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.
Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean starts June 1 with NOAA forecasting six to ten storms that will earn names on the list of hurricanes this year. CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar reports, and CNN’s Victor Blackwell speaks with former FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell about the state of hurricane preparedness.
First, the charts, beginning with the list of storm names.
The new storm name is Dexter, replacing Dorian. I expect to see Dexter memes when it develops, especially if becomes a threat to the mainland U.S. Serial killer vibes!
Now for the numbers.
Most of the forecast range is above average, which the next chart shows as a 60% chance of an above average season.
Stay tuned to see if I resume my coverage of the News & Doc Emmy Awards, or if I post tonight's monologues instead. It depends on whether the comedians return tonight and if I feel up to a long awards nominations post.
Happy June and happy Sunday! As I promised yesterday, I'm kicking off the month by examining the nominees for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary as the Sunday entertainment feature because Alex Jones is as much an entertainment story as he is a legal one.
The American Experience episode "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal" earned three nominations at the News & Doc Emmy Awards and technically leads The Truth vs. Alex Jones with two nominations, but the situation mirrors the field for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary because The Truth vs. Alex Jones's other nomination is for Best Documentary, which balances out "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal" earning nominations for Outstanding Writing – Documentary and Outstanding Direction – Documentary in my handicapping, so both are tied in my book. The other nominees in this category, Cult Massacre: One Day In Jonestown, Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter, and Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer, have only this one nomination.
In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal, a working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, discovered that their homes, schools and playgrounds were built on top of a former chemical waste dump, which was now leaking toxic substances and wreaking havoc on their health. Through interviews with many of the extraordinary housewives turned activists, the film shows how they effectively challenged those in power, forced America to reckon with the human cost of unregulated industry, and created a grassroots movement that galvanized the landmark Superfund Bill.
POISONED GROUND: THE TRAGEDY AT LOVE CANAL tells the dramatic and inspiring story of the ordinary women who fought against overwhelming odds for the health and safety of their families.
When I first started teaching environmental science, one of the lab exercises was to watch a video about Love Canal and fill out a worksheet. That assignment disappeared the next time I taught the class, but the memory stuck with me. I'm too close to the end of my career and the actual episode is a touch too long to show in class, but I will definitely recommend this to my students for extra credit. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
Survivors and eyewitnesses tell the immersive story of Jim Jones' idealistic organization's final hours that spiraled into a mass casualty event. Watch Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown on Hulu!
Connecting this documentary to 9/11: One Day in America indicates both its pedigree and how this could easily have been a nominee for Outstanding Historical Documentary (same with "Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal"). Doing so would have put it in direct competition with Tsunami: Race Against Time, also by the same team, and I don't think they, Hulu, and National Geographic would have appreciated that. It's better off here, although I'd be surprised if that allows it to win this category.
A mother discovers the daughter she gave up for adoption many years ago has disappeared—and she will stop at nothing to find her. INTO THE FIRE: THE LOST DAUGHTER, directed by Ryan White and produced by Charlize Theron, comes to Netflix September 12.
"[P]roduced by Charlize Theron" — Theron is no stranger to true crime, having won an Oscar for portraying serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster.
To stop serial killers you need to think like one. Follow FBI specialist Dr. Ann Burgess as she explores the minds of notorious murderers in the new series Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer, premiering on July 11.
From award-winning executive producers Dakota and Elle Fanning and critically acclaimed collaborators comes “Mastermind: To Think Like A Killer,” a fascinating new perspective on the woman whose crime hunting innovations changed history. To stop serial killers, psychiatric nurse and professor Dr. Ann Burgess must first learn to think like one. With unprecedented access to the mastermind behind the development of modern serial-killer profiling, the series tells Burgess’ tenacious story and her compassion for victims which puts her at the center of America’s most infamous true-crime cases. From the widely known Ed Kemper and Ted Bundy to lesser-known cases like the Ski Mask Rapist, Burgess investigates and studies the damaged psyches of victims and their attackers, putting two halves of the same story together to catch a killer. Largely an unsung heroine until now, Dr.Burgess impacted not only the FBI, she also radically championed the plight of women in America.
As a fan of the prematurely canceled Mindhunter and run extended on streaming Criminal Minds, I'm glad to see the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Units receiving the documentary treatment they deserve. Also, Dakota Fanning is familiar with historical crime, having played one of the detectives in The Alienist, while her sister Elle, better known for playing Catherine the Great in TheGreat, also portrayed a defendant in a movie about true crime, The Girl from Plainville. Together, that puts them on the same level as Charlize Theron. Those credentials might have impressed the Television Academy if their documentaries had been nominated at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, but I'm not so sure they will be enough to convince the documentarians and journalists here. As I usually write when I cover awards shows, electorates matter.
