The New Coffee Room

I don't know that a bunch of people denying the science of vaccines constitutes a serious lack of public confidence. More like a lack of sense.

Don't forget this winter to take him to a big icy parking lot and make him get into some skids. It builds muscle memory.

Also, I DRILLED into my daughter that distance = time, time = safety. Think Clockwork Orange therapy for young drivers. Also drill him on the exceptionally miniscule time you save by speeding. Traffic school was good for me in that they focused on that.

I used Duke's. That's the house mayo at Chez Kean. Yes I know that's not proper French..bugger off pedantifs. (that's French for pedants. I looked it up)

I might try a little sour cream or even a little cream to thin it out. I don't like dressing too thick, just barely coat the greens.

I looked on the map. Not sure there are many out there. I looked at highway 9 but I'd bet it's pretty well traveled and fast. 202 across the bridge up north looks like a good road for curves.

Bush's Orange Blue Cheese Dressing

This is from a long defunct restaurant in Logan Ohio. Pretty tasty. A good friend looked up their chef and got the recipe. I upped the French Dressing and the cheese and less mayo. About half and half. I might lessen teh mayo still since I don't love it in dressing.

Go find a four lane US highway out in the country. Less traffic, lower speed, very forgiving place to learn.

Poor little Waymos

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/why-protestors-are-burning-waymo-self-driving-cars-in-los-angeles/ar-AA1GnrQj?cmp_prftch=2

It is. We got ours through five undergrad year with no debt and a car. Ever since then she's made consistently good decisions. A lot of that is we normally involved her in the reasoning process behind how we made decisions as a family.

@jon-nyc said in Mostly peaceful in LA:

I doubt it's illegal immigrants protesting, it's just too dangerous. I imagine it's mostly American progressives 'resisiting'. Anyway I agree they're hurting their cause and doing Mexicans here no favor.

Probably true.

Let's get it straight - they are protesting because they can no longer expect to freely waltz in and out of America.

No, it's tough. My daughter makes more than that and still has a hard time making ends meet.

The Kyoto International Conference Center (ICC Kyoto) features a visible seismic damper in its underground parking, engineered by Kajima Corporation, one of Japan’s leading construction firms. This red steel component is a hysteretic damper, designed to deform under seismic stress and convert kinetic energy into heat, reducing structural loads on the column.
The damper forms part of Kajima’s Seismic Isolation System (KSI) technologies, developed after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, which exposed critical weaknesses in mid-century concrete structures. These systems have since been widely adopted in public infrastructure retrofits across Japan.
ICC Kyoto, designed by Sachio Otani and opened in 1966, is a key site for Japan’s architectural modernism. While the main brutalist structure remains intact, its annexes have undergone retrofitting to meet post-1995 seismic standards. Kajima’s decision to leave the device exposed supports inspection visibility and reflects Japan’s approach to seismic transparency in structural design.

A protester holds up a Mexican flag as burning cars line the street

Snort

Nah. This is AI wars. Let's see if we can get them to REALLY diss each other. AI trash talk.

There does seem to be some controversy on reliability.

Is ChatGPT and Grok credible?
Both ChatGPT and Grok are powerful AI language models, but their credibility varies and comes with significant limitations. It's crucial to understand these when using them as sources of information.

Here's a breakdown:

ChatGPT

Accuracy: While ChatGPT (especially newer versions like GPT-4o) can achieve high accuracy rates on benchmarks (around 88.7% on MMLU), its accuracy is nuanced and context-dependent. It performs best on general knowledge questions where there's abundant training data. However, for specialized or niche domains (e.g., specific medical conditions, obscure historical events) or complex questions, accuracy can drop significantly.

Reliability: ChatGPT's reliability depends on several factors:
Knowledge Cutoff: The free version (GPT-3.5) has a knowledge cutoff, meaning it doesn't have access to information beyond a certain date (around September 2021). Paid versions like GPT-4 may have more recent data, but still have cutoffs. This means it can provide outdated information on rapidly evolving topics.
Hallucinations: A significant limitation is "hallucinations," where the model generates factually incorrect or nonsensical information with a confident tone. Studies show that even GPT-4 can hallucinate, though less frequently than GPT-3.5.

Lack of Source Citation: ChatGPT often struggles to cite its sources or explain its reasoning, making it difficult to verify the information it provides.
Bias: Like all AI models, ChatGPT can reflect biases present in its training data, which can lead to skewed or inaccurate responses.
Credibility for Academic Use: Generally, ChatGPT is not considered a credible source of factual information for academic writing. While it can be useful for brainstorming or generating ideas, any factual claims should be independently verified through reliable, citable sources.
Grok

Accuracy and Reliability: Grok, developed by xAI, aims to provide more unrestricted and nuanced responses, with a "rebellious streak" and access to real-time information from the X (formerly Twitter) platform. However, this real-time access also presents challenges:
Inconsistent Accuracy: Reports suggest Grok can be insightful but is also prone to occasional factual errors and inconsistencies in response quality.
Citation Issues: A study by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism found Grok 3 to be highly inaccurate in citing news, fabricating links, citing syndicated/plagiarized work, or misattributing articles a staggering 94% of the time. This makes it highly unreliable for factual verification.
Misinformation Potential: Its reliance on real-time data from a platform like X, which can contain unverified or biased information, increases the risk of it spreading misinformation.
Hallucinations: Like ChatGPT, Grok can "hallucinate" and provide confident-sounding but incorrect information.
Bias: Its training data and integration with X could potentially amplify existing biases.
Credibility for General Use: While Grok's real-time knowledge and unique personality can be engaging, its reported high rate of incorrect citations and potential for misinformation mean it should be approached with extreme caution for any factual information.
In summary:

Neither ChatGPT nor Grok should be considered fully credible or definitive sources of factual information on their own. They are powerful tools for generating text, summarizing information, and assisting with various tasks, but they are prone to errors, biases, and "hallucinations."

Key takeaways for using AI tools like ChatGPT and Grok:

Always verify information: Cross-reference any critical information from these AI models with established, reputable sources.
Understand their limitations: Be aware of their knowledge cutoffs, potential for bias, and tendency to "hallucinate."
Use them as assistants, not oracles: View them as tools to aid your research and writing, not as substitutes for critical thinking and fact-checking.
Be specific in your prompts: Providing more context and clear instructions can improve the accuracy of their responses.
Request sources: If available, ask the AI to provide sources for its claims, though be aware that these may also be inaccurate or fabricated, especially with Grok.

Not time to really comment but this is a great thread.

Horace is clearly a paid subscriber.