How Google Maps Can Help You Skip Traffic

Culture
News

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July 2, 2019

How Google Maps Can Help You Skip Traffic

Traffic is the bane of our collective existence, consuming hours of our time and our sanity, especially during holidays. This year, AAA expects a record breaking 49 million people to skip town in order to celebrate Fourth of July.

“This holiday builds on the strong travel demand seen for Memorial Day, and with schools now out of session across the country, families coast to coast are eager to travel,” said Paula Twidale, vice-president of AAA Travel.

As it tends to happen on most holidays, Google has compiled traffic data and developed an interactive site that shows you the upcoming traffic trends, helping you figure out the best and worst times in which to leave according to your area.

“We’re seeing only slightly elevated traffic in the days leading up to the holiday, indicating that many folks may be staying local due to the 4th falling midweek. If you’re one of the lucky ones who managed to snag additional days off, the best time to leave before July 4th is on July 3rd in the early morning or the late evening. After all, there will still be the typical weekday traffic during the workday,” reports the site.

Although the site gives you an overall estimate of the best times to travel, it also allows you to add in your location in order to make your results as specific as possible. If you’re too lazy and want to skip that step, it’s safe to assume that traveling in the early morning — really early, like 4 or 5 a.m. — will lead to much less traffic than if you were to travel in the late afternoon.

A Guide To Tipping Your Delivery Driver In The Gig Economy

Rudy Sanchez

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July 2, 2019

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A Guide To Tipping Your Delivery Driver In The Gig Economy

The way delivery services pay their drivers — often independent contractors and not employees — can complicate how you approach tipping and might even change how you provide gratuities.

With the gig economy in full swing, there are more people than ever helping to taking care of the mundane, whether it’s picking up dinner, providing a ride home, dropping off groceries and, in legal states, delivering cannabis. But what do about a gratuity? Here is a guide to tipping your delivery driver.

Many apps include the ability to add a tip to an order, in the same way a restaurant will have a line for an optional gratuity. Unfortunately, the way delivery services pay their drivers — often independent contractors and not employees — can complicate how you approach tipping and might even change how you provide gratuities.

The amount tipped can also vary regionally or by level of service. The general rule of thumb is to tip at least 15% at sit-down restaurants, although in some major US cities, 20 percent has become the new floor. The same rule-of-thumb can be used to tip ride-share drivers like Uber or Lyft. As independent contractors, these drivers are responsible for all of their expenses, and don’t get paid to drive to until they pick up their fares, if they came a long way to pick you up, considering a slightly better tip. For short rides, it might be more appropriate to tip 2-3 dollars instead of a percentage of the fare. Also keep in mind that many platforms not only allow customers to rate drivers, but also vice-versa.

Similarly, for food delivery, a percentage of your bill, or a few bucks for a small order, is generally considered an appropriate amount, with a little extra if drivers have to deliver in bad weather. But here’s where services like DoorDash and Amazon Flex make it a bit more complicated. Both services, as well as many others, guarantee a pay per order, but adjust how much they pay the driver, only covering the gap between tips and the guaranteed minimum. In other words, tips are more of a wage subsidy and less of a gratuity based on the quality of service. If the driver is on a platform with a similar pay system, and you want your “tip” to be a gratuity beyond the base pay, tip in-person, in-cash, upon delivery.

For cannabis drivers tipping can be also be complicated, depending on whether the driver is an employee of the dispensary or is a contractor similar to non-cannabis delivery. Fully employed drivers probably rely less on gratuities than gig drivers, something to possibly consider. It also wouldn’t be out of place to ask the driver how important tips are to them. In-store, it’s always nice to throw a couple bucks in the jar, how much depends on the level of service. The same rule-of-thumb for other tip jars generally applies for budtenders too.

Whether you love or hate tipping, it’s a custom well-intrenched in our culture, and for many of those that make life more convenient, those gratituties are an important component of their livelihood, and few would want good service to go under compensated.

Lindsay Lohan Posts Naked Selfie And More

Naughty Gossip

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July 2, 2019

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In this week’s gossip – Lindsay Lohan posts naked selfie and more!

