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.
AI data centers are driving unprecedented demand for electricity and putting renewed pressure on America’s power grid to modernize its equipment and develop greener, more efficient sources of power. Google, Meta, Microsoft and Amazon are all spending millions of dollars on local infrastructure upgrades and companies like SpaceXAI are even building off-grid power plants to power their data centers.
Google says its planned 780-megawatt data center in Pine Island, Minnesota, could offer a model for powering the AI boom. In a proposed agreement with Xcel Energy, Google says it will support 1,900 megawatts of new wind, solar and battery capacity, while minimum payments and exit fees are intended to protect local ratepayers if demand falls short.
CNBC examines whether projects like Pine Island can make the grid cleaner without shifting costs to existing customers, why some energy experts argue that smaller data centers could make better use of infrastructure already in place, and how utilities’ financial incentives can complicate efforts to build less.
This video examines the intersection between the environmental effects of data centers and updating theelectrical grid. Done wrong, it will increase air and noise pollution, increase fossil fuel use, and raise everyone's rates. Done right, it will finance the improvement of the grid and faster adoption of renewables and batteries. CNBC is trying to be even-handed in this video, but what I called "the explicitly pro-capitalist message of the channel" inclines it to be optimistic. As I wrote seven years ago, "I shouldn't complain about it on an investment media outlet; it's like complaining about water being wet." I hope all the optimists and AI boosters are right, but I'm prepared for them to be wrong.
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (Focus Features)
Ghost Elephants (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Lion (National Geographic)
Nuisance Bear (Mubi)
Secrets of the Bees (National Geographic)
Time and Water (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Nuisance Bear leads with five nominations, followed by Lion with four, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist and Time and Water tied at two, then Ghost Elephants and Secrets of the Bees with just this one. I'm embedding their trailers in that order, beginning with NUISANCE BEAR | Official Trailer | Coming Soon.
Who is the real nuisance? Watch the official trailer for NUISANCE BEAR—the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary from directors Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden.
In theaters November 6 in Los Angeles, December 4 in New York, Canada and the UK. A MUBI Release.
This should look familiar to those of my readers who were following this blog in 2023, when it earned two News&Doc Emmy Award nominations and when I wrote that it had won Best Short Documentary at the 2022 Critics Choice Documentary Awards, so this electorate is familiar with it and liked it the first time. Remember, electorates matter. This is a feature-length treatment of the same material, and, based on its film festival awards, the expanded content is substance and not mere filler.
I can't recommend Nuisance Bear to my students, as it won't be available to them before the end of the semester, but I can recommend the next nominee. Watch LION | Official Trailer | National Geographic.
From “The Lion King” director Jon Favreau and BBC Studios executive producer Mike Gunton comes the extraordinary true story of a lion cub named Kio on his epic journey to become a king. Filmed over four years, this sweeping saga of family, hope and courage follows Kio as he grows from a vulnerable cub into a powerful leader. Along the way, he faces loss, exile and fierce rivals in a fight to survive. Combining cinematic storytelling with groundbreaking natural history filmmaking, this series captures the complete coming-of-age story of a lion — and the remarkable making of a king.
Welcome to the kind of project one can expect when Disney controls the National Geographic Channel. Fortunately, it looks like a hit with more than four million views on the trailer alone. It also looks like the kind of documentary series that would do well at next year's Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
"The most urgent film of our time.” THE AI DOC: OR HOW I BECAME AN APOCALOPTIMIST is only in theaters March 27. Watch the trailer now.
From the Academy Award®-winning filmmakers behind Everything Everywhere All at Once and Navalny; a father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a hand-made, eye-opening documentary about the most powerful technology humanity has ever created... and what’s at stake if we get it wrong.
Holy crap! That was scary! It made me revisit what I wrote in 'Prophets of Doom' a dozen years ago.
Both [James Howard] Kunstler and Ruppert gave their familiar peak oil perspectives on the future. Of the rest, the one who worried about the farthest off catastrophe was De Garis, whose fear was of The Singularity, the surpassing of human intelligence by artificial intelligence. When he discussed his take on the future, I figured that Kunstler would likely have none of it. Sure enough, he told De Garis that he thought that the resources and finances needed to support the research for artificial intelligence would dry up before the technology reached that point. The result was that Kunstler didn't budge, but De Garis came away convinced that the other issues were fair more pressing than his particular worry. In particular, he became most concerned about water shortages.
