4 Ways Marijuana Can Help In A Messy Break Up
Medical marijuana is about to have a big positive change with rescheduling. And it could benefit millions.
The post 4 Ways Marijuana Can Help In A Messy Break Up appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
The Fresh Toast
Medical Marijuana Is About To Have A Big Positive Change
Medical marijuana is about to have a big positive change with rescheduling. And it could benefit millions.
The post Medical Marijuana Is About To Have A Big Positive Change appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
The Fresh Toast
Your Zodiac Sign And Marijuana
Watching Yellowstone and wondering about the American Frontier? Like, was there marijuana in the old west?
The post Your Zodiac Sign And Marijuana appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
The Fresh Toast
“The growth potential is endless, endless, endless.”
by Charles Mudede
The word on the (virtual) street is that AI has transformed the science fiction of digital ghosts into a reality. The technology can, it is claimed, convincingly imitate those who are no longer with us, the living. Their afterlife is provided by “re-creation services.” They are called deadbots (or griefbots). They can interact with and send emails to those who are stuck in the time of the departed, which is, of course, the past. Though the deadbot is “definitely not a conscious entity,” they do use huge amounts of “[personal data] to simulate language patterns and personality traits.”
But there is a problem with this technology that researchers and “technology ethicists,” who seem preoccupied with the question of adaptability—meaning, with how “AI technology [might] be racing ahead of respect for human dignity”—seem to miss. This, of course, is the old problem of “adaptive lag.” As evolutionary anthropologists (particularly in the niche construction school) point out, humans are at once biological and hyper-cultural. The former evolves slowly, the latter rapidly. This gap presents risks that have biological consequences that the 1970s described as “future shock.” But the bigger and maybe fatal problem with deadbots is not adaptability, but their immortality.
The companies Silicon Intelligence and Super Brain already offer this [afterlife] service. Both rely on generative AI, including large language models similar to the one behind ChatGPT, to sift through snippets of text, photos, audio recordings, video and other data. They use this information to create digital “ghosts” of the dead to [re-]visit the living.
However, the deadbot of your mother/father/brother/partner/what-have-you will not imitate the key feature of life, which is novelty. In this way, AI imitates a soul, which, to use the words of the under-appreciated 20th-century philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, has “permanent characteristics” and so is “exactly the irrelevant answer to the problem which life presents” because “the soul need be no more original than a rock.” To be more than a photo, a text message, or an audio recording, the trick AI has to perform to produce the optimal visitation is the illusion of impermanence. The deadbot can only be convincing if it is mortal. As consequence, the realism of a digital ghost requires that it be born again only to face death again. (From this requirement emerges contradictions that are as insoluble as those found in time-travel films and literature.)
Life cannot be dynamic or have a future if it is immortal. It can’t be in heaven, where nothing happens forever; it must be in and move through the heat of time and its vicissitudes, its ups and downs. This kind of deadbot, which might recognize the Tamagotchi pet as a kind of primitive ancestor, has to eat, sleep, worry, cry, laugh, lose its marbles, obfuscate, be direct, get sick now and then, and so on and so on. It can’t just give the quick good news all of the time—”I’m loving the sunset right now…” “This Willamette Valley pinot blanc is just perfect…” “Walking through the park and looking at the clouds over Lake Washington.” Bad things must happen to it—”I got into an accident…” “I’m in an ambulance…” “Call me back as soon as you get this message.” The virtual ghost also has to age, grow old, and complain about how its time-worn knees aren’t what they used to be. And, finally, it must return to the death from which it was digitally resurrected. (But only to die again? Is that really death? Death is only death if it’s forever… right?) Whatever the case might be, there is certainly no future, no time, no being here without mortality.
If a deadbot can’t imitate life in any real sense, then what can it do? Make money. “Our concern is that griefbots might become a new space for a very sneaky product placement,” explained Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska, “a researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge.” Why end with advertising? Why not go all the way with this new profit-making opportunity?
Now, picture this (which, as a capitalist subject, shouldn’t be hard to do): When you agree to borrow money, you must also permit the bank to use your AI-generated ghost to recover what you still owe if you die. In this world, debts don’t go with you to the grave. The stay here, in the world where money is time. The deadbot of you could continue repaying a debt by working at a call center, demanding a communication fee from your relatives and friends, promoting products on the radio or social media, or being bank-pimped for virtual sex. As a sampled robot in a drum-and-bass track put it: “The growth potential is endless, endless, endless.”
