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.
What is the true meaning of the 4th of July and American independence? This special episode of A People's History of Native America argues that the 4th of July’s roots are further from patriotism and closer to propaganda. Rather than independence, this day represents the centuries-long seizure and ethnic cleansing of Native American land. By looking at the history surrounding the American Revolution, we will uncover that Native Americans were an unexpected threat to the founders’ vision for their future country and plans for Westward expansion.
After watching this video, I feel even more strongly that Americans who worry about genocide and ethnic cleansing should focus on its survivors here before displacing their guilt elsewhere. Of course, I would feel this way, because, as I wrote 14 years ago, "My wife, my ex-girlfriend, and my ex-wife all have Native American ancestry. At least two of them would qualify as Native Americans under U.S. government policy, and one of them is enrolled as a Cherokee..." My wife and I put our money where our mouths are by donating to a charity in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. It's the least we can do.
As dozens of Native Americans braved the heat and wind in Northern Arizona to uphold a beloved tradition that falls days before the 250th anniversary of the US this year, some reflected on what the milestone means to them.
Again, the high proportion of Native Americans who served shows up again in this video.
While Queer Eyewon last year, the Gold Derby odds doubt it will repeat. Instead, 71.4% of experts, 66.7% of editors, and 75.4% of users expect Antiques Roadshow will win. The remaining experts are split with 14.3% each forecasting Queer Eye and Love Is Blind. The users break that tie with 14.8% backing Queer Eye and 6.6% loving Love Is Blind. 33.3% of editors and 3.3% of users selected Shark Tank. No one thinks Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives will win. Always a nominee, never a winner.
If anything, opinion dispersed instead of consolidating by the time of the Saturday ceremony, as 64.7% of experts, 50.0% of editors, and 73.5% of users stuck with Antiques Roadshow, while 17.6% of experts, 37.5% of editors, and 16.2% of users chose Queer Eye to repeat, 11.8% of experts and 5.1% of users loved Love Is Blind, 5.9% of experts, 12.5% of editors, and 4.0% of users selected Shark Tank to return to the podium after a year, and 1.2% users defected to Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Those who chose Antiques Roadshow were rewarded. Watch Structured Reality Program: 78th Emmy Awards.
Marsha Bemko, Sam Farrell, Sarah K. Elliott and Jill Giles accepts the Emmy for Structured Reality Program at the 78th Emmy Awards.
Congratulations and as a fan of public broadcasting, thank you and everyone at PBS for what you do.
That's a wrap for today. I have two more posts planned in this series, one for Outstanding Commercial, which will be Friday or Saturday, and a final one for Outstanding Competition Program, which I plan on posting as the Sunday entertainment feature on National Coming Out Day. I will follow that with Indigenous Peoples' Day. Looks like I have my blogging cut out for me. Stay tuned for all of that and more!
Previous posts about the 2026 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards
The U.S. is closely monitoring a potential case of pneumonic plague in Russia after a laboratory worker who studied the disease fell ill and died. Russian authorities insist there is no cause for alarm, but officials have imposed quarantines and other measures at several medical facilities in Siberia. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Annie Jacobsen, author of "Biological War: A Scenario."
A 28-year-old lab researcher at a Russian institute dedicated to studying plague and dangerous pathogens died of pneumonia of an “unknown” origin. The Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute operates in Siberia, where several other people are quarantined. Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian agency that oversees infectious disease, has downplayed the link between the researcher’s death and her work, but the case has prompted questions about the type of plague that causes pneumonia.
Pneumonic plague is a rare, deadly lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Scientists consider pneumonic plague the most dangerous form of the infection. CNN speaks to medical experts on the researchers death and if there should be greater concern.
While the connection between the victim and her workplace is suggestive, this may not be plague at all and that a worker at a plague lab fell ill and died may be coincidence. Just the same, the FSB doesn't appear to be taking any chances, putting 200 people in quarantine. Here's to this not being the opening scene in The Stand. One pandemic was enough.
A day after Paramount Skydance and a group of state attorneys general announced a settlement clearing the way for its merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, questions remain about whether the deal does enough to protect consumers and competition. Geoff Bennett discussed more with Oliver Darcy of Status.
