Week: ‘Baby Yoda’ Becomes The Internet’s Favorite Source Of Cuteness

The new Disney Plus series, ‘The Mandalorian’,  has already given us a character for the ages.

Despite the fact that Baby Yoda gifs were taken down from the internet for about a day due today’s wild media landscape, there has been no way of controlling the internet’s affection for the small green creature.

Baby Yoda first began to swirl around the internet on November 12, when “The Mandalorian” first aired on Disney Plus. After the much awaited release of the new series, the little guy went viral. Although we all call it Baby Yoda, the character is really called The Child, and it’s not the Yoda of the original films; it’s just a baby that’s the same species as Yoda.

Still, no one cares about technicalities and Baby Yoda is a much more catchier name than The Child.

RELATED: Meme Of The Week: ‘Gonna Tell My Kids’ Revises History In The Funniest Way

Here are some of the best Baby Yoda memes we found online. You’re welcome for all the sweetness:

RELATED: Meme Of The Week: ‘Ok Boomer’ Is The Internet’s New Way Of Dragging Older People

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