oh right, this is a panda blog

Bumper Crop of Pandas in China (can i have just one??)

Latest panda births in China bring year's total to 25, the most ever
SHANGHAI, China The birth of twin pandas at a research center brought the number of the endangered species born in captivity this year in China to a record 25, a news report said Tuesday.

The number of births so far this year is up from at least 19 for the research program in 2005, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The twins, weighing in at 160 grams (5.64 oundces) and 158.5 grams (5.59 ounces), were born early Monday at the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in the southwestern province of Sichuan. The as-yet-unnamed cubs were the first for their 8-year-old mother "Youyou," the report said.

The bears are the sixth set of twins born to captive pandas this year — a sign of the growing success of China's extensive breeding program, which relies heavily on artificial insemination, Chinese researchers say. [Sadly, minus one cub as of last week.]

"We've pretty much resolved the problems of infertility among pandas," the center's director Zhang Zhihe was quoted as telling Chinese media.

This is great news! In a relatively short period of time, the pooled efforts of scientists & conservationists & a government willing to recognize the economic and social impact of jeopardizing a national treasure has resulted in the pandas' current success story. While we are still a long time away from being able to delist the giant panda as an endangered species, this shows that man CAN reverse some of the ill effects modernization has had on the natural world. Education, cooperation and a $hitload of bamboo.

Whoever thought that the US would be behind China in conservation? Whodathunkit?

Panda Software warns of Subliminal Spam

Panda Software, an anti-virus and security software company, has found what it believes to be subliminal advertising in spam e-mails. The aim of such messages is to get the reader to buy the items being advertised in the e-mail through the use of suggestion.The example Panda found displays a series of images over a very short period of time: no more than 40 milliseconds. The adv wants the reader to buy stock options, and is accompanied by background images creating the word "buy" and repeating it in different positions behind the advertisement. Panda stated that "it is worrying to witness how cyber-criminals are trying to introduce new strategies to increase the effectiveness of their attacks."The use of subliminal imagery in advertising has been banned in Australia the United Kingdom, and the U.S. since 1974, and is also banned in a number of other territories around the world.

There are posted comments at the link above that I don't understand at all. Wait, or was that the subliminal spam? Anyone else got a hankering for a bamboo frappucino all of a sudden?