I need $121,000! Any suggestions?

This lucky guy, a Norwegian man living in China, paid a million Chinese yuan (or 718,000 NOK or $131,000 bucks) to officially adopt Jing Jing the panda. Jing squared is the official mascot for the 2008 Olympic games. Stein Frode Ertzeid can now visit Jingy any time he wants to and the Chengdu facility is required to send him regular updates on the panda's life. Ertzeid lobbied the director of the China Committee of Breeding Technique for Giant Pandas for months for the honor and was selected for his earnestness and sincere love for the Giant Panda.

Huh! Does Ertzeid have an entire website devoted to the panda?? Mister Director Sir, Zhang Zhihe, I'm coming for my panda!

live from san diego, it's wednesday afternoon

This is a snapshot of Bai Yun and her unnamed cub taken today from the San Diego Zoo's panda cam. I spent the entire fall of 2005 (and countless taxpayer dollars) trying to figure out how to take snapshots or screen shots from the National Zoo's panda cam so that I could post them here and I never did figure that out. The San Diego zoo's web site now has a feature where you can email snapshots to yourself or your fellow panda lovers straight from the panda cam. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

Panda in Critical Condition After Giving Birth to Twins

A giant panda in China fights for her life today, after giving birth to twins last night. Jinzhu, an 11 year old panda residing at the Wolong Nature Reserve in the Sichuan province, is in critical condition. No further word on her status. Get well soon Jinzhu!

Jinzhu has had a history of medical intervention in her short life. Originally sexed as a male panda, it wasn't until she was six years old that zookeepers discovered that Jinzhu was actually a female. After a failed mating attempt with a female panda (insert lesbian joke here), Jinzhu was further examined and it was only then that it was discovered that she was actually a girl but her ovaries were in the wrong place. She underwent surgery and the anomaly was fixed.

When asked how this misidentification of sex could have occurred, a zoo caretaker responded "Well for starters, a male panda penis is only 3 centimeters long ... "

This explains a whooooole lot about why pandas don't reproduce well.

Update: Our little transsexual panda got better and is doing well!