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Trippy Video Shows How Lightning Looks From Space

Maria Loreto
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Trippy Video Shows How Lightning Looks From Space

Anything time lapse outer space is super impressive, capturing beautiful and terrifying natural phenomenons that you’d never to get experience in real life; because it’s space and most of us aren’t astronauts.

This new video from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) of a weather satellite in space was captured on May 9, and it displays flashes of lightning above North and South America. It also zooms in on a line of storms near Central America.

The purpose of the mapper is to give forecasters indications as of when storms are forming, their movements, and if they’re increasing in size and becoming more dangerous for people and their properties.

According to the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) “rapid increases of lightning are a signal that a storm may strengthen quickly and could produce severe weather.” The mapper, along with other satellites and radars, can also help issue flood and flash flood warnings sooner to prevent as much damage as possible.

Mashable reports that astronauts and cosmonauts are able to see thunderstorms from 250 miles above the planet’s surface, and that it’s common for them to take time-lapse videos featuring these beautiful and rare sights.

Why Does Seth Rogen Hate Marijuana Edibles?

Amy Hansen
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Why Does Seth Rogen Hate Marijuana Edibles?

Two of marijuana’s biggest cheerleaders are Snoop Dogg and Seth Rogen. And neither of them like marijuana edibles.

During an interview with Howard Stern, Rogen said edibles were a crapshoot. He said his buddy Snoop Dog feels the same, recalling a time when Snoop told him that he didn’t eff around with edibles because “edibles ain’t got no off button.” Rogen continued, “I’ve done a lot of drugs in my life. The most negative drug experiences I’ve ever had in my life are from weed edibles.”

Stern then clarified by asking Rogen if he meant even worse than acid or coke. Rogen answered, “Yes, anything” and that no amount of MDMA he’s done makes him feel more fucked up than having one bite too many of a weed brownie.

Rogen, who has a medical marijuana card, told Stern he recently went to see Rogue One and had, what he thought, was an appropriate amount of weed gummy on him, and thought he was going to die. And the rest of his moviegoing experience went hilariously downhill after that. Take a listen.

Marijuana Legislative Roundup for May 29

Alec Engber
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Marijuana Legislative Roundup for May 29

Here is our marijuana legislative round up for May 29. Cannabis legislation has been in the headlines for years now, but federal regulatory reforms on other mind-altering substances are also making headway in C0ngress. Meanwhile, at the state level, California is modifying the supply chain for recreational marijuana and North Carolina is examining loosening its marijuana possession laws. Find out more in our weekly marijuana legislative roundup.

National: 

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that could allow certain patients to use classified drugs such as marijuana, psilocybin, and MDMA that have not yet gone been approved through the clinical trial process. The legislation, known as the Right to Try Act, would permit patients with life-threatening illnesses who have exhausted all other treatment options to try certain experimental drugs that have undergone Phase 1 clinical research and that are undergoing further clinical research under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) procedures. The Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent in August, so the bill now awaits President Trump’s signature. Although his administration, led by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, has generally taken a hardline stance against marijuana and other drugs, Trump urged Congress to pass the Right to Try Act in his State of the Union Address this year.   

On Thursday, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government approved a bill for 2019 funding that includes a provision barring the District of Columbia from expanding its implementation of recreational marijuana legalization. D.C. voters passed a recreational cannabis law in 2014, though it has since been hampered by congressional efforts to prevent the implementation of a regulated, taxed recreational cannabis market in the capital. Congress has used D.C.’s status as a non-state district reliant on federal funding to prevent the allocation of District funds – which are determined by Congress – to implement recreational marijuana.  

California:  

On May 18, the state of California released an updated set of regulations for the state’s new recreational cannabis industry, which has been operating under a set of emergency rules since November. The new regulations largely leave the prior rules intact while making some modifications to provide further clarity and address concerns raised by marijuana businesses. Under the new rules, recreational and medical marijuana businesses will continue to be allowed to use the same growers and distributors, rather than having separate supply chains for each. The dollar value of cannabis products that delivery drivers may carry will be increased from $3,000 to $10,000, and drivers will only be allowed to carry the amount of product ordered in advance and stocked at a physical location prior to delivery. Some regulations were also eased to help smaller marijuana businesses.  

