Founder of News Items, Political Items and Bird News Items, 3 subscription newsletters. Basic idea of each: Interesting, important or both.
Fairfield CT
Joined February 2021
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EllisItems retweeted
Read more, including more about Memphis, in this extensive @wapo series published last year: washingtonpost.com/business/…
Increasingly, people are hit by cars on roads designed like Union Avenue in Memphis, Tenn.—one of the most dangerous roads in America. All while this type of roadway continues to spread across the country. on.wsj.com/4zDI9TE
EllisItems retweeted
Whoever thought Carney would just be a technocratic prime minister should watch this. Perfect timing…
EllisItems retweeted
サム・アルトマン「オレの予想、だいぶ間違ってたわ。AI開発しても全然、世の中変わらんし、100兆円の支払い義務になるわ、最近は、訴訟されまくりだし。正直、詰んだかもしれん」
「GPT-4を出せば一瞬で世界が激変すると思ってたが、完全に俺の間違いだった」――OpenAIトップが明かした「AIが社会を激変させられない最大の壁」
「『AIが今すぐすべての仕事を奪って世界を塗り替える！』と煽り散らかしてきた張本人が、まさかの白旗宣言」 OpenAIのボス、サム・アルトマンがポッドキャストで激白した、「テックオタクたちが思い知らされた冷酷な現実」がコレ👇
・「GPT-4が出れば、すぐにソフトウェア業界がひっくり返ると思ってた」 あれほどの破壊的な知能を世に放てば、瞬く間に古いビジネスモデルが崩壊し、新しい世界に置き換わるはずだと信じ込んでいた。だが現実は違った。アルトマン本人が「社会が変わるスピードの予測を完全に外していた」と素直に敗北宣言。
・社会と経済の「強烈すぎる慣性（惰性）」を舐めていた
どれだけ異次元のAIが登場しようが、世の中の人間は昨日と同じやり方で仕事を続け、いつもと同じ会社から物を買い続ける。人間社会は、技術オタクが思うほど身軽にも合理的にも動いてくれない。
・「人間の行動を変えること」は、AIを作るより100倍ムズい
「便利で凄いツールを作れば、みんなすぐに乗り換えるはずだ」――これこそがテックギーク（技術バカ）の最大の勘違い。染み付いた人間の習慣や古い組織のルールを変えさせるのは、途方もなく難易度が高い作業だった。
・技術は人類史上最強、でも「人間側」が追いつかない
AIそのものは人類が発明した中で最もヤバい技術であることに変わりはない。だが、それを受け止める社会や経済システムのアップデートには、想像以上に長い年月がかかる。
・要するに、「『超絶AIを作れば一瞬で世界がひっくり返る！』と息巻いていた仕掛け人本人が、どれだけスゴい技術を叩きつけても『昨日と同じやり方』をダラダラと選び続ける人間のしぶとい惰性に直面し、『技術の進化より、人間の行動パターンを変えさせる方が遥かに無理ゲーだったわ』と白目を剥いている」ということです。
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
「AI開発しても世の中変わらない」「100兆円の支払い義務」「訴訟されまくり」「正直、詰んだ」は投稿者の挿入や主観でありそんなことは言っていないことに注意が必要です。
実際には下記のような内容です。
・ソフトウェア業界の変革がもっと早いと思っていた
・いくつかの点で予測を間違ってたがその中の一つが変化の速度について
・これから経験する変革は予測より緩やかに進むことになるがそのことはありがたく思う
・AIはこれまでの技術の中で最も驚異的なものの一つだが社会や経済がそれに適応するにはもっと長い時間がかかる
元動画 x.com/vikktorrrre/st…
EllisItems retweeted
BREAKING: 🇫🇷 A major cyberattack has hit supermarket refrigeration systems across France, reportedly causing fresh and frozen food to spoil after hackers remotely manipulated temperature controls.
According to BFMTV, the attack began overnight from Sunday into Monday, targeting older versions of refrigeration-control software supplied by Danish company Danfoss.
The attackers allegedly exploited the systems’ defrosting function, forcing refrigeration equipment to heat continuously instead of keeping products cold. Temperatures were reportedly set as high as 50°C, destroying entire stocks of food within hours.
Several major supermarket chains have been affected, including Intermarché, Super U and E.Leclerc. Metro stores and independent businesses, including butcher shops also have been impacted.
Around 150 Intermarché stores are reportedly affected, according to industry sources cited by BFMTV. The full number of affected locations remains unclear.
The financial damage is already significant. In Haguenau, Alsace, an Intermarché store reportedly lost its entire frozen-food stock, worth approximately €50,000. A nearby Super U allegedly had to discard both fresh and frozen products, with losses estimated at €220,000. An E.Leclerc store in the same town was also affected, although its losses had not yet been calculated.
