SciShow explains 'How Instagram Hacks Your Brain' plus Howtown on brain rot for Flashback Friday

Happy Flashback Friday! I promised "Stay tuned for another winner at the News & Doc Emmy Awards along with a retrospective of posts on a related theme" for today and get to both of those after I lead into them beginning with SciShow explaining How Instagram Hacks Your Brain.

Do you feel addicted to social media? You're certainly not alone. Social media and our brains have a messy relationship, and researchers are working hard to understand what's going on, who might be more or less at risk, and why.

Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)

Can't Look Away: The Case Against Social Media is the Emmy winner I'm featuring today and it's all about how social media algorithms make the platforms addictive and how they especially harm teenagers. Howtown examined another possible cognitive harm in What the actual science says about "brain rot".

Are TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts actually destroying our attention spans, or is “brain rot” just another moral panic? In this video, we dig into the science behind short-form video and attention, from debunking viral goldfish statistics to explaining real cognitive psychology experiments testing analytical thinking and prospective memory. We break down what researchers actually mean by “attention span,” how infinite scroll and autoplay feeds are genuinely different from previous forms of media, and what lab tests can and can’t tell us about the mental effects of short-form video.

As much as I have proclaimed "Behold the power of the YouTube algorithm," I at least had the choice of clicking on the preview of the intriguing video the program presented to me. With YouTube shorts, TikTok, and Instagram reels, the only choice I have is to watch the next video or stop watching unless I see the preview of the short on my YouTube home page, where I still have the choice to click. It's one of the reasons I generally avoid TikTok, the other being the ownership, both old and new. Do I think the format is making me stupid? No, although it's certainly distracting, entertaining, and surprising, especially as Instagram reels, some of which I find educational. That loops back to Hank Green's observation about Instagram hacking my brain. I like closing loops.

The second loop to close is today's featured News & Doc Emmy Award winner.


After I watched Can't Look Away's trailer, I declared, "I don't have to look at the other two trailers; I think this is the winner." I was right; it won. Congratulations!

Follow over the jump for the final loop, today's featured post from the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, which was also about a legal action against social media.

'Prime Minister' wins two News & Doc Emmy Awards including Best Documentary for Throwback Thursday

Happy Throwback Thursday! I'm returning to the News & Doc Emmy Awards today, as I promised in 'Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller' wins 7 News & Doc Emmy Awards for World Oceans Day with the relevant paragraph from CNN Worldwide Honored with Six News & Documentary Emmy Awards.

CNN FILMS PRIME MINISTER WINS TWO EMMY® AWARDS, INCLUDING BEST DOCUMENTARY
...
CNN’s recognition extended to the Documentary Emmy® Awards on Thursday night, where CNN Films’ Prime Minister won Best Documentary and Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary. The acclaimed film premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, earning the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary before being acquired by HBO and CNN Films. Released theatrically by Magnolia Pictures, Prime Minister is available to stream now at CNN.com/Watch, on the CNN app, and on HBO Max.

I declared Prime Minister as the favorite to win Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary early, but I thought 2000 Meters to Andriivka was the most likely to win Best Documentary. Surprise!

Dame Jacinda Ardern posted a thank you speech to her Instagram.

Tonight the incredible team who made the documentary simply titled “Prime Minister” won the Emmy for best documentary. From the sidelines I saw these talented directors, editors, and producers all come together to create a film (which I have still only watched it in its entirety once..) that feels like the most accurate portrayal of what it’s like to lead with your heart on your sleeve. My huge congratulations to them all, especially Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz who co-directed it. But here, I want to make a special mention of Clarke, the first person who picked up a camera. I wasn’t the easiest person to film, and nor through the years of being PM was I the easiest partner. But that never changed the amount of support he gave in return. Our loved ones don’t choose politics, but they are still on the front line alongside us every day, cheering us on, keeping life at home going, reminding us why we’re there. So thank you, Clarke. Now it’s my turn to cheer you on xx

Clarke spoke at the awards tonight, and he saved his final words, rightly so, to thank New Zealand. Our home. We will both forever be grateful for the privilege of a lifetime.

