Features

WASHINGTON — Discovered by Galileo 400 years ago, the rings of Saturn are about the most striking thing astronomers with small telescopes can spot in our solar system.

But even today, experts cannot agree on how or when they formed.

A new study published Thursday in the prestigious journal Science sets out to provide a convincing answer.

Between 100-200 million years ago, an icy moon they named Chrysalis broke up after getting a little too close to the gas giant, they conclude.

While most of it made impact with Saturn, its remaining fragments broke into small icy chunks that form the planet’s signature rings.

“It’s nice to find a plausible explanation,” Jack Wisdom, professor of planetary sciences at MIT and lead author of the new study, told AFP.

Saturn, the sixth planet from the Sun, was formed four and a half billion years ago, at the beginning of the solar system. 

But a few decades ago, scientists suggested that Saturn’s rings appeared much later: only about 100 million years ago.

The hypothesis was reinforced by observations made by the Cassini probe, which orbited Saturn from 2004 to 2017.

“But because no one could think of a way to make the rings 100 million years ago, some people have been questioning the reasoning that led to that deduction,” said Wisdom.

By constructing complex mathematical models, Wisdom and colleagues found an explanation that both justified the timeline, and allowed them to better understand another characteristic of the planet, its tilt.

Saturn has a 26.7 degree tilt. Being a gas giant, it would have been expected that the process of accumulating matter that led to its formation would have prevented tilt.

Gravitational interactions

Scientists recently discovered that Titan, the largest of Saturn’s 83 moons, is migrating away from the planet, at a rate of 11 centimetres a year.

This changes the rate at which Saturn’s axis of tilt loops around the vertical — the technical term is “precession”. Think of a spinning top drawing circles. 

Around a billion years ago, this wobble frequency came into sync with Neptune’s wobbly orbit, creating a powerful gravitational interaction called “resonance”. 

In order to maintain this lock, as Titan kept moving out, Saturn had to tilt, scientists argued.

But that explanation hinged on knowing how mass was distributed in the planet’s interior, since the tilt would have behaved differently if it were concentrated more at its surface or the core.

In the new study, Wisdom and colleagues modelled the planet’s interior using gravitational data gathered by Cassini during its close approach “Grand Finale”, its last act before plunging into Saturn’s depths.

The model they generated found Saturn is now slightly out of sync with Neptune, which necessitated a new explanation — an event powerful enough to cause the drastic disruption.

Working through the mathematics, they found a lost moon fit the bill.

“It’s pulled apart into a bunch of pieces and those pieces subsequently get pulled apart even more, and gradually rolls into the rings.”

The missing Moon was baptised Chrysalis by MIT’s Wisdom, likening the emergence of Saturn’s rings to a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.

The team thinks Chrysalis was a bit smaller than our own Moon, and about the size of another Saturn satellite, Iapetus, which is made entirely of water ice.

“So it’s plausible to hypothesise that Chrysalis is also made of water ice, and that’s what it needs to make the rings, because the rings are almost pure water.

Asked whether he felt the mystery of Saturn’s rings stood solved, Wisdom replied, soberly, “We’ve made a good contribution.” 

The Saturn satellite system still holds “a variety of mysteries,” he added.

PARIS — Jean-Luc Godard — who has died at 91 — was the rebel spirit who drove the French New Wave, firing out a volley of films in the 1960s that rewrote the rules of cinema.

Between “Breathless” (“A Bout de Souffle”) in 1960 and the student protests of 1968, Godard exhilarated audiences as he shook the film world with his technical innovations and savage, occasionally lyrical, satires.

Sometimes working on two movies at the same time, he ranged over crime, politics and prostitution in a burst of creative energy that would inspire two generations of directors.

Godard’s witty aphorisms like “a story should have a beginning, a middle and an end — but not necessarily in that order”, became lodestars for filmmakers from Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese to Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson.

But the flame that had burned so bright in the 1960s veered off into revolutionary politics and Maoist obscurantism in the 1970s, and he came to be seen almost as a tragicomic figure.

Godard spent several years experimenting with video before returning to commercial filmmaking — of a kind — in 1979. 

Modern prophet

But the freshness was gone and critics accused him of becoming too elliptical, with some branding his early films misogynist.

Yet the increasingly reclusive Godard persevered down his singular path, before reinventing himself in his later years as a gnomic cigar-chomping prophet.

He shot his critically acclaimed “Film Socialisme” on board the Costa Concordia cruise ship in 2009, declaring that capitalism was heading for the rocks. When the ship ran aground three years later, it wasn’t just his small band of disciples who treated him as a visionary.

