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.
While tsunamis happen all over the world, really big ones are rare. But, they can be truly devastating. And what’s more, the West Coast of North America is overdue for a subduction zone earthquake and tsunami that has the potential to be the biggest disaster the U.S. has ever seen. So, what is the single most important factor determining whether or not YOU survive a tsunami? Watch this episode to find out.
Infidel753: Living in Portland, I worry about this a lot. I may actually move, if I can ever afford to. At least the apartment complex I live in is one of those "stick buildings", so it probably wouldn't collapse, but the disruption to water, sewage, transport, and everything else is likely to be horrific, and not quickly fixed.
Me: I can relate. Although they're down the list, earthquakes are one of the things I don't miss about California now that I live in Michigan. As I wrote last year: "the prospect of this quake has dissuaded my wife and me from moving to the Pacific Northwest when I retire." It might make you move out when you retire.
My wife and I just talked about this last week and it reinforced our decision not to move to Seattle or Portland, as lovely as those cities seem in Grey's Anatomy or Grimm — and that's even with the fairy tale monsters in the latter!
As for the answer to the question in the title, it's reaction time and my first instinct if I can't get away from the shore would be to climb up, so I'm relieved to see people building vertical escape structures. Now to build more than three in the U.S.
This concludes January's blogging. Stay tuned for February. Leap year month!
As John Dean is quoted as saying, "The criminal conduct of Richard Nixon and his top aides...became the blueprint for what no President of the United States should do." Unfortunately, it became the blueprint for what the former guy actually did, resulting in two impeachments and several indictments, beyond what happened to Nixon, who resigned before he could be impeached and was pardoned before he could be indicted.
First, I'm an environmentalist; I recycle. Second, it looks like we learned the wrong lessons from Watergate. The bad actors have learned how to get away with political crime, not that they should behave better. If anything, they're behaving worse and many of us are helping them.
The battle for the soul of America isn’t Right vs. Left. It’s Normal vs. Crazy.
I agree with the general sentiment, even if I'm not down with all the details he uses to support his position. That written, from Bill's lips to our ears.
That written, all of these movies deserve their nominations for their environmental themes, even White Noise, which kicks off with a train wreck releasing hazardous chemicals — sounds familiar, doesn't it, although the movie came out before that particular disaster. Since I voted for it twice, I think Avatar: The Way of Water is the best nominee. I also think it has the strongest environmental themes, so it might just win.
And it did. Congratulations!
Documentary Film
Deep Rising – The Film Collaborative Common Ground – Big Picture Ranch From Devil’s Breath – MSNBC Films, TIME Studios, Day Zero Productions, Sugar23, Mainstay, P&G Studios, Grain Media, Appian Way
This category alone justifies my coverage of these awards, as it includes three films I can recommend my students watch for extra credit. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
In 2022, I suspected that star power would sway the EMA voters enough for Eating Our Way to Extinction to win. It did, so I'm making the same prediction for Common Ground. Look at all the famous actors named on the poster, including Laura Dern, who is receiving the EMA Ongoing Commitment Award. It's enough to cancel out Jason Momoa as the narrator for Deep Rising, especially since he is also listed for Common Ground, and Leonardo DiCaprio for From Devil’s Breath, which might be the best-crafted of the three.
As I predicted, Common Ground won. Again, congratulations!
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like a man threatening people with a knife at a Planet Fitness.
I watch a lot of theme park channels and none of them mentioned this rumor, so that's about the status I accord to it, rumor — that, or an urban legend, like Walt's frozen head, which isn't true because the man was cremated.
Follow over the jump for Weekend Update's interview segments, the host monologue, and the cold open, which wasn't about politics for once.
During the Cold War, competition between the the United States and the former USSR was fierce, as the two countries rallied for the chance to make history by getting to the moon first. In 1959, the Soviet Union beat the U.S. to become the first nation to reach the surface of the moon with its Luna 2 spacecraft. But, the United States was the first country to put man on the moon in 1969, and to this day is still the only nation to have landed people on the moon. To date, only five nations, the U.S., Russia, China, Japan and India, have completed a successful soft landing on the moon. But bolstered by evidence of the presence of water and other natural resources, many more nations and private companies are now seeking to get to the moon. And whoever is able to establish a significant lunar presence first could have big implications on Earth as well as the cosmos.
