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Your Bong Probably Has More Germs Than A Toilet Seat

Maria Loreto
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Your Bong Probably Has More Germs Than A Toilet Seat

New study says that bongs, pipes and joints have more germs than toilet seats and other gross items you interact with on a daily basis.

Studies that enumerate the thousands of bacteria present in objects never fail to push our buttons. These items tend to be unexpected ones that we interact with several times a day, like phones, refrigerator handles, and apparently, marijuana pipes.

According to a study conducted by Los Angeles-based Moose Labs, cannabis pipes, vapes and joints contain massive amounts of bacteria due to the fact that they’re shared among friends. The study claims that it’s hard to find other items that match the level of bacteria that is present on these devices. In fact, cannabis pipes have “almost one and a half times more bacteria than a public toilet seat.”

RELATED: How Mainstream Media Reinforces Marijuana Stereotypes

Photo by SharonMcCutcheon via Pixabay.

“It really is just absolutely horrifying,” said Jay Rush, co-founder of Moose Labs. “I almost feel bad telling people, but would you rather be informed and upset or uninformed and blissfully ignorant?”

The study says that while you likely won’t die from sharing a pipe or joint with a large group of friends, it is possible to catch diseases like sore throat and diarrhea. One person with a virus can infect others by simply sharing your joint or taking a hit off your pipe.

Moose Labs is designs mouthpieces that fit a variety of bongs, pipes, bowls and vapes, protecting you from germs and reducing some of the negative side effects of smoking, like tar, resins and toxins.

RELATED: Tidying Up: Spring Cleaning Your Cannabis Gear

To prevent germs, the company recommends washing your hands before and after smoking, cleaning your bong with boiling water after each use, and wiping it dry. If you’re going to smoke with a large group of friends, have a mouthpiece or some sanitary wipes on you, that way limiting your contact with bacteria.

You may look like a snob in front of your friends, but when they’re vomiting and feeling awful you’ll be there to say “I told you so.”

Before Becoming A Royal, Meghan Markle Wanted A Lollipop Empire

Maria Loreto
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Before Becoming A Royal, Meghan Markle Wanted A Lollipop Empire

Meghan Markle has done a lot of things. While she was acting on “Suits,” one of the most watched series on the USA Channel, she also ran a lifestyle blog called The Tig, which was kind of like Goop, but you know, for people who were interested in buying normal stuff.

Markle is also known for her humanitarian work with different organizations such as the UN, World Vision Canada, and One Young World. Now she’s making headlines because she’ll soon marry Prince Harry, when she’ll become Duchess of Sussex.

Way back in 2012, TMZ discovered that Markle and a friend registered a trademark for a candy store called “Lali,” which would’ve sold lollipops and candy drops (Via Newsweek). Two years later, the idea was scrapped and the store never became a thing, but it could in the future!

While British royals are very particular when it comes to releasing their private information, thus the closing of The Tig and Markle’s retirement from acting, we assume that they have nothing against their members taking on different business endeavors.

Markle has expressed her desire to dive deeper into humanitarian work, which she’s described as her driving purpose.

“I’ve never wanted to be a lady who lunches—I’ve always wanted to be a woman who works. And this type of work is what feeds my soul, and fuels my purpose.”

5 Videos Of Cute Animals To Get You Through This Week: September 9

Maria Loreto
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5 Videos Of Cute Animals To Get You Through This Week: September 9

This week’s column features a great video of a cat captured through a wine glass, a cat who can’t stop talking, a dog who looks like a bunny, and more!

There’s no better pick-me-up than the one you get when you see a clip of an animal acting silly, which is why we’ve compiled this weekly column. These short videos feature all sorts of animals, providing you with that much needed mid-week rush of endorphins.

This week’s column features a very verbal cat, a dog who looks like the perfect mix of a bunny and a pig, a cat who takes every chance it can to work out and a dog who doesn’t know how to go on walks. Check them out!

Talking cat

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2RLW9PIHvF/

RELATED: 5 Videos Of Cute Animals To Get You Through This Week: September 2

Cats are weird, especially when you touch their backs and they start making those sounds. We don’t know if they love it or they hate it, but the videos are always hilarious. Sorry, cats.

