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RainDog

RainDog's Journal
RainDog's Journal
January 27, 2014

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara



wiki: a 2003 American documentary film about the life and times of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara as well as illustrating his observations of the nature of modern warfare. The film was directed by Errol Morris and the original score is by Philip Glass.

The title is related to the military phrase "Fog of War", describing the difficulty of making decisions in the midst of conflict.
The film won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature. It was non-competitively screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
January 26, 2014

How Much Weed Will the U.S. Need?

...to meet an estimate for demand? Bennyboy got me on this subject. The figure for cannabis is based upon vaping or smoking, not edibles, tinctures, etc., but we can assume some of that is included anyway. Check my math! I'm a notorious math moron.

The figures here are from USA Quick Facts and Gallup.

2013 Population: 316,128,839 million

2012 (last figure) percentage of the population under 18: 23.5% (I'll round that up to 25%)

Population over the age of 18: 237,100,000 million (rounded to 75%)


A 2013 Gallup Poll indicated that 7% of those surveyed currently used cannabis. (From this poll, 13% of liberals admitted to currently using cannabis, 8% of moderates and 2% of conservatives.)

So, let's double that figure and say 15% of the population would be cannabis users, although I would be inclined to think the figure will be higher, especially among the over 65 group, as they learn of the medical benefits for diseases of aging like arthritis, diabetes, neuropathies, alzheimers...so, let's add another 5% to account for this group and conservatives who didn't tell the truth...and for some of the additional plant material that would go into tinctures, etc. All figures are rounded up.

Estimated percentage of cannabis users @15%: 35,565,000 million

Est. @20% of the adult population: 47,420,000 million

Estimated cannabis usage at 1 ounce per month/20% of the population: 47,420,000 million ozs.

Estimated cannabis usage in lbs. per month: 30 million lbs.

Estimated cannabis (in pounds) for the American market for one year: 360 million pounds.


The figures, below, are taken from a weed business blog. I have no knowledge of this irl, so if anyone thinks these figures are off, speak. They assume the following:

Est. no. of lbs. per acre: 625 lbs.
Est. for marijuana @ 10,000 plants per acre @ 72 in. (6 ft) spacing per row

Est. number of acres required to grow 360 million lbs per year @ 625 lb per acre: 576,000 acres.
(this assumes a single grow season per year of an outdoor grow)

edit to remove projections from weed industry blog


With legalization, cut the profit to producers by three-fourths to $1500 to $50/oz and, thus $800.00 per lb.
360 million pounds per year @ $800.00 per lb: $288 million BILLION for the producer.
Another quarter for the sellers/per lb: $288 billion for the seller
Another quarter for tax revenues/per lb $288 billion to the govt.


That would keep cannabis at the price of $375 $100.00 per oz to the consumer, or $94 $25.00 per quarter oz. Those in CO have reported previous sales at $25 for a quarter oz. (or approximately a third of the price in the current illegal market, on avg. and guesstimating.)

Did I do the math right, teacher?
edit to answer: no. thanks coyotl

edit: adjusted figures for sales
January 25, 2014

Bob Le Flambeur (1956)

Link to full movie: French with English subtitles (with commercials, unfortunately)
at IMBD: http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3213073689?ref_=tt_pv_vi_1




wiki: Bob le flambeur ("Bob the Gambler" or "Bob the High Roller&quot is a 1956 French gangster film directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. The film stars Roger Duchesne as Bob. It is often considered a film noir and precursor to the French New Wave because of its use of handheld camera and a single jump cut.

The director, Jean-Pierre Melville (born Jean-Pierre Grumbach; 20 October 1917 – 2 August 1973), with the French Resistance during World War II, adopted the nom de guerre Melville as a tribute to his favorite American author, Herman Melville. The director loved all things American after his experience during the war, including gangster films. After the war, he applied for and was refused a license to become an assistant director. He became an independent film director and started his own studio.

Melville's independence and "reporting" style of film-making (he was one of the first French directors to use real locations regularly) were a major influence on the French New Wave film movement. Jean-Luc Godard used him as a minor character in his seminal New Wave film Breathless. When Godard was having difficulty editing the film, Melville suggested that he just cut directly to the best parts of a shot. Godard was inspired and the film's innovative use of jump cuts have become part of its fame.

Melville's movie is the equivalent of the modernists at the turn of the 20th century, whose work was rejected by the French Academy. This group of artists responded to World War I with Dada, Surrealism, Cubism, "Ready Mades" and changed the face of French art by rejecting the classicism typified by state-approved art. Melville's work, more than fifty years later, precipitated a similar moment in film.

