#RDPDAILYPROMPT2025

A Dire Question

/ animar64 / 4 Comments

I wasn’t going to weigh in on this particular topic but in the end I had to because I love Wolves.

When I was 10 years old and our class was doing reports on our favorite animals, I did mine on the Dire Wolf and I got an ‘ A’.  I slaved my heart out working on that report and this was in 1973- google didn’t exist then.

Dire Wolf Skeleton (Aenocyon dirus)

As you may have heard, Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences announced it has successfully created three dire wolf pups using ancient DNA and gene-editing technology.

I was curious who this company is and found out that Colossal is the highest valued company based in Dallas, Texas at $10.2 billion. That figure is as impressive as their website which looks like a promo for a movie:

Many companies claim they’re going to change the world.
At Colossal, we believe that the world doesn’t need to be changed.

THE WORLD
NEEDS TO
BE HEALED.

Cave hyena (Crocuta crocuta spelaea) painting
Chauvet Cave

That’s a sexy headline, isn’t it?

You know what’s not sexy? One of it’s investors said she got the 411 on one of Colossal Biosciences from Elon Musk- you know the guy who want to go to Mars but his rockets keep blowing up.

As the debate about bringing back exitince animals ramps up,  I’d have to ask myself, who would gain the most from bringing back Woolly Mammoths, Saber Tooth Tigers, and Dire Wolves?

Obviously the companies involved with the breeding,  housing and keeping the animals.

Given the cost of caring and feeding and  paying for the insurance for these animals would not be cheap- PROFIT is going to be a BIG DEAL here,  so I doubt if families are going to pack their kids into a car or on a plane so they could go and feed a Woolly Mammoth or a Giant Sloth.

So who would get to visit these exotic high maintenance and valuable animals?

Well consider:

  • Axiom Space revealed the three private citizens who paid $55 million each to go to the International Space Station
  • Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic offers tickets to space for $450,000

    “Lions hunting Bison, Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave, France. Upper Paleolithic, c.35000 BCE …

  • Exploring the Titanic wreckage site is one of a number of expensive experiences the wealthy take part in.
  • A submersible plunging the depths of the Atlantic went missing during a tour that costs $250,000.

But would there be  enough of these rich people to fund these ” zoos “?  Disney makes bank on tourists from various economic classes  but look at all of the sites and amenities they have to offer. A working class family could  and do swing it because they’re getting bang for their buck.

Unless you have  herds of Woolly Mammoths,  armies Dire Wolves and a Prides of Saber Tooth Tigers (whose mission in life would be to hunt  the animals  Colossal Biosciences  wants to bring back from extinction)  roaming around the Park waiting to get their pictures taken- it seems like an iffy kind of deal for a family.

So in the end I’m thinking the people who would go back again and again and again, who would spend a week chasing after these animals-

would be

Big Game Hunters with very deep pockets.

In my mind, the safest place for these animals that have gone extinct maybe on a shelf in a museum or a quiet and  undisturbed grave.

Royal BC Museum: Victoria BC
Photo A.M. Moscoso

FOR RDP TUESDAY: ENGAGE

Will For Free

/ animar64 / Leave a comment

RDP Thursday Prompt:  free will

Isn’t it a sad thing

when you realize that the only way you can truly be free

of this word and of all of it’s rules and expectations

is if nobody notices you

if you fly, skate or crawl under the radar

if you have a voice that nobody hears and a face that nobody remembers.

The Wall

/ animar64 / 5 Comments

Years ago when Facebook became a thing, I posted something about George W Bush and the Iraq war.

One of my relatives commented PROPAGANDA! And he never visited my wall again.

In fact, we stopped speaking after he left that comment on my FB wall.

Over the years I saw him love and like some very narrow minded posts about politics, gun control and race on my other relatives wall’s. Go figure. We all crawled out of the same gene pool  but here we are. We all have different points of view- major ones.

Now when I run across his name on my ancestry.com tree I think to myself maybe I should send him a Christmas card this year.

But I haven’t and I am sure I never will.

I still love him, but i don’t miss him.

Family relationships are never black and white.

