Bizarre Beasts explains 'What Both Doomed & Saved The Galápagos Giant Tortoises' for International Day for Biological Diversity on Flashback Friday

Happy International Day for Biological Diversity and Flashback Friday! I'm revisiting de-extinction today, but in a different way than Colossal Biosciences is doing. Watch Bizarre Beasts explain What Both Doomed & Saved The Galápagos Giant Tortoises for how.

Galápagos giant tortoises once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, with at least thirteen species. But now some of those species are gone forever and the same forces that doomed those tortoises might have ended up helping save others.

No need for geneetic engineering and cloning — old-fashioned selective and captive breeding could re-create species thought to be extinct. That's good news for today's biodiversity holiday!

Follow over the jump for a retrospective of two posts from the back catalog that relate to today's topic.

Lydic, Colbert, Meyers, and Kimmel take closer looks at the first American Pope for Flashback Friday

Happy Flashback Friday! I set up today's post in the middle of 'Conclave' — fiction vs. reality, when I wrote "I expect I'll return to the topic once the real conclave elects a new Pope." That happened yesterday with the election of Leo XIV. Without any further ado, I begin the videos with The Daily Show's First American Pope Makes History and MAGA Catholics Already Have Issues.

Desi Lydic has the latest from the Vatican after the announcement of the first American pope, Leo XIV, including the world's reaction to a Chicago-style pope and Fox News immediately yelling at him to speak English. Plus, Michael Kosta celebrates America's conclave win.

The Pope told off JD Vance? I like him already.

Unlike Michael Kosta, Stephen Colbert is Catholic, and he weighed in with White Smoke! | The Chicago Pope | Melania Absent While Donald Handles First Lady Duties.

The new Pope is an American from Chicago, and Melania Trump is M.I.A. so her husband has taken on tasks traditionally managed by the First Lady.

"Pope-S-A! Pope-S-A! Pope-S-A!" and "Daa prayers" — classic. On the other hand, Stephen repeating Desi Lydic's line about "English being good enough for Jesus" is enough to bring out my inner pedant to say "Well, actually, Jesus probably spoke Aramaic," complete with pushing up my glasses.

As for the First Lady being at the White House for a total of two weeks out of the first 100 days, I'm not surprised. I wrote Melania Trump prefers Trump Tower to the White House more than eight years ago. Some things haven't changed.

Before I move on, the nomination of Casey Means to be Surgeon General after Dr. Janette Nesheiwat withdrew shows two things; first, the influence of RFK Jr. remains strong, and, second, things can get worse. I can say the same about the replacement of Ed Martin with Jeanine Pirro as Interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Break out the w(h)ine!

It wouldn't be a closer look post without Seth Meyers, so here's New Pope Criticized JD Vance; Conclave Upstages Trump's Underwhelming U.K. Trade Deal: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump announcing a meaningless trade deal with the United Kingdom, which is the first deal he's reached after claiming he already had 200, and him getting upstaged by the new pope.

Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump deserved to be upstaged. I'm not so sure about UK Prime Minster Keir Starmer, who I mentioned here for the first time since his election, although he was boring. I hope he feels like his country got something out of the deal. Hoover Cleveland probably does; he might buy a Rolls-Royce because of it.

I close the video portion of today's post with Jimmy Kimmel's Trump Reveals First Trade Agreement, MAGA Nuts Lose Minds Over New Pope & MTG’s Dumb-assery.

A new Pope was selected and he’s American, thousands of worshippers gathered in St. Peter’s Square to welcome the new holy father, right wing social media is losing its collective mind because the new Pope cares for the poor and the sick and the plight of immigrants, Trump announced his first trade deal today with the UK, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was not able to be at the White House but he did call in to kiss some ass, Trump blamed Pete Buttigieg for all of the issues at Newark Airport, several of Pete Hegseth’s personal passwords have been compromised by cyberattacks, Klan Mom Marjorie Taylor Greene put on a magnificent display of dumb-assery, Trump has an important Mother’s Day message, and Jimmy’s wife Molly gives a helpful hint for how to make this the best Mother’s Day ever.

Not only did the new Pope criticize Vance, he criticized Hoover Cleveland. I like him even more. Speaking of criticism, fake Starmer was a lot more entertaining than the real one. So was Representative Melanie Stansbury, who showed that Hoover Cleveland isn't the only politician who can be fooled by a doctored photo and then insist they weren't fooled. "Who you gonna believe, me or your own eyes?" was a lot funnier when Chico Marx said it.

Because of the criticism of VP Vance combined with the election of the Pope, today's retrospective covers last year's most read shares of blog posts on social media about the 2024 election I haven't already covered. Follow over the jump.

Stats for the 14th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News on Wayback Wednesday

I closed 23andMe files for bankruptcy, fueling privacy concerns by telling my readers "stay tuned for the first retrospective of the 14th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, stats." Here goes!

