In a world where most celebrity beef is fake, a disgusting marketing tool used to sell products to the unassuming masses, it’s nice to see one celebrity bringing beef back to its roots. Who, you may ask, has saved us from this morass of mass entertainment? None other than Conan O’Brien, who has indeed started a controversy with the entire country of Japan.
Yes, the late-night host finally discovered a popular manga character overseas called Detective Conan. Conan has beef because he believes the character is a ripoff of his likeness. How so? Well, the series follows “a man trapped in a child’s body,” which Conan believes obviously describes him. The character was created in 1994, one year after Conan went on the air, adding to the suspicion. A town even changed its name to Conantown in honor of the character.
Outraged, Conan demanded three trillion yen in exchange for his likeness to be used in such a manner. And the mayor of Conantown actually responded, saying they’d meet his request if he visited the town. Going off on a power trip, Conan then raised his demands, adding that the most popular laundromat in town must bear his name. Then he’d consider going.
Israel, though still not legalized, remains one of the most important cannabis hubs on the planet. It is a global leader in cannabis research, it allows for some medical usages of the plant and has decriminalized it for first and second time offenders. Israel also leads the way in innovative cannabis products and their heady promotion. In fact, a weed grow box company is trying to lure Hip Hop artists.
Take the company Seedo for example. They’re basically a grow box company with special standouts, like imitating the optimal light spectrum and replicating the proper light vs. dark times in a perfectly contained ecosystem that provides everything your plants need at just the right times.
Now Seedo has developed a fully automated device that uses artificial intelligence (A.I.) to grow plants with precision. But their real goal? Securing some well-known rappers from the U.S. to promote the automated grow boxes.
Seedo told The Media Line that although they couldn’t reveal the names as of yet, “We are working with Interscope Records and are now in the process of [negotiating] with hip hop artists who will represent our company in the U.S. and Canada. Hip hop artists are recognized as supporters of the cannabis industry and they are familiar with it.”
The boxes themselves are award worthy. They come in closed-systems so that they use very little water and keep insects and pathogens at bay. Seedo also makes the incredible claim that the cost of what’s yielded is 30 percent less than “any other technology in the world.”
The grow box also takes care of little problems that were once expected with this type of machine. For example, for its compact size, it has a hefty little CO2 production system that assists with photosynthesis. It also has a smell-proof drying system that takes place inside the machine.
The app, however, may be the most impressive part about the entire package. It comes with tried and true growth recipes or allows you to build your own. It locks and unlocks the Seedo door for safety’s sake no matter where you are. It lets you upload photos and share them with your network. And should heaven forbid something go wrong, it alerts you immediately.
The Seedo journey has taken four years to get where it is and start shipping products. With cutting edge A.I., a complete control app, safety standards put in place, the only “work” that need be done is to trim when you get up to 5 plants at a time and an upcoming hip hop campaign, Seedo is set to become the next big thing in discrete, turnkey home-growing for the busy professional.
Good luck to Seedo, a weed grow box company is trying to lure Hip Hop artists.
A well-known chef in Seattle doesn’t have a lot of nice things to say about the state’s decision to ban a popular line of CBD wellness drinks at his downtown cafe. In fact, during an interview with KUOW, the chef compares CBD-infused drinks ban to Footloose. The hit film has Kevin Bacon fighting a dance ban in a small time. He compared health regulators to the same small mind set.
Because CBD is a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, when the oil is added to liquid, it creates a relaxing effect.
“It’s subtle,” said Brendan McGill, a noted Seattle Chef. “I’m talking about drinking chamomile tea or something.”
McGill told KUOW that the CBD extract he used at Café Hitchcock was sourced from hemp grown by someone he knows in Oregon. And because it’s from out of state, it’s not regulated by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board. WSLCB spokesman Brian Smith told KUOW that while CBD falls under the jurisdiction of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the agency hasn’t taken any regulatory or enforcement actions.
