Giant pandas

When I asked my daughter what she was most excited about seeing in  China, she replied immediately, "Pandas."

First, baby panda cuteness.


Giant panda males are filmed in the wild by David Attenborough for the BBC, as they mark their territory. Pandas live solitary lives in the wild:


This great National Geographic documentary "Young Explorers: Secrets of the Wild Panda" gives a lot of detail about how pandas live in the wild, (see the whole thing here).
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It has proven very difficult for pandas in captivity to breed or for their babies to survive their first year.  Their wild habitat has been so degraded by human expansion that  one in ten pandas now lives in captivity, as various places attempt to breed pandas in captivity in ways that might ensure their survival. All pandas on loan from China, and any of their offspring, must be returned to China eventually.

The biologist Professor Pan Wenshi has dedicated himself to studying pandas in the wild, and his research has been very important for improving the care of pandas in captivity with the hopes of releasing more pandas into the wild.

The baby panda is born about the size of a stick of butter, naked and blind. Within three weeks its eyes will open and it gains weight rapidly. One discovery from studying baby pandas in the wild is that the mother will leave the cub for hours to feed on bamboo; this was mistakenly interpreted as abandonment, and cubs were taken from the mothers, but did not thrive. Now, zoos have better understanding of how mothers care for cubs, and some zoos that have more successfully raised cubs recently include the Smithsonian, Atlanta, San Diego, Madrid, and zoos in Thailand and Japan.

Pan Wenshi's work has shown that habitat conservation is crucial to panda survival. His own imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution has shaped his drive to study pandas in the wild. He also showed how species conservation is directly linked to alleviating human poverty in a region to relieve pressure on habitat. In addition to pandas, Prof. Pan has contributed to the conservation of other species such as langurs and dolphins.

Waiting for the SYTYCD spoilers...

Usually at this time, the spoilers start to pop up. But the big news today has been that Twitch and Josh both were hospitalized on Saturday for dehydration, and later released.

Fox announced that 2 of the top 4 dancers had been hospitalized for dehydration on Saturday, but didn't say who (as it is against the law to release medical information without permission). Then an unaffiliated source later spilled the beans that it was the two guys, Twitch and Josh:

"Boss and Allen were treated for dehydration and released, the source adds. Fox had no comment."

Although I have seen no direct source for this, a reliable commenter at TWoP says they were rehearsing a Russian character dance, so they were probably being tortured with those Russian deep knee bend traveling steps that burn up your quads.

Cue rant: These poor dancers have been driven into the ground by the demands of this show: a group dance, two new routines, solos every week for the last few weeks, and more! lifts! for the guys. I hope that all of the final four got a rest and ate a lot this weekend. I hope the show has a massage therapist on staff. I wonder if they have a meal table the way football players do?

Apparently dancers from seasons past will be performing during the last show, along with the Jonas Brothers (gag me). I hope the judges showcase other dancers in the top 20 or at least the top 10 for their "favorite dances" and give the top 4 a break.

Time for a LOL break.


There is a great So You Think You Can LOL thread over at Idol forums.

Thank you to Mademoiselle Lyss for creating SO UR DOIN IT WRONG, a blog where you can see more SYTYCD Lols.

Leee! over at Television! You Black Emperor is the undisputed master of LOLCat Deelys, so I'm expecting something with Cat wearing Twitch's grill any day now. No pressure or anything.
UPDATE:
Yay! Leee once again shows us how it's done.