If you smoke a lot of weed, you could be burning a hole in your budget if you live in the wrong state.
BroBible.com has a map that shows the pot prices in all 50 states.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Irish voters will go to the polls on Friday, May 22nd, to decide if the country’s constitution should be changed so that same-sex couples can legally marry. All of the major political parties support a yes vote and opinion polls at the moment forecast a yes victory. Many voters will have their LGBT family and friends in mind when they cast their ballots. I’m confident that my Irish relatives will be among them, but also wonder if at least one yes vote among the family occurred before any of us even realized.
Eleven years ago, my husband phoned his mother in Ireland to tell her about our plans to get married in Toronto. He was more than a little nervous. She had always been quite supportive of our relationship, but it was 2004 and marriage was still a pretty new thing among same-sex couples. The conversation went fine and then she briefly paused and asked again what date we planned on being married.
By way of background, nearly every Sunday since we met more than twenty years ago, my husband phones his mother. There’s a pattern to the calls. They usually start with some discussion of the weather, a catch up on Irish news, and occasionally a little local and family gossip. Eventually, they always get to a weekly rundown of who died, who’s sick, and why.
When his mother asked about our wedding date, my husband momentarily panicked thinking the question may be related to one of those “who died” rundowns. His mind raced trying to remember if some awful thing had happened on May 15 that would cast a pall over our pending nuptials.
She then reminded him that the date was Gogi’s anniversary. Gogi was the name he and his cousins called his beloved grandmother who, it turns out, had passed away on the date that we planned to marry. “Well, you were always a favorite of Gogi’s, so I suppose that means she’ll be looking out for you.”
Gogi’s story is one of family legend. Born in the tiny village of Boleyard in County Mayo, she emigrated to the United States in 1926 and worked as what we would now call a personal assistant for several prominent families in St. Louis. The contrast between her upbringing in rural Ireland and American industrial wealth in the roaring twenties must have been jarring.
In 1932, she traveled to Dublin to attend the Eucharistic Congress. She went home to Mayo for her first visit home in six years, fell in love, and decided to stay. She married, raised a family, and had lots of grandchildren. They loved to hear her tell the stories of her American adventure, the rare Irish emigrant who returned home. Gogi was kind, loving, and just a little exotic.
On our wedding day in Toronto City Hall, we arrived to be greeted by our officiant, Patricia O’Reilly. Patricia was assigned to us by the luck of the draw, or so she said. As she talked through the logistics of the ceremony, she noticed my husband’s accent and asked him where he was from. He told her Washington, DC and she replied, “No, where are you really from?” They talked about his home in Ireland and he asked her the same question. The answer brought a big gulp to our throats. Patricia was born in County Mayo, only a few miles from Boleyard. Maybe Gogi really was looking out for us.
As we celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary and head to Ireland next week to, fingers crossed, also celebrate the first country to approve marriage equality through a national vote, I find myself thinking about Gogi a lot. Her decision to leave the modern comforts of America to return to a much more austere life in rural Ireland in the 1930s showed her to be a person who placed very high value on her love of family and country.
Eleven years ago, in Toronto, that love of family may explain why my husband and I heard her voice so clearly as a supportive witness to our marriage. I like to imagine that, since then, Gogi’s been whispering in a few ears of her beloved family and of her countrymen and women. “Yes, yes, yes.”