North Carolina: 

Last week, a bill was introduced in the North Carolina House that would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. If enacted, the legislation would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to four ounces of cannabis. Possession of more than four ounces would be a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by a fine and no more than 120 days in jail. Those previously convicted of an offense made legal by the measure could have their records expunged. The bill now faces committee review and approval.

4 Easy Ways To Grind Your Marijuana Without A Grinder

Maria Loreto
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4 Easy Ways To Grind Your Marijuana Without A Grinder

We’ve all been there. You’ve bought your rolling paper and your favorite strain of marijuana, but you’ve lost your grinder and can’t find anything that’ll cut your cannabis without making a mess of everything. You start to pick apart the bud with your fingers and it’s messy, your hands are sticky, green and smelly, and the end result is much more disappointing than you expected.

RELATED: 13 Rappers Who Are Dominating The Cannabis Industry

While a grinder is always the best way to go, here are 4 simple ways to grind your weed with common items that should be laying around your house:

Pill Bottle And A Penny

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Grab a penny and clean it thoroughly. Then put your marijuana inside a pill bottle (try to separate some pieces of the bud beforehand) and put the penny in. Cover the lid and shake it for a couple of minutes. The penny will grind it up very neatly, and you won’t have to clean up after yourself; the pill bottle will hold all the little bits of cannabis in the same spot

Knife And Cutting Board

https://giphy.com/gifs/emibob-chef-chopping-cut-zsRviQEWP9SHm

This method works really well if you’re good with a knife, and it’ll have your marijuana ready very quickly. The cutting board will also allow for you to move your cannabis easily to wherever you’re planning on packing it. Be sure to clean your cutting board and knife thoroughly afterwards.

Coffee Grinder

https://giphy.com/gifs/coffee-national-day-HrXCqcxboDuTe

While it’ll be super hard to clean afterwards, this method grinds your cannabis very finely and evenly, making it the perfect companion for cooking and making edibles.

Scissors And A Shot Glass

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Scissors are perfect for cutting but without the shot glass, pieces of marijuana will jump everywhere and will be hard to retrieve. By placing the marijuana on the shot glass and cutting it carefully, you’ll be able to retrieve it with more ease. It‘s one of the slower methods on this list, but these two items are the easiest to find in any house.

Silicon Valley’s Latest Weed Venture: Marijuana Tupperware Parties

Brendan Bures
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Silicon Valley’s Latest Weed Venture: Marijuana Tupperware Parties

Silicon Valley is always trying to re-invent the wheel and expect you to be surprised the wheel exists. Or that wheels were even a “thing” in the first place. Not a criticism, just a statement of fact. Find me a Silicon Valley idea that doesn’t sample from the past, recontextualize existing ideas and package them into a more serviceable product. Uber is a perfect example of this—a homebrewed taxi service, but ordered from your smartphone—and yet I use 10,000 percent more taxis through Uber than I did prior to its existence.

I bring this up because it represents an idea brought up by Sima Sistani, who is a hot commodity in Silicon Valley currently. Sistani is the co-founder and CEO of HouseParty, the popular video group chat service beloved by teens. (Seriously ask your nephew about HouseParty, they love that shit.) Sistani was a guest on The Verge’s brand-new podcast Converge, where she discussed various topics like being a parent in the social media era, and her past career. But Sistani’s concept to venture into the cannabis world was what peaked our ears.

“My big idea is Stella and Dot for Pot,” she told Converge host Casey Newton.

Sistani’s idea revolves around introducing cannabis covertly into homes where stigmas may be still be associated with the plant. In other words, homes like her own, as Sistani admits to being a straight arrow on the straight and arrow.

