Are_grits_groceries
Are_grits_groceries's JournalBrown Panda!
BEIJING, Aug. 26 (UPI) -- A rare brown-and-white panda is being studied at a wildlife center in China where scientists say they're trying to solve the puzzle of its unusual color.
The four-year-old male, named Qizai ("Little Seven"
, is one of only five brown pandas discovered since 1985 and the only one in captivity, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Monday.
Qizai was first spotted as a two-month-old cub in a mountainous region of Shaanxi Province -- the only known area to contain brown pandas -- nearly four years ago. Around 20 percent of China's total panda population, around 300 animals, live in the region, researchers said. One expert who has been conducting research in the region for 20 years suggests brown pandas may be a result of a recessive gene and inbreeding.
"The habitat in the Qinling Mountains is seriously fragmented and the population density is very high," Tiejun Wang, a spatial ecologist at the University of Twente in Enschede, the Netherlands, was quoted as saying by the journal Nature. "The brown pandas could be an indication of local inbreeding."
Panda keepers at the Foping Natural Nature Reserve research center, Qizai's home, plan to mate him next year to see whether he can pass on the gene, Xinhua reported.
Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2013/08/26/Photos-of-rare-brown-panda-in-China-become-Internet-sensation/UPI-18371377548473/#ixzz2eNopDfHY
Never knew about brown pandas before now.
Super Heroes Rescue Cat From Burning Home
When firefighters rolled up to the scene of a house fire on Church Street in Milton Saturday, they were shocked to see who beat them to the scene.
Batman and Captain America, or John Buckland and Troy Marcum -- were both in costume at an event at the nearby American Legion Post. They were teaching positive lessons to children, but the lesson became real life. When they saw smoke, the two super heroes sprang into action, rushing towards the flames to see if anyone was inside.
"I grabbed his shoulders, gave it everything we got and the door opened," Buckland said.
Before Buckland started his "Hero 4 Higher" business, He used to be a firefighter, and even did so through the military while stationed in Iraq. Buckland said his training kicked in.
"He (Captain America) breaks out the window," Buckland said. "The smokes lets out and as I can start to see I reach down and grab something furry!"
While the home owners were out of town, their cat couldn't get out and had to be resuscitated by Batman. "The cat comes around," Buckland said. "Takes a look at me, then hissed!"
While the cat might not have been pleased, it's a different story for the people who watched. Tom Cantaberry was at the Legion Post and saw the dramatic rescue take place. "He did a great job," Cantaberry said. "It was complete chaos!"
However, Buckland said don't let the costume fool you, he's no hero. "I just wonder what the cat was thinking," Buckland said. "I'm glad no one was inside."
http://www.wchstv.com/newsroom/eyewitness/130908_18900.shtml
And where was Catwoman?
Dear Gawd! Controversial truck decal depicts kidnapped woman
WACO, TX (KWTX/CNN) – If you saw someone tied up in the back of a truck, would you call the cops?
A tailgate decal depicting just that is creating quite a controversy surrounding that question.
On the surface, it looks like a woman is tied up the back of a truck casually driving down the road. In actuality, it's an optical illusion created by Hornet Signs in Waco.
"I wasn't expecting the reactions we got, nor is it anything we really condone," Brad Cobb, who owns Hornet Signs, said. "It was just something we had to put out there to see who notices it."
<snip>
"It was an experiment for us and something that was short term, so I was really shocked at how much traffic it did drive," Cobb said.
Almost all of which has been negative. "Abduction or any violence against women is not funny or cute," Rhonda Broughton commented on KWTX's Facebook page.
But, as the old saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity. Cobb said the controversy has led to a significant increase in Hornet Signs' business.
http://www.live5news.com/story/23367365/controversial-truck-decal-depicts-kidnapped-woman
If the world ends today I won't be surprised. There has to be a tipping point of cruel.
Pure joy! A young girl meeting her baby brother for the first time:
@Earth_Pics
Hope that bond lasts a lifetime!
ICYMI:Eminem was on teevee Saturday night.
He was "interviewed" by Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit during the halftime show of UM/ND game.
Eminem: "I'm really uncomfortable now."
I'd look like that too trapped with Musburger.
EPIC!
Funniest thing I've seen on tv in a while.
