BACKUP ORIGINAL TWIW March 15–March 21, 2026

A War of the Worlds remake won big at the 46th Annual Golden Raspberries. The movie took home Razzie awards for worst screenplay, actor, director, and remake, as well as the top (or bottom) prize for worst picture. The film, which stars Ice Cube as a DHS analyst, was almost universally panned by critics as abysmal and described as "a 90-minute Zoom call" with an illogical plot. A voting body of 1,200 movie lovers and industry experts bestowed the dubious honors.

Britain's Parliament voted to remove hereditary aristocrats from the unelected House of Lords. There are currently 92 earls, dukes, and viscounts whose parliamentary seats came with their inherited titles. These nobles will leave the legislative body at the end of its current session in May. The House of Lords reviews and amends legislation passed by the elected House of Commons. The Greek root of aristocrat is aristokratia, "rule by the best."

Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman to win an Oscar for best cinematography at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15. Arkapaw had already made history before the ceremony, having shot Sinners on IMAX film, something no female cinematographer had done before. Cinematographer is from the French cinématographe, "device for projecting a series of photographs so to produce the illusion of movement," from a Greek root meaning "to move."

Experiments by Spanish researchers suggest that chimpanzees are just as captivated by crystals as humans are. Scientists have long been aware that shiny stones seem to enthrall chimps. A small study of nine chimpanzees involved observing their interactions with quartz crystals, which they examined "with extreme curiosity, holding them up to eye level," and sorted according to transparency and luster. Initial results point toward an evolutionary cause for this fascination.

In the U.S. and Canada, Great Lakes otters that were declared locally extinct decades ago have begun to flourish. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources reintroduced the semiaquatic mammals to the Great Lakes watershed in 1986, six years after they had entirely vanished from the region. Today the otters are thriving in Ohio rivers, Ontario's north shore of Lake Erie, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Latin root of flourish is florere, "to bloom."

A Detroit impresario stages elaborate shows in which performers in metal robot costumes fight in front of a live audience. These productions, called Robowars, have become extremely popular, and lucrative for Art Cartwright, the showman behind them. His organization, The Interactive Combat League, taps local robotics talent to present spectacular performances, protecting viewers behind bulletproof glass as giant robots battle, firing exploding projectiles at each other.

Iceland’s “lava cooling manager” is planning the country's defense against its next big volcanic eruption. Helgi Hjorleifsson leads an experiment to direct lava away from specific sites using levees. These dams consist of 26-foot tall defensive barriers built from soil. Like river levees guiding water, they work by diverting the flow of lava, moving it away from power plants, roads, and homes. Levee, "raised embankment," comes from a Latin word meaning "to raise."

Meteorites damaged several buildings in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Skywatchers in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands observed a fireball moving across the evening sky, and astronomers rapidly calculated the object's trajectory. Soon after the meteor was spotted, German news agencies reported damage caused by rocky debris falling from the sky, including a hole in the roof of a house in the town of Koblenz apparently caused by a meteorite.

Activists in Moldova are working to preserve the country's Soviet-era mosaics by documenting and mapping them. Most Moldovans overlook these artworks, which are found in ordinary places like bus stops and public buildings around the country. The works are composed of small glass or ceramic tiles pieced together into scenes from folklore, space exploration, portraits, and more. As the mosaics age, the colorful fragments are chipping off, making their preservation urgent.

A diamond ring that was stolen from the actress Lily Collins three years ago reappeared at a jewelry store in Chicago. Collins, who is best known for playing Emily in Emily in Paris, had stowed her engagement ring in a locker at a Los Angeles spa in May 2023 when it was purloined by an unknown thief. A Chicago jeweler who bought the ring at a trade show this month shipped it to Collins once he realized it had been taken from her.

Mardi Gras Indians celebrated Super Sunday in their elaborate regalia on March 15. The annual event brings crowds out to New Orleans' Central City to watch the city's three African American community tribes parade down the street in their magnificent finery. These costumes include Native American-inspired hand-beaded and feathered suits worn to honor Indigenous people who sheltered enslaved runaways. In Latin, regalia means "royal things," from the root rex, "king."

The ongoing military conflict with Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to most of its usual traffic, including tankers that carry about 20 percent of the world's oil from the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea. President Trump has urged European countries, South Korea, and China to send warships to protect the narrow waterway from Iranian attacks, but so far foreign nations have declined to do so. Strait is from a Latin root meaning "to bind or draw tight."

A judge dismissed a case brought by a German tourist who sued a New York City taqueria for $100,000 because their salsa was too spicy. When Faycal Manz visited the Times Square location of Los Tacos No 1 in 2024, he ordered three tacos and generously added salsa from a self-serve bar. The unpleasant symptoms Manz experienced included stomach cramps and a burning mouth and tongue. His admission that he hadn't asked how spicy the salsa was before eating it led to the lawsuit's dismissal.

A group of Chinese virologists plans to immunize bats against deadly diseases using mosquitos carrying vaccines. Since bats can carry pathogens including coronavirus, the Ebola virus, and the rabies virus, vaccinating them in the wild could slow the spread of these infectious diseases from bats to people. The Latin roots of virologist mean "study of poison."

Astronomers identified a new planet 35 light years from Earth that is composed entirely of molten lava. They described the planet, called L98-59d, as being mushy or viscous, "like molasses," with a surface covered in rolling waves of thick, 3,500-degree magma. The discovery created an entirely new category of "liquid planet." Viscous is derived from the Latin viscum, "anything sticky."