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.
HappyAutumnalEquinox! As I wrote yesterday, I am finishing the nominations for Trafficked with Mariana van Zellerat the 2023 News & Doc Emmy Awards today. That written, the final nominination is merely making a cameo, as "VICE News Tonight has three nominees in Outstanding Business, Consumer or Economic Coverage, one of which I think will win, so I'm planning on the next installment of the series featuring them, not Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller." Without any further ado, here are the nominees for that category.
Outstanding Business, Consumer or Economic Coverage
Africa+ Black Snow: Nigeria’s Oil Catastrophe Bloomberg
Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller Stolen Cars National Geographic
VICE News Tonight The Price of Purity: Inside the Wellness Industry’s Controversial Supply Chains Vice
VICE News Tonight VICE News Investigates: Mafia Land Vice
VICE News Tonight Undercover in Guyana Vice
VICE News Tonight's three nominees all have nominations in other categories so long as I add the nominations for "Mafia Land" to "VICE News Investigates: Mafia Land"itself. Once I do this, "VICE News Investigates: Mafia Land"/"Mafia Land" has three nominations, including Outstanding Video Journalism and Outstanding Graphic Design and Art Direction: News, while both "The Price of Purity: Inside the Wellness Industry’s Controversial Supply Chains" and "Undercover in Guyana" have two each. "The Price of Purity: Inside the Wellness Industry’s Controversial Supply Chains" is competing with "Mafia Land" for Outstanding Video Journalism, while "Undercover in Guyana" is contending against Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller's "White Supremacy" and five other nominees for Outstanding Research: News. This is the only nomination for both Africa+ and Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller's "Stolen Cars." Based on the number of nominations, I expect "Mafia Land" to be the favorite so long as vote splitting with the other two VICE News Tonight nominees doesn't interfere.
Follow over the jump for the rest of the nominations for these episodes of VICE News Tonight.
Surprisingly, the winner of the Streamy Award for Learning and Education thinks the answer is no, placing rhinos in D tier because of their eyesight, low intelligence, and generally solitary nature. Being big, strong, tough, and dangerous wasn't enough.
The UAW and the Detroit Big Three are having what's been characterized as around-the-clock discussions, but there has been no update from the automakers.
At least the Canadian Auto Workers have reached an agreement. The reporter on location seemed pretty pessimistic about the UAW reaching agreements with the Big Three any time soon.
As UAW members continue protesting outside three plants in the U.S., Michigan's economy could be derailed if the strike lasts for several weeks.
Unlike the SAG-AFTRA andWGA strikes, talks are taking place and progress toward an agreement is happening every day, so I think the strike will end before suppliers start to close, although not before more UAW members go out on strike. Stay tuned.
Free Yourselves. Take to the Seas. The Journey to find the ONE PIECE begins August 31. Only on Netflix.
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With his straw hat and ragtag crew, young pirate Monkey D. Luffy goes on an epic voyage for treasure in this live-action adaptation of the popular manga.
That looks like a lot of fun. It also reminds me that when I was reading the "One Piece" manga 20 years ago, I didn't feel like I was reading a comic for pre-teen boys until I got to the end of each chapter, when the author would put in a bit of history about pirates. Those felt like he was talking to a younger audience. The story itself was fast-paced, engrossing, and enjoyable for all ages. It looks like the live-action adaptation is succeeding in adapting it to the TV screen.
That's all I feel like sharing today. Stay tuned as I return to my regular programming tomorrow, whatever that is.
The United Auto Worker union's strike agains[t] the Detroit Big Three entered its fourth day on Monday, Sept. 18. Negotiations resumed with General Motors over the weekend, and talks are expected to pick back up with Ford Motor Company and Stellantis on Monday.
The striker hoping Bill Ford would intervene reminds me that the management of the auto companies has more of a "we're all in this together" attitude than the studio executives, which makes me more optimistic about the UAW strike ending sooner than SAG-AFTRA andWGA strikes.
While WDIV gave the workers an opportunity to state their grievances and hopes, Fox 2 Detroit included the views of politicians and management in UAW strike enters day 4.
UAW employees are on the picket line for the fourth day as the union and automakers continue to negotiate to reach a deal. Offers made to the UAW haven't met the union's wage demands, leading to the strike.
I'm glad Bernie Sanders is showing his support for the strikers, but I think the team from the White House will get more done.