McGill was told to stop selling his popular CBD lattes in April. He told Seattle Magazine at the time:
Unfortunately, King County Public Health has decided to take a regressive stance on the use of CBD as a food additive. Although cafés in many other Washington counties as well as in Oregon, California, Washington D.C. and NYC are not regulating its use, as it is federally legal, traded across state lines and internationally with no special permitting, is demonstrably not psychoactive and offers tremendous health benefits as well as its signature relaxing effect, we have been instructed to immediately stop serving the extract. I have reached out to discuss this and find out the reasoning behind the decision but as of yet have not heard back from Public Health.”
Joe Graham, who manages the food safety program at the state’s Department of Health, told KUOW that CBD is a no-no, not only because it’s derived from the cannabis plant, but also because it hasn’t been FDA approved. “We rely on the fact that this is a Schedule 1 drug and we rely on the list of federal food additives,” he said, adding:
The potential harms would be dosage…I can’t speak to what the actual safe dose is but that would be a concern. And then also just the source of it, how it was manufactured.
But King County Council member Jeanne Kohl-Welles is on McGill’s side, telling KUOW that her office has been in touch with him, adding:
I do support a new law that would allow for the use of CBD oils in food and drink products if regulated.
Graham said he’s reaching out to other states, like Oregon, to find out how they’re getting around the legality of serving CBD. “Some states are moving toward that and we’re trying to find out what they’re using as a legal basis because right now we haven’t read anything at the federal level that would allow this,” he told KUOW.
Because the FDA recently approved CBD-based Epidiolex for epilepsy, the federal government is expected to remove CBD from the list of Schedule 1 drugs. According to The Fresh Toast Medical Director Dr. Thomas Green:
I am in the hope that it will either not be scheduled at all (I severely doubt that this will be the case) or will be schedule 3 (the same as Vicodin), schedule 4 (valium) or schedule 5 (cough syrup with codeine). This author certainly does not think CBD has the same abuse potential as Vicodin or valium.
The VMAs were long, sometimes fun, and mostly embarrassing, but the awards show is somehow still being discussed among fans and viewers who accidentally tuned in to MTV at the right time. Amid the thousands of awards that were given out Monday night, Jennifer Lopez received the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, the most important award of the show, which featured a long presentation where she sang a mashup of her most successful songs. No one had a better time than J-Lo’s boyfriend, Alex Rodriguez, who recorded every second of the event as if it wasn’t televised.
While the VMAs have become a sort of joke recently (does MTV even play music videos anymore?), the channel still knows how to broadcast an interesting show that’s sparks tons of conversations.
Producers of the awards show knew what people were after, cutting back and forth between Ariana Grande and Pete Davidson and, most impressively, between a dancing J-LO and A-Rod, who wouldn’t stop recording bits of his bae’s performance.
The short clip became an instant meme, with thousands of people retweeting his reaction and adding in gifs and comments of their own. Check out our favorites:
As cannabis legalization spreads across the country, the cry from activists to review past marijuana convictions has never been higher. Cities like San Francisco and Seattle have answered the call, moving to erase past marijuana convictions in a move that has been labeled as “restorative justice.”
When Californians moved to legalize recreational cannabis with Prop 64 two years ago, it also opened the door for individuals to petition past marijuana-related misdemeanors and have them either dismissed or reduced. San Francisco’s act was radical because the city took ownership of its checkered history with marijuana-related arrests, and dismissed cases without those affected sinking any resources into the effort.
Now the entire state of California looks to follow that examples. This week, the California Senate passed legislation that would require its Justice Department to comb past marijuana convictions from 1975 to 2016 and examine whether they should be expunged or reduced. The bill, AB-1793, passed in a 22-8 bipartisan vote, though it still needs Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature.
Once the state’s Department of Justice releases its findings, it’s up to county prosecutors who make the final call if dismissing or downgrading a conviction is appropriate. Their decision has a deadline of July 1, 2020. However, prosecutors can also challenge the DOJ’s conclusions, contesting if a past convict “does not meet the eligibility requirements or presents an unreasonable risk to public safety.”