Renowned Icelandic poet and author, Andri Snær Magnason, is chasing something elusive. As the glacial ice of his homeland melts, he constructs a cinematic time capsule to hold onto this moment and send it to the future, before everything he loves slips away. Using his own collected archives, his grandparents’ photographs and films as well as traditional songs and folktales, Andri interlaces his family’s story with that of the land around him. From Academy Award®-nominated director Sara Dosa, TIME AND WATER is a universal reflection on the power of home and what it means to be alive amid profound epochal change.
I can see the resemblance to Fire of Love, the personal meaning of natural phenomena. I can also recommend it to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
For over a decade, Dr. Steve Boyes, conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer, has been in search of a mysterious, elusive herd of Ghost Elephants in the highlands of Angola, deep within its forests. From acclaimed director Werner Herzog (“Grizzly Man”), GHOST ELEPHANTS follows Boyes on an epic journey as he sets out with some of the best master trackers in the world, in pursuit of an animal long believed to be a myth.
I can hear why Herzog earned a nomination for Outstanding Narrator at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Too bad he didn't repeat here, but at least he earned a nomination for his film.
National Geographic Explorer Bertie Gregory explores the extraordinary lives of bees — among the planet’s most important animals. Over three years, special cameras opened a rare window into a single hive, revealing their hidden world. With more than 20,000 bee species pollinating one-third of the world’s food, this series uncovers their astonishing architecture and intelligence, unlocking their secrets.
I didn't include the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, but here it is. Also, I have been recommending it to my students, although none has submitted any extra credit yet.
After watching the trailers, I think Nuisance Bear is the most likely to win with The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist and Time and Water as the most likely to upset it. Lion may have more nominations than either of the latter, but I think it's more likely to win the limited series category.
BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
David Greaves – Once Upon a Time in Harlem (Neon)
Baz Luhrmann – EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Neon)
Gabriela Osio Vanden & Jack Weisman – Nuisance Bear (Mubi)
Xander Robin – The Python Hunt (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Poh Si Teng – American Doctor (Watermelon Pictures)
John Wilson – The History of Concrete (Magnolia Pictures)
Nuisance Bear and Once Upon a Time in Harlem co-lead this category with five nominations each, followed by EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert and The History of Concrete tied at four, then American Doctor and The Python Hunt tied at two. Two of these, The History of Concrete and The Python Hunt, don't have nominations in categories I will examine in the future, so I'm embedding them here, beginning with The History of Concrete - Official Trailer | Directed by John Wilson | In Theaters September 18.
Following the finale of his acclaimed HBO series “How To with John Wilson”, NYC documentarian John Wilson looks to the bedrock of his beloved New York City for inspiration and structure. Concrete, the world's most widely used building material, appears as an ever-present life force, and John sets out to make the definitive documentary on the matter. After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, he decides to use the industry-approved Hallmark formula to tell this seemingly drab story and increase his movie’s appeal. But his foundation soon begins to crumble—literally and figuratively—as he struggles to balance artistic freedom with the realities of the modern film industry.
Directed by John Wilson
This looks more interesting than I expected. Also, while there is definitely are science, technology, and infrastructure angles and I mention concrete in my lectures, I can't tell from the trailer if I can recommend this to my students. On the other hand, I'm sure I can recommend The Python Hunt - Official Trailer - Oscilloscope Laboratories HD.
In an attempt to save the threatened ecosystem, the Florida government hosts an annual competition to remove invasive pythons from the Everglades. For ten grueling nights, python-mania overtakes the ‘glades as an eclectic group of amateur hunters contends with unforgiving terrain, aggressive nocturnal creatures and their own desires and demons that push them into the swamp, searching for slithering glory.
Directed by Xander Robin
Produced by Xander Robin, Lance Oppenheim, Lauren Cioffi, Melissa Oppenheim
I blogged about the Florida python huntthreetimes and every time it looked like wild fun in the service of biodiversity and sustainability. I think my students will generally enjoy watching this as long as killing snakes doesn't bother them.