I've writtenmanytimes that the surest way to get Americans to act is to mess with our entertainment. This will mess with our entertainment, just like the Paramount-Skydance merger before, which resulted in Late Night with Stephen Colbert being canceled. Also, there is no new Star Trek being produced for the first time since Star Trek: Discovery debuted in 2017. However, I don't think consumers have yet seen how this merger will mess with their entertainment. It might take a while, like HBO not renewing Last Week Tonight with John Oliver next year, although The Daily Show is still going.
Critics said they feel betrayed and duped by the California leaders.
California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass may have urged a settlement to save their political careers. Instead, they created new enemies. As for the protest doing anything useful, I'm recycling what I wrote in 'DTF St. Louis' wins Outstanding Limited Series while 'Beef' is shut out at the Primetime Emmy Awards: "What the shareholders want and what the Hollywood creatives desire are not the same and the shareholders are in charge unless the courts rule otherwise." The most visible actors may be well-paid and influential, but at the end of the day, they're just employees.
OPINION: Lindsey Granger gives her lens on the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger, which cleared a major hurdle after reaching a settlement with a dozen states that had sued to stop the merger.
People are freaked out over the Ellisons and their relationship with Donald "Pervert Hoover" Trump and the possible effect on CNN, but this is the first I've heard of people being concerned about foreign ownership. I hadn't considered that as being bad for America.
I'm sure I'll write more about the fallout from this deal. In the meantime, stay tuned for more Emmy Awards coverage.
The Trump administration said it would stop funding the Arctic Report Card, the longstanding effort to collect research on how the fastest-warming place on Earth is changing. It's the latest in a series of moves by the administration to curtail scientific research into the impacts of climate change. William Brangham discussed more with glaciologist Twila Moon, the Arctic Report Card's editor.
Judy Woodruff recently visited the September 11 Memorial in New York for a look at how the attacks, 25 years ago, continue to shape our lives today. It's part of her series, Crossroads: America at 250.
On 9/11, when a hijacked plane struck the Pentagon, two WETA camera men and a NewsHour with Jim Lehrer intern rushed to the scene.
Home to PBS News for decades, the WETA studios in Arlington, Virginia, are just a five-minute drive from the building that houses the Defense Department.
"As a camera man, you divorce yourself from reality when you're looking through the viewfinder. It's just, you're doing your job. But this one hit home with me, it really did," Ed Lee said, recalling that day.
As the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks approaches, Lee, Jeff Rathner and Josh Gershenson reflect on the scenes they captured, and how it stays with them.
Twenty-five years ago, George Pataki was governor of New York when the Sept. 11 attacks transformed his state and the country. In the hours that followed, Pataki helped lead New York through an unimaginable crisis as the country confronted the enormity of what had happened. Pataki joined Geoff Bennett to discuss that response.
New York City officials released thousands of documents on Tuesday that raise new concerns about air quality following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
More than 170,000 documents from across government agencies were made public via an online portal. They suggest that authorities were aware of the health risks at the time, despite public assurances that the air was safe to breathe.
At a news conference, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that families, survivors and first responders deserve transparency.
The 9/11 Memorial and Museum says at least 49,000 first responders and survivors have been diagnosed with cancer as a result of the attacks.
A quarter century later, the death toll is still mounting.
That's a wrap for today's holiday post. Stay tuned for more Emmy Awards coverage. Tragedy today, comedy tomorrow.
Markets to offset carbon emissions are now worth about $2 billion annually, and supporters say they're a key tool to address climate change. But carbon credits have also been criticized for being opaque and not reducing emissions nearly enough. Stephanie Sy reports on an effort to boost the integrity of carbon markets and open them up to small landowners. It’s part of our series, Tipping Point.
Carbon offset markets that actually are effective and include a major carbon reservoir — good news!
More than half of the continental U.S. is facing drought conditions. But other parts of the country are facing the opposite problem. Extreme weather conditions can have major impacts on farmers and their crops at a time when they're already facing high production costs. Paul Solman recently traveled to southern Georgia to hear from some of those farmers. It's for our series, Tipping Point.
