(The Hill) The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday announced it had temporarily suspended its ban on sales of the popular e-cigarette maker Juul.

On July 5, 2022, FDA administratively stayed the marketing denial order, the agencys Tobacco division wrote in a tweet. The agency has determined that there are scientific issues unique to the JUUL application that warrant additional review.

This administrative stay temporarily suspends the marketing denial order during the additional review but does not rescind it, the agency said in its Twitter thread.

All electronic nicotine delivery systems, or ENDS products, including those made by JUUL, are required by law to have FDA authorization to be legally marketed, the agency concluded. The stay and the agencys review does not constitute authorization to market, sell, or ship JUUL products.

The health agency also said that the company is allowed to market its products in the U.S. for the time being.

Two weeks earlier, the health agency banned the sale of the e-cigarette maker, saying that the company did not prove to them that keeping their product on the market is the best for the protection of public health.

In a statement, FDA commissioner Robert Califf said that Juul has played a major role in the rise of vaping among U.S. youth.

Todays action is further progress on the FDAs commitment to ensuring that all e-cigarette and electronic nicotine delivery system products currently being marketed to consumers meet our public health standards, Califf said in his statement.

A federal appeals court a day later temporarily blocked the FDA ban on Juul, granting the e-cigarette makers request for a stay order, noting that its order will not reflect its ruling on the case.

View original post here:

FDA temporarily suspends order banning sales of Juul | FOX 2

Shadow Fury Dmg

+300 (+310 with Livid Fragments)

+125 (+130 with Livid Fragments)

+30 (+40 with Livid Fragments)

Ability: Shadow FuryRapidly teleports you to up to 5 enemies within 12 blocks, rooting each of them and allowing you to hit them.

SHADOW_FURY

The Shadow Fury is a rare drop from the Bedrock Chest in The Catacombs - Floor V. It costs 15Mcoins to open. Like all dungeon items, it has a chance to be Recombobulated or Starred when received from a Chest.

The Shadow Fury is a melee weapon. Players must complete The Catacombs - Floor V to be able to use this weapon.

Its ability teleports the player behind up to 5 enemies within 12 blocks in rapid succession. Upon teleporting, the target is stunned and dealt melee Damage. This continues to work even when the Shadow Fury is not held and doing so will change the damage of the hit according to what weapon you are currently holding. The ability has a 15-second cooldown and does not cost Mana.

It can be salvaged for 50 Wither Essence.

It can be upgraded with Livid Fragments to provide an additional +10 Speed, +10 Damage and +5 Strength.

This weapon can be upgraded using Wither Essence.

See the original post here:

Shadow Fury - Hypixel SkyBlock Wiki

Good Thursday morning!

Colleen ODea and John Reitmeyer recently reported that the Union County and Middlesex County improvement authorities each got $20 million in funding in the budget. Im sure youre aware of where Senate President Nick Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin live.

The previously-unreported detail I can add here is that the law firm co-founded by Coughlin one of the few politicians who has a real hand in crafting the budget is general counsel for both of those authorities. In 2021 it was paid about $360,000 from the Middlesex one and $407,000 from the Union County one.

Coughlins law firm started up five years ago, just as it became clear that he was in line to be speaker. Since then, its public sector billings have increased every year, from $1.8 million in 2017 to $6.6 million today. I suppose with that amount of public work its inevitable youll have situations like this, where the firms getting money from public entities that one of the firms named partners had a major hand in funding. I doubt this is the only public entity they represent that got money in the budget.

But at the very least, one could argue that this has the appearance of a conflict.

Speaker Coughlin is proud to have sponsored this years $50 billion budget, which included investments that will benefit millions of New Jerseyans and hundreds of localities throughout our state, Assembly Democratic spokesperson Gina Wilder said in a statement. The Speaker routinely confers with counsel for any potential ethical questions, and we are confident there are no conflicts in this year's budget.

It might be a tough sell politically to raise lawmakers salaries, but a full-time Legislature where members arent allowed to hold other jobs is one way to avoid this type of thing.

DAYS SINCE MURPHY REFUSED TO SAY WHETHER HIS WIFES NON-PROFIT SHOULD DISCLOSE DONORS: 142

WHERES MURPHY? Italy

QUOTE OF THE DAY #1: I am not a conspiracy theorist, but nonetheless the coincidence of errors seems to be statistically impossible. Based upon the nature of this matter, I believe there is something rotten in Denmark. Attorney Michael Hanafan, who represents Sussex County GOP commissioner candidate Bill Hayden in a defamation lawsuit against county Democrats, in a letter to judge William McGovern III.

QUOTE OF THE DAY #2: I cannot ignore Mr. Hanifans misquotation of Marcellus famous line, Something is rotten in the State of Denmark,' Plaintiffs counsels letter reminds me of a more appropriate line, also from Hamlet. Specifically, The lady doth protest too much, methinks, as stated by Queen Gertrude in Act 3, Scene 2. Attorney Christine Stripp in a response letter to McGovern

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Assemblymember Brian Bergen, Mercurys Mo Butler, Washington Posts Naomi Nix. Saturday for Ocean Dems Ken Bank, NJBACs Melanie Willoughby, Bergen Countys Christian Sforza, former Rep. Scott Garrett. Sunday for POLITICOs John Appezzatto, Plainsboro Committeeman David Bander, WSJs Heather Haddon, Porzios Beau Huch, 12th District staffer Synnove Bakke, friend Margaret Morgan, former assemblymember Jack Conners

TIPS? FEEDBACK? HATE MAIL? Email me at [emailprotected]

A message from Rise Light & Power:

The Clear Choice for NJ Clean EnergyWhat would advance New Jersey as a national leader in the fight against climate change and repurpose a decades-old brownfield? Transforming the site of a former coal plant into a gateway for offshore wind with strong community support. Thats the Outerbridge Renewable Connector, anextension cordconnecting clean offshore wind energy toNew Jerseys powergrid.

