Ephrat Livni

The philosopher Jean Baudrillard posited in the 1970s that modernity ended when we became obsessed with life simulations, like television. He called the new period “postmodernity,” a time of the hyper-real—when imitations seem more real than reality—and predicted the distinction between fact and fiction would blur until it was gone. Today, the philosopher’s predictions seem to have materialized.

More than half of US states—28—have legalized medical marijuana. Sixty percent of Americans support legalization, according to an October 2016 Gallup poll—including 42% of Republicans. Some of these cannabis supporters live in conservative states, and some are even in their state’s legislature, supporting marijuana reform measures.

Communication is critical in most professions, but in some, clear verbal exchanges can mean the difference between life and death. Soldiers in the US Army stationed abroad, for example, must convey and understand information in languages other than English, but don’t always have access to interpreters to help them communicate.

Cities are crowded, and the more active and attractive the locale, the more difficult it is for working inhabitants to find affordable dwellings. Throughout history, this has led to odd arrangements—spaces shared with strangers, holing up in hovels.

About 20,000 years ago, deep in the caves of Lascaux, France, paleolithic people painted animals on the walls with spit, fat, and twigs. The paintings were discovered in 1940 and they’ve since contributed to our understanding of humanity.

Even though Donald Trump is married to an immigrant, his inauguration as US president has many of America’s transplants on edge. Now some Silicon Valley locales are enacting measures to combat that anxiety. 

Americans love stuff. Their passion for acquisition is so intense that even anti-consumerism manifests in materials—talks, tv shows, books, blogs, and documentaries—promoting minimalism.

Tim Moxey has got—you guessed it—lots of moxie. The 43-year-old Dartmouth MBA from the UK has worked in investment banking in London, helped found a New Zealand wetsuit company, and now runs a successful cannabis edibles company in the US called Botanica Seattle.

Technology has brought a lot of people into our lives from all over the world. So what we don’t need are more personalities, at least not in the form of machines. In fact, talking bots make people mad, product designers have found.

We’ve got choices when it comes to dining. Maybe too many. In many cities internationally, you can order pretty much any dish you want from anywhere in the world, and have it delivered in an hour. This overwhelming variety might explain the rising popularity of hyper-focused restaurants.

The next time someone tells you to watch your language, feel free to tell them to fuck off.

Writers are mildly delusional. They have to be, to abracadabra a story into existence and then hope, against all odds and evidence, that it actually gets read.

The English language’s global domination seems inevitable. Just last month, for example, the German car company Volkswagen switched its official tongue to English, and a new study revealed that reliance on English is skewing scientific research.

International treaties require nations to respect one another’s dignity, and Japan says South Korea isn’t holding up its end of the bargain. The Japanese government this week temporarily withdrew two of its envoys from South Korea after the latter failed to remove a “comfort woman” statue erected by a civic group in Busan.

Coco Chanel, a smoker, made pockets popular in women’s clothing last century. She created the compartments for her cigarettes.

“If you have a passion—any passion—we need advocates and allies. If you’re a baker, we need bakers. If you’re a lawyer, we need lawyers. Anyone who has empathy for people who need weed, and is driven, is welcome in the marijuana industry,” says Lisa Harun, co-founder of Vapium, a Canadian cannabis vape-maker. “There’s still so much opportunity.”

Data is great. Our ability to collect metrics on human activity gives us insight into patterns of behavior and that allows us to adjust our strategies accordingly. But our dependence on analytics can be misplaced. Or at least that’s what a Florida librarian says.

Spaces, neat or messy, influence how we feel. So tidying up has become popular as a practical path to happiness. You can’t ensure you’ll fall in love or find a great job, but you can definitely throw stuff out and scrub down surfaces.

A lot of New Year’s resolutions are aimed at springing into action—whether the goal is losing weight, finding love or moving to a new city. But my main priority now is learning to be still. And the Chinese concept of wu wei—strategic non-action—has helped me do just that.

While marijuana is increasingly recognized for its medicinal and therapeutic effects, prescribing the drug—”take two hits and call me in the morning”—has long been a tricky proposition for doctors.

Nearly 80 years ago, in May 1937, the German government, under the control of Adolf Hitler, started a car company in the city of Wolfsburg. The goal was to create an affordable vehicle for regular folks—for about $140—and the company was called Volkswagen.

People speak over 6,500 languages worldwide. Some are known to only a very few while others are spoken by billions. One is dominating.

It’s impossible not to notice what the neighbors are doing when you’re as close as Mexico and California. Over the past two decades, the latter has increasingly embraced marijuana legalization, from the authorization of medical pot in 1996 to a vote last month that legalized marijuana for recreational use. Now Mexico is starting to follow suit.

It’s a crowded world and anyone who wants to be heard has to be a storyteller. This is just as true for climate scientists as it is for Kanye West.