This will require a lot of work, undoubtedly. According to estimates, there are a possible 218,000 convictions that will be eligible to be erased or demoted from felony to misdemeanor. Scott Wiener, a co-sponsor of the bill, said during the floor debate that this legislation “creates a simpler pathway for Californians to turn the page,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
One of the main arguments the anti-dope movement often interjects against the legalization of marijuana is it will increase crime. These people are firmly convinced that allowing weed to be sold in state-licensed dispensaries in a manner similar to beer will bring around a fate somewhere between Thunderdome and the apocalypse and set fire to their friendly neighborhoods with on onslaught of rape, murder and thievery. But a new study’s data shows no crime increase in legal marijuana states. The Mormon-esque naysayers of the leaf are simply perpetuating false fear.
Researchers at the Victoria University of Wellington and Harvard University recently banded together to explore the question: “Do crime rates really increase after marijuana prohibition laws are brought down?” It turns out, other than some modest drops in violent crime and theft in some areas, legalization really doesn’t have an impact on state and national crimes rates. So while marijuana might not be making the world a safer place, it doesn’t appear to be causing an uprising in social delinquency either.
One of the states to show a decrease in crime was California. The state legalized medical marijuana back in 1996, giving way to one of the most liberal therapeutic pot programs the nation has ever seen. It allows state residents with conditions ranging from debilitating diseases to sore pinky toes to gain access to medicinal bud. Although California has since gone fully legal, the study only examined its pre-recreational period.
Lead researcher Dr. Luke Chu says “there’s no definitive answer as to why” the Golden State experienced a 20 percent drop in violent and property crime, but it is possible that legal herb just chilled the population out. Of course, this theory is only speculation.
Unlike other studies of this kind, which exclusively use national crime data provided by the FBI, researchers say they also employed stats from police departments all across the nation in cities with a population of at least 50,000. The study found that “these decisions matter,” and “the specification of the city-specific trend changes the estimated effects on violent crime.”
Researchers also utilized a tertiary method for getting to the bottom of this debate.
“In addition to traditional regression analysis, we used a technique called synthetic control method to analyze the data,” Dr. Chu told Psy.org. “This allows us to take into account pre-law differences in crime trends without making extra assumptions.”
In the end, science found “no strong causal relationship between medical marijuana laws and criminality.” The results were published in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
Falsehoods regarding the health and make up of our bodies have existed since the beginning of time. Some of these myths become so popular that we consider them facts despite science and technology informing us that they’re not true. We hold them close. Want to stir up conversation at the next gathering? Here are 10 human body myths debunked.
Biochemist and author Matt Brown has made it his mission to debunk these myths, writing a book on the matter called Everything You Know About Your BodyIs Wrong. The Daily Mail compiled a brief list of some of the strangest things that most people consider to be truthful.
While it does impair the communication between your brain cells, alcohol doesn’t actively destroy them. This stalled communication leads to your typical drunk behavior, such as slurred speech and dizziness.
Vitamin C doesn’t prevent colds
A study conducted in 2013 on 11,000 subjects found no link between Vitamin C and the common cold. The study did find that those who are undergoing some sort of stressful situation or pushing themselves physically might benefit from ingesting Vitamin C.
According to Brown, the appendix is a reservoir of healthy bacteria, helping us fight off diseases that target our gut area. When we’re babies and toddlers, the appendix also helped us form white blood cells and fight off infections.
Sugar doesn’t make kids hyper
Over a dozen trials have looked for a connection between sugar and kids’ level of excitement and none have found a strong link.
This myth is so elaborate that it even goes so far as to say that gum can’t be digested and that it’ll stay inside your body for seven years. While it’s true that the body can’t digest most of it, the gum will probably leave your system the next time you use the bathroom.
You use most of your brain
Sadly, we’re all not secret geniuses who haven’t discovered their full potential. CAT scans prove that we use all areas of our brain at one point or another, and it’s impossible to monitor every cell in our brain since there are over a billion of them. There’s no way to prove that 10 percent of them are the only ones we use either.