For the first time in this series, I'm examining the nominees for Best Documentary. I've been holding off because the category has nine nominees this year. The Grab leads with four nominations, followed by American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders and Mammals with three each, Hollywood Black, The Sixth, and The Truth vs. Alex Jones, all with two, and The Commandant's Shadow, Queendom, and The Sing Sing Chronicles with just this one. The Grab and American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders are facing off for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, The Sixth leads the nominees for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary, The Truth vs. Alex Jones is contending with Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary, and Mammals leads the rest of the field without a subject area nomination. That's four more opportunities to examine the nominees, after which I'll make my call.
Right now, I have The Grab in first, but I'm not making a final call until I write about the rest of the nominees.
I still think The Grab is first, but I'll change or solidify my choice after I write about Mammals.
Follow over the jump for the craft categories in which Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal earned nominations.
Elon Musk’s time as a Special Government Employee has come to end, the court of International Trade ruled unanimously that Trump did not have the authority to implement the big, beautiful tariffs he slapped on everyone, Trump blew up at a reporter for asking about his new nickname “TACO” that’s been making the rounds on Wall Street which stands for “Trump Always Chickening Out,” he is now reportedly one step closer to settling the ridiculous lawsuit he filed against 60 minutes, he now says he plans to give Russia “two weeks” to prove they are serious about a peace deal with Ukraine, America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani wore a crazy outfit, FBI Director Kash Patel sat for an interview with Fox News, RFK Jr made an announcement about COVID vaccines and Cousin Micki teaches us where babies come from.
I'm glad "Elon Musk's...Chainsaw Massacre of our federal workforce" is finally over. It was even worse than I expected from Project 2025, and that was bad enough. I don't think Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump is done with tariffs, but the U.S. Court of International Trade ruling is good news. So is the TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) meme taking off — something stuck! As for sore winner Hoover Cleveland suing CBS over the 60 Minutes interview of Kamala Harris, it earned a News & Doc Emmy nomination for Outstanding Edited Interview. I will take great pleasure in repeating that when I get to the news categories in my coverage of those awards.
Jimmy Kimmel is deep down the Rabbit Hole again digging through history to prove that Donald Trump is more than he seems.
Trump is a man out of time, but that's just because he's learned very few new tricks since the 1980s. Just the same, Kimmel and his writers found an amusing set of coincidences.
Jimmy Kimmel explores The Rabbit Hole into the most enigmatic man on the planet and discovers that Elon Musk is hiding two small things with huge implications.
I'm pleasantly surprised ABC's Standards and Practices allowed this to air, not because of what it says about Elon Musk, but what it shows about animal sex. Cue the Bloodhound Gang!
Emmy voting season is upon us and Jimmy finds it a little odd that Seth would come here to try and score a nomination when they’re competing in the same category. Jimmy had no choice but to take action.
Those got a little too personal for my taste, but they were still hilarious.
This concludes May's blogging. Stay tuned for an examination of the nominees for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary as the Sunday entertainment feature to kick off June.
I told my readers to "Stay tuned as I resume my coverage of the News & Doc Emmy Awards" at the end of PBS NewsHour explains 'How Meta's blockbuster antitrust trial could have major implications for big tech' — a Throwback Thursday special, and I'm following through with the nominees for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, which include two of the nominees for Best Documentary. From most to least nominated, they are The Grab with four nominations, American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders with three, Fault Lines episode "The Night Won't End" with two, and two Frontline episodes, "A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela" and "South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning," both with one. I'm sharing their trailers in that order, beginning with The Grab - Official Trailer | Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite | Opening June 14 by Magnolia Pictures & Magnet Releasing.
Quietly and seemingly out of sight, governments, private investors and mercenaries are working to seize food and water resources at the expense of entire populations. These groups are establishing themselves as the new OPEC, where the future world powers will be those who control not oil, but food. And it's all beginning to bubble to the surface in real time. Global food prices have hit an all-time high, threatening chaos and violence. Meanwhile China, Russia, the UAE and Wall Street are just a few of the players strategizing within this shocking, shifting geopolitical landscape.
THE GRAB is a global thriller combining hard-hitting journalism from The Center for Investigative Reporting with the compelling character-driven storytelling of director Gabriela Cowperthwaite, taking you around the globe to reveal one of the world’s biggest and least known threats.
Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
This documentary fits the overall theme of this blog and is one I can recommend to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development. It's also a chance for Gabriela Cowperthwaite to earn the recognition she deserved but didn't get for Blackfish. I hope she, along with the film's producers, researchers, and trailer creators, get it.
Here's the English translation of the Italian video description.
