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.
Do animals actually like music — or are humans just projecting? In this episode of Howtown, we investigate the science of animals and music through experiments with cotton-top tamarins, orangutans, rats, mice, parrots, dogs, cats, and a wild fox who seemed captivated by a banjo.
We look at what animal behavior research, neuroscience, and music cognition can tell us about rhythm, pitch, melody, consonance, dissonance, emotion, reward, pattern recognition, and why human brains find music so powerful. Along the way, we explore studies on cotton-top tamarins preferring silence to human music, orangutans choosing silence over different music genres, rats conditioned to prefer Miles Davis, mice exposed to Beethoven during development, dogs howling along to favorite songs, and Snowball the cockatoo dancing to the beat.
Featuring conversations with researchers and musicians including Aniruddh Patel, Pralle Kriengwatana, David Teie, Suzanne MacDonald, and Andy Thorn, this episode asks: can animals hear music the way we do? Can they recognize rhythm or melody? Do they feel emotion from music? And what does animal music research reveal about the evolution of music in humans?
That's really cool, especially the stories told by David Teie about being inspired by Metallica into composing music for animals and Andy Thorn about playing banjo and attracting foxes. The former convinced me that saying "kitty, kitty, kitty" in a high-pitched voice actually works and isn't just an extension of "baby voice" for pets.
Ever wonder if your pets enjoy them some TV or music? Well, it turns out the answer is incredibly fascinating.
A survey of about 2000 British dog owners conducted in early 2017 found that around 40% of dog owners admitted to leaving the radio on when they left the house so that their dog wouldn’t be lonely, while another 32% admitted that they did the same thing, just with the TV. In yet another British study, this time in 2015, it was found that 38% of those respondents left the radio on and 22% the TV. Whichever study you look at there, this practice is shockingly common, at least in Britain. But do your pets like this?
Starting with our canine counterparts, while the research we have thus far isn’t exactly robust, it would appear that, at least in the case of music, yes, in some cases dogs do respond to this in a positive way. For example, consider the results of research conducted in 2002 by psychologist Deborah Wells from Queen’s University in Belfast. In a nutshell, Wells’ study involved randomly playing music through some speakers for a group of about 50 dogs at a re-homing shelter in the UK and noting what, if any, effect it had on the them. After a baseline reaction was found by observing the behaviour of the dogs when no music at all was playing, researchers then played one of three CDs- for those unfamiliar, a kind of round shiny object people used to store music and other data on, often used for playing music in their hitched up covered wagons. Each CD contained a curated playlist limited to a specific genre, in this case, pop, classical and heavy metal. Finally, a fourth CD contained the sounds of a human conversation.
The answer is that dogs do, but cats don't much care.
Speaking of cats, one of last year's top posts is about cats, so follow over the jump for a brief retrospective about it.
Looking for the most popular baby names of 2025? We’ve got the official list. As the source for baby names in the U.S., we’re sharing the Top 10 baby names of 2025, based on real data from Social Security. Whether you’re naming a baby or just curious about trends, this list has you covered.
Olivia and Liam were America's most popular baby names for 2025 – the seventh consecutive year both names have held the top spot. The baby names are drawn from Social Security card applications submitted at birth, making SSA the nation’s authoritative source for baby naming trends.
Last year, America’s most popular baby names remained consistent with years past, with minimal shifts in the top 10 rankings. Charlotte climbed to second place among girls, ending Emma’s six-year run in the runner-up slot. A top-10 fixture for years, Ava dropped from the list entirely – replaced by Eliana, which debuted at number 10. On the boys’ side, the top four names – Liam, Noah, Oliver, and Theodore – held their places.
Here are the top 10 boys’ and girls’ names for 2025:
Social Security releases the list of the 1,000 most popular baby names each year in honor of Mother’s Day. The full list is available at www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames.
“Happy Mother’s Day to all the exceptional mothers who inspire us and guide future generations,” said Social Security Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano. “As Mother’s Day draws closer, I find myself reflecting on the unwavering care, courage, and commitment my own mother instilled in my siblings and me as the glue that held our family together.”
This Year’s Fastest-Rising Names: Fire and Brightness
Beyond the top 10, 2025’s fastest movers tell their own story. The boys’ name Kasai, meaning “fire” in Japanese and Swahili, surged 1,108 positions to enter the top 1,000 for the first time, landing at 639. For girls, Klarity, a contemporary spelling of “clarity” evoking brightness and light, led all risers.
