Luxury Weed 🍁
This Week in Review☕️ :Celebs endorsing Cannabis skyrocket | Spooky Season Mania takes over | Amazon Store opens in the UK | The first Malaria vaccine gets approval | Get paid to move out of your home
Celebrity 🍁 : Justin Bieber, unashamedly, unabashedly, unreservedly smokes weed. The pop star's love of marijuana is a staple of his lyrics:
"I got my peaches out in Georgia, I get my weed from California,” sings Justin Bieber on “Peaches,” the 5th single from his latest album Justice.
The singer is now using his mega-hit song to step into the cannabis industry.
The pop singer is teaming up with US cannabis specialist Palms to roll out a "high-end line" of ready-made joints.
Gotta say it- What. a. fine. Christian. man.
“I’m a fan of Palms and how they are helping to destigmatize it- especially for the many people who find it helpful for their mental health.”
“Weed was something that I felt people tried to make me feel bad for enjoying,” Bieber tells Vogue.
Imagine how pissed the people in jail for minuscule weed crimes are when this kid slaps his brand on $65 for 3g 🙈
Entering the marijuana business has been a home run for celebrities. As we self-medicate with weed, celebs and influencers are minting money, one "midnight munchie" meltdown at a time:
💡Jay-Z: Joint partner in 'Parent Co.', which sells branded cannabis products
💡Martha Stewart: owns a line of CBD gummies
💡Gwyneth Paltrow: involved with THC-drinks maker 'Cann'
💡Snoop Dogg: owns cannabis brand 'Leafs by Snoop'
💡Seth Rogen: co-owner of 'Houseplant'- a cannabis brand. As the Houseplant tagline says, this cannabis is “For people who love weed, by people who love weed.”
Our Thoughts💡: Just shows you can leverage your stardom way beyond your main gig. Our growing suspicion: every celeb will eventually become a VC.
PS. Back in our day, "Peaches" was a woman who wrote obscene songs and ran around the stage wasted in a poly-blend poncho 🙄
Big Tech x Shopping 🛍 : As shopping moved online this pandemic, the face of Amazon Prime addiction has become far less about the bored suburban housewife, and more about anyone who can't help themselves away from that one-click ordering button.
Most of us..ahem🙄 .. know what its like to look for an iPhone charger and come away with a brand new microwave arriving with free 2-day delivery, along with vegan mayo and a bottle of imported Malaysian coconut oil
So, what happens when the company that revolutionized online shopping launches its 1st physical department store?
Amazon opens its 1st non-food store in the UK.
Called 'Amazon 4-star', the retail store will sell Amazon's most popular and best-rated products.
Key Highlights from BBC:
💡Location of the store: Bluewater shopping mall near Dartford
💡The store is called 'Amazon 4-star' because every item has been given more than 4 stars by customers
💡There is a "Most Wished For" section showing the most sought-after products from customers' wish lists
💡Digital price tags to ensure the prices are the same in-store and online
💡Range of products from books and consumer electronics to homeware
Our Thoughts💡: Don't be fooled guys.. this is all about entrapping you even further into Bezos's bubble rather than a novel shift to retail.
On a side note: Amazon Prime Day's around the corner and there'll be deals on sale for meaty savings.
Like Thanksgiving leftovers, you can't enjoy Pumpkin Pie & Turkey-everything bliss forever, so grab em' while you can. There's no knowing how long they'll last..
Health💉 : WHO endorses World's 1st-ever malaria vaccine.
According to the World Health Organization, a child dies from malaria every 2 minutes.
After three decades of work and almost $1bn in investment, "the long-awaited vaccine is a breakthrough for science and child health"
Background💡: Malaria is transmitted through the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito. When this mosquito bites you, the parasite invades and destroys your red blood cells.
Within 2-3 days, these parasites multiply, causing the infected cells to burst open.
The greatest burden of this deadly disease is felt in Africa; more than 260,000 children under the age of 5 die from Malaria annually.
Key Highlights from WHO:
💡The vaccine is called 'RTS,S'
💡This vaccine acts against P. falciparum, the most deadly malaria parasite globally and the most prevalent in Africa
💡Over 800,000 children have received so far
💡Significant reduction (30%) in life-threatening cases
💡Schedule of 4 doses to children from 5 months of age
💡+2.3mn doses have been administered across Ghana, Kenya and Malawi
💡The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation provided catalytic funding for late-stage development fo RTS,S
💡The WHO + international partners including PATH, UNICEF and GSK, are donating upto 10mn doses of the vaccine for the pilot
Our Thoughts💡: Awaiting next weeks news: The GOP recommends use of flea jackets as alternatives to 1st-proven malaria vaccine.
PS. So, what was that malaria shot we got before our trip to Maasai Mara ?!
Culture 🇪🇸 : Spain will pay you to move out of their parents' home.
The government announced plans to offer $290 a month to young adults (18-35 years old) to spend on rent for up to 2 years.
And after the 2 years, they're gonna move back home 👋
Key Highlights from Quartz:
💡Applies to adults who earn less than $27,398 per year
💡Adults in Spain tend to move out around age 30, nearly 4 years later than the EU average
💡This is part of a broader housing plan as Spain's rental market has shrunk in the pandemic
💡Government earlier announced it will invest $1bn in social housing
Our Thoughts💡: That's like..nothing in the US or UK. Our monthly Starbucks macchiato bill might be more. Is 300 bucks significant in España? Really?
How about $1000 a month instead so they actually have something to live on?!
Quicker Bites:
Halloween mania takes over this year with costume ideas from Squid Game to Cruella de Vil.
Adele is Vogue’s November Cover Star.
Sydney gets a taste of freedom after 107 days of lockdown.
Merck asks FDA to authorize antiviral Covid-19 pill for emergency use.
Prince Charles urges Australia’s PM to attend the COP26 climate summit.
Tatyana McFadden comes in 1st, then 2nd in Back-to-Back Chicago and Boston Marathons.
UK to lift quarantine mandate for fully vaccinated travellers entering from India.
Lebanon faces electricity outage after main power pants run out of fuel.
James Bond star Daniel Craig gets Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
Falling Covid-19 cases in Denmark and Norway are due to high vaccination rates.
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