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.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Arco (Neon)
Elio (Pixar Animation Studios)
In Your Dreams (Netflix)
KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix)
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (GKIDS)
Zootopia 2 (Walt Disney Animation Studios)
Wikipedia lists both Arco and Elio as science fiction, while the rest are fantasy with the possible exception of Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, which is just animated drama. Interestingly, IMDB also tagged KPop Demon Hunters as superhero; I never thought of Huntrix as a magical girl team, but they are.
KPop Demon Hunters is the only nominee with a second nomination for Best Song. It's also Gold Derby's choice to win this category with every editor and expert plus 89.6% of users ranking it first. Zootopia 2 follows with 7.8% of users, then Little Amélie or the Character of Rain at 1.7%, Arco with 0.6%, then Elio and In Your Dreams tied at 0.2%. This isn't science fiction's category, either.
Congratulations! Also, the Critics Choice Association knew what they were doing by selecting these two presenters (Mckenna Grace and Owen Cooper) and having them announce both awards.
KPop Demon Hunters repeated at the Golden Globes. Follow over the jump.
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.
The Chinese Zodiac animal for this Lunar New Year is the rabbit. Here's what that means and some surprising facts about this Lunar New Year.
I knew that the Jewish calendar had leap months, but I didn't know that the east Asian lunar calendar had leap months as well. I should have figured it out, but it never occurred to me. As I've written many times before, it's a good day when I learn something new.
I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling my reaction to 2020's Happy Year of the Metal Rat! "I don't know how authentically Chinese it is, but it is authentically Disney, which makes it authentically American." I didn't make a prediction about which Disney animated character would portray this year's animal because Disney has a number of choices, many of whom appear in the following image.
Frankly, I wouldn't have picked Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but I'm not surprised. "Lucky Rabbit" is very on-brand for this holiday.
Next year will be the Year of the Dragon, so Mushu will be the star. He's already in the parade.
Enough of this year's festivities. It's time to conclude this post with the generic greetings I've recycled many times over.
Mandarin: Gong Xi Fa Cai/Xin Nian Kuai Le
Cantonese: Kung Hei Fat Choi
Hokkien (Fujian/Taiwanese): Kiong Hee Huat Tsai/Sin Ni khòai lok
From Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
The Buhos Marching Band performing their musical selections at the 42nd Annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Bandfest on Friday, December 30, 2022.
The announcer mentioned that he enjoyed the Mexican bands at the Rose Parade because they are so colorful. They are that. Notice that the plumes are the colors of the Mexican flag and the band uses them to form a Mexican flag on the field for the finale. I'll return to that theme at the end of the entry. In the meantime, follow over the jump for the rest of the international units.
Normal as they may be, their 2022 has been anything but. They appeared at the VMAs in August, performing their hit single “Pink Venom,” and onstage during their latest blockbuster world tour, which kicked off in October and will hit 27 cities over nine months. Shows sold out in minutes and were attended by tens of thousands of fans, including celebrities like Selena Gomez and Usher. The foursome released its highly anticipated second studio album, Born Pink, in September, which notched a record as the best-selling album by a Korean girl group, with over 2 million album sales. It continues to dominate on YouTube, where Blackpink is the biggest musical act with over 83 million subscribers.
Congratulations to Blackpink for this honor. Not only are they Entertainers of the Year, their video is the most viewed, beating Volodymyr Zelenskyy's for Person of the Year. Once again, Americans and others priorities are on display. That's the good news. The bad news is that, unlike Olivia Rodrigo, 2021's Entertainer of the Year, Blackpink has no Grammy nominations. They did have two People's Choice Award nominations for The Group of 2022 and The Music Video of 2022, but they lost the first to BTS — at least another K-Pop group won — and the second to "Anti-Hero" by Taylor Swift. Both of the winners have Grammy nominations. Maybe next year.
The world of television offered an embarrassment of riches in 2021. Whether it was a shocking twist or an unbelievable cameo, there was always a show that had us talking. With the year coming to a close, we've rounded up the best of the best TV shows 2021 had to offer.
From dangerous games that double as a commentary on modern-day capitalism to animated adaptations of online games, murder mysteries with a twist, meditations on religion through a horrific lens, MCU stories on the small screen, and much more, these are our nominees for the best TV series of 2021. Check out IGN's full list of TV awards for 2021 on IGN.com, but otherwise dig in here on our list of potential TV series of the year winners, including Arcane, Loki, Midnight Mass, Only Murders in the Building, Squid Game, Succession, Ted Lasso, The White Lotus, WandaVision, and What We Do in the Shadows.
Every year brings with it at least one new Netflix series that dominates the pop culture sphere for a few weeks, and 2021 was no exception. This year, everyone was obsessed with Squid Game, a bizarre yet fascinating dystopian survival drama slash fictional game show slash social satire.