Born in Paris into a well-to-do Franco-Swiss family on December 3, 1930, Godard was lucky enough to spend World War II at Nyons in neutral Switzerland, returning to the French capital in 1949 to study ethnology at the Sorbonne.

But his real education was in the little cinemas of the Latin Quarter where he first ran into Francois Truffaut, Jacques Rivette and Eric Rohmer, all future luminaries of the French cinema.

He fell in love with American action cinema and began writing criticism under the pseudonym “Hans Lucas” with Truffaut, Rivette and Rohmer for small magazines like the “Cahiers du Cinema”, where they plotted to revolutionise the art.

After a failed attempt to make his first film in America, he went to work on a dam in Switzerland and saved enough money to make a film about it, “Operation Concrete” (1954).

It helped lay the foundation for his rapid ascent that would see him hailed as the leader of the French New Wave when “Breathless” was released in 1960. 

‘The Picasso of cinema’

That swaggering story of a small-time crook on the run who romances a young American in Paris was a major landmark in French cinema, heralding the arrival of a generation of irreverent young film-makers determined to break with the past.

So big was its impact that Truffaut called Godard cinema’s Picasso, someone who had “sown chaos... and made everything possible”. As often with Godard, their friendship later turned sour, with Truffaut branding him a “shit” after the pair fell out in 1973.

By shooting on the fly in outdoor locations and improvising endlessly, Godard rewrote the rulebook and helped popularise the idea of the director as “auteur”, the creative force behind everything on the screen.

“Breathless” also gave the first big break to Jean-Paul Belmondo, who would later star in Godard’s masterpiece and most personal film “Pierrot le Fou” (1965), which explored the pain of his break-up with the Danish actress Anna Karina.

From the start, Godard’s career was dogged by controversy. “Le Petit Soldat” (1960), with its references to the Algerian war, was banned by the French authorities for three years and “Une Femme Mariee” (A married woman, 1964) had its title changed from “La Femme Mariee” by censors concerned that its adulterous heroine might be taken for the typical French wife.

But after “Weekend” (1967), a gory examination of the obsession with cars scattered with surrealistic traffic accidents, his work too often appeared self-indulgent.

Indeed, Godard became something of an intellectual oddity, emerging every few years from his bolthole in Rolle on the shores of Lake Geneva to lob a verbal grenade or two.

It was this tragic, cartoonish Godard on the slide who features in “Godard Mon Amour”, the 2017 comedy about him by Michel Hazanavicius, the Oscar-winning maker of “The Artist”.

But by then Godard was having the last laugh, with his reputation somewhat restored by a series of low-budget metaphorical films that questioned our image-saturated world. 

“Film is over”, he told The Guardian in a rare interview in 2011, recanting his oft-quoted maxim that “photography is truth, and the cinema is truth 24 times per second”. 

“With mobile phones, everyone is now an auteur,” he said.

PARIS — The drummers puff out their chests, let out a guttural yell, then step up to their kits and furiously pound out their signature beat so that everyone within earshot can tell who is playing.

The drum kit is the giant gnarled root of a tree in the Ugandan rainforest — and the drummer is a chimpanzee. 

A recently published study found that not only do chimpanzees have their own styles — some preferring straightforward rock beats while others groove to more freeform jazz — they can also hide their signature sound if they do not want to reveal their location.

The researchers followed the Waibira chimpanzee group in western Uganda’s Budongo Forest, recording the drum sessions of seven male chimps and analysing the intervals between beats. 

The chimps mostly use their feet, but also their hands to make the sound, which carries more than a kilometre through the dense rainforest. 

The drumming serves as a kind of social media, allowing travelling chimpanzees to communicate with each other, said Vesta Eleuteri, the lead author of the study published in the journal Animal Behaviour.

The PhD student said that after just a few weeks in the rainforest she was able to recognise exactly who was drumming.

“Tristan — the John Bonham of the forest — makes very fast drums with many evenly separated beats,” she said, referring to the legendarily hard-hitting drummer of rock band Led Zeppelin.

Tristan’s drumming “is so fast that you can barely see his hands”, Eleuteri said.

Hiding their style

But other chimps like Alf or Ila make a more syncopated rhythm using a technique in which both their feet hit a root at almost the same time, said British primatologist Catherine Hobaiter, the study’s senior author.