Adam Lambert Just Lightly Trashed Madonna’s Music

In an interview with The Independent, Lambert says Madonna is one of his idols, but questions if the flack she gets these days has anything to do with her being a sexualized 60-year-old, or her larger-than-life personality:

‘’I’m a long-time Madonna fan for sure – but here’s my question: does she? Or is she getting a pushback because of the music she’s making?’‘

”I love that she reinvents herself. I love her, and I think she’s brilliant. And I do think she’s pissed upon a bit, but I don’t think it’s because she’s a strong sexual woman.”

‘‘I think it’s because she’s making the music of 2019 that doesn’t fall quite in line with her legacy, perhaps.”

Lindsay Lohan posts naked mirror selfie to mark her 33rd birthday

Via Fox News:

Lindsay Lohan posted a naked mirror selfie to her Instagram late Monday on the eve of her 33rd birthday.

The actress, musician and reality host appeared to be wearing nothing but her birthday suit while she held up her phone and strategically posed on the floor of an almost empty white room. “The Parent Trap” star did wear sparkling earrings, a ring and a bracelet despite the apparent lack of clothes.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzZe0brh3H4/

B-Real Finally Tells Real Story Smoking Weed On SNL

Brendan Bures

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July 2, 2019

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B-Real Finally Tells Real Story Smoking Weed On SNL

When Cypress Hill went on Saturday Night Live back in 1993, it accomplished two distinctly different but equally important outcomes. One, it cemented their lingering status as a “weed” hip-hop group when DJ Muggs lit up a joint on the stage before performing “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That.” As a result of Muggs sparking up, Cypress Hill also got banned from SNL for life.

Today none of this would be seen as a big deal, but smoking marijuana during a live television broadcast was enough to draw the overwhelming ire of good-natured, conservative America back in the 90s. But Cypress Hill was countercultural back when such an attitude could still exist.

“Hey New York City,” Muggs said. “They said I couldn’t light my joint, you know what I’m saying. But we ain’t going out like that.”

Muggs’s remarks were enough to earn Cypress Hill a legacy that would last a lifetime. But according to B-Real, what Muggs did wasn’t the plan at all. On a recent episode of Talib Kweli’s “People’s Party” podcast, B-Real explained how the group meant for it all to go down.

“What was supposed to happen was in the last verse, when we were getting close to the chorus, the DJ was supposed to start smashing the turn tables,” B-Real explained. “Kind of like The Who used to smash their equipment at the end of a set. We were doing that for a time and lighting our shit on fire. So we wanted to do something like that on Saturday Night Live.”

But the DJ chocked up. He panicked and wouldn’t do it, messing up the original plan of Cypress Hill lighting up their joints amidst the ruins of the smashed set. They wanted to look anarchic and rad, but instead Muggs had to improvise.

“Because dude was kind of nervous up there, Mugs said fuck it and pulled out the joint first,” B-Real said. “Later on, the DJ doesn’t smash anything, so Mugs pushed over Bobo’s percussions and stuff so it looks like we were starting to smash stuff up.”

“It was a total fuck-up on what we were trying to do,” B-Real continued. “Mugs lighting that joint got us banned forever. But it also added to our legend.”

On the podcast, B-Real also discussed his All-Star team of who he’s smoked weed with and how he went from just smoking weed to becoming the marijuana activist he is today. You can watch the full interview below.

Liam Gallagher Talks About Marijuana Tolerance Breaks

Brendan Bures

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July 2, 2019

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Liam Gallagher Talks About Marijuana Tolerance Breaks

Liam Gallagher is no longer finding the oasis in cannabis that he once did following a recent “mad one.” And while most marijuana users probably have gotten too high for their own good, Gallagher’s experience was bad enough he’s done with cannabis. Period.

“I had a bit of weed, because I was on holiday, and it was strong,” he told Celebretainment. “You know when you have to sneak off because you’re having a mad one? That was me.

“I had to go and have a word with myself in a cupboard and all I could hear was this song by Fat White Family that sounded like ‘Nightclubbing’ by Iggy Pop on a loop, for about an hour. It was top.”

Top indeed, Mr. Gallagher. The rocker also remembered another time when he overindulged with marijuana. That would be back in his Oasis days when he ate almost 150 oysters while partying in Philadelphia with his bandmates.

“Me, Whitey (Alan White) and Guigs (Paul McGuigan) got really stoned and kept ordering trays of them,” said Gallagher. “It was really good weed. All night we were talking about going to the beach in the morning. I think that’s why we kept ordering oysters.”