I'm glad that Joe Biden's Administration publicly supports the continuation of the Trump Administration's plans for space exploration. As I wrote five years ago and repeated the next year, "space policy is the one area where Trump might actually be good for the country" and "Trump's plan is actually not a bad idea." I was worried that the Biden Administration would dump the one Trump policy I supported along with all the ones I couldn't stand. I'm relieved that they didn't.
File this under "even a stuck clock is right twice a day" and Donald Trump is definitely a stuck clock.
CNN's Christiane Amanpour speaks with NASA deputy administrator Pamela Melroy about the potential that space could be the next platform for war between nations.
Fortunately, Pamela Melroy thinks the answer is no. However, I wonder if she would get the same answer from a high-ranking officer of Space Force. Now I'm tempted to leave that as a suggestion in a comment to the video.
That's it for today's space update. Stay tuned for the highlights of tonight's Saturday Night Live tomorrow.
That written, all of these movies deserve their nominations for their environmental themes, even White Noise, which kicks off with a train wreck releasing hazardous chemicals — sounds familiar, doesn't it, although the movie came out before that particular disaster. Since I voted for it twice, I think Avatar: The Way of Water is the best nominee. I also think it has the strongest environmental themes, so it might just win.
Documentary Film
Deep Rising – The Film Collaborative Common Ground – Big Picture Ranch From Devil’s Breath – MSNBC Films, TIME Studios, Day Zero Productions, Sugar23, Mainstay, P&G Studios, Grain Media, Appian Way
This category alone justifies my coverage of these awards, as it includes three films I can recommend my students watch for extra credit. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
In 2022, I suspected that star power would sway the EMA voters enough for Eating Our Way to Extinction to win. It did, so I'm making the same prediction for Common Ground. Look at all the famous actors named on the poster, including Laura Dern, who is receiving the EMA Ongoing Commitment Award. It's enough to cancel out Jason Momoa as the narrator for Deep Rising, especially since he is also listed for Common Ground, and Leonardo DiCaprio for From Devil’s Breath, which might be the best-crafted of the three.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has kept the Doomsday Clock set to 90 seconds to midnight for the second straight year, largely attributed to the war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war and the threat of artificial intelligence. The clock is a symbolic indication of humanity’s perceived proximity to human-caused catastrophe.
The Doomsday Clock was reset at 90 seconds to midnight, still the closest the Clock has ever been to midnight, reflecting the continued state of unprecedented danger the world faces. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, stewards of the Doomsday Clock, emphasized in their announcement that the Clock could be turned back, but governments and people needed to take urgent action.
A variety of global threats cast menacing shadows over the 2024 Clock deliberations, including: the Russia-Ukraine war and deterioration of nuclear arms reduction agreements; the Climate Crisis and 2023’s official designation as the hottest year on record; the increased sophistication of genetic engineering technologies; and the dramatic advance of generative AI which could magnify disinformation and corrupt the global information environment making it harder to solve the larger existential challenges.
Bill Nye, who participated in the 2024 Doomsday Clock announcement, said: “For decades, scientists have been warning us of the dangers facing humankind. We could be facing catastrophe unless we better manage the technologies we’ve created. It’s time to act.”
I think Nye is a good addition to the panel and helps draw attention to the event and the issues it raises. It helps that he's gotten into the apocalypse space with The End is Nye, which won the EMA Award for Reality Television. This reminds me that the EMA Awards are tomorrow, so they're up next. Stay tuned.
Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump threatening Nikki Haley in an angry speech after an underwhelming New Hampshire result where even Fox News was forced to admit that a sizable portion of Republicans might not support Trump in November.
Listening to Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump reminds me that there's one thing I dislike more than a sore loser and that's a sore winner and both of them are sore winners.
The former president lashed out at Nikki Haley for acting like she won the New Hampshire primary, a new report alleges rampant abuse of prescription drugs by staffers in the Trump White House, and Alaska Airlines is finding an alarming number of loose bolts on its planes.
Stephen is right; Trump was being catty about Nikki Haley's dress while hardly being in a position to complain. Also, I'm glad Stephen mentioned Vermin Supreme, a perpetual candidate in New Hampshire and always good for a laugh.
Donald Trump beat Nikki Haley by double digits in New Hampshire last night and she is still aiming to debate him, it was party night in MAGA land as Kellyanne Conway, Marjorie Taylor Greene and George Santos came out in support of Donny, more than a thousand people have been arrested in connection with the Insurrection and the good folks who were rioting are complaining now that it’s affecting their travel plans, Justin Trudeau seems to be losing sleep over Trump possibly being president again, and Jimmy releases an attack ad against a guy named Todd Cole who wants to take his Mayor of Dildo title.