While digestion does get your blood flowing towards your gut, it won’t lead to cramps that’ll leave you crippled with pain and about to drown in the water. You might feel a little sick if you start to swim vigorously, but it’ll be just like working out after a big meal.
Knuckle cracking won’t give you arthritis
While it does make sense that if you strain joints over time they’ll be more likely to develop problems, studies have found no link between knuckle cracking and arthritis.
Neither hair nor nails are capable of growing after death. For this to happen, the cells would need to divide, and that’s not possible when you’re body is dead and decomposing. The fact that, when dug out of the grave, bodies look like they have longer hair and nails is probably due to the skin contracting and breaking down.
How she lost 20 lbs: “I work out about an hour-and-a-half every single day, heavy weights. I don’t do a lot of cardio. But honestly, like even my mom pulled me aside maybe a week ago and pulls me in a closet and is like, ‘What are you doing?’ She says, ‘I don’t care what, I just need to know.’ I’ve been working out really hardcore with a bodybuilder for one year. September is our one-year anniversary. I’ve lost 20 pounds and I’m really proud of that. I was almost 140 forever and now I’m like 116 and it just feels good. I didn’t see results right away, but when you stick with something and you’re consistent, you will. So, I love it.”
How she changed her diet: “I don’t really eat sugar the way that I used to. It doesn’t really do it for me. I’ve kind of been trained to just eat a lot healthier than I used to. I used to just eat anything and everything and I loved it. And so I really do control that now. … I don’t want to ruin it by just stuffing my face.”
Her one sweet indulgence: “I love Häagen-Dazs ice cream. That’s like my one go-to.”
Looks like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are still far from amicable. Despite recently reaching an interim custody agreement, a source tells ET that the actor is “sickened” by his estranged wife and her legal team for letting their child custody battle play out in public.
“He wants this settled out of sight,” the source says of Pitt, who is currently in Los Angeles with their six children — Maddox, 16, Pax, 14, Zahara, 13, Shiloh, 12 and twins Knox and Vivienne, 10. “He knows this isn’t fair to the children. He’s saddened that they have to be a part of this [public fight].”
The source adds that even with their latest legal agreement, this is just the beginning for Pitt and Jolie as they continue the divorce process.
“There’s a long road ahead,” the source says. “There is still a lot of sorting out to do.”
It happens fast. You crack open a bottle of your favorite drink and put it to your lips. The delicious flavor is nearly overwhelming. But a minute later, you’re barely noticing the taste as you drink it.
Or you buy a new car and think it will make you smile every time you drive it for years. But a month later, that sensation is gone. Now it’s just a car.
This satiation, known as hedonic adaptation, occurs for nearly everything that makes us happy. Look around and think of how much you initially enjoyed the things that surround you. Then think about how much you enjoy them today.
Wouldn’t it be great to get some of that initial enjoyment back?
Some restaurants allow customers to eat food in bed. Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com
The art of paying attention
In one study, we asked 68 participants to eat some popcorn. While half were told to eat the normal way, one kernel at a time, the rest used chopsticks. We found that those who ate with chopsticks enjoyed the popcorn a lot more than the others, even though both groups were told to eat at the same slow pace.
This is because of something well-known to psychologists: When something seems new, people pay more attention to it. And when people pay more attention to something enjoyable, they tend to enjoy it more.
This is why many people seek so much variety in what they consume. We buy something and use it for a while until it becomes familiar and mundane, then we buy something else thinking it will make us happy. Unfortunately, this replacement is costly, and, in cases such as houses and spouses, sometimes a very extreme option in response to unavoidable familiarity.
Our research suggests another option: Instead of replacing something once you get sick of it, try consuming it or interacting with it in unconventional ways.
Drinking water out of a wine or martini glass could be a way to make it more enjoyable. Satheesh Nair/Shutterstock.com
Make each sip count
In another experiment, we studied 300 people as they consumed water.
