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A First: College In San Fran Offers Marijuana Curriculum

Al Olson
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A First: College In San Fran Offers Marijuana Curriculum

Just a little over two months after California legalized the adult recreational of marijuana, City College of San Francisco announced plans to add a cannabis curriculum.

The notoriously progressive city’s two-year community college will take the rest of this year designing the educational program that will officially offered to students in the 2018 spring semester.

“Obviously, with the potential growth of this industry being substantial, particularly in California, we want to offer access to this growing industry,” said Jeff Hamilton, a spokesperson for the college.

RELATED STORY: Marijuana And Creativity: Is It Actually A Thing?

In November, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 64, legalizing cannabis recreationally. The state has had a medical marijuana program in place since 1996 when it passed the Compassionate Use Act.

CCSF is developing the program in conjunction with Oaksterdam University—a ground-breaking marijuana trade school located across the bay in Oakland —and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union.

Oaksterdam is a revolutionary institution that has educated nearly 30,000 students in its nine-year history. UFCW was an early adopter of representing labor rights in the marijuana markets.

In 2016, the college struck a deal to partner with UFCW to create a de facto apprenticeship program in the school’s Pharmacology Technology department.

Oaksterdam and the labor union are not totally on the same page as to how the program will work, who will be eligible and what will be taught.

Dale Sky Jones, Oaksterdam University’s executive chancellor, told the San Francisco Examiner that “there are things that need to be sussed out, including who the training is for.” Jones wants to ensure that the classes are not restricted to members of the labor union. “I just want to make sure the training is available for as much people as possible,” Jones said.

According to Hamilton, the college spokesperson, the course, as currently designed, is not an open-enrollment option. Instead, students would be sponsored as apprentices by the UFCW.

 

“The UFCW represents thousands of medical cannabis workers in six states and the District of Columbia,” according to the union’s website. The union currently represents 1.3 million members nationally, with most of its workers in the grocery, pharmacy and retail business.

Related Stories

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TFT Asks: Could The Future Of Music Be Vinyl Records?

Brendan Bures
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TFT Asks: Could The Future Of Music Be Vinyl Records?

As the music industry focuses on the streaming revolution and all the new avenues fans can consume their music, an older audio format has been on the rise: vinyl. For the first time in 25 years more than 3 million LPs were sold in 2016, according to the British Phonographic Industry.

This is the ninth consecutive year that vinyl sales have grown, including a 44% increase from 2015 to 2016. There was even one week in December where more money was spent on vinyl records in the UK than in digital sales, though some of that was possibly attributed to extra Christmas spending.

According to UK accounting firm Deloitte, vinyl could soon become a $1 billion industry. The firm predicts that vinyl sales could produce $800M to $900M in 2016 alone.

Via NME:

“Vinyl should account for almost a fifth of the sales of physical music products in 2017 and around 7 per cent of the $15bn that the global music industry is expected to take,” [Deloitte] claims.

However, there are some important caveats to note. As many have noted, we witnessed an unfortunate amount of major celebrity deaths in 2016, including musical icons like David Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Phife Dawg, and Glenn Frey. Prince was famously cantankerous when it came to the rights of his catalogue—the only major streaming service where you can access his records is Tidal.

A major catalyst in vinyl’s revival last year was Bowie, whose 2016 record Blackstar was the highest-selling LP for the year, moving 54,000 units since January. Bowie appears a total of five times in the top 40 for 2016 vinyl sales, for his records The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust (No. 12), Hunky Dory (No. 17), Nothing Has Changed—The Very Best of (No. 25), and Changesonebowie (No. 28). Prince also made an appearance in the top 10 for Purple Rain (No. 9).


via GIPHY

Though some recent releases like Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool, Adele’s 25, The Arctic Monkeys’ AM, and The 1975’s I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It appear in the Top 40, the bulk of vinyl sales were of re-releases or classic records from well-known artists, like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors.

“In 1981, over 1 billion albums were sold. In 2017 it will be around 40 million,” Paul Lee, head of technology, media and telecoms research at Deloitte told The Financial Times. “This is not the resurgence that is portrayed. It is a blip.”