Two nominees also earned nominations for Best Documentary, Once Upon a Time in Harlem and The History of Concrete, so they're my picks to win Best First Documentary Feature. I think the former has the inside track, but I'll re-examine this category when I cover Best Historical Documentary and Best Archival Documentary.
BEST NARRATION
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (Focus Features)
Written by Daniel Roher & Caroline Lindy
Performed by Daniel Roher & Caroline Lindy
The History of Concrete (Magnolia Pictures)
Written by John Wilson
Performed by John Wilson
Lorne (Focus Features)
Written by Morgan Neville, Alan Lowe, Jake Hostetter
Performed by Chris Parnell
Nuisance Bear (Mubi)
Written by Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons
Performed by Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons
Rehearsals for a Revolution (Sony Pictures Classics)
Written by Pegah Ahangarani
Performed by Pegah Ahangarani
Remake (Music Box Films)
Written by Ross McElwee
Performed by Ross McElwee
I'm waiting until I hear all the narration from the trailers before making my pick in this category.
Jordan Klepper breaks down the headlines, including an AI summit in Washington that left us with exactly the same amount of federal AI regulation (read: none). Plus, former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith appears before the Senate to answer questions about his “misconduct,” and Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt falls on his proverbial ass on live TV when his ambush of Smith backfires spectacularly. By the way, did anyone see that Atlanta Hawks game? Neither did Jack Smith.
As I wrote in the last closer look, Donald "Pervert Hoover" Trump is interested in three things, self-aggrandisement, self-enrichment, and revenge. Rebranding and empowering A.I. (no, it's not super intelligence; even the best computers have just enough capacity to rival a fly's brain) qualifies as the first two, while going after Jack Smith qualifies as the third. The former will likely succeed. The last failed spectacularly, at least on Tuesday, as Seth Meyers also documented in Sen. Eric Schmitt & GOP Humiliate Themselves at Train Wreck Jack Smith Hearing: A Closer Look.
Seth takes a closer look at Senate Republicans humiliating themselves in a train wreck hearing where they tried and failed to catch former special prosecutor Jack Smith in a gotcha moment.
Trying to make the wheels of (in)justice grind Jack Smith failed, at least this time. Schmitt and the other Senate Republicans were too invested in their narrative to realize that the facts didn't support it. Also, Schmitt only talking about NBA and Men's NCAA games showed that they didn't even consider Women's NCAA. That makes them look sexist as well as stupid. Kudos to Senator and likely future Governor Amy Klobuchar for correcting the record.
Aunt Chippy joins us in Brooklyn, the Yankees hosted the Red Sox for Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series, Trump told the truth today for the first time ever, had lunch with Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and other A.I. leaders, Trump is still trying to blame everything on Joe Biden and can’t stop falling asleep, Republicans are investigating Jack Smith’s investigation, and we talk to Guillermo & his partner Witney on the set of Dancing with the Stars.
Pervert Hoover falling asleep after calling Joe Biden "Sleepy" is not my first choice for "every accusation is a confession," but it sure works. And, yes, Senator Schmitt is a Schmitthead.
I could go on about MAHA, but it's time to wrap up. Stay tuned for a longer post tomorrow.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (Ramy Youssef) gets a visit from President Trump (James Austin Johnson) and Natalie Harp (Ashley Padilla) during a nor’easter.
Ashley Padilla as Ashley Harp stole the scene. Two horror movie references, Weapons and Obsession? Perfect. She made a bigger impression than James Austin Johnson's Trump crushing on Ramy Youssef's Mamdani. Donald "Pervert Hoover" Trump loves winners and Mamdani certainly is one of those.
China taking its pandas back messed with a lot of Americans' entertainment and they want new pandas. The media are happy to cater to this desire, which draws clicks and views. Should the Chinese lend pandas back to U.S. zoos, it will make both China, if not Xi, and Biden more popular in the U.S. That's a win-win. Now to see if it actually happens.
It's too late to help Biden, but not too late to help China and Xi. I don't know if it will help Pervert Hoover. His approval ratings are at record lows.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like critics calling out Hanukkah Barbie appearing to have a larger nose.