As of 11:59 PM EDT March 20, 2025, this blog had a lifetime total of 5,222,122 page views, 6,168 total posts, and 4180 comments. Minus the 4,463,208 page views, 5,798 total posts, and 4,057 comments as of just before March 21, 2024, that means this blog earned 758,914 page views and 123 published comments on 370 posts during the 365 days of the 14th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News. My calculated page views are close to the ~757,000 page views and 133 comments Blogger's counter showed during the past twelve months. That was closer than last year, but not exact. I think that's because Blogger counts whole days, which started at 8:00 P.M. March 21, 2024, but my count starts 20 hours earlier. Blogger lost all of those ~1,900 page views from those 20 hours. I tested this hypothesis by multiplying the next day's 2,290 page views by 0.833 (20/24) and got 1,908. Close enough. I can't completely account for the ten extra comments. I deleted six and there were eight comments during the first three weeks of March 2024 that Blogger might have counted, but neither add up, literally. Maybe I'll figure it out next year.

Last year's trend of increasing page views continued. Not only did this past year's 758,914 page views on 370 posts during 365 days beat the year before's 641,234 page views on 380 posts during 366 days, it beat the year before that's 419,300 page views on 379 posts during 365 days. That means I'm working less hard for more page views, as the blog earned 2,051.12 page views per post and 2,079.22 page views per day during the blog year just ended. Both are more than the 1,687.46 page views per post and 1,752.01 page views per day the blog earned between March 21, 2023 and March 20, 2024 and a lot more than the 1,106.33 page views per post and 1,148.77 page views per day between March 21, 2022 and March 20, 2023. May the trend continue during this year just started.

While the published comments increased from 78 to 123, the raw number, including never released spam decreased from 199 to either 154 or 133. Still, the number of published comments increased to 123, just edging out the 122 of two years ago. Just the same, I'm getting less spam and more published comments. Since I don't have comment goals, I'm not concerned. I'd prefer fewer quality comments than a lot of spam.

As for my commenters who aren't spammers, I'd like to thank them, beginning with continuing commenters Infidel753, Nebris, the first commenter on my blog, Friend of the Court, and Steve in Manhattan. I also want to welcome back Paul W., who didn't comment last year. Keep up the good work! I also want to thank John R. Christiansen, E.A. Blair, and Steven C. Di Pietro for making their first posts here. Stick around! Unfortunately, I seem to have lost longtime commenter Narb Xorbian, the best man at my first wedding. In addition, last year's first-time commenters H-bob, tronvillain, August Johnson, Noah, Marc McKenzie, Realityhold, and my student Ecogranite didn't return. Come back, I miss you!

Follow over the jump for the rest of the analysis.

Trees vs. climate change for Arbor Day, a Flashback Friday holiday special

Happy Arbor Day and Flashback Friday! I'm celebrating the original environmental holiday during Earth Month with two videos from PBS Digital about the effectiveness of planting trees to fight climate change followed by a retrospective of the most saved posts on Pinterest. Trust me, the two topics connect.

The first PBS Digital video is Be Smart asking If We Plant 1 TRILLION Trees Can We Stop Climate Change?

Can trees really save us from climate change? For eons, nature has relied on photosynthesis as a big way to keep carbon dioxide levels from getting out of control. But as we have put more carbon into the air, we’ve also cut down many of the forests we need to suck that carbon up. So big tree-planting initiatives like #TeamTrees to the rescue, right? Actually, we need to think bigger. Here’s three ways trees really can help us solve climate change, from a guy who wants to plant a TRILLION trees, to how we might save the forests we’ve got, to scientists hacking biology to make trees even better.

The answer to the question is no, it won't stop climate change by itself, but it will certainly help, along with conserving the trees we still have. As for genetically engineering a more efficient pathway to fix carbon, that's a new one on me, but it fits with the theme of yesterday's Be Smart asks 'Can AI Help Us Talk to Whales?' for Throwback Thursday, using technology to advance science.

That was the optimistic outlook. PBS Terra explaining Why Tree Planting Campaigns Don’t Work takes a more pessimistic perspective.

In 2019, a Turkey tree planting campaign set a world record. Three months later, 90% of those saplings were dead. Planting trees to replace old-growth forests is a common solution, but it typically does not solve the problem. With deforestation causing climate-related disasters, it’s time to take a hard look at reforestation and what we can do to save our forests.

The video's opening serves as an update on deforestation of the Amazon rainforest with news both good and bad. The video also pointed out flaws in the most common methods of reforestation and ways to do it correctly. I hope people pay attention to the suggestions.

Searching for previous posts about Amazon deforestation retrieved 'The Territory' leads nominees for Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking at the 2023 Emmy Awards, which reminded me that I'd never mentioned its Emmy Award.


I wrote "I'm confident about 'The Territory' winning this category" and it did. Congratulations! May it keep the cause of preserving the Amazon rainforest in people's minds.

Follow over the jump for Crazy Eddie's Motie News' year on Pinterest.

Stats for the 13th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News on Throwback Tuesday

As I wrote yesterday, "Stay tuned for stats!"

As of 11:59 PM EDT March 20, 2024, this blog had a lifetime total of 4,463,208 page views, 5,798 total posts, and 4,057 comments. Minus the 3,821,974 page views, 5,418 total posts, and 3,979 comments as of just before March 20, 2023, that means this blog earned 641,234 page views and 78 published comments on 380 posts during the 366 days of the 13th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News. My calculated page views are close to the ~640,000 page views Blogger's counter showed during the past twelve months, which I think covered April 1, 2023 to March 20, 2024, but wildly off from the 199 comments it counted during the same period. Blogger aggressively threw a lot of comments into the spam filter beginning about February 2023, including some that were not spam and which I had to approve to display again, which would explain the more than 100 comment difference. Blogger also aggressively held a lot of comments in the spam filter and never published them. That's O.K. I don't miss the spam.

