Bittersweet

Tai Shan, who was born over 4 years ago at the National Zoo, is moving to China next week. "His" humans will surely miss him.


(Image gratefully borrowed from Somesai at Flickr)

Best Line Of The Evening

"Ginny and I were going to start a procrastinators' club, but we never got around to it."

Sawdust Is Fun!

Sawdust-rolling is hungry (and thirsty) work.



Apparently it's a rather tiring proposition, as well.

Gully-Washing

If you see a large wooden boat taking shape in the front yard, you'll know why. I'm just sayin'.

Meanwhile... anybody got a snorkel and flippers I can borrow?

Baby Bear Gets Body-Slammed Again.

And some other stuff.

This movie consists of some brief clips from this morning's antics. I haven't taken the time to learn any fancy movie-editing techniques, so the transitions are nonexistent, plus Movie Maker apparently has no way to put text right into a frame. So here's the script, as I see it.

First... Yun Zi is minding his own business, when Mom just plows him under. He barely gets back on his feet when she goes by again--and you can see him back off so he doesn't get knocked down again.

Then he climbs onto the water fountain. He asks Mom how to get down, and she tells him, you got up there, you can get yourself down. So eventually (and a lot of footage has been cut out of the middle) he does get down--snout first.

Finally, he's sitting on the platform (which is also a scale) when a keeper comes into the room and tries to bribe him with treats. He plays coy for a while. Eventually the keeper picks him up and carries him out, presumably to put him into the public exhibit for his morning showing.

Enjoy!

UPDATE: Youtube has a means for putting captions into videos, so I made use of that.

A Word To The Wise Bear...

... do NOT climb into Mama Bear's water fountain.

Yesterday, Yun Zi learned that getting up is easier than getting down, and he never actually did figure out how to get down by himself, because Bai Yun apparently wanted a drink, and took matters into her own paws. Twice. Splat! Ouch!

Just Hangin' Out In The Tree.

It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

Baby Bear Climbs Mount Mom.

Immediately following which she rolls him off and does zerberts on his tummy.



Shortly followed by the dreaded under-the-chin koochie-koochies.

Press Debut

Mama and baby were introduced to the world-wide press yesterday. The little guy lost his grip and went splat shortly after this image was captured.



You can see that fall (and the fact that he got right up when he landed) on this video. The whoopsie happens right at about 2:18:



Again, I ask... was there ever such cute-i-tude ever, anywhere in the whole wide world?

He Goes Public Tomorrow.

I don't have to tell you who "he" is, do I??

I may get a chance to get down there myself in a couple of months, and see Himself in person. Woo-hoo!

Quality Time

I really hope one of the other Pandacam watchers caught the recent antics on video, because just a few minutes ago, His Chubbiness was climbing around on that log and plank arrangement you can see in the background--and then he faw down go boom, while Mama snoozed away in the foreground. If I can get it, I will of course post it.

As a side note... the particular yard Mama and Baby are playing in is called the "classroom" and is not visible to the public. Baby hasn't gone out on public exhibit yet. Apparently Mama herself will decide when it's time, and haul him out there herself.

You Just Can't Get Good Help Anymore.

Today's earth-shattering news headline:

Snowflakes on Christmas Cards Drawn Wrong.

In pop culture depictions, snowflakes are usually drawn inaccurately, an expert now says. Snowflakes are six-cornered, rather than the four-, five- and eight-cornered crystals typically depicted in children's books, Christmas cards and even in an ad for a science magazine.

Thomas Koop of Bielefeld University in Germany noticed the frosty mistake on a subscription advertisement for the scientific journal Nature that contained octagonal snow crystals in the background.

"Ironically it was entitled '...for anyone who loves science,'" Koop said. Bringing the irony full circle, Koop's commentary on the subject is published in the Dec. 24 issue of Nature.

Snowflakes are made of water molecules that link up via hydrogen bonds. The best and most efficient way to arrange themselves is a hexagonal crystal lattice, Koop explained. So rather than eight sides, snowflakes are bound by physical laws to take on a six-sided shape.

And if that weren't enough, raindrops are also inaccurately depicted.

"The shape of falling rain drops is depicted incorrectly in almost any (children's) book that I know of," Koop said. "Most often, they are drawn in a teardrop-like shape, a kind of pinnacle at the top and round at the bottom."

He added, "However, in reality cloud droplets are spherical because of water's surface tension and falling rain drops are somewhat flattened at the bottom (depending on their fall speed), because of the resistance they feel as they fall through the air (similar to the drag that you feel in your face when you bike)."

Is there nothing sacred anymore?

Was There Ever Such Cute-itude?

Ever? Anywhere in the world?

Mama Bai Yun plays helicopter with baby Yun Zi.

Not To Be Outdone

In the cuteness department that is.

This is Zhen-Zhen, "Yunior's" big sister.

Testing His Teeth

The keepers assure us that he isn't actually eating that bamboo just yet....

Just Whose Brilliant Idea Was This, Anyway?

Timing. Bureaucratic timing.

They're tearing up the streets. Right by the mall. Right before Christmas.

I tried to run an errand today. Have a look at the map. You can see the most direct route from point A to point B--but a crucial street near point A is completely blocked for construction right now. The route I was forced to take is shown (sort of) in green. As you can see, it goes clear off the map in a couple of places.

Why didn't I take some of those in-between streets? Because they don't go through, that's why. Amazing as it may seem, the route I took was indeed the most direct route to my destination.

Adding insult to injury, when I got to point B--they were closed! So after all that, my trip was a complete waste of time.

Good thing I know the streets very, very well.

Can you tell I'm seriously annoyed right about now?

A 17-Pound Bruiser

Trying to escape the keeper's custody during his veterinary exam yesterday .

No Expiration Date On This Kind Of Cute.

And if you look closely, you can even see the little black spot at the tip of his tail.

Brilliant!

Quoted at Wizbang, posted at Brutally Honest, by guest blogger Locutisprime, quoting an e-mail from a friend. (Did you follow all that? S'okay; neither did I.)

To the editor:

I don't understand why the White House is so upset about the two party crashers at Barack Obama's steak dinner the other night.

Is it really appropriate and politically correct to call them party crashers just because they trespassed on Mr. Obama? Does that make them criminals? Isn't that discrimination? Shouldn't they be rewarded for such bold and brave behavior? Maybe they were just trying to feed their family?

I would suggest that it's more appropriate to call them "undocumented guests."

Just because they weren't officially invited doesn't mean they should be treated like criminals. Maybe they should get free health care, free housing, free legal services and free White House green cards so next time they can enter legally. And they should be able to bring all of their relatives and family members, too.

How can Mr. Obama be mad at them just because they crossed over some arbitrary man-made border? They were there only to do the things that regularly invited guests didn't want to do. (Like hang out with Joe Biden.)

How can the White House punish these poor oppressed undocumented visitors?

Abso-freaking-lutely brilliant. Now why, oh why, didn't I think of that??

He's Walking.

And surely, no one needs to ask "who?"

This video was captured about 4 days ago on the live Pandacam: