OT: I just Wuv Aminals

[littlerayofsunshine]

Its just the cutest thing. I have been watching this live cam ever since the baby was 4 days old. Its the San Diego Zoo Panda Cam and you can see mom and baby and all the loving care she gives. Warms my heart.

http://www.sandiegozoo.org/pandacam/index.html


Share with your younguns, cause it teaches alot and you can watch past cams and see the birth too. My kids love it.

[M. Wolfe]

What has huge teeth and only one facial expression?
Giant Pandas. They have huge teeth that make their faces very stiff.

However, Darwin says 'Let them die.' They are bizarrely stupid. They are carnivores, but the eat Bambo and Bambo is such a poor food that they have to eat constantly and they can't hibernate because they'd starve. Also they don't know how to reproduce unless they've seen it hence zoos' hassle around the world with trying to get them to mate. Viagra and Panda Porn has been used, and when that fails - they do artificial insemination.

What amazes me even more is the maternal nature of crocodiles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=NZ&hl=en-GB&v=wZdWRR5tRmc

They take astounding care with their young.

[littlerayofsunshine]

With a slight edit.. Bet your take sums up humans too...




However, Darwin says 'Let them die.' They are bizarrely stupid. They are carnivores, but the eat such a poor food that they have to eat constantly and they can't hibernate because they'd starve. Also they don't know how to reproduce unless they've seen it. Viagra and Porn has been used, and when that fails - they do artificial insemination.

What amazes me even more is the maternal nature of crocodiles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=NZ&hl=en-GB&v=wZdWRR5tRmc

They take astounding care with their young.


Croc moms also have a habit of eating their young when they are hungry..

[M. Wolfe]

Bet your take sums up humans too...Not really. We defeated natural selection - hence the signature. It's a wonder that pandas haven't died out already.

I'm not being nasty or anything, I love Pandas, they are beautiful animals. But the interesting thing about them is their near suicidal behaviours.



Croc moms also have a habit of eating their young when they are hungry..

I think you'll find most animals will when pushed.

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

lol At 330 in the afternoon all the animals must have been off have a siesta, I didnt see Any moving around. But thank you for posting it anyway LilRay. :}
Hugs
Cat

[12voltman59]

Not really. We defeated natural selection - hence the signature. It's a wonder that pandas haven't died out already.

I'm not being nasty or anything, I love Pandas, they are beautiful animals. But the interesting thing about them is their near suicidal behaviours.




.

Well the Panda species didn't somehow make some kind of decision that they would live the sort of life they do----they evolved over a long time frame to fill a niche---like all other forms of life did as well---what about those life forms that they have found on the floor of the ocean living within a few meters of those "hot vents" releasing very hot and toxic substances to most of the rest of the life on the planet, including us---or creatures that only live in some deep, dark, subterranean cave system???

Life is very determined that in nearly all sorts of environments and conditions it will happen--some life forms are going to exist and exploit the conditions found in such places---much of what can be said of Pandas can be said for most other animals----they do have a very narrow range of specific environmental, climatic, and food source paramaters that they were designed to exploit and thrive upon----even creatures like lions and elephants have their specific needs and if those needs are not met--they die---so don't go dissing Pandas as beng some sort of freakish aberration---they were designed by "the forces of nature" to live as they do--they sure as heck didn't make some sort of decision to live as they do--they simply are what they are!

It must also be noted---many human societies came to rely upon certain conditions existing in the places they settled-and in many of those cases--when those conditions changed--those people as a society--died out. There are many archelogical sites in places all over the planet that prove this is so.
We human beings are not immune from these forces having an effect upon our existence!!!

[M. Wolfe]

Well the Panda species didn't somehow make some kind of decision that they would live the sort of life they do----they evolved over a long time frame to fill a niche---like all other forms of life did as well
Yes but this is dead end evolution. The panda is not an adaptable, people often think it's about the survival of the fittest, but adaptable makes more sense of Darwinian evolution. With a species like the Panda that has adapted to consume a poor food source and is pretty crap at reproducing, when the environment changes, they're doomed because they are too specialised. Contrast them to the dog (wild). No evolutionary contest.


