daily_kos

http://rss.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/eYeYYL7x1oE/-Night-Owls,-Early-Birds-and-Expats:-Student-Debt

The Project on Student Debt has this month published its fourth annual report, Student Debt and the Class of 2008.

Nationwide, average debt for graduating seniors with loans rose from $18,650 in 2004 to $23,200 in 2008, or about six percent per year. State averages for debt at graduation in 2008 ranged from highs near $30,000 to a low of $13,000. High-debt states are concentrated in the Northeast, while low-debt states are mostly in the West. At the college level, average debt varied even more, from $5,000 to $106,000. Colleges with higher tuition tend to have higher average debt, but there are many examples of high tuition and low average debt, and vice versa.

Meanwhile, employment prospects for young college graduates have soured along with the economy. The unemployment rate for college graduates aged 20-24 was a challenging 7.6% in the third quarter of 2008, the highest third quarter rate since 2002; by the third quarter of 2009 it had risen to 10.6%, the highest on record. 1 The majority of the class of 2008 fell into this age group in both years. ...

For national trends, the best available source of data on student debt is the National Postsecondary StudentAid Study (NPSAS), a federal survey conducted every four years with a nationally representative sample of college students. The most recent survey was conducted in academic year 2007-08 and released in 2009. NPSAS data show that for the past few years, around two-thirds of students graduating from four-year colleges had student loan debt.
The average amount these students owe has grown about six percent per year since 2003-04, reaching $23,200 for the class of 2008. For comparison, in 1996, only 58 percent of students graduated with debt, and they owed an average of $13,200.

A state-by-state comparison can be made of student debt with this online map.

At the top of the list: the District of Colombia ($29,793) and Iowa ($28,174). At the bottom: Utah ($13,041) and Hawai'i ($15,156).

• • • • • • •

U.S. military fatalities in Iraq since March 2003: 4367

Coalition military fatalities in Iraq: 328

Iraqi civilian fatalities: Unknown, at least 700,000, possibly as many as 1.4 million.

U.S. military fatalities in Afghanistan since October 2001: 930

NATO fatalities (excluding U.S.): 603

Afghan civilian fatalities: Unknown, at least 8,000.

• • • • • • •

palantir has posted the Overnight News Digest  

overheardnyc

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/021082.html

Girl: Yeah, like I mean, I would definitely say that I was in the best shape of my life when I had my eating disorder.
Guy, after long pause: Uhhhhh... at least you're honest!

--Fordham University

Overheard by: Rachel

xkcd_rss

http://xkcd.com/671/

snopes_dot_com

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/haroldestes.asp

wittyknitter

http://manainkblog.typepad.com/witty_knitter/2009/12/inching-toward-completion.html

 

Hannah's fair isle cardigan is all knitted. The sleeves are sewn in. Now I can't find those perfect buttons that I bought a few weeks ago. That is all.

daily_kos

http://rss.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/PN71ZYwEDz4/-Palin-goes-birther

You can mark down Dec. 3, 2009 as the day Sarah Palin reached her kookiest extreme, at least until she outdoes herself again (h/t: Ben Smith):

Transcript:

   HUMPHRIES: Sarah Palin here on the Rusty Humphries Show. One of the questions Jason asks is would you make the birth certificate an issue if you ran?

   PALIN: I think the public rightly is still making it an issue. I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t know if I would have to bother to make it an issue because I think there are enough members of the electorate that still want answers.

   HUMPHRIES: Do you think it’s a fair question to be looking at?

   PALIN: I think it’s a fair question just like I think past associations and past voting records. All of that is fair game. You know, I’ve got to tell you too, I think our campaign, the McCain-Palin campaign didn’t do a good enough job in that area. We didn’t call out Obama and some of his associates on their records and what their beliefs were, and perhaps what their future plans were, and I don’t think that was fair to voters to not have done our job as candidates and a campaign to bring to light a lot of things that now we’re seeing manifest in the administration.

   HUMPHRIES: I mean, truly if your past is fair game and your kids are fair game, certainly Obama’s past should be. I mean, we want to treat men and women equally, right?

   PALIN: Hey, you know, that’s a great point. And that weird conspiracy theory freaky thing that people talk about that Trig isn’t my real son, and a lot of people that went "Well, you need to produce his birth certificate, you need to prove that he’s your kid," which we have done,  but yeah, so maybe we can reverse that, and use the same [inaudible] thinking on the other one.

[Note: Final sentence of transcript edited for accuracy.]

You just gotta' love Sarah Palin. She's a neverending fountain of crazy. Hopefully it plays well in the 2012 G.O.P. primary because Democrats couldn't get a sweeter gift than the former half-term governor of Alaska as the Republican nominee.

p.s.: Special note for Sarah: in case you hadn't heard, President Obama is a natural-born U.S. citizen, no matter what Orly Taitz says.

daily_kos

http://rss.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/vwyiOWAzLAk/-Open-Thread-and-Diary-Rescue

Today, Louisiana1976, HoosierDeb, dopper0189, dadanation, jlms_qkw and ItsJessMe, who also edited, combed through dozens of diaries to find these gems. We love discovering these treasures and hope you do too. Please comment in them to let the diarists know that you read their work.

