Quarantine entry #84 - June 13

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and that is why the media is doing their best to create their own… one that is even worse. No, I am not talking about ‘Artemis Fowl-2020’ – we’ve already talked about it; I wouldn’t say that it is ‘Cats-2019’-level bad, but it is still a disaster, and one that Disney & Disney+ were glad to get over with – it could’ve been the launch of a new franchise, but instead, it’s just a dumpster fire and it is over now. What next?

While Disney+ epically failed with ‘Artemis Fowl’, (it made even the ‘John Carter’ movie look good, in my opinion), the other mass media outlets do something else – release a metaphorical torrent of news about cops acting badly. Sigh. Their actions may look convincing, but I cannot help but to feel that this is not quite what the real situation in the U.S. is, period. What next?

Let us talk about wild donkeys instead, or wild asses, though I am not certain if that term is PC enough. As they were mentioned before, these animals are close relatives of zebras, very distant – of rhinos and tapirs, and middling to horses, hence why donkey-horse hybrids, (mules, etc.) are sterile. Zebra-donkey hybrids are less known, but they occur in captivity, because in the wild, wild asses and zebras do not really interbreed. Why?

Well, firstly, what are the wild asses/donkeys? There is the African wild ass, Equus africanus, (two subspecies). It – well, its’ Nubian subspecies – is the most likely ancestor of the domestic animal. The wild Nubian ass is considered to be extinct, by the way, while its’ cousin the Somali wild ass is critically endangered, and it lives on the African Red Sea coast, where few, if any, zebras are found instead.

The other two wild donkey species are Asian animals instead. They are the kiang, (or the Tibetan wild ass, Equus kiang, 3 subspecies), and the onager or the Asian wild ass proper, (Equus hemionus, 5 subspecies). There are no species of zebras in Asia, so they are clear from hybridization. Pause. What next?

While the rhinoceros species of the world are all doing badly, with the wild asses, the situation is more heterogeneous. The African wild ass is critically endangered, as it was said before, but the onager is ‘only’ near threatened and the kiang is actually ‘least concern’, as far as IUCN and the like are concerned. Go donkeys! In the world, where people are going stupidly insane, the donkey, which used to be a near synonym for being stubborn and/or stupid, seems to be fairly well, on some level at least. There are even some specialized pet breeds of domestic donkey in the modern world, so this version of the African wild ass seems to be doing well.

…Of course, it all might have to do with good karma or the like – in particular, in the New Testament portion of the Bible, the donkey is considered to be one of the ‘good’ or ‘sacred’ animals, so, who knows? Maybe there is some substance behind the style?

…Then again, the same could be said about the 2020 ‘Artemis Fowl’ movie – while its’ plot seems to be really thin, the movie’s style almost becomes substance on a certain level, giving AF at least some positive aspects. …And also JG’s performance and looks – he appears to be almost a variant Hagrid, I reckon. No offense to dame Judy Dench, but this is not her best appearance slash performance; it is not ‘Cats-2019’, but neither is it anything good.

What is good are ‘Barkskins’ on NatGeo, but people are largely ignoring them for whatever reasons, and that’s just weird. Ah well, it is also real life. It sucks.

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon instead!