Here are the five boys’ and girls’ names that increased the most in popularity in 2025:
Not only did Ailany come in first on this list, variants Aylani and Ailani came in second and tenth.
It's just another variant of the same name. Also, the third fastest rising boy's name, Eziah, looks like a variant on last year's fifth fastest rising name, Azaiah, both of which appear to be alternative spellings of Isaiah. The trends continue.
That's a wrap for today's holiday. I plan on returning to baby names for Father's Day. In the meantime, I have some science involving animals and music penciled in for tomorrow. Stay tuned.
The controversial airline has shut down. This video outlines five of the biggest reasons behind its collapse.
Here is Company Man Mike's list of reasons for its failure.
I'm going to take Company Man's suggestion and embed Spirit Airlines - Why They're Hated to elaborate on his first point, negative reputation.
Spirit Airlines is among the most disliked companies out there. This video profiles the company while attempting to identify the reasons behind all the hatred.
Its bad reputation is the reason why the only times I've mentioned Spirit Airlines on this blog was when they were the butt of jokes on SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and SNL again, the first two for rescue attempts and the final time for its failure. Sorry, no Daily Show. Since Company Man likes lists, here's the one he created for this video.
Fees and cost cutting tie into the first list's second point about tough competition, but the advertising alone would have made the company into a joke. Who needs late night comedians to make fun of you when your ad agency does the work for them?
I often write that no bankrupt company's story is complete without both Company Man and Bright Sun Films making videos about them. It turns out Jake Williams of Bright Sun Films already uploaded Bankrupt - Spirit Airlines last year.
Formed from a humble air carrier operation in 1990, Spirit Airlines has gone onto pioneer the ultra low cost budget carrier model in America, becoming known (perhaps infamously) as the cheapest airline in the skies. However, times have changed and their business model is now looking like a liability rather than an asset. Join me today as we find how this notable airline went from billions in revenue, to bankruptcy in just a few years.
It's always a good day when I learn something new and, between Jake and Company Man Mike, I learned that Spirit Airlines began as a Michigan company, they flew Airbus planes, that the company began their expansion by taking advantage of other air carriers' troubles because conflict in the Middle East caused high oil prices, and the last flight originated in Detroit, where the company began. That makes today a very good day!
For 34 years, Spirit Airlines made waves with its rock-bottom fares, racy advertising, and bright yellow planes. At its peak, it was the largest ultra-low-cost carrier in the US, selling flights to Florida for $39. But in May 2026, Spirit shut down completely. It canceled 9,000 flights and left staff with little information. So what happened to the low-cost behemoth? And what does its sudden closure mean for cheap airfare in America?
Other than more professional production values and journalists on-screen, Business Insider added little to the story of Spirit Airlines' rise, but it added quite a bit to the fall and everything to the impact. Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump causing Spirit's troubles by attackingIran, raising oil prices, then offering to bail out the airline serves as an example of everything Trump touches dies. This time, it didn't even take a week! As for the grassroots effort to buy the airline, backed by its laid-off employees, I wish it luck, but would be pleasantly very surprised should it succeed. In the meantime, expect higher air fares on the routes Spirit flew.
That's a wrap for what is effectively a business obituary. Stay tuned for Mother'sDay.
Slight change of plans from yesterday, when I wrote, "I'll probably examine Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time tomorrow." I decided to highlight the other nominee about Hurricane Katrina, Katrina: Come Hell and High Water, which leads the nominees for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary with three nominations, including Outstanding Direction: Documentary and Outstanding Editing: Documentary in addition to Outstanding Social Issue Documentary. It's followed by The Ride Ahead with two nominations, then Born Poor, Enigma, and Searching for Amani with just this one category nomination. I'm sharing the trailers in that order, beginning with Katrina: Come Hell and High Water | Official Trailer | Netflix.
This is the story of a brutal coastal hurricane turned cataclysmic through human error and neglect. Over the course of a gripping and emotional three episodes, the people of New Orleans recount their past, extoll their present and lean into the future of what they and their beloved city survived and have become 20 years later. The series sets the stage for a tragedy - whose man-made elements expose the systemic governmental neglect that led to the city being defenseless in the face of the storm - and Katrina’s devastating impact that changed New Orleans irreparably. Detailed, harrowing and triumphant first-person accounts and never before seen archive illustrate the magnitude of Katrina, the aftermath of the levees breaking and the bungled recovery.