But could vinyl become music’s future for those seeking physical copies of their favorite artists? Also important to note: Is there a lack of available product for fans who would’ve purchased LP copies of their favorite 2016 records? Frank Ocean only sold the Blonde LP for 24 hours on Black Friday, while Kanye West never officially released any physical version of The Life of Pablo, leading to bootleggers producing their own copies, to cite two examples.

One thing is certain for now: Vinyl is very much alive in 2017.

Netflix Makes Games Now? Meet Flixarcade, Your New Obsession

Maria Loreto
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Netflix Makes Games Now? Meet Flixarcade, Your New Obsession

Netflix is no stranger to coming up with clever ways to advertise their shows, doing stuff that ranges from developing an amazing presence on social media to creating websites that pass for real law enforcement offices and phone numbers that have answering machines. The company sure knows how to keep their viewers engaged while simultaneously providing content that people are desperate to consume.

Their latest advertising adventure is the development of a simple side scroller browser game that models the looks of the eight-bit video games of the ’90s. Flixarcade is a website where you can play as the main character from four different Netflix shows.

The gameplay is simple, consisting of only the space bar as a means to make your character jump, but the games are complex in their looks, varying from one another due to their design and their music, which are the main themes of each show with an 8-bit twist.

Stranger Things

Here you play as Mike, who’s running through the fictional town of Hawkins. Your main objective is to jump up and catch the Eggos, all the while avoiding the scientists and demogorgons. 

Orange is the New Black

Piper runs through prison trying to catch chickens while you listen to Regina Spector’s “You’ve Got Time” on a loop. Why aren’t you playing this right now?

Marco Polo

The choice to make a Marco Polo game is a puzzling one, considering the fact that the show might be Netflix biggest critical flop. You play as the main character. We assume he is Marco Polo? 

You can play all the different games here.

Kenny G Has Some Hilarious Dad Humor For You On Twitter

Brendan Bures
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Kenny G Has Some Hilarious Dad Humor For You On Twitter

Often times, a celebrity has been part of the public consciousness so long you sort of forget they exist. For older celebrities, it evolves in either a) appearing on C-level reality TV shows to force themselves back into pop culture or b) they stay within their self-created fiefdom.

The latter seemed to be the way of Kenny G, the most well-known saxophone player in the past 25 years or so. But then we learned that Kenny G can be pretty damn funny on Twitter.

Many celebrated this popular tweet, it likely appearing in your feed at some time or another. But many more are missing out on how routinely comedic Kenny G can be now that he’s embraced his lighter side.

Is it kind of corny dad humor? Sure! If you were in high school band, you probably heard (or made) some of these jokes. But you’d be lying if Kenny G’s tweets didn’t at least produce a chuckle. And who doesn’t need some of those nowadays?

Why This Traditional Brokerage Firm Is Betting Big On Cannabis

Al Olson
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Why This Traditional Brokerage Firm Is Betting Big On Cannabis

New York-based Cowen & Co. has built a reputation over its 99-year existence as a solid, reputable investment bank. You know, mergers & acquisitions, equity financing, debt strategies and the like. So what is this staid institution doing in the marijuana business?

Like all smart investment houses, Cowen & Co. is searching for industries that are poised for dynamic short-term growth with strong long-term sustainability. Vivien Azer, Cowen’s lead beverage, tobacco & cannabis analyst, looks at the nascent cannabis market and believes in its future.

On Thursday, Azer hosted a special one-day summit to explore with other investment outfits the growing cannabis industry. This is the first time a legitimate Wall Street banking institution sponsored a cannabis investment event.

The “Cannabis Colloquium” conference was attended by more than 150 investors — including representatives from Blackstone, Fidelity and Janus Capital — all big players on Wall Street.

According to Azer, the explosive growth of cannabis is putting long-established beer, wine, spirits and tobacco industries at some risk. Ignore this market at your own peril, she warns.

“Even though there is not a ton of investable assets in cannabis, per se, I do cover Molson Coors and Constellation Brands and Brown-Forman and those are names that institutional investors really care about,” she told Bloomberg.