BOAT CHECKS STILL FLOATING New Jersey municipalities wasting 'many millions' on improper sick leave payouts, watchdog group says, by POLITICOs Carly Sitrin: New Jersey municipalities have wasted and are continuing to waste many millions of taxpayer dollars on improper sick leave payouts to public employees, according to a damning new report from the state comptroller's office. Of the 60 municipalities, the Office of the State Comptroller investigated, 57 of them, or 95 percent, are currently violating or have policies that will violate state laws that were enacted to protect taxpayers from wasteful and abusive sick leave payments

Investigators found examples of sick leave payments being permitted annually instead of just at retirement, municipalities simply not imposing the mandated $15,000 cap on sick leave payments, and policies and contracts that blatantly disregarded the states sick leave reform laws instituted in 2007 and expanded in 2010. While the report does not offer an accounting of how much money is estimated to have been wasted, the investigators cite the borough of Palisades Park in Bergen County as one example. According to the report, the local business administrator there collected unlawful sick leave payouts of nearly $10,000 in 2018 and 2019 and was entitled to a $360,000 payout when he retired including $160,000 in unlawful sick and vacation leave payouts. Thats just for one employee in one municipality, but Walsh said there are potentially hundreds if not thousands of similar examples across the state.

FAIR LABOR JUST TOO MUCH TO ASK Newark Airport deal for $432M Amazon air hub collapses, by The Records Daniel Munoz: Amazon and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have walked away from a controversial $432 million air freight hub proposed for Newark Liberty International Airport. Without specifying what led to the breakdown, the Port Authority, which owns the airport, announced in an emailed statement Thursday that the two sides were parting ways after almost a year of talks. Unfortunately, the Port Authority and Amazon have been unable to reach an agreement on final lease terms and mutually concluded that further negotiations will not resolve the outstanding issues, Port Authority Chief Operating Officer Huntley Lawrence said in the statement [S]ome labor groups and environmental advocates have been sharply critical of the deal, citing what they call Amazon's poor record on worker safety and warning of increased pollution for nearby neighborhoods. After the Port Authority's June board meeting, board Chairman Kevin OToole told reporters that the agency was pushing for guarantees of fair labor practices at the hub, but did not elaborate further. Its not clear what role these conditions played in the deal collapsing.

THE GUNDEN STATE Gun owners sue to overturn N.J.s assault weapons ban, by New Jersey Monitors Dana DiFilippo: A group representing over a million New Jersey gun owners has sued New Jersey law enforcement officials in federal court to overturn the states ban on semiautomatic firearms and assault weapons. The Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs Inc. filed the complaint Friday, a day after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Maryland to reconsider a similar ban there in light of its ruling declaring a constitutional right to carry handguns in public. Scott Bach, who heads the association, hopes the Maryland remand means New Jerseys 32-year-old ban will fall too like its justifiable need requirement did after the U.S. Supreme Court last month relied on the Second Amendment to overturn a concealed carry regulation in New York. Weve been waiting decades for this moment, Bach said.

N.J. gun laws face new legal challenges after Supreme Court strikes down concealed carry law

Justice Barry Albin the common sense jurist steps down from N.J. Supreme Court

Legislators want non-disparagement provisions barred in discrimination cases

DeCroce ready to run again

N.J. is now an abortion safe haven for those from other states. Heres what that means

Opinion: New Jersey can play a pivotal role in providing abortions for women in other states

Medical marijuana is now tax-free for New Jersey patients

NO SLEEP IN BEDMINSTER Anti-Trump group uses cable ads to tweak ex-president staying at his N.J. golf club, by NJ Advance Medias Jonathan D. Salant: Residents living in and around Bedminster will begin seeing an ad proclaiming how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has stolen Donald Trumps thunder. The ad is aimed at one person: the former president. Weve got this thing we call the audience of one, basically getting into Trumps head, said Rick Wilson, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump Republican group. The ads will run on Fox News and the Golf Channel while Trump is spending the warmer months at his Bedminster golf club

Sen. Booker among lawmakers calling on Biden to end federal ban on cannabis

Picatinny Arsenal's contamination may be larger than previously known, report shows

A message from Rise Light & Power:

POWER HOARDING DISORDER? George Gilmore wins race for Ocean GOP Chairman by 7 votes, by New Jersey Globes George Christopher and David Wildstein: George Gilmore will return to the helm of the states most powerful Republican organization, winning back his job as Ocean County Republican Chairman by seven votes, 330 to 323, a 50.5%-49.5% margin against Sheriff Michael Mastronardy. Gilmore had sought return to the post he held from 1996 to 2019 before a conviction on federal tax-related charges triggered his resignation. Frank B. Holman III, who succeeded Gilmore in 2019, endorsed Mastronardy, along with all five county commissioners and the Ocean Republican legislative delegation. Gilmore received a pardon from President Donald Trump before he served any jail time and has since become a thorn in the side of the Ocean County Republican establishment, backing challengers to local Republican incumbents and fundraising for a rival Republican organization.

IN UNRELATED NEWS, IM SUDDENLY FEELING VERY SPIRITUAL Lawsuit may slow vacant church in Hunterdon becoming marijuana farm, by MyCentralJerseys Mike Deak: A lawsuit has been filed alleging that the Hunterdon County Health Department's approval of a septic system for a proposed marijuana cultivation facility was invalid because a report on the system made "false representations." The suit, filed by WoodMeier Farms on Rock Road West, also names Green Medicine NJ and GMNJ Properties, which want to convert a vacant church at the intersection of Rock Road West and Route 518 into the cultivation facility. The lawsuit, filed June 30 in Superior Court in Hunterdon County, comes as the township's Planning Board has scheduled a special meeting for 7 p.m. July 14 at South Hunterdon High School to continue a public hearing on the plan for the facility, which has drawn vocal community opposition

FERRY FOLLIES N.J. ferry war moves to court after NY Waterway sues to keep running Shore service, by NJ Advance Medias Larry Higgs: NY Waterway filed a lawsuit this week against Monmouth County and a rival ferry company that was recently awarded a lucrative contract for a route to New York as the fight over the lucrative commuter service from the Jersey Shore escalated. Named in the suit filed Wednesday were the Monmouth County Board of Commissioners, the county and SeaStreak LLC, which awarded the contract last month for the Belford-to-New York ferry service. NY Waterway has run that route since 1999 from a county-owned ferry terminal in the Belford section of Middletown.The suit seeks a temporary court order blocking the county from implementing the contract awarded to SeaStreak on June 21 by the board of commissioners.