I also don't miss the anxiety I was feeling when I wrote last year's post. This past year's 641,234 page views beats the year before's 419,300 page views on 379 posts between March 21, 2022 and March 20, 2023. It's also more than the 532,981 page views the blog earned between March 21, 2021 and March 20, 2022. Had I actually followed through on raising my page view goal to 25,000 per 29 days, which translates to 862 page views per day, I would have easily exceeded the 315,517 page view goal for the 366 days of the blogging year. Yay!

I'm also no longer working harder for fewer page views, as the blog earned 1,687.46 page views per post and 1,752.01 page views per day. That's much better than the 1,106.33 page views per post and 1,148.77 page views per day last year and the 1,452.26 page views per post and 1,460.22 page views per day the year before that. Whew. Still, I'm not tempted to increase my page view goals this coming year.

While the raw number of comments, including spam never released from the spam filter, increased from 168 to 199, the published comments remaining at the end of the blogging year decreased from 122 to 78. Since I don't have comment goals, I'm not concerned. I'd prefer fewer quality comments than a lot of spam.

As for my commenters who aren't spammers, I'd like to thank them, beginning with continuing commenters Infidel753, Nebris, the first commenter on my blog, Friend of the Court, and best man at my first wedding Narb Xorbian. Keep up the good work! I also want to thank H-bob, tronvillain, August Johnson, Noah, Marc McKenzie, Realityhold, Steve in Manhattan, and my student Ecogranite for making their first posts here. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost longtime commenters Paul W. and Sarnia Sam, while last year's first-time commenters Powers, Sicko Ricko, Expat, verbum, Buzzcook, Bruce.desertrat, and emjayjay didn't return. Come back, I miss you!

Follow over the jump for the rest of the analysis.

The history of Cinco De Mayo, a Flashback Friday holiday special

¡Feliz Cinco De Mayo! After showing how Detroit celebrates Cinco De Mayo last year, I'm returning to the history lessons with The real history behind Cinco de Mayo and the importance of May 5th from CBS 8 San Diego.

Every year thousands of Americans crowd intro their favorite bars and restaurants for Cinco de Mayo. Many use it as the prefect excuse to go out for a drink or favorite Mexican meal, but the majority don’t know the real history behind Cinco de Mayo.

“It’s not Cinco de drinko, that’s off the table and it’s also not Mexican Independence Day," said Gerardo Rios, a professor of Mexican American studies and history at Southwestern College.

Rios explains why the fifth of May is an important date in Mexican history.

“What Cinco de Mayo celebrates is the Mexican liberal victory over the French forces that had invaded Mexico," said Rios.

In 1862, a powerful French army led by Napoleon III was sent to invade the country, and even though they outnumbered the Mexican army, they were met with a strong resistance in the Mexican state of Puebla.

"Cinco de drinko" — on the one hand, ha! On the other, I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling what I wrote last year.

Alex Bozarjian, who I first featured on Fat Tuesday, opened by sharing the sentiment that "everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day, everyone's Polish on Paczki Day, and today everyone's Mexican." That's both good and bad — good because of the melting pot/salad bowl nature of being American, so we can celebrate our diverse but now shared heritage, and bad because people are treating Cinco De Mayo like they treat St. Patrick's Day, as a drinking holiday. That shouldn't be a surprise, as the importers of Mexican beer and spirits helped promote it during the past several decades.

I'm going to refrain from posting a drink recipe today after I share KSAT 12 in San Antonio's account of the day's history and significance in Cinco de Mayo: UIW professor explains its origins and significance.

Many people celebrate Cinco de Mayo by drinking or eating Mexican-inspired dishes, however, some may not know its historical origins. Cinco de Mayo is celebrated on May 5, after the Mexican Army defeated the invading French Army in the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

Self-determination — that's something I'd never heard before as a reason for the celebration, but I like it.

Since I'm refraining from posting a drink recipe and also because this is a metro-Detroit-based blog, I'm ending the video portion of this post with WXYZ's Southwest Detroit businesses ready for Cinco de Mayo celebrations this weekend.

Southwest Detroit's rich culture and cuisine will be on display this weekend as the country celebrates Cinco de Mayo. Alma Cruz, a proud Mexican-American, said Cinco de Mayo represents the day the Mexican Army defeated the French in the Battle of Puebla, showing perseverance.

I feel lucky to be able to embed this video, as WXYZ blocks that feature on most of its uploads. Let's see if they catch it on this video.

Since today is a Flashback Friday as well as a holiday, I'm sharing a retrospective of the most saved pins from this blog on Pinterest last year. As I wrote in PBS Eons and SciShow on Piltdown Man for April Fools Day, a Science Saturday holiday special, "the most saved pins of posts last year were about holidays, animals, or pirates, in that order."

TEDx talks presents 'Trees: The superheroes we’ve been waiting for' on Arbor Day, Superhero Day, and Flashback Friday

Happy Arbor Day and National Superhero Day on Flashback Friday! For today's observance of two holidays that celebrate some of my favorite topics, I'm sharing Trees: The superheroes we’ve been waiting for | Andy Lipkis | TEDxUCLA from July 7, 2015.