Azer. who is the first senior Wall Street analyst to cover the cannabis sector, says the SEC regulator filings of Brown-Forman Corp. and Boston Beer Co. state that the cannabis industry is a potential risk factor for their growth. And as Azer’s told Bloomberg, her research suggests that the concern is warranted: Beer isn’t selling as well in states where recreational pot is legal.

And it’s not just the United States market that is drawing interest from institutional investors; there is a lot of attention being focused north of the border.

Earlier this week, Cowen released “O Cannabis!: Initiating Coverage of Canadian Cannabis,” a 23-page report examining the “first major developed market to legalize cannabis for adult use nationally.” Azer anticipates the Canadian market could generate $8 billion in sales revenue by 2021.

The U.S. market is enjoying explosive growth — eight states now have legalized recreational use and another 29 have medical marijuana programs. Cannabis sales are expected to skyrocket from $6 billion in 2016 to $50 billion by 2026, according to Cowen’s 110-page report, which included analysis from 10 senior researchers.

Analysts forecast more than 25 percent compound annual growth in the next five years. As a comparison, this explosive industry growth curve mimics that of the cable TV business in the 1990s, which enjoyed a 19 percent annual growth and the broadband internet industry of the 2000s (29 percent).

There is concern that a Trump administration will throw cold water on the red-hot sector.

“We wonder if this is a fight the Trump administration wants to pick considering support for medical [marijuana] was higher than the president-elect,” Azer told Barron’s. “Our guess is ‘no.’ ”

Cowen is putting its own money where its mouth it. The firm’s  investment-banking division advised Canopy Growth Corp., a Canadian medical marijuana company that last month raised $60 million in funding.

Related Stories 

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Man Spends $1,000 To Pay $3,000 DMV Fee With 300,000 Pennies

Taylor Berman
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Man Spends $1,000 To Pay $3,000 DMV Fee With 300,000 Pennies

Nick Stafford really, really wanted to make a point about the bureaucracy at the DMV in Lebanon, Virginia. After a months-long quest to get the direct numbers to 10 Virginia DMVs so he could ask a routine question about two new cars he’d purchased, Stafford spent $1000 so he could pay $3,000 in sales tax with 300,000 pennies.

The Herald-Courier reports the ordeal began in September, when Stafford wanted to call the Lebanon DMV to ask which of his homes he should register his son’s new car to. When he was rerouted to a call center instead of a real person, he decided to take insane action. He submitted a FOIA, or Freedom of Information Act, to get a direct line to the DMV. Once he got that, he then filed nine more FOIAs to get the direct numbers Abingdon, Clintwood, Gate City, Jonesville, Marion, Norton, Tazewell, Vansant and Wytheville.

When he was refused, he sued. From the Herald-Courier:

Stafford filed three lawsuits in Russell County General District Court: two against specific employees at the Lebanon DMV and one against the DMV itself.

On Tuesday, a judge dismissed the lawsuits at the request of the state when a representative of the state’s attorney general handed Stafford a list of the requested phone numbers in the courtroom. The court also did not impose penalties on the DMV and its employees, which could have been between $500 and $2,000 per lawsuit if the employees had “willfully and knowingly” violated public records law.

“The phone numbers are irrelevant to me,” Stafford told the Herald-Courier about the judge’s decision. “I don’t need them. I told the judge ‘I think I proved my point here.’”

He then decided to make the workers at the DMV suffer by paying the $3,000 sales tax on his son’s car and another vehicle entirely in pennies. To so, he hired 11 people to help him break up rolls of pennies with a hammer and purchased five wheelbarrows to roll them into the DMV. With the costs of the lawsuits, the penny stunt cost Stafford nearly $1,000. He delivered the 300,000 pennies on Wednesday

The workers at the DMV, who Stafford described as “really nice,” were expected to be counting the coins until 1 am.

NJ Moves For Marijuana Legalization Despite Gov. Christie’s Warnings

Mike Adams
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NJ Moves For Marijuana Legalization Despite Gov. Christie’s Warnings

Although New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has cautioned the state’s legislative powers not to pursue any further marijuana reforms, lawmakers have mostly ignored his prohibitionary advice and remain on target for recreational marijuana in the near future.