Congratulations to Dame Jacinda, the documentarians, CNN, and HBO!

Since it's Throwback Thursday and the subject is politics, follow over the jump for the top serious political posts written during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

Randy Rainbow sings 'A Very Stable Genius Part Two!' for Wayback Wednesday

Happy Wayback Wednesday! yesterday, I told my readers "I might post another song parody tomorrow for Wayback Wednesday, as Randy Rainbow hinted at one later today. Stay tuned." He followed through with A Very Stable Genius Part Two! - A Randy Rainbow Song Parody.

Parody of “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” from The Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert & Sullivan)

Parody Lyrics by Randy Rainbow

Song Produced, Orchestrated, Mixed, Mastered by: Michael J Moritz Jr @michaeljmoritz

Vocal Arrangement - Brett Boles
All Vocals: Randy Rainbow
Piano, Synths -Michael J Moritz Jr
Drums - Tom Jorgensen

Yes, Randy, you still got it. Unfortunately so does Donald "Pervert Hoover" Trump, although a different "it" than Randy.

Yesterday's video is an update of A VERY STABLE GENIUS - Randy Rainbow Song Parody from 2018.

THE RANDY RAINBOW SHOW:
"A Very Stable Genius"

Executive Producer:
RANDY RAINBOW

Starring:
RANDY RAINBOW

Written, Directed & Edited by:
RANDY RAINBOW

Producers:
Tanase Popa
John Retsios
Jeff Romley
Rich Super

I no longer think the Russians have pee tapes; they don't need those when the Epstein files exist.

I'm closing this section, as I have done lately for entries featuring Randy's videos, with a video of the original being parodied, The English National Opera's Major-General's Song from The Pirates of Penzance - live and with lyrics!.

The tongue-twisting I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General, performed live during Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, directed by Mike Leigh at English National Opera.

Andrew Shore plays Major General-Stanley, with Joshua Bloom as Pirate King and Claudia Boyle as Mabel in this ENO production by film director Mike Leigh.

About The Pirates of Penzance:

With sentimental pirates, blundering policeman, absurd adventures and improbable paradoxes, The Pirates of Penzance is Gilbert and Sullivan's most popular comic opera.

A swashbuckling farce of brilliant humour and razor-sharp wit, it's chock-full of memorable melodies, including the famous tongue-twisting patter song from the Major-General.

This production was directed by directed by BAFTA-award winner Mike Leigh, who makes his operatic debut.

Randy could have been more pompous, but he has Pervert Hoover for that.

Randy isn't the only one revisiting the past. My readers gave enough page views to three posts from the 2016 election that they joined the most read entries of the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News. Follow over the jump for their stories.

Marsh Family sings 'Bile and Lies' about JD Vance for Tuneful Tuesday

I promised a musical entry for Tuneful Tuesday, so I'm sharing "Bile and Lies" - Marsh Family parody of The Eagles "Lyin' Eyes" about JD Vance views on Henry Nowak.

“Lyin’ Eyes” was written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey, released by California’s rock legends The Eagles in 1975. It was apparently inspired by their visions of many beautiful younger women with older husbands in Los Angeles, who they imagined leading double lives and lying and cheating. So it’s a story about moral reprobates, hypocrisy, double standards, and virtual self-prostitution, which made it perfect to adapt to address J.D. Vance’s latest foray into European politics.

This reads like another take on the situation that inspired "Little Girls" by Oingo Boingo, which I featured in An attack ad and drink for today's special Senate election in Alabama nine years ago. Back to the Marsh Family.

Plenty of muck-stirrers had already sought to whip up anger and outrage in the wake of the tragic murder of Henry Nowak, and the horrendous footage and troubling backstory. These included Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson, Rupert Lowe, and Elon Musk. But Vance – who had met several of the more disturbing UK ‘politicians’ last summer – in his inimitable style took things to a new level.