It must also be noted---many human societies came to rely upon certain conditions existing in the places they settled-and in many of those cases--when those conditions changed--those people as a society--died out. There are many archelogical sites in places all over the planet that prove this is so.
The ancient Egyptians, for example, fell as a civilization when climate change made the annual rains not fall in Niger and therefore the Nile didn't flood bringing with it the "dark earth" which the Egyptians used as high nutrient soil. They simply ran out of food.


We human beings are not immune from these forces having an effect upon our existence!!!
Not entirely and not all of us, but we don't let the weak, the sick and the genetically diseased die, and so suddenly the deleterious genetic mutations aren't being bread out of us. And we modify our environments to suit us, we build things and we make clothes, if things get too uncomfortable, we'll just get up and move on. We've done this for thousands of years until now, the environment barely pressures us at all because we just keep shaping it to suit ourselves. This is how we are defeating natural selection.

You ever noticed how the most successful people in our society (and this is generalisation but-) tend to have the least amount of children and the lowerclass/poor/uneducated tend to have the most kids. Amount of descendants we have entirely determines gene frequencies and those that make an individual ought tend to become the most prolific but they just don't any more - that's not how it works with humans now.


Well except for genes that are completely fatal obviously.

[codybear3]

Good stuff, Lil'Ray... :paw::paw:

P.S. - Is it possible that these Pandas are in the middle of thier evolutionary path and may become something else when the dust of humanities remains are forgotten???

[littlerayofsunshine]

Good stuff, Lil'Ray... :paw::paw:

P.S. - Is it possible that these Pandas are in the middle of thier evolutionary path and may become something else when the dust of humanities remains are forgotten???

Well The main argument is that, their dying off in no fault to their evolution. They eat one source of food yeah...... But so do millions of other animals. People are killing off their food supply, they have fewer and fewer places to roam. They get hunted.

In just a few hundred years, humans have managed to bring many species to the brink of non-existence.

Human evolution has only brought us where we are today. There is no guarantee that we will be on earth in a couple hundred years or a thousand years. The things that we are doing to the animals, we are doing to ourselves. We have over developed the land, Many places barely have any Nature reserves to grow trees to clean the air to nurture our atmosphere. We poison our food supply (meat and plant), humans aren't made to process Mercury and lead and all that other junk. Those things get stored in the fat in your body and I don't care how skinny you are, your brain is made of fat and amino acids. So what doesn't get stored under your pores is slowly Rotting your brain. "Acceptable amounts" of toxins doesn't mean "Safe" for you body. Everything consumed, even to the soaps that we use are harming us. If you add up the amount of "safe" levels of crap that the average human consumes, it would probably be enough to kill medium sized mammals.

Us humans, will just be a memory some day, The brains of future humans and DNA will change because of what we have done today, our intelligence will fall, future generations will be born with the inability to function as intelligently as their parents and grandparents. Our reliance on technology and lack of life sustaining skills will lead us down this path also. If something that caused mass world wide destruction were to happen today, few humans would survive. The only ones that really stand a chance of surviving are what we consider third world civilizations.

We are killing ourselves. Its just going to be a slow death and one day animals will wonder where the fuck we went.

[csrakate]

Well...despite all the gloom and doom....the panda cam is adorable....thanks for sharing it, lilray! I WUV animals too!

[M. Wolfe]

We have over developed the land, Many places barely have any Nature reserves to grow trees to clean the air to nurture our atmosphere.

In point of fact, it's the open oceans the produce the majority of the earth's oxygen. Some trees use more oxygen than they produce.