Unfortunately for Gallagher and his bandmates, they never made it to the beach that night, because, if you read closely, they were in freaking Philadelphia.

“Then Whitey said, ‘Er, there’s no beach in Philadelphia,’” Gallagher said. “I went over to the window, pulled back the curtain to show them the sea … it was an air conditioning unit in a brick wall.”

Of course, everyone has a different relationship with cannabis. But we would suggest that if you mistake an air conditioning unit as a beach, you maybe should take a tolerance break. Or embark on a long-term marijuana abstinence as Mr. Gallagher is.

Why Prince Harry Didn’t Go To University Like His Brother

Patricia Wallace

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July 2, 2019

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Why Prince Harry Didn’t Go To University Like His Brother

We’ve heard so much over the years about Kate and William’s relationship at university ⁠— how they met, dated, broke up, dated again, broke up a second time, got back together ⁠— that it’s easy to forget Harry. Here is why Prince Harry didn’t go to university like his brother.

Back in 2013, while serving a four month tour in Afghanistan as an Apache co-pilot/gunner, Harry said he enjoyed flying and that he’d be fine doing that over anything else.

“I probably should have done a lot more reading, but I was fine at flying.

“And then every now and then a written test would come up, and I’d be absolutely useless and I’ve been like that from stage one of my youth.”

Harry was always better at sports in school. He even needed to repeat his final year at his prep school Ludgrove to get into Eton College in the late 90s. Now, remember, this is the U.K. where “college” equals two years of study to prepare for university. And university is the equivalent of college in the U.S..

“Exams were always a nightmare, but anything like kicking a ball around or playing PlayStation — or flying — I do generally find a little bit easier than walking, sometimes,” said Harry.

After taking a gap year to travel, Harry shunned university and enrolled in a 10-month course at Sandhurst officer training college.

Harry said he was surprised to be selected for the Apache co-pilot gunner course because he didn’t have any higher education under his belt. “I think back in – whenever it was, two years ago – when it was all decided, it was never expected.

“Because being a junior captain, or a lieutenant then that I was and a non-grad (non graduate), obviously not going to university, therefore the army presume you to be less intelligent, which is nice of them – probably true.

“It’s a joy for me because I’m one of those people who loves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with my thumbs I like to think that I’m probably quite useful.”

Cannabis Industry Ramping Up For July 4, 7/10 Holidays

Debra Borchardt

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July 1, 2019

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Cannabis Industry Ramping Up For July 4, 7/10 Holidays

Cannabis consumers love a good holiday and July brings two in quick succession. First, of course, is the Fourth of July. Cannabis software company Akerna Corp. (NASDAQ: KERN) said that it expects Americans will spend more on cannabis this Fourth of July than chicken for their BBQs.

According to Akerna, Fourth of July-week (June 28 – July 4) cannabis sales are expected to increase by 80% compared with an average week, ringing in approximately $450 million in total sales nationally. If this keeps up, Akerna said that by 2020 Americans could end up spending more money on cannabis than they would spend on wine for the Fourth of July.

While sales are expected to begin on the weekend before the holiday, increased sales are expected to continue throughout the week. Since the Fourth falls on a Thursday this year, Wednesday’s sales are forecast to be the busiest of the year.

Akerna released these retail sales figures that they compiled through a statistically relevant analysis of the cannabis retail market analyzing data tracked in MJ Platform across 20 states, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C.

July 4^th by the numbers:

The order total on average will be $3.43 more than the average daily order total of $97.57.
Average basket count for 2019 is 2.64. 4^thof July week will ring in an average basket count of 3.12.
Cartridge/Pens are expected to take a category share increase of 5%, as the second most popular category purchased June 28-July 4.
In states where flower is legal, flower will be the largest sales category with 40% of all sales for retailers.

“Utilizing the largest data set in the cannabis industry, we are able to provide a unique insight into market peaks and trends to anticipate and prepare for their busiest days,” said Jessica Billingsley, Akerna’s CEO. “Cannabis sales rival the sales of traditional holiday staples. It’s time to stop looking at this industry as niche or marginal. The growth of consumer adoption is explosive as the legalization of cannabis expands and Americans across all demographic segments are incorporating cannabis into their everyday lives.”