POLITICAL MUSCHAL Muschal, facing censure, called on to resign over ex-Trenton police directors claims, by The Trentonians Isaac Avilucea: In the twilight of his career in public service, South Ward Councilman George Muschal faces calls from political rivals to resign over allegations that he used his power and influence as an elected official to interfere with the management of Trenton Police. The retired Trenton cop, who has been under attack for weeks, is also accused of wielding his position to obtain courtesy from cops who responded last summer to a neighbors residence for an alleged break-in, according to the resolution sponsored by West Ward Councilwoman Robin Vaughn The resolution says its in the best interests of Trentonians for Muschal to step aside. He has been in office since 2009, when he won a special election to fill the unexpired term of Jim Costin, who resigned for a pastoral position in Waco, Texas. Muschal was not available for a phone interview Thursday afternoon, ahead of the impending vote. However, his wife, Theresa, had choice words for Council President Kathy McBride and Vaughn, promising an explosive showdown at the meeting.

@IsaacAvilucea: Muschal censure fails in a 3-3 tie.

Clark Township agrees to pay $825K to settle two lawsuits against embattled police department

Massive [West Windsor] warehouse project approved but faces more scrutiny

New Jersey gives Long Branch $500K to prevent pop-up parties

Are South Jersey inmates being shipped to Hudson County?

Zisa wins re-election in a 2-1 blowout

Hoboken Yard, municipal budget and 20-mph speed limit all approved by Hoboken City Council

Hoboken council allows HCIA to consider acquiring Poggi Press site for municipal complex

TIRED: COMPLAINING THAT TWITTER IS SHADOW BANNING YOU. WIRED: TRYING TO GET LIBRARIANS ARRESTED FOR BOOKS With rising book bans, librarians have come under attack, by The New York Times Elizabeth A. Harris And Alexandra Alter: Martha Hickson, a high school librarian in Annandale, N.J., heard last fall that some parents were going to call for her library to ban certain books A parent stood up and denounced two books, Lawn Boy and Gender Queer, calling them pornographic. Both books, award winners with L.G.B.T.Q. characters and frank depictions of sex, have been challenged around the country and were available at the North Hunterdon High School library. Then the woman called out Ms. Hickson, who is the librarian there, by name, for allowing her 16-year-old son to check out the books. This amounts to an effort to groom our kids to make them more willing to participate in the heinous acts described in these books, said the parent, Gina DeLusant, according to a video recording of the meeting. It grooms them to accept the inappropriate advances of an adult. Ms. Hicksons district in New Jersey, a complaint was made to the Clinton Township Police Department about obscene materials in a library book. The Hunterdon County Prosecutors Office said none of the information it received indicated criminal conduct

GEORGE III POISED TO TAKE OVER REPUBLIC Appeals court backs Republic rebels, clears new board majority to take over bank, by The Philadelphia Inquirers Joseph N. DiStefano: Investors in Republic First Bancorp Inc. who oppose chief executive Vernon Hills expansion plans on Wednesday cheered an appeals court ruling that favored a rival board faction led by Hills predecessor, Harry Madonna, in a fight for control of the 33-branch, Philadelphia-based bank. The decision by a three-judge Third Circuit federal appeals court panel in Philadelphia overturns Judge Paul Diamonds actions, which had kept Hill in power with the support of just two other directors on the seven-member board and called for an appointed custodian to set up elections that could settle a board fight between the two groups Madonna supporters include Cooper Health chairman, insurance executive and Democratic Party leader George Norcross, a leader of a group that owns nearly 10% of the bank, and Greg Braca, a former TD Bank executive and potential Hill replacement.

NJ home schooling spikes sharply amid COVID-19 pandemic

Former N.J. priest indicted for sexual assault dies by suicide after shooting 3, killing 1 in Ecuador

Dog rescued after swimming more than a mile into Raritan Bay during firework display

'I'll probably break down and cry.' Moving Wall memorial arrives in Randolph

A message from Rise Light & Power:

The Outerbridge Renewable Connector (Outerbridge) a proposal before the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities would enable the state to harness offshore wind energy by repurposing an abandoned brownfield, revitalizing an industrial-zoned waterfront, and supporting the local and state economy without impacting our beaches.

Outerbridge, proposed by Rise Light & Power, would be an underground electrical transmission project functioning as an extension cord and connecting energy generated by offshore wind farms to New Jerseys power grid. Outerbridge would support New Jerseys economic growth and resilience strategy. It is projected to deliver clean energy to 1.4 million homes and generate more than $1 billion in economic activity.

The project would minimize community disruption, protect environmentally sensitive areas and repurpose the past to power the future. Outerbridge would play a key role addressing the health and economic dangers of climate change while protecting the Jersey Shore we know and love.

More:

Coughlicts of interest?- POLITICO - POLITICO

from the yeah,-like-that-will-work dept

It truly is incredible just how much of a moral panic the media and politicians have created around social media. Once again, the actual research is basically inconclusive that social media is bad. If it were truly awful, it should be showing up in the data, but for the most part its not. At all. As weve noted, so much of the blame targeting social media are people completely overreacting to social media shining a light on activity that has basically always been happening, and now rather than dealing with the underlying causes, people want to attack the messenger for revealing the behavior.

Weve also noted that it appears that some people have issues with social media, but for many, many others its quite helpful. But little research has been done to figure out why a small percentage of people have trouble with it. Instead, the media often just hypes up the bad stuff. Weve pointed it out a few times already, but last year, when the WSJ reported on internal research leaked by Frances Haugen, they focused on the report noting that Instagram made teens feel bad about themselves but left out that the research actually showed it made many more feel better about themselves.

It would be good to investigate why some percentage felt worse about themselves, of course, and to see if there were ways to minimize that impact. But the rush to blame all social media as bad for all teenagers is just without a basis.

