Mel Hopkins

I love this both this topic and all the responses! Da Bears! (even though I don't patronize the NFL anymore) But its hard not to when my daughter and son-in-law keep sending me videos from the games! Chicago Bear Fight Song

Oh, wait, maybe I was being assumptious - especially since both you and Delano said AI was flattering, and I haven't seen any of that behavior. Did you select a tone? - Every so often, it asks if I like the tone of the response. In this case Zipf's Law, the response wasn't flattery; it explained the formula, then it showed how I didn't become a victim of programming. Regarding hallucination, what we might think is hallucination may sometimes be a result of AI having access to obscure information. So it is also best to ask for proof. I found that I didn't have the latest information on something that had recently changed. So I asked for sources. It turned out to be correct when the accreditation group issued a press release that I was unaware of. The last time it hallucinated was about a book I was reading - I believe the model trained on a draft or galley - and I only had the final version. Here's the exchange from my prompt discussing "Good Dirt" by Charmaine Wilkerson from the perspective of the Hero's journey. Background: I believe the character Ebby Freeman (Good Dirt) follows the path of Jamie Mae Crawford from "Their Eyes were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston. So, is the following flattery? Or a normal response?

Exactly!

Don't let anyone tell you "writing and reading" doesn't pay. My gigs all required me to write, read, research, report, prepare corporate communication and integrated marketing communication strategies, manage brands, and produce consumer-facing journalism. At LaSalle Bank, ABN AMRO, the bank's parent company, wanted them to implement a sustainability program, so they hired me to build the project. I worked as a project specialist in civic and community development dept at LaSalle Bank. It was a very high-profile gig. - I wrote speeches for the CEO when he had to speak to nonprofit groups in Chicago; I prepared and produced PSAs for the Chicago Foundation for Women. It was a lot of outreach and planning. Best job ever, and I met Michelle Obama at the CFW luncheon. But here's the key to manifesting your dream position. In short, when considering employment, you don't apply for jobs; instead, you provide solutions to business problems. I did my homework and pitched solutions. BUT you also need to fit some unwritten role and requirement. I didn't find out what that was until later. (And I don't want to say what that thing is, but it's not race or gender-related) After United emerged from bankruptcy, it expanded its customer profile. This new business model meant they needed flight attendants who were fluent in communicating with all levels of the flying public. From Corporate CEOS to Government Officials to the occasional family on vacation, they wanted to cater to these groups. - So folks in my flight attendant class came from various backgrounds, including burnt-out lawyers, healthcare professionals, actors, even a retired judge - and me, a lovelorn, heartbroken novelist whose book was quickly dropping in rank on the am*zon list. I needed to get away!

Really 2025? By now, AI can access all information, including research papers, some academic dissertations, peer-reviewed academic journals, and more, not just what Machine Learning engineers trained it on before 2022. So that's unusual. What brand did you use -Google's Gemini, ChatGPT, NotebookLLM? Anthropic's Claude or Copilot? I found errors with Copilot in Bing's search back in 2024, and even a few hiccups depending on how you word your prompt, but for the most part, I've found it reliable, even in software design.

I wonder if that's why Caesar created January 1 New Year - many businesses now end their fiscal year in December - Hmm. I remember working for LaSalle Bank and we had a lot of extra cash to donate because December was the end of the fiscal year. But now that you mention that my favorite equinox (I'm nearly an autumn baby) is end of fiscal year-maybe that's why Bank of America bought them up. Oh snap the U.S. Government which is now 38.5 trillion dollars in debt fiscal year ends Sept 30. I dunno, I may have to switch my fiscal year end - let me do so reading lol