“I feel like that [marijuana] has the stigma, and the way to take the stigma away is remove the dealer. Right? Have the hostess. You bring her, it’s like a Tupperware party. You can invite her over, except the Tupperware has brownies in it,” she said.

For those that don’t know what Stella and Dot are (like myself), Sistani explained the concept while also explicating her own.

Via The Verge:

[Stella and Dot is] basically a retailer, but the idea is along the lines of Mary Kay or Avon, where you invite somebody to your house, they host a party on your behalf, and your guests can walk away with buying some beautiful jewelry. And, in the same way, I think that people should be able to come over and maybe, I don’t know, partake in some chocolate-covered espresso beans that are micro-dosed with marijuana. I’ve brought up the idea a couple of times in mixed company in Menlo Park, and I get some odd [looks]. … A couple people who love it, a couple people who are wondering why I’m allowed to have children.

But I really think that if you applied that same business model, that you could bring something to the masses in a safe way. And, frankly, you don’t wake up with a hangover, and it’s just as good of a nightcap as a glass of wine. So, why not?

There you have it: Re-packaging something old into a modernized product and service. Not a bad Silicon Valley idea, all around it. Sign us up.

These Pro Boxers Are Using CBD For Performance Enhancement And Recovery

Brendan Bures
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These Pro Boxers Are Using CBD For Performance Enhancement And Recovery

We know the medicinal benefits of CBD. They are manifold and the reason why professional athletes from fighters to football players have embraced the drug, even if that means doing so on the down-low. Cannabinoids have the ability to relieve pain, act as an anti-inflammatory, and decrease injuries. Now these pro boxers are using CBD for performance enhancement and recovery.

Following the World Anti-Doping Agency removing CBD from the banned substances list, professional boxers have discovered how CBD can benefit the body. Two US boxers have openly discussed using CBD in their training regimen. One is 20-year-old lightweight Teofimo Lopez, who is a Honduran-American boxer on the rise. He’s also become an advocate for athletes using CBD in recovery and earned himself a sponsorship from Green Roads Athletics. He will feature the company’s logo on his gear and apparel for the remainder of 2018.

RELATED: Counting On Health: 7 Incredible Benefits Of THC

Via World Boxing News:

Lopez continues to use CBD to enhance his training and for quick recovery times. Like many other athletes, Lopez uses CBD pain relief cream on the skin, for quick absorption into the muscles. He also uses oral CBD oil for more holistic relief.

Natural remedies are proving extremely popular in all walks of life. Lopez wants to educate other boxers and elite athletes about the benefits he has found in using CBD. He says it can shorten recovery times, clear the mind and help with pain.

On the opposite side of the spectrum is Shannon Briggs. The 46-year-old veteran has seen it all in the boxing world and will soon launch a line of CBD products through his ChampRX business venture. Briggs revealed that CBD helped him battle depression and assist with recovery times in a recent interview.

I’ve suffered from depression since I was a kid. I’ve battled with it on and off throughout my life,” Briggs told UPI.

RELATED: NFL Denies Player’s Request To Use Medical Marijuana

“I was prescribed Cerritos … Xanax, Zoloft. They ballooned me up to 400 pounds. I wanted to kill myself, but fortunately this plant saved my life. Why is it not being sold to the world? Big pharma must be involved. We gotta stop this. We gotta come together and save lives.”

“CBD changed my life,” he added.

Mitch McConnell Is On Board With Descheduling Hemp

Mary Schumacher
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Mitch McConnell Is On Board With Descheduling Hemp

Before hemp was prohibited, along with cannabis via the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, it was mandatory for farmers to grow the crop. It is speculated that hemp’s ability to make paper, fiber, plastics and even fuel was a major reason for it being banned. Now, hemp is well on its way to making a comeback, and one of its most influential champions is Mitch McConnell.

It seems that hemp is one of the most bipartasan issues at hand, with parties on both sides of the isle agreeing that hemp should be descheduled at the federal level. And it just may. The idea is included in the upcoming Federal Farm Bill. Descheduling hemp would open the doors to farmers who are yet nervous about its Schedule I status to grow the crop, which is primarily an import to the U.S. at this point.