And the "Godzilla" El Niño is likely to make the situation even worse, if it isn't already.
That's a wrap for today's brief educational entry. Stay tuned for more Emmy Awards coverage tomorrow.
PBS NewsHour has another segment on how scientists are fighting the effects of climatechange. Stay tuned to see if I feature it or return to Emmy Awards coverage tomorrow.
At a time when the impact of climate change is undeniable, some researchers suggest we need to start work on far more ambitious approaches for tackling these problems. These proposals are often referred to as geoengineering. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien looks at one such concept to deal with the melting of glaciers and sea ice. It's for our series, Tipping Point.
As for building an underwater barrier to keep out the warm water to slow the melting of Thwaites Glacier to melt it from below, that also strikes me as overly ambitious and impractical, although I think it would have less potential for unintended side effects than other geoengineeringprojects. I've been worried about those since Greenfinger, which I wrote on January 2, 2013. Coincidentally, that's World Science Fiction Day. Sometimes, I stumble over a holiday long before I know about it!
This year is becoming one of the worst for U.S. wildfires in at least a decade. There have been more fires and more acreage burned at this point in the year compared to any in the last ten. With fire seasons growing longer, early detection is critical. Special correspondent Ben Tracy of Climate Central reports on how AI is being used to spot fires faster. It's part of our series, Tipping Point.
Oh, good, a story about how technology in general and AI in particular are helping fight fires and other weather-related disasters! Not everything about AI is bad!
As the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, rising seas and coastal erosion are putting some of America’s most historic places at risk. For our ongoing series, Tipping Point, special correspondent Ben Tracy with Climate Central reports from Jamestown, Virginia, where archaeologists are racing to uncover America’s past before it’s washed away.
I've mentionedseveraltimes that "I worked as a Park Naturalist (the type of Ranger most visitors see) at Channel Islands National Park during the summer of 1986," now 40 years ago, so this story hits close to home. Here's to preserving or at least salvaging as much of our country's natural and historic heritage as we can before it sinks beneath the waves.
PBS NewsHour has more, but I'm stopping here to eat lunch and grade papers. It's final exam time, so stay tuned for more relatively brief entries until next Wednesday.
Mosquitoes impact public health on a global scale and are considered the deadliest creatures on earth due to their spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus, dengue, Zika, and malaria.
It doesn't have sharp teeth or claws, but the mosquito kills more people than any other animal on Earth. As the climate warms, mosquito season is lasting longer, giving them more time to spread dangerous diseases. Ben Tracy with Climate Central reports on why the insects are thriving, and the surprising way scientists are fighting back.
I'm recycling what I wrote last year for my reaction.
"Using one parasite that doesn't affect humans to reduce the ability of an insect to spread a parasite harmful to humans — clever! It's also not forever in the same way genetic modification is. Fine by me"...I think infecting them with Wolbachia is an example of a third law, "Nature knows best."
The technology has advanced so that it runs by mail order. Progress (and convenient, too).
That's a wrap for today's biodiversityholiday. PBS NewsHour has another segment on how scientists are fighting the effects of climatechange. Stay tuned to see if I feature it or return to Emmy Awards coverage tomorrow.
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.
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.
America’s war on books is more than a war on words. THE LIBRARIANS, a new feature documentary from Academy Award® nominee and Peabody Award winner Kim A. Snyder.
In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQIA+ stories – triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of extremism fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work – the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale.
That's powerful and an example of why I pay attention to awards shows; they bring films and shows to my attention that are worth watching for the subject matter.
A down-on-his luck farmer develops a unique bond with a wounded white stork as he nurses the bird back to health.
This is a film I can recommend to my environmental science students, as it's about both wildlife and farming, two topics in that class. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
Between the two, I think The Tale of Silyan is the favorite. First, it has a second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program, which I'll examine over the jump, while The Librarians has only one. Second, it earned a nomination for Best Documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards in addition to Best Cinematography. The Librarians also earned a nomination at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards for Best Political Documentary, but not Best Documentary. Third, The Tale of Silyan earned nominations at the Film Independent Spirit Awards and PGA Awards and wins at the Cinema Eye Honors Awards and Golden Trailer Awards. Yes, the trailer I embedded is a winner in its own right for Best Documentary Subject. Meanwhile, The Librarians earned nominations at the Satellite Awards and Cinema Eye Honors Awards. When the two films earned nominations at the same awards shows, The Tale of Silyan won awards and more and better nominations. Gold Derby hasn't created a predictions page for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards yet, but I don't have to wait until they do; I can tell which nominee is more likely to win, especially since this is a juried award. The experts will prefer the craft and storytelling of The Tale of Silyan over the subject matter of The Librarians.