Review by Roger Ebert: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-bob-le-flambeur-1955

Before the New Wave, before Godard and Truffaut and Chabrol, before Belmondo flicked the cigarette into his mouth in one smooth motion and walked the streets of Paris like a Hollywood gangster, there was Bob. "Bob le Flambeur," Bob the high-roller, Bob the Montmartre legend whose style was so cool, whose honor was so strong, whose gambling was so hopeless, that even the cops liked him. Bob with his white hair slicked back, with his black suit and tie, his trenchcoat and his Packard convertible and his penthouse apartment with the slot machine in the closet. Bob, who on the first day of this movie wins big at the races and then loses it all at roulette, and is cleaned out. Broke again.

Jean-Pierre Melville's "Bob le Flambeur" (1955) has a good claim to be the first film of the French New Wave. Daniel Cauchy, who stars in it as Paolo, Bob's callow young friend, remembered that Melville would shoot scenes on location using a handheld camera on a delivery bike, "which Godard did in 'Breathless,' but this was years before Godard." Melville worked on poverty row, and told his actors there was no money to pay them, but that they would have to stand by to shoot on a moment's notice. "Right now I have money for three or four days," he told Cauchy, "and after that we'll shoot when we can."

This film was legendary but unseen for years, and Melville's career is only now coming into focus. He shot gangster movies, he worked in genres, but he had such a precise, elegant simplicity of style that his films play like the chamber music of crime. He was cool in the 1950s sense of that word. His characters in "Bob" glide through gambling dens and nightclubs "in those moments," Melville tells us in the narration, "between night and day ... between heaven and hell."

...The climax of "Bob le Flambeur" involves surprising developments that approach cosmic irony. How strange, that a man's incorrigible nature would lead him both into and through temptation. The twist is so inspired that many other directors have borrowed it, including Paul Thomas Anderson in "Hard Eight," Neil Jordan in "The Good Thief," and Lewis Milestone and Steven Soderbergh, the directors of the "Ocean's Eleven" movies. But "Bob" is not about the twist. It is about Bob being true to his essential nature. He is a gambler.


January 25, 2014

The Stanley Brother Ted Talk

#action=share
January 25, 2014

1947 Epilepsy/Cannabis Report

DeSwiss posted a TedTalk from one of the Stanley brothers, the growers of Charlotte's Web, the CBD-bred cannabis used for children with severe seizure disorders (more than one of them.) In the video, he talks about the things we've discussed here - cannabis as medicine for a variety of disorders. I'll repost the ted talk from this link - http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017171541

He also talks about a 1947 report that appeared in the news in the U.S. that noted Cannabis stopped seizures from epilepsy.

http://antiquecannabisbook.com/chap03/Epilepsy/Epilepsy-P1.htm

The below newspaper article, taken from the “Salt Lake City telegram [May 20, 1947], was located via the National Archives (College Park, MD). It belonged to and was integrated into the files of Harry Anslinger’s old Bureau of Narcotics, today known as the D.E.A. We believe that it was the first that Anslinger knew about the study, and thus was too late to CENSOR or put a stop to it.

The full article is at this link:

Drug principles isolated from leaves of marijuana, an innocent-looking plant that grows wild in different parts of the world, are playing an important role in research on a cure for epilepsy.

This is the same marijuana which so many people fear as a habit-forming drug and which is noted for the opium-like dreams it produces in those who partake of it.

The drugs being used are synthetic substances related to cannabinol, which is contained in marijuana, but does not produce the same effects. Dr. Jean P. Davis, faculty researcher at the University of Utah medical college, has done considerable research with the drugs in treatment of minor and convulsive epilepsy.

She reports that the drugs have been found effective about 50% of the time. Future for epileptics appears “very bright,” she said, “because of not only one new drug, but a whole field of new compounds to combat epileptic seizures.”


The Stanley brother who presented the Ted talk noted that a child in Indiana, who suffers from Dravet's Syndrome epilepsy died. His parents could not move and they could not legally request the plant extract from the Stanley brothers.

Charlotte's mother, who is part of a foundation for families who deal with childhood epilepsy, noted they get 4000 calls per week from people seeking information about relocating to CO in order to provide this medicine for their children.

Here's the story of one of them (x-post DeSwiss) - http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024385993

Thankfully we are moving into a time of cannabis acceptance. But these children and their families can't wait. It's impossible for some people to move. Your state of residence shouldn't be a death sentence because some lawmakers refuse to act to correct the lies they have been telling for 80 years regarding cannabis.
January 24, 2014

Poll Shows Majority Of Georgians Favor Legalizing Pot

http://www.peachpundit.com/2014/01/21/poll-shows-majority-of-georgians-favor-legalizing-pot/

A new poll released today by Georgia NORML and Peachtree NORML claims that 54% of Georgians favor legalization of marijuana similar to Colorado and Washington State, while an even larger 62% believe possession of pot in amounts less than 1 oz should be de-criminalized, with violators instead paying a $100 civil fine.

Note again that this is Georgia voters. Here. In the Bible belt.

So I guess we’ll assume that PPP polls oversampled millennials? Nope, they’re 9% of participants. Two thirds of the participants in the poll were over the age of 45.