Katrina was a foreseeable disaster. I remember listening to an NPR story a year or more before Katrina hit explaining how New Orleans' levees were only built to withstand a category three hurricane, so they would fail under a category four or five storm, and describing what would likely happen if — when — one struck. It did. It also mentioned in passing that, while being poor is hard, New Orleans was probably the easiest city to be poor in. Katrina took that away. I've been recommending Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time to my students. Now I can recommend Katrina: Come Hell and High Water to them, too. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
What does adulthood look like when the world isn’t built for your body?
In THE RIDE AHEAD, Samuel Habib is ready for independence as he turns 21—but every rite of passage is complicated by ableist systems and physical barriers. Facing seizures, inaccessible housing, and degrading encounters, he sets out to find community and answers.
With humor, honesty, and a deep commitment to disability justice, Samuel travels across the U.S. to meet activists and role models who help him reimagine what freedom, adulthood, and love can look like.
A coming-of-age story rooted in interdependence, dignity, and the power of community.
As soon as I read the video description, I thought of Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution. Sure enough, the trailer advertises that the co-director of Crip Camp is involved, as is Judith Heumann, who won Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. The trailer also features some of the animation in the movie, which shows me it deserves its second nomination for Outstanding Graphic Design: Documentary.
Meet Brittany, Johnny and Kaylie, whose journeys — filmed across 14 years — are at the heart of the new documentary "Born Poor." Watch the prologue now.
This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station here: https://www.pbs.org/donate
The 90-minute documentary "Born Poor" premieres Tues., Oct. 7, 2025 on @frontline's YouTube channel, in the PBS App, at pbs.org/frontline and on PBS stations. The film follows these three kids from three families across three chapters of their lives — from childhood through the teen years to young adulthood — and offers a powerful, personal and longitudinal look at the realities of growing up in poverty in the U.S.
“Born Poor” is a FRONTLINE production with True Vision Productions. The director is Jezza Neumann. The producers are Jezza Neumann and Lauren Mucciolo. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
This looked familiar, but I probably am misremembering FRONTLINE's "Two American Families: 1991-2024," nominated in this category last year. FRONTLINE does good work examining poverty and society.
A thirteen-year-old aspiring journalist investigates his father’s mysterious murder within the boundaries of one of Kenya’s largest wildlife conservancies. As a ravaging drought encroaches, his quest to find the killer shifts and an activist is born as the collateral damage of a warming world is revealed.
Looks like I found another movie I can recommend to my students. Again, welcome to blogging as professional development, even if I'm only planning on teaching one more semester, which begins Monday.
Now to examine the other nominations for Katrina: Come Hell and High Water and The Ride Ahead.
Outstanding Editing: Documentary
Cover-Up Netflix [Plan B | Netflix | Praxis Films] Folktales Loki Films [Fifth Season | Impact Partners | Topic Studios] Katrina: Come Hell and High Water Netflix [Netflix | Message Pictures] Life After Multitude Films | PBS [ITVS] Love + War Little Monster Films [National Geographic] 2000 Meters to Andriivka FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Associated Press] Thoughts & Prayers HBO Documentary Films [Tony Tina] The White House Effect Actual Films | Netflix [Netflix | The Department of Motion Pictures]
I think 2000 Meters to Andriivka is the favorite, if only because it's the only nominee also nominated for Best Editing at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards and I suspect 2000 Meters to Andriivka might sweep its categories.
Sally should just be happy to be nominated in this category. 2000 Meters to Andriivka has six nominations, including Best Documentary. Life After has four, also including Best Documentary, as does The Stringer. Katrina: Come Hell and High Water and Vietnam: The War That Changed America both tied Sally with three. Apocalypse in the Tropics and Music Box: It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley have just this one. Out of this field, 2000 Meters to Andriivka is my provisional favorite.
Outstanding Graphic Design: Documentary
Antidote/Kill List
FRONTLINE FEATURES | PBS [Passion Pictures | Bellingcat] The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets
Texas Crew Productions [Peacock Original | New York Post Entertainment | G Unit Film & Television, Inc.] The Ride Ahead
LikeRightNow Films Titanic: The Digital Resurrection
Atlantic Productions [National Geographic] Underdogs
Wildstar Films [Maximum Effort | National Geographic] In Waves and War
Studio AKA [Netflix | Actual Films]
This is likely to be Underdogs' best shot to win, but it faces a tough competitor in Titanic: The Digital Resurrection. Either way, National Geographic would win.