Tonight's rescues have a strong educational bent, so take time to learn and enjoy!

• Asking how we should honor those who serve, ginmar suggests that folks be mindful when using the phrase: Thank you for your service. (HoosierDeb)
• In an informative, excellently-researched piece Unergy tells us about An Aussie Visiting America - Boulder City Solar. (Louisiana 1976)
• "Determination. Intestinal fortitude. And really, really good eyes!" is what a commenter says Frankenoid must have in order to knit one of Herbert Niebling's most infamous patterns: Annals of Anality 2: Knitting Lyra. (ItsJessMe)
• Ojibwa reviews how higher education was often used to suppress Native American culture in Indians 101: An English Education. (dopper0189)
• AU Blue shares with us how much Daily Kos meant to his recently departed father, (handle "go left"), and gives us a beautiful example of his father's eloquence: Liberalism, Explained by My Father, RIP. (ItsJessMe)
• Frank Cocozzelli uses the data on the devastating impact of tobacco on health as well as an apparent inconsistent application of Church teachings when trying to respond to the ever-increasing presence of the Catholic Church in American politics in Is the Tobacco Industry Pro-life? Let's Ask the Bishops. (dadanation)
• Something the Dog Said formulates a strategy to combat job-hunting malaise in 147: 1,200: 15: 3: 1: 0. (HoosierDeb)
• YatPundit takes on the narrative that modern Hollywood uses sex to sell more than Golden Age Hollywood did in Alicia Colon's Cluelessness and Hypocrisy on Eroticism. (dopper0189)

jotter has High Impact Diaries: December 2, 2009 and sardonyx has Top Comments: Dormancy Edition.

Enjoy and please promote your own favorite diaries in this open thread.

apod

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap091203.html

NGC 660 lies near the center of

wonkette

http://wonkette.com/412530/sarah-palin-has-special-rules-for-media-coverage-of-her-mall-appearance

http://wonkette.com/?p=412530

Famous dingbat Sarah Palin continues her exciting Publicity Tour of Middle America, and pretty soon she’ll be at the famous Giant Shopping Mall of Minnesota. Interested in covering her appearance? Well if you are, there’s a good chance you’re some kind of “reporter” or “communist.” What’s that? You speak the French? Then kindly go the fuck back to Russia because this is an AMERICAN event, for AMERICANS. Also, no questions or anything. Just watch her, quietly, for 10 minutes, and then get OUT come on this woman has books to sell!

TeeVee station WCCO of Minneapolis got a copy of these awesome Media Regulations for the Palin porn stop:

For Palin’s appearance at the Mall of America next week we received a list of seven media guidelines, including one stating there can be no foreign press — only English-speaking press and another that said media must address Palin as “Governor.”

The other rules include no interviews — but if the media want one, a request must be submitted to her publicist — plus no microphones, only background sound and pictures and only the first 10 minutes of her appearance can be taped.

Ha ha, the lazy trash quit being governor during her first term because she wanted to be a celebrity and sell a million books, but now she insists everyone act like she’s the “Governor.” Not even Twitter allows her to keep referring to herself as “Governor,” and Twitter is a just a sad computer picture of a bird or a whale.

We also like how there are NO INTERVIEWS, but if you want to do an interview with Palin, you must ask nicely. And? Ugh, this woman. When will she just lead her followers into the Lake of Fire and get it over with? [WCCO]

talk_left

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TalkleftThePoliticsOfCrime/~3/3Oj7pQBI6kk/737

Kudos to Chris Bowers, who says he is still fighting for the public option.

Good job.

daily_kos

http://rss.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/GhjhSwaEPq4/-Polling-and-Political-Wrap,-12-3-09

On balance, a very quiet day out on the campaign trail. Two polls (besides our own, of course), and only a smattering of major campaign news.

DE-Sen: PPP Has Race Close, But With Castle in the Lead
The good news: both of the pollsters who have done multiple polls in the high-profile Delaware Senate race have seen movement in the Democratic direction. The bad news: while Susquehanna showed major movement (from Castle +21 in the Spring to Biden +5 last week), the team over at PPP shows movement that is, at best, incremental. After leading the Democratic state Attorney General by eight points in March, PPP has longtime GOP Congressman Mike Castle leading Beau Biden by six points (45-39). What is keeping Castle afloat, incredibly, is a fairly sizeable reservoir of support for Castle among Democrats. Particularly hard to fathom after a 2009 where Castle marched in lockstep with Eric Cantor and the hard-right leadership of the GOP.