The combined losses reported at the Intermarché and Super U stores in Haguenau alone amount to around €270,000. Nationwide damage could reach several million euros.
Intermarché reportedly confirmed the incident in an internal communication, warning that several stores had suffered losses of frozen products. Coopérative U also acknowledged the attack and established crisis teams to assist affected stores and coordinate with refrigeration specialists.
Technical investigations are ongoing, and the full extent of the damage has yet to be established.
Authorities and companies are still working to determine the full circumstances of the attack. The identity of the perpetrators has not been confirmed.
EllisItems retweeted
It's worth highlighting how unusual it would be for a previously healthy 28yo woman like the Irkutsk researcher to die of pneumonia from something other than lab exposure.
For 15-44yo's in the UK in the 90s, the rate was just 1.2 per million annually.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1108…
EllisItems retweeted
This is extremely dark
🦔The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association says insurers paid out nearly $1 billion more than usual from AI-assisted hospital documentation in 2024-2025. Hospitals use AI to scan records and find secondary diagnoses that human reviewers missed. More diagnoses means higher reimbursements. But treatment levels haven't gone up.
BCBSA's SVP of data science said AI is "identifying more billable conditions, not sicker patients." Insurers now deploy their own AI to deny those same claims. Patients pay for both through higher premiums.
My Take
This might be the most American healthcare story I've ever read. Hospitals bought AI to find more things to bill for. Insurers bought AI to deny those bills. The technology cost money on each end and the tab went straight to patients through higher premiums. A billion dollars moved and no one got any healthier. The only thing that changed was the size of the invoices.
Two sides of a trillion-dollar industry found a new tool to fight over the same pool of money and the person in the hospital bed pays for all of it. Premiums go up, denials go up, and the AI vendors collect from everyone. If you want to know who AI works for, stop reading the press releases and look at where the money goes. In healthcare it went straight into the billing department.
Hedgie🤗
EllisItems retweeted
Every year I am reminded that I’ll never see anything to match the courage and honor of those fireman and policemen on 9/11.
EllisItems retweeted
Absolutely insane stat: 15 U.S. colleges now cost more than $100,000 per year.
That’s $400,000+ for a four-year degree.
Students are not getting anywhere near $400,000 worth of value from these schools.
Higher education is the most overpriced product in America.
EllisItems retweeted
⚠️ EVERYONE KEEPS CALLING THIS "MAN VS MACHINE."
That framing already lost.
You're watching a human go up against a system that doesn't accumulate fatigue, doesn't carry yesterday's injury into today's round, and doesn't have a contract that expires.
The human brings experience. The machine brings consistency at scale.
One of those compounds. The other doesn't.
EllisItems retweeted
China is testing a different way to automate trucking.Instead of replacing every truck at once,one driver can lead a convoy while autonomous trucks follow behind.This kind of deployment could make freight automation arrive much earlier in controlled logistics sites than on roads
EllisItems retweeted
In a recent study, pupils using AI saw their average homework score rise by 18% across all subjects after six months. But come exam time, the same students scored 20% below their classmates who had not called on AI’s help. We analyse the data economist.com/graphic-detail…
EllisItems retweeted
Imagine a job posting: $174K salary, four hours of cold calls daily, your family loses their privacy, and just applying costs a couple million dollars.
That's Congress. The leaked orientation deck for new members recommended four hours of donor calls per day against two hours of actual committee and floor work. Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z congressman, maxed out his credit cards to win, tanked his credit score, and struggled to rent an apartment in DC after taking office.
Anyone with the skill set politics demands, persuasion, coalition building, thriving under public pressure, clears double that salary in law, tech, or finance. Without surrendering their privacy or spending afternoons asking strangers for money.
So the pool self-sorts. People who weigh costs and benefits normally exit at every stage. What survives is people for whom power itself is the compensation. The job pays badly in money and extravagantly in status, which means it selects for people who price status above everything else in their lives.
Economists call this adverse selection. Plato called it the reason the people most fit to rule never volunteer. Sherrod Brown raised $100 million for one Senate race and still lost. Run that job posting past any normal, caring, intelligent person you know and count the seconds before they decline.
The pipeline screens out everyone who does the math honestly. What remains is whoever wanted power at any price. Then we act surprised at who governs us.
EllisItems retweeted
🚨🗣️ José Mourinho on the refereeing in Argentina's 3-2 victory over Egypt:
"When you play against this Argentina team, being 2-0 up is never enough, because you are not just trying to beat eleven men on the pitch. You are trying to beat the whistle. You are trying to beat the VAR room. You are trying to beat the entire script of the tournament.
