A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
A key promise in Paris’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics was that its famous river, the Seine, would be cleaned up in time to host open water swimming events: the triathlon, para triathlon, and marathon swimming. But swimming has been banned in the Seine for a century because the Paris sewer system is designed to dump wastewater into the river during heavy rain, when the sewers get overwhelmed by stormwater.
When that happens, levels of E. coli, a bacteria associated with fecal matter, spike in the river, making it too contaminated to swim in. In order to make good on its promise to clean the river, Paris officials took on a $1.5 billion USD infrastructure project that includes a massive underground tank and tunnel system meant to hold excess sewage during heavy rain and prevent further contamination of the Seine.
Water quality testing will be done daily ahead of the Olympic games this summer, and Paris officials are hopeful their ambitious plan to host swimming in the famously polluted river will succeed.
I hope the answer was yes.
I'm about to lecture on sewage treatment Monday night, so I'm considering showing this video to my environmental science class as a timely example of why the topic is relevant. The only concern I have is the BetterHelp promotion in the middle. Nearly every comment on the video complained about it, so I'll have to skip past it. I had no idea how many people dislike BetterHelp!
I might return to Olympics-related posts while the Games take place, but probably not tomorrow; I have Emmy nominations penciled in. Stay tuned.
[I]f not enough babies are born in the U.S. to meet our job demand, the country can allow more immigration. I'm O.K. with that, but Donald Trump became president in large part because many Americans weren't and still aren't. That's why, when one of my students asked in 2015 if the U.S. would ever adopt Chinese population policies, I responded no, that's not the American way. If the U.S. thinks it has an overpopulation issue, it would restrict immigration.
Even if the country does not have an overpopulation issue, it might still think it has a different kind of demographic problem, which would still lead it to restrict immigration. In fact, the second chart I included in MSNBC examines Project 2025, part 5 lists even more extreme positions beyond restricting immigration: "Mass deportation of immigrants and incarceration in 'camps'" and "End birth right citizenship." Yikes, especially the second, which attacks the currently accepted idea of who is an American and will affect citizens and others here legally, not just undocumented immigrants.
I couldn't resist another opportunity to work the eye again!
All the statistics about how crime in general has declined reminds me that I have three videos on the subject to share. I'll get to them in future posts. In the meantime, this video has inspired me to resume my Emmy Awards coverage. Follow over the jump for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver's Emmy nominations from Wikipedia.
The most disturbing policy proposals for a second Trump presidency are all found in Project 2025, including a plot to destroy civil rights protections and deny the existence of racism in America. Michael Harriot and Jonathan Capehart discuss how the creators of the 900-page document plan to upend many American lives.
I have the same reaction to ceasing collection of data on race that I had to prohibiting funding of gun violence research at the CDC and NIH; it's an act of scientific censorship and I oppose it. One of these decades, it might no longer be necessary, but the U.S. is not there yet.
MSNBC Morning Joe economic analyst Steve Rattner dives into the potential financial consequences of Project 2025, the 920 page policy manifesto by the conservative group the Heritage Foundation: higher taxes for lower-income Americans, increased student loan payments, and major cuts to Medicaid.
Those are all bad things and the "higher taxes for lower-income Americans" is something baked into the 2017 tax "reform," which I examined in The tax bill and the U.S. economy in 2018 and beyond, when I wrote "The tax cuts will expire exactly in the middle of that span in 2027." That's very bad timing and the tax plan in Project 2025 would make it permanent.
VP Harris called out Project 2025 at her first campaign rally in Milwaukee today. Stephanie Ruhle breaks down exactly how the proposed tax plan will impact everyday Americans with Juanita Tolliver and Stuart Stevens.
As Steve Rattner pointed out and Stuart Stevens repeated, Project 2025's tax proposal is not popular. That's worth reiterating. Work that eye!
Monique Worrell was suspended from her position as the elected State Attorney in Orlando after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made baseless accusations against her, claiming without any reason that her policies led to an increase in violent crime. Last month, the mostly DeSantis-appointed Florida Supreme Court refused to reinstate her. “What we’re seeing here in Florida is a preview to Project 2025,” says Worrell. Her removal, she argues, effectively disenfranchises everyone who voted for her and reverses years of progress.
Ugh, Ron DeSantis. His "anti-woke" actions are still causing trouble long after he dropped out after finishing second in Iowa. They also serve as proof of concept for Project 2025's proposals to reshape government. That makes him a bad example.