And yet policy folks are taking this moral panic to new, and even more ridiculous heights. The Texas Public Policy Foundations tech policy fellow, Zach Whiting, has suggested that Texas should ban all social media for teenagers. This makes me wonder if Whiting has, you know, ever actually met a teenager.

Enacting a minor social media ban in Texas is not a novel concept. Two prominent commentators recently wrote articles on asocial media age limitand aban on minors. It is clear our consumer protection laws need to be enhanced to better protect minors online, hold accountable the companies that fail to do so, and punish those who harm or attempt to harm minors online.

A state-driven social media ban on minors is the most effective way to protect kids from the harms of social media. Anything short accepts the premise that social media is not that bad. Itisthat bad.

Ill note that Whiting brags about how he got rid of all his social media accounts, and like the temperance prudes of a century ago, he seems so insecure with himself that he cant just accept that he doesnt want social media himself he needs to take it away from all teens as well.

Of course, there are many problems with the unfathomably stupid idea.

First, as noted above, for the vast majority of teenagers, the evidence seems to suggest that social media is neutral or actually beneficial. Banning it for all kids actually does more harm to many teens.

Second, anyone who has any experience with teenagers at all knows this kind of thing wont work. Already, under federal law (COPPA), most social media websites ban children under the age of 13. And yet, even for kids that young, many websites are useful. So the end result is that parents help their kids lie to get around the blocks, teaching children that lying is okay and not to respect silly, poorly reasoned laws.

Third, the kids themselves will find ways around this. Teens communicate. Its what they do. When I was a kid, it was via notes and telephones, and we even cooked up elaborate codes and tricks to be able to communicate by phone even when our parents didnt want us to. Teenagers want to communicate, and theyll find lots of other ways around these bans. A few years ago, there was an article about how kids who had social media banned in school had basically fashioned a shadow social media system using the chat feature in Google docs.

The point is that kids (teens especially) will find a way to do this. Ban Instagram for them, and you just know that within days someone will have hacked together a way to replicate Instagram without it being Instagram.

This is nonsense prohibition to do what? To stop kids from talking to each other.

Its a silly moral panic, based on nothing by apparently adults own insecurities about teenagers actually being able to communicate.

And of course, Texas politicians were apparently quick to embrace this fundamentally ridiculous idea. State Rep. Jared Patterson is already promising to introduce just such a law, meaning that in Texas, as a teenager you may be forced to give birth to a child but forbidden from posting about it on social media. Land of freedom?

Filed Under: moral panic, social media, teenagers, texas, zach whiting

Read more:

The Moral Panic Is Spreading: Think Tank Proposes Banning Teens From Social Media; Texas Rep Promises To Intro Bill - Techdirt

My name is OpTic HECZ and I had the honor of joining the cannabis industry by way of professional esports and building brands on the internet. Big shout out to my boy Jon Cappetta for inviting me to be a contributor to WEIRDOS and to share reflections from my journey.I know you all will be absolutely shocked to learn that there has always been a vibrant cannabis culture behind the scenes of gaming and esports, so my goal when joining the cannabis industry was to take the lessons I learned building OpTic Gaming and introduce them to a plant I love and traditional cannabis culture I feel naturally connect to.

Esports and cannabis cultures were both born on the edges of society and were still battling stigmas despite growing into multi-billion dollar global industries. While gamers never had to face the War on Drugs, many of us took huge personal risks and made extreme sacrifices to help build esports into what it is today. My wife and family were dangerously supportive when I left my corporate job in early 2009 to focus on becoming a full-time YouTube content creator, and after a year of telling them that this is going to work out, my first check was a hilarious 16 cents from monetizing Call of Duty montage videos. I may not have lived in tent on a hill in Humboldt County, but you better believe that back in June 2013 when we launched the first OpTic House, my wife and I were called crazy when we told our family that we would be moving to her parents basement to allow the players to move in to our current home and make one of the first YouTube content houses a reality.

Despite the risks and labels, cannabis OGs know the important lesson that the diehard esports community learned through our commitment: its what we did and stood for when everyone thought we were weirdos, before all the corporate investors rushed in, that will forever resonate in our respective cultures.

For esports, 6050 Russell Drive showed the world that OpTic Gaming, operating out of a cul-de-sac in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, could have a larger social media presence then all of Chicagos historic sports franchises aside from the great Chicago Bulls (and thats only because they had GOD in uniform during the 90s). That revelation drove many billionaire owners from traditional sports to quickly buy esports teamswe were one of the lucky teams that were paired up with incredible investors, but many other investors came into our industry with as much respect for the culture that made OpTic and esports popular as Chad has for growing and selling good weed.

So I came to cannabis knowing what its like to create something from a place of passion and I have seen firsthand the interests of big money trying to get their piece of something new. In 2017, an ownership group made me an offer I couldnt refuse and I was happy to sell OpTic in hopes of expediting our growth as an elite professional esports franchise. But then things happened, people happened and business happened and I ultimately decided to buy back OpTic in 2020. The journey that led me to buying back OpTic taught me a very important lesson relevant to the cannabis industry today: when you put your heart and soul into something, the authentic relationship that you develop with supporters building that brand can never truly be bought or sold.

As Ive gotten the opportunity to meet creators from across the cannabis industry, the biggest challenge I see facing the traditional culture today isnt the federal regulatory status, or even high taxes, its the digital suppression happening on social, video, and streaming platforms that is preventing cannabis creators from organically growing like they should. Ive experienced firsthand that a dedicated online audience is the most powerful asset you can have, and if cannabis growers, breeders and extractors could distribute their content like OpTic Gaming, then I know customers and fans will have the greatest impact on the future of this industry as opposed to politicians and corporate investors.

To Facebook, Google, Amazon, TikTok: I am incredibly grateful for the opportunities your platforms have given me, and the people around me, but its time to end the digital war on cannabis. Sure, the federal government cant get its act together to provide you rules for managing cannabis regulations today, but conflict with the federal government hasnt stopped you before, and besides, no one will notice if you just start treating cannabis like alcohol on your platforms the cannabis community promises they wont tell the feds!