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Admit it, you’ve hired marketing people or agencies and fired them with a nasty break-up. It’s ok. There are ‘marketing haters anonymous‘ meetings happening all over the world. Are there things you could have done differently? Absolutely. Here’s why your marketing fails:
1 – You Hired The Wrong Person – Everyone is a ‘marketer’ these days. I’m sure there are 3 ‘marketers’ arguing about Comic Sans Font, why content is king and the importance of social media at the top of Mount Everest. They’d also somehow update their LinkedIn profile with a long-post analysis from there too. The truth is, none of those people may have ever grown a business of any kind. They certainly have no academic or professional background in marketing or certifications to show for it. Usually, they are graphic designers, bloggers or people that have earned a living posting content on Facebook. Look, you are overreaching if you think a digital marketing specialist, graphic designer or social media guru alone is really going to grow your business. Those individuals are specialized in one or two areas (like graphic design or Tweeting), but don’t have any sort of marketing background and haven’t setup something like a process to get leads or opportunities for a business. Believe me, if they had they wouldn’t need a job! You need to really dig deep for the right marketing person. Someone that has a history of growing businesses or setting up an inbound/content marketing process to get leads for a sales team to close on. This person is worth paying good money for. Designers, SEO specialists and copywriters can all come after and are usually a lot cheaper. After all, the architect is what you need…not the contractors, but you hired the wrong person for the wrong job. Stop expecting Aquaman to fight crimes happening in the Sahara.
2 – Incorrect Partnership – Suppose you have the right marketing people (or person) in house. Their value comes from industry knowledge and experience implementing marketing processes for other businesses. But if you task them with blogging, managing Google Ad campaigns, and updating Twitter accounts you’re overpaying for their time. Partner with an agency that your in-house people can throw those sorts of activities at. They’ll be the army your in-house marketing team needs to lead. Remember, marketing agencies can provide the activity cheaper, better and faster than you could if you did it in-house. If your agency costs you more than a team of full-time employees do each month then you’ve got the wrong partnership. Fire them and find one that is more in your price point.
3- No Direction – Give your marketing hires and agency partners a purpose when you hire them. Clearly tell them what will get them rewarded and what will get them fired. Use clear goals. Remember, you’re investing in all of this content, promotion and marketing material for a reason (or at least you should be). Make sure the people responsible for its creation know its purpose and what the ultimate goal behind all the marketing material is. Also, depending on your business, marketing may be responsible for leads or opportunities instead of sales. If it’s responsible for leads then you really need the metrics you evaluate on to be relative. Leads may be a by-product of website visits, special offers people sign up for, whitepaper downloads, ebooks and several other factors. The best executive teams get their marketing resources to focus on the ‘process’ of getting leads and mastering that. It takes time and an investment, but eventually it will pay off. You’re not being realistic if you leave your marketing team in the middle of the ocean with a life-vest and expect them to make it to Hawaii. Give them the time and necessary resources to be successful. The key word being necessary because we all know how much marketing departments love to spend money.
The next time you’re looking for a marketing change invest in the right marketing resource and agency partner. Then, give them a direction and purpose! Those targets will keep you happy…and away from those marketing haters anonymous meetings. Use this toolkit to help you with the proper job description and marketing agency contract to help rebuild your marketing department.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
College students and graduates have been feeling the effects of high student loan interest rates for several years. Lucky for those still in school, Federal student loan interest rates have dropped for the 2015-2016 academic year.
Stafford Loans
Stafford loans are student loans available to any student attending undergraduate or graduate school at least halftime. These student loans are awarded based on financial need for up to $25,000 per year.
Historic rates for federal loans have been as high as 6.8% for undergraduate loans and as high as 8.5% for graduate loans in the last five years.
Parent Plus Loan
Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) enable parents to borrow money for any portion of their child’s tuition that not covered by financial aid. There is not a limit on the amount you can borrow, but your school determines the exact number based on your financial aid package. PLUS loan rates are the same for both undergraduate and graduate students, dropping to 6.84% from 7.21%.
Perkins Loan
Perkins loans are also student loans subsidized by the government and are awarded to those students showing significant financial need. Perkins loan rates will remain the same at 5%.
The new Federal student loan interest rates will be available starting July 1, 2015. The best resource to find out more about you Federal student loan options is Federal Student Aid.
Private Student Loans
Private student loan interest rates are typically higher than federal loans. As most fixed interest rate loans are above federal options, students who need to take out private loans can also get variable rates that are currently being offered below 3%. Citizens Bank also offers a parent loan that is several basis below the federal option.
Want to lower your rate?
Current student loan refinancing interest rates are offered as low as 2%, so if you went to school while federal interest rates were high, do not feel as though you are stuck with these high student loan interest rates.