With the United Auto Workers strike entering its third day, Robert Reich, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, and Sara Nelson, President of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, join Ali Velshi to discuss the implications of the UAW strike for the auto industry and workers across the country as the “Summer of Strikes” continues into the fall.
Reich and Nelson are right in principle. I hope they're also right about the outcome.
I may have more on the strike as early as Wednesday. In the meantime, stay tuned as I celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day tomorrow. Arr!
Outstanding Crime and Justice Coverage
Dateline NBC Dark Waters NBC Dateline NBC What Happened to Anton Black? NBC Soul of a Nation Presents X / o n e r a t e d – The Murder of Malcolm X and 55 Years to Justice ABC Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller White Supremacy National Geographic VICE News Tonight No Justice for Women in the Taliban’s Afghanistan Vice
I begin my reaction by recycling what I wrote in Outstanding Science, Technology or Environmental Coverage nominees cover plastics, the Amazon, school surveillance, and mental health:"'White Supremacy'...has the most nominations among the field for Outstanding Crime and Justice Coverage, although ABC's "X / o n e r a t e d - The Murder of Malcolm X and 55 Years to Justice" with two total nominations might give it a run for its money." The rest of the nominees have only this one nomination, so I'm not predicting that any of them would upset either Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller or Soul of a Nation Presents. That written, I would be very surprised if this category fails to include at least one episode of Dateline NBC, which specializes in true crime, as long as that series produces new episodes. Also, true crime is very much the province of VICE News Tonight, so I'm not surprised that one of its 28 nominations is in this category. I'm only surprised VICE News Tonight and Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller don't have more nominations here.
Mariana travels to Chicago Illinois to speak with a former white nationalist about the growing white suprematist (sic) movement in the united states and abroad.
I took two things away from this interview. First, it's not the ideology that attracts people, it's the promise of identity, community, and purpose. That's what cults and gangs promise, too. Second, the internet is a great recruiting tool and, like all tools, it can be used for good or evil.
Follow over the jump for the categories I've already covered that include nominations for "White Supremacy."
["Amazon Mafia"] is another video I can recommend to my students. It's just as strong on the environment as In Real Life: Plastic Time Bomb, even if it's weaker on the science. It, like all the other nominated episodes of Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, makes up for it by being strong on long-form investigative reporting and crime coverage. In fact, "Fish Pirates" earned a nomination for Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form as well as Outstanding Writing: News and I've already mentioned that "White Supremacy" has nominations for Outstanding Crime and Justice Coverage, Outstanding Editing: News, and Outstanding Research: News. I will try to get around to covering those categories, if I haven't already, and embedding their videos.
As much as 30% of our seafood has been caught illegally. Mariana searches for the fish pirates who make billions each year while destroying our oceans.
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About Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller:
TRAFFICKED with Mariana van Zeller is an original documentary series that explores the complex and dangerous inner-workings of the global underworld, black and informal markets. Each adventure follows Mariana on a mission to follow the chain of custody of trafficked goods, understand how to obtain the contraband, or see the 360-degree view of the trafficking world from the point of view of the smugglers, law enforcement and those caught in the crossfire.
Watching this video reminds me that I've been blogging about overfishing since 2013, when I quoted an article about climate change that mentioned overfishing as an additional threat to biodiversity, then quoted another article that detected evidence of it in old restaurant menus from Hawaii. It's been a topic of Earth Overshoot Day and a theme of World Wildlife Day and especially WorldOceansDay. Most recently, I included a video about overfishing I show to my students in Whales and fish, two stories I tell my students. Today's entry fits well with my continuing coverage of this threat to the environment and the global food supply, which means it's another video I can recommend to my students along with "Amazon Mafia."
Now for its competition in its two nominated categories.
Outstanding Investigative News Coverage: Long Form
FRONTLINE Afghanistan Undercover PBS FRONTLINE, The Associated Press, SITU Research Crime Scene: Bucha PBS Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha The New York Times Trafficked with Mariana van Zelle Fish Pirates National Geographic VICE News Tonight Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department Vice
All of the nominees except "Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department" have another nomination, so I can't use that to handicap the category. Both of Frontline's nominees, "Afghanistan Undercover" and "Crime Scene: Bucha," and the New York Times' Caught on Camera, Traced by Phone: The Russian Military Unit That Killed Dozens in Bucha are also nominated for Outstanding Research: News, a category that I expect Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller's "White Supremacy" will win. Normally, I'd forecast based on the lack of other nominations that "Above the Law: Investigating the Louisville Metro Police Department," one of VICE News Tonight's 28 nominations, would be the least likely to win, but the video views say otherwise.