A dog/bunny

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2RepaOnB31/

So, at the end of the video I presume the dog starts pooping, so you can skip that part. But the rest of the clip is pretty cute. Who doesn’t love a baby Frenchie jumping around, scratching his back against the wall and acting all kinds of silly?

A cat who takes every opportunity to work out

I had never seen a cat do parkour, so I really enjoyed this video. More please.

A cat through a glass

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2PTtHaA178/

RELATED: 5 Videos Of Cute Animals To Get You Through This Week: August 26

There’s not much that can be said about this video other than the fact that the person who recorded it has impeccable timing. What are the odds of capturing that cat’s lingering look through a champagne glass?

A dog who doesn’t know how to go on walks

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2PqmO2AFWq/

Some dogs don’t learn the basics, like peeing correctly or, you know, walking. This guy looks adorable but it must be intense to take him on daily walks.

Media Reinforces Marijuana Stereotypes

Brendan Bures
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Media Reinforces Marijuana Stereotypes

A new study found that ‘ready-made’ images of what marijuana users are supposed to look like are indeed being used and reinforced by media.

Almost two-thirds of Americans support marijuana legalization, including the majority of Republicans for the first time in U.S. history. But even as cannabis becomes more socially acceptable and widespread, negative stereotypes persist in mainstream media publications, according to a new study. This is especially true of conservative-leaning publications, which include photos of big bong rips and lazy stoner clichés.

In a study published in the journal Visual Communications, researchers found that legalization didn’t affect how these publications portrayed cannabis users. The study also demonstrated “the heavily politicalized nature of marijuana legalization,” as “racial, criminal and cultural stereotypes linger in mediated visual portrayals.”

RELATED: Should You Tell Your Anesthesiologist About Your Marijuana Use?

To draw these conclusions, the study analyzed online news publications between June 1, 2013 to July 1, 2014—indicating the six months before and after Colorado legalized cannabis. They ultimately gathered “458 visuals across 10 different media outlets across the political spectrum,” dividing the publications into liberal outfits (New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times), conservative publications (New York Daily News, Houston Chronicle, New York Post, Dallas Morning News), and sites they considered neutral (Wall Street Journal, USA Today).

Illustration by victoria_pineapple/Getty Images

Among these publications, 21% of images accompanying articles featured stoner clichés, like giant clouds of marijuana smokes or college students sharing a joint. More alarming, however, were the 15% of photos linking marijuana and criminal activity, which often featured racial minorities. “Relatively few depictions of marijuana users in the US are visuals of ordinary, ‘normal’ people or families,” researchers wrote.

“Overall, more racial minorities are depicted as criminals (21.5%) than are non-racial minorities (13.4%),” the study’s authors added, according to Marijuana Moment. “Further, significantly more racial minorities are associated with headlines with a topic about crime (42.5%) than are non-racial minorities (23.1%).”

RELATED: Survey: Parents And Their Children Are Equally Addicted To Smartphones

The study concluded how political ideology fueled how these publications depicted visual stereotypes. Normalizing marijuana as a plant, such as showcasing scientists in laboratory settings or stock images of the plant. Neutral outfits were most responsible for neutralizing stereotypes (9% of all images normalized cannabis) than liberal ones (8.6%), while conservative outlets rarely did so (1.9%). According to the study, media will play an important role in just how we view marijuana as a lifestyle, medical, and wellness concept, depending on their visual depictions.

“Broadly, this study suggests that ‘ready-made’ images of what marijuana users are supposed to look like are indeed being used and reinforced by the media,” authors wrote. “As more states begin to acknowledge the false propaganda and exaggerations associated with marijuana’s history in the U.S. through legalization efforts, the media will play a leading role in either reinforcing or debunking these myths through the representations they choose to visually illustrate the issue.”

911 Calls Made From Jennifer Aniston and more!

Naughty Gossip
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911 Calls Made From Jennifer Aniston and more!

Bizarre and disturbing calls made and Weinstein’s team goes after a famous actress – who may be one of his victims!