Investigators have no doubts about the death of Danny Casolaro: for them, the journalist found in the bathtub of a hotel room committed suicide. But the reporter's family and colleagues believe it could have been murder. The motive? The investigation he was conducting into a conspiracy he called "Octopus," a secret organization linked to the theft of government spy software, a series of unsolved murders and some of the biggest political scandals of the 20th century. Years later, researcher Christian Hansen tries to reveal the secrets of Casolaro's death, along with the story that cost him his life. Stardust Frames, Duplass Brothers Productions and director Zachary Treitz present this four-part docuseries that tells the mystery that has lasted for decades.
Israel’s bombing campaign continues in Gaza and the humanitarian crisis deepens to catastrophic levels, the Biden administration has not wavered in its support for Israel. United States weapons transfers - from 2,000-pound bombs to artillery shells and tanks - have been a crucial part of the Israeli military campaign. Fault Lines worked with journalists in Gaza to profile three families as they try to survive the war. Together with Airwars, Fault Lines also investigated an air strike on December 11 in north Gaza in which more than 100 people from the same family were killed. Numerous attacks on civilians - including that on Hind Rajab and her relatives in late January - have raised international concern and questions over continuing US support. Fault Lines partnered with Forensic Architecture and Earshot to investigate that attack. From air strikes to field executions, Fault Lines investigates the killings of civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza and the role of the United States in the war.
With the Venezuelan news outlet Armando.info, FRONTLINE investigates the shadowy figure at the heart of a corruption scandal spanning from Venezuela to the U.S. "A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela" premieres Tues., May 14, 2024.
FRONTLINE and The Associated Press investigate allegations of fraud and abuse in South Korea’s historic foreign adoption boom.
In a normal year, a Frontline episode would have a better chance of winning; 2024 wasn't a normal year. Also, most of these nominees show that the line between investigative documentaries and crime and justice documentaries is very fine, just like between science and nature documentaries.
For the first time in this series, I'm examining the nominees for Best Documentary. I've been holding off because the category has nine nominees this year. The Grab leads with four nominations, followed by American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders and Mammals with three each, Hollywood Black, The Sixth, and The Truth vs. Alex Jones, all with two, and The Commandant's Shadow, Queendom, and The Sing Sing Chronicles with just this one. The Grab and American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders are facing off for Outstanding Investigative Documentary, The Sixth leads the nominees for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary, The Truth vs. Alex Jones is contending with Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary, and Mammals leads the rest of the field without a subject area nomination. That's four more opportunities to examine the nominees, after which I'll make my call.
Right now, I have The Grab in first, but I'm not making a final call until I write about the rest of the nominees. I'm planning on examining Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary in the next installment because I have personal and professional interests in both The Truth vs. Alex Jones and Poisoned Ground: The Tragedy at Love Canal, the latter of which I can also recommend to my students. Again, welcome to blogging as professional development.
Follow over the jump for the craft categories in which the nominees for Outstanding Investigative Documentary earned nominations.
A blockbuster antitrust trial between Meta and the Federal Trade Commission is underway. The government alleges the company monopolized the social media market when it purchased Instagram and WhatsApp. The trial could have major implications for big tech. Stephanie Sy discussed the case with Rebecca Allensworth, a law professor at Vanderbilt University.
After more than a month of testimony, the Meta antirust trial is beginning to slow down. The Google search remedies trial, meanwhile, is about to heat up again, with closing arguments coming soon. The Verge’s Lauren Feiner has been in the DC courthouse for all of it, and has finally emerged to tell us about what she’s seen, and learned, from two all-important monopoly trials. After that, The Verge’s Victoria Song tells us about her latest experience with Google’s smart glasses prototypes, what Google is doing differently from Meta and Apple, and what she thinks Jony Ive and OpenAI might be building. Finally, we answer a question on the Vergecast Hotline about what to do now that Mozilla is shutting down Pocket.
I don't use WhatsApp, but I do use Instagram and X competitor Threads. The latter two are tied so closely together that I have a hard time seeing how the two would be separated without imparing Threads, even though Threads doesn't seem to be an issue in this case by itself. I might be wrong, but I don't know how. In any event, this trial will last long enough, short of a surprise settlement, that Tech Policy has scheduled FTC v. Meta: Takeaways from A Landmark Trial for June 26th. That will make for a post that I can share in July. Wowzers!
Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the blog's year on Instagram and Threads, which will complete this series.
Instead of a Wayback Wednesday look back at the previous blogging year's top posts, I have a driving update today. Before I look at PearlthePrius's latest mileage report, I'm sharing something more general about driving, SciShow asking Why Do So Many More Pedestrians Die in America?
A huge number of vehicular fatalities are people who aren't in cars at all. Pedestrians are dying more than they used to and more in America than other comparable parts of the world. Here's why.