I'm not surprised 20% of Gen Z hasn't had sex. Even by Wikipedia's definition, Gen Z's last birth year was 2012 (I'd place it later), so they're 14. Age of consent in the U.S. ranges from 16 to 18. That's probably 20% right there.
Follow over the jump for Weekend Update's interviews and more.
The Mackinac Bridge team let me follow them around for a day, and here's what I learned about how they're still keeping this feat of engineering alive.
Special thanks to the Michigan Department of Transportation and the Mackinac Bridge Authority for the images, research help, and of course, the excellent tour of the bridge!
That was worth waiting for. I hope all the people walking across the Mackinac Bridge today appreciate how much work it takes to maintain it. I know I do!
That's a wrap for today's educational holiday post. Stay tuned for more Emmy Awards coverage.
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.
Evolving from a robotics company working in government contracts and toy contract work, iRobot eventually released a consumer product of their own, the Roomba, that would define not only their entire corporate future, but the industry that they essentially created. However, just 4 years after their all time peak in revenue and popularity, the company had declared bankruptcy. Join me in this video as we find out what happened to iRobot and their flagship product line, the Roomba robot vacuum.
It seems no tale of the Retail Apocalypse is complete without either private equity or Amazon, and this story has both, although in potentially helpful roles, not competitors or bad managers. Also, this is another example of a company that florished during the COVID-19 pandemic when people were at home, then got into trouble when they returned to work, although that wasn't the primary issue; competition and weak innovation were.
The company that popularized the robot vacuum has been struggling. This video outlines some of the main reasons behind those struggles.
Company Man Mike made a list of the reasons for iRobot's decline.
As I wrote above, competition and weak innovation were the main reasons for iRobot's decline. Using cameras instead of LIDAR is, as Company Man Mike pointed out, one of the reasons why Tesla's self-driving technology is inferior to Waymo's. I hadn't even considered the privacy issues with cameras instead of LIDAR, but they're valid. As for relying on vacuum sales over other applications and markets, iRobot made the decision to sell their military products early on and it made sense at the time. As for other consumer products, it wasn't for lack of trying. iRobot tried, but failed.
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for more awards show coverage.
Mr. Scorsese and Sean Combs: The Reckoning co-lead with three nominations each, followed by The American Revolution and The Yogurt Shop Murders tied at two and Rafa with one. That's not exactly the order that the prognosticators at Gold Derby handicap this category. The professionals mostly picked Mr. Scorsese to win with 62.5% of experts and 57.1% of editors along with 37.6% of users, while 57.9% of users support The American Revolution with the remaining professionals, 37.5% of experts and 42.9% of editors, agreeing. The rest of the users rank Sean Combs: The Reckoning third with 2.9%, Rafa fourth with 1.3%, and The Yogurt Shop Murders fifth with 0.3%.
This ranking reflects what happened at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, where Mr. Scorsese beat The American Revolution for Best Limited Documentary Series. Electorates matter, so I think, all things being equal, the Television Academy will vote for a good story about one of their own, and I think all things are equal here.
Follow over the jump for the categories documentaries are competing in that I haven't examined yet, an update on the first post in this series, and a video about Earth Overshoot Day.
New creatures. New era. Experience the Ice Age like never before. Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age is now streaming on Apple TV https://apple.co/_PrehistoricPlanet
“Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age” is a sweeping new installment of the award-winning natural history series from executive producers Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton, produced by BBC Studios Natural History Unit (“Planet Earth”), and narrated by Golden Globe Award and Olivier Award winner Tom Hiddleston (“Earthsounds”), with an original score by Hans Zimmer, Anže Rozman and Kara Talve from Bleeding Fingers Music. The five-part docuseries, set to premiere globally on November 26, 2025, invites viewers into a dramatic new era of prehistoric life, millions of years after the extinction of the dinosaurs — an era shaped by ice, the intense fight to survive and the rise of a new cast of giants: the iconic megafauna.
“Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age” uses the latest scientific research and cutting-edge visual effects to bring this frozen world to life like never before, unveiling the spectacular habitats and inhabitants of ancient Earth for a one-of-a-kind experience. From towering woolly mammoths to elusive snow sloths, terrifying saber-toothed tigers to resilient dwarf elephants (only 3 feet tall), the series reveals the epic struggles and unexpected stories of animals that once ruled the Ice Age. Viewers will journey through vast tundras, barren deserts, expanding grasslands and melting permafrost as these creatures battle for survival in the face of extreme climates, shifting landscapes and the onset of “The Big Freeze,” and ultimately, “The Big Melt.”
The series is produced by the world-renowned team at BBC Studios Natural History Unit with support from the photorealistic visual effects of Framestore (“Gravity,” “The Golden Compass”). Theme by Hans Zimmer, with an original score by Zimmer, Anže Rozman and Kara Talve for Bleeding Fingers Music.
“Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age” continues the storytelling journey of the acclaimed Apple TV natural history series “Prehistoric Planet,” which transported viewers 66 million years into the past to witness the age of dinosaurs across two seasons. Blending cinematic storytelling with photorealistic visual effects, the series brings ancient worlds to life, offering a firsthand look at some of the most extraordinary creatures ever to walk the Earth. The complete first two seasons of “Prehistoric Planet” are available to stream now on Apple TV.
Explore the award-winning VFX behind Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, the critically acclaimed third season of the docuseries executive produced by Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton and produced by the BBC Studios Natural History Unit.
Our global teams were tasked with developing the VFX and animation for over 40 scientifically accurate creatures, many never-before-seen on screen. From sabre-toothed cats to rhino-sized wombats, tiny island elephants, and the largest ape to ever live, the core creative challenge was ensuring these animals felt as real, grounded, and emotionally compelling as subjects in a modern wildlife documentary.
Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age earned our global team Best FX at the Annie Awards alongside double honours at the VES Awards for Outstanding Visual Effects and Outstanding Effects Simulation.
This video worked for its awards campaign; it got nominated.
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.
Happy Flashback Friday! I promised "Stay tuned for another winner at the News & Doc Emmy Awards along with a retrospective of posts on a related theme" for today and get to both of those after I lead into them beginning with SciShow explaining How Instagram Hacks Your Brain.
Do you feel addicted to social media? You're certainly not alone. Social media and our brains have a messy relationship, and researchers are working hard to understand what's going on, who might be more or less at risk, and why.
Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)
Can't Look Away: The Case Against Social Media is the Emmy winner I'm featuring today and it's all about how social media algorithms make the platforms addictive and how they especially harm teenagers. Howtown examined another possible cognitive harm in What the actual science says about "brain rot".
Are TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts actually destroying our attention spans, or is “brain rot” just another moral panic? In this video, we dig into the science behind short-form video and attention, from debunking viral goldfish statistics to explaining real cognitive psychology experiments testing analytical thinking and prospective memory. We break down what researchers actually mean by “attention span,” how infinite scroll and autoplay feeds are genuinely different from previous forms of media, and what lab tests can and can’t tell us about the mental effects of short-form video.
As much as I have proclaimed "Behold the power of the YouTube algorithm," I at least had the choice of clicking on the preview of the intriguing video the program presented to me. With YouTube shorts, TikTok, and Instagram reels, the only choice I have is to watch the next video or stop watching unless I see the preview of the short on my YouTube home page, where I still have the choice to click. It's one of the reasons I generally avoid TikTok, the other being the ownership, both old and new. Do I think the format is making me stupid? No, although it's certainly distracting, entertaining, and surprising, especially as Instagram reels, some of which I find educational. That loops back to Hank Green's observation about Instagram hacking my brain. I like closing loops.
The second loop to close is today's featured News & Doc Emmy Award winner.
After I watched Can't Look Away's trailer, I declared, "I don't have to look at the other two trailers; I think this is the winner." I was right; it won. Congratulations!
Follow over the jump for the final loop, today's featured post from the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, which was also about a legal action against social media.
