The Pomeranian is long considered a favorite of the toy breeds thanks to its fluffy double coat, always smily foxy-looking face, and vivacious energy. It has a big-dog personality inside its miniature build and makes an attentive watch dog for any family. For children who know the difference between a toy breed and a toy, the Pomeranian makes the perfect companion. They are easily trained and can become real tricksters and entertainers. While most common in orange and red, the Pom Pom comes in almost two dozen variations.
The Pom has seen history, too! The breed originally weighed 20-30 lbs, but Queen Victoria bred them to their current size. Michelangelo had his pet Pomeranian by his side during the painting of the Sistine Chapel. Martin Luther had a Pomeranian named Belfarian often mentioned in his writing. And Mozart dedicated an aria to his beloved Pom, Pimperl.
Here, we find five of the most adorable Pomeranians of Instagram, beginning with the most adorable dog in the world, Boo. RIP.
Finding the motivation to work out can be tough if you’re doing it alone, which is why we recommend finding a workout buddy to keep you in line. And who could be a better workout buddy than your significant other? It’s a great chance to spend some time with them that isn’t a normal date or family obligation, plus it’ll help you both stay fit.
Below are five examples of great workouts for couples.
Hook Squats
This one, as suggested by Fitness Magazine, seems simple enough. Just stand back to back with your partner, squat down, and then slowly walk together in a circle before circling back. Three or so sets should work.
Pull & Release Seated Row
Muscle and Fitness recommends this exercise, which will target your back and biceps and only requires a towel and some floor space. First sit facing your partner with the bottoms of your feet toughing and your back straight. Each of you should be holding one end of the towel as you alternate pulling the towel towards you while the other slowly releases on a three-count, sort of like a game of seated tug of war.
Assume the standard push-up position and have your partner stand over top of you. As you push up, your partner should apply slight—or significant, if you’re real strong—pressure for added resistance. Do as many as you can, then do two more sets of the same number.
Crisscross Crunches
Like partner push-ups, this one is a twist on a standard workout. Sit across from your partner in a regular sit-up position but intertwine your legs with each other. Then alternate standard crunches. To spice things up, maybe bet on who can do more in a row without stopping.
Even if you run at different speeds, having someone jog with you is a great way to push yourself. Instead of settling for two or three miles, now you might go four or five. Instead of a ten-minute mile, maybe you’ll run one in nine.
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.
On this first weekend of February, our column features Orville Peck’s latest single, Octo Octa’s long electronic experiment and Theophilus London’s contribution with Tame Impala. Check them out:
Country
Orville Peck – “Dead Of Night”
Peck’s music touches on a lot of interesting ideas, resulting in modern and complex country songs that feel unlike anything else out there. His thought provoking lyrics are backed by this awesome music video where he’s seen embodying a satin and lace cowboy, wearing a mask that makes him look like the BDSM version of Zorro. Orville Peck is a showman but he’s also got the voice and talent to back up his antics. He is one of the most revolutionary and exciting musicians out there.
Octo Octa’s new song is a fun and moody way to spend 10 minutes. “I Need You” functions perfectly in a dance club, in a yoga or a spinning class, finding the right balance between euphoria and contemplation. After the five minute mark, someone speaks, thanking their family and loved ones. These phrases and sounds repeat and reverberate themselves throughout the rest of the song, adding a strange layer of emotion that make this song a unique and emotional experience.
Hip Hop
Theophilus London – “Whiplash”
Theophilus London’s second contribution with Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker is just as funky and fun as you’d expect. The duo has worked together before, and their work continues to demonstrate Tame Impala’s seamless fit with the hip hop genre. Both artists have been busy with their independent careers, following the release of London’s mixtape “Nights B4 BeyBey” and the announcement of Tame Impala’s US tour dates.
This Super Bowl weekend, Americans are expected to order 12.5 million pizza for the big game. And if you order a weed delivery from one Washington dispensary, that pizza could be free by buying some bud.
The Mt. Hood Cannabis Company—which started when the owners traveled to Boulder, Colorado and were inspired “for a little adventure in our life”—wants to gift you a free cheese or pepperoni pizza with a purchase any half-ounce of cannabis.
