Gentrification is big business, and while social scientists disagree as to its impact on longtime residents, many of those residents resent the changing character and higher rents of their “new” community. Worried that gentrification is headed your way? Here are five signs that it might be time to start embracing a new living environment—or looking for a new place to live.
In 2014, global energy drink sales reached $50 billion, and energy drinks are quickly gaining on coffee as the most popular caffeinated kick in the United States. But unlike coffee, which is generally consumed slowly, energy drinks are consumed more quickly. They’re also marketed to teens, and often mixed with alcohol—a perfect storm for a risk to public health.
Since 2013, buttocks implants have more than doubled and buttock lifts have gone up over 40%. This might be at least partially explained by the popularity of stars like Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian, Niki Minaj, and Beyoncé, whose curvier body types are consistently plastered across magazine covers and ogled online. Whatever is driving the interest, it’s clear butts are big right now, both figuratively and literally. But are “gluteal enhancement” operations safe?
As fall moves into full bluster, we look back on the summer months with wistful fondness. But there are some aspects we’ll not miss: the summer of 2015 was defined by a remarkably high amount of disturbing news for those of us who eat food.
Flakka. K2. Spice. Bizarro. Scooby Snax. Molly. Trainwreck. Krokodil. 2C. N-bomb. Smiles. Cloud 9. Mojo. There are so many synthetic recreational drugs on the street right now that the media are having a difficult time deciding which one to sensationalize next. The EU’s drug agency reported in 2015 that there were at least 101 new legal highs, known as new psychoactive substances (NPS) by policymakers, available online or at the local headshop. The report adds to the more than 450 substances already on the watch list. The situation is no different in the United States, where the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has identified between 200 and 300 new designer drugs from eight different structural classes, the vast majority of which are manufactured in China.
Once upon a time, if you couldn’t pay a debt, you would find yourself passing the days in a debtors’ prison—or even auctioned off to a life of indentured servitude. A lot of men and women of renown found themselves serving time in jail for failing to pay debt, including several heroes of the American Revolution. This was one of the factors leading to the abolition of debtors’ prisons in the United States by the 1830s. But in recent years, there has been a resurgence in jail sentences involving everything from unpaid traffic tickets to child support and credit card debt. Should you be worried?
Recent years have seen the industry of exotic dancing flush with lawsuits against international nude cabaret franchises and small clubs alike. Activist dancers in many cities have not only endeavored to organize their peers in litigation against shady bosses, they are working to influence and change labor laws at the state level.
Remember that whole “slippery slope” argument that was used to argue against gay marriage? The one in which opponents of the idea claimed that allowing gays to marry would open the door to legalizing polygamous marriages? Well, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling that gay marriage is legal in all 50 states, Nathan Collier of Montana is trying just that, using marriage equality as a way to justify his application for a second marriage license.
In August, a group of women who all belong to the same book club were enjoying themselves and laughing as the Napa Valley Wine Train rumbled across California’s wine country. But revelry of a certain amplitude is intolerable on this train, apparently, and so they were asked to quiet down. When they failed to do so, they were marched through numerous cars to waiting police officers who escorted them onto buses heading home. One of them was in her eighties. And all but one of the 11 women were black.
Gun control is hard, but taxes are easy. That appears to be the rationale behind new gun laws recently passed in Seattle, Washington; in August, the city council there unanimously approved legislation consisting of two ordinances, one dealing with mandatory reporting of stolen guns, and the other, more controversial law imposing taxes on the sale of guns and ammunition.