The Pyrenean Ibex Extincted By A Falling Tree!

WTF is a Pyrenean Ibex you might ask?

The Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica), Spanish common name bucardo, was one of the four subspecies of the Spanish ibex or Iberian wild goat, a species endemic to the Iberian Peninsula. Pyrenean ibex were most common in the Cantabrian Mountains, Southern France, and the northern Pyrenees. The Pyrenean ibex was one of four subspecies of the Iberian ibex. The first to become extinct was the Portuguese ibex (Capra pyrenaica lusitanica) in 1892. The Pyrenean ibex was the second, with the last individual, a female called Celia, found dead on January 6, 2000. Although her cause of death is known (she was killed by a fallen tree), the reason for the extinction of the subspecies as a whole is a mystery. Some hypotheses include the inability to compete with other species for food, infections and diseases, and poaching. (Wikipedia Link).

Weirdly interesting, huh? Please share your thoughts.

In The Year 2000

So, the year 2000 is now here. Planes did not drop out of the sky. Computers did not stop working, shutting down the electrical grid and sending us back into a pre-modern technological era. Not that I was worried, mind you.

I did wonder, however, if computer programmers were not smart enough to allocate 4 digits for the year, or if they were incredibly smart... setting up a situation where they'd have to do (millions?) of man-hours of work "fixing" a problem they intentionally created. Thereby providing job security.

Anyway, did you know that the year 2000 is a century leap year?

In the Gregorian calendar, an end-of-century leap year (often referred to as a century leap year) is a year that is exactly divisible by 400 and, as with every other leap year, qualifies for the intercalation of February 29 ("intercalation" is the insertion of a leap day, week, or month into some calendar years to make the calendar follow the seasons or moon phases). End-of-century years that are not divisible by exactly 400 are common years. The years 2000 and 2400 for example, are end-of-century leap years in a century with 36,525 days, while 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2500, and 2600 are common years in a century with 36,524 days. (Wikipedia Link).

Interesting, right? Please share your thoughts.

Longplayer

So, I was poking around Wikipedia and I found the following article, which I found quite interesting.

Longplayer is a piece of music that is designed to last for one thousand years. It started to play on 1/1/2000, and if all goes as planned, it will continue without repetition until 12/31/2999. It will restart on that date. Longplayer is based on an existing piece of music, 20 minutes and 20 seconds in length, which is processed by computer using a simple algorithm. This gives a large number of variations, which, when played consecutively, gives a total expected runtime of 1000 years. The original music was composed by Jem Finer, who was also one of the founding members of the group The Pogues. It uses Tibetan singing bowls and gongs, which are able to create a range of sounds by either striking or rolling pieces of wood around the rims. This source music was recorded in December 1999. It was commissioned by Artangel. Longplayer could be heard in the relaxation zone of the Millennium Dome in London during its year of opening in 2000. The piece was also played in the 19th century lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf and other public listening posts in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Egypt, where it can still be heard today. It can also be heard via an Icecast Internet stream, hosted (as of 2008) by Greenwich-based SPC. (Wikipedia Link).

Please share your thoughts.

Extreme Loonacy Is Now Open For Commenting

Extreme Loonacy is now accepting comments.