Month: December 2025

Trailer: Orwell’s Animal Farm, Director Andy Serkis

“Timely” would be an understatement.

Wikipedia:

Animal Farm is a 2025 animated comedy-drama film directed by Andy Serkis and written by Nicholas Stoller, based on the 1945 novella by George Orwell. The film stars Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Woody Harrelson, Steve Buscemi, Glenn Close and Kieran Culkin. It is the third adaptation of the novella, following the 1954 animated filmand the 1999 live-action film, with an alternative plot that introduces new characters such as a piglet named Lucky.

The film premiered at the 2025 Annecy International Animation Film Festival on 9 June 2025, and is scheduled to be theatrically released in the United States on 1 May 2026, by Angel Studios.

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Starring Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Steve Buscemi, Glenn Close, Laverne Cox, Kieran Culkin, Woody Harrelson, Jim Parsons, Andy Serkis, Kathleen Turner & Iman Vellani

Narcissism and Conspiracist Thinking

They’re out to get you.
Of course they are, why the hell wouldn’t they.
Who the hell else are they going to get, some loser?

Why do narcissists find conspiracy theories so appealing? – Cichocka et al – Current Opinion in Psychology:

Abstract

Narcissism—a conviction about one’s superiority and entitlement to special treatment—is a robust predictor of belief in conspiracy theories. Recent developments in the study of narcissism suggest that it has three components: antagonism, agentic extraversion, and neuroticism. We argue that each of these components of narcissism might predispose people to endorse conspiracy theories due to different psychological processes. Specifically, we discuss the role of paranoia, gullibility, and the needs for dominance, control, and uniqueness. We also review parallel findings for narcissistic beliefs about one’s social groups. We consider the wider implications this research might have, especially for political leadership. We conclude by discussing outstanding questions about sharing conspiracy theories and other forms of misinformation.

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Why Venezuela? Why Now?

6 minute explainer. Watch to the end.

Some things are so simple.

EU Declares 2025 Second Hottest Year in Modern Record

Copernicus EU:

2025 is currently tied with 2023 to be the second-warmest year on record, according to new data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) on behalf of the European Commission with funding from the EU.

This monthly climate update also reveals November 2025 was the third-warmest globally, with notably warmer-than-average temperatures recorded across Northern Canada and the Arctic Ocean. The month was marked by a number of extreme weather events, including tropical cyclones in Southeast Asia, causing widespread, catastrophic flooding and loss of life.
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Figure below shows month of November temperature anomaly.

Surface Air Temperature anomaly, November 2025.
Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel imagery
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Kill, Baby, Kill. Tanker Seizure Confirms New War for Oil

Peter Sinclair in Midland Daily News:

Twenty-two years ago the United States initiated what almost every observer now agrees was a disastrous multi-trillion dollar war — a war for oil.

Then President George W. Bush, was an oil man. Vice President, Dick Cheney, was an oil man. Condoleeza Rice, years before she was named National Security Advisor, already had an oil tanker named after her.

I worry that memories are short.

Today, as military forces gather in the Caribbean, it’s helpful to understand that the impending conflict in Venezuela is yet another war for oil.

The Bush Administration warned Iraq would arm terror groups with “Weapons of Mass Destruction” (WMDs). The current messaging on “narco terrorists” follows a familiar script, justifying an enormous military buildup in the Caribbean, even trotting out the specter of a “mushroom cloud” if US forces do not go in.

“Narco Terrorists” are the new “WMDs.”

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Why Glaciers Matter

Click for larger. Red arrows indicate notable areas of retreat

In case you have not thought about it.

Copernicus Image of the Day:

On International Mountain Day,  we recognise the significance of mountain ranges and the crucial role that mountain regions play in the water cycle, primarily through the presence of glaciers. Glaciers are vast reserves of ice and snow distributed across the planet. They support ecosystems and communities, yet they are undergoing rapid and concerning changes with potentially far-reaching consequences. 

These images, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 1 September 2025 and 30 August 2015, show the decrease in ice extent across the glaciers of the Hoher Dachstein massif in Austria, one of the most emblematic high-mountain areas of the Northern Alps.

Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery plays a crucial role in monitoring and preserving our planet’s mountain regions, even in remote areas such as the poles.  

Google Gemini:

Prompt: Which major European rivers originate in, or rely on Mountain glaciers to feed them?

Answer:

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Emergency Briefing: Tipping Points

Another 10 minute video from the National Emergency Briefing recently held in the UK. Relevant to all of us.
This one focusing on “Tipping Points” in the climate system, the one that most affects all of us in the North Atlantic region is the Atlantic Meriodonal Overturning Circulation (AMOC).

The presenter is Tim Lenton, Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter.
Below, one slide from the presentation showed projections on the agricultural impact of an AMOC shutdown, – a global food security crisis that would last, at least, hundreds of years. In the Eastern US, conditions become 50 percent less “suitable” for growing corn and wheat.
That seems important.

An AMOC shutdown portends a global food security crisis, in modeling. “Reduced by more than a half”

America Cancelling Generation at Critical Moment

Clean View:

Electricity demand is growing faster than it has in decades in the United States. Data centers, manufacturing reshoring, and electrification are driving massive growth in power consumption. But at the exact moment America needs more electricity generation, the country’s infrastructure developers are canceling projects at an alarming rate.

Our analysis reveals that 1,891 power projects with a combined 266 GW of generation capacity have been canceled in 2025—equivalent to roughly one-quarter of America’s entire current electricity generation capacity. To put this in perspective, this is more capacity than the total electricity generation of Texas, the nation’s largest power producer.

Clean energy projects have been hit hardest, accounting for 93% of project cancellations in 2025. Utility-scale solar alone saw 86 GW canceled, while battery storage projects lost 79 GW and wind projects shed 54 GW.

While each region and grid faces unique challenges, five patterns emerged across the 1,891 canceled projects that we analyzed:

  • Local opposition is killing projects where electricity demand is growing fastest.Virginia—home to the country’s largest data center market—lost 6.7 GW of potential capacity. In Ohio, where elected officials have courted hyperscale data centers, the state has blocked more clean energy projects than any other. In Indiana, another data center hotbed, 44% of proposed data centers are located in counties that restrict renewable energy development.
  • A failure to build transmission lines is resulting in high interconnection costs. High-voltage transmission construction has plummeted from 4,000 miles in 2013 to just 322 miles in 2024—less than one-tenth of the 5,000 miles per year needed. In MISO, average interconnection costs for canceled projects hit $753,116 per MW—roughly half of a typical project’s total capital cost. Louisiana and Missouri, with costs exceeding $900k per MW, lost 26 GW of capacity combined in 2025.
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Will Mexico Clean Energy Shine under Sheinbaum?

Report above from China Global Television Network, states the broad facts.
Mexico’s new leader, Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist, is ramping up efforts to tap its vast clean energy resources – but Mexico’s oil and fossil fuel establishment remains politically potent.

Report below is from WION, an Indian press outlet.

Continue reading “Will Mexico Clean Energy Shine under Sheinbaum?”