Follow over the jump for The Tale of Silyan's other nomination.
It's getting hot in here… can we survive it?
...
I pushed my body to the edge in a climate & sports research lab to discover what extreme heat really does to us. Why humidity, not just temperature, can make heat deadly, and how climate change and city design are making dangerous heat more common.
I guessed...that the dark secret was the heat...[My] guess was dead on. That's no surprise, as I blogged about Phoenix being the hottest city in the U.S. in 2021 and mentioned its record heat in 2023twice. What is surprising is that heat waves don't count as federal natural disasters covered by FEMA. The commenters found the reason dismaying: "You don't get disaster declarations for mortality. You only do it for economics." Ecurewitz responded "That’s the most American statement ever." RandomAngle9 commented "The fact that heat doesn't 'qualify' as a disaster because it doesn't destroy buildings, only people, says everything about how we value human life in policy."
This part is something I can show to my environmental science students. The other part is the physiology of disposing of excess heat. That would be useful to Human Structure and Function students. Unfortunately, I don't plan on teaching that class ever again. So much for blogging as professional development, just personal development. Just the same, I hope my readers find it as interesting as I did.
That's a wrap for today's brief educational entry I can share in August. Stay tuned for another post I can share next month tomorrow.
66 million years ago a giant space rock crashed into our planet and killed the dinosaurs. In the span of just four decades, we’ve gone from not knowing there was a space rock at all to knowing exactly where that planet-killer came from.
I've been following this story for as long as I've been a geologist, but I still learned new things from this video, or at least was reminded of things I'd forgotten, like Luis Alvarez having earned a Nobel Prize in Physics. I will say I was skeptical at first, but by the time I earned my M.S., I was convinced.
A giant asteroid impact ended the age of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. How did this mass extinction play out, moment by moment? In this video we meet a geologist who has explored the asteroid crater and learn what the rocks tell us about the last days of the dinosaurs. It was pretty bad!
Not only did Dr. Joe Hanson and Sean Gulick describe the details of what we now know about the Chicxulub impact and its effects, Joe concluded with a "so what" message. Unlike the dinosaurs, we have a choice.
That's a wrap for June's blogging. Stay tuned for Canada Day to begin July.
In 1952, a terrifying creature was spotted in Flatwoods, West Virginia — a 10-foot-tall creature with glowing eyes, a spade-shaped head, and cloaked in a metal skirt. Was it an alien, a Cold War experiment, or mass hysteria?
Dr. Z doesn't make up her mind to resolve her question, although she certainly leans heavily on cultural context influencing how people interpret what they see.
Universal Pictures is proud to release a new original event film created and directed by Steven Spielberg. The film stars SAG winner and Oscar® nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers, The Crown), Oscar® winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Kingsman franchise), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple) and two-time Oscar® nominee Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin).
Based on a story by Spielberg, the screenplay is by David Koepp, whose previous work with Spielberg includes the scripts for Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Combined, those films earned more than $3 billion worldwide. Koepp also wrote the script for this 2025’s Jurassic World Rebirth.
Disclosure Day is produced by five-time Academy Award® nominee Kristie Macosko Krieger (The Fabelmans, West Side Story) and by Spielberg for Amblin Entertainment. The executive producers are Adam Somner and Chris Brigham.
Steven Spielberg is one of the industry’s most successful and influential filmmakers. The top-grossing director of all time, Spielberg has helmed such blockbusters as Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones franchise and Jurassic Park.
Among his myriad honors, he is a three-time Academy Award® winner, including Oscars® for Best Director and Best Picture for Schindler’s List, which received a total of seven Oscars®, and for Best Director for Saving Private Ryan. His most recent film, The Fabelmans, was released by Universal in 2022 and received seven Academy Award® nominations, including for Directing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Picture.