During his recent State of the States address, Christie discussed, in great detail, his plan to conquer the opioid problem currently biting the backs of thousands of New Jersey citizens. Citing statistics that suggest kids who try “any drug” by the age of 13 are more likely to become addicts by the time they turn 20, Christie twisted the ears of lawmakers in hopes of persuading them to halt progress on attempts to make marijuana as legal as beer.

“I hope that this will give pause to those who are blindly pushing ahead to legalize another illicit drug in our state for tax revenue or by saying it will cause no harm,” Christie said. “The statistics prove you wrong. Dead wrong.”

Fortunately, the lawmakers currently elbow deep in the push to bring legal weed to the Garden State do not seem at all prepared to back down simply because Christie, whose term is slated to end at the beginning of 2018, believes a move of this magnitude would lead to increased addiction rates.

In fact, Senate President Stephen Sweeney said in October of last year that the state’s legislative forces were simply waiting for Christie to exit the Governor’s mansion so they could finally get serious about passing a bill that would allow adults to purchase marijuana legally.

“I’m committed to it,” Sweeney told NJ.com. “We are going to have a new governor in January 2018. As soon as the governor gets situated we are all here and we intend to move quickly on it.”

One of the most promising candidates with the potential to take over the helm of New Jersey’s governmental machine is Democrat Phil Murphy. Last year, Murphy, who is predicted to clinch the Democratic l nomination, said he was in favor of establishing a taxed and regulated pot market.

“I support legalization,” Murphy said, adding that, after some carful soul searching with respect to the issue, he believes legal weed is really the best course of action.

Other Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls also support the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Even most Republican candidates seem to have more progressive stance on legalization than Christie.

Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who has voted against medical marijuana expansion efforts in the past, says that, while not in favor of full legalization, he would get behind a bill aimed at eliminating the criminal penalties associated with small time pot possession.

Overall, there is a significant amount of support in New Jersey for a taxed and regulated cannabis industry.

In 2015, a lobby group consisting of city prosecutors, law enforcement officers and members of the ACLU called “New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform” made a mission out of getting lawmakers to see the light at the end of the prohibitionary tunnel. The group predicts legalization would bring close to $300 million a year in new revenue, while also saving $127 million by not prosecuting people for marijuana offenses.

How To Be A Better Vegan Than Beyoncé Ever Was

Amy Hansen
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How To Be A Better Vegan Than Beyoncé Ever Was

If 2013 was a slow year for you, you might remember that time Beyoncé went vegan. For a whole 22 days (that’s like 6 months in celebrity years), the badass, non-single lady cut out all animal products from her diet. According to a detailed meal plan released by her trainer, Bey sustained herself on things like chia seed pudding and veggie quesadillas. Just like Oprah and J-Lo before her, Queen B’s flirtation with veganism is over. But veganism is a way of life for these other celebrities who have shared some of their favorite recipes to help you stay vegan — for at least an entire month.

Emily Deschanel
The “Bones” actress has been vegan since she was 16. The Lemony Roasted Potatoes from Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook is one of her favorite. Get the recipe.

Photo by Flickr user David Shankbone
Photo by Flickr user David Shankbone

Ellen Degeneres
The talk show host extraordinaire became vegan after watching the documentary Earthlings. One of the more popular dishes on her site is the Banana Oatmeal Pancakes. Get the recipe.

Photo by Frederick M. Brown / Stringer via Getty Images
Photo by Frederick M. Brown / Stringer via Getty Images

Kate Mara
The “House of Cards” actress switched from vegetarianism to veganism after passing a factory farm on a road trip nearly a decade ago and educating herself on the dairy industry. One of her go-to snacks is a 3-Ingredient Smoothie. Get the recipe.

Photo by Flickr user aaron mentele
Photo by Flickr user aaron mentele

Olivia Wilde
The actress was a vegetarian for 16 years before going vegan about three years ago. She developed a recipe for Bomb-Diggity (her words) Vegan Bolognese. Get the recipe.

