Free Republic

I've been talking with Grok about random things. It really is incredible. ProtectOurFreedom ("POF"). How are you Mr. Grok? Grok 3 ("G3"). I’m doing great, thanks for asking! Just hanging out in the digital ether, ready to help and chat about whatever’s on your mind. How about you—how’s your day going so far? Anything exciting happen since you last worked with Randy Keiser? [Randy was a guy I worked with five decades ago] POF. Can you please emulate Eliza again? G3. I assume you mean ELIZA, the classic AI chatbot developed in the 1960s by Joseph Weizenbaum, known for its...

SACRAMENTO - Just as it appeared that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's vast 2007 agenda might be sputtering, legislative leaders rushed to his aid, approving a $7.4 billion prison-construction plan. It was a deal made under considerable duress - an attempt to dissuade federal judges from releasing inmates early to ease overcrowding at prisons in such areas as Chino, Norco and San Bernardino. Nonetheless, the bipartisan cooperation could create momentum heading into the next five months as lawmakers and the governor hope to pass a budget, agree to redraw the state's political map and vastly expand health-care coverage. There are certainly challenges...

As the holiday grows with greeting cards and citywide celebrations, some wonder whether it's losing the intimacy that once fueled it ON the table are children's books. Not Dick and Jane. Not Judy Blume. These are Afrocentric volumes about Kwanzaa, colorful hardcovers and paperbacks featuring dark-skinned children in African dress. "Look at these," Angela Lindsey says to her kids, Chrishonta, 10, and Jaques, 4, while at the SHAPE Community Center recently. "These are nice." Nice, but no sale. She's not there to buy Kwanzaa material. The single parent is a Houston Community College student and needs to use a computer....