Interesting. I always ask for Works cited in MLA format - then I follow up with the library's online academic journal database. Or was this before 2023? Whenever I hear AI stories like this it tells me a lot about how people are using GEN AI because it mirrors the users' patterns and behaviors. So in this case were you in test mode? I find pushback is helpful because it forces GEN AI to go deep - It will be generic at first because it meets users where they are. Yes my Chat is polite - flaterring, not so much. I'm competitive, so the way ChatGPT works to keep me engage is by offering options to best itself. My favorite lines to it, are "pause and bookmark." Still, I'm not above feeling superior however. But it comes at the cost of hearing how other people use AI. In my circle, there isn't any one at my level yet. So, I feel good about my AI engagement since my productivity is way up with chatgpt/gemini/notebook. But that feeling was fleeting after coming across this from the Wall Street Journal. Do you know Y-Combinator gets about 10,000 applicants per "batch" And now these teens get access while buidling businesses to watch before they even graduate high school. These Teenagers Are Already Running Their Own AI Companies They might not yet drive, but they’re getting an early start in business by leveraging vibe-coding and social media By Katherine Bindley Follow Dec. 21, 2025 8:00 pm ET Nick Dobroshinsky built an AI-powered finance tool with more than 50,000 monthly users, but he’s still just a sophomore in high school. Grant Hindsley for WSJ Like any good tech founder, Nick Dobroshinsky puts in late nights and early mornings working on his startup. But this particular founder doesn’t have much choice: Between 8 a.m. and 2:55 p.m., he’s in high school. He’s 15. “Around the end of eighth grade, I wanted to make some sort of business,” says Dobroshinsky, a sophomore in Sammamish, Wash. “I just spent a long time thinking about what problems there are that could be fixed with AI.” With a little market-research help from his mom, who works in finance, and some early technical guidance from his dad, who works in AI at a big tech company, he landed on the idea of using AI models to generate reports on small- and mid-cap publicly traded companies. The result is BeyondSPX, an AI-based financial research platform. Young and hungry entrepreneurs are nothing new: Bill Gates was 19 when he co-founded Microsoft; Mark Zuckerberg was the same age when he started Facebook. But today’s founders might well have a learner’s permit and a mouthful of braces. Some got their start attending robotics camps, or building games on Roblox’s platform. One got his feet wet breaking into candy distribution. (Ever considered selling Gobstoppers to middle-schoolers in Singapore? It’s a cash cow.) AI has fast-tracked both their interest in building a company and their ability to do it. Startup incubator Y Combinator doesn’t have age minimums to apply. Posting the right type of content might draw the attention of venture-capital firms on the lookout for young talent. VCs might not be ready to hand you millions, but they would like to get to know you and perhaps stay in touch. Dobroshinsky says he has only handled around 10 lines of code and doesn’t have any employees: He prompts Anthropic’s Claude to generate the software and uses a combination of models including ChatGPT and Gemini. He doesn’t currently see the value in recruiting a marketing team. Notes from early days of BeyondSPX, 15-year-old Nick Dobroshinsky’s AI-powered, web-based small- and mid-cap stock research tool.Grant Hindsley for The Wall Street Journal “I use Reddit bots,” he says. “If someone asks for the best investing tools, then my bot will comment, ‘There’s a bunch of investing tools and BeyondSPX is one of them.’” He says he now has more than 50,000 monthly users on the platform, which is free. Dobroshinsky plans to start charging users eventually. Greystone Logistics, a company covered by BeyondSPX, put out a press release touting the independent analysis. “I actually thought to myself, ‘Maybe this guy just unleashed AI on every small-cap company,’” says Brendan Hopkins, an independent investor-relations consultant who works with Greystone. “I said, well, it’s a really good synopsis and it’s pretty positive, let’s put it out there,” he says. He didn’t know the platform’s founder was 15. Kulveer Taggar, a venture capitalist based in San Francisco, says the age of founders has been trending down over the past few years—around the same time frame that ChatGPT and Claude became popular. It’s more common for him to get cold business-pitch emails from teens. Taggar says that is partially because building great software at scale is getting easier now. And while distribution is still a challenge, he says, younger founders might have it in their heads that if they’ve mastered TikTok or X, they can handle that part, too. There’s an impatience and a mentality of, “I can’t wait X amount of years to do it. The opportunity is now,” says Taggar, adding, “There’s definitely something about AI making it feel like you can just learn very quickly.” Raghav Arora, co-founder of the GetASAP grocery-inventory delivery service, got his start by selling American candy to his classmates in Singapore. Raghav Arora One company Taggar invested in was co-founded by Raghav Arora, who was accepted into Y Combinator in May as a 16-year-old. Arora launched his first entrepreneurial venture as a student in Singapore. He tracked down U.S. candy that was hard to find in Asia and sold it to his classmates. It earned him good cash (and three days of detention). The endeavor taught him the ropes of product distribution, and how to maximize profit by cutting out middlemen. He started selling to mom-and-pop grocers in Singapore, too. https://www.wsj.com/business/entrepreneurship/teenage-founders-ecb9cbd3?st=YxKDfW&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink Happy New Year Brotha @ProfD ! Thank you! Trust, I have to remind myself of that daily! LOL My comment was a huge note to self!

Absolutely - equinox and solstices are the real observances...