When is the last time you stopped and really looked at a tree? Sometimes the things we see everyday lose their profound importance as they seem so commonplace, ordinary, already understood. Andy Lipkis has dedicated his life to trees, and talks about the extraordinary, and untapped power of the tree.

Andy Lipkis if the Founder and President of TreePeople, a nonprofit organization that is growing a green and climate-resilient Los Angeles.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

This is at least the second time Andy Lipkis has appeared on this blog. The first time was Rocking the boat down the Los Angeles River, which included a brief interview of him. I didn't even mention him or his charity, TreePeople, then, but he made important points about water in "Rock the Boat" that he repeats in this video. I'm glad a gave him a chance to repeat them a decade later. It beats Captain Planet!


Follow over the jump for a retrospective about last year's holiday posts that became popular on Pinterest and Twitter.

PBS Terra asks 'Can Green Energy Make The Grid SAFER?'

Happy Flashback Friday during Earth Month! The themes of today's retrospective are climate change, energy, infrastructure, and technology — connections! Before I review last year's top posts on those topics, I'm sharing a video that covers all of them, PBS Terra asking Can Green Energy Make The Grid SAFER?

The climate community has gotten pretty loud about telling us that we need to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, which is fast approaching. And in order to do this, we’re going to need to electrify pretty much everything and green the grid. But this raises some pretty big questions. What will this clean, green future look like? Can we pull off this massive transition in time before some seriously dire tipping points are reached? And will our power grid even be able to handle it, considering how much more extreme our weather is getting due to climate change?

In this episode of Weathered, we speak to four different experts about this topic and dig as deep as we can to answer the question posed by the title: is the clean energy transition even possible with all this weather?

Last year, PBS Terra asked 'Could The Next Blackout Be More Deadly Than Katrina?' That was the DOOM video. This year, the channel offered some hope. I'm glad to share it, especially given all of the scary climate and energy news that my readers found compelling during the twelfth year of this blog. Follow over the jump for those stories and how they got their readers.

Vox explains 'The Trump investigations you should actually care about'

The Former Guy is facing legal jeopardy beyond his indictment and arraignment in New York. Vox lists and explains all of the criminal cases in The Trump investigations you should actually care about.

The four criminal investigations into the former president, explained...

Donald Trump is now the first former US President to face criminal charges. He pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.

This case involves hush money that Trump’s lawyer paid to an alleged former sexual partner. But it’s actually just one of four criminal investigations into the former president. The other three investigations focus on his behavior after the 2020 presidential election.

A Georgia team is examining Trump’s efforts to persuade Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” more Trump votes after the votes had been counted and Raffensperger had declared Joe Biden the winner.

Federal special prosecutor Jack Smith is heading up the other two investigations. One group is looking at the Trump team’s attempts to persuade officials in a handful of states where Biden won not to certify his victory, and instead to claim Trump won the state despite the vote counts.
The other federal investigation is focused on classified documents that Trump brought with him from the White House to his Florida estate after losing the 2020 election. According to reports from the Washington Post and the New York Times, when the FBI searched his estate in August 2022, they found documents related to nuclear weapons, as well as files containing information that could put US informants in the field in danger.

As president, Trump didn’t just say outrageous things, he acted in unprecedented ways. Now that he’s out of office, investigators in a variety of jurisdictions are trying to figure out if he broke the law, too.

As I wrote, "New York today, Georgia and the Federal Government tomorrow. Stay tuned."

Since three of the investigations are about election interfererence, broadly construed, follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top posts about the 2022 election.

'Saturday Night Live' fools around with Trump's indictment

Last night's "Saturday Night Live" opened with an April Fools joke about The Former Guy being indicted, Trump Indictment Cold Open - SNL.

Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) promotes his new album.

This skit was as much about making fun of the January 6 Choir as the indictment itself; the music is much more transparent than the indictment, which hasn't been unsealed yet. We'll probably find out Tuesday, when TFG surrenders voluntarily. I'll leave it to any of my readers who are law enforcement or lawyers whether that counts as an arrest.

SNL continued with the subject as well as the April Fools pranks in Weekend Update: Donald Trump Indicted - SNL.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like President Biden calling for an assault weapons ban.

TFG's legal troubles, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Ron DeSantis all got the attention they deserved, but the biggest reaction was to the April Fools prank Michael Che played on Colin Jost. It helped make for a fast five minutes.

Weekend Update moved on to lighter news in Cup Noodles' Breakfast Flavor, 89-Year-Old Named Oldest Surfer - SNL.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like a sperm donor being sued for increasing the risk of accidental incest.

I think Colin should pay less attention to Punxsutawney Phil and pay more attention to his local groundhog, Staten Island Chuck, who predicted an early spring. That prediction came closer to the truth for New York City.

Weekend Update moved on to a story at the intersection of education and art in the news as Michelangelo's David Defends Art - SNL.

Michelangelo's David (Michael Longfellow) stops by Weekend Update to address the recent controversy surrounding an image of him being included in a school curriculum.

I remember the days of "banned in Boston." Now it's "banned in Florida."