“We were enjoying a joint and a slice of Mogul Mountain pizza while brainstorming marketing opportunities for our dispensary when it hit us. Let’s announce our new weed delivery with free pizza, and what better way to kick it off than over Super Bowl weekend,” said Devin Houston, Director of Marketing, in a press release.
“Our shop works really hard to engage the local business community and since their pizza was so inspirational, partnering with Mogul Mountain Pizza was a no brainer.”
The dispensary specializes in “craft flower, incredible edibles and concentrates” served by “kind educated budtenders.” If you’re near the area, why not stock up on some cannabis while getting a free pizza? As the dispensary stated in a press release, “Nothing goes better with the Super Bowl than pizza.”
Airpods can’t be left alone. In the past couple of weeks the headphones have been mocked by the internet, used for ASMR slime videos and as pieces for earrings. It’s safe to say Apple couldn’t have predicted the effect that their AirPods would have on all of us.
Despite the fact these devices were released over two years ago, the internet still finds new memes for them, photo-shopping them into photos and claiming that they’re for rich people.
This week’s meme is kind of elaborate, demanding you’re fluent in internet speak if you want to find the humor of the jokes. The meme consists of adding in AirPods into a pivotal scene in a movie or TV show and then having people warn the characters about their impending demise. Their warnings go unheard, and it’s all the AirPods’ fault. It’s all very dumb and great. Check out some of the best tweets:
archie the bears coming. oh my god he has airpods in. he can’t hear us. oh my god!!!! pic.twitter.com/cPuFAsqrIN
Hot pickles are available pretty much everywhere in the south, but in Atlanta, they’re a favorite. With the Super Bowl being held in this southern locale this year, people looking to offer a taste of ATL to their guests on game day can look no further than this crunchy, salty classic app.
Taking pickles to the party food planet is as simple as breading and frying them, and the only thing tastier than a hot pickle is a deep fried one. For the cannabis and pickle enthusiast, adding some active ingredients to the mix is pretty simple, even if you just want the good stuff in the sauce. Having pickle options is as important as having cannabis choices.
There’s so many kinds of pickles in the world, but we’re with Atlanta residents, hot pickles are the best kind. Don’t worry, kosher dill pickles are still the old standby, but spicy pickles satiate in a way that you just need when you’re snacking. A little bit of heat changes things up, and goes so much better with the breading than basic pickles.
Fried Hot Pickles with Cannabis Infused Buffalo Sauce
Danielle Guercio, 2019 Estimated 20mg THC per 10 pickles
Ingredients
2-3 large Hot pickles, sliced into ½ inch coins
1 cup breadcrumbs
½ cup flour
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp glycerin tincture*
2 Tbs white vinegar
¾ cup water
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil for frying
For the sauce
2 Tbs Frank’s Red Hot sauce
3 Tbs mayo, veganaise, or ranch dressing
1 tsp glycerin tincture
Steps
Dry cut pickles slightly on paper towels before placing in a jar. Mix together water, tincture, and vinegar, pour over pickles and refrigerate overnight. Strain the pickle slices, gently pat dry.
Mix the infused sauce before frying the pickles so the flavors have a chance to meld together.
Bring 1.5” of a low flavor oil like canola oil to frying temps in a cast iron skillet. Season the flour and egg with salt and pepper. Dredge the pickle slices in flour, then beaten egg, then the breadcrumbs. Fry for 2 minutes per side until golden brown.
Serve hot with a side of sauce, split that portion amongst three people for the best dosing results.
*Glycerin Tincture
Decarboxylate .25 gram of concentrate. Put material in lidded mason jar or vacuum sealed bag with cannabis and 2 ounces of vegetable glycerin. Heat in water bath just under boiling for at least 1 hour. Strain and cool to use in recipes.
These pickles are so good that they will make people who are pickle skeptics full believers, and are dosed for sharing. This means its perfect for pre-game, it will start up your appetite with the subdued heat and salty satisfying crunch, but then keep your appetite going with a spot of THC to keep the snacking going.