The research team was led by scientists from Scotland’s University of St Andrews, and several of the chimpanzees are named after Scottish single malt whiskies, including Ila — for Caol Ila — and fellow chimp Talisker.

Hobaiter, who started the habituation of the Waibira group in 2011, said it long been known that chimpanzees drummed.

“But it wasn’t until this study that we understood they’re using these signature styles when they’re potentially looking for other individuals — when they’re travelling, when they’re on their own or in a small group,” she told AFP.

The researchers also discovered that the chimps sometimes choose not to drum in their signature beat, to avoid revealing their location or identity.

“They have this wonderful flexibility to express their identity and their style, but also to sometimes keep that hidden,” Hobaiter said.

Michael Wilson, a specialist on chimpanzees at the University of Minnesota who was not involved in the research, said the study’s methodology was sound.

But he was not “completely convinced, though, that the drumming is sufficiently distinctive that you could reliably tell all individuals apart”, because some patterns seemed very similar, he said, calling for more research.

‘A sense of music’

While plenty of animals produce sounds we think of as music — such as birdsong — the research could open the door to the possibility that chimpanzees enjoy music on a level generally thought to only be possible for humans. 

“I do think that chimpanzees, like us, potentially have a sense of rhythmicity, a sense of music, something that touches them on an almost emotional level, in the way that we might have a sense of awe when we hear an amazing drum solo or another kind of dramatic musical sound,” Hobaiter said.

Most research on the culture of chimpanzees has looked at their tools or food, she said.

“But if we think about human culture we don’t think about the tools we use — we think about how we dress, the music we listen to,” she added.

Next the researchers plan to investigate how neighbouring and far-off communities of chimpanzees drum in their own differing styles.

Hobaiter has already been looking at chimpanzees in Guinea, where there are very few trees to drum in the open savannah.

“We’ve got early hints that they might be throwing rocks against rocks” to make sound, she said.

“Literal rock music in this case.”

SYDNEY — Australia’s crafty, sulphur-crested cockatoos appear to have entered an “innovation arms race” with humans, scientists say, as the two species spar over the rubbish in roadside bins.

The white birds, which can grow nearly as long as a human arm, initially surprised researchers by devising an ingenious technique to prise open household bin lids in Sydney and other areas.

Now, a new study says they have gone a step further by thwarting the escalating defences of fed-up humans.

The birds’ and humans’ behaviour may reveal a hitherto unexplored “interspecies innovation arms race”, said a study published on Monday in Current Biology.

Nestled between a forest and a surf-swept beach and bordered by cliffs, the picturesque town of Stanwell Park near Sydney is on the front line of the battle of the bins.

“If we don’t close the bin right after throwing out the rubbish they’ll be in there,” said Ana Culic, 21, manager of the town’s Loaf Cafe.

“Cockatoos everywhere. Like, just rubbish all over the front area.”

Her own family had tried scaring cockatoos away with owl statues to no avail. Then they tried placing bricks on the bin lids, but the cockatoos learned to remove them. Finally, they drilled a lock into the bin.

“They’re evolving. Yeah, like if you go back like five-ten years ago, they didn’t know how to open bins so they’re figuring stuff out,” said the cafe’s chef, 42-year-old Matt Hoddo.

Nearby, 40-year-old resident Skie Jones said he had resorted to an elastic cord to hold down the lid of his household bin after the birds worked out how to remove a brick and then a larger rock.

“I have got a feeling I am going to be going for an actual lock,” he said. “That’s only a matter of time.”

Frequent sightings reveal that a single cockatoo can open a bin by holding the lid aloft with its beak while standing near the front edge.

Then, with the bin lid still in its beak, it shuffles backward towards the hinge, forcing the lid ever higher until it flips open.

The scientists found in an earlier study that knowledge of this technique spread as other birds looked on, creating local “traditions”.

Their new research shows that humans, frustrated at having their garbage spread across the street, learned to adapt. But then so did the cockatoos.

“When we first started looking at this behaviour, we were already amazed because actually the cockatoos learned how to open the bins,” said the study’s lead author Barbara Klump, a behavioural scientist at the Max Plank Institute in Germany.

As humans responded, though, “I was really astonished by how many different methods people have invented,” she said.

As the cockatoos learned to defeat some of the humans’ protections, the two species appeared to be engaged in a “stepwise progression and reiteration”, said the postdoctoral research fellow. 

“That was the most interesting part for me.”

In a census of 3,283 bins, the latest study found that some cockatoos could defeat low-level protections such as rubber snakes, which could be ignored, or bricks, which could be pushed off.