The Ride Ahead's animation looks impressive and fun and it advances the narrative well, so I wouldn't count it out.
I found an entry about Hurricane Katrina among the most read during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, so I'm featuring it and another from the back catalog at the intersection of entertainment, climatechange and extremeweather over the jump.
Happy Throwback Thursday! As I wrote yesterday, I'm resuming my series on the News & Doc Emmy Awards. Today's topic is Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary. One nominee stands out, Prime Minister with two nominations as the preview image shows, Best Documentary and Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary. The rest of the field has only the one nomination for Outstanding Politics and Government Documentary. On that basis, I'm declaring Prime Minister the favorite. Watch Prime Minister | Official Trailer | HBO.
“World leaders have rarely been captured with as much intimacy” - @variety
A rare and unfiltered portrait, #PrimeMinisterHBO chronicles the unexpected journey of Dame Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s 40th Prime Minister. Premieres September 30 on @hbomax.
I found Jacinda Ardern inspirational while she was Prime Minister during the pandemic, and I felt that way again watching this trailer.
Bodyguard of Lies is the first unvarnished documentary on the Afghanistan War, exposing the falsehoods told to Americans and the secrets kept. The film reveals the staggering cost of deception: thousands of lives lost, trillions spent, and a truth buried for decades.
I expressed what a waste of time, money, and lives the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan was ten years ago in We could have had the Moon, instead we get Afghanistan. Seeing this collapse a decade later demonstrates that I wasn't disgusted enough at the squandering of blood and treasure in "the Graveyard of Empires" at the time.
It was even worse than I thought and the people in charge knew it.
Unprecedented and audacious, HOLLYWOODGATE is the riveting result of the year director Ibrahim Nash'at spent with the Taliban in the wake of the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Risking his life in the war-torn nation, Nash'at is on the ground with the Taliban when they enter an American base loaded with a portion of the roughly $7 billion worth of U.S. armaments left behind. Driving towards an astonishing and chilling end, Nash'at tracks Taliban leaders as they attempt to transform from a fundamentalist militia into a modern military regime, employing Hollywood-style propaganda to achieve their goals.
#TheDarkMoneyGame: Ohio Confidential & Wealth of the Wicked by Academy Award Winner Alex Gibney premieres Tuesday, April 15 and Wednesday, April 16 at 9pm on @hbomax.
That's two nominated documentaries from Alex Gibney. The man is a powerhouse.
Which are the distinct attributes sculpting the Japanese identity? What makes you Japanese? In order to figure out the answers, the British Japanese filmmaker closely follows 1st and 6th graders for one year at a public elementary school in Tokyo, as well as their teachers, unveiling how teachers and students interact and shape one another. The outbreak of the pandemic and its restrictions constitute just another controlling measure. The kids in Japan are after all forged by their homeland's culture through a strictly defined education process which is in pursuit, with unwavering focus, of the appropriate equilibrium between individual progress and harmony of the society as a whole. Offering a unique hybrid perspective, the filmmaker critically examines a culture that is equally familiar to her as it is foreign, while she peruses the school environment in terms of an industrial production plant, in which the raw materials for processing are the students.
One of the points I make when I cover shows about government is that public education is government, too. I'm glad to see the News & Doc Emmy selection committee recognize this.
Now for Prime Minister's second category.
2000 Meters to Andriivka leads with six nominations, Turning Point: The Vietnam War follows with five nominations, Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, Life After, and Love + War tie at four nominations, and Black Snow and Union tie at this one nomination. I had 2000 Meters to Andriivka penciled in to win this category because of its awards history, especially its wins at the DGA and WGA Awards, but seeing it lead this category, if not all nominees, in nominations inks that prediction in.
I'll probably examine Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time tomorrow. In the meantime, follow over the jump as I continue my retrospective of top posts about the Emmy Awards during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
Andor wins the BAFTA for Special, Visual & Graphic Effects at the BAFTA TV Craft Awards with Samsung OLED.
Presented by Chris Chung.
Congratulations!
Follow over the jump for the nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form and Best Game or Interactive Work plus a retrospective of the top entertainment entries from the back catalog, excluding those about the Emmy Awards.
