Free for ALL Friday!
It's Free for All Friday!
It’s Free for ALL Friday! Each week I keep track of some of the off-the-path things I've found, and work extra-hard to make sure you never hit a paywall, using my own subscriptions, gift links, and other (legal) hocus-pocus.
Lawyers Using AI Keep Citing Fake Cases in Court. Judges Aren’t Happy.
Failing to vet AI output before using it in court documents could violate attorneys’ duty to provide competent representation, the American Bar Association has said.
Courts across the country are facing a deluge of filings from attorneys and litigants that back their arguments with nonexistent research hallucinated by generative artificial intelligence, prompting judges to fight back with fines and reprimands.
The problem reflects well-known issues with AI tools, which are prone to fabricate facts, or in these cases, citations. Soon after AI tools such as ChatGPT began to circulate, attorneys made headlines for submitting error-ridden memos after failing to check AI-assisted work.
But mistakes and embarrassed mea culpas have continued to pile up. Damien Charlotin, a Paris-based legal researcher who maintains a database of cases of AI hallucinations filed in court, said he’s found 95 such instances in the United States since June 2023 — including 58 this year. They include cases where attorneys or other participants admitted to using AI in filings that contained errors, or judges reported references to nonexistent cases or quotations.
Judges aren’t happy. In May, a Utah appeals court ordered an attorney to pay $1,000 to a Utah legal aid foundation for submitting a brief with references to nonexistent cases that the attorney later attributed to AI, according to court documents. The same month, a federal court in Indiana fined an attorney $6,000 and a California special master ordered two law firms to pay $31,100 to opposing attorneys in an insurance dispute for submitting briefs with similar mistakes.
“Plaintiff’s use of AI affirmatively misled me,” Michael Wilner, the California special master, wrote in his order.
Can Gen Z’s Nostalgia Save Chain Restaurants?
Many casual dining restaurants whose heydays were thought past are attracting younger customers charmed by memories of family meals and stability.
When you walk into a chain restaurant, time stands still. For some young people, that’s the whole point.
Ana Babic Rosario, a professor of marketing at the University of Denver, calls this “emotional time travel.”
With the country in an unstable economic time, potentially edging toward recession, those memories become more potent, Dr. Babic Rosario said. “We tend to crave some of those nostalgic moments because we think they’re more stable,” she said. “That’s how our mind tends to remember the past — more rosy than it really was.”
That’s true for Bea Benares, 27, who said she looked forward to meals at Outback Steakhouse and “eating the bread and sitting down with my family.”
For many chain restaurants, a new generation’s interest is an exciting opportunity. The big question, though, is whether they can count on Gen Z beyond flashy events and viral moments. Catering to younger diners, some of whom say they want more updated food options, is a financial gamble that can alienate chain restaurants’ core customers — baby boomers, who want consistency.
As Denmark Raises Its Retirement Age to 70, Experts Weigh in on Whether the U.S. May Follow Its Lead
Denmark is increasing its retirement age to 70, a move that will require younger individuals to work longer. Some proposals have called for the U.S. to raise the age threshold for Social Security.
Denmark has moved to increase its retirement age to 70 — making it the highest retirement age in Europe.
Yet it may be difficult for the U.S. to follow its lead.
The new change in Denmark will apply to public pension retirements starting in 2040. Since 2006, the country has been adjusting its retirement age to reflect changes in life expectancy.
The U.S. does not technically have an official retirement age. At age 65, individuals become eligible for Medicare coverage. At age 66 to 67, depending on date of birth, an individual becomes eligible for full Social Security benefits based on their earnings record.
The Chrysler Building Has Towered Above New York City for Nearly a Century. Now, the Art Deco Skyscraper Is for Sale
When it was completed in 1930, the 1,046-foot building was briefly the tallest in the world. In recent years, it’s fallen into disrepair.
The Chrysler Building in New York City is for sale—and despite its iconic status, it could go for cheap.
While the building is still a staple of the city skyline, real estate experts say it has fallen into disrepair. According to the New York Times’ Anna Kodé, tenants complain of faulty elevators, murky water fountains and pests.
The Chrysler Building was commissioned by the car company founder Walter P. Chrysler, who called it “a monument to me.” Constructed between 1928 and 1930, it rose to a staggering 1,046 feet. It was briefly the tallest structure in the world—until the nearby Empire State Building took the title upon its completion in 1931.
“It’s a tale of two buildings,” Ruth Colp-Haber, a real estate broker who shows spaces in the building, told the Times last summer. “It’s arguably the most famous building in the world. However, the windows are smaller than a Hudson Yards building. It doesn’t have all the amenities that so many other trophy buildings have.”