It's tough to pin a series as weird as Squid Game down to just one genre... but the important thing is it's IGN's pick for the best TV series of the year 2021.
Like many great satires, Squid Game manages to be both completely ridiculous and wholly believable at the same time. Lee Jung-jae stars as Seong Gi-hun, a struggling South Korean man who becomes one of 500 participants who agree to take part in a series of potentially very lucrative games. Who wouldn't agree to play a few simple childhood games in exchange for ludicrous amounts of prize money? But there's always a catch, and the contestants quickly learn these games have literal life and death consequences.
Squid Game is easily one of the most unique additions to Netflix's library, but it's a show that clicks on a number of levels. Its central mysteries are reason enough to watch on their own: Who are these mysterious masked captors, and how does it benefit them to offer such a large payout for people who are down on their luck? Why not find a less sadistic way to be altruistic? And what could drive a person to be so desperate to willingly play in these games? The tightly paced nine-episode structure ensures we don't have to wait too long before the pieces start falling into place.
Watch the full video to learn why Netflix's Squid Game is the winner of IGN's Best TV Show of 2021 award.
It's been a while since I used the Hunger Games label. I going to revive it for "Squid Game."
2021 has been a dynamite year for TV. For this list, we’ll be looking at 2021 shows that had us fully engrossed one minute and buzzing on social media the next. Given the sheer amount of quality out there, we’re only focusing on shows that premiered this year. Sadly, that means no “Ted Lasso” Season 2. Our countdown includes "Invincible" (2021-), "Mare of Easttown" (2021), "Squid Game" (2021), "WandaVision" (2021), and more! What’s your favorite show of 2021? Let us know in the comments.
WatchMojo's top show is "Arcane," not "Squid Game," reinforcing the point I make about awards shows that electorates matter. Speaking of which, "Arcane" has nine nominations at the Annie Awards, more than any other nominated TV program. In contrast, "Invincible" has only one and "The Bad Batch" none; the nominated Star Wars show is "Star Wars: Visions." I think that puts "Arcane" in the driver's seat for next year's Emmy Awards in the animated categories and maybe even next year's Saturn Awards.*
As for the best drama, I think that will go to "Succession" again. "Squid Game" will certainly earn Emmy nominations; the only question is whether it will do so in the Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards or the International Emmy Awards. As CNet reports, it's eligible for both but can only compete in one, not both. I think it has a better chance at the TCA Awards for Best New Show where I expect it will compete with "Only Murders in the Building," which my wife and I enjoyed. That written, "Only Murders in the Building" has the same strengths and weaknesses as "The Flight Attendant." Both succeed as comedies while also being good thrillers and mysteries but both have the bad luck to be competing against "Ted Lasso," which I expect to win Outstanding Comedy Series again.
Stay tuned for more retrospectives of the year about to end through the rest of the week.
*I plan on covering this year's Saturn Awards winners on National Science Fiction Day, January 2, 2022.
Shopping malls in the U.S. were already in decline before the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers shifted away from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce. The outbreak has only exacerbated the challenges at malls as social distancing has placed restrictions on stores, movie theaters and restaurants. So what will become of malls in America after the pandemic ends?
Shopping malls across the U.S. have been reeling as restaurant and retail tenants struggle to keep their doors open.
Data compiled by Coresight Research shows about a quarter of U.S. malls could close over the next three to five years, accelerating a trend that began before the pandemic.
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Malls are a big tax driver for the communities they serve and employ lots of people locally. Watch the video above to find out more about the struggles U.S. malls face and what could become of them after the pandemic ends.
Korea’s fast-fashion emporium, Forever 21 has found a new owner in just four months after it filed for bankruptcy. The retail brand is to sell most of its business for $81 million to a consortium made up of mall operators Simon Property Group, Brookfield Property Partners and brand management firm Authentic Brands Group. Watch this video, for more information.
The Wall Street Journal, whose The Rise and Fall of Brooks Brothers concluded with Simon Properties and Authentic Brands buying Brooks Brothers, has the second story.
Brooks Brothers -- the self-proclaimed oldest clothier in the U.S. -- filed for bankruptcy in July. Analysts say the suit dealer wasn’t able to keep up with modern men who often wanted styles that were cheaper and more functional.
That was fast. However, I shouldn't be surprised. As I first observed about Twinkies, some products and brands are too valuable to let go extinct and someone will save them. Looks like JCPenney, Forever 21, and Brooks Brothers are among them.
Returning to the CNBC video, it will be worth watching which solutions mall owners and the communities around the mall pursue once the pandemic ends. Stay tuned.
At 11:58 a.m. on June 8, LeBron James logged on to a video call from the living room of his Los Angeles–area home. As the clock hit noon, James, who abhors tardiness, took command of a virtual meeting that included more than 20 top athletes, entertainers and political pros. He set a serious tone: across the country, people were filling the streets to march against racial injustice and demand systemic change. What could this group do about it?