I'm concluding the highlights of last night's episode with Quinta Brunson Monologue - SNL, which continues the theme of education.

First-time host Quinta Brunson talks about working on Abbott Elementary and how poorly teachers are treated in the United States.

I agree, pay teachers more.

Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top posts showcasing videos from SNL.

Colbert's studio audience gave a standing ovation when told about Trump's indictment; Kimmel's was just as loud

Happy Flashback Friday! Before I begin today's retrospective, I'm sharing Stephen Colbert's monologue about yesterday's big political news, T**** Indicted! | Disney Strips Power From DeSantis’ Oversight Board | Boebert Gets Weird.

A New York grand jury voted to indict the former president, while his Florida rival is traveling the country hunting for campaign cash, and Rep. Lauren Boebert appears fixated on public urination.

The chyron to the Colbert video I featured in Colbert and Meyers return from a week off to take closer looks at the rally in Waco and waiting for an indictment read "Arrest is yet to come." That's even more true now than it was at the beginning of the week, although it really will be a negotiated surrender, not an actual arrest; as much as my readers and I would like to see The Former Guy take a perp walk, it's not going to happen unless he changes his mind and refuses to surrender. Even that might not be enough, as Ron DeSantis has said he would not assist in any extradition. Speaking of DeSantis, Stephen's impression of Goofy's reaction to Disney subverting DeSantis's replacement for the Reedy Creek Improvement District, Disney World's own government was exactly the same as mine: "You got played!" Yes, he did.

Seth Meyers had more to say about the last topic of Colbert's monologue in Boebert Humiliated Over "Public Urination" Fixation; Trump Wants to Bomb Mexico: A Closer Look.

Seth takes a closer look at Republican congresswomen Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene's latest bizarre fixations and Donald Trump asking aides to draw up "battle plans" to attack Mexico if he's re-elected president.

Tonight's episode was taped prior to the news that Donald Trump was indicted by a New York Grand Jury.

"And I do mean moron" was exactly the right transition for this sketch. Returning to Stephen's joke about Einstein, not only the definition of insanity misattributed to him, "doing the same thing and expecting a different result," but also another questionable quote attributed to him, "Two things are infinite, as far as we know – the universe and human stupidity." The universe is immense, but it's not really infinite. On the other hand, Boebert is displaying an extension of human stupidity. She didn't do her research because she had committed to the narrative and didn't want to be confused by the facts. Also, this whole affair serves as another good argument for D.C. statehood.

Returning to the original topic, Jimmy Kimmel's monologue last night opened with Donald Trump INDICTED by Manhattan Grand Jury.

The day that many of us thought would never come has finally arrived as Donald Trump was indicted by the Manhattan Grand Jury for his role in the Stormy Daniels hush money case, Trump “truthed” a statement lashing out, now that he has been indicted he has no choice but to turn himself in for processing, Donald Trump Jr. jumped in with a special edition of his podcast to lament and fight back against the long arm of the law, Ivanka has vowed to stay out of all of this, when the news came in Fox was busy whining about Trans athletes in college sports, we got more insight into what went down at Fox News after the election, George Santos answered a bunch of questions on Fox News and he also has a great new product available.

Colbert's audience gave the announcement a standing ovation. Kimmel's gave their standing ovation at the beginning of the monologue, but were just as loud and enthusiastic at Kimmel announcing the news while remaining seated. Two hours plus being composed of Angelenos instead of New Yorkers might have made the difference.

That's as close to a perp walk as we're going to see. Also, "jail to the chief" is a great line, but it's going to be a while. I expect he'll be sentenced to house arrest in Trump Tower with the Secret Service as his guards, at least for this set of crimes. He might get a more severe punishment if he's indicted and convicted for crimes in Georgia and Washington, D.C. As for the other Republican politician being lampooned, I'm repeating what I wrote most recently in Randy Rainbow sings 'Life's a (bleep)ing Fantasy for Santos' on Flashback Friday: "My prediction that, as long as George Santos remains in the news, he will be an inspiration for comedy continues to come true."

No post of mine about TFG's criminal behavior would be complete without a mention of January 6th, so I'm returning to Stephen's monologue related to that, Pence Ordered to Testify | School Bans Dolly Parton’s “Rainbowland” | Gwyneth’s Rectal Ozone Therapy.

Forcing former VP Pence to testify about the Jan 6th insurrection is good for the country, unlike banning kids from singing Dolly Parton songs or copying Gwyneth Paltrow by getting ozone gas blown up where the sun doesn't shine.

I'll wait to see what effect Vice President Pence's testimony has on the investigation. In the meantime, follow over the jump for the top posts about the January 6th insurrection and the investigation into it.

Stats for the 12th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News on Throwback Thursday

It's time to review the statistics for the twelfth year of this blog.

As of 11:59 PM EDT March 20, 2022, this blog had a lifetime total of 3,821,974 page views, 5,418 total posts, and 3,979 comments. Minus the 3,402,674 page views, 5,039 total posts, and 3,857 comments as of March 20, 2021, that means this blog earned 419,300 page views and 122 published comments on 379 posts between March 21, 2022 and March 20, 2023. Blogger shows 168 comments, but the 46 comment difference almost certainly comes from unpublished comments that the spam filter caught and I didn't release. They can stay there. On the other hand, Blogger displays ~418,000 page views, less than my calculations. I've guessed before that Blogger's counter starts at the beginning of the oldest complete month, so it cuts off the last ten days of March 2022 and begins with April 1, 2022, no fooling. The things I learn when I dig through the data.