'BECKHAM' is a four-part Documentary Series Directed by Academy Award® Winner, Fisher Stevens and Produced by Academy Award® Winner, John Battsek - launching October 4 2023, only on Netflix. It features a mixture of never-before-seen personal archive footage from the last forty years, candid current-day moments, and interviews with the family, friends, and footballing figures who have been part of his journey.
This is the second most popular trailer with 3,223,214 views on YouTube. It also has the most nominations, five, including Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program, Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score), and Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program, in addition to the series category. If a viewer wants a fun story of celebrity, this might be the show to watch. I don't know if that's enough for it to win.
#QuietOnSet pulls back the curtain on an empire, built by creator Dan Schneider, that had an undeniable grip on popular culture. Series such as All That and The Amanda Show, among others, were obsessively consumed by children across the country and defined comedy for a generation. But behind the upbeat onscreen presence on these shows with questionable jokes and over-the-top sketches, QUIET ON SET reveals an insidious environment rife with allegations of abuse, sexism, racism, and inappropriate dynamics with its underage stars and crew.
QUIET ON SET: THE DARK SIDE OF KIDS TV will premiere across two nights on ID from 9PM-11PM ET/PT on Sunday, March 17 and Monday, March 18.
That's a good thing for Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV's chances, as its only other nomination is for Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program and its trailer sits in third place for views with 781,553. If the public were voting, this series might have an uphill road to win.
#STAX: Soulsville U.S.A., an @HBO Original Documentary Series that captures how an underdog record label launched a movement and superstar musicians like Isaac Hayes and Otis Redding, premieres May 20 on @StreamOnMax.
Appropriately for a series about music, its other nomination is for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Nonfiction Program (Single or Multi-Camera). Its subject only makes the trailer only moderately popular with 130,728 views on YouTube.
Several YouTube accounts have uploaded trailers for Telemarketers, so I'm sharing the one I like best, Telemarketers Documentary Series Trailer from Rotten Tomatoes TV.
US Air Date: August 13, 2023
Starring: Sam Lipman-Stern, Pat Pespas
Network: HBO
Synopsis: TELEMARKETERS chronicles the darkly comedic, unexpected 20-year journey of two unlikely office buddies, who stumble upon the murky truth behind the work they’ve been doing at a seedy New Jersey call center – persuading people to give money to charities – and vow to expose the crooked American telemarketing industry from within. As amateur sleuths looking to shine a light on the billion-dollar scam, with raucous insider access, raw eyewitness footage, and a comedic cast of call center characters, the film is a madcap story of an unruly, low-wage environment and two long-time office buddies who find themselves hot on the trail of a sobering look at the dark side of American capitalism and the misuse of consumer trust.
When Sam Lipman-Stern began a telemarketing job in New Jersey in the early 2000s as a 14-year-old high school drop-out, he believed he was raising money for police and firefighter charities, unaware that most of the money was ending up in the pockets of his crooked employers. With his video camera, Sam documents the riotous office as he and a motley mix of ex-cons, drug dealers and veteran telemarketers work the phone lines in an anarchic boiler room filled with booze, drugs, and debauchery, bound by humor and camaraderie. When the federal government shuts the company down after an investigation into its shady practices where they falsely told consumers that 100% of the money went to the charity (when in fact only 10-15% went), Sam and Pat Pespas, a larger-than-life top salesman struggling with addiction, begin to question the industry’s business practices. They realize they are unwitting cogs in a wheel perpetuating a massive scam on unsuspecting Americans. With rowdy humor and dogged enthusiasm, TELEMARKETERS follows Sam and Pat as they emerge from the bottom rung of the hourly workforce to become tenacious, self-appointed whistleblowers who make their way to the halls of the United States Senate, determined to expose an industry gone awry from the inside.
This is the only nomination for for Telemarketers and the combined page views for all trailers barely add up to ~78,000, so this is the weakest of the nominees on those criteria.
THE JINX – PART TWO is a new six-episode continuation of the groundbreaking Emmy®-winning documentary series "The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst," from Andrew Jarecki, which debuted on HBO in 2015. In Part Two, the filmmakers continue their investigation for the next eight years, uncovering hidden material, Durst's prison calls, and interviews with witnesses who had not come forward until now.