Disturbing news, it seems domestic violence 911 calls made from Jennifer Aniston at her ritzy California mansion have surfaced! RadarOnline.com has learned the most explosive call came on April 18, 2018 — just two months after Aniston and second hubby Justin Theroux announced they were separating.

According to 911 records, a female suspect wearing “no clothing” was in the garage at Aniston’s $21 million Bel-Air home and “threatening [a] male victim with a possible knife” at 2:49 a.m.

The caller also claimed there was a “history of domestic violence” at the address. But according to official documents, “there was no evidence of trouble” when police arrived.

The people allegedly involved were not identified, but sources told Radar Online the Friends star, 50, and Theroux, 48, were known to have blowups — and that they had erupted in a face-to-face showdown at the mansion on December 14, 2017.

Although a rep for the actress denied the December incident took place, “Justin removed himself from the situation before it got physical” and checked into a hotel, an insider said at the time. We hope there will be no more 911 calls from Jennifer Anniston!

Harvey Weinstein Attacks Gwyneth Paltrow On Eve Of Rape Trial

Via Deadline:

On the day that Harvey Weinstein’s trial for rape was supposed to have started in New York City before being postponed, the much accused producer’s team Monday tried to damn Gwyneth Paltrow in the court of public opinion for her role in his downfall.

“Gwyneth Paltrow comes from Hollywood royalty,” a spokesperson for Weinstein told Deadline (Monday) after more details of the Shakespeare in Love star’s role in coming forward were unveiled by New York Times reporters and She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement authors Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor.

“Her father was a top producer, her mother a famous actor, her godfather is Steven Spielberg,” Weinstein’s rep offered of Paltrow, who was one of the first Hollywood stars to go public with being harassed or assaulted by Weinstein after the initial NYT exposé broke on October 5, 2017. “She didn’t need to make movies with Harvey Weinstein; she wanted to, and she won top awards and was the top paid female actor for nearly a decade, with Weinstein.”

“Her narrative of her job being at stake is just gratuitous,” the rep concludes in a swipe at Paltrow’s statement about being scared of the producer after he told her in the mid-1990s not to speak to anyone about his deflected attempts to get her join him for a massage and possibly more.

Representatives for Paltrow did not respond to a request from Deadline to comment on the She Said details and Weinstein’s reaction. However, in the past she has been very open about her involvement with the producer and the fallout she felt would hit her.

“I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” Paltrow told Kantor and Rachel Abrams in an October 10, 2017 published piece about Weinstein’s efforts both to harass and silence her. “I thought he was going to fire me,” the Iron Man regular asserted after then-boyfriend Brad Pitt confronted Weinstein and the producer seemingly strong-armed the future Oscar winner to keep quiet.

Having broke the Weinstein story nearly two years ago and with a resulting 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, relative Hollywood neophytes Kantor and Twohey have She Said coming out tomorrow. Although it now lacks the peg of the kickoff of the criminal trial that could see Weinstein in prison for the rest of his life if found guilty, the authors and the book are still attracting attention on the page and on camera.

9 Social Media Hacks That Will Improve Your Feeds And Simplify Your Life

Maria Loreto
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0
9 Social Media Hacks That Will Improve Your Feeds And Simplify Your Life

Social media websites are simple enough to use, but there are some hacks that can make your timeline cleaner and more pleasant.

Most of us are fluent in social media speak. Aside from the fact that these sites are designed by experts to be intuitive, we spend hours every day using them, whining about the new layouts and changes in software, while learning how to navigate them all the same. Still, there are plenty of social media hacks that can make your life easier and can help you have more fun.

Here are 9 simple tips that will make the time you spend online way better.

Use IFTTT

IFTTT stands for “if this, then that,” and it’s a site that basically connects all of your apps and profiles together. If you want to change your profile photo on Instagram and Twitter, IFTTT allows you to do it with one click. You can also upload posts onto different platforms simultaneously. IFTTT is a service that gives users more control over their online presence. It’s also free.