Speaking of digging through the data, it's showing a concerning trend. While the 419,300 page views easily exceeded the 306,129 page view goal (306,235 if I strictly stick to 839 page views per day) I set for the blog last year, it's less than the 532,981 page views the blog earned between March 21, 2021 and March 20, 2022. I also missed a monthly page view goal for the first time since November 2019 when the blog earned only 19,772 page views during February 2023, when my goal was 23,492. Also, the blog nearly missed its page view goal of 26,000 for January 2023, passing it between 10:00 and 11:00 A.M. on January 31, 2023, ending the month with 32,173 page views, thanks to my German and Swedish readers, who provided 6.62K and 1.58K page views respectively on the last day of the month, which had the most page views of the twelfth year of the blog with 10,566. Wow and whew! Unlike the past few years, when I wrote "I'm not worried" about reaching my page view goals, I am a little worried now. I'd be more worried if the blog weren't already five days ahead of my page view goal for the month so far. I need only four more days at 839 page views per day to reach March 2023's page view goal. That's reassuring, but I feel like knocking on wood.

Follow over the jump for the rest of my analysis of the past year.

Star Wars drinks and music for Revenge of the Sixth on Flashback Friday

Beware the Revenge of the Sixth, the dark side of Star Wars Day! For this year's celebration, I'm combining the drinks and music themes of 2018 and 2020 with the retrospective theme of 2021.

I begin with a review of fictional drinks from the Star Wars franchise by Star Wars: Top 10 – Alcoholic Beverages by Inside Star Wars.

Sometimes, especially in a galaxy far, far away, you've just got to loosen up. And what better way to do so than drinking yourself into oblivion! I'm noel from TheCancrizans, and here are the top 10 alcoholic beverages in Star Wars.

Now for the music from the Dark Side, The Mandalorian: Moff Gideon Theme | EPIC IMPERIAL VERSION by Samuel Kim Music.

The Mandalorian Theme by Ludwig Göransson
Star Wars Theme by John Williams
Arranged and Orchestrated by Samuel Kim.

Also "Long Live the Empire" by Ludwig Göransson.

That's it for the fan celebration of Star Wars. Follow over the jump for retrospective about the blog's year on Pinterest.

CNBC explains 'How Companies Like Amazon, Nike and FedEx Avoid Taxes' for Tax Day on Flashback Friday

"Happy" Tax Day, at least for my readers in the U.S.!* I'm observing the day by sharing CNBC's How Companies Like Amazon, Nike and FedEx Avoid Taxes.

At least 55 of the largest corporations in America paid no federal corporate income taxes on their 2020 profits, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Some of these companies include big names FedEx, Nike, HP and Salesforce, and it's costing the U.S. government billions of dollars. Those 55 corporations would have paid a collective total of $8.5 billion. Instead, they received $3.5 billion in tax rebates, collectively draining $12 billion from the U.S. government. These estimates don't include corporations that paid only some but not all of these taxes, like Netflix and Amazon.

Watch the video above to learn about how the most profitable companies in the country maneuver the complicated tax system to avoid federal corporate income taxes, different forms of tax expenditures and what policy solutions may bridge the gap.

Watching this just reinforced my opinion that the 2017 tax bill was a bad idea and reminded me that John Oliver covered this four years ago. Some things haven't changed and those that have might have changed for the worse. Sigh.

Follow over the jump for a brief retrospective about top posts from the eleventh year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News covering economic issues.

'SNL' celebrates Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation in its cold open

At least one strand of the drama as comedy I featured in last week's 'SNL' satirizes 'Fox & Friends' in its Supreme Court cold open has come to an agreeable conclusion, which "Saturday Night Live" recognizes in last night's Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmation Cold Open.

After watching her confirmation vote with President Biden (James Austin Johnson), Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson (Ego Nwodim) receives advice from Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Kate McKinnon), Thurgood Marshall (Kenan Thompson), Harriet Tubman (Punkie Johnson) and Jackie Robinson (Chris Redd).

Once again, I feel better about the week's news when I laugh about it, especially when it turns out well.

"SNL" continued covering the occasion in Weekend Update: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Confirmed, Obama's Return to the White House but quickly switched gears.

Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences banning Will Smith from the Oscars.

The bits about Will Smith, Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Grammys, and meet and greets returning to Disney World all qualify this entry as the Sunday entertainment feature. They also justify my decision to use today's post as a retrospective about last year's top entries about entertainment in general and awards shows in particular. Follow over the jump, please.

PBS Terra asks 'Could The Next Blackout Be More Deadly Than Katrina?'

I concluded Samantha Bee updates Ginni Thomas's texts and Alexander Vindman's account of the 'perfect call' by asking my readers "Stay tuned for another retrospective tomorrow for Throwback Thursday. Natural disasters, anyone?" Before I look back at the top entries about natural disasters, PBS Terra's Weathered looks ahead by asking Could The Next Blackout Be More Deadly Than Katrina?