Vance showed wanton disregard for the grieving Nowak family’s own stated request: “We do not want his death to be used to create further division, hatred, or tension.” He shared footage of the eighteen-year-old’s ghastly final moments, let down by mistakes by British police officers under huge stress, and crassly linked it to fears about migration, civilisational collapse, hatred, invasion and anger. It was a sick message that has been amplified on Twitter/X and, at point of writing, has over 10m views.
We didn’t even have time to get into the hypocrisy of casting stones across the Atlantic by this administration or this chameleon. But the song’s intended to express that the behaviours, ideologies and values that Vance and his ilk embody, particularly in this tragic moment, are anathema to most in the UK, and we suspect most Europeans. They are like a cancerous cell in the tissue of what we understand being ‘civilised’ means, and they are threatening to metastasise.

"This chameleon" — tell us how you really feel about JD Vance!

I'm going to turn the rest of this post into a brief retrospective of a top share of a Marsh Family song post on Instagram. Follow over the jump.

'Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller' wins 7 News & Doc Emmy Awards for World Oceans Day

Happy World Oceans Day! I'm returning to the News & Doc Emmy Awards with ABC News reporting National Geographic's 'Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller' Earns 7 News & Documentary Emmy® Award Wins & 25 Nominations.

The Walt Disney Company earned 21 News & Documentary Emmy® Awards across ABC News and National Geographic, with the award-winning content streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. Following another record-breaking year of 51 nominations — the most ever for the brand — National Geographic took home 13 News & Documentary Emmy Awards, breaking its all time record. This included seven awards for "Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller," which also stood for the third consecutive year as the most-nominated series ever. "Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller" is an original documentary series that explores the complex and dangerous inner-workings of the global underworld, black and informal markets. Each adventure follows Mariana on a mission to follow the chain of custody of trafficked goods, understand how to obtain the contraband, or see the 360-degree view of the trafficking world from the point of view of the smugglers, law enforcement and those caught in the crossfire.

I'm continuing with Trafficked with Mariana Van Zeller Season Five | Official Trailer | National Geographic.

Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller explores the inner-workings of the most dangerous black markets on the planet. In each episode, she investigates a different underworld — from fentanyl and illegal street racing to the smuggling of brides and the rise of militias — to meet the players, learn the business, and better understand the world’s multi-trillion dollar shadow economy.

This trailer earned an Emmy nomination of its own for Outstanding Promotional Announcement: News. Also, eight of the ten episodes promoted earned Emmy Award nominations and six won Emmy Awards, including the one that is the reason for featuring the series today, "Shark Hunters."

Outstanding Climate, Environment or Weather Coverage - "Shark Hunters" **WINNER**

Yes, that's an ocean conservation themed episode. It's also one I can recommend to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

Follow over the jump for the other five Emmy-winning episodes.

'The Mythology of the Backrooms Explained' by Storied plus 'Backrooms' box office

I'm pulling a video out of the archives for today's Sunday entertainment feature, The Mythology of the Backrooms Explained by Storied.

Ever felt like a place seems real yet oddly unsettling? Welcome to The Backrooms, a digital folklore phenomenon that blurs the lines between reality and fiction, exploring the eerie and uncanny through playful, yet terrifying, community-driven digital storytelling.

I watched this video when it came out almost exactly two years ago, so I had heard that the concept would be made into a movie then. The movie was released two weeks ago, and was a huge hit. Watch as ABC News reports Horror film 'Backrooms' makes box office history.

Independent horror film "Backrooms" is a box-office stunner, taking in $82 million dollars in domestic ticket sales in its opening weekend.

What ABC News didn't mention was that Backrooms and Obsession knocked The Mandalorian and Grogu out of first place. Remember that Disney owns both ABC and Lucasfilm, which makes Star Wars. It's not just news value that drives the story, including what isn't reported. That wasn't CNN's problem, as their video on the subject described How YouTubers are beating Disney at its own game.