Don’t be afraid of the soft block feature

Soft blocking someone on Twitter or Instagram is when you block them and then unblock them. It may sound silly, but by doing this, you not only unfollow them, they unfollow you too — without even knowing it. Yes, stealthily getting rid of a connection is passive aggressive, but it’s also drama-free.

RELATED: 5 Ways To Spot Fake Instagram Followers

These Are The People You Should Unfollow On Social Media ASAP
Photo by Михаил Руденко/Getty Images

Get to know TweetDeck

TweetDeck allows to create different columns of Twitter accounts, allowing you to keep tabs on people you don’t have to follow. Want to keep up with the latest Kardashian gossip without announcing to the world that you want to do it? Use TweetDeck. Want to keep up with different news sites without losing your mind? Same.

Learn Twitter shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are the best, we just don’t remember them because it feels like homework. If you use Twitter regularly it might help to know that by pressing ‘n’ you can start a new tweet, and that by pressing ‘r’ you can leave a reply on a post. Check out the full list here.

Hide your activity status on Instagram

One of the worst parts about social media is how creepy the whole thing can be. Instagram allows you to hide your activity status by going to Settings, Privacy and then disabling your Activity Status. This will stop showing the last time you visited the app while also hiding other people’s activity. Who needs all that stress?

RELATED: 4 Ways To Prevent Your Electronic Devices From Eavesdropping

Photo by Omkar Patyane via Pexels

 Create a list of people you want to approach

If you want to use social media with a more professional twist, you can create a sort of stalker list of people you admire and want to contact. This list will allow you to keep everyone in mind so that you can follow them on different social media platforms, bookmarking their sites and relevant content. Take a few minutes a day to interact with them, especially of you have something relevant to share.

Mix your personal and professional information

If you plan on linking your social media to your resume or your work portfolio, be sure to have a healthy balance of the personal and the professional in your profiles. Listing out your professional achievements is impressive, but hundreds of people can do the same. If you want to stand out it’s easier if you are honest about your hobbies and, I don’t know, your pets.

What To Do When An Ex 'Haunts' You On Social Media
Photo by Hero Images/Getty Images

Manage the time you spend on social media

It’s always important to manage the time we spend on these apps, especially if they affect your mental health and your moods. Instagram allows you to manage this in app. Head over to Settings tab and select “Your Activity.” This area will allow you to set a timer which will then notify you once you’ve reached the limit. Also, if you have a new smartphone, it’s very likely that there’s some sort of social media monitoring.

Use the mute feature. Just do it

If something annoys you or stays on your brain long after you’ve closed the app, be sure to mute that. Instagram and Twitter both allow you to mute annoying posts and people.

5 Tricks To Make Your Treadmill Workout Less Boring

Maria Loreto
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5 Tricks To Make Your Treadmill Workout Less Boring

Do you have a love-hate relationship with treadmills? If so, you’re not alone. Here are 5 tricks to take your mind off of your workout so you can actually enjoy the sweat.

As if exercising wasn’t tedious enough, running on a treadmill requires you to move for a fixed period of time without the benefit of a changing view or a routine that targets different muscles. Fun times.

While there are those who can complete their cardio with the help of some music, a large percentage of people need a bigger incentive. To help, we’ve compiled a list of five things that can help make your treadmill workouts a bit more exciting.

Cover up your monitor

The oldest trick in the book is to put on some headphones and put a towel over your treadmill monitor. While it’s always tough to start off, once you hit a good music groove you might just forget about time and breeze through your run. Just don’t fall once the treadmill hits the cool-down stage.

Listen to a podcast

Listening to music isn’t as absorbing as listening to a story that has a beginning, middle and end, like an audio book or podcast. When you find one that really interests you, avoid listening to it while at home or commuting, saving up the chapters or episodes for your workouts. This will give you something to look forward to and will make your time at the treadmill much more bearable.

RELATED: 5 Ways Marijuana Can Get You Excited About Fitness

Ask Science: Should I Work Out When I'm Feeling Sick?
Photo by rawpixel.com

Split up your cardio in different machines

If spending 30 minutes on the treadmill is too much for you, reduce your minutes there to an amount you can handle, like 10 or 15 minutes, and complete the rest on some other machine. While cardio is never the most entertaining way to work out, switching things up will make you feel like you’re doing less while it’s actually the opposite.