While I fully expect to see Disclosure Day earn nominations at the Critics Choice Super Awards next month and the Saturn Awards in January, if they stick to this year's schedule, I also expect it to lose to Project Hail Mary in most of its categories, especially Best Science Fiction Film or equivalent. Its best bets are best actress for Emily Blunt followed by supporting actor for Colman Domingo. That written, will it influence how people see UFOs/UAPs? Yes, but not as much as previous Spielberg movies on the subject.
Is anyone out there? On this episode of the National Day Spotlight (https://nationaldaycalendar.com/), Marlo Anderson (https://marloanderson.com/) and co-host Alice Anderson are diving into the unexplained mysteries of the cosmos for World UFO Day (https://nationaldaycalendar.com/celeb...) . They’ll explore why humanity keeps looking to the skies for answers and celebrate the fun of cosmic curiosity. Tune in for an episode that is truly otherworldly!
That's a wrap for this week's series of holiday entries. I have a musical post planned for tomorrow followed by a particularly doomy preview of the drum corps season, which begins Friday. Stay tuned.
Ever felt like a place seems real yet oddly unsettling? Welcome to The Backrooms, a digital folklore phenomenon that blurs the lines between reality and fiction, exploring the eerie and uncanny through playful, yet terrifying, community-driven digital storytelling.
I watched this video when it came out almost exactly two years ago, so I had heard that the concept would be made into a movie then. The movie was released two weeks ago, and was a huge hit. Watch as ABC News reports Horror film 'Backrooms' makes box office history.
Independent horror film "Backrooms" is a box-office stunner, taking in $82 million dollars in domestic ticket sales in its opening weekend.
What ABC News didn't mention was that Backrooms and Obsession knocked The Mandalorian and Grogu out of first place. Remember that Disney owns both ABC and Lucasfilm, which makes Star Wars. It's not just news value that drives the story, including what isn't reported. That wasn't CNN's problem, as their video on the subject described How YouTubers are beating Disney at its own game.
Youtubers-turned-directors are beating media giants like Disney at the box office. CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter breaks down how these directors have the edge, as the panel debates.
CNN, owned by Warner Brothers-Discovery — for now — has no such problem pointing out Backrooms and Obsession beat The Mandalorian and Grogu at the box office.
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for WorldOceansDay, which I haven't celebrated since 2024. Oops.
I decided I had enough in me to continue my series on the nominees at the News & Doc Emmy Awards today, so I'm going right after the category with the most nominated documentary.
Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary
Antidote FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Passion Pictures | Bellingcat | Impact Partners | Channel 4 | M4 Studios] Life After Independent Lens
Multitude Films | PBS [ITVS | Straw House Production] Lost in the Jungle Little Monster Films [National Geographic] 2000 Meters to Andriivka FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Associated Press] Thoughts & Prayers HBO Documentary Films [Tony Tina]
2000 Meters to Andriivka leads all documentaries with six nominations, including Best Documentary. Life After follows with four, also including Best Documentary. Antidote, Lost in the Jungle, and Thoughts & Prayers tie at two to round out the category. I think this is the first category where every nominee has at least one other nomination — such quality! Not even Best Documentary can claim that distinction for its nominees. This will mean 2000 Meters to Andriivka winning, which I expect, will mean that much more.
From the Oscar®-winning team behind 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL, 2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA documents the toll of the Russia-Ukraine war from a personal and devastating vantage point.
Following his historic account of the civilian toll in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov turns his lens towards Ukrainian soldiers — who they are, where they came from, and the impossible decisions they face in the trenches as they fight for every inch of their land.
Amid a failing counteroffensive in 2023, Chernov and his AP colleague Alex Babenko follow a Ukrainian brigade battling through approximately one mile of a heavily fortified forest on their mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka. Weaving together original footage, intensive Ukrainian Army bodycam video and powerful moments of reflection, 2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA reveals with haunting intimacy, the farther the soldiers advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that, for them, this war may never end.
That's every bit as gripping as I thought it would be.