If you want to learn more about private student loan rates available and what the best option for you is to finance your college education, check out Credible, the leading resource providing personalized private student loan offers from multiple lenders.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
A woman in Tracy, California, is fed up with her neighbor’s parrot, and not just because it barks, meows and makes sounds like a drill. The bird also allegedly squawks a vulgar word that means “whore” in Spanish.
“All day long, the bird is saying that word,” neighbor Jessica Baca told NBC-affiliate KCRA. She told the outlet she’s concerned because her grandchildren started repeating it.
The bird’s owner, Rita Canisales, said she’s only taught the bird English words and thinks it is saying its own name, Rula, rather than the Spanish word, puta. But the owner admitted to KCRA that the bird may be flirtatious toward women.
Baca showed the news station a recording that allegedly captured the bird saying the offensive word. Tracy Animal Services Supervisor Ben Miller told KCRA that they can’t prove the bird is swearing.
“As I don’t have any bilingual staff members, I’m not sure we can confirm that it was cursing,” he said.
So is the bird a bilingual misogynist or just a misunderstood loudmouth? Without an uncensored recording, the jury is still out.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
robyelo357 / Dollar Photo Club
Take out a lottery ticket. Feels good, doesn’t it?
All those possibilities, should you win. Freedom. Possessions. Independence.
Ideas are like lottery tickets. They tempt you with change. And we love them for that. But here’s a question for you: is your idea better than guesswork?
Truth is, the throw random stuff at the wall and hope something sticks method is dangerous and wasteful. It’s akin to playing the lottery. You’re not lean if you just build random stuff and throw it out of the building.
The point is not to build stuff. It’s to test ideas and the underlying guesswork.
Nick Swinmurn, founder of Zappos, had mastered this. Back in 1999, he had a vision to sell a huge variety of shoes online, all immersed in a great experience. Way ahead of his time. So, what did he do? Just go and write code for 6 months, right?
He posted pictures of shoes online. If someone bought any, he’d physically go buy and ship them himself.
There was no warehouse, no sales team, no anything. But he tested his central idea: whether people will buy shoes online. A clear, small idea, tested quickly and cheaply.
Usually though, your idea won’t work. What then? Only one thing for it: you gotta kill it and move on.
Now that’s tough, no question. Even when you know there are great things to discover out there. So why is this hard?
It boils down to one thing: your mind. It’s just as smart as you are. And let’s face it: we love our own ideas. They’re a part of us. Why on Earth would we kill something we love?
Your most treasured ideas call into action so much of your personality, you’re guaranteed to be attached to them. Can’t be avoided.
Think about Webvan, an enormous dot-com era crater. An epic flame-out. With a gigantic total investment of about $800 million, they were wedded to their idea. Sell groceries online, deliver quickly, but most importantly: scale as fast as you can, before you have any evidence of where you’re going. Hit the accelerator so hard you can (hopefully) ram right through the brick wall in front of you.
The result? A mountain of cash up in smoke. Not to mention the emotional pain of a dead vision.
The lesson for us? Don’t test the entire vision, complete with all its complex parts. Test its most important small bits.
Consider Ocado, another web grocer with a similar vision. Did they test it all at once and launch with a ton of infrastructure? No. They started with three people, working in a tiny London office, doing pilot deliveries.
A vision can be powerful, no doubt. But its power must be harnessed. Ingesting all of it, all at once, every day, harms your perception.
“Don’t get high on your own supply.”
– Scarface (1983 film)
Wait though. There’s a second lesson, and it’s profound. Turns out, Webvan may actually have been on to something. Ocado grew into a sizeable player, with a similar business model. Will they become as successful as Webvan was ambitious? Unknown. Yet, something sprung from the ashes.
That’s precisely why it’s critical to let go of bad ideas. You give yourself a chance to discover greater things.
“Don’t let existing knowledge get in the way of exploration.”
– Alexander Osterwalder (and others), Value Proposition Design
When it comes to ideas that don’t work, it’s okay to kill. Because out there, in the space of possibilities, there are always great ideas. Waiting to be discovered. Unbelievable value, just sitting there. But if you hold on to what you already know doesn’t work, it’ll forever stay out of reach.