So far, though, the cockatoos had not managed to overcome stronger methods such as a weight actually attached to the lid or an object stuck into the hinge to prevent the bin fully opening.

“Bricks seemed to work for a while but cockies got too clever,” one resident told the researchers in an online survey that attracted more than 1,000 participants.

Who is winning the arms race?

“I think ultimately it will be the humans,” said Klump.

“But we need to see how it develops,” she added, explaining that it was easy to underestimate the work involved for humans in protecting their bins every week, with some people already relaxing their guard when cockatoo activity decreased.

The interspecies bin struggle is unlikely to lead to a new breed of even cleverer cockatoo, however.

“They have a certain capacity to problem solve, and we know they are super curious and they like to explore,” Klump said. “But I don’t think that protecting the bins will in itself then make the cockatoos smarter.”

A modern motoring icon since 2009, the Ford F150 Raptor is far more than mere trim level, but is a near race-ready sand dune hopping extreme machine that sacrifices none of the standard F150’s convenience, equipment or spacious comfort, especially in SuperCrew specification.

Arriving in 2017 and updated in 2019, the second generation radically introduced a more powerful down-sized engine and lighter aluminium body. Currently being replaced by an all-new incarnation across markets, the outgoing Raptor nevertheless still holds up brilliantly, and is still listed by Ford in Jordan.

Dramatically distinguished

Distinguished from regular F150s by its aggressive wide body and bulging wheel-arches that allow longer travel for its chunky off-road tyre-clad wheels, the Raptor is also identified by its grille’s honeycomb mesh, dark grey surround and big font “FORD” lettering that replaces the brand’s traditional blue oval. Ruggedly redesigned, its bumper is higher set for better ground clearance, and features bigger side intakes and a lower skid plate. A stealthier take on the F150, the Raptor replaces almost all chrome with dark detailing.

Sitting under its bulging and vented bonnet, and behind its huge snouty grille and contrastingly deep-set dramatic headlights, the Raptor is powered by a high output version of the F150’s twin-turbocharged, direct injection 3.5-litre V6 Ecoboost engine. Brutally quick but sophisticated, the second generation Raptor is 227kg lighter, and more muscular, than its larger naturally-aspirated 6.2-litre V8 predecessor. Meanwhile, a more responsive 10- rather than 6-speed automatic gearbox better utilises the Raptor’s extensive output for better performance, versatility, refinement and efficiency.

Action and traction

A big beast that belies its enormity and 2,584kg mass, the Raptor is quick from standstill, with tenacious four-wheel-drive traction and responsively quick turbo spooling allowing enabling it to rocket through 0-100km/h in an estimated 5.5-seconds or less. Producing 450BHP at 5,000rpm and 510lb/ft torque at 3,500rpm, the Raptor is eager at low revs and deeply muscular in mid-range, with an abundant and broad torque range. That said, it also pulls urgently and viciously to redline, and can attain an estimated electronically-governed 172km/h maximum.

Driven in either rear- or four-wheel-drive “auto” modes for efficient on-road driving, with the latter providing front traction, as needed, the Raptor features full-time four-wheel-drive for tough low traction off-road terrain, and low gear ratios for extreme conditions. A locking rear differential keeps rear wheels moving together for low traction grip and on-road agility. Meanwhile, an optional Torsen centre differential allocates power between front and rear as necessary, and a low speed selective braking Trail Control system can send power to individual wheels.

Desert developed

Developed for demanding and fast Baja-style desert driving, the Raptor features long suspension travel to easily absorb ruts and bumps, and to maintain wheel contact with the ground for effective traction in extreme conditions. It meanwhile rides on race-derived Fox Shox 3.0 dampers, with an internal valve bypass system that alternately adjusts for stiff body control and forgiving comfort, and to prevent bottoming out when launched into the air. Massive and tough 315/70R17 tyres meanwhile feature high sidewalls and wide tread spacing.

Despite off-road oriented tyres, the Raptor is probably the sportiest driving and most comfortable F150 variant, with its wider track, long wheel travel, coil springs, Fox dampers and limited slip rear differential providing a combination of unexpectedly eager cornering agility and excellent body control for a heavy high-riding truck, and comfortably supple ride compliance. With generous off-road ground clearance and angles, it is also reassuringly stable at speed, while its rear is exceptionally settled and buttoned down for a live rear axle truck.