The Walt Disney Company earned 21 News & Documentary Emmy® Awards across ABC News and National Geographic, with the award-winning content streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. Following another record-breaking year of 51 nominations — the most ever for the brand — National Geographic took home 13 News & Documentary Emmy Awards, breaking its all time record. This included seven awards for "Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller," which also stood for the third consecutive year as the most-nominated series ever. "Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller" is an original documentary series that explores the complex and dangerous inner-workings of the global underworld, black and informal markets. Each adventure follows Mariana on a mission to follow the chain of custody of trafficked goods, understand how to obtain the contraband, or see the 360-degree view of the trafficking world from the point of view of the smugglers, law enforcement and those caught in the crossfire.
Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller explores the inner-workings of the most dangerous black markets on the planet. In each episode, she investigates a different underworld — from fentanyl and illegal street racing to the smuggling of brides and the rise of militias — to meet the players, learn the business, and better understand the world’s multi-trillion dollar shadow economy.
This trailer earned an Emmy nomination of its own for Outstanding Promotional Announcement: News. Also, eight of the ten episodes promoted earned Emmy Award nominations and six won Emmy Awards, including the one that is the reason for featuring the series today, "Shark Hunters."
Outstanding Climate, Environment or Weather Coverage - "Shark Hunters" **WINNER**
Yes, that's an ocean conservation themed episode. It's also one I can recommend to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
Follow over the jump for the other five Emmy-winning episodes.
John Oliver discusses how an already flawed Twitter got worse under Elon Musk, how it continues to impact us all, and what it has to do with the 30-40 trillion cells humans are composed of. Or, wait, sorry, Twitter doesn’t have anything to do with the cells. It’s about our understanding of the universe. Maybe. You’ll just have to take that last part up with Elon directly.
There's a side effect of Musk turning the blue checks into pay for play instead of an actual verification system. In addition to making it difficult to tell real from imitation/parody accounts, it made a lot of statistics inaccessible without paid verification. I noted that last year: "Twitter/X's analytics are now a service for paid subscribers, and I won't pay to support Elon Musk, so they end up being little better than what I can collect from Bluesky for free."
Since today is Throwback Thursday, follow over the jump for my most read post about Twitter/X and Bluesky during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News along with my top shares on each platform that aren't about holidays that I haven't shared yet.
We investigated one of the world’s largest AI data centers, using thermal drone footage to reveal the hidden pollution powering the AI boom. As companies race to build the future of artificial intelligence, residents and experts warn that fossil fuels, secrecy, and weak regulation may be putting communities at risk.
This award is as much about technology as it is about economics. May it mean that AI be a net benefit for the economy. Right now, it looks like it's doing more destruction than creation.
If the projections are correct, it will be doing both, with 20% of people losing their current jobs while quintupling GDP. Yikes! That's an outcome the residents of Richistan would approve of. As for the rest of us, I'll repeat what I wrote a dozen years ago in Robots are coming for our jobs, "the loss of jobs to robots will be the major effect of the Singularity, not everyone becoming cyborgs or the machines enslaving or killing off humanity." It's not like we weren't warned.
That would be an end result. Joe Hanson is showing that getting there is already a risk in terms of increased consumption of land, water, materials to make the data centers and the power plants to run them, and natural gas, as well as increased production of waste in the form of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. It reminds me of an equation I teach my environmental science students to describe environmental impact: "I=P*A*T, where I is impact, P is population, A is affluence, and T is technology." A.I., or at least the data centers to support it, are becoming an example of a technology that supports affluence but increases the impact of the population on the environment. I prefer technology that decreases the impact of an affluent population by being more efficient. Data centers aren't that, not until they use sustainable energy.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, is fueling its data centers with unpermitted gas turbines, according to a Floodlight visual investigation. Thermal drone footage captured in late January 2026 shows xAI running the unpermitted turbines at its custom-built power plant in Southaven, Miss., nearly two weeks after the Environmental Protection Agency reiterated that doing so requires a state permit in advance. The ad hoc gas plant's sole task is to power the data center behind Grok and an example of AI's growing reliance on fossil fuels. Investigative Producer Evan Simon breaks down the investigation and what the findings could mean for the AI buildout occurring across the country.
**UPDATE** Mississippi regulators approved xAI's permit application to run 41 gas powered turbines at its Southaven gas plant on 3/10/26. The decision comes despite heavy pushback from local community members and will result in the creation of one of Mississippi's largest fossil fuel power plants.