7/10

However, the fun doesn’t end with the Fourth of July. Just as 4/20 holds significance for cannabis consumers, there is the extracts holiday on July 7. 7/10 looks like OIL spelled backward. Some take it a step further and call it Happy Dab Day to celebrate the concentrate side of the market. There is a Dab Day celebration in Miami on July 13 this year sponsored by Trulieve.

Flowhub, the seed-to-sale software company tracked a sample set of cannabis consumers on this holiday over the course of one year, and the company found that in 2017, concentrate sales rose 88% versus 2016. In 2017, Dab Day sales increased 34% for that specific day of the week. The most popular type of concentrate is shatter (by a large margin), followed by wax, vape cartridges and live resin.

This article was originally published on Green Market report.

Hoosiers Could Go To Jail For Smuggling Weed!

Mike Adams

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July 1, 2019

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Hoosiers Could Go To Jail For Smuggling Weed!

Yikes, some Hoosier could go to jail for smuggling weed thanks to a new law. In about six months, adults 21 and over will have the opportunity to buy legal marijuana in Illinois. Governor J.B. Pritzker recently signed a proposal into law, making the Land of Lincoln the 11th state in the nation to legalize the leaf for recreational use. Of course, this means cannabis enthusiasts from surrounding prohibition states will likely visit Illinois starting in 2020.

Some of them will even attempt to smuggle legal green back into a state where pot possession can still get a person jammed up in the criminal justice system. Even if you have read some of our advice columns on not getting busted while traveling with weed across state lines, there are other hazards out there, too, for pot consumers who play in legal states but then drive back to an area where prohibition is still the law of the land.

Perhaps the most significant risk is coming away with a charge for “driving under the influence of drugs” (DUID).

Although every state has its own version of a DUID law, some of them are stricter than others. There are effect-based laws, which is where law enforcement and prosecutors must prove a motorist was impaired before getting a conviction. There are also Per Se laws that have a specific level of drugs allowed in a person’s system before they can be charged with a crime.

But several states still have “zero tolerance” laws for stoned driving.

These little devils allow cops to drag motorists to jail for having any amount of marijuana in their bodies. If an officer suspects you are driving high, they can demand a sobriety test. Failure to comply is as good as an admission of guilt and can lead to an automatic arrest and conviction for this crime.

Right now, there are 15 states with zero tolerance DUI laws. Indiana is one of them. So if a Hoosier visits Illinois next year and enjoys a nice, long weekend basking in all the high amenities that a legal weed state has to offer, they could easily find themselves answering to law enforcement on their way home.

And if an officer’s line of questioning happens to lean toward something like, “Have you been using marijuana this weekend?” it could mean that a nasty charge for DUID is dangerously close.

Legal experts say getting arrested for this offense is a sure thing – even if the motorist is not impaired at the time.

“Indiana’s zero tolerance policy also encompasses illegal drug use,” attorney Sean Hessler of Hessler Law wrote in a blog post. “If you are caught with a controlled substance, such as marijuana, cocaine, meth, nonprescription opioids, or heroin, you will be charged with a crime. If you are determined to have any amount of an illegal drug in your body while driving, you will face a DUI.”

Marijuana metabolizes in the body differently than alcohol. So where it is easy for law enforcement to determine if a motorist is driving drunk – they simply give them a breathalyzer — the science behind stoned driving is not so cut and dry. Marijuana can linger in a person’s system for months. In a no tolerance state, like Indiana, this could mean someone who smoked weed on a Friday night could end up in jail for DUID a week later. If this happens to you, it is going to take one heck of an attorney to straighten out the mess. Choose to fight the battle alone and you run the risk of losing your license and paying fines and court costs of over $10,000. You might even get to start attending drug classes. Just try explaining to your employer that you’re going to have trouble getting to work for the next year or so because the cops busted you for driving high.

What we’re trying to say is, you’ve got to be careful out there. Learn more about the drug laws in your state and understand the many ways you could find yourself up to your ears in legal problems because of conflicting marijuana laws. That or go ahead and buy yourself a bicycle. You’re probably going to need it soon enough.

Chris Pratt Shows Off Extreme Sunburn; ‘Old Town Road’ Rapper Lil Nas X Appears To Come Out During Pride Month

Naughty Gossip

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July 1, 2019

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Chris Pratt Shows Off Extreme Sunburn; ‘Old Town Road’ Rapper Lil Nas X Appears To Come Out During Pride Month

Chris Pratt shows off extreme sunburn from honeymoon

Via Fox News:

It seems Chris Pratt enjoyed his honeymoon with wife Katherine Schwarzenegger a little too much.