First, we asked participants to come up with their own unconventional ways to consume water. Their responses ranged from drinking out of a martini glass or travel mug to lapping it up like a cat. One even suggested drinking water out of a shipping envelope.
They were then told to take five sips of water and rate their enjoyment after each drink. A third did so in the normal way, another third sipped using one of their own randomly chosen unconventional methods over and over and the rest used a different unconventional method for each sip.
We found that people who drank water in a different way every time enjoyed their water the most – with even bigger boosts toward the end of the taste test. In other words, their enjoyment did not decline over time. While everyone else enjoyed the water less for each sip, those who drank it in different ways did not show this usual pattern of declining enjoyment.
This presents a rare solution to the nearly universal phenomenon of satiation, or the declining enjoyment that comes with familiarity. As long as you can find new and interesting ways to interact with something, you may never grow tired of it.
Some restaurants try to spice things up by having diners eat in the dark or blindfolded. iofoto/Shutterstock.com
Business opportunities
This idea isn’t entirely novel, of course. Many companies are already taking advantage of this concept to provide more enjoyable experiences for customers.
While there is no limit to the different ways to present the same old thing, at some point the novelty usually wears off. Our research suggests this is a missed opportunity for businesses to offer more variety in how a single food is consumed.
For example, when people eat a few slices of pizza at a restaurant, they typically consume them all in the same way. It’s a problem if people enjoy their last slice less because of satiation, because our memory for experiences is shaped heavily by what happened at the end.
Rather than turning off all the lights to make dining more enjoyable, as in the dark-dining trend, pizza parlors could encourage their customers to eat each slice in a different way, such as normally, folded in half, backwards, with a fork and knife, with chopsticks or while blindfolded. If they did, we believe they would likely find that their customers enjoy their last slice as much as the first.
The bottom line is that variety is the spice of life, not just in what we do but also how we do it. Knowing this can help both businesses and customers maximize enjoyment.
Perhaps the greatest cannabis product to hit the market this century is the marijuana oil vape pen. No matter which brand, strain or viscosity you got, a vape pen looks like an e-cig. (Unless, of course, you’re still using a box, in which case, it’s time for an upgrade.)
E-cigs are ubiquitous in current culture, seen as the healthy alternative to cigarettes that still provides the hand to mouth sensation and the nicotine buzz craved by former cigarette smokers. God bless ‘em, let’s hope that e-cigs really aren’t as dangerous as cigarettes are. But also bless ‘em because they brought cannabis oil vape pens on their heels.
Pot pens have little to no odor, unless they’re flavored, in which case they just smell like a sweetly flavored e-cig. As long as you’re discreet in your passing of the torch, so to speak, you should be able to get away with vaping your cannabis anywhere that the nicotine vape pen can go.
Sometimes vapes can even be used in locations where they’re technically not allowed. Sneaking a toke while your kid goes on Space Mountain for the third time has never been easier or come with less paranoia. Even if security asks you to put your pen away, that’s all you need to do. As far as they’re concerned, you’re just getting your nicotine fix.
Walking down the streets of NYC watching joints being passed will always be a thing, and a fragrant one at that. And with looser laws on the horizon, it’s not likely to be going anywhere anytime soon. But there’s a new breed of stoner, and they value their discretion over a lively open air smoke sesh.
The other nice thing about vape pens is that if you use them indoors, the vapor dissipates very quickly and, again, with little odor. It makes parental elevation easier and more discreet so that you don’t have to have the “pot talk” until the tots are ready to learn about the real history of the failed War on Drugs — and also, of course, how to approach each potential substance that might come into their precious lives.
Vape pens are all the rage for a good many reasons, but remember that in some cases you’re going to get what you pay for. It’s a good idea to invest in a good pen with a good battery that you can swap cartridges off-and-on easily and efficiently. That way, you can carry a strain for different occasions and keep your cannabis connoisseur ways under wraps at dinner parties and even the train station.
