The Quagga extinct? - 3/9/12 History EC

I realize that the last time I posted a rant on my blog for History it was about a fish... So I'm going to stick to animals, because they interest me a lot.
There's this game I play called IW, and in-game you play as a large cat and you just run around and talk to people and hunt animals. Recently there was a game update with new animals and such, and one of the new animals is called a "Quagga." See, there are very often animals in this game that do not exist, so I assumed this was just the creators of the game imagining a brown horse/zebra mix and then making it giving it some odd name. A week later (now), I searched the word "Quagga" on google just for the heck of it, and a photo of a stuffed animal (taxidermy) which looks just like the in-game animal popped up! Complete shock moment: commence now.
I then decided to dig a little. Is this an extinct animal which we offed early on like the Dodo bird and the two wolf types that used to roam Japan? Or is it still alive? 
Apparently it's a subspecies of the Plains Zebra, and roamed the better part of South Africa. The last one died at Amsterdam Zoo in 1883. When this mare died, people hadn't realized she was the last or that they had been hunting this subspecies into extinction. This is because apparently everyone was confused about the term "Quagga" and thought it was to be used for ALL zebras. I noticed that there only seems to be a single photo of an ACTUAL Quagga, alive. ONE. It was taken in a zoo in London. I find it sad how people just let things like this happen. The Dodo and the Quagga are both examples of this; our carelessness with the wildlife around us. Part of the reason this zebra was killed off was because farmers around it saw that their animals (goats, sheep, etc) had to compete with it for grazing room. Ridiculous.
...However I do have to give people credit because as I said before, "Quagga" was a term used when referring to ANY zebra, and this is seemingly why there were no last-minute efforts to save this beautiful creature.
I've also read in a couple places that many people have been making an effort to bring back the Quagga as well as they can. Apparently they're doing this using selective breeding; breeding the Southern Plain Zebras which are the most likely to bring out the genes which caused the Quaggas unusual stripe and color patterns. 
So I tip my hat to these people that care enough about a mistake made a century ago, that they try to do something about it now. 
Anyways, rant time is over.
I just wanted to rant about the Quagga because I find it so odd that people could just let this animal die off, but are also trying to do something about it now even though this animal has been forgotten for a century. I'm also amused how I found this animal in such an insignificant game (with hardly 50-75 people on at a time) and now I'm actually interested in LEARNING about it. This is why I thought it'd be cool to do some research, and being motivated by the need for extra credit... Well this is the result.
I think it's an important lesson in history, right here. We need to be more careful with wildlife and the world around us. More and more animals and plants are going extinct because of our carelessness. We're getting better and better every day with conserving wildlife and making this world a better place, but it's not enough. This is another interpretation of "history repeats itself", because so often centuries ago, and still now we lose all kinds of animal and plant species because we don't stop and think about what we're doing until it's too late or almost so.
Toodles.
 -RB

(P.s. The first top photo is the only photo ever taken of a live Quagga, the second (middle) is a photo of a stuffed specimen in Munich, and the third (bottom) is a screenshot of the Quagga in my game.)

Sources:
http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/speciesinfo/quagga.htm
http://www.quaggaproject.org/

The Missing Link in Evolution... Or is it? [[EC History]]

The Coelacanth

A couple of days ago my father had on this show on (sadly I do not know its name)... Perhaps it was a special shown on the History Channel or Discovery Channel? It was at the... Smithsonian(?) and they were showing fossils, discoveries and pieces of American history, both hidden and never seen before as well as things out in the open for visitors to see. At one point they walked you into a big private room with over 8 million types of fish, in jars and drawers and preserved with either alcohol or chloroform. For some reason, I've been unable to erase this from my mind. History has always confused and amused me, but I'd never shown as much interest in the concept of Evolution before now; before seeing this show. They pulled open a huge drawer and the guide began to tell us its story while she held it, half in the alcohol/chloroform and half out. The fish she showed the viewers is called Coelacanth, the living fossil. (It's name means "hollow spine" because of it's hollow spine fins). It has been around for 400 million years, supposedly going extinct 65 million years ago with the dinosaurs, based on fossils. However... As I heard on the special on TV, the world was shocked when a group of fishermen pulled one in in the early 1900s, but it quickly rotted and was useless. A decade (2?) or so later another one was caught, and this time scientists were called in soon enough to be able to look it over and dissect it. (I've read many times that1938 is the exact date it was "discovered", in South Africa; pulled in from a fisherman's nets... But I wanted to tell the museum's side too). I've read somewhere that there are only two known populations of this fish (South Africa and Indonesia). While I DO admit that there are more connections between humans and apes and that there's a bridge recently discovered between humans and old ape-like creatures (neaderthals, etc) that almost perfectly connects the two... But there's also a definite Theory of Evolution: That EVERYTHING came from the ocean (including the neanderthals and so on), coming from 1 celled creatures and more cells began to form together and evolve, creating fish and then so on. I find it so interesting and confusing that it's possible we came from a friggen fish! (I'd never really thought that deep beyond coming from apes). And if not us, OTHER animals may have come from this odd-looking and primitive fish with too many fins for it to handle and scales only prehistoric ocean dwellers seem to have. The deep-sea dweller considered an endangered species and only a thousand or so are known of individually (though it's not shocking). It's many lobe-finned fins move like limbs, and it's teeth has enamel similar to amphibians, reptiles, and other mammals. Its body is like no other living animal. I feel like an excited idiot and I really wish I could do a big important project on this guy. I'm also aware of other fossil fish, still wandering the oceans and other fish/creatures long gone but closely related to Coelacanth (like the Tiktaalik, around in the same period [ Devonian Period ]) but... For some reason this fish really made me think. xD Maybe its appearance is just so shocking.