This is the most popular trailer with 5,024,572 views on YouTube, so if this were up for popular vote, it would be my choice to win. It's also the second most nominated entry in the field with nominations with three, Outstanding Picture Editing for a Nonfiction Program and Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program in addition to the series nomination. The first season is also a previous winner of Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series and Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming, which leads me to the nominations at other awards shows. Follow over the jump for that analysis.
A suspenseful look at the lengths people will go to gain freedom, #BeyondUtopia follows various individuals as they attempt to flee North Korea, one of the most oppressive places on Earth, a land they grew up believing was a paradise.
At the film’s core are a mother desperate to reunite with the child she was forced to leave behind; a family of five — including small children and an elderly grandmother — embarking on a treacherous journey across the Yalu River and into the hostile mountains of China; and a man of God on a mission to help these desperate souls. Leaving their homeland is fraught with danger — severe punishment if caught and possibly even execution — as well as potential exploitation by unscrupulous brokers. Family members who remain behind also may face retribution. Yet these individuals are driven to take the risk.
Gripping, visceral, and urgent, Madeleine Gavin’s film embeds the viewer with these family members as they attempt their perilous escape, palpably conveying life-or-death stakes. The result is a singular, illuminating, and unforgettable experience.
This is a theatrical trailer, but this movie qualified for the Emmys as an episode of Independent Lens on PBS, which I usually see nominated at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards. Congratulations on being noticed by the Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards!
“I remember what’s important and I make up the rest. That’s what storytelling’s all about.”
GoingtoMars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, an HBO Original Documentary featuring the voice of Taraji P. Henson, follows the legendary poet, activist, and educator’s ascendance and impact on American culture.
I enjoyed the music, the hopeful tone in the face of adversity, and the conceit of the space theme in the poem and title. Here's to the movie being just as fun while exploring serious themes.
Oscar-winning director Roger Ross Williams brings Dr. Ibram X. Kendi’s best-selling book Stamped From the Beginning to life, using vivid animations and leading female scholars to explore the history of anti-Black racist ideas.
If the general public voted for these awards, I'd say Stamped from the Beginning would have the advantage, as this trailer has 260,847 views, more than twice the combined views of all the different trailers for Beyond Utopia and three times the views for the trailer for Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, but the general public isn't voting, the Television Academy is. They are likely to take their cues from the guilds and critics. Beyond Utopia earned nominations from BAFTA, the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Producers Guild of America (PGA), the Cinema Eye Honors Awards, the Gold Derby Awards, the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, and a bunch of local critics associations and film festivals, including Sundance, to be the most nominated of the nominees. Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project earned nominations from the Film Independent Spirit Awards, International Documentary Association, Cinema Eye Honors Awards, and Critics Choice Documentary Awards, plus won awards at several local critics associations and film festivals, including Sundance to be the winningest of these nominees. Stamped from the Beginning earned nominations from the Satellite Awards, NAACP Image Awards, Writers Guild of America (WGA), Black Reel Awards, Cinema For Peace Awards, Critics Choice Documentary Awards, and Guild of Music Supervisors Awards, and won Best Documentary from the African-American Film Critics Association. The entertainment professionals most love Beyond Utopia, so I'd say it's the favorite on that basis.
The prognosticators at Gold Derby agree. Right now, Eight editors have voted for Beyond Utopia, while one each have Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Stamped from the Beginning as their choices. The three experts who've voted so far have all picked Beyond Utopia while 20 of the top 24 users have climbed aboard the Beyond Utopia bandwagon. I'd say it's a safe bet to win.
Stay tuned for more Emmys coverage tomorrow.
Previous posts about the 76th Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards
80% of school shooters tell someone about their plans. But too often, people think they’re “just joking.” Always take threats of violence seriously. Watch and share our new PSA.
The comedians are funny people. The threats they are repeating definitely are not funny at all. Here's to their star power getting the message across.
Follow over the jump for the rest of the nominees, which are selling products, not just ideas.
The Moon has been one of the most important theoretical stepping stones to our understanding of the universe. We’ve long understood that it could also be our literal stepping stone: humanity’s first destination beyond our atmosphere.
PBS's video is definitely more focused on the science than CNBC's, but it did examine the geopolitics enough for me to repeat what I wrote in January: "I'll take a space race between the U.S. and China if it motivates the U.S. to return to the Moon and spurs us to go on to Mars." Also, it let its geek flag fly with the Dune and Star Wars references. I'm O.K. with that.