This got me to subscribe to the Floodlight News YouTube channel, "The only U.S. newsroom with the specific mission to investigate climate polluters." Expect to see more from them.
Another lesson I teach my students is about the principles for environmental policy. Two of them are human rights, in this case the right to clean air and an environment not permeated by harmful noise, and public participation. The United States is supposed to be a democracy within a republic, where the people decide and the government represents the people. The Floodlight News video shows that the way data centers are being installed and operated respects neither. That's also the point of yesterday's MS NOW video, Erin Brockovich on AI data centers: 'People aren't being heard'.
Americans on both sides of the aisle have found common ground opposing construction of AI data centers in their communities. In Texas, one lifelong conservative voter told MSNOW reporter Josh Einiger that the issue could flip the Senate. And longtime consumer advocate Erin Brockovich joins to lay out what she's learned since she started tracking the issue.
I'm surprised I've never mentioned Erin Brockovich in 15+ years of blogging. It's about time I did.
That's a wrap for today. I'm sure I'll have more to say on the matter. In the meantime, stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment feature.
Peter Thiel and Alex Karp’s Palantir Technologies is one of the most powerful and mysterious tech companies in Silicon Valley. Its namesake is also one of the most powerful and mysterious magical objects in the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy series The Lord of the Rings.
The palantiri of The Lord of the Rings are sort of like crystal balls or “seeing stones” that allow their users to communicate across vast distances, see events from afar, and sometimes even peer into the future. But just about everybody who tries to use a palantir in The Lord of the Rings is deceived by it, acting on the visions they’re receiving without the greater context or wisdom of what’s behind them. So why would the people behind Palantir want to name the company and build its culture around these powerful yet easily corruptible magical objects?
J.R.R. Tolkien was famously anti-tech and anti-government, expressing his fears of what would happen when those two forces combined through his fantasy works and his letters to friends, family, and colleagues. If he were alive in the age of Palantir, he might not be thrilled that a tech company with lucrative government contracts is name-checking his creations.
Vox producer Benjamin Stephen went on a quest to find out the story behind Palantir’s name, what the link to The Lord of the Rings reveals about the company, and what Tolkien might think about how his words are being used.
Vance would be less erratic (mercurial would be a polite way of saying it) and not driven by Hoover Cleveland's obsessions with tariffs, grifts, and revenge, but he'd be more likely to implement the parts of Project 2025 that Hoover Cleveland hasn't yet. He'd also be more under the influence of Palantir founder Peter Thiel, his pet bad philosopher Curtis Yarvin, and Palantir CEO Alex Karp. They're the sources of what I called "cyberpunk villain ideas straight out of SnowCrash..." Vance can certainly learn new tricks, but I worry about the ones Thiel, Yarvin, and Karp could teach him. They might be worse.
Vance might also learn lessons from bad readings of classic fantasy in addition to the cyberpunk villain schemes, which Palantir certainly qualifies as.
Speaking of bad readings, Thiel and Karp naming their surveillance system after the palantiri may be a bad sign, as Robert of In Deep Geek relates as he asks and answers What Actually Are The Palantiri?
Robert explores the origins of these magical seeing stones, crafted by Fëanor in the Undying Lands. Discover their functions as early communication tools and their tragic histories within Middle-earth.
Sauron may have used the palantiri to deceive and influence Saruman and Denethor, but he deceived himself by misinterpreting what he saw through them, allowing himself to make a fatal strategic error that permitted the Fellowship of the Ring's plan to succeed. I wonder if that has occurred to Thiel and Karp. If so, maybe they they think they'll be like Aragorn and able to control their metaphorical crystal ball. I don't think either of them is Aragorn. If not, then they and their clients might be in for a series of unpleasant surprises as the technology backfires on them, as it did on Sauron, Saruman, and Denethor.
That's a wrap for today. See you tomorrow for another brief educational entry.
Instead of exploring fiction for today's Sunday entertainment feature, I'm celebrating the best of nonfiction in television by beginning my examination of this year's 47th News & Documentary Emmy® Awards Nominees with the nominees for Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary, as I did last year.
Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary
Critical Condition: Health in Black America NOVA | GBH [A NOVA Production | Firelight Films] The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice
Metamorph Films, LLC Operation Space Station
NOVA | GBH [A NOVA Production | Blink Films | France Télévisions] Sally
Muck Media [Story Syndicate | National Geographic Documentary Films] Titan: The Oceangate Submersible Disaster
Netflix [Netflix | Diamond Docs | Story Syndicate]
Sally leads this field with three nominations as the preview image shows, Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary, Outstanding Direction: Documentary, and Outstanding Art Direction / Set Decoration / Scenic Design: Documentary. The rest of the nominees for this category have only this one nomination. On this basis, I'm considering Sally to be the favorite for this award. Time to watch the trailers to see if they confirm my impression, staring with SALLY | Official Trailer | National Geographic Documentary Films.
Sally Ride became the first American woman to blast off into space, but beneath her unflappable composure, she carried a secret. Revealing the romance and sacrifices of their 27 years together, Sally’s life partner, Tam O’Shaughnessy, tells the full story of this complicated and iconic astronaut for the first time. From National Geographic Documentary Films, SALLY is directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Cristina Costantini.
That was inspiring. I'm looking forward to announcing any Emmy Awards it wins in June, Pride Month.
If the ice sheet covering Greenland melts, global sea levels would rise 21 feet, profoundly impacting our planet. How, why, and when could this happen? Scientists have recently found lost sediment from a forgotten secret sub-ice Cold War base in the Arctic that holds clues about a time when the Greenland Ice Sheet had receded. THE MEMORY OF DARKNESS, LIGHT, AND ICE is a 60-minute documentary film about the discovery of this precious sediment core, which holds the key to crucial science around the melting Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) and the future of sea level rise across the globe.
Watching this trailer reminds me that I showed Chasing Ice to my students last week and this is week is Earth Week, making this a good movie to recommend to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development. It also makes me think that it's the strongest competitor to Sally. Last year, I thought that the "Hunt for the Oldest DNA" episode of NOVA on PBS had the strongest science of all the nominees, but didn't have the best chance of winning. Surprise, it won! That could happen here.
The second nominated episode of NOVA is "Operation Space Station: High-Risk Build." Watch its official promotional video from NOVA PBS Official, How Astronauts Avoided Disaster Building the International Space Station | NOVA | PBS. The field for this category wouldn't be complete without a NOVA episode, and this year's slate has two. Good showing for NOVA!
A dangerous spacewalk, a toxic leak, and a breathtaking view of Earth.
Astronauts faced a life-threatening challenge during construction of the International Space Station.
Sitting in sunlight to evaporate the ammonia serves as a good example of one of Commoner's Laws, "Nature knows best." Environmental content in space!
Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster examines CEO Stockton Rush’s quest to become the next billionaire innovator and the doomed underwater endeavor that called into question the price of ambition in the depths of the ocean.
The Titan submersible’s ill-fated journey to the ruins of the Titanic dominated headlines in June 2023, yet the shocking decisions that led to the disaster have never been revealed like this before.
This could just as easily have been nominated for business documentary as for science and technology. It's also Sally's chief competition for its journalistic value and public interest; the trailers for both have more than two million views, with Sally slightly ahead. In contrast, the trailers for the rest of the nominees have several thousand views at most. I still think Sally is the favorite, but now I have a better grasp of its chances.
Follow over the jump for Sally's other two nominations and some of the most read entries about the Emmy Awards last year.
It feels kinda silly to make this video but there are still people super focused on coal and it just feels like they haven't listened to any of the people who know exactly why coal is just not going to be a part of our future power mix, and why that actually has nothing to do with the environment.
I had a feeling "people super focused on coal" referred to Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump, who is choosing an old technology, coal and other fossil fuels, over a newer one, renewables. Hank confirmed it at 11:24 when he showed an executive order of Hoover Harding Cleveland's, then talked about how people who still support coal believe anything that is different from the way things were in 1985 is "woke," making his rant a twenty-minute subtweet. I'm more than OK with that.
Rant or not, I learned a lot from Hank, including about combined-cycle power plants, lead being in coal exhaust along with mercury and radioactive materials, and this graph, which I can show to my students.
Welcome to blogging as professional development.
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for the Vernal Equinox, the last post of the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