Growing hemp domestically wouldn’t just provide farmers the chance to prosper, it would be a step in the green revolution’s direction. In time and with the right equipment and foresight, hemp could replace the need to cut down acres upon acres of trees for paper and building materials. Like Gerald Ford once envisioned, we could make cars from hemp and even airplanes. The possibilities are literally endless with this diverse and useful crop.

McConnell’s state of Kentucky has a long history with hemp, which was once its main cash crop. McConnell has been a longtime advocate for descheduling hemp, but with provisions in place. This is the basic gist of what hemp reform looks like through McConnell colored glasses:

Hemp will be removed from the government list of controlled substances. Hemp will be regulated from state to state. Hemp researchers will be able to apply for federal grants, which would be enormous for the hemp CBD industry as well. Hemp farmers will be able to apply for crop insurance.

It is yet unclear if all of the above will be included in the final version of the Bill, but what is clear is that McConnell’s support would make all the difference and would likely mean that all of the above would be included. This would be a major step forward for the United States agricultural landscape and would mean the world to farmers who are currently struggling to make ends meet.

How Legalizing Marijuana Is Good For the Environment

Brendan Bures
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How Legalizing Marijuana Is Good For the Environment

Often when we discuss motivations behind cannabis legalization, we discuss medicinal benefits for humans. We talk about marijuana as an alternative to alcohol (recreationally) or destructive opioids (medicinally). We list how marijuana can reduce seizures in epileptic patients help veterans manage PTSD symptoms. I haven’t mentioned cancer or chronic pain, but you get the point by now.

However, what impact could growing marijuana legally have on the environment? As cannabis remains a Schedule I drug, it encourages those in non-legal states to grow marijuana illegally in covered forests, mountains, or closed off in greenhouses. These underground farmers use enormous amounts of energy to run lights and regulate proper temperatures to grow their crops. Ushering marijuana growers into the light would allow them to embrace more eco-friendly practices, like green energy on solar farms.

Related: 8 Things Everyone Gets Wrong About Marijuana’s CBD

We’ve already seen this impact occur in Colorado. In 2015, Boulder County established rules that licensed growers must use 100 percent renewable, sustainable energy in cultivation. Those who cannot comply due to space or financial reasons, must pay into an energy offset fund, with part of those funds going toward educating growers on how to adopt energy reductive practices. States can adopt similar practices when collecting taxes from marijuana sales, setting aside part of the revenue for eco-focused or conservation projects.

But we also must discuss the dangerous side effects of cannabis prohibition. Because when government officials find illegal grows, they destroy the crops. And they aren’t shy about it either.

Via Environmental Magazine:

Law enforcement officers tend to be a little bit overzealous when it comes to the destruction of illegal marijuana crops. They spray the plants and the land that nourished them with harsh herbicides like glyphosate — which, in addition to killing the marijuana plants and scorching the surrounding earth, is also a dangerous endocrine and hormone disruptor.

[…]

Cannabis might be classified as a weed, but you wouldn’t kill your entire garden and then salt the earth just to get rid of a few weeds. Plus, stopping the use of these chemicals keeps them from being picked up in rainwater runoff and ending up in our rivers and lakes.

Perhaps the biggest reason to legalize marijuana from environment standpoint, though, is hemp production. By most accounts, hemp is one of the most versatile crops available, but it’s been illegal to grow stateside, thanks to the Controlled Substances Act in 1970. Though hemp products have flooded the market, including hemp-derived CBD oils, that hemp all arrives from international origins. Hemp is also a great rotation crop, as it grows quickly, and de-toxifies the soil. It also breaks down post-harvest to fill the soil with further nutrients.

Related: Hemp, Hemp, Hooray! How Hemp Can Save The Planet

While using cannabis as a medicine might be at the forefront of the legalization conversation, its boost to the environment shouldn’t be dismissed.

