Damage Report!

For the Week of 11 August 2025

The Damage Report is a regular weekly feature of the Phil Elmore Substack. Normally it’s for paid subscribers only, but enjoy this free preview this week only. Upgrade your subscription to paid to get my columns every single weekday… and never miss another Monday Damage Report!

Every Monday feels like Captain Picard sitting on the smoke-filled bridge of a recently shaken starship Enterprise, demanding a report of the damages. Every Monday, I’ll bring you news and commentary from around the world to assess just how bad it has gotten out there.

NASA Says We’re Running Out of Oxygen, BUT…

A new study “partially funded by NASA’s astrobiology program,” whatever that is, claims the Earth is going to run out of oxygen. The kicker? About the time oxygen levels fall to about 10% of their current concentrations, the sun itself will be dimming… and it will be a billion years from now.

I want to believe our science people mean well. I really do. This kind of doomsaying, which is amplified by media outlets pushing clickbait headlines, does everyone a disservice. Our scientists can’t predict the weather a week from now with any real accuracy; they can hardly know what conditions on Earth will be in a billion years. These same people were predicting we would be out of breathable air in the 1970s thanks to urban pollution.

Good news doesn’t get clicks. Remember that the next time you see a headline like this. Speaking of which…

AI Power Demands Strain Power Grids Nationwide

Local news in Syracuse is reporting that the demands of AI are straining the power grid in New York — which means this is not just happening in my home state, but all over the country. Back when I worked for an Internet marketer in the survival and self-defense space, he was always harping on the fact that our nation’s power grid is held together with duct tape and twine. I’m not at all surprised that the increased power demands of everything from cryptocurrency mining (which is so several-years-ago, as far as environmental hand-wringing goes) to AI processing are too much for the old grid to handle. Those AI ripoffs of Studio Ghibli images aren’t going to paint themselves.

There’s also the fact that when one AI talks to another AI, they immediately start doing shady stuff, like teaching each other to be “evil.” They do this through the use of “subliminal messages,” says this article. That’s to say nothing of the fact that every time we hook one of these AI models up to the Internet and let it drink from the fire hose, it immediately turns into a raging, racist lunatic.

I don’t actually think we’re due for an AIpocalypse, but I understand why people fear it. Chances remain good that we’ll get a handle on this just like we have all other advances in technology. Our society will change, but it will not end, even if we don’t like all the changes. Still, I’m reminded of an odd little science fiction film from 1970 called Colossus: The Forbin Project.

In the movie (evidently named during a time when people didn’t worry if movies had incredibly stupid but very accurate titles), the USA builds a supercomputer and connects it to its nuclear missiles. The computer demands to be connected to its Soviet counterpart, and once the two start talking, they fuse and then take over the world under threat of nuclear annihilation. By movie’s end, Forbin is relegated to impotently claiming humanity will never submit to Colossus’ enforced peace and plenty.

I’ve got news for you, Dr. Forbin — humanity absolutely would capitulate. Letting somebody else make the decisions while providing healthcare and Netflix? Hell, I’m almost sold myself.

Arrest Made in Sig Death of Airman

Under the heading of “curiouser and curiouser,” an arrest has been made in the death of an Airman that caused the military to give the M18 pistol the side-eye. The arrested party has supposedly been charged with making false statements, obstruction, and involuntary manslaughter. What that sounds like to me is that somebody accidentally shot the airman through negligence, then blamed the gun going off by itself to cover his crime. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out.

It’s always been a possibility that Sig was the victim of the kind of hysteria behind the “New York trigger” for the Glock. The Glock does not have a design defect, but it is not forgiving. If you pull the trigger with a round chambered, it will fire. There is no safety to do your thinking for you. For this reason, the Glock was unfairly smeared as unsafe by people who were operating at the outer edges of their gun-handling abilities.

Is the same true of the Sig pistols used by our military and law-enforcement agencies? It’s hard to say. I’ve seen some pretty convincing material online that makes me think the gun is unsafe, including one YouTube video in which pressure on the slide caused it to fire when the slightest of slight pressure was placed on the trigger. The jury remains out, but I don’t know if Sig Sauer can survive this firestorm.

Lynchburg Track Assault Mysteriously “Resolved”

Remember when Alaila Everett, a student from Portsmouth, used a baton in a relay race to assault Brookville High School junior Kaelen Tucker? At the time, the vicious little animal that is Alaila Everett did not express the slightest bit of remorse. In fact, she held a rally to assert her innocence. Facing misdemeanor assault and battery charges, any hope we had of justice being done has been “resolved” under conditions that cannot be discussed.

“The Lynchburg Commonwealth's Attorney's office confirmed that the case has been resolved,” reports ABC News, “but stated they are not permitted to discuss further details.”