The Stranger
The Stranger’s morning news roundup.
by Nathalie Graham
You’ve already heard this news: The 45th president of the United States is now a convicted felon, found guilty on all 34 charges in the hush-money case, actions that influenced the outcome of the 2016 election and altered the trajectory of our cursed little country forever. By now, your liberal family members have finished their gleeful texts, your conservative family members have exhausted their fingers from all their furious Facebooking, and you’ve already scoured the internet for analysis—like the post Rich Smith wrote yesterday—about whether this means Donald Trump can still be president. To recap everything: Yes, he can still be president, sentencing will occur on July 11, Trump could face up to four years in prison, he plans to appeal the verdict, and being a convicted felon is unlikely to sway Trump voters against voting for him. Since there’s not much else for me to add, I’ll share some fun tweets:
when the jury convicts you pic.twitter.com/umEmXFmY67
— ishmael n. daro (@iD4RO) May 30, 2024
This shank is Donald Trump’s 35th felony
pic.twitter.com/TkieC2I5DZ
— W (@ZitiDoggsGolf) May 30, 2024
“mother teresa could not beat these charges” is entering my lexicon for all eternity i fear https://t.co/ZFMkJGa5Qr
— chuck (@tenetyaoi) May 30, 2024
A great sitcom premise. pic.twitter.com/wYTC1XZxmW
— Lee Konstantinou (@LKonstan) May 30, 2024
so is trump cooked now? or is it like Air Bud logic where it’s like “there ain’t no rule says a man with 34 criminal convictions can’t be president”
— zach silberberg (@zachsilberberg) May 30, 2024
This is exactly like when they found Laura Palmer pic.twitter.com/BLrIGe43gV
— White Guy Fieri (@whiteguyfieri) May 31, 2024
Trump announced he’s holding a press conference this morning: It’s being broadcast from Trump Tower. I’m sure it will be completely sane.
Pedestrian-killing SPD cop’s past checkered with collisions: Kevin Dave, the cop who hit 23-year-old pedestrian Jaahnavi Kandula in 2023 while going 74 miles per hour, was fired from his previous gig at the Tucson Police Department after five internal investigations, according to PubliCola. Part of his bad behavior in Tucson included two car collisions. In one instance, Dave failed to yield to another car while turning in his patrol vehicle and ripped off the cop car’s bumper. In the second collision, Dave was driving his personal vehicle when he rear-ended another car, an accident he didn’t promptly report to his superiors. The driver of that car reported Dave to the police department for not having proper insurance. The department later found Dave had been driving with expired registration for seven months. The Seattle Police Department hired Dave despite this record.
Seattle Public Schools feels the heat from parents: Look, if your school district announces it’s closing down 20 elementary schools due to budget cuts, then you’re going to have some thoughts. Seattle parents this week flocked to two SPS meetings on the impending elementary school closures. Tuesday’s meeting at Roosevelt High School was an emotional cluster fuck. Thursday’s meeting at Garfield High School was more organized. Parents questioned the district and the district provided little information. One of the main questions was whether there was an alternative to these school closures. Superintendent Brent Jones answered: “That’s a great question. We don’t have a comprehensive alternative model. If there is a set of strategies that’s comprehensive, that recognizes our current state, our current instability, we are very interested.” So, not only will the closures go forward, but so will further budget cuts, since SPS faces a $105 million budget deficit for the next school year and a $129 million shortfall for the year after that.
Dave Reichert came packing to a Seattle Times interview: Gubernatorial candidate and former King County Sheriff brought a gun to the Seattle Times offices. He reportedly told them he had a gun on his hip because “he didn’t like the Seattle Times.” He mentioned this tidbit after saying how big a fan he was of the Second Amendment.
Oh! pic.twitter.com/sHHhxDFCC5
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) May 30, 2024
Israel is in central Rafah: Despite international backlash from allies and critics alike, Israel announced its forces had pushed deeper into Rafah, the southern Gaza enclave where many Palestinians sought refuge. Now, with a ground offensive complete with tanks and heavy artillery, Israel is displacing civilians again, as many flee for the second or third time in the span of this conflict.
Atmospheric river ahead: Friday will be nice, mostly sunny, and warm enough. Come Sunday, a deluge of rain will return. Soak up the sun before you get actually soaked. Even more disappointing than the rain is that cloud cover will obscure another chance to see the Northern Lights this weekend.
It’s not often we get to say this, but …
A rare June super-soaker is on tap for Sunday. Up to an inch of rain could fall in Seattle proper.