To OG cannabis operators: esports has taught me that people will support the creators who authentically share their lives, process, and passion. Being the best at what you do isnt good enough anymore, you have to share content. If you have good content and you build a community, there is no amount of money or marketing campaign from a big corporation that can compete with a relationship with your fans. Make no mistake, its an absolute grind to build an audience. I shot, edited, and uploaded a vlog every single day for 2 years and still continue to do so regularly. The ones who do the hard work to build their online audiences can thrive as long as the internet exists. Thats what were all going for, right? Creating brands that are around forever?

To cannabis lovers and fans: make it your mission to support your favorite cannabis creators and brands online and go the extra mile to share their content and push the algorithms against the suppression and shadow banning. We have the ability to make sure traditional cannabis culture flourishes digitally but we all need to work together to ensure the best people are surfaced and that takes effort by the global digital cannabis community.

I want to give a special shout out to the cannabis content creators out there that have overcome all the odds and built massive communities around their video contentcreators like Erick Khan, Dope as Yola and Goblin have battled the algorithms with authentic content and its incredible to think about how their audiences and influence will grow when the digital war on cannabis ends. Yola can literally see on his dashboard showing the revenue he has generated but wont ever receive. End this madness!

I also want to acknowledge a number of cannabis creators who have been digitally incarcerated or deplatformed and were forced to rebuild their audiences in the process, including Adam Ill, StrainCentral and Silenced Hippie. As a cannabis and creator community, we need to do everything we can to help overcome the injustices that have been passed out to good people entertaining audiences about a plant they love. At Pine Park, our YouTube channel will always be a home for creators from across the industry that deserve more digital exposure or a jump start to building their audience. Never hesitate to reach out to me or our team about ways we can work together to ensure that traditional cannabis culture and creators survive and thrive online.

See the original post here:

Cannabis in the Esports Community - High Times

This is a Guest Post by myfriend and colleague Logan Zeppieri. Loganholds an MA in Philosophy from Talbot School of Theology, a BA inPhilosophy of Science and is a current graduate student in Clinical Psychology. His work includes political andbusiness research, pastoral training, animation, and essay contributions to several publications like theClaremont Institutes, The American Mind.

In response to overturning Roe v. Wade, there have been more nuanced responses than perhaps Oxfords Bodelian library could catalog. But as the social media snow globe begins to settle, there has been one response among certain academic circles which I believe warrants a reconsiderationin-part because it is profoundly correct, in-part because it naturally squares with conservative inclinations, but most importantly because it has the potential to implode our own advances in social policy.

The response goes something like this. First, and of course foremost, overturning Roe v. Wade undid a ruling that was an affront to the fundamental principles of the American republic, found in the doctrine of substantive due process, and a denial of the fundamental laws of human nature, found in the purported constitutional right to kill children. And second, while not at the forefront of the discussion, but illustrative of conservative inclinations towards pessimism, is the admittance that this is merely a legal and not cultural victory. There has been no real change to the hearts and souls of the American people. Children will still be born out of wedlock; abortions will still become legal in many states (perhaps even more aggressively so); and family values will remain under attack from almost every media and academic outlet. There may have been a great legal victory, but there was no cultural victory, and, therefore, no real victory.

For whatever reason, conservatives always fail to see the importance of cultural symbols and the effects that can ripple through a society from their public destruction. Of course, a SCOTUS ruling will not save us from our sins. Of course, returning the question of abortion back to the states may effect little real change in the hearts and souls of the American people, today. But is this merely a SCOTUS ruling? Is this merely returning a question of abortion back to the states? Ask any sitting Democrat or any radical feminist and the answer will be a resounding, No!

If it is from the House Chamber or from behind the silver screen, Dobbs has been declared an act of war against the radical reimagination of the human condition and the constitution of human rights. Conservatives must see the obvious, if not take the leftists at their word. Dobbs is not merely a SCOTUS ruling or merely returning the question of the abortion back to the states. This ruling overturns a cultural symbol of radical leftwing ideology. So while the profane march against every decent and respectable institution has not been stoppednot even slowed downit has been shown that their march is neither immutable nor inevitable; it has been shown that, even if by a pin prick, leftwing ideology can bleed.

And this is the danger of the undercurrent of conservative pessimism. It has the tendency to inoculate their adherence against real excitement and real joy. This lack-luster self-degradation amidst triumph is something that leftists have failed to enforce upon conservatives for almost fifty years, but which conservatives impose upon themselves almost every day.

For the first time in almost fifty years the Left is now banging on our doors, screaming for our courage to answer the call of every social plight. How will we ensure that a father doesnt abandon the mother? How do we ensure that pregnant women receive the care they need? How will we take care of the children? How will the children in orphanages and foster care be adopted?

Whether by hook or by crook, the left has aligned for us the new constellation of conservative social values, a beachhead into moral reform. The conservative answer: Reinforce a new cultural expectation that sex does not come before marriage. Reinstate the constraints of monogamous marriage. Connect pregnant women to the vast networks of crisis and pregnancy centers. And, especially, begin forcing massive overhauls of our decrepit and dying foster system. Put plainly, let us not allow a crisis of theLeft go to waste and their social indictments fall on deaf ears.

But where must we begin? We must begin where the entire abortion debate started, the only place capable of bearing the burden of such moral regard for human personsthe church, that institution which guides and forms the moral character of our nation. A reformation of the church must begin. We must start by purging the immoral pastorate.

Every priest and every pastor who either bent the knee to Black Lives Matter or raised their first against the protection of the unborn child should be pulled from their pulpits, stripped of their authority, and offered one of two paths forward: to beg for forgiveness from their congregation or be exiled from the church. For those who cannot be held accountable, allowing their congregation to perish beneath the shadow of the pulpit, must be held accountable by those faithful churchesdeclaring the wolves in sheeps clothing illegitimate upon moral grounds, stemming from theological commitments to the equality of all persons by divine right of the created order.

