A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
The Cadets present their 1993 program, "In the Spring, At the Time When Kings Go Off to War". Selections include:
In the Spring, When Kings Go Off to War; Ballet Sacra & On a Hymn song of Philip Bliss
All by David Holsinger
Drum Corps International (DCI) added context in its official upload, Spotlight: 1993 Cadets.
The Cadets' Championship-winning 1993 production, "In the Spring, At the Time When Kings Go Off to War," brought a medieval battle to the football field.
Speaking of official uploads, I'm sharing Cadets History - 1993 from The Cadets account in case Jeff Gray's video gets taken down.
"In the Spring, At the Time When Kings Go Off to War" In the Spring, When Kings Go Off to War, Ballet Sacra, On a Hymnsong of Philip Bliss
Finished 1st - 97.400
That's a wrap for both today's post and the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News. Stay tuned for Nowruz and this blog's birthday.
It feels kinda silly to make this video but there are still people super focused on coal and it just feels like they haven't listened to any of the people who know exactly why coal is just not going to be a part of our future power mix, and why that actually has nothing to do with the environment.
I had a feeling "people super focused on coal" referred to Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump, who is choosing an old technology, coal and other fossil fuels, over a newer one, renewables. Hank confirmed it at 11:24 when he showed an executive order of Hoover Harding Cleveland's, then talked about how people who still support coal believe anything that is different from the way things were in 1985 is "woke," making his rant a twenty-minute subtweet. I'm more than OK with that.
Rant or not, I learned a lot from Hank, including about combined-cycle power plants, lead being in coal exhaust along with mercury and radioactive materials, and this graph, which I can show to my students.
Welcome to blogging as professional development.
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for the Vernal Equinox, the last post of the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
A lot more depends on fossil fuels than you might expect. Like your medicine cabinet. No, not the plastic pill bottles… the pills /themselves/ might be derived from crude oil. It might be possible to change that and use plastic instead, but we'll need some unexpected help.
Also, this video reminds me that the Commoner's Laws lessons about pollution, "Everything must go somewhere (There is no away)" and "There is no free lunch" about the problem and "Nature knows best" for the solutions, also apply to recycling. "Everything is connected to everything else?" Hey, this video connected plastic pollution and recycling to drug chemistry and manufacturing, so it hit all four laws!
That's a wrap for today's post. I'll have more to say about recycling no later than America Recycles Day. In the meantime, stay tuned for another brief educational entry I can share next month, followed by the Vernal Equinox.
In Irish folklore, Cú Chulainn was one of the greatest warriors ever to live. From his first battle against a vicious hound at the age of 6 to his last against an entire army just two decades later, Cú Chulainn lived a legendary, but short life. Some might call him a tragic hero, but is it tragic to get everything you ever wanted?
No, Dr. Moiya McTier, it's not really tragic. Cursed and blessed at the same time, maybe, but not any more tragic than the story of El Cid, which the ending reminds me of.
The Blood Of Cu Chulainn Official Music Video by Jeff Danna and Mychael Danna...
The Blood of Cu Chulainn has become known as the Theme to The Boondock Saints films, but was first released on Jeff Danna and Mychael Danna's 1998 album, A Celtic Romance: Legend of Liadain and Curithir.
I couldn't resist the music, animals, and landscapes, although as a biologist and geologist, I could tell that many of the latter are not Irish. No matter, they're pretty and fit the music.
Get ready to celebrate ST. PATRICK’S Day with the most viral green cocktails!
These drinks are festive, fun, creamy, and refreshing — perfect for your St. Patrick’s Day party. Whether you’re hosting friends or celebrating at home, these cocktails will bring the luck of the Irish straight to your glass!
He's not Tipsy Bartender, but he said "And there you have it" to make up for it.
That's a wrap for today's holiday. Stay tuned for an educational post I can share next month.
I first wrote "the dessert bananas people eat are threatened by fungus because of the unintended effects of growing monocultures of clones" ten years ago, and I haven't stopped warning my students about it since. It's right up there with bees as a story I tell my students, although I write about bees a lot more here than bananas. The last time was 2021 and the time before that was 2014. The latter was an audition for a video to show my students instead of "The Top Banana" trailer, and it failed. They decided that they liked the more fun teaser for a documentary that never happened than the more informative Seeker video. I didn't even try the Business Insider video. I'm planning on trying again with Bananapocalypse: Why Bananas May Go Extinct by Vice News.
I think I showed the Vice News video once three years ago and it didn't get nearly the reaction that "The Top Banana" regularly gets, so the latter stayed in my lectures on biodiversity as natural capital. I plan on trying one more time with Vox explaining why The banana is under threat.
Bananas are one of the world’s most popular fruits. They’re a staple crop in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In the US, the average person eats more than 25 pounds of bananas per year.