Youtubers-turned-directors are beating media giants like Disney at the box office. CNN media correspondent Brian Stelter breaks down how these directors have the edge, as the panel debates.

CNN, owned by Warner Brothers-Discovery — for now — has no such problem pointing out Backrooms and Obsession beat The Mandalorian and Grogu at the box office.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for World Oceans Day, which I haven't celebrated since 2024. Oops.

'Bankrupt - Cicis Pizza' by Bright Sun Films and Company Man, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse

Today's evergreen educational entry features Bankrupt - Cicis Pizza by Bright Sun Films, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse.

Starting in the mid 1980's, Cicis Pizza was always the go-to pizza restaurant for cheap bites and great value. With their no-frills locations, cheap prices and innovative buffet concept, the restaurant became a massive success with hundreds of locations across the country. However, things have changed and following a bankruptcy, their once dominating presence has been severely diminished. Join me as we find out why.

As user tcbgarage2845 wrote in his comment, "Private equity, Leveraged buyouts, Covid 19 and Chapter 11 bankruptcy! The whole gang is here." Indeed.

As I've written several times, no bankrupt company's story is complete without both Bright Sun Films and Company Man making videos about it, so I'm sharing Company Man Mike asking The Decline of CiCi's Pizza...What Happened?

Cici's pizza has been on the decline for more than a decade now. What was once the 5th largest pizza chain in the U.S. has fallen to number 10. This video takes a look at how they grew so large and theorizes where they went wrong.

There is also an AI-generated video summary.

CiCi's Pizza: from a humble beginning to a top-five pizza chain, this video explores the brand's rise and subsequent decline. The documentary analyzes the company's unique buffet model and its impact on CiCi's growth trajectory. It also examines factors that may have contributed to its recent struggles.

Company Man Mike uploaded this video on October 14, 2020, during the height of the pandemic, yet he didn't mention it. I'm surprised. Also, he produced this before CiCi's declared bankruptcy and before he began creating his lists of reasons for failure. Too bad — those lists are right up with his bar charts and line graphs among my favorite parts of Company Man Mike's videos. At least this video has plenty of those, along with enough shots of the menu items to make me hungry.

That's a wrap for today's lesson showing what not to do in business. Stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment feature.

Howtown asks 'Why is this one spot not warming?' for World Environment Day on Flashback Friday

Happy World Environment Day on Flashback Friday! I've changed my plans; instead of more environmental winners at the News & Doc Emmy Awards, I'm featuring Howtown asking Why is this one spot not warming?

While most of the planet warms, a patch of ocean south of Greenland—often called the “cold blob” or “North Atlantic warming hole”—is not warming. In fact, depending on which years you look at, it has actually cooled since industrialization. In this video we investigate this odd phenomenon which has implications for the future of our climate and the stability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The AMOC is a system of currents that transports heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic, regulating weather patterns across Northwestern Europe and beyond. However, recent evidence suggests this vital system may be weakening. Could human-induced climate change, specifically the warming of the ocean and the influx of freshwater from melting ice, be pushing this circulation toward a tipping point? We take a journey through centuries of oceanographic discovery to understand the overturning circulation, the urgency of research on the AMOC, and what the potential collapse of this system could mean for the stable world we built our civilizations on.

Yes, this exercise in explaining how we know what we know is about the AMOC, which I covered most recently in USA Today warns 'The Atlantic current is weakening and possibly headed for collapse'. Howtown's video now makes two entries where an outlet other than PBS Terra covered the AMOC. The potential catastrophe is once again penetrating beyond the outlet that specializes in Climate change and other natural disasters. I suppose that's good news. It also includes Camp Century, the subject of The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice. If I had heard of Camp Century before that documentary, it hadn't stuck, at least under that name. Now I've blogged about it twice in a week!