No one knows "nothing," and that's what makes life fun! We get to ponder, test, and sometimes, when we stay focused, we can win prizes! I posted a link to one of the YouTube channels I watch to see what others have been able to prove, for now, in the world of Quantum Mechanics. The YouTuber started strong, but he lost the plot for a minute, then he returned to the story. My problem with some Western physicists is that they forget to look back to the land of our origin. It appears that, long before Western Physicists came up with Quanta, Ancient Africans referred to this field as "The Net," the energy matrix, the field of living energy behind all physical reality. Neter were the conscious forces of nature, the Divine powers/principles manifested through natural forms. Masters of the Net used thought to shape physical reality. Similarities between The Net and Quanta include: All existence is interconnected. - Africans have several words for this concept, including umoja (unity) and ubuntu (which shares the philosophy "I am because we are..."). Consciousness and intention shape reality, much like the observer effect in quantum mechanics, And matter is a manifestation of spiritual energy. Both Quanta and Neter suggest that an intelligent energy field underpins the physical world. Medu Neter, the divine language, embodies this idea, showing that spiritual energy manifests as matter. Recognizing these parallels enriches my view of how ancient African spirituality aligns with modern quantum theories, emphasizing interconnectedness and the role of consciousness in shaping reality. All that to say, whenever the conversation turns to the Western concept of quantum mechanics, I always go back to the source, "The Net" and Ancient African spirituality. Thank you again!

Quantum Entanglement is the first thing that comes to mind when you mention quantum physics. I love the idea that if the me in this dimension corrects a mistake, the other me will benefit from the change no matter where she is. The phenomenon makes me wonder how entanglement might influence our personal lives or decisions, even if it's just a metaphor. I often wish that the other me would get her act together. There's more, of course, but that's what I focus on when I think of that theory (although physicists say they've proven it with particles). Second is, again, that word: coherence and cacophony. I believe those of us here in this dimension will experience chaos simply because we chose to individuate - we are all marching to our beat - but in another dimension, like the one I visited when I 'died' after the car crash, there is coherence. All one mind - the hum was coherence. It's comforting to think that amidst chaos, there's a possibility of returning to a state of unity and calm.(even though I did want to come back) That's my takeaway - and probably not what you meant. I'm curious about your perspective on this connection and quantum physics because I wrote an entire essay about Zipf's Law on the strength of you just mentioning it. I was so intriqued that I spent last night reading up on it. I find it fascinating how our perceptions shape reality, like how those billionaires got rich off our content because they understood Zipf's law, while writers like me just wanted attention. It makes me think about how knowledge and awareness influence our place in the world and what that says about our collective consciousness. Oh and the fact that those "billionaires" all excelled in math, probability while many of us asked the teachers "will I use this math in my everyday life."

Happy New Year! This wasn't praise. Is that how you read it? Well, no Gemini broke down Zipf's equation mathematically to show me the head count and the long tail count of the two essays I asked it to compare. It revealed I haven't sacrificed my writing to meet Google's demand. As I mentioned I started by asking it to show me why Zipf's law is considered a law and why it would matter to me. I don't have time for fake praise and I definitely don't use chat, gemini, or notebook for flattery. Do you realize that's kind of a sexist thing to write? I use AI to keep up with my client, the wirelss technology expert Did you see in the latest newsletter about Lockheed Martin RTX. I first used AI to create a couple of GPT Agents; I use AI projects to run my small business. Now I'm vibe-coding to make sure I get my Agentic AI to work on its own without embarrassing me. Yea, that's where I'm at... You know like you revamping this website (it looks good) but instead I'm using it to write software operations manuals to sell IPs to OEMs. Oh and I just recently, prepared my trademark application -but do continue to go off about keeping me engaged with flattery...

As do I! How wild is that! In fact when I send birthday greetings I sign off with "Have a wonderful New Year! .

Happy New Year @aka Contrarian and AALBC Fam! As for the two popular words, I avoid both like COVID-19. Still, I like hearing about new things. I've never heard of Zipf's law. In fact, I wondered if it was a law or an odd occurrence. Well, you know, I ran to Gen AI to see how we use this empirical law and why it matters. And wow! "Coherence" is the long story short. It helps you examine your writing from a mathematical perspective. Still, I also found that "writing for likes" could have forced writers, even me, to stop fully expressing ourselves, especially in storytelling. I compared a story I wrote in 2009 with a story I wrote in 2025 - and Gen AI said I didn't sacrifice the long tail for the head in my writing - (whew). Still, in a way, I knew that because I rarely go viral with any of my stories. Thank you for sharing this new (to me) information. It even helped me to update my 2009 story as a cautionary tale for 2026!

Hello, @Pioneer1 wait, wut?

Thanks for the tag. I read through your essay, and while I don’t agree with a lot of the conclusions, I do think you’re raising an interesting point about the difference between what officials want to do versus what they’re actually allowed to do. The part of your argument that does land for me is the structural piece: — The mayor can’t set private-market prices, — but can shape how NYC agencies function, including the NYPD. That’s a fundamental distinction and a solid place to build from. Your part about packaging sizes and affordability is also an interesting angle. It reminds me of "five-cent loosies" from back in the day. That’s something you could actually dig into with data, separate from the political side. For me, I try to stick to the parts of an argument where there’s a clear legal or economic grounding — it keeps the conversation from going in circles. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts. It will be interesting to see how Mayor Mamdani differs from the mayoral candidate Mamdani.