The banana found in nearly every lunch bag, smoothie, and cereal is likely a Cavendish banana (a single variety that accounts for 99 percent of global exports), despite there being over 1,000 different species of bananas. This kind of uniformity is what allows the beloved banana to be cheap, durable, and ubiquitous.
It also makes them extremely vulnerable.
A variant of Panama disease, a soil fungus that once wiped out the world’s most commercial banana, the Gros Michel, in the 1950s, is back. And this time, there’s no obvious replacement for it waiting around the corner. So what will it take to save one of the world’s most beloved fruits?
This video explores how monocropping became both a blessing and a curse in the search for the most commercially viable banana, how this assumed ubiquity could lead to the end of the banana as we know it, and what scientists are doing to prevent the extinction of the Cavendish.
Between giving up the Cavendish for other varieties of bananas or accepting genetically modified Cavendish bananas, I'd bet on Americans accepting GMO Cavendish bananas first. We already eat a lot of GMOs in our corn and especially soybeans and have for years.
The rest of the world may not be so accepting and might be persuaded to expand the diversity of the bananas they eat.
This video reminds me of another Vox video I show to my students right after "The Top Banana" trailer, The race to save endangered foods.
Wild animals aren’t the only ones facing extinction.
...
We’re letting foods we’ve eaten for thousands of years disappear from farmers’ fields, and from our plates. Saving them isn’t just a matter of cultural preservation. In the next 30 years, we’re going to need to learn how to feed more people on a hotter planet, and the more genetic varieties we lose, the harder it’ll be to adapt.
To learn more about the foods facing extinction in the US and around the world, check out the Ark of Taste, a project of Slow Food USA.
Journalist Mark Shapiro’s book, Seeds of Resistance, goes into much more detail about the risk that genetic homogeneity poses to our food supply. He also profiles some of the efforts, many led by indigenous communities, to preserve older seed varieties.
For more on seed relabeling, check out the Farmers Business Network’s 2018 Seed Relabeling Report.
The chart on declining global yields for corn, wheat, and rice comes from an article in the academic journal Disasters and Climate Change Economics from agricultural economists Mekbib G. Haile, Tesfamicheal Wossen, Kindie Tesfaye, and Joachim von Braun. Their prediction model takes into account both climate change and price volatility, which is why their estimates are higher than those of some other researchers.
Special thanks to Marie Haga of Global Crop Diversity Trust, and Marleni Ramírez of Bioversity International for sharing their knowledge with me.
The students like this one, too, which I play right after "The Top Banana," but I wonder whether two Vox videos back-to-back will have the same impact.
I've spread the myth about banana flavoring being based on the taste of the Gros Michel before I watched this video. Now I say that banana flavoring is more like the smell of Gros Michel. That made watching this video worth it to learn that fact alone and correct my teaching. As I've written before and hope to write again, any day I learn something new is a good day.
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for a celebration of St. Patrick's Day.
There’s a saying that, when Rome falls, the whole world will fall. Which frankly seems a little melodramatic and egotistical on the part of the Romans. Except that they kinda had a point when you realize the fall of Rome affected basically everything in Europe up to and including /the body size of wild animals/. Here's how the fall of the Roman Empire made animals smaller.
When I created this blog, I called it "A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it." I've shifted away from that, making this more "A blog about sustainability with a science fiction slant and a Detroit perspective," as it says on the Crazy Eddie's Motie News Facebook page (if you're still on Facebook, please follow), but I've never changed the description here after 15 years. That's because, deep down, I still believe in the mission I set for myself in March 2011.
SciShow's video demonstrates that the collapse of the Western Roman Empire affected not only humans and their domesticated animals, but also the wild animals, mostly mammals, around them. Welcome to one of Commoner's Laws, "Everything is connected to everything else."
I turn to The History Guy for a lesson about the significance of the date, Beware the Ides of March.
He likes alliteration even more than I do! Speaking of alliteration, I can't escape entertainment entirely today, so I'm sharing Vehicle (Remastered) by Ides of March.
Vehicle (Remastered) · Ides Of March
That's a wrap for today's sort of holiday. Stay tuned for an educational post I can share next month followed by a celebration of St. Patrick's Day.
In a battle for the worst, find out who will win and who will be denied the $4.97 gold-spray-painted Razzie statuette! And stick around to the end - there's a surprise!
I'm only tolerating the AI animation because it was a deliberate slap at the Seven CGI Dwarves, so it had a point. Also, Melania's hat emerging from the water is only a surprise to people those who weren't paying attention. The Razzies telegraphed this revelation in The Razzie-Buzz is deafening!.
Ice Cube and War of the Worlds (2025) win the battle for most Razzie take-homes!
Kate Hudson redeems her previous Razzie nods with her pitch-perfect performance in Song Sung Blue.