Move in different directions

Ever notice those people who hop around on the treadmill and jog sideways like dummies? These workouts are great for your body, activating different muscles and burning more calories. They’re also more fun than running in a straight line.

RELATED: 5 Health Benefits Of Taking A Social Media Break

Photo by Christopher Alonzo via Pexels

Find a fun app

There are plenty of workout apps that are distracting and provide plenty of motivation. Aaptiv is an app that acts as a personal coach, providing routines and audio feedback that will ask you to do different things. Then there’s also Zombies, Run! a running app that’s also a game where you’re tasked to collect supplies for your base and to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Kamala Harris Just Got Serious About Marijuana Reform

Brendan Bures
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Kamala Harris Just Got Serious About Marijuana Reform

Kamala Harris’s new criminal justice plan involves empowering “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals” to start their own cannabis businesses.

What a strange and long journey Sen. Kamala Harris has already experienced around cannabis in 2019. The presidential hopeful endured controversy over “Reefergate,” in which Harris joked about smoking weed in college while listening to Tupac and Snoop Dogg, only to have critics decry that she graduated college before those rappers’ careers started. Her own father even joined the public shaming.

Harris re-gained momentum over the summer in polls and public perception, which included her proposal to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level. She earned serious commendation from cannabis activist organization, like the Drug Policy Alliance and NORML. One marijuana policy expert even told Vox Harris’ decriminalization bill, which included the creation of grant programs to assist those disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs, was among the most progressive plans presented by 2020 candidates.

RELATED: Baby Boomers Now Smoke As Much Weed As High Schoolers

All was good for Harris until the most recent debates when fellow candidate Tulsi Gabbard slammed the former California Attorney General over her prosecution record. Gabbard said she was “deeply concerned about this record,” adding that Harris “put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”

Photo by Bloomberg Creative Photos/Getty Images

Once again, though, Harris is letting her policymaking speak for her around cannabis. This week she unveiled a criminal justice plan making headlines for its intention to “end mass incarceration.” But hidden within is a proposal that would empower “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals” to start their own cannabis businesses through government subsidies. The plan highlighted how significant marijuana reform could assist in ending mass incarceration. To accomplish that, Harris wants to give state and local municipalities federal grants that would fund an attractive loan program to those who qualify.

RELATED: Millennials Are Beginning Cannabis Careers Through Summer Internships

“[Provide] states and localities with funds to make loans to assist small businesses in the marijuana industry that are owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals,” reads the plan.

This grant program, according to Harris’s plan, would be supported by “sales tax on marijuana and marijuana products.”

Despite her past, this is another example of Harris creating actionable legislation that could create systemic change in the cannabis industry and country at large. Of Democratic presidential candidate, however, only Joe Biden hasn’t endorsed federal legalization of marijuana.

Mouth On Fire? Here’s How Cannabis Can Help

Richard Faulk
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Mouth On Fire? Here’s How Cannabis Can Help

Researchers accidentally proved that marijuana has the potential to ease the pain of capsaicin, which is the chemical responsible for putting the “hot” in hot peppers.

Spice-induced mouth burn is a hazard associated with chili cookouts and other extreme-eating events. Bread, alcohol, and milk have all been touted as cures, but, as anyone who’s chomped a rogue Padrón pepper knows, they aren’t cures.

The Fresh Toast – Can marijuana help put the fire out in your mouth from hot sauces?  Research may have stumbled on the answer.

Could cannabis somehow quench the flames?

There is no medical study that addresses this question directly, but there is a mighty suggestive report from the University of California San Diego.

In 2007, researchers from UCSD’s Center for Medical Cannabis Research were testing marijuana’s potential to ease neuropathic pain. To simulate the pain associated with chemotherapy or HIV/AIDS, researchers injected participants with capsaicin, which, as you may know, is the chemical that puts the heat in hot peppers.