The maker of the powerful opioid painkiller OxyContin – a prescription drug that has become popular on the black market — once considered the development of an anti-addiction remedy that it could sell to “an attractive market,” as a means for generating profits through a cause and the cure scheme.
Court documents released earlier this week show the offensive nature of which Big Pharma is hell bent on driving more Americans into the grips of addiction.
Purdue Pharma spent years discussing the natural link between the sale of opioids and drugs intended to put “script users” on the mend. Since 2014, the company has been looking to cross “the pain and addiction spectrum,” according to a lawsuit filed this week by the Massachusetts attorney general.
The majority of this push came as a direct order of the Sackler family, which has a controlling interest in the company. Emails collected as part of this case show that America’s richest family wanted “immediate attention” given to what is described as a business opportunity. “There is an opportunity to expand our offering to be an end-to-end pain provider,” one document reads. Other internal memo suggests that there is a “large unmet need for vulnerable, underserved and stigmatized patient population suffering from substance abuse, dependence and addiction.”
This case could serve in showing the insatiable greed embedded in the pharmaceutical trade. So much, in fact, that Purdue Pharma filed a petition on Wednesday in hopes of getting certain aspects of the documentation eliminated from public view. The company stated in its motion that there was a risk of exposing trade secrets and other vital information considered confidential if those records go unredacted.
But that didn’t work out in Purdue’s favor. The court rejected the motion.
Purdue’s mission to create an addition drug goes beyond just trying to capitalize on the scourge of addiction. Documents show that the Sacklers were pushing for the creation of higher doses of Oxycontin, presumably to drive up addiction rates across the nation, all while misleading doctors about the risks associated with the drug. Part of the plan was to start trying to get doctors to prescribe opioids as a stress reliever and as a way to give isolated patients more social enthusiasm.
The company then took their quest to turn the United States into a junkie country by blaming the current addiction rates on the individual users – not the drug itself or the way it was being prescribed.
However, Purdue claims the language of the documents has been taken out of context, and that the lawsuit is just “part of a continuing effort to single out Purdue, blame it for the entire opioid crisis, and try the case in the court of public opinion rather than the justice system,” the company said in a statement.
It is important to point out that although the documents show that Purdue was planning to create addiction remedies (and conjure new uses for opioids) the company did not move forward with those plans. Purdue also considered buying the rights to a popular overdose reversal drug called Narcan, but it never did. Still, the documents reveal how drug company spent the better part of around five years searching for ways to generate higher profits through the opioid epidemic.
DID THEY FIGHT!?!? Christina Aguilera is opening up about her troubled past with Pink and rumors that Christina once tried to hit Pink!
On Thursday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Aguilera said “I know she has some feelings about how the recording of ‘Lady Marmalade’ went down. She was heckling me in the audience a little bit behind the director,” she said of Pink.
“I was like, ‘Oh, What’s going on?’ But that’s what she did back then.”
“She’s a different person now,” Aguilera added. “She’s a mom. She’s cool.”
Of the claims that Aguilera threw a punch at Pink, Aguilera denied doing so. “I seem to have a different memory of a night we had at a club where we played spin the bottle. I have a love memory,” she explained. “Look at her and look at me, I wouldn’t swing on her! She can beat my ass, are you kidding me?”
Mike Sorrentino from The Jersey Shore just arrived at jail and he is already being treated like a star.
“Mike is a superstar in prison already. These are his people. This is The Jersey Shore’s demographic audience. They all know who he is and are star-struck around him,” sources tell STRAIGHT SHUTER. “At first, he was worried about his time behind bars, but now after this great response, this isn’t going to be so bad. In fact, for someone who loves attention, this might turn out to be fun like when a celebrity does one of those cruises and they are trapped with a lot of fans with no way to leave.”
DOES HE HAVE A CHANCE? With Ben Affleck no longer playing Batman, a pop star has hit social media and expressed interest in playing the role …. Nick Jonas!
There is growing public interest in marijuana as a useful medicine for a number of physiologic conditions. It should be no surprise that more doctors are asking if the noble weed may hold some answer for those with traumatic brain injury that currently need better therapeutic solutions. One study shines a brighter light on this possibility.
Traumatic brain injury or TBI is just that: damage to the brain caused by an external force. Although much of the mention of this condition has been recently related to football players and veterans of war zones, it affects people of ages, from all walks of life. Although the brain is housed in our hard, protective skull, even one sudden blow can mean profound changes for an individual.
Over 2 million visits to the ER each year are related to TBI events like concussion from auto accidents, falls and assaults. Falls account in 50 percent of TBI in children under 14 years old and over 60 percent of seniors. It is the leading cause of disability and premature death in the world. The economic impact in the US alone has been estimated at $75 billion a year. The impact to people’s lives cannot be measured in dollars.
There have been over 30 failed clinical trials searching for better treatments for TBI, resulting in no significant effect worthy of becoming a pharmaceutical therapy. This has had a chilling effect on similar research.
These failed trials did all have one in thing in common; they didn’t involve cannabis. This is surprising considering that it has been shown that activating the innate cannabinoid receptors (CB1 and CB2) reduces brain swelling and neurological impairment.
Cannabinoid 2-AG is released in the brains of mice following brain injury, though not enough to protect the damaged brain. The fact that 2-AG is released naturally following a brain injury made the team question whether more would be better.
A single dose of plant derived 2-AG was administered to brain damaged mice. The mice who received treatment improved in cognitive function, motor function and every parameter they examined, even months later. The study was a fantastic success. Of course, in a lab setting the scientists had the advantage of being able to administer the dose of 2-AG shortly after brain injury, a key element in the success that could be harder to implement in a real life setting.
This study has serious clout. It was led by a top team from Hebrew University in Israel including the godfather of cannabis research, Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, who first identified THC.
Pharmaceutical companies may not enthused that outcomes showed that a single dose of the cannabinoid can have profound positive effects, but they cannot ignore this high profile and exceedingly successful outcome considering the years of other failed efforts.
Research like this means it is not fantastic to predict a world where paramedics and even athletic trainers on the sidelines of contact sports have access to cannabinoids. If doctors one day agree that a single dose applied right after a concussion or more serious accident can have a profound effect, it would be criminal to deny access.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, has become a household name. On many social media sites, people suggest “but have you tried CBD oil?” on posts pertaining to any health-related issue.
CBD, a minor constituent of marijuana, is widely touted as nature’s miracle by CBD enthusiasts. It does not get people high, unlike marijuana’s main constituent, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). However, given the recent surge in its popularity, you’d think the molecule is magic.
We are behavioral pharmacology scientists, and we study how drugs act on the body. Specifically, we have an interest in developing new drugs for the treatment of pain that possess lessened drug abuse potential, and therapeutic interventions for drug abuse. Although there is scientific interest in the use of CBD for both pain and drug addiction, as well as many other medical indications, there is a lot that we still do not know about CBD.
CBD and THC: How do they work?
Drugs affect the body by binding and acting at various protein molecules, usually on the surface of the cells in the body, called receptors. These receptors then send signals that can impact bodily functions.
Marijuana has an effect on the body because many animals have receptors termed “cannabinoid receptors.” There are two known cannabinoid receptors that are responsible for the effects of marijuana. Only one of them, the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1R), is responsible for the high from marijuana. These cannabinoid receptors are predominately found on nerve cells located throughout the body, including the brain.
Studies indicate that CBD does, however, act on several other types of receptors. These include the serotonin 5-HT1A receptor, which can help regulate sleep, mood, anxiety and pain. CBD may also indirectly alter the body’s own cannabinoid receptor activity.
However, scientists do not yet understand the exact manner in which CBD acts on the body. Likewise, many health-related anecdotal claims pertaining to CBD are not founded on solid scientific evidence, and may be due to well-documented placebo effects.
There is strong evidence, however, that CBD has enduring health benefits in the treatment of intractable epilepsy.
Charlotte’s Web
It has been nearly six years since the story of the Charlotte’s Web strain of marijuana broke into national and international media. This strain of marijuana was named after Charlotte Figi, who struggled with intractable pediatric epilepsy until she was given oil extracted from the strain, which contains a higher CBD-to-THC content.