Join Famous Fat Dave as he interviews a cook who knows how to make a great taco for Cinco de Mayo.
Yeah, I know combining Cinco De Mayo and Taco Tuesday is a bad dad joke, but I couldn't resist. Besides, I have lots of final exams to grade, so I'd better get to work. See you tomorrow for Revenge of the Sixth.
The old protect the young, and then the young protect the old.
Grace Randolph and others criticized the earlier trailers as being too juvenile to be a big success. I think this trailer addressed those concerns. Just the same, I think being a family film might actually help it.
Today is the first day of the Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge changes at Disneyland. This video covers how these changes instantly made the most controversial land at Disneyland instantly feel very different.
I've never been to Galaxy's Edge on either coast. Now I might have a reason to visit both versions, since they are now different experiences.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like King Charles meeting New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani.
I now have Spirit Airlines going bankrupt, again, and shutting down operations on my to-do list. On the other hand, I've already covered the royal visit. I just wish people would stop picking on Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, who was born only a few miles from where I grew up and is my favorite royal. On the other hand, keep picking on the Andrew formerly known as Prince. He deserves it.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like a woman damaging a statue in Italy while trying to touch its genitals.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a very big deal. It transformed America, marking the end of the Jim Crow era and effectively banning racial discrimination in elections. Finally fulfilling the promise of a multiracial democracy, Black voter registration increased, and political representation across the nation better reflected America’s diverse population.
60 years later, a key pillar of the Voting Rights Act is at risk of being erased. In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court has sided with the plaintiffs in a redistricting case out of Louisiana called Louisiana v. Callais. The case focused on Louisiana’s legislative maps, which were amended after a 2022 lawsuit in which civil rights groups and community members sued the state of Louisiana, claiming the maps drawn after the 2020 census didn’t properly reflect Louisiana’s Black population.
Once the new map with two majority-Black districts passed in the Louisiana state legislature in 2024, a group of “non African-American voters” filed a lawsuit that alleged the new map was unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered, intended to cut white voters out of power. Following the Supreme Court ruling, Louisiana must redraw that map.
What happens next could ignite a widespread gerrymandering effort that would alter electoral maps across red states and have major effects on minority political representation in the United States at every level of government.
I haven't blogged about the Voting Rights Act since 2023's FiveThirtyEight asks 'How Impactful Was This Supreme Court Term?'* Then, I wrote, "I think America dodged two bullets to democracy in the decisions about the Voting Rights Act and the 'Independent State Legislature Theory.'" I can't write that today; the conservative majority of the Supreme Court shot multiracial democracy in America in the leg, if not an even more vital part of the body. The bullet is still traveling, injuring tissues and organs on its way. MS NOW documents the damage in ‘They’re fighting hard because we were winning’: Stacey Abrams on GOP gerrymandering surge.
“They want our weariness to turn into paralysis.” This week, The Supreme Court delivered a massive new blow to the Voting Rights Act that greenlights GOP gerrymandering efforts. Stacey Abrams joins The Weekend to break down what comes next, where we have seen these actions before in authoritarian regimes throughout history, and how to use people power to brace against fascism.
In response to Jonathan Capehart, Jacqueline Alemany, and Eugene Daniels, the hosts of The Weekend, outlining Louisiana suspending its primary election and the legislatures of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee going into special sessions to redistrict their states, Stacey Abrams outlined an ambitious pro-democracy agenda. I'm here for all of it.
For decades, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act acted as a guardrail, preventing Republican-led state legislatures from carving Black voters out of political power. But, in the words of Justice Elena Kagan, the Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais has weakened the provision to “all but a dead letter.” MS NOW legal analyst Melissa Murray and President & CEO of Democracy Forward, Skye Perryman join “The Weekend” to discuss.
I agree with Skye Perryman; people in favor of multiracial democracy are going to have to vote in large enough numbers this fall and in 2028 to overwhelm the forces trying to send the U.S. back 60 years or more. May we succeed.
That's a wrap for today's topical post. Stay tuned for highlights of tonight's Saturday Night Live as today's Sunday entertainment feature.
*The video in that entry has been made private, just like every video I've embedded from FiveThirtyEight. Disney/ABC didn't just disband the unit, it hid its history. That's a great loss that makes me sad, angry, and powerless. I don't know what news consumers can do to get it back. Sigh.