In order to see the faint light from objects in deepest space, astronomers go to the darkest places on the planet. In order to listen to their quite radio signals, they head as far from any radio-noisy humans as possible. But there’s nowhere on the earth, or even orbiting the Earth, that’s far enough to hear to the faint radio hum from the time before stars. In fact, we may need to build a giant radio telescope in the quietest place in the solar system—the far side of the moon.
As O'Dowd pointed out, scientists and others have been proposing radio telescopes on the far side of the Moon since the 1960s. They even appear in Larry Niven's Known Space stories (longtime readers should have expected me to mention that). Just the same, O'Dowd described a scientific reason for building them that I hadn't heard before, so I learned something new. As I'm fond of writing, it's always a good day when I learn something new.
O'Dowd also mentioned the formation of the Moon as the result of the collision of a Mars-sized planet with the very early Earth. The NEW SCIENCE of Moon Formation describes the latest ideas about this in detail.
Einstein once asked whether “the moon exists only when I look at it?". It was rhetorical objection to the idea that measurement in quantum mechanics causes reality to become real. But there was a time when the moon didn’t exist, and then hours later suddenly did. At least, according to the latest simulations of its formation.
I've already watched this video and shown it to one of my geology classes as an example of the power of modeling, so I hope my readers learn something new from watching it.
That wraps up this year's celebration of Moon Day. Here's to sharing more progress on returning to the Moon for next year's observance. In the meantime, stay tuned for an examination of this year's Emmy nominees for Outstanding Commercial as the Sunday entertainment feature.
Republicans don't plan to waste time remaking the US government if their guy wins in November. The playbook is "Mandate for Leadership: the Conservative Promise," aka Project 2025, and it's chock full of amazingly terrible ideas when it comes to cities.
Please vote in November, and do more if you can. Here are a couple ways to get involved. (We send postcards to swing states in our household!)
This is all really distressing. About the only positive thing I can see coming out of this for housing policy, and it's only barely positive, is the policy plank about encouraging single-family housing might result in lifting or repealing the cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT). That punishes well-off residents of high-tax states who have been voting Democratic, which I think is actually the point. People who use ride hailing services (taxis, Uber, and Lyft) might like having those subsidized (again, this time by government instead of venture capitalists), but that will come at the expense of actual public transit, to say nothing of the climate. Ugh.
JFK loved Jackie's daiquiris. Presidents’ favorite cocktails, and how to make them, on All the Presidents' Drinks with Food Video Host and Editor Mary Beth Albright.
That's a surprisingly fun video from an unexpected source. It's part of a series that I had no idea existed and looks like a good example of well-produced content made during the pandemic. I might return to it for future posts.
I'm once again blogging about more evergreen topics that will be good to share in August, like the environmental cost of lawns. This also includes this year's Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which will be announced later this morning. Look for me to write about them, beginning with examining how Gold Derby's predictions for Emmy-nominated shows fared tomorrow. Stay tuned.
The Gold Derby editors'and experts Emmy nomination predictions for eight comedy series were The Bear, Hacks, Abbott Elementary, Only Murders in the Building, Curb Your Enthusiasm, What We Do in the Shadows, Palm Royale, and Reservation Dogs. Those all came true. Congratulations! On the other hand, the top 24 users thought The Gentlemen would knock out Palm Royale. My reaction was "The former may be funnier, but the latter has more star power, which makes me think it has the advantage, at least among the actors." That's apparently what happened. Don't underestimate the power of the Television Academy's equivalent of the Actors Branch. Remember, electorates matter.
Predictions first for the next category.
Gold Derby's next category is drama series, the top eight among the editors consists of Shogun, The Crown, The Morning Show, The Gilded Age, Fallout, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Slow Horses, and The Curse. Shogun moved from limited series to drama series just in time to make the ballot in this category, unseating The Crown as the favorite and knocking 3 Body Problem out of the predicted top eight.
That was Friday night. By Wednesday morning, the editors switched 3 Body Problem and The Curse, which turned out to be a smart move. Watch 76th Emmy Nominations: Drama Series to see why.
The editors got it right at the last minute, so congratulations. That's more than can be said about the experts or users, who kept The Curse in their top eight. Since my wife and I enjoyed 3 Body Problem but didn't continue watching The Curse, I can see why the former earned this nomination while the latter was skunked — no nominations at all! I don't know if I will suggest The Curse to the Saturn Awards, but I'm definitely passing on 3 Body Problem along with Shogun, Fallout, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Slow Horses.
