This is the 6,572nd entry I have written since I began this
journal 18 years ago today. Hard to believe.
When it began it was on GeoCities, a site which hasn't
existed for a long time. I went back and moved several of the early
entries to Funny the World (so you can read "Ned
Moves into a Playhouse," the first entry). My intent was to move
all of the GeoCities to FTW, but I stopped at some point and never went
back. It is fun, though, to go back and see where we all were 18 years
ago.
I keep a database of all entries and it helps for entries
like this. I am forever getting the number wrong when I write the
"This is entry #" number at the end of each entry. I was only off two
entries this time, which is better than it has been.
I received
the following video from Tom last night
It's the "passing of the torch thing." Having watched Jeri -- and all the kids -- growing up and learning how to play musical instruments, moving on to become professionals, and now watching my granddaughter, just beginning to learn the trumpet, playing a duet with Jeri on her musical instrument..... Well, it just brings tears to my eyes.
We did something right.
But there was sad news today. I read the following on Twitter this morning:
It is with great sadness that Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the Dvůr
Králové Zoo announce that Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhino, age
45, died at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya on March 19th, 2018 (yesterday).
He was being treated for age-related complications that led to degenerative
changes in muscles and bones combined with extensive skin wounds. His condition
worsened significantly in the last 24 hours; he was unable to stand up and was
suffering a great deal.
This
means that for all intents and purposes, the Northern White Rhino has gone
extinct in our lifetime. There are still two females, but since they were
unable to breed with Sudan, there are no offspring and now never will be, though
the conservancy reports that "his genetic material was collected yesterday and
provides a hope for future attempts at reproduction of northern white rhinos
through advanced cellular technologies."
I find this all incredibly sad.
The species was killed off in large part by poachers wanting their horns to make
drugs for impotent men in China. I hope the sex was worth the destruction
of an entire species of animals.
"His death is a cruel symbol
of human disregard for nature and it saddened everyone who knew him," said Mr
Jan Stejskal of Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic, where Sudan lived until
2009.
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