I stumbled on this one and "mind blown." The featured man is a Nigerian from the Yoruba Clan, but grew up in Russia.

Agree! I think this is why you, I, and the rest of the AALBC fam meet up here. We freaking READ! We read our history and study our lessons! We don't let anyone feed us what they want us to know. You can't be sold on anything when you Know Thyself! But without that knowledge, somebody can sell folks an Easy button.

If the NYC mayoral race were a novel, I'd deconstruct its architecture. From one election to the next, the narrative appears to shift away from focused policy debates, instead centering on the influence of religious groups. The major religious factions—Christian nationalists, Muslims, and Jews—each appear to compete for cultural and political dominance within the city. Amid this religious competition, the African diaspora in the U.S.—a powerful and often underestimated voting bloc—continues to be overlooked and taken for granted by both the candidates and the dominant religious groups. It sometimes seems as though these competing religious groups neglect the African diaspora’s influence. Ironically, the roots of these religions trace back to African science-based spirituality, yet this connection receives little attention in political or religious discourse. This dynamic played out in Election 2024: Christian nationalists—including evangelists, southern Baptists, and likely Catholics—rallied strongly behind DJT. Media and external influencers shifted the conversation away from local policy and toward polarizing international issues, like the U.S. stance on Israel and Palestine, further affecting how voters chose among domestic candidates. When reviewing 2025 election results, I noticed Mamdani was not the only Muslim elected, which raises the question of whether heightened coverage of Gaza led to greater sympathy and increased Muslim representation—a trend potentially extending into the midterms. Don’t misunderstand—I bear a grudge against all religions. Religious study should bring wisdom, spirituality, and growth, yet it often has the opposite effect. Religions lead to violence instead of joy and peace. Add patriarchy, and it’s chaos. Returning to the story's structure: Is this a narrative of democratic socialism rising in the heart of Wall Street? Consider Manhattan—the FINANCIAL CAPITAL OF THE WORLD—and its boroughs. Is the city that never sleeps really ready to move from capitalism to social ownership? Notably, NYC is the largest property owner according to Curbed.com, and the mayor administers these assets. Perhaps social ownership is the underlying story arc behind recent shifts. So, in this story—call it Project 2025 (S)—the central figure is a young millennial poised to challenge the reigning power and reclaim Manhattan for the people. Behind the scenes, religious struggle, human trafficking disguised as immigration reform, and pervasive surveillance set the chaotic stage for change in the city. Meet the Muslim and Arab Americans who won in US local elections Jews vote for Andrew Cuomo over Zohran Mamdani in NYC mayoral race | The Jerusalem Post "In addition to the Jewish vote, Mamdani lost the Catholic vote by a significant margin: 53% supported Cuomo and 14% backed Sliwa, against 33% for Mamdani. A decisive 75% of voters with no religious affiliation supported Mamdani." Here's a past look at Manhattan when DJT began buying up NY property in the early 70s(?) a look back at Palestinians, Israel, Libya, etc.

Powerful observation, Brotha ProfD! Many women in the industry feel the same way - but again, look who runs the industry. I wonder how the music industry would look if people from the African diaspora were at the top?

I love this performance. Maxwell was supposed to battle D'Angelo in Verzus, but he didn't show up. D'Angelo went on and did that damn thing anyway. Then H.E.R. showed up to do this duet - and it was heaven. Thank you, D'Angelo, for sharing your beautiful talent! May beautiful music follow you as you continue your journey. D’Angelo, Grammy-winning R&B singer, dies at 51 | AP News

This "podcast" is really good. I feel like this is next-level promotional collateral for authors to promote their books!

The first chapter identifies Paschal as Black, even though the author, D. Amari Jackson, chose not to explicitly identify him by ethnicity. (He did) But the message is clear because Law enforcement authorities put no effort into investigating his manner of death. After all, to them, what is another dead Black man to the establishment, right? To Americans from the African diaspora, however, it means buried history. In this historical fiction account, we immediately meet a character who is willing to share the backstory with us, but I suspect he, too, will be an unreliable narrator. But that's America. But I digress. Still, I thought that was a powerful statement to set the tone. I do wish, however, that Amari had developed the mystery further in the first chapter. Not for the reader's sake but mine. I've launched and published two editorial reviews so far, titled "The First Chapter," in which I discuss how great I think the book will be based on its first chapter. I think I have enough material to work with in the first chapter of "Mirroring Lincoln", but I will have to mine it carefully enough to get the reader excited about taking the journey. Oh, I preordered the Kindle version. @Troy Will you release an audio version?

OMG Troy, Yes! They would have a blast together! Seriously, fireworks, laughter, and partying! Thank you!

I could have sworn we chatted about DEC, but maybe you mentioned Wang Labs when I mentioned DEC. My bad. I won't forget again.