Gold Derby's editors, experts, and top 24 users all predicted Baby Reindeer, Fargo, Lessons in Chemistry, Ripley and True Detective: Night Country. Those were exactly the nominees for 76th Emmy Nominations: Limited or Anthology Series.
Congratulations to both the nominees and Gold Derby prognosticators!
On the other hand, none of the three groups perfectly predicted the next category.
The Gold Derby editors have a statistical tie for the fifth Emmy nomination in television movies, giving both The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and Scoop five votes each. The last slot may be even more unsettled, as No One Will Save You has four editor votes. The editors' top four consists of Mr. Monk's Last Case, Red, White and Royal Blue, Quiz Lady, and The Great Lillian Hall. The experts and top 24 users disagree, thinking both The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and Scoop will make the top five while The Great Lillian Hall won't. This will be another category worth watching.
The Television Academy didn't create a clip for TV Movie, but they did tweet out this image.
The editors picked three, Mr. Monk's Last Case, Red, White and Royal Blue, and Quiz Lady,, while the experts and top 24 users correctly chose Scoop. None of the editors or users voted for Unfrosted to be nominated, landing it in 18th by default, but four of the experts did, placing it eighth. Congratulations to those experts. Like Palm Royale in Comedy Series, I'm chalking Unfrosted's nomination up to star power and the actors voting for it. Again, electorates matter.
Follow over the jump to see how Gold Derby's predictions fared in the remaining four categories.
Lawns aren’t natural. Why do so many Americans have them?
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Grass lawns are so ubiquitous in the US you would assume that they're the most natural and obvious choice for what to put in our yards. But turf grass is not only not native to the US, but it takes a lot of time, money, and resources to maintain.
Today, some cities are offering "cash for grass" programs and giving residents as much as $25,000 to replace their turf grass lawns with more environmentally sustainable options.
But some people still like green grass lawns and enjoy maintaining them, so what should they do? In this video we go through the multitude of options that yard owners have and talk to experts to see what they have to say.
I have a lawn, but I inherited it when I bought the house and I live in Michigan, where I don't have to water it. If I still lived in southern California and owned a house there, I'd have replaced any lawn on the property with something more water-conserving and sustainable, like the landscape Sara Bendrick planted.
How much do you really know about the grass beneath your feet? It turns out, there's a whole lot more to it than meets the tee. Shane ventures beyond the green lawns and learns about the costly and cultural resources at play when it comes to maintaining this so called "crop."
If you're interested in sustainability on the local and personal levels, your biggest obstacles will be homeowners associations, zoning boards, and city councils. Those people will be wedded to business as usual long after it becomes apparent to early adopters that BAU just isn't working any more. Watch those local governing entities hang onto the past like adherents of a cargo cult.
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When it comes to enforcing business as usual (BAU) norms of middle-class respectability as a way of maintaining property values, Oak Park does not play. Oak Park is so afraid of catching what they think Detroit has, which is blight, that they restrict what property owners can do more than neighboring cities and enforce their will with a vengeance. Put your trash cans out too early or leave them out too long and the police will ticket you. Let your grass grow too high and the city will mow your lawn for you and then bill you. You can only hold two yard sales per year and you have to inform the city in advance. If you want to drink wine while dining in the city, you're out of luck; there are no restaurants with liquor licenses. The list goes on and on.
Of course, the people who live there and like it make a point of saying that the police will arrive before you hang up your call to 911, but all the above is the flip side of what the locals praise as "great city services." I hope their property values and middle-class sensibilities are worth it.
Remember, that controversy was about replacing a lawn with a vegetable garden, something more useful and productive.
Also, watching the scenes of suburbia reminds me that this was the week I used to show The Endof Suburbia and now show Treasuresof the Earth: Power. I no longer require my students to watch James Howard Kunstler and the rest of the Prophets of Doom, but they can still watch The End of Suburbia for extra credit. After all, I conserve my resources.
*I'm also not posting anything involving current events. That's because my blog passed its monthly page view goal just before Noon on Monday, so I'm once again blogging about more evergreen topics that will be good to share in August, like the environmental cost of lawns. This also includes this year's Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which will be announced later this morning. Look for me to write about them, beginning with examining how Gold Derby's predictions for Emmy-nominated shows fared tomorrow. Stay tuned.