Long on luxury

If not s nimble or responsive shifting weight at the rear as the shorter — but still long — SuperCab version, the yet longer 5,890mm full four-door Raptor SuperCrew is nevertheless tidy and eager turning into corners. With longer wheelbase and wide track the SuperCrew does, however, deliver great road-holding. Firm and heavy in “sport” mode but lighter in comfort-oriented modes, the Raptor’s electric-powered steering offers little on-centre feel and is not too nuanced, given its huge tyres, but is direct and weighs up well through corners.

As comfortable, convenient and well-equipped with safety, mod-con and infotainment features as other garden variety F150s variants, the Raptor similarly includes parking aids and cameras to help manoeuvre its outsized dimensions in busy city conditions. With a distinctly sportier ambiance, the Raptor’s cabin is, however, awash with carbon-fibre accents, Alcantara upholstering and trim, and features an off-road information monitor and superbly supportive front Recaro sports seats. Generously roomy every which way, the four-door SuperCrew version provides almost limo-like rear legroom and easy cabin access.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Engine: 3.5-litre, all-aluminium, twin-turbo, in-line V6-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 92.5 x 86.7mm
• Compression ratio: 10:1
• Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing
• Gearbox: 10-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive
• Drive-line: 2.64:1 low ratio transfer case, electronic locking rear differential, optional centre Torsen differential
• Gear ratios: 1st 4.69; 2nd 2.98; 3rd 2.14; 4th 1.76; 5th 1.52; 6th 1.27; 7th 1.0; 8th 0.85; 9th 0.69; 10th 0.63; R 4.86
• Final drive ratio: 4.1:1
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 450 (456) [335.5] @5,000rpm
• Specific power: 179.5BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 174.1BHP/tonne
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 510 (691.5) @3,500rpm
• Specific torque: 197.6Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 267.6Nm/tonne
• 0-100km/h: under 5.5-seconds (estimate)
• Top speed: 172km/h (estimated, electronically governed)
• Approach/break-over/departure angles: 30.2°/22.8°/23°
• Cargo bed height, length, width: 543, 1,705, 1,285-1,656mm 
• Fuel capacity: 136-litres
• Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion
• Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones, coil springs/live axle, leaf springs
• Dampers: Gas-pressurised, electronically-controlled, continuously variable Fox 3.0 Racing Shox
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 350 x 34mm/drum, 336 x 24mm
• Brake calipers, F/R: Twin/single
• Tyres: 315/70R17

By Sonia Salfity 

Tell me I’m not the only one who “cheats” when I think no one is watching! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve promised myself I would stay away from sugar, only to succumb to my favourite chocolate. My plan to quit sugar crumbles before my eyes and I’m back to square one!

Being honest and authentic about our current condition empowers us to move forward in the right direction. The opposite is also true. When we hide the challenges and struggles and attempt to conquer them on our own, we set ourselves up for failure. Keeping it real is good for the soul. It also helps us to stay accountable even on the hardest days when we’d rather “cheat”.

I can go for a long time without craving treats to the point where I think they are no longer dangerous. This causes me to believe I can handle my favourite chocolate and be sensible about my portion. You and I both know we didn’t become Desperate Dieters by being smart about portions! Except, of course, when it comes to things like broccoli and suddenly we are taking out the measuring cup because, heaven forbid, we eat an ounce too much!

There are two choices we get to make when we make poor selections: 

•Stinking Thinking: We decide we might as well succumb to all our cravings since we already messed up and “who cares anyway”. We end up doing way more damage when we decide not to choose option 2.

•Forgiving ourselves and moving on: We decide to be intentional about getting over this negative situation and move forward by taking tangible steps to remedy the damage. 

These steps include any of the following strategies:

•Drinking at least two cups of water (but don’t forget to reach eight by the end of the day!)

•Doing a short workout routine or going for a walk (weather permitting), or even going up and down the stairs for a few minutes that will get your heart rate up

•Reading your favourite book or calling that friend you’ve been meaning to call and seem never to have time for

•Taking a relaxing shower and listening to your favourite music

•Breathing: Taking slow breaths as you count to four, hold it for four seconds and exhale on the count of four; repeat for five minutes

•Asking those around you to help you stay accountable. It may mean asking your family not to bring junk food inside your home. It may mean asking a friend to walk with you instead of going to that restaurant

•Watering your plants! If you don’t have any, get some and enjoy caring for them, even if you aren’t a gardener. Despite being a terrible gardener, I’ve been enjoying my indoor plants and flowers. I keep just what I can manage to take care of because they bring joy to my soul and brighten up our kitchen. I also find that the more I tend to my plants, the better I feel about managing my own self-care. It’s a win/win! 