Be courageous, ignore the haters. Leftists influencers will froth at the mouth over taking away womens rights, about introducing a religious theocracy, and that we are threatening the very foundations of democracy. They will use every indecent and immoral accusation from within their own indecent and immoral framework.

But if we took a critical lens to our modern society, who has allowed men to dominate in womens sports, allowed men into womens bathrooms? Who has reintroduced the social inquisition through their own elaborate system of faith-practice, public rites of atonement, shadow-banning, and hate crimes? And who leveraged the administrative state through the entire pandemic to shut down the economy, override the legislatures powers, strip the citizens the right to work, and drown-out the voices of the people and their businesses? They may profess that saving the lives of children and promoting the welfare of the family will destroy society at its core, but when we examine the real and present dangers, Leftism has done far more damage to far more people in a single generation than any child-loving, family- building, faithful Christian has ever done in the history of the West.

The fight against slavery began and was completed in the churchs profession that all have been created equal. And, likewise, the fight against abortion has begun and must be completed in the churchs profession that all have been created equal.

See the original post:

Overturned: Roe v. Wade And The Conservative Beachhead - Patheos

For much of its history, Wimbledon has displayed, and at times taken pride in, its lack of political engagement. The lack of a distinct worldview had become a worldview on its own; its old-time charm and appeal meant to be a distraction from all that is wrong with the world. This is perhaps what made it all the more surprising when the All England Club made its position clear by banning Russian and Belarusian players in the wake of Russias invasion of Ukraine. And come Saturday, they may be put in yet another difficult position.

Kazakhstans Elena Rybakina, who was born in Russia and still resides in Moscow, will take on Tunisias Ons Jabeur in the womens singles summit clash on Saturday. Rybakina is part of a string of players, including the likes of Alexander Bublik and Yulia Putintseva, to have migrated from Russia to Kazakhstan, whose tennis federation offered packages including stipends and access to top training facilities to promising players.

The 23-year-old, who identified as Russian up until 2018, comes into the match with a swarm of support from her former country. Lets congratulate the Royal Family, they will have to congratulate someone from Russia, former Russian tennis player Andrei Chesnokov was quoted as saying by Reuters. Russian-born star storms into Wimbledon final, declared Russia Today, a state-controlled media outlet, after Rybakinas semifinal win over Simona Halep. Shamil Tarpischev, president of the Russian tennis federation, congratulated her and cherished the prospect of our product playing the big final.

In a sport where competitors are not representing their countries or any institution as much as they are representing themselves, Rybakina, who narrowly missed out on a medal for Kazakhstan at the Tokyo Olympics, has asserted she is just revelling in the opportunity to play for a Grand Slam title.

What does it mean for you to feel? Im playing tennis, so for me, Im enjoying my time here. I feel for the players who couldnt come here, but Im just enjoying playing here on the biggest stage, enjoying my time and trying to do my best, she replied when asked if she felt Russian in her heart.

No matter what her stance is, the prospect of handing the prestigious Venus Rosewater Dish to a player Russia has announced to be their own will put Wimbledon in a difficult spot. And perhaps more quietly in the background, her opponents nationality may play just as dominant a role in the narrative of the result.

The minister of happiness

Ons Jabeur has become fondly known in her home country as the Minister of Happiness. The ever-smiling Jabeur is as charismatic on the court as she is seen to be kind off it. After her semifinal win against Germanys Tatjana Maria, once the customary handshakes were done, Jabeur pulled Maria by the hand and brought her to the centre of Centre Court to receive the praise from the crowd that her fairytale run at SW19 deserved. It was a gesture that won tennis fans hearts all over the world.

Last year, Jabeur became the first Arab and first African to crack the top 10 of the world rankings. Following her win on Thursday, she became the first Arab woman since 1968 to reach the final of a Major. Perhaps also due to her nationality, her breakthrough year on tour is now getting the recognition it merits. She has now reached the final of five of her last seven events, and become the World No. 2. In the shadow of Iga Swiatek who is the only player to have won more matches than her in 2022 she was one of the favourites to lift the title at the grass Major this year.

At Centre Court on Saturday, the Tunisian not only has the opportunity to cement her place at the summit of the game, but also to give visibility to a nation and region that few have given before her.

The matchup

Despite the duos nationalities dominating the buildup, the matchup between their contrasting styles could make for an entertaining final. If Rybakina sets the tempo, her timing and power are hard to cope with. But if there is a player who can disrupt her tempo, in the form that she is in, it has to be Jabeur.

On her day, not a single player on the womens tour can match the power of Rybakinas big-hitting game. Her groundstrokes are hit with great force, and if given the time from the baseline, she races into big leads by hitting through her opponent with ease.

Rybakina has, however, struggled with consistency. Her massive game can begin to leak unforced errors when her rhythm is disrupted, which is where Jabeurs versatility and dynamism could come into play. The Tunisians all-court game is largely aided by her movement, which allows her to glide across the grass and construct points at her own pace. It also allows her to put more balls back into court, and create highlight reel-worthy winners from impossible angles.

The match is also a classic case of serve vs return. Rybakinas powerful serve is a force to cope with (51% of her first serves have been unreturned at the event so far). Jabeur, on the other hand, while putting up solid serving numbers herself, has returned in greater volume and with more accuracy than any other player at the Championships.

No matter what the result, Centre Court is set for a highly watchable and perhaps controversial spectacle on Saturday

The rest is here:

Kazakhstan, Tunisia, and even Russia will have fingers crossed as Rybakina-Jabeur showdown highlights Wimbledon final - The Indian Express

Something weird went down for me on Twitter this week and Im not sure if its because of Dori Monson Show listeners or me.

While I was on a short vacation a few days ago, I tried unplugging as much as possible. That meant only occasional checks on my email. Cursory reads on news sites. A text or two to my daughters. Face-to-face talking to my wife.

Elon Musk to buy Twitter for $44B and take it private

Imagine my surprise when I looked at Twitter Monday night and found my account popping faster than Rice Krispies in milk.

Even though I have seriously cut back from tweeting and post only occasionally now, I was fortunate to have about 19,800 followers as of last Sunday one day before Elon Musks reported $44 billion takeover of Twitter took news sites by storm.