Ref: National Geographic, Yahoo, PBS, Show, Myself

Till next time.

-RB

Nickel Creek Rant - [[Final Music Project]]

Nickel Creek, (Left to right) Sean Watkins, Sara Watkins, Chris Thile

When In Rome - Nickel Creek

Prepare for a nice long rant.
A couple years ago I discovered this amazing bluegrass/acoustic (also have been called "Progressive Acoustic" and "Newgrass") group named Nickel Creek. Well, by discovered I mean " was introduced to". I had this music teacher that I just loved to death. At that point in my life I was in the almost constant phase this generation has; The "I don't like this style of music, therefore I do not like this song even though I've never heard it. And when you play it, I won't listen because I already KNOW I won't like it" phase. Luckily I'm out of this phase now. But at the time, our music teacher would always show these random songs to us and that day he decided to introduce Nickel Creek's absolutely heart-wrenching Lighthouse Tale. When I heard it it was like WHABAMSMACKINTHEFACE, and I fell in love with the music, especially after he also played another song (what I wouldn't give to be able to jump back in time to see it live!) called The Fox, where the lead singer shows off his incredible and beautiful mandolin skills (No seriously, I even managed to shock my dad with this dude's skills! Should've seen his face!) Both of these songs opened a lot of doors for me and if it hadn't been for this music teacher and his class... Well... I'd probably still be stuck in that ignorant phase. Now I don't like music by genre, I like it by the song itself. I won't tell anyone I don't like a style of music, cos I have not HEARD every song that fits into that "genre", so it wouldn't make sense to think so, you know? I'm more open-minded in my music taste than anything else.
Anyways... After hearing some of Nickel Creek's music just recently and borrowing someone's Nickel Creek CDs, I did a little research on the group and learned a lot of things I never knew about the members and the music itself.  As it turns out, they all grew up together and they've been making music together since they were just children! They released only a few albums and singles while they were together as a band. What I find interesting is that they're a group made up of only 3 main people; A guy named Chris Thile (I think it's pronounced  Thee-lee) who plays a mean mandolin (seriously, this dude's got talent!) and has lead vocals, Sara Watkins on fiddle and violin, and her brother Sean on guitar. After listening to a few songs from different albums they've released, I've decided that even though every album has a little different style (even with the same instruments), they always manage to keep that obvious Bluegrass flavor. I think it's like this because they grew up with this music during their childhood in Southern California, and it became something like second nature. They truly are incredible! Only a couple of their songs have actual music videos, and my favorite video and favorite song is When In Rome (video above), which I've probably listened to a couple hundred times already. -Cough- Honestly, listen to it! Just listen to the lyrics and you'll get where I'm coming from, pffftt.
Moving on... These guys have won many awards together, and just themselves it seems. I really do think they deserve it. Hell, they deserve to show up in a more modern music textbook. I'd friggen write the page up myself if that's what's needed to get it done! Often times I listen to acoustic groups and I find myself thinking in the back of my mind, "this is MISSING something. It's sure pretty, but there's holes in it". But with Nickel Creek, I rarely have that feeling, you know? None at all. Their music feels full of life and there is nothing missing. Their sound is so simple but so... Hell... NOT simple. I tried explaining this group and their style(s) to a friend of mine several times, but when I actually had her listen to some songs she told me, "Wow, this is NOT how I imagined this group".  It was a big shock. Am I terrible at explaining things or is Nickel Creek just their own sound and unexplainable? I like to think it's the latter, but I don't really know for sure. I would love it if people like my friend would just LISTEN to them, then more people knew about them. In the 3-4 years I've listened to them, I've only met one person who actually listens to them and at least knows of them. I think it could be a pretty easy transition for country lovers, really. They're songs can be just as raw as normal country songs, and people can relate to the songs just as well. Especially the love songs they seem to have a lot of, including the sad love songs and more serious ones. People can really relate to songs like that. This group has even worked with the beloved Alison Krauss! If that doesn't prove their worth, I don't know what will. (If you're reading this and you've never heard of Alison Krauss, you are dead to me). I also want to mention that I find that Nickel Creek is lot better than a lot of bluegrass groups I've heard, because they would stray from their bluegrass roots with no problem and always manage to go back. What is terrible (for me at least), is that this group broke up quite awhile before I became interested in them, and now all the members are flying solo. I would love to see them all together live, oh what I wouldn't GIVE to see it! But that's ship's long sailed. Ah well, maybe I could go see Chris Thile live sometime? I believe he was in town a month or so ago, so chances are he'll come back sometime!
Well, that's about all I've got to say about Nickel Creek. Listen to them, 'kay? Only then can you begin to understand my instant attachment to them. Heck, listen to OTHER groups and songs you never would have listened to before, because only then can you stop and think about what kind of music you've been missing out on just because you're following what everyone else listens to and stubbornly hanging on to one type of music.

Till next time.

-RB