RELATED: The Way Cannabis Helps Inflammation Is Pretty Amazing

'World's Spiciest Noodles'
Photo screenshot via Awesome Eats on Youtube

The trial was a success: Cannabis produced a “significant,” if “modest,” improvement in pain.

Via UCSD Health:

“Subjects reported a decrease in pain at the medium dose, and there was also a significant correlation between plasma levels of  THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, and decreased pain,” said Igor Grant, M.D., F.R.C.P.(C), professor and Executive Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, the director of the CMCR.

Sure, they were gunning for cancer and AIDS, but hadn’t they just shown that cannabis can protect us against chili peppers? Isn’t that, like, news, too?

It turns out there are (at least) two hurdles to clear before THC tablets can take their place in America’s medicine cabinets next to Rolaids and Prilosec.

RELATED: The 5 Most Mouth-Wrecking Hot Peppers And The Idiots Who Ate Them

The first problem is dosage. Cannabis has a narrow Goldilocks window for pain relief: too little has no effect, but too much makes the pain even worse. The optimum amount is about half a joint. That’s 4% THC by weight.

The second problem —and this is a big one—is reaction time. Grant drops a sluggish fly in our speculative ointment: “Interestingly, the analgesic effect wasn’t immediate; it took about 45 minutes.” For anyone with a mouthful of habanero or an arm-full of capsaicin, “interesting” is probably not the word that would spring to mind.

So maybe THC isn’t the quick antidote for your burning mouth as you had hoped. But perhaps the silver lining here is that, much like THC, spicy foods can actually make you feel high.

Thanks to scientist and admitted foodie Leidamarie Tirado-Lee, we know why.

In the magazine Helix, he explains that capsaicinoids have nothing to do with tastebuds and everything to do with physical sensation.

In essence, when you eat something spicy and the capsaicinoids hit the tongue, a message — similar to that of being near a hot fire — is sent to the brain, essentially tricking it into thinking that the mouth is being burned and needs assistance, STAT! (It’s the same thing that happens when you touch your eye after handling a hot pepper, which is why you should, um, never do that). The brain responds by releasing endorphins.

So, while you may not have a quick fix for your burning mouth, at least you’ll feel a little buzzed.

Police Shut Down 3K Person Game Of Hide And Seek At Ikea

Maria Loreto
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0
Police Shut Down 3K Person Game Of Hide And Seek At Ikea

The plan was to visit IKEA and play the most epic hide and seek game ever. But police stepped in and foiled the fun before it ever began.

IKEA is one of the most memorable places in the world, and also one of the most confusing. No matter the size or the location you visit, it’s likely that at some point you’ll get lost and have to retrace your steps.

What’s a better place to play hide and seek than in a gigantic Swedish store?

Yahoo reports that people from Glasgow, Scotland organized a Facebook event where more than 3,000 people signed-on to participate. The plan was to visit IKEA and play the most epic hide and seek game ever. Having caught wind of these plans, the store contacted the police, who sent five police officers to stand guard throughout the day.

“People are stopping everyone who looks like they are here for a game of hide and seek,” an IKEA visitor told The Scotsman.

RELATED: WATCH: IKEA Wants Women To Pee On Their New Ad And Here’s Why

everyday life high at ikea
Photo by Flickr user OiMax

For obvious reasons, IKEA can’t host massive games of hide and seek.

“The safety of our customers and co-workers is always our highest priority. We were aware of an unofficial Hide and Seek Facebook event being organized to take place at our store today and have been working with the local police for support.



 While we appreciate playing games in one of our stores may be appealing to some, we do not allow this kind of activity to take place to ensure we are offering a safe environment and relaxed shopping experience for our customers,” said Rob Cooper, IKEA’s Glasgow store manager.

RELATED: YouPorn Is Offering The Chance To Livestream Your Marriage Proposal

IKEA appears to have a long history with hide and seek. While initially, the store didn’t outright ban these games, events throughout Europe began to attract massive crowds. Nineteen-thousand people signed up to play in Amsterdam and 12,000 in Utrecht. In 2015, hide and seek was officially banned in IKEA locations across Europe.

Will this fad ever reach America? We’re waiting.

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