Go burn that lottery ticket. Let go.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
No irony is more copious than the fact that industrial tycoons ruined the environment in their quest for riches. The result is thousands of bright-eyed, clever college graduates are seeking to begin their careers in green jobs. Job growth and economic opportunity are the subtext of the save the environment movement.
The United States had more than 3.4 million green jobs in 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment was highest in the areas of trade, education and health services , and green job growth outpaced all other industries. The U.S. Conference of Mayors predicts millions of additional green jobs will be added by 2028.
According to the BLS, green jobs are jobs where the worker’s duties make the production process environmentally friendly or jobs which “produce goods or provide services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources.” Jobs in this category include recycling, renewable energy, and nature conservation.
In 2014, Forbes reported that the top four states which added the highest number of green jobs were Arizona, California, Michigan, and Utah. The magazine reports that many of these jobs help the states to comply with the federal requirements in the Clean Power Plan, announced last June, which aims at reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent below 2005 levels in the next 15 years. The solar industry created the bulk of the jobs in clean energy and transportation, and the auto industry led hiring in clean manufacturing, according to the Forbes.
Any company with a large number of employees and a complex physical infrastructure will eventually hire employees to fill green jobs. In the United States, this includes all of the Fortune 1000, 3,304 county governments, 19,431 municipal governments, 16,056 township governments, 13,522 school districts, 35,356 special district governments, 4,100 colleges, dozens of military installations and 50 state governments, according to experience.com.
Finding a job in the clean, green marketplace takes internet savvy and the same skills you would need for any other type of job. Eco-friendly companies still need employees with marketing, accounting, and communications skills, according to AARP. Online resources, such as LinkedIn, Monster, and CareerBuilder, provide databases of jobs nationwide, including green jobs.
An old-fashioned job search might be just as effective for candidates. Send a query letter to the human resources departments of companies on the “Newsweek” green ranking, a list of some of the most environmentally friendly companies in the world. Take time to research green businesses at the library, which may also help candidates to find employment options.
College career centers provide counseling, job listings, and employment referrals. College graduates shouldn’t ignore regular companies in their search for a green job because most businesses are going green, according to mnn.com. However, some jobs are more environmentally specific, such as sustainability officer and renewable energy manager, and may require additional training.
For entrepreneurially-minded graduates, the opportunities available for sustainable businesses are infinite. The U.S. Small Business Administration provides guidance for green businesses, including information about certification, grants, and loans.
Since the green economy is a relatively new phenomenon, candidates with sustainability knowledge and skills can make themselves almost indispensable in the workplace. According to Market Watch, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $500 million for grants in research and training for green jobs. The grants trained workers on green jobs, like solar panel installation and fixing hybrid cars. Though not everyone has agreed that creating green jobs is the most beneficial course of action for the economy, statistics on the number of green jobs created in recent years is undisputed. The development of millions of green jobs appears to correspond with the improving economy.
Employment opportunities for new graduates have increased, as evidenced by the recent decrease in the unemployment rate nationwide. Nowhere is this more apparent than the clean jobs market. A career dedicated to environmental protection brings an employee the satisfaction of being a part of making life on Earth more sustainable, in addition to a paycheck. Our need for seeds of hope that spring forth to create fresh possibilities has never been greater.
— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
Here are the best of today’s deals. Get every great deal every day on Kinja Deals, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to never miss a deal, join us on Kinja Gear to read about great products, and on Kinja Co-Op to help us find the best.
George Lucas isn’t rich beyond a Hutt’s dreams because he was a great director or writer. His vast fortune is a result of his shrewd decision to hold onto the merchandising rights to his space opera many years ago. A new book called A New Proof takes a look at what was involved in bringing the first official Star Wars toys to the film’s rabid fans back in the late 1970s, and how it helped change movie marketing forever.
This is what an internet icon looks like when it’s been turned into potentially lethal street drug.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