AI Artwork Creator Unknown: Werewolf

RDP Friday: BLACK AND WHITE

The Ghost of Rock and Roll

/ animar64 / Leave a comment

Inspried by the RDP Prompt: SOUL

I got in a few conversations about the Death of Rock and Roll and just as I was about to write an obituary and set up a grave stone for it I remembered something.

My Grandparents taught me to sing all of these old songs from the 1920’s up to the 1940’s. They even taught me slang from that Era and the phrase ” Bees Knees and Cat’s Pajamas ” are  part of my lexicon.

Most of the songs they taught me have turned up on youtube or other sites, but I actually have most of the songs I like on tape ( lol- yes you read that right ) and vinyl.

But my point is, that music hasn’t died in my world because my Grandparents  taught those songs to me, they danced with me when those tunes were on the radio. Those old songs still  have a pulse.

I have a Granddaughter and slowly but surely I am doing the same thing. This was the first one I taught her ( with the help of Alexa ) :

Take out the papers and the trash
Or you don’t get no spendin’ cash
If you don’t scrub that kitchen floor
You ain’t gonna rock and roll no more
Yakety yak (don’t talk back)
Just finish cleanin’ up your room
Let’s see that dust fly with that broom
Get all that garbage out of sight
Or you don’t go out Friday night
Yakety yak (don’t talk back)
You just put on your coat and hat
And walk yourself to the laundromat
And when you finish doin’ that
Bring in the dog and put out the cat
Yakety yak (don’t talk back)
Don’t you give me no dirty looks
Your father’s hiphe knows what cooks
Just tell your hoodlum friend outside
You ain’t got time to take a ride
Yakety yak (don’t talk back)
Yakety yak, yakety yak
Yakety yak, yakety yak
Yakety yak, yakety yak
Yakety yak, yakety yak

 

Photo A.M. Moscoso

One song- as I learned it from my Grandma Ginger and the other version is what happened to it when it hit my generation. You know, my Grandparents would have approved. They  would have said Joan Jett was cooking with gas when she did her version of this song:

Birds do it, bees do it
Even educated fleas do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

In Spain the best upper sets do it
Lithuanians and Latts do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

The Dutch in old Amsterdam do it
Not to mention the Finns
Folks in Siam do it
Think of Siamese twins

Some Argentines, without means do it
People say in Boston even beans do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

Romantic sponges they say do it
Oysters down in Oyster Bay do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

Cold Cape Cod clams, ‘gainst their wish, do it
Even lazy jellyfish do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

Electric eels, I might add, do it
Though it shocks ’em I know
Why ask if shad do it
Waiter, bring me shadroe

In shallow shoals, English soles do it
Goldfish in the privacy of bowls do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

When the little bluebird 
Who has never said a word 
Starts to sing Spring
When the little bluebell 
At the bottom of the dell 
Starts to ring Ding dong Ding dong 
When the little blue clerk 
In the middle of his work 
Starts a tune to the moon up above 
It is nature that is all 
Simply telling us to fall in love 

And that's why birds do it, bees do it 
Even educated fleas do it 
Let's do it, let's fall in love 

Cold Cape Cod clams, 'gainst their wish, do it 
Even lazy jellyfish do it 
Let's do it, let's fall in love 

I've heard that lizards and frogs do it 
Layin' on a rock 
They say that roosters do it 
With a doodle and cock 

Some Argentines, without means do it 
I hear even Boston beans do it 
Let's do it, let's fall in love 

When the little bluebird 
Who has never said a word 
Starts to sing Spring spring spring 
When the little bluebell 
At the bottom of the dell 
Starts to ring Ding ding ding 
When the little blue clerk 
In the middle of his work 
Starts a tune 

The most refined lady bugs do it 
When a gentleman calls 
Moths in your rugs they do it 
What's the use of moth balls 

The chimpanzees in the zoos do it, 
Some courageous kangaroos do it 
Let's do it, let's fall in love 

I'm sure sometimes on the sly you do it 
Maybe even you and I might do it 
Let's do it, let's fall in love
Let's do it, let's fall in love