This should look familiar to long-time readers of my blog, as I covered this very topic in PBS NewsHour reports 'Pedestrian deaths in U.S. reach highest level in 40 years,' a driving update, where I wrote, "I think a lot of it is reckless behavior by people, especially drivers, not infrastructure," and "when Secretary Buttigieg talked about looking at car safety from the perspective of other people besides the occupants of cars, the features of SUVs Cheddar described are likely among them." I revisted this topic in Vox and CNBC explain 'Why Americans love' and 'are obsessed with big cars,' a driving update, when I remarked, "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 for the infrastructure changes, I'll look for a suitable video from CityNerd to address them in a future update.
Follow over the jump for my personal driving update.
Pearl passed 69,000 miles yesterday, Tuesday, May 27, 2025, 78 days since she passed 68,000 miles on Monday, March 10, 2025. That translates to 12.82 miles per day, 391.03 miles per standard month, and 4,679.49 miles per standard year, which are more than the 11.11 miles per day, 338.89 miles per standard month, and 4,055.56 miles per standard year between her odometer rolling over 67,000 miles on Tuesday, December 10, 2024 and March 10, 2025. Then, I wrote, "I won't be taking that many breaks or driving the Tiguan that much before Pearl's next driving update, but I will be driving to only one work location beginning in May. I'll see then which was more important in the miles I drove." Fewer and shorter breaks and less driving my wife's Tiguan had more of an effect than driving to only one work location during the reporting period.
I skipped the year-over-year comparisons last time to focus on the first retrospective about the 2024-2025 blogging year, so I'm bringing them back with data from CityNerd names '10 Cities Where Driving Consumes the Most of Your Life,' a driving update. First, it took 74 days to drive Pearl 1000 miles, resulting in averages of 13.51 miles per day, 412.16 miles per standard month, 4,932.43 miles per standard year, and 4,945.95 miles per leap year. That's more than this year, so I'm driving less for the season. Second, it's been 358 days since Pearl passed 64,000 miles on June 3, 2024, which results in averages of 13.97 miles per day, 425.98 miles per standard month, and 5,097.77 miles per standard year. That's slightly more than the averages of 13.77 miles per day, 420.11 miles per standard month, 5,027.55 miles per standard year, and 5,041.32 per leap year I last reported for the period ending Tuesday, December 10, 2024. No wonder I decided to not drive to a third work location in the fall!
I expect even lower mileage at the next driving update because I'm driving to work only two days per week. That should be very late in August or early in September. In the meantime, stay tuned for one final retrospective about the 2024-2025 blogging year on Throwback Thursday.
If all of Antarctica’s ice melted, our coastlines would be drastically altered. Fortunately, that’s not going to happen anytime soon, but new evidence suggests that West Antarctica - which holds around 5 METERS of sea level rise - is melting a lot faster than scientists once thought. And, a new study warns of a sinister threat buried deep beneath the melting ice - one that may cause a feedback loop that speeds up the melt of the already precarious West Antarctic ice sheet. Stay tuned to find out what new maps reveal about the under-ice world of Antarctica, and how a tiny octopus can help us understand the South Pole’s ice-free past.
Antarctica probably isn't the first place you think of when you hear about volcanoes. But there's a lot happening under the icy tundra, and not all of it's a good thing. Here's how rising temperatures could lead to an even more explosive future for the frozen continent.
I've been worried about the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsingsince 2014, but my worries were about directly human-caused climate change. It turns out there is an additional source of heat, the volcanoes below the ice. The effect is more indirect, as glacial ice melts, reducing pressure on the volcanoes and the magma chambers beneath them, causing them to erupt more and melting the ice above them. That's a positive feedback loop, which can run away. And I thought methane released bythawingpermafrost was bad. Yikes!
Enough scary science. Stay tuned for Wayback Wednesday.
Parody of “That’s Entertainment!” (Music by Arthur Schwartz, Lyrics by Howard Dietz)
Of course, the people that have actual Trump Derangement Syndrome are his followers, but somehow saying "I know you are but what am I" to them doesn't work. Sigh. In the meantime, we have Randy to reassure us that we're not crazy, the world is.
JD Vance, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and many other operatives in the Trump administration are all united in their belief in the ideological teachings known as Neo-Reactionism, popularized by fringe blogger-turned Silicon Valley darling Curtis Yarvin. His pseudo-intellectual ravings have been adopted by some of the most powerful people on the planet and could lead to the downfall of democracy in the United States.
By the way, Miller mentioning Nick Land moving into a Satanist's house got my attention. I suspected he moved into Aleister Crowley's old home; that's exactly what happened. Reality is stranger than fiction.
I expect to say more about Moldbug. In the meantime, stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment feature, which will be another post worth sharing in June.
