Kingsbury Associates

 Introduction Courtesy of our local email lists, we learned of a program actually hatched by our Montgomery County schools for an exchange program of high school students from France and Spain.    The above image is a chatGPT generated image so no real people here!   Anyway, below is a quick synopsis of the program from the organization website of the program.  The International Friendship Foundation, (TIFF) is an organization created by Montgomery County Maryland educators for families who wish to experience the cultural and educational benefits of hosting a student from France or Spain. This particular February trip were students from Corsica, the French island in the Mediterranean.  This was a week long program so we signed up for it.   The program director, Steven Hancock, is a prince of a man, who sent us a sheaf of papers including thick packets from each of the students that would be staying with us.  One of the students didn't like fish -...

The Sunday printed NYT yesterday had a fun point/counterpoint about AI Bots and human connections.  I describe both pieces below and then try to harmonize them.   1. The News Piece Gift Link for the News piece https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/us/elliq-ai-robot-senior-companion.html?unlocked_article_code=1.MlA.nJTy.aHEjzaAHns_e&smid=url-share First, the NYT front page "top of the fold" was a story by Eli Saslow about an 85 year old in a rural part of Washington State who was equipped with a home robot for companionship. Here's the story's lead: "At 85, Jan Worrell lived alone on a remote corner of the Washington coast. Could ElliQ become her companion?"  This is a long wonderful told story of a woman who is a rugged individualist forming a relationship of sorts with the ElliQ home robot programmed to provide fun companionship. With her family spread far and in a location with no neighbors close, Worrell's isolation was real, and as the story expl...