Baked and Awake News Brief 002

Episode Description

11.08.18 Baked and Awake News Brief 002 Cannabis won America's mid term elections Stephen Cominski   Hello and welcome to another edition of the Baked and Awake News Brief. If you like the content you get and want more, please subscribe to the Baked and Awake podcast on all major podcast destinations or at bakedandawake.com.   Today is November 8th 2018 and I am reporting on the biggest winner of the mid term elections in the United States- Cannabis.  Without extending today’s commentary to the possibly overshadowing shockwave that is the Resignation/Firing of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a well known and powerful opponent of Cannabis legalization now for the literal lifetimes of many young smokers and would be tokers- the biggest takeaway from this week’s election results is that Americans will have their weed, and soon. Just two weeks or so into Canada’s historic national legalization of everybody’s favorite illicit plant, Michigan voters turned out in droves to ram through a recreational cannabis victory.  Utah and Missouri, two staunchly red states, each passed Medical Cannabis measures. Add to this the prospect of several newly elected, Progressive as regards Cannabis Governors who just got elected in several other states, and we can safely surmise that the Green Rush will continue to outpace any hoped for Blue Waves or Red Tides across the American Political  landscape, with a recent Gallup poll indicating that 66 percent of Americans support full legalization of cannabis.     Facts for this story were provided by Forbes.com, linked in the show notes. We will continue to keep a very close eye on developments in the legalization space, you can count on 2019 being a very dynamic year for Cannabis in all its forms.   And now, since we can’t let you leave on a happy note like that and not give you something to keep you up at night- from my usual perusal of Slashdot.org by way of the South China Morning Post’s International Edition’s Stephen Chen- China’s brightest children are being recruited to develop AI ‘killer bots’ (Paraphrasing the article that is linked in full in the show notes, this somewhat worrying story’s highlights are as follows.   Beijing Institute of Technology recruits 31 ‘patriotic’ youngsters for new AI weapons development programme Expert in international science policy describes course as ‘extremely powerful and troubling’ According to the program’s brochure, each student will be mentored by two senior weapons scientists, one from an academic background and the other from the defence industry The BIT is one of the country’s top weapons research institutes, and the launch of the new programme is evidence of the weight it places on the development of AI technology for military use (A quote from the story) “These kids are all exceptionally bright, but being bright is not enough,” said a BIT professor who was involved in the screening process but asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject. “We are looking for other qualities such as creative thinking, willingness to fight, a persistence when facing challenges,” he said. “A passion for developing new weapons is a must … and they must also be patriots.”   Read the full story over at https://www.scmp.com/, and if this is an area of interest for you, it is likely I/we will look at this story and others like it in more depth soon on our long form podcast, Baked and Awake, available in your iTunes app, and everywhere you get your Podcasts.   Until next time, this is Steve Cominski saying smoke indica, do shit anyway..   Music for the show provided royalty free with attribution by Antti Loude of Soundcloud and Reddit fame. Listen to Antti’s Beautiful tracks and get him paid for his work by streaming him on Spotify   Email Steve anytime at talktous@bakedandawake.com