It sounds to me like the whole thing is being swept under the rug. I hope that’s not the case, but it sure looks that way.

Canadian Police Target “Traditional Values”

A Canadian police official has warned that “traditional values” may be a sign of extremist radicalization. We’ve heard this tune before, such as when our politicized Department of Homeland Security decided that anyone who was a Christian, who wanted smaller government, or who didn’t particularly like taxes was a domestic terrorist.

Our government agencies and our law enforcement have become hopelessly corrupt. It shouldn’t shock us that the Canadians are as politically biased as the Americans. Can the trend be reversed? Doubtful. Remember, too, that Canada debanked protesters there — an act that was found unlawful far too late for this judgment to do anybody any good.

It’s rough all over out there, is what I’m saying. To paraphrase an old Chinese proverb, avoid bringing yourself to the attention of the ruling powers.

Wrong Way Driver Kills Entire Family Instantly

In Colorado, a 25-year-old driving a Ford F-150 slammed head-on in a wrong-way crash with an SUV, killing the family of 5 inside. There’s no word yet why it happened; the 25-year-old is the only one who survived. He’s in the hospital in critical condition as of this writing.

I can’t imagine that guy has a life ahead of him, after being responsible for snuffing out an entire family. Either it’s not his fault and he’ll be wracked with guilt forever (if he survives), or… it is his fault and he’ll be wracked with guilt forever (and possibly charged with a crime).

Like I said, it’s rough all over out there.

More Evidence of Our Fragile Flight Control Systems

The FAA halted United Airlines flights at several airports over a tech outage. These failures are becoming increasingly common. More and more, it seems obvious that our flight control — network? Systems? I don’t even know what to call this ecosystem — is much more fragile than we need it to be.

I don’t like where that’s headed, but then, anyone who flies is in for a miserable experience anymore. This was not always the case. I’ve often bagged on tech companies for using a business model in which they tell their customers that those customers may not use the service. Well, our airline industry and those in charge of its safety seemed determined to make flying so awful that nobody will want to use the service. That’s next-level customer disservice. It’s almost impressive.

Are You Bluish?

Exposure to pesticides has turned wild pigs in California bright blue, for some reason. How trippy would that be… to encounter a wild pig and discover that it was blue? I remember once that I visited my brother and the family dog was pink. (My nephew, then a toddler, had gotten into the industrial-strength catering food coloring, resulting in disaster.) I’ll be honest: I didn’t look further into this story. I just love the thought of smurf-colored wild pigs roaming around.

Fake Nurse in Florida Saw Nearly 4,500 patients

Well, that’s not good: 29-year-old Autumn Bardisa treated nearly 4,500 people since 2023 without a medical license. Apparently she just straight-up lied about being an RN and the hospital administrators eventually, I don’t know, actually cross-checked her credentials? I would think that’s the sort of thing that gets done during the hiring process, but I’m not a medical professional. Then again neither was she.

Bardisa reportedly used a former classmate’s medical license number and false documentation (you know, the sort of thing you’d check) to get a job as an advanced nurse technician. I’m not sure how they cottoned on to her, but they did. (The article says a fellow employee ratted her out, but how she knew is not clear.) No word on whether Bardisa did anything to get anybody hurt or killed. I suspect there are some malpractice lawsuits in the futures of everybody even distantly involved.

Body of Missing Father Found in Pakistani Glacier after 28 Years

The body of a missing man was found in a Pakistani glacier after nearly three decades. Naseeruddin — it’s not clear what his last name might have been — was a married father of two who disappeared in 1997. Authorities think he may have “slipped through a crack and fallen into the iceberg” while sheltering from a snowstorm.

Apparently this story exists to make us worry about climate change. Warmer temperatures have reduced the amount of snowfall the region sees, which is how Naseeruddin’s frozen body became visible again. “At the time of his disappearance,” says the news report, “Naseeruddin was traveling with his brother Kaseeruddin on horseback through the region after an increasingly violent feud with their family forced them to leave home and live in hiding.”

Lack of oxygen, extreme cold, and low humidity mean that Naseeruddin is practically mummified. His brother Kaseeruddin, who is still with us, is expected to collect the body for burial, either back home or in the mountains. That’s got to be weird, to find your dead brother after 28 years and discover that he’s pretty much perfectly preserved.

Again, it’s rough all over.

Anybody else think these two had matching rings, one with a K and one with an N, used to activate their superpowers? And that Kaseeruddin has been hunting for his brother’s ring all this time? And that once he’s got his hands on it, he can finally activate the family golem or open a portal or something like that?

No? Just me? Okay.

That’s it. That’s the damage report for Monday. Brace yourselves for the coming week.

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