George Santos — that's a name I was hoping never to write about again.
Alex Wagner discusses doing the live coverage for the New Hampshire primary and whether she thinks Nikki Haley has the votes to eventually surpass Donald Trump.
If I were in Alex's position, I'd miss the horserace, too. At least she'll get it during the general election.
That's it for the reactions to the New Hampshire Primary. Stay tuned for the Doomsday Clock.
After strikes, lingerings of a worldwide plague and a general sense of universal agoraphobia, the decline of the cinematic experience goes without saying. Thankfully, a doll and a bomb movie jump-started The Industry, which still left behind a trail of Pooh for the Razzies® to pick up!
According to the press release, Expend4bles leads with seven nominations, followed by Exorcist: Believer and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey with five, Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Ant Man & The Wasp: Quantumania with four, and Meg 2: The Trench with three. The Hollywood Reporter dutifully reported these numbers along with the leading nominees in Razzie Awards 2024 Nominations Revealed: 'Expend4bles' Leads the Pack.
Awards season doesn't just mean honoring the best of the best. The Razzies unveiled their annual nominations, which honor the worst of the year. Leading the nominations for the Razzies or more formally known as the Golden Raspberry Awards are 'Expend4bles' which earned 7 including worst picture.
Unfortunately, the Razzies made at least two math errors and The Hollywood Reporter didn't catch them. I knew to look for them, as I observed two years ago and repeated last year, "the people behind the Razzies do not have the best math skills and attention to detail, so they make mistakes when counting nominations. This year was no exception..." This year's error was not in the number of nominations for Expend4bles; the bad mercenary movie really does have seven nominations. It's that Exorcist: Believer also has seven, not five. They are: Worst Picture, Worst Actor for Russell Crowe, Worst Supporting Actor for Franco Nero, Any 2 Money-Grubbing Investors Who Donated to the $400 Million
for Remake Rights to The Exorcist, Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel, Worst Director for David Gordon Green, and Worst Screenplay. Oops. Even if the Worst Screen Couple doesn't count, and I think the category should because it did for Expend4bles and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, it still has more than five. In addition, the Razzies missed that Ghosted also has three nominations, Worst Actor for Chris Evans, Worst Actress for Ana De Armas, and Worst Screen Couple for both of them, tying it with Meg 2: The Trench. Double oops. Still, I expected no better from the Razzies, which is why I looked. I'm just surprised that The Hollywood Reporter hasn't learned to check the Razzies' math.
Enough of that. As I wrote last year, "I pay attention to the Razzies because they usually recognize the worst big-budget genre films and sniff out bad political films. They didn't disappoint me this year, as they recognized some poorly done genre films." In addition, both Expend4bles and Ghosted are action-comedies about politics and government. Both of them are examples of "there is nothing unfunnier than a bad comedy."
Speaking of mistakes, I just missed an opportunity to brag about a prediction. I wrote "it wouldn't surprise me if Waller-Bridge earned a Razzie nomination for [her] role" in 'Barbie' vs. 'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' for Best Fantasy Film at the Saturn Awards. Fortunately, that didn't happen, as I also wrote "I think that would be unjustified, as I enjoyed her performance." I was thinking of writing that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny would earn a Razzie nomination for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel in my response to Infidel753's second comment, but I didn't follow through. Darn, as the movie earned two nominations for Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel, as I expected, and Worst Screenplay. I think that makes it the only movie nominated at both the Oscars for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) and the Razzies. Congratulations?
I also didn't blog about the Razzie winners last year, so I conclude by including 43rd Razzie® Award Winners!
Besides “wins” for the iconic actor, marvel character and bizarre biopic, the Razzies for the first time in their history, took a Razzie themselves. After their blunder of nominating someone who should not have been considered, the organization was put through the cyberworld blender. They publicly apologized to the actress, changed the rules for anyone under 18, rescinded the nomination and put themselves in her place on the ballot - which won by a landslide. Watch Razz Berry's acceptance speech.
At least the Razzies acknowledged one of their mistakes, which was for judgment, not math. They followed their own advice of "own your bad." Good for them.
Gold Derby hasn't made any predictions for the Razzies or the Oscars yet. When they do, I'll return with their odds. Stay tuned.
Nashua, New Hampshire's Spartans perform a segment from the corps' #DCI2022 production, "On The Edge," during the 2022 DCI World Championships hosted August 12-14 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
Will the voters be "on the edge" when cast their ballots? Will they and anyone paying attention to the contest be on the edge of their seats waiting for the results? Will Nikki Haley be on the edge of dropping out if she loses big?