With climate change making temperatures more extreme each year, like we recently saw in the great Texas freeze and the Northwest heatwave, large-scale power outages become a matter of life and death. In 2003, a few transmission lines went down in Ohio leading to cascading failures across the Northeast and over 50 million people losing power. This event points toward critical vulnerabilities in our aging power grid.

Could a power grid failure during an extreme weather event be the most deadly weather disaster in US history? And what can we do to prevent this kind of catastrophic blackout? Watch to find out.

While I found a lot of this familiar, since I started blogging about the 2003 Blackout here a decade ago and more recently wrote about last year's Texas Blackout, and included a description of how to deal with the issue in John Oliver on the power grid for Cut Your Energy Costs Day, what struck me was the sheer number of deaths and hospitalizations from heat waves that would be exacerbated by loss of electricity — thousands of deaths, worse than Hurricane Katrina. When the Lancet reported that climate change is a "medical emergency," the journal wasn't kidding!

PBS Terra's Maiya May asked her viewers for their own power outage stories. It so happens that the most read entry of mine about weather-related and other natural disasters last year was about a power outage. Follow over the jump for links to it and the rest of the popular posts on the topic along with explanations of how they earned their readers.

Ramadan begins, a holiday special

I told my readers "I have lots more holiday posts to recognize, but I've run out of spoons for today. Stay tuned for the rest tomorrow." It's tomorrow, so I will continue the retrospective about last year's top holiday posts after recognizing Ramadan for the first time on this blog. I begin with CBS New York reporting Muslim communities in New Jersey observe Ramadan.

Muslim communities are observing the holy month of Ramadan, and because of the pandemic, this year, there is a heightened appreciation for the togetherness and unity that Ramadan brings; CBS2's Dave Carlin reports.

Ramadan Mubarak to you, too, Mayor Sayegh! I'm happy to take you up on your offer to learn more about Ramadan.


On that note, National Day Calendar has more about the holiday.

Every year, Ramadan begins a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community for Muslims around the world. It is the holiest month of the year for those in the Islamic faith.

The date of the observance is during the ninth month of the lunar Islamic calendar. This is why it changes every year. The holy month begins the morning after the crescent moon is visible to the naked eye. Because visibility of the moon differs throughout the world, Ramadan does not officially begin until religious leaders declare they have seen the crescent moon.

Fasting during Ramadan is considered one of the five pillars of Islam. The other four pillars include:

• Giving a profession of faith.
• Praying five times a day while facing Mecca.
• Donating a fixed portion of their income to community members in need.
• Taking at least one visit to the holy city of Mecca.
• Ramadan Traditions
• During Ramadan, Muslims fast from food and drink (including water) from sunrise to sunset. Muslims are also supposed to abstain from sexual relations, immoral behavior, smoking, and anger. After sunset, Muslims are allowed to eat and drink. It is customary to eat dates, along with fruits, vegetables, nuts, camel milk, and water.

Muslims believe fasting produces self-discipline, self-control, sacrifice, and empathy for the less fortunate. While all Muslims are strongly encouraged to fast during Ramadan, there are a few exceptions. These include women who are menstruating, pregnant, or breastfeeding. Muslims who are traveling during Ramadan or who have a severe illness are also exempt from fasting. Children under the age of 13 don’t have to fast, either.

Ramadan ends with a three-day celebration. This is called Eid al-Fitr, or the Festival of Breaking the Fast. During this time Muslims exchange gifts with one another. This festival is often referred to as the “Muslim version of Christmas.”

I knew most of this, but I didn't learn that Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It's always a good day when I learn something new.

Follow over the jump as I resume my retrospective of the top posts about holidays from the eleventh year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

Statistics for the eleventh year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News

It's time to review the statistics for the eleventh year of this blog.

As of 11:59 PM EDT March 20, 2022, this blog had a lifetime total of 3,402,674 page views, 5039 total posts, and 3857 comments. Minus the 2,869,693 page views, 4672 posts, and 3622 comments as of March 20, 2021, that means this blog earned 532,981 page views and 235 comments on 367 posts during the past 365 days. This is close to but not exactly the same as the 532K page views and 238 comments that the 12-month stats view on Blogger showed. I suspect the latter includes spam comments that never appeared on the blog. Just the same, the blog once again saw more page views on fewer posts than the 384,773 page views and 411 or 412 comments on 398 posts during the tenth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, although the comments still decreased. Still, it greatly exceeded the page view goal I set for the blog of 25,000 page views per 30 days, which translates to 304,167 page views if converted directly or 304,410 if calculated using 834 page views per day times 365 days, by 228,814 or 228,571 page views, depending on which I use; upon re-examining last year's entry, I should use 304,167 total (I omitted the 0 last year — oops), resulting in 228,814 over my goal. Either way, I was right to write "I'm not worried" again about reaching my page view goals. I easily surpassed them.

Follow over the jump for my analysis of the past year.

Seeker and CNBC examine the hidden environmental costs of electric cars and how to reduce them by recycling

When I told my readers to "Stay tuned for a retrospective about the highlights of Crazy Eddie's Motie News on Pinterest" yesterday, I didn't know how I was going to to connect my top pins to current events. Last year, I didn't even try. Once I found out that Driving update for June 2017: Pearl plus Tesla worth more than GM or Ford was the most saved pin during the tenth year of this blog, I knew; it was either going to be pirates or electric cars, because the post associated with that pin is about my car Pearl the Prius, named after The Black Pearl from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" films. I'm choosing electric cars; the pirate fans will have to wait until Talk Like A Pirate Day or my next driving update, whichever comes first.