While I'm lumping this honor in with the Entertainer[s] of the Year — sports is a form of entertainment — it recognizes LeBron James as also being one of the racial-justice organizers recognized as some of the Guardians of the Year. Not only did he and other athletes join the movement against police brutality, they also made a difference in the 2020 election by convincing team owner to convert sports stadiums into polling places. Time recognized the Guardians of the Year as "defend[ing] the ideals sacred to democracy." So did James. Congratulations!
Follow over the jump for TIME's 2020 Entertainer of the Year.
As experts encourage widespread coronavirus testing, John Oliver discusses exactly how much testing the US has done, the difference between diagnostic and antibody tests, and why we need to do more.
Oliver showed how South Korea is slowly returning to normal, including their high rate of testing and how the country is starting to play baseball, albeit in front of stands empty of actual people. To see how the country got there, watch Vox's The big lesson from South Korea's coronavirus response.
Testing and tracing were the key to slowing the spread of coronavirus.
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In South Korea, citizens have flattened the curve of the novel coronavirus -- and it's because of lessons they learned from fighting the MERS outbreak in 2015. Through a combination of aggressive and widespread testing measures, along with a system know as “contact tracing,” they’ve been better positioned to spot the path of the virus and curb its spread. While they are still vigilant for a second wave of Covid-19 cases, people in South Korea are slowly returning to public life. Watch the video above to find out how their testing and contact tracing measures work, and how it can be a lesson for countries still in lockdown.
I agree with Oliver that the U.S. needs more testing and that we should follow South Korea's example. Whether we do remains to be seen.
As I have done every summer for the past four years, I'm teaching Biology II (Evolution, Biodiversity, and Ecology). I began the biodiversity part last week with the origin of life and then launched into viruses yesterday. Since I know my audience (the class is full of people who want to work in the medical field as doctors, dentists, and veterinarians), I emphasized disease-causing viruses, especially those in the news. At the end of the lecture, I offered my students a choice between watching a video about either Ebola or MERS as examples of emerging diseases. They voted for MERS and got this video from DNews added last week: Should You Be Worried About MERS?
There is currently a MERS outbreak in South Korea that has quarantined thousands. What is MERS?
SEOUL — Some 2,300 people have been quarantined in South Korea to prevent the further spread of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, which has already killed six people and infected at least 87.
My students were suitably impressed. Just the same, Ebola, this isn't. Instead, MERS acts like a really nasty flu. That's enough to warrant coverage here, as I followed the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 flu seasons pretty closely. Here's to South Korea getting the outbreak under control before it spreads out of the country.
Flying cars aren't alone among examples of things Americans thought we'd have by now; Popular Science has an entire slideshow of technologies people expected would exist by now, including personal jetpacks, nuclear fusion, and robot armies, along with reasons why they haven't appeared. Too bad, as nuclear fusion would come in very handy right now.
Don't hold your breath for this one. “It's been 35 years away for half a century, and it's still 35 years away. And I suspect 35 years from now it will still be 35 years away,” said Seife, “If you look at civilizations in 2500, then I wouldn't be surprised if they used fusion.
I tempered that estimate with some cautious optimism after taking into consideration a scientific breakthrough I quoted in the post.
This discovery may solve a scientific problem with fusion that will cut off five years from the 35 mentioned above. As for the engineering, financial, and political problems, I those are still worth ten years each. Still, thirty years is better than thirty-five, so it's reason to hope.
It looks like South Korea has decided that thirty years is doable, as Nature Magazine reprinted in Scientific American reports.
South Korea Makes Billion-Dollar Bet on Fusion Power A fusion power demonstration reactor to be built in the 2030s in collaboration with the DoE's Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, represents a step toward commercial use By Soo Bin Park and Nature magazine
South Korea has embarked on the development of a preliminary concept design for a fusion power demonstration reactor in collaboration with the US Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) in New Jersey.
The project is provisionally named K-DEMO (Korean Demonstration Fusion Power Plant), and its goal is to develop the design for a facility that could be completed in the 2030s in Daejeon, under the leadership of the country’s National Fusion Research Institute (NFRI).
South Korea is already developing the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (K-STAR) project and contributing to ITER, the €15-billion (US$20-billion) experimental reactor being built in Cadarache, France, under the auspices of an international collaboration. K-DEMO is intended to be the next step toward commercial reactors and would be the first plant to actually contribute power to an electric grid.
That's more optimistic than I expected, as even 2039 would be less than 30 years away. Of course, South Korea managed to hurtle the obstacles in reverse order from how I listed them--political first and then financial, letting the engineering and scientific ones take care of themselves later. Maybe that's the problem. Everyone else is waiting for the science before committing the money and mustering the political will.