•Giving yourself a break. Find new ways to reward yourself that have nothing to do with food and everything to do with joy. One of my favourite short breaks I have come to enjoy is playing the WORDLE of the day on my phone. It’s free and there’s a new WORD to solve daily, giving your brain some good exercise. Type WORDLE in your browser and choose The New York Times option and you’ll get obsessed with figuring out the word instead of obsessing about the munchies! You can also download the free app if you want to solve more than one word daily. This is also fun with the whole family and creates healthy bonding as you try to see who solves it first!

Here’s to a healthier mind, body and soul as we renew our dedication and increase our capacity to manage our food struggles one bite at a time, one meal at a time, one day at a time.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

LOS ANGELES — Hundreds entered, but only one can triumph: South Korea’s “Squid Game” will make a play for Emmys history Monday as it aims to become the first foreign-language television show to win top honours for best drama.

The Netflix show — in which misfits and criminals compete for cash in barbaric and fatal versions of schoolyard games — is aiming to follow in the footsteps of Oscar-winning movie “Parasite” with success at TV’s top prize gala.

It is already the first non-English-language series to earn a best drama series nomination. To convert that into a trophy at the ceremony in Los Angeles, it will need to overcome a previous winner in HBO’s “Succession”.

“It’s pretty hard to go against that HBO juggernaut,” said Deadline awards columnist Pete Hammond, noting that the cutthroat drama about a powerful clan vying to inherit a media empire secured the most overall nominations with 25.

“I do think [‘Squid Game’] is going to win best actor,” said Hammond — an outcome that would make Lee Jung-jae the category’s first winner whose performance was not in English.

Other shows contending for the night’s top drama prizes include Apple TV+ dystopian workplace series “Severance”, starring Adam Scott, and the final season of Netflix’s much-lauded crime saga “Ozark”.

Zendaya, who became the youngest-ever best actress winner two years ago for hard-hitting teen drama “Euphoria”, is tipped to repeat with her work on the show’s sophomore season. 

Keaton ‘lock’

Given the penchant of Television Academy voters for honouring previous winners, best comedy series looks like an open goal for season two of Apple TV+’s fish-out-of-water football coach “Ted Lasso”. 

But its star Jason Sudeikis will have to fend off another previous winner for best actor in Bill Hader, whose dark hitman comedy “Barry” returns from a three-year, pandemic-prolonged absence.

Jean Smart is also heavily tipped to repeat as best actress for “Hacks”, in which she plays an aging Las Vegas diva forced to reinvent her dated stand-up routine. 

By definition, offering some fresh blood are the nominees in the limited series section, which honours shows capped at a single season.

Four of the five contenders chronicle real-life scandals. 

“Dopesick” looks at the US opioid crisis, “The Dropout” recounts the Theranos fraud, “Pam and Tommy” recalls an infamous celebrity sex tape and “Inventing Anna” is inspired by a Russian con artist who scammed upper-crust New York.

But the pundits’ favourite in a tight race is “The White Lotus,” a satirical look at hypocrisy and wealth among the guests at a luxury Hawaii hotel.

The show — which is bending Emmy rules by returning for a second season, albeit with a largely new cast and location — has a whopping eight acting nominations, including for Jennifer Coolidge.

Actors make up the biggest voting branch in the Academy.

“I think Michael Keaton has got a lock on actor in a limited series for ‘Dopesick’,” said Hammond, while Amanda Seyfried’s turn as disgraced Theranos boss Elizabeth Holmes in “The Dropout” is likely to prove popular.

‘The Slap’

The ceremony will be hosted by “Saturday Night Live” stalwart Kenan Thompson.

It is expected to mark a return to normality, after the COVID-19 crisis forced producers to get creative with recent remote and socially distanced editions.

The show takes place at a downtown Los Angeles theatre, where A-listers will gather to walk the red carpet for the first major Hollywood awards ceremony since this year’s extraordinary Oscars.

Back in March, Will Smith stunned viewers around the world by slapping Chris Rock live on stage for cracking a joke about his wife.

Emmy organisers have rejected the suggestion that security will need to be beefed up to prevent a repeat.

“I can’t imagine that lightning will strike twice,” Academy CEO Frank Scherma told Deadline. 

“We have smart security. We have people around that make quick decisions... We’ll be on the lookout and we’ll be smart like we always are.”