The action star, 40, and the author, 29, jetted off to Hawaii for a relaxing few days but Pratt overindulged in the sun.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzTOpLwpH0V/

He showed off an extreme sunburn on social media. “Suns out guns out,” he wrote alongside the photo. “#Aloe. I might have got a toouuuch crispy on the honeymoon.”

Fellow “Endgame” star and GOOP founder Gwyneth Paltrow hilariously commented on the photo.

“I’ve got some goop for that,” she wrote.

‘Old Town Road’ rapper Lil Nas X appears to come out during Pride Month

Via Fox News:

Rapper Lil Nas X appeared to come out as LGBT on Sunday, marking the last day of Pride Month.

The 20-year-old “Old Town Road” breakout star made the apparent announcement on Twitter. “Some of y’all already know, some of y’all don’t care,” he tweeted, along with a rainbow emoji, which is the universal symbol for the LGBT community

“But before this month ends I want y’all to listen closely to c7osure.”

C7osure (You Like) is a song from Lil Nas X’s new album “7” that talks about needing to be “free,” according to the BBC.

Nas posted a second tweet a couple of hours later of images from his album cover, which displays a rainbow skyline.

“…thought I made it obvious,” he tweeted.

https://twitter.com/LilNasX/status/1145428812404068352

R2-D2 Smoked Marijuana On The Set Of Star Wars

Brendan Bures

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July 1, 2019

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R2-D2 Smoked Marijuana On The Set Of Star Wars

A recommendation for you movie fans is Brian Raftery’s excellent book 1999: Best. Movie. Year. Ever. It chronicles the production and context around the releases of a truly iconic movie year, which included films like The Matrix, Fight Club, Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, Office Space, and The Blair Witch Project. And spoiler, shares the time R2-D2 smoked marijuana on the set of Star Wars.

In 1999, we also received Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, a project so maligned by bloated expectations and creative ego that it’s difficult to determine if the film ever really had a chance to succeed. Raftery tells the story of the movie’s production in his book through the lens of Ahmed Best, who was young musician and dancer at the time. Eventually he’d be recruited to play one of the most derided characters in film history—Jar Jar Binks.

For Best, Jar Jar represented his big break, his chance to achieve artistic success. He remembers shooting the film fondly, recalling stories of shooting in Tunisian deserts while singing the Star Wars theme song quietly to himself. And in Best’s memory, we find the wonderful image of R2-D2 getting high off the set.

“‘We laughed all day long,’ [Ahmed Best] says of his Phantom Menace experience, which included hanging poolside with [Natalie] Portman and [Ewan] McGregor and watching Kenny Baker—the actor who played R2-D2—taking off-the-clock hits from a violet bong,” Raftery writes.

This naturally led me to wonder just how Baker snuck marijuana and paraphernalia into a North African country, though I’m sure the answer is probably something simple like, the rich and famous can get away with stuff us normal folk can’t. Sadly, Baker passed away three years ago at the age of 81, so we can’t ask him ourselves. This is probably one of those stories better left to mystery.

The Fresh ToastThe most trusted name in cannabis

How Google Maps Can Help You Skip Traffic

A Guide To Tipping Your Delivery Driver In The Gig Economy

The way delivery services pay their drivers — often independent contractors and not employees — can complicate how you approach tipping and might even change how you provide gratuities.

Lindsay Lohan Posts Naked Selfie And More

Adam Lambert Just Lightly Trashed Madonna’s Music

Lindsay Lohan posts naked mirror selfie to mark her 33rd birthday

B-Real Finally Tells Real Story Smoking Weed On SNL

Liam Gallagher Talks About Marijuana Tolerance Breaks

Why Prince Harry Didn’t Go To University Like His Brother

Cannabis Industry Ramping Up For July 4, 7/10 Holidays

This article was originally published on Green Market report.

Hoosiers Could Go To Jail For Smuggling Weed!

Chris Pratt Shows Off Extreme Sunburn; ‘Old Town Road’ Rapper Lil Nas X Appears To Come Out During Pride Month

Chris Pratt shows off extreme sunburn from honeymoon

‘Old Town Road’ rapper Lil Nas X appears to come out during Pride Month

R2-D2 Smoked Marijuana On The Set Of Star Wars

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