The Noise of Bitcoin Mining is Driving Americans Crazy
Constant hum of fans that cool data-centre computers is turning residents against the pro-cryptocurrency agenda.
The relentless "mechanical howl" of a cryptocurrency mining facility has become "the soundtrack to life for hundreds of residents" in Granbury, a small rural town in Texas.
Bitcoin mining has exploded in the US over the past decade. But it's an energy-intensive process: the powerful computers that create and protect the cryptocurrency need fans on the go constantly to cool them down. And residents are getting sick of the noise – and getting sick, full stop.
"It echoes across agricultural land and forests, chasing away deer. It seeps into walls, vibrating bedrooms and dinner tables." One resident said it was as though a "jet engine is forever stationed nearby."
Much of America's Bitcoin mining industry is in Texas, "home to giant power plants, lax regulation, and crypto-friendly politicians". In Granbury, where Marathon – one of the world's largest Bitcoin holders – has a mine, a group of people are being "worn thin from strange, debilitating illnesses". Some were experiencing fainting spells, chest pains, migraines and panic attacks; others were "wracked by debilitating vertigo and nausea. The mine is causing "mental and physical" health issues, said one ears, nose, and throat specialist based in Granbury. "Imagine if I had vuvuzela in your ear all the time."
The Newspaper Advertising Ruse That Tech Firms Use to Avoid Trump’s Immigration Crackdown
Foreign workers who are here on temporary H1-B visas are eligible for permanent residency only when no U.S. citizens can fill their job. But companies are required by an outdated law to confirm the lack of U.S. applicants by advertising jobs in the classified ads of Sunday print newspapers -- which makes it much less likely that qualified U.S. tech applicants will ever see the listings.
Every Sunday, metropolitan newspapers across the country are full of listings for tech jobs, with posted salaries sometimes exceeding $150,000. If you’ve got tech skills, it seems, employers are crying out for you, week after week.
[But, they're fake job listings that aren't meant to attract any qualified candidates.]
I had entered one of the most overlooked yet consequential corners of the United States immigration system: the process by which employers sponsor tech workers with temporary H-1B visas as a first step to getting them the green card that entitles them to permanent residency in the U.S. It is a process that nearly everyone involved admits is nonsensical, highly vulnerable to abuse, as well as a contributor to inequities among domestic and foreign tech workers.
As a result of choices made by legislators 35 years ago, the effort to find a citizen is not expected at the front end, when employers are considering hiring workers from abroad. At that point, employers simply enter the lottery for H-1Bs, and if they get one, they can use it.
Only once a company has employed someone for five or six years and become committed to helping that person stay in the country permanently must the company show that it is trying to find someone else. It’s no surprise that the efforts at this point can be less than sincere.
This is where the newspaper ads come in. Under U.S. Department of Labor rules dating back to the era before the worldwide web, employers must post the job for which PERM certification is being sought for 30 days with a state workforce agency and in two successive Sunday newspapers in the job’s location.
This makes for a highly ironic juxtaposition: pages of print ads paid for by tech employers, many of them the same Silicon Valley giants that have helped eviscerate newspaper classifieds and drive down print newspaper circulation to the point that it can be hard even to find a place to buy a paper in many communities.
How "Type C" Became the Cool-Mom Parenting Style
It’s a parenting trend that originated on TikTok. But it’s also quite popular offline.
You've likely heard of type A parents: they're the ones with color-coded family calendars and a strong stance against screen time. You've likely heard of type B parents, too: they might not enforce bedtime, and don't care whether their child has broccoli on their plate. But a new wave of parenting is on the rise that's a blend of both. Welcome to the world of type C parents.
"A type C parent embodies a balanced approach to parenting, sitting somewhere between the high-control tendencies of a type A parent and the laid-back nature of a type B parent," adolescent mental health expert Caroline Fenkel, DSW, says. This means that while they may be more strict about certain things, they may also be more lenient in other areas.
Though a type C approach will look different for every parent, here are a few examples, according to Dr. Fenkel:
The parent is actively involved in their child's after-school activities or sports, but they don't micromanage.
The parent is present and empathetic when their child is frustrated, but they encourage their child to problem-solve themselves.
The parent maintains an open line of communication with their child, allowing them to express their feelings without fear of punishment or expectations of perfection.
Off topic - Musk is now in the same status as others - Trump used him now he "throws away" - no surprise here.
I guess I was a type C long before it was a thing. No micromanaging; too much trouble. Not too laid back; no running amok and boys had set early bedtimes that adjusted as they got older. But I’m a Boomer with two great sons.