Chubby Cubbie.*

He's getting so big, it takes all 4 of mama's paws to manhandle him around.



* According to Chinese tradition, baby pandas are not to be given their names until they are 100 days old, so he's "Cubbie" for now.

His Eyes Are Open!

Whose eyes? You have to ask??



He yawned during part of his examination today, but let out quite a loud squawk when they gave him his first vaccination. Check out the video.

I Had To Be Nuts.

With a smile (or is that a grimace of pain?) on my face somewhere around mile 8 of the 10.6 mile walk.

Got the postcard in the mail today exclaiming that it was my LAST CHANCE!! to order 2009 Big Sur Marathon photos. And since I am way too cheap to pay their prices, we have a watermark. So sue me.

Anyone recognize the T-shirt?

Sacrilege!

Let Pandas Die out, Says Naturalist

Conservationists should "pull the plug" on giant pandas and let them die out, according to BBC presenter and naturalist Chris Packham.
...
The 48-year-old believes that money spent on conserving the panda would be better invested in other animals as the species is not strong enough to survive alone.

Well... he's entitled to his opinion, but needless to say, I do not share it.

Sure, a lot of money is being spent, and the bandwidth bill alone for the San Diego Zoo pandacam that I can't stop watching is probably more than my monthly rent... but dang it, there's something incredibly refreshing to the spirit to see these great big adorable fuzzballs in action. And that you cannot put a price tag on.

Dear Mister Packham: Can you look into those faces and wish them dead? Really? Honestly? Then you are a heartless b***ard, I say.

Growing Like A Weed.

Here is a shot taken just 1 month earlier, for comparison. I think the lil' rascal has at least doubled in size since then.

Me And Carbonite, Day 11

So I decided to succumb to the daily TV advertising and try Carbonite risk-free for 14 days.

I already back up all of my most important stuff to an external hard drive... but unless you carry that external hard drive off-site (which is kind of hard to do when it lives where you do), the same theoretical future disaster that turns your computer into melted slag will perform the same service for that external HD, at no extra charge.

One could, I suppose, park the external HD in a fireproof safe of some sort, but unhooking it from the computer and putting it there, and then getting it out again every time I needed to change a file (which happens daily) was just a little too much for my tolerance.

So, an online solution.

At $54.95 a YEAR, Carbonite sounded like a real bargain to me, so I tried it out.

It took 11 days for the first backup to complete, i.e. the full backup, because due to ISP bandwidth limitations it could only handle about 3 gigs a day. However... when I got up this morning, the backup was complete, with 3 whole days remaining on the free trial. From now on, it will only back up changed or new files--and it will all happen automatically, with no input needed from me.

And don't tell anybody... but I figured out (thanks to instructions published by some enterprising soul) how to "fool" it into thinking my main external hard drive is actually an internal drive, and thus eligible for backup. (Carbonite promises USB external hard drive support someday, but not right now.)

So now all of my important files are stored off-site, at a secure location--and available to be downloaded on any computer that has an internet connection. So next time I'm off gallivanting around in some undisclosed location and I simply MUST listen to "The Ballad of Serenity" or any other song that I don't have with me, I can simply go to my online backup files and retrieve it, from anywhere in the world.

Check Out This Little Bruiser.

All of 48 days old.

Peeky-BOO!

Okay, I'm getting tired of this game. Mom, would you come and get this leaf out of my face?



MOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!

News From The World Of Science

I am not a scientist, nor do I play one on TV. The following was printed in our local newspaper yesterday. For some reason I cannot find the original article from the LA Times. I offer this for your perusal.

Physics beats scare tactics
Cell phones cannot give you cancer
By THOMAS H. MAUGH II
Los Angeles Times

In the most recent instance of the triumph of wishful thinking over basic physics, a "collaboration of international EMF activists" this month released a report repeating the tired argument that "cell phones cause brain tumors." Their evidence: Studies discrediting the link between cell phone radiation and tumors were funded by telecommunications companies, which deliberately excluded data that might have shown a link.

Many people probably first heard about the "risk" of cell phones when David Raynard, whose wife died of brain cancer, appeared on "Larry King Live" in 1993 to support his lawsuit claiming that the tumor had been caused by her cell phone. His evidence: "She held it against her head and talked on it all the time."

More recently, King hosted three neurosurgeons who said they would never place a cell phone against their head because of the risk. They may be good neurosurgeons, but apparently they flunked physics.

Read the rest of the article

Smile...

... you're on candid Pandacam!



Now wave at the camera!



Is this a better angle? Do you like my little chinny-chin-chin?



Enough! No more pictures today, please!

The Hits Just Keep On Coming.

A special moment, among many, between mama and baby.

Baby Learns New Trick

While mama is away...



... Mmm. Front paw doesn't taste too bad.

Bath Time... Again!

Disclaimer

A kind commenter complimented me on "my" pictures of the baby panda bear.

I cannot honestly say they are "my" pictures; I am only grabbing screen-captures of adorable baby moments on the San Diego Zoo's live pandacam, and sharing them with the rest of you.

I have no connection whatsoever with the San Diego Zoo; in fact, to the best of my recollection, I have not actually been there, on their premises, since somewhere in the mid 1960s. That, of course, was LONG before any giant pandas came to live there.

And just for the fun of it... here is what baby is doing right now, cradled in mama's big front paw:

Yawning, Or Yelling For Mama?

She came back into the den about half a minute after this screen capture was taken.



And then the poor little guy had to endure yet another mama-bear spit-bath!

I Surrender!

Just after mama bear gave the baby a bath....

See How He's Growing

Screen caps blatantly snatched from the San Diego Zoo's latest panda blog video. Yes, he does have all of his toes.



The lil' guy's eyes aren't even open yet.



The information from the zoo's latest entries tells us that the black coloring is actually skin pigmentation; what little fur the lil' guy has is still all white.

It's A Boy.

Who's a boy? Why, he whose baby pictures I have been posting incessantly, making this blog all bears, all the time.... He also weighs nearly 3 pounds at age 4 weeks, and is nearly 15 inches long. Big growth spurt there, from the size of a stick of butter when he was hatched 4 weeks ago....

In other news, I'm home, I'm fried, I'm going straight to sleep. Concerts were both fabulous. There may or may not be pictures later. Don't hold your breath.

Those Bears... Again

Planes, Trains, Automobiles

Not in that order, though.

Got up yesterday at 4 a.m. Took a taxi, took a plane, took another plane, took a bus, took another bus, took a train, took another train--and here I am at the Westin Hotel in downtown Dallas. This is the place with an ice rink in the atrium. It's hot and muggy here. I wonder if they'd let me go roll around on the ice....

(Actually, I'm at the Corner Bakery where they have spotty-but-free wi-fi, as opposed to the not-so-spotty-but-pricey hotel wi-fi.)

Tonight the Moody Blues play the first show of a double-header with the Dallas Symphony. Bob arranged a fan gathering in the restaurant at the symphony center before tomorrow night's show; we're expecting at least 50 people there, from all over the country and maybe folks from other places as well.

Did I mention we have front row seats? I have some great friends.... :)