Spartans performs Claude Debussy's "Clair de Lune" as part of the Open Class corps' 2018 production, "Da Vinci’s Workshop," at the DCI World Championship Semifinals at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
That was a work of art. Will people remember this campaign the same way?
Those are the official uploads. Follow over the jump for the unofficial uploads.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he is dropping out of the race and suspending his 2024 presidential campaign in a video he posted on X formerly known as Twitter.
It's no secret that I dislike DeSantis, but I dislike Donald Trump more, so I couldn't resist Susan Del Percio pushing back on Alex Witt asking if it would be smart for Trump to pick Nikki Haley for his running mate to unify the party by saying "I never look to Trump and say 'Will he make the smart decision?' What I do is what is the decision that best fits his ego, and Nikki Haley doesn't match that." I agree, which is why Elise Stefanik has been appealing to his ego, yet I think Kristi Noem would be more likely to be picked. Del Percio's prediction of Katie Britt hadn't occurred to me, but now that she's mentioned it, I can see it.
On a related subject, I just haven't felt enthused enough about the primaries to do what I did in 2016 and 2020, make images of the candidates' ideologies and find drinks for them. It would have been relatively easy for DeSantis, as he served in Congress and has a Voteview page to go along with his On The Issues page, but I never felt it. Now I'm glad I didn't; it saved me work I didn't have to do.
Follow over the jump for videos about what went wrong and what it means for Haley in tomorrow's New Hampshire Primary.
I told my readers to "Stay tuned for highlights of Saturday Night Live's first show of the new year, when I plan on covering its Emmy Awards as well as the one Emmy won by A Black Lady Sketch Show." Without any further ado, I present Trump Courthouse Cold Open.
Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) speaks to the media after appearing in court for his E. Jean Carroll defamation trial.
I was wondering when I'd encounter someone else calling Ambassador Haley "Darling Nikki." It took SNL's writers to do it; the real Trump would rather call her "Birdbrain" — coming from him, that's rich, although projection is the Right's favorite defense mechanism and Trump projects, so it should be expected — or Nimrada, a mangling of her real first name, Nimarata, which doubles as an allusion to Nimrod and a xenophobic/racist dog whistle, one of which we'll see and hear during Weekend Update. Speaking of insulting nicknames, Ron DeStupid for Ron DeSantis works for me, but again that was SNL's writers, not Trump. He needs better writers, not that he would follow their lead or even understand what he's reading until after he hears himself say it.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like Trump eyeing Rep. Elise Stefanik as his running mate for the 2024 presidential election.
A fellow guest at a party I attended in the summer of 2016 asked me how we got TFG and Hillary Clinton as nominees. I told him that the parties got the nominees they deserved. The Republicans got TFG because the party was too weak and the Democrats got Hillary Clinton because the party was too strong. He laughed ruefully and asked if the American people deserved the nominees. I told him that was another matter entirely.
I elaborated on that last month, writing "That's still true and is why we're almost certainly going to get a rematch between TFG and Joe Biden next year" — now this year.
1. She's continuing her audition to be TFG's VP. 2. Pelosi wished for a strong Republican Party. This is what it looks like. She should be careful what she wishes for. 3. https://t.co/wDAB2W3m0ehttps://t.co/GkjUGDo7lQ
Obama won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator last year, so when he's defending it now that he's been nominated again for this category. Like last year, he's contending against stiff competition in Mahershala Ali for "Chimp Empire," Angela Bassett for "Good Night Oppy," Morgan Freeman for "Our Universe," and Pedro Pascal for "Patagonia"...
That written, the experts at Gold Derby currently have Obama as the favorite, followed by Bassett, Freeman, Ali, and Pascal. That's about the order I see and the order in which I'd root for the nominees. Besides, who am I to argue against the experts?
I found this surprisingly well-written and the only sign that an actual human likely didn't narrate it was the pause after the D in "Dwight D. Eisenhower." A person would have realized that was not the end of a sentence, while the program read it as such.
Follow over the jump for the other diverse winners in front of the camera and microphone.
The video ends with a peek at solutions. PBS Terra has another video about how "there is no free lunch" when it comes to those. Stay tuned for that among all the awards show coverage.
In order to develop clean energy technology, specific rare earth metals like cobalt and nickel need to be harvested. These often come at a steep human and environmental cost– but what if there was another way? Some propose sourcing these metals from the ocean floor or asteroids, but these solutions come with additional considerations and concerns.