LIFE AFTER is a gripping investigative documentary that exposes the tangled web of moral dilemmas and profit motives surrounding assisted dying. Disabled filmmaker Reid Davenport uncovers shocking abuses of power while amplifying the voices of the disability community fighting for justice and dignity in an unfolding matter of life and death.
I still expect 2000 Meters to Andriivka will win, but I would not be surprised if this upsets it. If so, it might upset 2000 Meters to Andriivka in every category in which it's nominated, because it's competing against my pick to win in all four. Otherwise, it will likely come home empty-handed, because I expect 2000 Meters to Andriivka to sweep.
What is the cost of speaking truth to power? In Putin’s Russia, it could mean your life. An immersive and chilling documentary, Antidote follows in real time a whistleblower, Vladimir Kara-Murza, from inside Russia's poison program as he attempts to escape. He is a prominent political activist who is poisoned twice and now stands trial for treason. Also profiled is his wife Evgenia and Christo Grozev, the journalist exposing Putin's murder machine. He too is under threat and is forced to flee.
Antidote's other nomination is for Outstanding Graphic Design: Documentary, and it shows in the trailer.
After a deadly plane crash strands four young siblings deep within the Colombian rainforest, a dramatic rescue mission unfolds, uniting Indigenous trackers and the military in a race against time. For the first time ever, LOST IN THE JUNGLE offers the exclusive account of this incredible true story directly from the children themselves and the rescuers who scoured the Amazon rainforest for a grueling 40 days and nights to find them. From National Geographic Documentary Films and Academy Award®-winning filmmakers Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, along with Emmy® Award-winning director Juan Camilo Cruz, LOST IN THE JUNGLE is a gripping tale of survival, courage and hope.
Lost in the Jungle's second nomination is for Outstanding Sound: Documentary and I can hear it in the trailer.
I'm not going to recycle all the other categories in which these documentaries earned nominations; my readers can go through the posts below and read my opinions, which haven't changed. In the meantime, stay tuned for the nominees for Best Documentary whose trailers I haven't yet embedded tomorrow.
Previous posts about the 57th News & Doc Emmy Awards
A federal holiday since 1971, the roots of Memorial Day go back over a century prior, to the end of the Civil War.
After the burial of many Union and Confederate soldiers, "decoration day" rituals began to spring up, which included placing fresh flowers on soldiers' graves.
One of the earliest known celebrations took place in Charleston, South Carolina on May 1, 1865, when the city's freed Black residents organized a proper burial for hundreds of Union soldiers who had died in a Confederate prison, followed by a parade to honor their memory.
In the spring of 1868, General John Logan officially designated May 30th "for the purpose of strewing flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in the defense of their country," and Memorial Day as we know it today was established.
The U.S. would probably still have a holiday to commemorate the country's war dead as a result of the Civil War if the freed men and women of Charleston hadn't done it first, but they definitely deserve credit for leading the way for the rest of us.
From the World War II Memorial to the Garden of Remembrance at Benaroya Hall, taps echoes across Seattle in honor of those who gave their lives in service. We honor their courage, devotion and sacrifice this Memorial Day.
Two things struck me. First, as my readers could probably tell, this video is from 2020. Media made during the pandemic has a very distinctive look. Second, the trumpeters are holding the first valve down. That's because they're playing C trumpets and "Taps" is usually played in Bb. Only a brass player and bugler like me would notice and understand why.
How did English become the most spoken language on the planet, and why are there so many varieties of English?
Dr. B underplayed the role of British colonialism in her explanation, concentrating instead on American economic and cultural power helping to dethrone French as the language of diplomacy. Still, it works.
Storied uploaded the above on April 20, 2023, the same week as English Language Day. I'm also returning to 2023 for National Day Calendar's Talk Like Shakespeare Day | April 23.
William Shakespeare (April 1564-April 23, 1616) is the author of some of the world’s most celebrated plays and poems. In 2016, we honored the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death. What better way to celebrate his life and art than to speak like the poet and playwright.
It was about time I embedded National Day Calendar's video for today.
Since today is a Throwback Thursday, I'm making this entry a retrospective. Follow over the jump for the most active posts on Instagram about holidays during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
