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.
In 2027, the Artemis III mission will practice docking the Orion spacecraft with two lunar landers in low Earth orbit. On future Artemis missions, landers will bring astronauts to the lunar surface. While Artemis III will not land on the Moon, it will test the complex capabilities we need to return humanity there — this time to stay.
NASA astronauts Randy Bresnik, Frank Rubio, and Andre Douglas will join European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano on this historic mission.
Another step toward one of the most complex spaceflight missions in history, NASA provided updates on Artemis III and announced crew members for the test flight. Planned to launch in 2027, the mission will practice docking the Orion spacecraft with two lunar landers in low Earth orbit.
On future missions, including Artemis IV in 2028, landers will bring astronauts to the lunar surface. While Artemis III will not land on the Moon, it will test the complex capabilities we need to return humanity there — this time to stay.
Crew assignments are as follows:
• NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, commander
• ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano, pilot
• NASA astronaut Andre Douglas, mission specialist
• NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, mission specialist
• NASA astronaut Bob Hines, backup crew member
Both of those look good, as expected for successfull PR, but it's not all smooth flying. Artemis III depends on launches by SpaceX and Blue Origin and both are having their issues, as PBS NewHour explained in How a Blue Origin rocket explosion could impact NASA's moon mission.
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded on the launchpad during a test in Cape Canaveral on Thursday. The company, owned by Jeff Bezos, said no one was injured and all personnel were accounted for. But the rocket has a crucial role in NASA’s Artemis program to return American astronauts to the surface of the moon. Amna Nawaz discussed its significance with science correspondent Miles O’Brien.
Early this January, I wrote, "Starship is running behind schedule and holding up a lunar landing, so I'm rooting for Blue Origin to either win the contract or inspire SpaceX to get its act together in time." Looks like Blue Origin has to get its act together, too.
The last movie nominee with four nominations is Project Hail Mary, so I'm examining the science fiction and fantasy nominees today.
Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie
Bugonia
Disclosure Day
Frankenstein
Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
I Love Boosters
Predator: Badlands
Project Hail Mary
Out of this field, I'm picking Project Hail Mary, and not just because it has the most nominations. My wife and I paid money to stream it, which we almost never do, and thought it was worth every penny. That the Astra Awards crowned it the best movie of the first half of the year just cements my choice.
As for the rest of the nominees, Bugonia has three nominations, while Disclosure Day, Frankenstein, Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, I Love Boosters, and Predator: Badlands each have two, which confirms my intuition that Bugonia and Disclosure Day are the dark horses that could upset Project Hail Mary.
That written, the Critics Choice Association didn't completely shut out Avatar: Fire and Ash, as it earned two acting nominations. Follow over the jump for those.
I'm using the relevant sentence from the press release to determine which genre to examine next: "'Masters of the Universe,' 'Obsession,' 'Project Hail Mary,' 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' and 'Weapons' followed closely behind 'Superman' with four film category nominations each." I covered Superman, Masters of the Universe, and The Fantastic Four: First Stepsyesterday, leaving Obsession and Weapons in horror and Project Hail Mary in science fiction and fantasy, so I'm writing about horror today.
Best Horror Movie
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Backrooms
The Long Walk
Obsession
Send Help
Weapons
Five of the six nominees also earned nominations for Best Wide-Release Movie at the 2026 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, Obsession and Weapons tied at four nominations, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and Backrooms tied at three nominations, and Send Help with two nominations. The Long Walk has only one nomination at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards for Best Supporting Performance, but two nominations here. Although I voted for Weapons, I think Obsession is more likely to win Best Wide-Release Movie at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. On the other hand, I think Weapons is more likely to win this category here. Once again, welcome to the critics vs. the fans.
Follow over the jump for the acting categories, where three more horror movies earned nominations.
“Superman” leads this year’s film nominees, having earned six nominations including Best Superhero Movie. David Corenswet, Edi Gathegi, and Nicholas Hoult all received nominations for Best Actor in a Superhero Movie, while Nicholas Hoult received an additional nod for Best Villain in a Movie. Rachel Brosnahan is also up for Best Actress in a Superhero Movie.
I'm repeating the nominees from the preview image.
Best Superhero Movie*
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Exit 8
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Masters of the Universe
Mortal Kombat II
Supergirl
Superman
Masters of the Universe also has four nominations, but I doubt it is as strong as Fantastic Four: First Steps. It's followed by Exit 8, Mortal Kombat II, and Supergirl with two and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle with just this one.
What does this mean for the Saturn Awards? Not much. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Superman were already recognized. Exit 8 would likely be nominated for International Film or Horror Film and Masters of the Universe would work better as a Fantasy Film, leaving Mortal Kombat II and Supergirl. I suspect the latter will earn at least one Razzie nomination for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel, but probably won't "win." Whew. Instead, I think the contest will be between two movies not yet released, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday. Other films that could join them would be Resident Evil and Street Fighter. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and the upcoming The Angry Birds Movie 3 could be nominated, but they're more likely to be recognized under animation.