This video works as a case study for all four of Commoner's Laws: Everything is connected to everything else, there is no away, there is no free lunch, and nature knows best. The transition to electric vehicles is already having effects around the globe and could affect the sea floor. That hasn't changed my mind about the importance of doing so. As I wrote in the final paragraph of The state of UAW negotiations for Labor Day 2023, "Anyone who has been reading my blog for any length of time knows I'm in favor of electric vehicles. I drive a Prius, for starters." I closed that paragraph with "May people not suffer so that the planet and profit thrive." The same goes for exploiting one part of the planet to save the rest. As I tell my students, sustainability is a balancing act. May we not fall over.
It’s not just a consumer choice; it’s a policy choice.
...
It’s no secret that big cars dominate American roads. But even so, some of the stats are staggering: Last year, 80 percent of all new cars sold in the US were SUVs and trucks. That’s compared to just 52 percent in 2011. Meanwhile, many automakers are phasing out passenger cars as consumer demand for them has disappeared.
Not all of this is a result of consumer choice, though. A huge factor in why SUVs and trucks are so popular in the US is hidden in a 50-year-old policy decision. In this video we cover the history of the SUV, and how its origin story and popularity is rooted in US fuel economy standards.
I just gave my lecture on sustainability to my environmental science students last week and pointed out a couple of the consumer reasons why Americans buy large cars, safety and comfort. Both of those are values, which the Cambridge Dictionary defines as "the beliefs people have, especially about what is right and wrong and what is most important in life, that control their behavior." These can work at cross purposes to values like efficiency and sustainability, but, as the video shows, it can work with profit, another value. Yes, I made that list of values with the auto industry in mind. I live and work in metro Detroit and I try to reach my students where they are.
I am also in the middle of lecturing about economy and government and how they relate to the environment, and this video works well with those topics. As the video description points out, a policy choice about fuel efficiency and exhaust emissions worked with consumer choice to promote SUVs and other light trucks over passenger cars. It would take a change in policy to shape consumer choice to reverse this trend. File this under two of Commoner's Laws: Everything is connected to everything else and there is no free lunch.
America is a big country, and Americans have always favored big vehicles to traverse it. America gave the world Cadillacs with massive tailfins and oversize pickup trucks.
While in Western Europe or Japan cars are often small - quite small - American automakers churn out big SUVs, full-size pickup trucks. Even our sporty cars - like the Ford Mustang and the Dodge Challenger, are big and are often called “muscle cars” as a nod to their larger size. Research shows consumers like bigger vehicles when they can get them. Researchers say regulatory loopholes favoring trucks have helped the shift. But there are downsides: Big cars are more expensive. If they burn fuel, they usually require more of it, and are thus more harmful to the environment. Some research indicates they are also more fatal in car accidents.
As I wrote above, safety is an important value to drivers, but it's only the safety of the occupants of the vehicle itself. The safety of drivers of smaller cars and especially pedestrians suffers as a result. As I also wrote, everything is connected to everything else and there is no free lunch.
The CNBC video concludes by wondering if the shift to EVs helps to reverse the trend to larger vehicles. I hope so, but it would take a parallel change in consumer taste to make it happen. I'm not seeing that yet, but I am open to being surprised.
Follow over the jump for my personal driving update.
The former president values votes more than the lives of his voters, his opponent Nikki Haley thinks she lives in a country free from racism, and Vivek Ramaswamy lovingly embraced the GOP frontrunner after exiting the presidential race.
That was the second time The Late Show with Stephen Colbert made fun of Trump calling for his supporters to risk their lives to caucus for him. The show opened with The MAGA Casket Is Available Now.
Just because you died after voting for Donald Trump doesn’t mean you can’t continue to support him.
I'm reminded of the villain from the first Shrek movie.
Seth takes a closer look at Trump immediately returning to court for a defamation trial where his lawyer was scolded by the judge after winning the Iowa caucus and solidifying his status as the likely GOP nominee for president.
As for Trump's many legal problems — the second E. Jean Carroll trial isn't even one of four criminal cases he is facing — I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling my reaction: "'The wheels of justice are grinding slowly in this case, but I expect they will indeed grind exceedingly fine.' May they also grind exceedingly fine for Trump and his seditious supporters, if not as slowly."