I haven't changed my plan for the second half of today's post, a retrospective of top shares about holidays on Bluesky and Twitter/X during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News. Follow over the jump.

'Last Week Tonight' examines Twitter for Throwback Thursday

Happy Throwback Thursday! I'm going back a few months for Twitter: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO).

John Oliver discusses how an already flawed Twitter got worse under Elon Musk, how it continues to impact us all, and what it has to do with the 30-40 trillion cells humans are composed of. Or, wait, sorry, Twitter doesn’t have anything to do with the cells. It’s about our understanding of the universe. Maybe. You’ll just have to take that last part up with Elon directly.

Elon Musk's comparison of Twitter prior to his purchase to Wormtongue shows that Peter Thiel isn't the only techbro with J.R.R. Tolkien on his brain. I'm sure they and Alex Karp aren't the only ones.

There's a side effect of Musk turning the blue checks into pay for play instead of an actual verification system. In addition to making it difficult to tell real from imitation/parody accounts, it made a lot of statistics inaccessible without paid verification. I noted that last year: "Twitter/X's analytics are now a service for paid subscribers, and I won't pay to support Elon Musk, so they end up being little better than what I can collect from Bluesky for free."

As for Alex Jones getting his Twitter/X account back, it doesn't change my giving him an honorary Kenny McCormick Memorial Medal for losing at least five accounts because of abuse. No backsies! Besides, his losing Infowars to The Onion is worthy of a Bobo Award, the highest (dis)honor on alt.usenet.kooks.

Donald "Pervert Hoover" Trump apparently taking his cue from Zero Hedge via Musk shows why I'm glad I stopped citing Zero Hedge in 2011 and have blocked Musk, but also Pervert Hoover's susceptibility to conspiracy theories. It turned out that much worse things resulted from Pevert Hoover and his administration paying attention to Musk and the accounts he promoted, like what Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, and the Marsh Family sang about Minneapolis, Minnesota. No wonder Marcy "Emptywheel" Wheeler calls Twitter/X "Xitter" with the X pronounced as sh and "a machine for fascism." This makes me glad I now call Bluesky my primary social media site, where I've gone from zero to 21,849 followers in a little more than 18 months.

Since today is Throwback Thursday, follow over the jump for my most read post about Twitter/X and Bluesky during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News along with my top shares on each platform that aren't about holidays that I haven't shared yet.


'The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice' wins Outstanding Science and Technology Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Wayback Wednesday

I wrote the following in 'Sally' leads Science and Technology Documentaries at the News & Doc Emmy Awards after watching the trailer for The Memory of Darkness Light and Ice.

Watching this trailer reminds me that I showed Chasing Ice to my students last week and this is week is Earth Week, making this a good movie to recommend to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development. It also makes me think that it's the strongest competitor to Sally. Last year, I thought that the "Hunt for the Oldest DNA" episode of NOVA on PBS had the strongest science of all the nominees, but didn't have the best chance of winning. Surprise, it won! That could happen here.

It did. From Kathy Kasic's Instagram.

I’m so happy to report that The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice was awarded the a National Emmy for Outstanding Science and Technology documentary!! Our science and film team is beyond ecstatic!! It was a tremendous honor to be amongst so many great documentary filmmakers last night. This award elevates not just the film, but also the voices of the scientists and the documentary’s funder, the National Science Foundation.

As a scientist and filmmaker, my work aims to unify scientific research and share it with the public. This is especially important when the science we urgently need to hear is being attacked. So thank you to the @emmysnatas for this timely and beautiful award!!

Congratulations! To celebrate, I'm linking The Memory of Darkness, Light, and Ice, free to watch on Youtube with ads.

A long-lost sediment core unveils an ancient time when Greenland was greener -- giving vital clues to our future.

Sorry, embedding not allowed.

Since today is Wayback Wednesday, follow over the jump for the relevant top post from last year.