View Episode 276
Originally aired 06.20.11
1:07:27
26:14 – Seth watched the first of the HBO documentary series “Life Happens” about the American-born chess player Bobby Fischer. It was called Bobby Fischer Against the World.
21:13 – TRX Suspension Training – borne in the U.S. by Navy Seals, it’s a revolutionary method of leveraged body weight exercise.
16:10 – Seth asks listener to go to MyFox8.com (Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, N.C.), where you can find new Faces of Meth pictures.
31:36 – Scott’s Miracle-Gro has long sold weed killer, and now they are hoping to help people grow killer weed. In an unlikely move for the head of a major company, Scott’s chief executive Jim Hagedorn said he’s exploring targeting medical marijuana as well as other niches to help boost sales in his lawn and garden company. “I want to target the pot market. There’s no good reason why we haven’t.” Sales at Scott’s rose 5% last year to $2.9 billion, but the Marysville, Ohio company relies on sales at three key retailers – Home Depot, Lowe’s and Wal-mart. Nearly 2/3 of their revenue come from those three stores. With consumers still cautious about spending, those retailers aren’t building new stores as quickly as they used to – making growth for suppliers like Scott’s harder to come by. Against that backdrop, Mr. Hagedorn has pushed his regional sales presidents to look for smaller pockets of growth such as the marijuana market that could produce a notable bump in sales. Sixteen states have legalized medical marijuana, the largest being California and Colorado. The market will reach $1.7 billion in sales this year according to a report by See Change Strategy LLC, an information data services company. While the report focuses on revenue from growers and dispenseries, the president of See Change, Kris Lotlikar, said the market for companies selling hydroponic equipment and professional services is also thriving. “We see very good growth for these types of companies as the medical-marijuana business grows,” he said.
36:06 – Taunton, Mass., Kingsbury, Ind., and Ludington, Mich. – they all have one thing in common: meth addicts at work, stealing railroad tracks. A train actually went off the tracks in Taunton because of these assholes. They’re using welding torches and bulldozers to do it. What Seth Learned on the Monsterweb
5:50 – If you’re in front of a computer, Seth wants you to go to MissingMoney.com and Unclaimed.org.
3:25 – Jonathan’s dad’s cousin is a firefighter down in New Orleans. They went down to his house years ago for Fourth of July and bought a bunch of fireworks from one of those crazy huts where you can get them in bulk. He had special fireworks that he and his firefighter buddies would build every year – they called them Silver Kings. They were like M-80s with a quarter-stick of dynamite in them and were the loudest thing ever. Jah’s dad smuggled them back to LA and every year they would fire a few off at Fourth of July. They were so loud they would hurt J-dawg’s ear drums.
9:46 – Jah was just speaking to a friend of the show who was on tour in Amsterdam, so a new law there about not allowing in foreigners must have just gone into effect.
30:29 – Jah finds it to be a common occurrence to find a crazy homeless person with a cell phone. He sees it quite a bit now even though they try to keep it low-pro.
49:17 – Jonathan was talking to a mortgage broker at Bank of America. The original mortgage he got was with Countrywide, which was bought by B of A when Countrywide was bleeding. The house he co-owns with his ex-wife is a bit of a conundrum right now, because she’s been in it for a period of time and is no longer going to be in it. Selling it doesn’t make any sense because of how much money they would lose, and taking it over doesn’t make any sense because it appears to be rapidly depleting in value. The broker was going through a loan modification of his own, and said B of A currently has 2 million homes in foreclosure across the U.S.
19:54 – The Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that fleeing from the police in a vehicle can trigger a mandatory 15-year term in federal prison if it is a criminal’s third strike.
34:11 – The month of June is National Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Month.
40:47 – The Disney Company, as a part of their efforts to capture future Disney enthusiasts while they’re still in the cradle, will open its first baby store next year at the Americana Mall in Glendale, Calif. Disney consumer products chairman Andy Mooney said the company plans to open two such stores – one on each coast – to display the best of its new infant line.
43:43 – With no end to high gas prices in sight, the Better Business Bureau has warned consumers not to fall for tempting products and schemes said to help save money at the pump. Most of them are simply too good to be true. When it comes to the products that you can attach to your car or add to your fuel, be very skeptical of their performance. Over the past decade, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has tested more than 100 gas-saving devices and has not identified any that significantly improved gas milage. In fact, they’ve determined that some of them could eventually cause engine damage. Some products might make a slight difference but claims of drastic improvement in your fuel economy are red flags of a ripoff. Also beware of anyone claiming their product has been “approved by the federal government.” The marketing of supposed miraculous gas gadgets has occurred during every gas crisis period since the mid-1970s but in more recent years we’ve been seeing problems with gas prizes and gas clubs.
47:04 – The Oak Hall Cap and Gown Company in Salem, Va., created the “Green Weaver line,” caps and gowns made entirely of recycled plastic bottles. Cal Tech’s most recent graduating class all sported them. Jostens offers a wood-based fiber gown that can be broken down organically into the soil.
57:21 – In corporate slaughter news, Subway is testing an upscale café concept known as Subway Café. Originally launched in Alexandria, Va., by a franchisee, the test now has about 15 locations with plans to add about 10 more by year’s end. The cafes are designed to give off a more comfy feel with brick or wood-paneled walls and even the occasional fireplace.
6:54 – You can’t believe everything you hear, especially, if you’re polishing off the third refill of your venti coffee. Researchers have just published a study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences suggesting that people on a serious caffeine buzz are prone to hear things that aren’t there. Evidently deciding that an actual Starbucks would be too loud for science, the researchers brought volunteers to a lab. The subjects – some highly caffeinated, some not – put on headphones that pumped out white noise. They were told that Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” would be playing in the background, which was actually just a white lie. Even though Bing wasn’t anywhere around, some of the caffeine-addled listeners claimed that they could hear the song. The researchers concluded that 5 regular cups of coffee could be enough to increase the risk of auditory hearlucinations. The study was small and not well-controlled but the main findings seem plausible.
53:42 – Gladvertising is using emotion recognition software employed to tailor outdoor advertisements to consumers’ moods. The next year or so is going to see a revolution in outdoor advertising, according to a report published in the Center for Future Studies. 3D outdoor advertising will talk to mobile phones and adapt messages to certain situations. It will access social network profiles and then will combine holograms, mood lighting and smells. It will all be out on the streets by 2012. The study is based on a report done with 21 in-depth interviews with the world’s leading technologists, advertising and media businesses. It concluded that gladvertising will be one of the first innovations to arrive in the dawning of this new age of Aquarius.
12:25 – U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has the June recalls for products made in China: Toy Military Copters, sold for $7 at Rite-Aid, have plastic blades on the helicopter that detach during flight and lacerate children’s faces. … There’s also a Contemporary Cutlery Knife Block, a set that’s sold for $300 at Macy’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Crate and Barrel and online at Amazon. The tips of the knife poke out of the bottom of the block, which means that when you pick it up the tips jut out and slice your fingers off. … A child booster seat that’s sold for $13 at Target has a restraint buckle that seems to open unexpectedly and allow the child to fall on the floor.