80% of the country is in the grip of what they call an “Arctic Blast,” there was so much snow in Buffalo the NFL had to postpone Sunday’s Wild Card game, it was -4 degrees at the Kansas City Chiefs game, Dallas fans were very upset over their early exit from the playoffs, the Iowa caucuses were held on Monday and Trump won tiny handily, he even went so far as to predict that all of the other Republican candidates will rally behind him, Vivek Ramaswamy only got 8% of the vote and dropped out of the race, Trump was back in court today with the woman who accused him of sexually assaulting her in the 90s, and Guillermo went to the Emmys to chat up the winners and get them drunk!
Jimmy and the rest didn't include Elise Stefanik calling for everyone else but Trump to drop out and endorse the former President, but I saw that and reacted on Twitter/X.
1. She's continuing her audition to be TFG's VP. 2. Pelosi wished for a strong Republican Party. This is what it looks like. She should be careful what she wishes for. 3. https://t.co/wDAB2W3m0ehttps://t.co/GkjUGDo7lQ
The 2023 Emmy Awards were its most diverse yet! The Emmys celebrated its 75th anniversary on Monday night after being pushed 4 months due to the dual writers and actors strikes. Appropriately falling on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the show handed out five of the 12 acting Emmys during the telecast to performers of color.
In addition to Quinta Brunson, Ayo Edebiri, Niecy Nash-Betts, Ali Wong, and Steven Yeun winning as actors, Lee Sung Jin won three Emmys for producing, writing, and directing Beef, the last of which he shared with Wong and Yeun, who IMDB lists as executive producers of the limited series, for five Primetime Emmys for the show. Added to the three Creative Arts Emmy Awards the show won, that's a total of eight, tying it with The Last of Us and only surpassed by The Bear with ten total Emmy Awards.
If you take a look at global temperature graphs that span millions or billions of years, you can see that our planet’s temperature has made wild swings. In fact, the Earth used to be completely covered in snow and ice! So, what’s the big deal about a few degrees of warming today? In this episode of Weathered, we take a deep dive into Earth’s climate history in order to better understand our current moment.
I have mentioned several times that I'm a paleontologist who studies Pleistocene fossils, particularly snails. What I don't mention is that I used data from the snails, clams, and plants of Rancho La Brea to reconstruct the late Pleistocene climate of southern California, so I'm quite familiar with natural climate change.
I'm also familiar with the story that Michael Mann tells. I haven't mentioned "Snowball Earth" here before, although PBS Eons has a video about it, but I have blogged about the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), calling it "the end of an epoch — literally, as it ended the Paleocene with the Eocene beginning when it abated" and "an event that, as rapid as it was, happened much more slowly than modern climate change."* I also mentioned the high levels of carbon dioxide and its effect on life, writing that "[I]f there is an endless supply of oil, then we'll be content to burn us [it--my Freudian slip was showing] until we reach Jurassic level[s] of carbon dioxide and global warm temperatures. As I also tell my students, that was a great world for dinosaurs, but there weren't any people in it." It's also why I also tell them about uncontrolled climate change, "Life will persist, but humanity would be clobbered." This goes double for our current civilization.
The video ends with a peek at solutions. PBS Terra has another video about how "there is no free lunch" when it comes to those. Stay tuned for that among all the awards show coverage.
*Maybe I should compose an entry featuring the "Snowball Earth" video — when I get a break from awards season and presidential primaries. That could be as early as Thursday, or not until the end of the month.
Dubuque, Iowa's Colts perform a segment from the corps' #DCI2022 production, "The Silk Road," during the 2022 DCI World Championships hosted August 12-14 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
That was only the official clip, which I put first for the preview image. The Stress Master at March Or Die has the complete show, along with a highlights reel of the corps' history welcoming it back to DCI Championship Finals, in DCI-Colts 2022 Finals Reaction.
This year was an amazing experience my first time at finals since 1998. So it has been a while. It was so great to see so many friends and drum corps family. Really can't explain how amazing it was to be there in person again.
The Colts are an amazing corps. The show was complex, intricate visual elements and a very well round corps. Great performance and can't wait to see what they bring next year.
Thank you so much for watching and please now how much I appreciate it.
Another amazing show from 2021. I cannot believe how many creative, fun and honestly really well performed shows there were last summer. As we get closer to the 2022 season I am hoping that the shows this upcoming year will be amazing. Here's hoping!!!
The show's theme is "Leap of Faith," so will the caucus goers make a leap of faith tonight?