By mid-day Friday, I had 21,231 followers. Admittedly, Im no techno-wizard but I have to admit: this was crazy.

It took 12 years to get 19,000 Twitter followers. It took just three days to get 1,500 more.

My numbers were small in comparison. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gained 205,695 followers between Monday and Wednesday. Podcaster Joe Rogan tallied an almost 135,000 bump.

Was it as Twitter had been denying for at least two years because of shadow-banning an algorithm practice that social media giants denied was occurring?

Whether you call it shadow-banning, stealth banning or ghost banning, was this an example of a behemoth social media company restricting the reach of a users account? Or was it limiting potential followers their opportunity to follow conservative Twitter users that the far left didnt like?

And if so, was it Twitter banning me? Or banning my listeners from having you as followers?

Some in the media are digging into the possibility that Twitter employees were liberal gatekeepers who on their way out the door before Musk took over removed barriers to conservative users. Why? To deny that barriers existed in the first place.

Me? Im just happy to have freedom of speech on the radio with open-minded people who agree and disagree.

Maybe now that will return to Twitter.

Listen to Dori Monson weekday afternoons from noon 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to thepodcast here.

Read the original post:

Dori: Was Twitter shadow-banning you or me? - MyNorthwest.com

Additionally, many traditional methods for maintaining relative anonymity on the internet are likely to begin to evaporate. Consider that institutions subject to the Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which requires libraries and schools to block access to content that may be harmful to minors, will have to decide whether to allow public access to abortion information.

Mass surveillance is so normalized that the basic ways we function in the world ultimately help these technologies become more sophisticated. If you are seeking, providing, or facilitating an abortion, you can take practical measures to secure your digital footprint: perform risk assessments, communicate via Signal and enable disappearing messages, use a VPN on your smartphone and computer, use DuckDuckGo instead of Google, acquaint yourself with existing surveillance technologies like traffic cams, facial recognition, and data scrapping, enable two-factor authorization, log out of all your accounts (yes, even when using an incognito browser), only connect to Wi-Fi in public places that dont require you to authenticate yourself, move money out of third-party apps immediately (and eat the transfer fee), use cash or prepaid cards when you can. Do as much organizing offline as possible.

If you organize publicly, post nothing that could be used to dox you. Some precautions Ive taken for my own safety as a sex worker include withholding my birthday, age, ethnic background, hometown, current city, former cities, commute, alma maters, graduation years, time zone, weather, current employers, past employers, even my favorite color. When I post photos, I photoshop out my face and tattoos, and I never reveal my natural hair. If I post a screenshot, I crop out any time stamps.

I know this sounds paranoid. These precautions seem excessive; the algorithms seem dystopian. But the oppression these technologies reproduce is insidious and ubiquitous, and those seeking to surveil us have been refining the tools to do so for a very long time. This is exactly why sex workers are preyed upon first: because those in power know nobody will listen to us until youve already googled two weeks late for period.

When I begin to wonder why people behave the way they do, I answer the query with a question: Whats seven minus yellow? Unanswerable and, more importantly, irrelevant. I cant deduce others motives, and even if I could, their motives do not matter when it comes to the effects of their actions. To ruminate on this is, at best, a waste of time, and in the wake of Roe, hemming and hawing over the justices intents is the equivalent of bringing a feather to a knife fight.

That said, we can dissect these decisions and try to divine how this legislation will impact us. The first step is to abandon any lingering trust you may have in the integrity of the state.

Neither the intent nor effect of FOSTA or Dobbs is to eradicate sex work or abortions, which have existed for millennia and will continue to exist regardless of legality. Remember: these measures arent about the law; theyre about power. Such laws slowly and systemically exclude certain demographics from participation in society by codifying what cultural biases already enforce. Consequently, while some people will face arrest, and many more will live the nightmare of carrying an unwanted or unviable pregnancy to term, the widest-reaching effects of this legislation will be the chilling of free speech and the systemic deplatforming of abortion activists from social media and financial institutions, which will protect themselves from liability at our expense.

The bad-faith arguments that structure these laws become much more apparent when read for what they are: propaganda. FOSTA, for instance, focuses primarily on fighting the sexual exploitation of children. Sex work and human trafficking, rather than existing together under the umbrella of the sex trade, are diametrically opposed. The dangerous rhetoric conflating thema linkage that makes about as much sense as comparing a Hershey Park employee to an enslaved cocoa farmermeans that violence against us gets perceived and excused as protecting children from traffickers.

Likewise, the pro-life rhetoric that enabled the Dobbs decision focuses on protecting, in this case, hypothetical children from death. Echoing FOSTA, Alito claims that Dobbs is intended to protect the potential life of embryos and fetuses, even at the expense of the mothers existing life. Intent aside, the result is that many more fetusesas well as the people carrying themwill die.

Sex workers can offer valuable insights into this fight and those likely to follow, but our voices have been suppressed. Hopefully tech workers will practice what they preach and start listening to sex workers, but if not: Well, thats by design. In the words of Bardot Smith: Whores told you.

Excerpt from:

Are You Ready to Be Surveilled Like a Sex Worker? - WIRED

Elon Musk may want out of his deal with Twitter, but he has some ideas about how to run the bird app, and they involve layoffs, subscriptions, and a sarcasm button. Musk turned up on Thursday for a video chat with Twitter employees, and the employees promptly leaked its contents to reporters including my Verge colleague Alex Heath and The New York Times Mike Isaac, who ran a liveblog of the event while it was happening. An apparent digression about aliens notwithstanding, the meetings results were fairly predictable but illuminating for anybody whos spent too much time obsessing over ominous phrases like authenticate all humans in the past few months.

Subscribe to The Verge's limited-run newsletter occasionally revived when there's Too Much Elon News. (And right now, there is Too Much Elon News.)