Our reliance on technology and lack of life sustaining skills will lead us down this path also.
Given our rate of advancement, I'd sat that we'll be projected into space before that happens. Soon we'll be altering ourselves so that the next stage in human evolution will be as technological as biological. Ideally we'll begin to meet our needs synthetically so that we'll no longer be crapping on our own doorstep.

[littlerayofsunshine]

Finding another planet for us to live on is crap. It's a billion dollar project of crap, living in a tin can in the middle of a black void is crap. It will just not happen for us on this planet. Gosh now I am thinking of the movie WALL-E.
But ultimately if there is another life sustaining planet out there. It probably already has all the life it needs. And with the way we create. Anything artificial floating life mechanism out there is doomed to fail rather quickly. And with no humans on earth, who would fly up and fix the thing. As you know just about anything made by humans these days, break easily. Even these ships we pay Billions of dollars for just for a few people to go up into the great black beyond, Blow up and pieces fly off. The space station has to have constant maintenance, billions of dollars to fix, spread among a few countries and they all complain that all the technology on it is out dated and are all trying to scrape the money to bring it up to par which will never happen cause par is always set higher each month/year.

On a life sustaining space vessel...One big smack that creates a hole and unless the thing (air locks) has the reaction of car airbags the damn thing would blow apart in minutes and everyone would die, of course their would be escape pods, but too few for the amount of people (Titanic). And in that case, where would they go? Another vessel doomed to fail?


And as to the comments about trees. I didn't say anything about oxygen. I am fully aware waves crashing and storms brewing creates the oxygen.. I didn't say oxygen was in short supply. That CLEAN AIR (breathable air is more than just oxygen) is in short supply. We produce more carbon monoxide and dioxide and too few trees to filter it.

[littlerayofsunshine]

Well...despite all the gloom and doom....the panda cam is adorable....thanks for sharing it, lilray! I WUV animals too!

Thank you Kate. I got to see the baby yesterday, Since the baby is getting bigger, she leaves it when she goes to eat/drink and it was raising it's head and floppin about like a newborn baby. So Cute!

[M. Wolfe]

Finding another planet for us to live on is crap.

You'd better hope not because that's where things are going. As science trunches on, people are beginning to look skyward.

There is also no reason why we couldn't live on Mars. A planet doesn't have to support life to support us - we can do that ourselves.


On a life sustaining space vessel...One big smack that creates a hole and unless the thing (air locks) has the reaction of car airbags the damn thing would blow apart in minutes and everyone would die
I would imagine that such a ship would be designed to avoid collisions and even then it'd be compartmentalised to contain damage. It would just be fired out of a big space cannon at a planet. People design things to not fail after all.

[littlerayofsunshine]

If we could..... Wouldn't that mean we wouldn't have even brought about the circumstances that forced us to even seek ability to live on another planet? Or for that matter, Make it where we could sustain ourselves on earth regardless, therefore not needing the other planet?

It's the equivalent of the AIDS cocktail, It may extend the life, but doesn't cure the disease, and life still ends prematurely.

[M. Wolfe]

If we could..... Wouldn't that mean we wouldn't have even brought about the circumstances that forced us to even seek ability to live on another planet? Or for that matter, Make it where we could sustain ourselves on earth regardless, therefore not needing the other planet?

Probably not. It wouldn't happen cos we needed to but because we could. There is a general scientific consensus that we are destined to live among the stars.

Look at this for instance. Novalung (http://www.novalung.com/eng/Default.asp) can replace the need to use our human lungs (at this stage is used in case of lung failure.) But as we learn more about the machinery of the human body, the more we can exploit it and the more we can exploit it, the more we can adapt it to whatever environment we like. we could live in under-the-sea cities if we wanted to.

[littlerayofsunshine]

But everything you speak of goes against our evolution. Evolution is what occurs naturally, even though things we do cause the natural occurrence to have a negative effect. So Hell they can go to space, they can use metal parts to replace whatever, but evolution take thousands of years and we as a race.. Don't have that. We weren't made to live in that manner, in space, on other planets, so there for we will still die.