The 2023 Drum Corps International Tour and World Championships was one for the record books for Dubuque, Iowa's Colts. DCI's Dan Potter reported from the sideline of Lucas Oil Stadium during the DCI World Championship Semifinals, August 11.
Remember, home is "where the heart is."
Follow over the jump for the Hawkeye Marching Band, Iowa State University Cyclone Marching Band, and two Rose Parade bands from Iowa.
Plenty of white people roles (nine among the 14 acting races) continued to win awards at the 2024 Golden Globes, but there were a handful of exceptions, including two firsts in the ceremony’s 81-year history.
Lily Gladstone became the first Indigenous person to receive a Golden Globe, portraying the real-life Osage woman married to a murderer in Killers of the Flower Moon. “This is for every little res kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told by ourselves, in our own words,” said the best actress in a motion picture, drama winner, who opened her acceptance speech introducing herself in the Blackfeet language.
Meanwhile, Ali Wong added “best actress in a limited series” to the list of categories that have had at least one winner of Asian descent. Her win was part of a sweep for limited series winner Beef, with lead actor Steven Yeun and creator Lee Sung Jin adding to the tally of Asian winners, which also included legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, who won best animated feature for his final film, The Boy and the Heron. The Studio Ghibli movie is the first non-English language film to win in the category.
The other two nonwhite Globe winners in 2024 are both Black women: Da’Vine Joy Randolph won best supporting actress in a motion picture for The Holdovers, while Ayo Edebiri won best actress in a television musical or comedy for The Bear. “The beauty is that all the time I poured into my crafts and all the sleepless nights I had to think about how I contribute to this industry as a woman of color has been worth it,” Randolph said backstage after her win.
The nominees for Outstanding Drama Series are Andor, Better Call Saul, The Crown, House of the Dragon, The Last of Us, Succession, The White Lotus, Yellowjackets.
[M]y interests in covering entertainment in general and awards shows in particular are speculative fiction and depictions of politics and government in general. All of the television drama nominees depict politics and government...The Crown...explores period politics and government, Succession...examine[s] contemporary politics and government, and The Last of Us does double duty by imagining the kinds of governments that arise in a post-apocalyptic horror setting.
Andor, House of the Dragon, and Yellowjackets also do double duty in exploring politics and government in fantastic and futuristic settings, including Yellowjackets, which begins in a public high school — public education is part of government — and is enough of a horror series that it had two Saturn Award nominations last year and one this year. Speaking of which, Better Call Saul led television shows at last year's Saturn Awards with seven nominations and four wins. Its protagonists are lawyers, not government employees, but they work in courtrooms and deal with law enforcement, so a government function plays an important part in the show. Finally, like last season, Season 2 of The White Lotus has a crime at the heart of its farce, so the police appear. Also, Jennifer Coolidge's character Tanya's husband Greg works for the Bureau of Land Management, although the agency itself only earned a mention for a gag based on a misunderstanding of the initials BLM.*
As the graphic above illustrates, the three HBO dramas lead in total nominations with Succession in first with 24 and The Last of Us and The White Lotus tied at 21. Andor and House of the Dragon are a long way down tied with eight, followed by Better Call Saul with seven for its final season, The Crown with six, and Yellowjackets with three, not enough to make the cutoff for the list in the image. Based on that criterion, Succession, The Last of Us, and The White Lotus are the favorites.
If one thinks the Creative Arts Emmy Awards serve as a harbinger of success at the Primetime ceremony, then The Last of Us is in the lead after winning eight Emmys, followed by The White Lotus with four. House of the Dragon won one, along with The Boys and The Mandalorian for stunts, which weren't nominated for drama series, although The Mandalorian had more nominations than Andor. Succession won no Creative Arts Emmys for the main show, but Succession: Controlling the Narrative won Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series. Other people may not count that as a win for the main show, but I do, so Succession has a Creative Arts Emmy. That might put it behind The Last of Us in total Emmy Awards when all is said and done, but it probably won't have an effect on who wins Monday night, if one believes Gold Derby, which I generally do. Both the experts and the editors unanimously think Succession will win Outstanding Drama Series and so do I.
The nominees for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series are Sharon Horgan, Melanie Lynskey, Elisabeth Moss, Bella Ramsey, Keri Russell, and Sarah Snook.
Both Keri Russell for The Diplomat and Elisabeth Moss for The Handmaid's Tale star in shows that prominently feature government and politics with the latter doing double duty as a speculative fiction show. These are also the only nominations for both series. Sigh.