Continuing on, here is the other nominated category for "Fish Pirates" as well as one of two nominations for "Cocaine Queens."
Outstanding Writing: News
60 Minutes The Lost Souls of Bucha CBS 60 Minutes Pathogen X CBS 60 Minutes Platform 4 CBS Fault Lines The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh Al Jazeera International USA Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller Cocaine Queens National Geographic Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller Fish Pirates National Geographic
60 Minutes has three nominated segments, two of which have two nominations, "Pathogen X" in this category and Outstanding Hard News Feature Story: Long Form and "Platform 4" in this category and Outstanding Edited Breaking News Coverage. "Cocaine Queens" also earned a nomination for Outstanding Editing: News. Using page views to break the tie, I'd say "Platform 4" with 700,899 views is in the lead to walk away from the podium with this award.
That concludes today's installment of this series. Return tomorrow as I plan on looking at the remaining nominations for Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller. Stay tuned.
Previous posts about the 2023 News & Documentary Emmy Awards
For the first time in history, the United Auto Workers union has called for a simultaneous strike at each of Detroit’s Big Three automakers after the groups failed to come to an agreement before this year’s contract deadline.
Two things impressed me, the resolve of the strikers and the big show the automakers made that they have been negotiating and making what they see as good offers. The first compares well with SAG-AFTRA andWGA strikes; the writers and actors have shown great resolve on the picket lines. The second is a welcome contrast to the studios, who have made only token efforts to offer acceptable contracts. The automakers want to keep making cars and trucks while keeping their workforce satisfied. The studios seem to want to starve the writers and actors into submission. You can tell which industry's management I like better.
CNBC's Phil LeBeau joins 'Squawk Box' with the latest news.
Phil LeBeau noted the strikers' resolve as well along with the popular support for the strike. Both of those bode well for the UAW. They also discussed the transition to EVs, which is going more slowly than hoped, and how the strike is likely to impede that technological change even more. I'm not happy about that, as I'm in favor of EVs. However, sustainability is a balancing act, which is why I wrote "May people not suffer so that the planet and profit thrive" on Labor Day. Here's to maintaining that balance.
There will be no negotiations until Monday, so I plan on returning to the strike next week. Until then, stay tuned for more posts about NewsandDocumentaryEmmyAwards over the weekend.
As our world gets warmer and our climate gets more extreme, the weather isn’t the only thing that’s changing and becoming more dangerous. Disease vectors are also spreading and becoming riskier to humans. In this episode of Weathered, we delve into some of the world’s biggest killers, like Malaria and Dengue, but also discuss some smaller, and creepier threats that are becoming more common.
And PBS Vitals co-host, Dr. Alok Patel, helps us understand the measures we can all take to keep ourselves as safe as possible amid this ever-changing landscape of infectious disease.
While I've written about West Nile virus and other mosquito-borne diseases here, I haven't mentioned Lyme disease before, even in connection with climate change. It's about time I did.
Right here, on the heels of the Lahaina disaster and a summer full of Canadian wildfire smoke, we’ve been wondering: when the air fills with smoke, what are you really breathing? How best to protect yourself? And how bad is it going to get?
Along with Alok, Maiya May from Weathered brings some long-term perspective on fires, climate change and the shifting patterns of where we live.
During May and June, smoke from those wildfires has twice blown south into the eastern half of the U.S. and created unhealthy to hazardous air quality from Chicago to New York, with Detroit in-between. Last week, the smoke was thick enough that it matched the worst-looking air pollution I ever saw growing up in Los Angeles. I have never seen air quality this bad in the 34 years I've lived here. My students even asked me why it was happening. Unfortunately, they were my geology students. If my environmental science students had asked, I'd have used the smoke as an example of three of Commoner's Laws, everything is connected to everything else, everything must go somewhere, so there is no "away," and there is no free lunch. If the smoke returns, I might still.
Fortunately, the smoke hasn't returned enough to get my students to ask, but the risk remains.
PBS Vitals has more videos on the health effects of climate change and I might share them. Stay tuned.