In Thursdays meeting, Musk had the energy of a rich MMORPG fan who buys a studio so he can implement his totally rad spell and weapon designs while beleaguered game designers worry about the day-to-day operations of their jobs. (In fairness to rich gamers, when this once literally happened, at least the devs werent imploring their new boss to stop trash-talking them in public.) Twitter employees asked repeatedly about whether theyll be able to work from home, getting a pledge from Musk that exceptional workers can remain remote. In less positive developments, Musk reiterated hints that Twitter will cut jobs to become profitable. That plan sits alongside tactics like upselling Twitter users on subscriptions and adding TikTok-style algorithmic recommendations, plus your average internet-company mainstays like payment processing.

Playing Twitter technoking might be more fun than dealing with the rest of Musks business empire this week. Teslas cars are getting more expensive (along with everything else) and employees are getting laid off. His lawyers are still seeking a sympathetic court for his years-long tweet-fueled battle with the SEC, and theyll probably bill Musk a few more hours to handle a crypto buyers long-shot lawsuit accusing him of Dogecoin racketeering. The FAA is asking SpaceX to make a round of changes in its Texas launch site, while SpaceX employees are circulating an open letter asking Musk to, for Gods sake, stop tweeting. SpaceX has reportedly responded by firing at least five of them, a move reminiscent of some retaliation that got him in legal hot water back at Tesla.

At Twitter, Musk still has no responsibilities. He told employees that he wants to drive the product in a particular direction in the long term, but hes not hung up on titles and doesnt really care about being CEO. For now, he can just dial in on his crappy hotel Wi-Fi and riff on potential new features like an irony label that indicates whether tweets are serious or not. But the more Musk talks about what hed change, the more contradictory his vision gets.

As funny as I find the concept of an irony button, its a classic type of addition to the service: something users hacked together a solution for years ago, integrated into the formal interface. (/srs!) But Musk also seems to be simply throwing ideas at the wall and walking them back when questioned, with no clear vision beyond get a billion users and become wildly profitable, a far cry from his early calls for unfettered speech. Hes willing to casually propose plans that would upend how Twitter works, but when pressed, he retreats into positions the company has effectively held for years.

Take the aforementioned authentication of all humans, something Musk promoted as a way to fight spambots. Verifying that each Twitter user represents a real person would likely be disruptive and erode anonymity, a feature pre-Musk Twitter has fought to preserve. Possibly for that reason, Musk scaled the idea back in Thursdays meeting, discussing a possible Twitter Blue authentication service where people would pay to prove theyre a human and have their allegedly more trustworthy tweets prioritized. The thing is, Twitter already prioritizes things like replies based on account credibility. And if youre concerned about freedom of speech, theres a real tradeoff to massively prioritizing users based on their ability to pay. So Musks proposal will either involve slightly tweaking something Twitter already does, or it will seriously compromise ordinary non-billionaire users ability to speak.

Musk drew a similarly well-trodden distinction between freedom of speech and freedom of reach on Thursday. I think people should be allowed to say pretty outrageous things that are within the bounds of the law, but then that doesnt get amplified, it doesnt get, you know, a ton of reach, he said. We have to strike this balance of allowing people to say what they want to say but also make people comfortable on Twitter, or they simply wont use it. The speech / reach division has been a common talking point for years among platform executives, and reducing sketchy contents visibility is standard operating procedure for Facebook and Twitter itself. Its a core piece of the vision for Bluesky, the open-source Twitter offshoot that predates Musk, and more time-tested decentralized platforms like Mastodon have grappled with the complications of the principle.

Its also a supremely ironic thing for Musk to call for because Musk has complained repeatedly about Twitter restricting the reach of content, particularly his content. In April, he was speculating about a shadow ban council suppressing a tweet insulting Bill Gates, and shadowbanning is the purest expression of limiting reach: you can see your pretty outrageous tweet, but other people dont have to. Musk has suggested that its different if the limits are transparent, so Twitter can solve any problems by making its recommendation algorithms open source and letting people examine them. As Will Knight at Wired has explained, this is a red herring. There are real benefits to opening up social networks algorithmic black boxes, but it almost certainly wont tell the average person whether their Bill Gates looks like a pregnant man tweet should organically have more faves.

Musk has, for lack of a better term, a commitment to a particular free speech aesthetic. He likes provocative trolling and portrays himself as part of a common-sense straight-talking middle of American politics, stating in Thursdays meeting that he is the center of the normal distribution of political views in the country. (Its true that he has his political bases with both parties covered, but he also recently tweeted support for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis a stridently far-from-centrist Republican becoming president.) He frequently describes his support for speaking within the bounds of the law, repeating the phrase at least three times in the Q&A.

When confronted with the many problems that stated commitment poses, though, Musk sounds like any other risk-averse social network operator. If anything, he seems unusually interested in shaping what gets seen on Twitter. Per Recodes meeting transcript, one of his big-picture goals is for Twitter to offer a more socially conscious version of TikToks powerful recommendation algorithm, pushing interesting and informative tweets to users (Ive lightly edited the quote for a bit more, uh, clarity):

Its important to make Twitter as attractive as possible. And really, that means not showing people content that they would find hateful or offensive, or even frankly content they would find boring is not good. We dont even want them to see boring content. Unless we were talking about TikTok last night. And TikTok obviously does a great job of making sure youre not bored.

[...]

You know, TikTok is interesting, but, like, you want to be informed about serious issues as well. And I think Twitter, in terms of serious issues, can be a lot better for informing people about serious issues. I do think its important that if there are two sides to an issue, its important to represent multiple opinions. But you know, and just make sure that were not sort of driving narrative. Therell be give people an opportunity to understand the various sides of issues.

TikTok is a fascinating case study on the line between moderation and invasive censorship. It has almost completely escaped accusations of political bias, even during that weird period where Trump wanted to ban it from the country possibly because the people who shape free speech discourse dont congregate there much. But far from not driving narrative, its algorithm has produced a bizarre emergent vocabulary thanks to soft bans on words like suicide and has changed the way a generation speaks. Algospeak is everywhere. Its the kind of system that should prompt deep consideration of social networks power.

Instead, Musk seems as confident as ever in his power to dictate apolitical and neutral moderation assuming he ever actually gets to wield the banhammer.

See the article here:

This Week in Elon: smashing the irony button - The Verge