It was a decisive battle and War of the Worlds won the 46th Razzie® Awards hands down! Becoming a cult hate-watch classic almost immediately, War of the Worlds (the 2025 version) has been cemented in Razzie history as a near sweeper of our $4.97 trophy winner. Remake, Actor, Screenplay, Director, and Picture win huge for this Amazon Prime offering. Utterly destroying H.G Wells classic novel, director Rich Lee (maybe inspired by Ed Wood) chose a goofy gimmick, hack dialogue, and a particularly hilarious performance by its lead, Ice Cube, to seize 2025’s biggest number of statues.
Another reimagined winner was the Disney 2025 version of Snow White, whose artificial dwarfs couldn’t escape the Razzie for a couple of trophies. It cost a fortune and lost a fortune, perhaps cursed by Walt himself for having ignored his dying wish for it never to be remade.
Other winners include Rebel Wilson for her not-quite-believable performance as an action hero in Bride Hard with weaponized curling irons and Scarlet Rose Stallone for her modernized performance in the odd western, Gunslingers.
This year’s recipient of the Razzie Redeemer Award is Kate Hudson for her pitch perfect performance in Song Sung Blue after a string of Razzie nods (Music, Mother’s Day and My Best Friend’s Girl) following her Oscar nomination for Almost Famous.
At least these were the pickings of our globe-spanning, opinionated Razzie Award Members.
...
Full List of 46th Razzie Award Winners
WORST PICTURE - War Of The Worlds (2025)
WORST ACTOR - Ice Cube / War Of The Worlds (2025)
WORST ACTRESS - Rebel Wilson / Bride Hard
WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Scarlet Rose Stallone / Gunslingers
WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR - All Seven Artificial Dwarfs / Snow White
RAZZIE REDEEMER AWARD - Kate Hudson for “Song Sung Blue”
WORST SCREEN COMBO - All Seven Artificial Dwarfs / Snow White
WORST PREQUEL, REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL - War of the Worlds (2025)
WORST DIRECTOR - Rich Lee / War Of The Worlds (2025)
WORST SCREENPLAY - War Of The Worlds (2025) / Kenny Golde, Marc Hyman
RAZZIE REDEEMER AWARD – Kate Hudson / Song Sung Blue
“Wins Per Picture”
“War Of The Worlds” (2025) = 5 (Worst Picture, Actor, Remake -
Rip-Off, Director, Screenplay)
Disney’s Snow White (2025) = 2 (Worst Supporting Actor, Screen Combo)
Rebel Wilson in “Bride Hard” = 1 (Worst Actress)
Scarlet Rose Stallone = 1 (Worst Supporting Actress)
I close with The Three Stooges wishing a Happy Pi Day!
Happy #PiDay from The Three Stooges! We're celebrating 3.14 with a pie to the face today.
Pies in the face to all the Razzie "winners!"
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment feature. Should I cover the Best International Feature Film nominees at the Oscars, animation and song, or something else?
Including Bugonia got pushback in the replies; several users questioned its inclusion or flatly stated that it's not horror. I'm agree; it's science fiction that appeals to horror fans, but it's not horror.
Tomorrow is the sixth anniversary of COVID-19 being declared a global pandemic and the fifteenth anniversary of the Fukushima triple disaster. Stay tuned to see which one I write about.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is expected to discuss further investment and energy cooperation when she meets with U.S. President Trump this month — with nuclear power and related technology likely to remain a key theme. On the 15th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, CNBC's Kaori Enjoji examines how this deepening economic and energy engagement could draw Japan further into a geopolitical tug-of-war and weigh on its companies.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is a lot like Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump in choosing an old technology over a newer one. In her case, it's nuclear energy over renewables. In his case, it's coal and other fossil fuels. I think she's maker the smarter choice. I really don't like coal and would pick nuclear energy over it, although I really prefer renewables.
Takuma Hashimoto was just three when the 2011 tsunami triggered a nuclear meltdown near his home in Japan’s Fukushima prefecture. Now, the 18-year-old student is training to become a nuclear engineer. His journey mirrors a national shift; 15 years after the Fukushima disaster, Japan is choosing energy security over its nuclear trauma. As the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East squeeze global supplies, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is leading a pivot back to nuclear power. With public support at record highs, Japan is waking up to a stark reality: for the most resource-poor G7 nation, nuclear energy is no longer a risk, but a lifeline.
The world's biggest nuclear power plant is back on line in Japan. Engineers flipped the switch to power up the plant 15 years after the Fukushima disaster, which killed an estimated 20,000 people. Tokyo Electric Power Company is responsible for Fukushima, and is also in charge of this plant. That fact alone has residents near the facility opposed to the plan.
Al Jazeera’s Patrick Fok reports from Kashiwazaki in western Japan.
Two things. First, the tsunami killed the overwhelming majority of victims, not the meltdown. Second, the Fukushima plant performed as designed; it was the failure of the backup generators, which the tsunami drowned, that led to the meltdowns. The higher seawalls help protect against both of those reoccurring, so I'm relieved to see them.
That's a wrap for today's anniversary. Stay tuned to see if I cover COVID-19 tomorrow.