June 2 rainfall record of 0.48 inches is likely toast 🥂
— Seattle Weather Blog (@KSeattleWeather) May 31, 2024
Here is a look at the period of heaviest rainfall with the upcoming atmospheric river pattern Sunday night through Monday. Generally, most locations have at least a 50% chance for seeing rainfall totals of at least 1 inch Sunday evening through Monday afternoon. 🌧️ #WAwx pic.twitter.com/pRiIJFQXdJ
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) May 31, 2024
Another weekend update: Vice President Kamala Harris is coming to town on Saturday. It likely won’t impact you unless you have millions of dollars to give to the Biden re-election campaign. Well, it will impact you if you’re traversing the roads. Check those traffic maps if you want to avoid a snarled commute.
Vermont tells oil companies to pay up: Vermont became the first state to require fossil fuel companies to pay for a share of damage caused by climate change-fueled extreme weather events. The legislation became law on Thursday, though Republican Gov. Phil Scott did not sign it. The funds paid by these polluters will go to beefing up state infrastructure. This is landmark legislation in a world where we are seeing the impacts of climate change every day. But, what’s striking me the most about this news is that Vermont has a Republican governor. How did that happen?
A brief rabbit hole: So, I guess Vermonters really like people over politics, and they value “balance,” so the governor’s office tends to change party hands “every time since 1961.” Republican Gov. Phil Scott is seen as a “brake on a big leftward lurch” since Vermont has such strong Dem presence in both chambers of the legislature. Okay, that’s enough of that. Strange place, Vermont.
Boeing coughs up record amount of back pay: In a record-breaking settlement for the Washington Department of Labor & Industries, Boeing paid $11.5 million in wrongfully withheld travel pay to 500 workers. The workers are part of Boeing’s Aircraft-on-Ground team of traveling technical experts who help fix up grounded planes and get them back into the air. Boeing didn’t compensate these workers’ travel fees from October 2019 and August 2023. The publicity hits keep coming for our neighborhood plane maker.
Spelling Bee champ crowned: Florida’s Bruhat Soma, 12, won the 96th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee in a lightning-round tie-breaker. The spell-off is only the second ever spell-off in Bee history. Soman spelled 29 words in 90 seconds. I love sports!
This is one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen.
29 words in 90 seconds to win the Spelling Bee!
— Jake Marsh (@PMTsportsbiz) May 31, 2024
See ya, styrofoam: Kiss your packing peanuts goodbye. Well, technically, packing peanuts were banned as part of this legislation last June. So, continue to mourn your packing peanuts and kiss any other styrofoam products you covet goodbye because the next phase of the styrofoam ban goes into effect on Saturday. As of June 1, Washington is banning “the sale or distribution of Styrofoam coolers, plates, cups, bowls, and similar items.”
I hate it when my loved ones fight: Wordle, the New York Times-acquired word game, is suing Worldle, a geography-themed spin-off, for “creating confusion” and capitalizing on Wordle’s brand. Let all the silly brain-itching phone games you haven’t acquired yet be, New York Times. Okay? Great. Now, it’s time for me to play Connections and Strands.
A collection for your Friday: You ever think about how having kids in a world riddled by climate change feels not only kind of wrong, but also impossible? The teams over at Vox, Grist, and The 19th put together a collection of stories all about pregnancy and climate change. They’re worth your time.
A song for your Friday: This song is so funky.
The Stranger
While it does not appear Cauce will retract her accusations against the protesters, this latest episode shows students will continue to push back on UW administration with or without tents on the ground.
by Hannah Krieg
Protesters from the recently disbanded Liberated Zone call on University of Washington (UW) President Ana Mari Cauce to retract her statement describing their chants and signs “vile and antisemitic” after she used photos that appear to be from Florida and California as proof of her claim.
In a public letter released Friday morning, a group of people affiliated with the Liberated Zone accused Cauce of acting either in malice, incompetence, or both. “What is truly vile,” they wrote, borrowing Cauce’s words, “is the way proponents of Zionism have falsely and maliciously tried to discredit a movement protesting documented human rights violations. It is shameful and embarrassing that the administration of the UW became the driving force of this malice.”
United Front for Palestinian Liberation (UF) set up their tents in the quad on May 1, joining college students across the country in pressuring their universities to divest from Israel and weapon manufacturers amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Unlike at other schools, UW did not sicc the cops on protesters but rather negotiated, albeit not very generously.