Couples Who Eat This Food Have More Sex, According To Study

Amy Hansen
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Couples Who Eat This Food Have More Sex, According To Study

If you’re trying to get pregnant, listen up. Little swimmers thrive on little swimmers. A new study finds that couples who eat seafood more than twice a week have a better chance of conceiving. Oh, and they also have more sex. Coincidence?

The study, published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, tracked the diets of 500 couples (in Michigan in Texas) over the course of a year.

By the end of the study, nearly all (92 percent) couples who ate more than two portions of seafood a week had gotten pregnant. That’s compared to 79 percent of those couples who ate less seafood. (And, yes, those couples who got knocked up were trying to get pregnant before the study began.)

Not only did the couples who ate a lot of seafood get pregnant more quickly than those who did not (note: the seafood source was not accounted for), they also reported having more sex. And because scientists can’t assume the two are connected, they are chalking it up to seafood, which they believe may boost fertility in some other roundabout way. And extra serving of omega-3, anyone?

“The original reason why shellfish such as oysters were linked to increased libido was due to their high zinc content,” the study’s co-author, Audrey Gaskins, Sc.D, explained to The Daily Meal. “However, given that we did not measure zinc intake in our study and zinc is found in many other foods other than seafood, we felt uncomfortable making this link.”

She also said seafood may not be entirely responsibly for a quick pregnancy, telling The Daily Meal, “It is also possible that couples who consume higher amounts of seafood together share more meals and thus more time together (including nights), which may be a behavioral explanation for the association we observed with sexual activity.”

[h/t New Scientist]

Why The Cannabis Industry Needs Friends Like John Boehner

Mike Adams
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Why The Cannabis Industry Needs Friends Like John Boehner

The one time Capitol Hill carnivore and staunch opponent of marijuana legalization is responsible for keeping a number of pot-related bills from getting any considering in the halls of the lower chamber. But now that he has no official position in Congress, his attitude has changed. Former Republican House Speaker John Boehner announced last month that he has seen the light and now wants to do his part to bring the cannabis plant out of the depths of federal prohibition.

But Boehner’s motives seem to be more financially driven than just some midnight epiphany telling him that legal weed is the right move. The alcoholic-eyed Republican has joined the advisory board of the cannabis firm Acreage Holding, along with former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld. In a joint statement, the two said, “we both believe the time has come for serious consideration of a shift in federal marijuana policy.”

Of course, Boehner’s change of tune has prompted the cannabis community, the same one that was fully prepared to publically flog him not so long ago, to embrace its new friend.

A number of states have legalized the leaf for medicinal and recreational use, but the movement is not showing any signs of a slow down. There are a number of legalization attempts being made this year in part of the United States that are expected to pass without issue. This is because the majority of Americans now support the legalization of marijuana more than ever before. Some of the latest polls show 70 percent of the population believes that pot should be taxed and regulated in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco.

But, regardless of the strong public support for legalization, marijuana simply doesn’t have enough clout in Congress to go big. But a man like Boehner in the cannabis corner doesn’t hurt.

There are a number of marijuana-related measures lingering in Congress right now just waiting for lawmakers to give two flying squirts. Senator Cory Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act, which was introduced last year, is still collecting dust. More recently, Senator Chuck Schumer has said that he will submit a bill aimed at ending marijuana prohibition.

But all of this submitting and filing means nothing without the pressure (or incentive) to take action. Perhaps this is where Boehner might be able to do some damage on the cannabis industry’s behalf. He understands that “while the Tenth Amendment has allowed much to occur at the state level, there are still many negative implications of the Federal policy to schedule cannabis as a Class 1 drug.”

Even if Boehner’s influence on the Republicans doesn’t bring about significant change in the near future, some lawmakers are confident that a Democratic takeover on Capitol Hill in the next election could be enough to forge ahead to nationwide legalization by 2021.

“I made a bet that within five years, every state will be able to treat cannabis like alcohol and there will be universal access to medical marijuana,” said U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer. “If we do our job, it’s game over in two years.”

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