Both the editors and experts at Gold Derby expect Sarah Snook to win, with all the editors and all but one of the experts picking her with one expert choosing Bella Ramsey. I think it will be Snook. Even if it's not, HBO still wins.
Sarah Snook won Best TV Drama Actress for "Succession" at the 2024 Golden Globes on January 7, 2024.
I expect Snook to win for her final turn at this role up to four more times at the Critics Choice Awards, Primetime Emmy Awards, Satellite Awards, and SAG Awards. I'm looking forward to all of them.
The nominees for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series are Jeff Bridges, Brian Cox, Kieren Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, Pedro Pascal, and Jeremy Strong.
Jeff Bridges stars in The Old Man, a spy thriller about the CIA, so it also explores government and politics. The show also has two nominations, the second for Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (One Hour), which it lost to The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Just like for Outstanding Drama Actress, the editors and experts think Kieren Culkin will win with seven of eleven editors and nine of ten experts choosing him. Three editors and one expert picked Pedro Pascal and one editor thinks Bob Odenkirk will finally win an Emmy for Better Call Saul. Not happening, but I wish.
Kieran Culkin won Best TV Drama Actor for "Succession" at the 2024 Golden Globes on January 7, 2024.
Culkin strikes me as being like Brett Goldstein, funny and a bit dirty. I'm looking forward to his winning up to three more times and whatever role he tackles next.
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Jennifer Coolidge – The White Lotus as Tanya McQuoid-Hunt (HBO)
Elizabeth Debicki – The Crown as Diana, Princess of Wales (Netflix)
Meghann Fahy – The White Lotus as Daphne Sullivan (HBO)
Sabrina Impacciatore – The White Lotus as Valentina (HBO)
Aubrey Plaza – The White Lotus as Harper Spiller (HBO)
Rhea Seehorn – Better Call Saul as Kim Wexler (AMC)
J. Smith-Cameron – Succession as Gerri Kellman (HBO)
Simona Tabasco – The White Lotus as Lucia Greco (HBO)
The editors and experts at Gold Derby are fairly united behind Jennifer Coolidge with eight editors and nine experts picking her to win. Two editors chose Rhea Seehorn, one editor ranked J. Smith-Cameron for a Succession sweep, and one expert thinks Aubrey Plaza will beat Coolidge. On that note, I'm sharing Jennifer Coolidge ('The White Lotus: Sicily') on line 'These gays, they're trying to murder me!'
Jennifer Coolidge ('The White Lotus: Sicily' and 'The Watcher') on what she really thinks about Tanya's iconic 'these gays, they're trying to murder me!' line. She is thrilled that it has gone viral, as it is plastered on t-shirts and mugs worldwide and DJs sample it in gay clubs everywhere. Gold Derby editor Rob Licuria hosts this webchat.
Normally, going from limited series to drama series would hurt the Emmy prospects of a show and its actors. It doesn't seem like it for The White Lotus.
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
F. Murray Abraham – The White Lotus as Bert Di Grasso (HBO)
Nicholas Braun – Succession as Greg Hirsch (HBO)
Michael Imperioli – The White Lotus as Dominic Di Grasso (HBO)
Theo James – The White Lotus as Cameron Sullivan (HBO)
Matthew Macfadyen – Succession as Tom Wambsgans (HBO)
Alan Ruck – Succession as Connor Roy (HBO)
Will Sharpe – The White Lotus as Ethan Spiller (HBO)
Alexander Skarsgård – Succession as Lukas Matsson (HBO)
Just as Succession and The Last of Us split drama guest actor nominees at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Succession and The White Lotus split supporting actor nominations. As I wrote last week, "no matter who wins, HBO does as well...Despite the advent of streaming, the [supporting actor] drama nominees reflect the pre-Netflix reality from 1996 to 2009, when 'It's Not TV, It's HBO' was the slogan of the cable channel and people accepted it. Some things haven't changed, at least at the Television Academy."
Like for all the drama series categories so far except Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, the editors and experts at Gold Derby are united behind the nominees from Succession with all eleven editors and nine experts picking Matthew Macfadyen. The dissenting expert chose Alexander Skarsgård, also from Succession. I think it will be Macfadyen, so I'm sharing Matthew Macfadyen (Best TV Supporting Actor, 'Succession') 2024 Golden Globes press room.
Matthew Macfadyen won Best TV Supporting Actor for "Succession" at the 2024 Golden Globes on January 7, 2024.
The sound isn't that clear, so turn on closed captioning.
Follow over the jump for the behind the camera categories, including those recognized at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