Photo by Flickr user Pulicciano
Photo by Flickr user Pulicciano

Ellie Goulding
The “Lights” singer has been “an aspiring” vegan for the past two years. She credits her new way of eating for transforming her figure and and on-stage performance. She partnered with chef Jaimie Oliver for a Monster Vegan Burger for his show Friday Night Feast. Get the recipe.

Photo by Flickr user Birte Fritsch
Photo by Flickr user Birte Fritsch

Rob Zombie
Don’t let his slasher flicks fool you. Rob gave up eating flesh in 1982. His wife, Sheri Moon, even has an entire vegan food blog dedicated to what the couple eats at home and on tour, including Apple Coconut Crumple Pie. Get the recipe.

Photo by Flickr user Dylan Wilks
Photo by Flickr user Dylan Wilks

Latest International Health Scare: The Killer Hickey

Al Olson
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Latest International Health Scare: The Killer Hickey

A seemingly innocent “love bite” on the neck turned into a kiss of death for a Mexico teen–a cautionary tale, to be sure.

Julio Macias Gonzalez, 17, died after suction from the killer kiss from his unnamed 24-year-old girlfriend gave him a blood clot, which moved to his brain and caused a stroke.

Hickeys—for generations the tale-tell sign of teenage hanky-panky—are generally considered embarrassing, tacky, or silly. But this is the first documented case of a hickey fatality.

Can a hickey actually kill you?

It would have to be “the mother of all hickeys,” Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician at New York’s Lenox Hill Hospital told the USA Today.  “It’s possible this could happen, but it’s very rare, and parents should be reassured it’s not something that happens in a routine way.”

This is not the first time that a nefarious neck nibble did severe damage. In 2010, a 44-year-old New Zealand woman wound up in the emergency room complaining that she was unable to move her arm. The ER doctors’ diagnosis was that she suffered a minor stroke, which they claimed was caused by a hickey on her neck. Luckily for her, she recovered.

The New Zealand Medical Journal studied this unusual issue shortly after and concluded:

It is a rare phenomenon and diagnosis requires a high index of suspicion.

Suspicion indeed!

Here’s a little helpful advice:

The next time your lover whispers in your ear something like “I want to suck on your neck so hard I am going to leave an ugly purple mark and possibly break your blood vessels causing a clot and potentially killing you,” gently resist.

Posted By: Al Olson

Wipeout: 5 Glorious Videos Of People Slipping On Ice

TFT Editors
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Wipeout: 5 Glorious Videos Of People Slipping On Ice

As we noted earlier this week, walking on ice in the dead of winter can be both tricky and hilarious. As long as no one gets injured, few things are funnier than seeing someone failing to keep their footing as they try to do routine things over patches of ice. Here are some of the internet’s best clips of people eating it on ice.

 

Guy Falling For 9 Seconds While Trying To Shovel Snow

This video is exactly what it says it is: Nine seconds of a guy flailing while trying to shovel an icy patch of snow. It almost looks like he’s wrestling with some invisible demon or something. Eventually the man recovers his balance and begins to walk away unscathed.

Falling Kids On Ice

A classic of the genre, this nearly six minute long video consists of a dad sitting in his car outside of his daughter’s school recording kids as they keep on wiping out on the same patch of ice. “Okay, everybody’s been slipping on ice,” he says at the video’s start. Let’s see what those ladies do.” It takes about 15 seconds before the first kid falls; easily a dozen or so more fall before his daughter gets in the car and joins in the fun.

8 Minutes Of People Falling Over The Same Patch Of Ice

Much like the previous video, this is a clip of someone filming the same ice-covered area—in this case, part of a bridge—and waiting for people to fall. Practically everyone that walks over the bridge at least stumbles on the ice patch; of that group, many end up on their butt.

Ice Falls

The boringly-titled video above is 129 seconds of a group of people laughing at pedestrians as they fall while walking over the same icy patch of sidewalk.

Funny People Falling On Ice Compilation

This is a three-minute compilation of some of the better ice falls available on the internet. Our favorites are the ones in which people try to execute some cool ice slide, thinking incorrectly they’re in control when, of course, they aren’t and end up sprawled on the ground.

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