If I had been on Michigan's campus yesterday, I would have unloaded on someone.(about Lizzy Seeberg)
ESPN College Game Day has a morning show on different campuses that are hosting big football games. Yesterday they were at the University of Michigan for their game against ND.
They choose the kids who are directly behind the hosts and will be on camera. They also vet signs that will be held up. Before the Clemson/Georgia show they nixed some Miley Cyrus ones.
Well, yesterday they missed the worst possible one that could be held up.(bottom left)
http://30fps.mocksession.com/2013/09/07/wow-a-lizzy-seeberg-sign/
""HI LIZZY SEEBERG"
Lizzy Seeberg was a ND student who was sexually assaulted by a football player. She committed suicide.
I'm sure this will prompt screeds against football, arguments about what exactly happened to Seeberg and other issues that have been chewed over. Some will jump on Michigan.
I think everybody needs to think about how sexual assault can still be minimized no matter how horrible the outcome is.
ESPN would do well to issue an apology and a serious note about the gravity of this problem. College Game Day is their golden goose. I hope enough people shite on them about this so that they take it seriously. It was a mistake, but one they can own up to and try to reach people with a serious message. Michigan should add their 2¢.
All of them just hope it goes quietly away.
We'll see if there is any reaction.
Link to email complaint: https://r.espn.go.com/members/contact/tvindex
Phone number: 1-888-549-3776
Snowden did to the NSA what they have been doing to US citizens for years:
At several recent junctures, the U.S. government has publicly sought to expand its power and control over the electronic privacy of its citizens. At each point, the government was roundly foiled by the public and the majority of the political class, which rebuked it. But that has evidently never stopped the government from imposing its will surreptitiously. As the reporting of the New York Times, ProPublica, and the Guardian about the National Security Agency’s programs exposed by Edward Snowden showed once again yesterday, when the government really wants something, it can be temporarily denied but rarely foiled.
In the early 1990s, computer scientist and activist Phil Zimmerman created an encryption program called Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP for short, to block the government and other snoopers from reading the emails and files of users. To retard PGP, the government targeted Zimmerman with a criminal investigation for “munitions export without licenses” after the program appeared overseas, explaining that the program’s encryption exceeded what U.S. export regulations allowed.
Congress cut funding for the Defense Department office in charge of the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program, a massive surveillance database containing oceans of vital information about everybody in the United States. But the journalistic record proves we can’t trust government’s white flag of surrender. In the case of TIA, the government abandoned the program’s name but preserved the operation, as Shane Harris and others reported seven years ago, giving it new code names and concealing it in places like the NSA. The documents Snowden stole from the NSA show the government capturing and analyzing much of what TIA sought in the first place.
<snip> (more about programs)
Can somebody explain to the NSA that Snowden has merely done to the NSA what the NSA has been doing to U.S. citizens and business for decades? Snowden deceitfully ignored the legally binding promises he made to the NSA; the NSA similarly runs roughshod over both the letter and the spirit of surveillance legislation (and systematically lies about it, something Snowden doesn’t do). Snowden stole secrets; the NSA steals secrets (and encryption keys, according to yesterday’s reports), only at a more colossal level. Snowden took it upon himself that he, not the NSA or his government, knows best; the NSA and its governmental partners believe they know best; Snowden creatively exploited the technical weaknesses in the computer matrix to accomplish his goals; so does the NSA.
Everything Snowden knows about following the rules he learned from the NSA. Somebody, somewhere in the agency must be perversely proud of what he’s done.
http://blogs.reuters.com/jackshafer/2013/09/06/the-nsa-never-takes-no-for-an-answer/
Gravy for the goose.......
Unexpected performance! Never in a million years would I have guessed this would happen:
Wow! Just wow!
Susan Boyle was an expected moment compared to this.
To all who have furry friends.
I found this poem in a book by Willie Morris. He wrote "My Dog Skip." He also wrote a great book about a feline, "My Cat, Spit MGee."
I have always thought that this verse sums up our love of our friends who unfortunately have shorter lifespans than we do.
“We who choose to surround ourselves
with lives even more temporary than our
own, live within a fragile circle;
easily and often breached.
Unable to accept its awful gaps,
we would still live no other way.
We cherish memory as the only
certain immortality, never fully
understanding the necessary plan.”
― Irving Townsend
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Gender: Do not displayHometown: SC
Member since: Tue Oct 7, 2008, 07:35 PM
Number of posts: 17,111