Most frightening and/or depressing story: A collapse of the Game of Thrones ice wall holding back the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica could raise average sea levels around the world by one foot, or maybe 10 feet “if it draw the surrounding glaciers with it”. The good news is that no army of zombies would pour out.

Most hopeful story: LED lighting has gotten so efficient that it is a tossup on energy efficiency with daylight coming through a window, because no window is perfectly sealed. Windows still certainly have the psychological advantage.

Most interesting story, that was not particularly frightening or hopeful, or perhaps was a mixture of both: “Big history” is an Australian program that attempts to unify everything from the Big Bang through our current era of intelligent life.