You can't argue human evolution and then tout human replacement. They don't go hand in hand in sustainability. Evolution sustains or eradicates a whole species and takes place within the body when a pregnancy occurs or a death takes place. Replacement helps one and doesn't fix the damage that caused the ill effect in the first place. It a band-aid for a temporary life. Death and Birth is evolution. What you speak of, doesn't help anyone or anything.

Also, more people are becoming infertile, and it will happen more as time goes on, and even though there is artificial insemination, eventually it won't work anymore. Women and men are carrying more defunct genes these days, sexual organ development is even under attack, by the chemicals and hormones and what not that occurs today and has occurred for 50 years. What you describe, will eventually lead us to live like the pandas, only with fake parts barely keeping some alive.

I don't argue that Space living is inevitable. I just personally think its crap and worthless and that in the end it won't matter. We have done the damage and haven't learned to fix it... Just go around it.

[M. Wolfe]

But everything you speak of goes against our evolution.So? evolution isn't a cosmic force, it's an inadvertent and inanimate series of changes in biology.


Evolution is what occurs naturally, even though things we do cause the natural occurrence to have a negative effect.You'll have to define "naturally". We are a product of nature, meaning anything we do is natural and any natural law that we exploit is itself too natural.


but evolution take thousands of years and we as a race.. Don't have that.it won't take that long. Evolution in a biological sense is where mutations meet natural selection. This process is something we have been violating for a long time as we change the environment to suit ourselves - not the otherway around like normal. We've now mapped the human genome and are learning about exactly what it is that makes us. In the future we will be able to genetically engineer ourselves too filter out deleterious genes. Goodbye down syndrome, goodbye albinism, colour blindness, sickle-cell anaemia, etc.


We weren't made to live in that manner, in space, on other planets, so there for we will still die.We weren't made to live in that manner so we will make ourselves in that manner. We will make environments to suit us - like capsule cities or something. We may even terraform other planets or moons for ourselves.


Also, more people are becoming infertile, and it will happen more as time goes onThis is because of us resisting natural selection. When mutations occur the few deleterious mutations are supposed to breed out via the sick and the weak dying but the don't - we save them. Us taking control of our own structure began long ago and if we want to survive, we have to see the transition to synthetic life through.


I don't argue that Space living is inevitable. I just personally think its crap and worthless and that in the end it won't matter. We have done the damage and haven't learned to fix it... Just go around it.But the damage goes on - not that life will care, it's survived 99% extinction events before, it just carries on.

Nature is neither for nor against us, so if we have the capacity to rise above our own human weakness and fragility, then we ought to.


http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=64269 - it's already saving lives.

[M. Wolfe]

This thread's gotten rather bleak so I apologise. It was after all meant to be about adorable animals - maybe crocs aren't that adorable. :/


MOAR PAndas and other cute animals.
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=llDJA7udiCc

[Herbwoman39]

This thread's gotten rather bleak so I apologise. It was after all meant to be about adorable animals - maybe crocs aren't that adorable. :/

Oh I don't know about that. I used to volunteer at the Brevard Zoo and we got to meet a baby croc. He was two years old and about two feet long. His tail made up most of his body length and he was just adorable!

[M. Wolfe]

Oh I don't know about that. I used to volunteer at the Brevard Zoo and we got to meet a baby croc. He was two years old and about two feet long. His tail made up most of his body length and he was just adorable!

Have you seen Lake Placid? What you wrote there reminds me of the scene at the end where Betty White is feeding the baby alligators.

I love Gators, Crocs, Snakes, Lizards. They're all so cool - especially the Komodo Dragon.

[littlerayofsunshine]

This thread's gotten rather bleak so I apologise. It was after all meant to be about adorable animals - maybe crocs aren't that adorable. :/


MOAR PAndas and other cute animals.
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=llDJA7udiCc


<Smiles> Thanks :)