I begin today's coverage of electric vehicles with an overview of The Hidden Environmental Costs of Electric Cars from Seeker, formerly DNews.

As green technologies become more common, scientists are trying to 'green' the lithium-ion batteries that power them. One question being: can we innovate ways to reuse and recycle these complicated batteries?

Welcome to another example of two of Commoner's Laws, "there is no free lunch" and "everything must go somewhere." While electric vehicles reduce carbon dioxide emissions from the car itself, they create other environmental problems. As Seeker points out, recycling would reduce those costs, but there are technological and economic obstacles to achieving these reductions. CNBC's How Tesla’s Battery Mastermind Is Tackling EV's Biggest Problem reports on how one company is working on clearing those obstacles, not only to reduce waste, but to increase supply to meet the expected demand.

Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere — in phones, laptops, tablets, cameras and increasingly cars. Demand for lithium-ion batteries has risen sharply in the past five years and is expected to grow from a $44.2 billion market in 2020 to a $94.4 billion market by 2025, mostly due to the boom in electric cars. And a shortage of lithium-ion batteries is looming in the U.S.

Former Tesla CTO and Elon Musk's right-hand man, JB Straubel, started Redwood Materials in 2017 to help address the need for more raw materials and to solve the problem of e-waste. The company recycles end-of-life batteries and then supplies battery makers and auto companies with materials in short supply as EV production surges around the world. Straubel gave CNBC an inside look at its first recycling facility in Carson City, Nevada. Watch the video to learn why battery recycling will be an essential part in making EV production more sustainable.

This video illustrates two more of Commoner's Laws, "everything is connected to everything else" through the movement of materials through the global supply chain and "nature knows best" through recycling, which mimics natural chemical cycling in the environment. That connects to "everything must go somewhere" not only through "there is no away" but also because "there is no waste in nature." All of those, plus its optimistic tone, makes it a video I can mention to my students. Welcome again to blogging as professional development.

That's it for today's update on automotive energy technology. Follow over the jump for the most saved pins during the tenth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

'My Octopus Teacher' wins Documentary Feature at the Oscars

I announced my plan for today in the footnote to Seth Meyers and Vox take closer looks at D.C. statehood for Flashback Friday.

I still plan on writing this post Monday in anticipation of "My Octopus Teacher" winning Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars the night before. Stay tuned and may I not be disappointed.

I was not disappointed. Watch MY OCTOPUS TEACHER Accepts the Oscar for Documentary Feature from ABC now, the Oscars later.*

Watch Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster accept the Oscar for Documentary (Feature) for MY OCTOPUS TEACHER at Oscars 2021.

Congratulations! Ever since my readers expressed their love for this movie last November, I knew that "My Octopus Teacher" had a good chance of winning if it was nominated, a story I'll tell in more detail over the jump. After it won at the Producers Guild Awards and BAFTA Awards, I realized that it was the favorite. I'm glad it lived up to my expectations, unlike some other nominees, a story I'll tell in future installments of this series.

Since this is the first of my posts about the Oscar winners, I'm commenting on the socially-distanced in-person setting. I think this was the best compromise between safety and entertainment the Motion Picture Academy could achieve. The result resembled a less tipsy Golden Globes. Since the Hollywood Foreign Press Association held those remotely, the Oscars tried to fill the gap. From a viewer's perspective, the setup succeeded. I'll wait to see if it really kept everyone healthy.

Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed had more to say in MY OCTOPUS TEACHER's Thank You Cam Speech: Documentary (Feature), again from ABC now, maybe the Oscars later.

Watch Oscars 2021 winner Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed's Thank You Cam Oscar acceptance speech for Documentary (Feature) for MY OCTOPUS TEACHER.

I can tell Ehrlich was still a bit nervous after her first acceptance speech. I hope she gets used to it, as I'm sure that "My Octopus Teacher" will be nominated at the Environmental Media Association Awards and one of the Emmy Awards, either Creative Arts or News and Documentary, and will likely win at least one trophy at each.

Ehrlich was much calmer when she faced the press in Variety's 'My Octopus Teacher' Documentary Directors on Filming Their Underwater Oscar Winner.

Following a man who forms a bond with an octopus inhabiting a kelp forest, 'My Octopus Teacher' won the Oscar for Best Documentary at the 93rd Academy Awards. Backstage, Directors Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed describe their hope that audiences embrace their message: that humanity find more "hopeful and respectful way of engaging with the planet".

Ehrlich gave exactly the kind of environmental message about the documentary at the end of the press conference that I was hoping for. Kudos not only to her, but also the reporter from Univision who asked for a response related to Earth Day. That was a smart question. Thank you.

Follow over the jump for the story of how 'My Octopus Teacher' wins Best Science/Nature Documentary and Best Cinematography at the 2020 Critics' Choice Documentary Awards earned its page views, along with other top entertainment posts about movies and television during the tenth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News; I covered music under holidays in Broken Peach celebrating Halloween updates holidays for the tenth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News for Flashback Friday.