Charlotte’s father saw an online video of a child from California with seizures who was being treated successfully with marijuana. As it turns out, the active compound that was helping Charlotte was not THC but CBD.
Based upon clinical evidence, GW Pharmaceuticals developed and licensed its own CBD extract, a drug now called Epidiolex. Clinical trials with Epidiolex for the indications of Dravet syndrome and Lennox Gastaut syndrome, two forms of pediatric epilepsy, were resoundingly positive.
In June 2018, the Food and Drug Administration approved Epidiolex for treatment of these two forms of epilepsy in children that have not responded to other treatments.
Meanwhile, as the clinical trials for Epidiolex were underway, a landmark study from Indiana University demonstrated a possible mechanism for CBD’s astounding effects on Dravet and Lennox Gastaut syndromes. These two syndromes are associated with genetic mutations in two genes that are important in the regulation of sodium ions.
A specific understanding
Nerve cells regulate the way they send signals by how ions, or molecules with either an overall positive or negative electric charge, flow in and out of their cells. The most common ions that regulate nerve cell signaling are sodium, potassium, calcium and chloride. These ions move in and out of the cell via pores known as ion channels.
In many forms of epilepsy, however, the movement of ions is not properly controlled. This leads to aberrant firing of the brain’s nerve cells and seizure activity.
In both forms of the epilepsy for which CBD is effective, there are alterations in the channels that control the flow of sodium in and out of nerve cells, or what is called a “sodium channelopathy.”
The study from Indiana University found that CBD can directly inhibit the aberrant flow of sodium ions in nerve cells that have sodium channelopathies. Importantly, CBD does not seem to impact the flow of sodium in healthy nerve cells.
Although CBD has marked effects on these sodium channelopathies, this does not mean that CBD will produce meaningful benefits to other forms of epilepsy.
Other forms of epilepsy are linked to regulation problems related to the flow of potassium ions in cells. This type of pediatric epilepsy is resistant to all known therapeutics, including CBD.
A potential pain therapeutic?
There are also claims that CBD can be used to address pain. And indeed, mounting evidence in pre-clinical laboratory studies show that CBD may be of use for the treatment and prevention of neuropathic pain, or an amplified response that may be due to nerve cell damage. In a mouse model of this type of pain, CBD injections prevented and reversed the development of one hallmark sign of neuropathic pain, called mechanical allodynia. This is the sensation of pain due to a non-noxious stimulus, such as the feeling of clothing on an area of skin that has a sunburn. A new study from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, shows that oral administration of CBD produces these same effects in rats with a similar type of pain.
In both of these studies, the scientists discovered that these effects are likely due to actions at serotonin receptors. A study from scientists at the University of Kentucky suggested that CBD applied to the skin, or transdermal CBD, may reduce inflammation in a rat model of arthritis.
An important caveat to these findings is that not all compounds that produce effects in rodent pain studies will work in humans. Further, most of these studies examined the effects of injected CBD. So far, there is little evidence showing therapeutic effects of either edible or transmucosal, the administration of a drug across a mucous membrane, CBD for pain. There is only limited evidence for the use of transdermal CBD. Thus, until more scientific studies are conducted, the hype that CBD can successfully treat various forms of pain in humans is premature.
Still curious about all the hype? Before running to the local supermarket health food isle to purchase CBD to conduct your own at-home trial, there are a few more points to consider.
Most CBD products sold in grocery stores are touted as “hemp-derived.” That is, they come from a cannabis plant that has a purportedly extremely low amount of THC. Typically, hemp-derived products are made from the stalks and roots of the plant. This is in contrast to marijuana, which can contain varying amounts of THC and comes from the flowers of the cannabis plant. Recently, hemp-derived products were removed from the Controlled Substances Act.
However, it remains unclear if hemp-derived CBD works in the same exact manner as marijuana-derived CBD. Further, the FDA does not approve of CBD products as dietary supplements, or the marketing of any health-related claims. Also, the agency prohibits the addition of either THC or CBD to food products sold in interstate commerce for human or animal consumption.
As long as there are no associated medical claims, the FDA allows the use of hemp oil and seeds in cosmetics. However, the usefulness of hemp products in cosmetics also remains to be determined.