Then, on May 15, as UW administration appeared more and more impatient at negotiations, Cauce released a public statement in which she accused protesters of “vile and antisemitic” rhetoric and redoubled her call for a voluntary end to the encampment. However, as her critics quickly noticed, Cauce did not provide any examples of the “vile and antisemitic” rhetoric. UF assumed Cauce referred to the maligned phrase “from the river to the sea,” but after multiple email requests, Cauce finally clarified.
In a May 30 email exchange between Cauce and UW graduate student and encampment participant Juliette Majid, Cauce sent five images others had sent to her that she used to justify her accusations against her students. She attached a photo of a bench with the words “MUG ZIONISTS ONLY” written on it, a corner of a brick building with the phrases “FREE PALESTINE” and “FUCK OFF ZIONISTS” spray painted on it, and the statute of George Washington tagged with “SAVE A LIFE… KILL YOUR LOCAL COLONIZER.”
In the letter, Liberated Zone participants argued only two images Cauce sent qualified as antisemitism rather than anti-Zionism—a picture of a swastika followed by the words “ThE Jews,” and a bit of sidewalk with “Kill Jews” painted on it. But neither of those images came from their protest.
Majid told Cauce that the last two pictures were not captured at UW, in the state of Washington, or even in the year 2024. The swastika image appeared in a 2021 news story about an antisemitic rally at the Florida Holocaust Museum, and the “Kill Jews” image appeared in a tweet posted by the Anti-Defamation League of Los Angeles in 2019.
Cauce emailed back, “I do believe there is another ‘Kill Jews’ that I will look for.”
Still, Cauce said even if those last two images did not come from UW, “reasonable people who not believe [sic] that criticism of Israel or its policies is antisemitic, would still believe that the the [sic] ones saying F*ck Zionists or Death to Zionists or Kill Colonizers or the Mugging bench for Zionists are anti-Semitic. And they all fit the Department of Education’s definition of anti-semitism.”
In a later message, Cauce apologized that false images “got mixed in” and that in trying to respond quickly she did not verify their origin. But she said she made her assessment “primarily based on the images we all agree were from the camp.” She stands by what she says and continues to believe other instances of graffiti qualifies as antisemitism because it crosses a line between “criticism of the Israeli government and the specific targeting of ‘Zionists’.”
Still, the Liberated Zone protesters said using the easily disprovable pictures suggests UW and Cauce acted either “with malicious intent or are fully incompetent.” Either way, they wrote that Cauce’s accusations, still not substantiated to their standards, “tainted the reputation of activists and granted Zionists false legitimacy to berate any pro-Palestine people at the UW,” putting students in “physical, academic, and social danger.” The Liberated Zone protesters claimed the night following Cauce’s statement, a drone crashed into the Quad and someone “intentionally” launched a firework from a surrounding building. They said those events felt parallel to those that preceded attacks at other schools.
“If you truly cared about student safety, these would have been investigated before being used to perpetuate false and unfounded accusations against the Liberated Zone and its members,” Majid wrote to Cauce in the email exchange.
Cauce wrote to Majid that she sees “no evidence” of harm from her statement. She wrote, “…when individuals participate or justify vandalism and the use of that sort of vile and violent rhetoric toward others… they, in fact, do damage to their cause. And that is exactly what happened. It was not my email that did this.”
While it does not appear Cauce will retract her accusations against the protesters, this latest episode shows students will continue to push back on UW administration with or without tents on the ground. The students will keep advocating for their demands: Academically and financially divest from Israel, cut ties with Boeing, and end the repression of pro-Palestinian voices on campus.
The Stranger
The best new music to hit Dave Segal’s inbox this week.
by Dave Segal
TV Star, “Ride” (KR Records)
Supercrush, “Lost My Head” (KR Records)
The desire to curate scene-defining compilations has existed in Seattle since at least 1988’s Sub Pop 200. Nearly 30 years later in 2017, Crane City Music spotlighted the Emerald City’s underground hip-hop movement with Solar Power: New Sounds in Seattle Hip-Hop. Now, Supercrush member Mark Palm’s KR label is releasing From Far It All Seems Small, a 14-track comp that captures some of the exciting studio action generated by the town’s subterranean rock groups.
On first listen, I almost thought that From Far It All Seems Small was the handiwork of one or two artists, such was the unified aesthetic of the songs pounding through the headphones. Ordinarily, that might seem like a complaint, but overall, the quality of the music here attains a high level of sonic pleasure. Palm has selected the acts for this comp to create optimal continuity, and he possesses a keen ear for noisy, tuneful rock pumped out in concise chunks (the longest track is 3:46).