Salah was through on goal and the referee blows his whistle for a foul against Egypt for Paredes failing to get the ball. Cristian Romero almost snaps Mohamed Salah’s leg in half, and the referee suddenly goes blind. No card. Egypt scores a beautiful goal, and VAR rewinds the game back to the Stone Age just to find a reason to cancel it. And then, in the 93rd minute, they foul Salah in the box, a clear penalty that would win Egypt the game and they let play continue so Enzo can go down the other end and score the winner. It is not football anymore. It is a movie, and the ending has already been decided before the players even walk out of the tunnel."
EllisItems retweeted
EXTRAORDINARY
Records of Hottest night in history smashed allover Oceania again
Min 29.3 Yap
HOTTEST NIGHT IN MICRONESIA HISTORY
Min 29.0 Majuro
HOTTEST JULY NIGHT IN MARSHALL ISLANDS
Over 180 countries and territories are smashing heat records in every Continent.
EllisItems retweeted
Global ocean surface temperatures have reached unprecedented levels entering uncharted territory.
Average sea surface temperatures for June 2026 set new records peaking at approximately 21 degrees Celsius or 70 degrees Fahrenheit on June 21. Data from the European Union Copernicus Climate Change Service and Copernicus Marine Service confirm that this warmth surpasses previous peaks from 2023 and 2024.
Experts attribute the surge to the combination of long term human induced climate change and the emergence of a strong El Niño event in the equatorial Pacific. The effects extend well beyond surface warming. Elevated ocean temperatures intensify storms raise sea levels through thermal expansion and generate marine heat waves that harm fish populations and coral ecosystems.
Oceans have absorbed about 90 percent of excess heat from greenhouse gases serving as a major climate regulator. Scientists caution that current conditions push these natural buffers toward critical limits.
[Copernicus Climate Change Service and Copernicus Marine Service. Sea surface temperature records June 2026]
EllisItems retweeted
Have weather forecasts seemed less accurate lately? There's a major contributing factor: nearly half the morning weather balloons in the Lower 48 are "missing."
This is an ongoing crisis that is degrading critical severe weather forecasts that we all rely on. It's having real, tangible impacts on degrading forecast quality.
If you work in transportation, agriculture or commerce, this should matter to you.
Regardless of the causes, this negatively affects people of ALL political backgrounds. Weather affects everyone. And it's impacting ALL of us negatively.
We can't look at weather balloon data that doesn't exist. We can't pump nonexistent data into models. We can't rely as heavily on models that don't "know" what's happening above our heads.
This is especially concerning for severe weather forecasts. We can't go 18 hours without ascertaining how the atmosphere is layered, how much storm fuel has built up and if severe thunderstorms are going to erupt. The Storm Prediction Center has even acknowledged forecasting frustrations in at least one public bulletin.
As an atmospheric scientist myself, I can say firsthand – the forecasts I'm able to offer you are less accurate than they would otherwise be. I'm not able to predict severe weather with the confidence I normally would. That is extremely concerning.
The United States is "supposed" to launch balloons at 0Z and 12Z ideally – a.k.a. around 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Eastern time. That's not happening. Many sites, due to staffing issues stemming from broader political and organizational issues, have pushed to 18Z, or early afternoon. That's not helpful for morning severe weather forecasts. In other words, you get less lead time. Less advanced notice. Quicker ramp-ups and ramp-downs to the forecast.
We're not able to get jet stream, temperature, moisture or wind profiles of the atmosphere each morning like we otherwise would.
Moreover, the World Meteorological Organization encourages 12Z soundings; that data is shared via the Global Observing System (GOS) under the World Weather Watch (WWW). That's not happening.
EllisItems retweeted
🇺🇸 Boston Dynamics robots are now patrolling World Cup venues in Dallas
They inspect perimeters, check suspicious packages, monitor restricted areas, and support security teams with 360 cameras, thermal & chemical sensors, and AI for anomaly detection
EllisItems retweeted
A man spends 50 years teaching at MIT.
He knows his time is running out.
So he records one last lecture — everything he knows, distilled into a single hour.
He died 5 months later.
This is that lecture.
The most important hour you'll watch this week. 👇
Bookmark it for later
EllisItems retweeted
Mountain goat leaps across massive canyon without hesitation 😨
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
This video is AI-generated. Real mountain goats are agile climbers but the extreme canyon leap, physics & motion show clear AI artifacts (unnatural jumps, cinematic style). reddit.com/r/isthisAI/com…
EllisItems retweeted
Waiting for the 4D chess people to explain how the incipient surrender of Taiwan to China and abandonment of a central pillar of US security in the Asia-Pacific for 50 years is in fact another stroke of pure genius from President Metternich.
Trump on Taiwan: When you look at the odds, China is very, very powerful, big country. That's a very small island. Think of it, it's 59 miles away. We're 9500 miles away. That's a little bit of a difficult problem. Taiwan was developed because we had presidents that didn't know what the hell they were doing. They stole our chip industry.