The X Files movie starts with an ancient alien with claws and fangs attacking a caveman and infecting him with Black Oil back in prehistoric times. In the present day, a kid played by Lucas Black gets infected by the Black Oil. (Lucas Black is apparently best known for being in the Fast and Furious films which I’ve never seen, but I know him from playing Caleb in the canceled-too-soon TV series American Gothic)
Continue readingThis is How You Lie by CG Drews
Wren Ott has left her husband and become a nanny. She has a troubled past that’s only hinted at for the first half. She has waking nightmares and she’s being haunted by something. The baby she’s taking care of has been neglected. He doesn’t smile or show interest in anything at first, but begins to warm up to her. She has romantic feelings for the cook Declan as well as her employer, Cadence. Cadence doesn’t seem that interested in her baby and her husband Lucien appears to be abusive.
Continue readingX Files Season 5
For the cliffhanger last season, Scully testified that Mulder had killed himself. In “Redux” (S5, E1), we learn the body wasn’t Mulder’s. He’s still very much alive. An informant tells him that at the end of World War 2, the government started faking UFOs for some reason. I guess to distract people from something else? (This is a return to the idea that the Air Force fakes alien abductions in “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” (S3, E20).) Surprisingly, Mulder believes this informant and stops believing in UFOs for the rest of the season.
In a nod to Indiana Jones, Mulder visits the warehouse in the Pentagon where the US government keeps all its secrets. It would have been fun if they’d put the Ark of the Covenant on one of the shelves. Extended monologues from both Mulder and Scully in this episode makes it seem like the episode ran short and they needed to fill some time. Surprisingly, Cancer Man helps Mulder escape from the Pentagon. The tube that Mulder thought would be the cure to Scully’s cancer turns out to be filled with deionized water.
Continue readingVoice Like a Hyacinth by Mallory Pearson
This is a vast improvement over Pearson’s earlier novel We Ate the Dark. There’s only one viewpoint character this time (instead of seven which sometimes caused confusion). The main characters are all art students living together in a dorm instead of young adults with various responsibilities, so it made sense for them to hang out together all the time.
Continue readingThe Simpsons Season 14
I hadn’t seen “Treehouse of Horror XIII” (S14, E1) before and can’t recommend it. I just didn’t think it was funny. There was one scene in which Homer makes several clones of himself and one of the clones is Peter Griffin. This is likely a dig at the dad from Family Guy being too similar to Homer.
Continue readingGood News Friday
- Over the past decade, nearly a billion people have gained access to safely managed drinking water, and 1.2 billion have gained access to safely managed sanitation. Electricity now reaches 92 per cent of the world’s population – up from 87 per cent in 2015 – and internet access has risen from 40 per cent to 74 per cent. United Nations.
- China’s clean-air campaign has cut Beijing’s smog by 70% in a decade, and cut heavily polluted days from 58 a year to just one. The effort has prevented an estimated 680,000 premature deaths since 2020 and generated $715 billion in cumulative health benefits. Global Times.
- Global fossil-fuel emissions are set to fall by around 0.5% in 2026 amid the fallout from the Hormuz crisis. CarbonBrief.
- Meet the first new cat species discovered in 100 years. National Geographic.
For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.
Good News Friday
- Chile becomes first country in South America validated for eliminating dog-transmitted rabies as a public health problem. WHO.
- Uzbekistan’s poverty rate dropped from 5.8% to 3.9% in 2026, reducing the number of people in need from 2.2 million to 1.5 million. Republic of Uzbekistan.
- NYPD announces safest summer for shooting incidents, shooting victims, and murders in recorded history. NYPD.
- India’s power-sector emissions flat for two years due to clean-energy surge. Carbon Brief.
- Cumulative solar capacity in the United States is enough to power one-third of all U.S. homes. SEIA.
- Coal-fired electricity generation in the US falls 11% in first half of 2026 as cheaper power sources such as natural gas grow. Financial Times.
For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.
Good News Friday
- In nine African countries, average incomes have more than doubled since 1990. Our World in Data.
- Mexico’s murder rate drops by nearly half since 2020. Bloomberg.
- Bhutan eliminates dog-transmitted human rabies. WHO.
- Tajikistan’s access to water in health facilities has more than doubled in five years. UNICEF.
- South Africa’s power-sector emissions fell 19% in 2025, the steepest annual drop ever recorded. BloombergNEF.
- AI tool spots heart disease in less than 2 seconds. The Guardian.
For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.
The X Files Season 4
After last season’s cliffhanger in which Mulder was trying to save a guy who could heal his mother from a shapeshifting alien, “Herrenvolk” (S4, E1) starts with a scene of creepy clone kids watching a guy get killed by bees. I seem to remember the Fox network had a documentary about killer bees around this time similar to their sensationalist alien autopsy video. Mulder meets clones of his sister who are at the age she was when she was abducted. Weird.
Continue readingGood News Friday
- Africa installs a record 17 GW of solar in 2026. Ember.
- Clean energy additions in the US will rise by a record 45 gigawatts this year, roughly 25 percent higher than the record set in 2024. Ars Technica.
- China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fell by 1% in the second quarter of 2026. Carbon Brief.
- Delhi now has a metro system that is bigger than New York’s, and built it for a fraction of the price. It’s 33% solar-powered, captures brake energy in batteries, and ran 99.9% on time last year. It keeps an estimated 600,000 vehicles off Delhi’s streets, and every train reserves its first car for women. The New York Times.
- Researchers have rediscovered the spinach pipefish, a relative of the seahorse thought to be extinct, in Papua New Guinea. Yale Environment 360.
For more good news, check out Fix the News and The Progress Network.
