A remarkable life: Dame Jane Goodall has died, aged 91

photo via the Jane Goodall Institute

{AP 1 October} Jane Goodall, conservationist known for chimpanzee research, dies at 91

Jane Goodall, born in London on 3 April 1934, has assured her place among England’s immortals. By decamping to the steaming tangles of Gombe and mucking in with the apes, this great lady unravelled the smug fiction that man was some sacred, tool-wielding exception. Her chimps whittled sticks, formed alliances, and wept for their dead — and with that, the neat wall between ‘us’ and ‘them’ crumbled.

But Jane Goodall was not content to scribble footnotes for zoologists; she spent the rest of her life pleading with the world not to turn every last scrap of wilderness into a strip-mine. Noble work, doomed of course, given the human talent for short-sighted vandalism.

Still, there’s something touching in her stubbornness — a luminous, bloody-minded emblem of curiosity, decency, and hope, however misplaced. She is gone now, and the planet is no less doomed for her efforts, but infinitely richer for her having tried. Rest in peace, dear lady. —Arthur Newhook, 1 October 2025.

Copyright 2025, Arthur Newhook. On X-TWITTER: @Sunking278 and @DollsFallen. REDDIT - https://www.reddit.com/user/SiberianKhatru278/. BLUESKY - @arthurnewhook.bsky.social. FULL LIST OF LINKS - linktr.ee/arthurnewhook. DONATIONS GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED on Cash App ($ANewhook), PayPal (paypal.me/Sunking278), and at https://tinyurl.com/ArthurNewhook.

From the official Pink Floyd site on YouTube and in conjunction with the Perth Observatory, the Ningaloo eclipse in Exmouth, Western Australia, set to ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ in its entirety

AI generated image

Having just watched this incredible footage as I post, and being a bit groggy at six in the morning as I lay here in my bed, I can tell you that it is a very moving experience. Almost as amazing as the wonders of nature is how the collective piece of music such as ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ - or Led Zeppelin’s ‘Kashmir,’ or any number of great symphonic pieces across a range of rock, jazz, and classical subgenres - can retain its majesty and its power across - quite literally - thousands of listens over the course of decades. Also, how certain artists from the Progressive Rock era of the 70s - David Gilmour, Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, to name a few - continue to find ways to remain innovative in their old age, and are still among the most ‘progressive’ musical artists alive today. 

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and POST - @arthurnewhook.