Kelly H Stevens Jr

economics politics climate and other interesting things

[James Chanos @RealJimChanos]

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the next time these guys are all at the same table explaining AI financing is before Congress in 2031…

[Dan O'Dowd @RealDanODowd]

Watch @Tesla self-driving v14.3.5 drive on the wrong side of the road, forcing the driver to disengage!

@ElonMusk calls self-driving “a solved problem.” Does Tesla’s defective self-driving software look solved to you?

[CBS LA @CBSLosAngeles]

Jackie, the beloved bald eagle who gained fame for raising eaglets in Big Bear with her partner Shadow, has died after receiving care in an animal care center, Ojai Raptor Center announced Monday: https://t.co/7h5KGYQrlQ .

[Nick Volpe @nvolpewild]

Met the AMAZON GIANT SNAIL again!🤯

[KTLA @KTLA]

A KTLA viewer has shared video footage of what he called a never-before-seen sight: a mountain lion outside his Studio City home. https://t.co/3PK0ayfgGn

[Prof. Eliot Jacobson @EliotJacobson]

Submitted for your consideration ...

[Jeff Berardelli @WeatherProf]

Parts of the Mediterranean Sea is hotter than the Gulf! At 91.4°F the Mediterranean just hit its highest water temperature ever measured 33.02°C! That’s hotter than anywhere in the US or Mexican #Gulf now, including off #Florida.
It happened at a buoy off #mallorca #spain this week, obliterating the former record, also set this summer, of 90°F near Chebba, Tunisia.
This is part of a record marine #heatwave. Most of the normally cool Basin is 6-10°F above normal, a response to the historic heatwaves #Europe has seen this summer.

[AccuWeather @accuweather]

Meanwhile in Siberia... 🌡️ It was 93°F in Shologontsy, Russia, on August 1, making it hotter than Pensacola, Florida. ☀️

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

News: Microsoft disclosures and Bloomberg analyses suggest that OpenAI's $24.1 billion in revenue accounted for 70% or more of Microsoft's FY26 AI revenue, and more than 7% of its entire FY26 revenues.

Microsoft has spent $261.3bn in capex since 2022.
https://t.co/DZktpqh4cH

[Prof. Eliot Jacobson @EliotJacobson]

Breaking News!
Code: Bonkers!

El Nino continues to spike towards an all-time record high anomaly, with the Nino 3.4 sea surface temperature more than 2.6°C above the 1991-2020 baseline as of August 4th, and more than 1.0C° above the previous August 4th record set in 1997.

[Prof. Ryan Katz-Rosene @ryankatzrosene]

“‘I was so surprised I don’t even know if ‘surprised’ is the right word,’ said Shusaku Sugimoto, an associate professor at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, a northern coastal city.”

We have all kinds of surprises heading our way.

[JustDario @DarioCpx]

Bookmark this

[Ed Zitron @edzitron]

Analysts estimate that 70%+ of Microsoft, Google and Amazon's present and future AI revenues are from Anthropic and OpenAI's compute spend and model sales. Outside of two unsustainable AI labs, demand barely exists, and they've overbuilt capacity.
https://t.co/CgxAC2lWKj

[Paul Graham @paulg]

The most alarming thing about this graph is not just the amount of change, but the smooth consistency of the curve. If this were a startup I'd be really confident about their future growth. Unfortunately it is instead the planet we live on.

[Jen @JenResistedAGN]

Who did this? 😂

[Jeff Berardelli @WeatherProf]

Massive Firenado. What a disaster :(

[Mark Zandi @Markzandi]

Suddenly, there is a new potential threat to the economy – a serious mistake by the Federal Reserve. This risk was brought to the fore by this past week’s FOMC meeting. I’m not concerned about the Fed’s decision to keep rates unchanged. My concern is that policymakers are unwilling to provide even a modicum of forward guidance — or a broad sense of their reaction function. Many (most) meetings will thus be live, and investors will be unsure of what the committee will decide. They will be left guessing and repeatedly wrong-footed. That means more volatility in bond and stock markets, which is likely already reflected in a larger term premium, rising long-term interest rates, and a wobbly equity market. If the Fed continues down this increasingly opaque path, a future meeting could trigger a serious market sell-off — putting the broader economy at risk.

[Gary Marcus @GaryMarcus]

Yet another paper argues that LLMs aren’t close to doing real discovery.

[Curiosity @CuriosityonX]

Save it for the next person who tells you we’ve always had hot summers.

[Noah Karl🌏🌌🚀 🇪🇺🇩🇪 @NoahKarl1]

The difference between

"There used to be hot summers too."

and
climate crisis.