That’s a significant change in public opinion over the last decade, even here in Georgia. And it is already starting to show up in policy. The Governor’s criminal justice reform packages have specifically talked about the costs to taxpayers as well as the cost in future lost income for those with minor criminal charges on their “permanent record”. Meanwhile, other states are starting to cultivate an industry which employs people, pays taxes, and draws tourists. It appears some of Georgia’s voters are taking notice.
January 24, 2014

Oklahoma: Marijuana Legalization Measure Introduced

Go to this link to sign a petition in support: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51046/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=12848

State Senator Constance Johnson (D-District 48) has introduced Senate Bill 2116, which aims to legalize the possession, cultivation, and retail sale of cannabis to adults. The proposed legislation removes all criminal and civil penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and the personal cultivation of up to 5 marijuana plants by those over the age of 21. The bill would also create a system of retail cannabis outlets, cultivation facilities, and marijuana product manufacturers. You can read the full text of the measure here.

“I think we need to accept the realities that alcohol is a dangerous drug, prescription drugs are dangerous. Marijuana has not killed anyone," stated Senator Johnson.

Oklahoma presently possesses some of the strictest marijuana penalties in the nation. A second offense for minor marijuana possession is classified as felony, punishable by up to ten years incarceration. Cultivation of any amount of cannabis is also classified as a felony and may be punishable by up to life in prison.

According to a 2013 ACLU report, Oklahoma arrests over 10,000 individuals for simple marijuana possession every year, at the cost nearly 30 million dollars. These arrests disproportionately impact minorities. Despite only constituting 7.6% of the state's population and having similar use rates to their white counterparts, African Americans account for 20.8% of the state's marijuana possession arrests.

January 24, 2014

Florida: medical marijuana petition for 2014 ballot validated

cross post from here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024383630 (with embedded links from excerpt, below)

With the help of a massive infusion of money from backer John Morgan, the petition to put medical marijuana on Florida’s Nov. 4 election ballot squeaked past the deadline to get enough petition signatures to qualify for a spot on the state’s Nov. 4 election ballot.

As of Friday, state election officials had verified 710,508 valid petition signatures, with 683,149 needed by Feb. 1 to qualify. That doesn’t make it certain Floridians will get to vote on the measure, however -- one major hurdle remains. The state Supreme Court must approve the legality of the measure and its ballot language. Attorney General Pam Bondi has challenged the language as unclear and misleading. Oral arguments were heard on the challenge in December, and the court must issue a decision by April 1.

If the court approves the language, the result a hard-fought campaign could result. Polls have shown strong public support for the idea of allowing marijuana to be used for medical purposes when prescribed by a doctor -- a Quinnipiac University survey last fall showed Florida voters favored it 82-16 percent. That sounds like a comfortable margin, considering it takes a 60 percent vote to amend the state Constitution.

cont'

http://tbo.com/news/politics/medical-marijuana-has-enough-signatures-for-florida-ballot-20140124/


January 24, 2014

Waking Life

Watch the full film here (I can't embed from daily motion)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xhalb0_waking-life_shortfilms?start=3

Preview:


wiki: Waking Life is a 2001 American animated drama film directed by Richard Linklater. The film focuses on the nature of dreams, consciousness, and existentialism.

The film was entirely rotoscoped, although it was shot using digital video of live actors with a team of artists drawing stylized lines and colors over each frame with computers, rather than being filmed and traced onto cells on a light box. The film contains several parallels to Linklater's 1991 film Slacker. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their characters from Before Sunrise in one scene.

Waking Life was the first digitally rotoscoped animated feature. Animators overlaid live action footage (shot by Linklater) with animation that roughly approximates the images actually filmed. This technique is similar in some respects to the rotoscope style of 1970s filmmaker Ralph Bakshi. Rotoscoping itself, however, was not Bakshi's invention, but that of experimental silent film maker Max Fleischer, who patented the process in 1917. A variety of artists were employed, so the feel of the movie continually changes, and gets stranger as time goes on. The result is a surreal, shifting dreamscape.
January 24, 2014

Texas and Louisiana consider "softening" marijuana laws

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/24/two-states-in-the-deep-south-consider-legislation-to-soften-marijuana-laws/

Republican governors in the traditionally conservative states of Louisiana and Texas have issued statements to the effect that they are willing to soften their stance on marijuana.

On Thursday, Texas Governor Rick Perry told an international panel on drug legalization at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that “I have begun to implement policies that start us toward a decriminalization.”

Perry did not address the medicinal use of marijuana in his statement, but his Republican compatriot to the east, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, told The New Orleans Times-Picayune on Wednesday that he would be “open” to the idea of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.

According to his spokesman, Kyle Plotkin, the governor “would be open to making medical marijuana available under strict circumstances,” but would be opposed to all other forms of legalization. He made his statements in response to a meeting by the Louisiana House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice in which they discussed the state’s harsh penalties for marijuana possession.

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