Donald Trump can’t stop talking about how he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, and no, the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize doesn’t count. Jordan Klepper travels to a JD Vance event, the “burning hellhole” city of Portland, and home of the peace prize, Norway, to find out if the president actually deserves to be given this prestigious award.
Like last year, this special earned two Emmy nominations. Follow over the jump for them, the nominations for its competition, and their Gold Derby odds.
2015 Phantom Regiment should look familiar, as I featured the corps in 'City of Light' for Bastille Day, although neither of the clips I embedded included "Clair de Lune," so this was new to this blog, just like last year's inclusion of An American in Paris. I probably now have the entire show scattered over ten years of this blog. Maybe one day I will find a video of the entire show.
As for who played it best, the commenters say 1994 Phantom Regiment, and I agree. G bugles still rule.
It's that time again, Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominees have been announced and the ballots are out! Join us as we go through the categories and pick our winners from a very strong 12 month span that featured films such as Obsession, Backrooms, Weapons, Frankenstein, and many more!
Vote for your favorites, Voting closes July 15 at 11:59 PM PT.
The scream of the crop has arrived!
The nominations for the 2026 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards are officially LIVE! @fangoria gathered 35 of the best new horror films across 14 categories to celebrate the very best in the genre.
Now it’s YOUR turn to decide the winners.
IMPORTANT: The voting window is open for a limited time!
Deadline: July 15th, 2026
Vote Now: Head to Fangoria.com and let your horror-loving voice be heard!
Smartphones and a marked change to our digital media environment are part of the reason for the demographic shift changing our world, including how low birth rates are shrinking the workforce. Chief data reporter John Burn-Murdoch presents his lastest findings on this challenge faced by most nations[.]
There's a lot to chew on here. I've been writing a lot about government policy and economics, but I don't think I've mentioned non-medical technologies in the context of falling birth and fertility rates before. That's certainly a "scifi is now" topic. I also haven't discussed lack of independent housing as a factor in demography, although I've certainly blogged about housing and real estate during the past 15+ years. I think I'll be adding those perspectives to my writing in the future.
By the way, I consider "Pennsylvania economist Jesús Fernandez-Villaverde call[ing] fertility decline the question of our time, with most other problems flowing downstream of it" to be the result of a perspective I criticized in Meditations on sustainability, part 1.
[E]conomy is dependent on society, which is in turn dependent on the environment. Without an environment, there is no society. Without a society, there is no economy. Those relationships put sustainability into perspective. They also show that the emphasis on economy above all is exactly backwards. No wonder we're in trouble.
That written, I'm not surprised the Financial Times would feature it. As I quoted from Yes, Prime Minister, "The Financial Times is read by people who own the country," in this case the U.K., so they would think it salient. As one of the commenters pointed out, "This video is for rich people. Everyone who's is struggling knows why we don't have kids." From my ecological perspective, resource use, if not outright depletion, and waste production, as exemplified by fossilfuels and climatechange are the primary problems and everything flows downhill from them. As a biologist, I think limited resources primarily define carrying capacity, the maximum sustainable size of a population, and we should be examining those, especially their connections to the issues the economists identify.
The world is having fewer children and the pace of decline is happening much faster than expected. The reasons are complex and varied, from a lack of affordable housing to a lack of suitable partners. But could smartphones and modern tech be part of the problem? DW speaks to AI researcher Connor Leahy about how digital life may be reshaping relationships.
I was wondering if someone would bring up dating apps, the obvious technological solution to people finding partners, and Connor Leahy pointed out that their incentive is to keep people on the app, not find a permanent partner. Now I'm wondering if government matchmaking services are in our future. I suspect that would not be an unadulterated good and other causes would have to be addressed for them to be effective.
For what it's worth, the commenters to the video were hostile to the question, but I think that's because DW News didn't present the data supporting the inference, not that it helped the Financial Times video that much. Their commenters weren't as mean, but they were certainly skeptical. I'm not one of them; I think the researchers are onto something, at least as a contributing factor for the last 20 years.
The U.S. fertility rate is at an all-time low, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers say this is part of a larger downward trend. Since 2007, the number of Americans having babies has dropped 23%, well below the replacement level, meaning not enough are being born to replace those who die. William Brangham discussed more with Brian Mann of NPR.
PBS NewsHour broadcast this segment and then uploaded it one month before the study on smartphones and birthrates came out, so it didn't include its findings. In that light, the decline in teen pregnancy might be less a result of good policy and more the effects of smartphones. That doesn't make it any less of an accomplishment, just an accidental one.
Reading this would be enough to make me drink if my diabetes hadn't made me lose interest in drinking, so it's time to celebrate with Michigan Public saying .
Inspired by Tracy Samilton's recent trip to Cuba, Tammy Coxen whipped up this stellar mojito - which we might claim is one of the tastiest in Michigan. Samilton explored the Michigan-Cuba connection during her time in Havana, so Coxen used white rum from the Ann Arbor Distilling Company to bring some Michigan flavor to this drink perfect for warmer weather. Cheers!
That's a wrap for today's double celebration. Stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment feature. I have an awards show my readers can vote in for free, as long as they are interested in horror and horror-adjacent science fictionmovies and television.