Palm and his Supercrush bandmates conceived the collection’s concept while on a national tour, using the marathon drives to ponder the bounty of excellent Seattle-area bands. “We realized the scene here is the best it’s been in a long, long time,” Palm said in a press release. “There was a good feeling of camaraderie developing between many of the groups from playing shows together and working alongside each other on various projects. The comp is an opportunity to celebrate the music from our extended circle of friends here in town, and hopefully to galvanize the scene and contribute further to that sense of camaraderie.”
While that’s a lovely idea, it’s indicative of a mindset that realizes achieving global renown in the manner that ’90s local grunge bands experienced is hopelessly quixotic. But within this realm of diminished expectations, From Far It All Seems Small stands as a civic-pride monument to rock that punches above its weight, and with efficiency. No, it’s not trail-blazing, but it is fun.
Sun Spots open proceedings with “Hole One,” which exudes youthful exuberance and meaty tunefulness, proving that brutes can pull heartstrings, too. Spiral XP’s “Awake (Spring Version)” purveys uplifting, doleful rock in the Jesus and Mary Chain/Pastels vein while Dead Family Dog’s “Crispin Glover” doles out aggressive shoegaze à la Swervedriver. More Scottish ’80s influence surfaces on Star Party’s “Old as the Sun,” which recalls Shop Assistants’ ramalama pop punk, enhanced by alluringly defiant, distant vocals.
The title of Versing’s “Skin (Kirby’s Dream Debased)” may reference the Fall, but the music’s more in the wrenching shoegaze steez somewhere between My Bloody Valentine’s Isn’t Anything and Failure. Speaking of which, Shine‘s “Happy Diving” has that woozy euphoria and benumbed male/female vocal interplay that have made MBV such a luscious listening experience. I even hear a (probably unintentional) homage to the wah-wah guitar from Chapterhouse’s “Falling Down.” This is one of the album’s peaks. Kennero’s “Sunlight” evokes classic ’90s loud-quiet-loud indie rock with earnest white-boy vocals. You may detect faint echoes of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
<a href=”https://supercrush.bandcamp.com/album/from-far-it-all-seems-small”>From Far It All Seems Small by A Compilation From Seattle’s Underground</a>
Supercrush deliver the comp’s first single with “Lost My Head,” a soaring, yearning rock gem with masterly dynamics and shockingly wonky keyboard tones that rarely appear, but make the most of their brief time. It’s a crafty mini-masterpiece that sounds destined to score a quirky montage in a rom-com movie ca. 2031.
The album’s second single, TV Star‘s “Ride,” is understatedly buoyant rock with a melody that entwines itself around your brain with indestructible tendrils. It contains one of the most enrapturing brain-worm hooks of the decade. When I think back to spring of 2024, I’m going to flash upon “Ride” as one of the era’s definitive cuts. And at 126 seconds long, it leaves you gagging for more.
Release parties for From Far It All Seems Small take place May 31 (w/ TV Star, Supercrush, Versing, Prim, Kennero) and June 1 at Black Lodge (w/ Sun Spots, Dead Family Dog, Shook Ones, Fluung, Fell Off). The compilation is available digitally and at Seattle and Tacoma record stores, with an exclusive, limited-edition “Emerald City green” colored vinyl release available only at Sonic Boom. The record will be available in stores throughout America on June 28.
The Stranger
Plus, Ellen’s Last Stand…Up and More Event Updates
by Audrey Vann
French electronic duo Justice will make you D.A.N.C.E this fall in support of their forthcoming album, Hyperdrama. Country music legend Dwight Yoakam has also announced a stop in Everett this July. Plus, legendary bully Ellen Degeneres will drop by on her Ellen’s Last Stand…Up tour. Read on for details on those and other newly announced events, plus some news you can use.
Tickets go on sale at 10 am unless otherwise noted.
ON SALE FRIDAY, MAY 31
MUSIC
10 Years
El Corazón (Sat Oct 12)
Bilmuri
The Showbox (Tues Aug 27)
Buddy Guy – Damn Right Farewell
Remlinger Farms (Sat Aug 24)
The Stranger
What To Do If Smoking Marijuana Irritates Your Throat
The blunt is the classic way to consume weed, but what to do if smoking marijuana irritates your throat?
The post What To Do If Smoking Marijuana Irritates Your Throat appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
The Fresh Toast
May is off to a great start with a federal decision to reschedule cannabis! We’ve picked these 12 strains to help each sign make the most of the month’s cosmic energy, and celebrate a historic win.
The post Star signs and cannabis strains: June 2024 horoscopes appeared first on Leafly.
Leafly