AR-Sen: Rasmussen Gets Dramatically Different Take on Lincoln
This will register as a surprise to absolutely no one, but Rasmussen also polled the Natural State this week (yes, that is one of its nicknames), and they get a drastically different conclusion in the race. They have Lincoln losing to any of the four GOP contenders, by margins ranging from 3-7 points. Rasmussen did not poll a potential primary challenge from popular state Lt. Governor Bill Halter. Speaking of Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Tom Jensen over at PPP writes an interesting analysis of her dilemma, as she heads into a tumultuous 2010 campaign year.

NY-01: When A Twenty Point Lead Means...Vulnerability?
A new internal poll is making the rounds in New York's Long Island-based 1st Congressional District. Despite the relative one-sidedness of the poll, it is being limned by the GOP as good news for their challenger. The poll, conducted by McLaughlin and Associates on behalf of GOP challenger Randy Altschuler, shows Tim Bishop leading Altschuler by twenty points (46-26). The GOP is crowing about the poll, pointing out that Altschuler is barely known and that Bishop is below the 50% threshold for incumbent vulnerability. Furthermore, the poll issued a generic ballot question and found the generic GOP candidate leading the generic Dem by four points (38-34).

IN OTHER NEWS....

• IN-Sen: An interesting leading headline on the campaign trail today, as former southern Indiana Republican Congressman John Hostettler has announced that he will challenge Democratic incumbent Senator Evan Bayh in 2010. This is being viewed as a sign of supreme confidence on behalf of Republicans, who are targeting even incumbents who are preceived as invulnerable, like Bayh. They might be overstating the appeal of Hostettler, who never won comfortably in a turbulent dozen year tenure in the House before being destroyed in 2006 by Brad Ellsworth in an election where Hostettler failed to crack 40% of the vote. One of Hostettler's biggest liabilities as a statewide candidate, and one that confounded the NRCC and his allies in the House, was a chronic inability to raise campaign cash, compounded by a fairly principled refusal to accept PAC money. Bayh is sitting on a massive campaign warchest, and Hostettler's entry seems unlikely to move the needle on his likelihood of earning re-election.
• FL-Sen: In politics, they say all media attention is good media attention. Here is one story that might disprove that maxim. Florida's GOP Governor (and Senate aspirant) Charlie Crist lent his voice to a recorded message giving out the number for Florida KidCare. Unfortunately, some of the digits got transposed, and the end result was the Governor of Florida encouraging prospective KidCare applicants to call up a service line which would introduce the callers to "hot and horny girls."
• OR-Gov: While most political observers make Democrats the betting favorite to hold onto the Governor's mansion in Oregon (currently occupied by Ted Kulongoski), it is worth noting that the leading fundraiser in the race so far, is, indeed, a Republican. Former NBA baller Chris Dudley, despite only considering the race over the past several weeks, has already raised $340,000 for the effort, which even beats former Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber, who leads the rest of the field at $280,000. One caveat to the impressive haul--more than half of it can be attributed to just three donors, including a six-figure donation from Dudley's former agent.
• MN-06: It now appears very likely that it will ten months until we know the name of the Democrat who will be challenging Michele Bachmann in central Minnesota's 6th district. Yesterday, former Independence Party statewide nominee Maureen Reed announced that she would not abide by the results of the state party convention, which presumably would have favored Democratic State Senator Tarryl Clark. Reed has raised impressive cash, but Clark would have a convention edge given that Reed ran as a candidate outside of the Democratic Party as recently as 2006.
• IL-10: Voters in the district being abandoned by Republican Mark Kirk will have an interesting contrast in their Democratic candidates, if a joint forum involving the two leading candidates today is any indication. While both candidates (2006/08 Nominee Dan Seals and state legislator Julie Hamos) agreed on both favoring the public option and transporting Guantanamo Bay detainees to Illinois. But they disagreed on the extension of the Bush tax cuts (Seals supports the extension, Hamos is less enthusiastic) and the expansion of the troop commitment in Afghanistan (Hamos supports it, Seals does not).
• PA-Gov: Two interesting details out of the Keystone State, as we head into the weekend. Democratic candidate (and Allegheny County Executive) Dan Onorato knows how to generate interest. His campaign is teasing a major endorsement this weekend, but is apparently tight-lipped about the endorser. Shrewdly, it is in Philadelphia, as Onorato tries to shore up his support on the opposite side of the state. Meanwhile, one Pennsylvania newspaper, Lancaster's Intelligencer Journal, has added to what is apparently a growing chorus of newspapers that think Republican Attorney General Tom Corbett should either resign as A.G., or give up the gubernatorial race. They cited another recent election (and a key Corbett rival) to make the point:

  Republican Congressman Jim Gerlach, who is challenging Corbett for the gubernatorial nomination, has said it was wrong for Corbett to have accepted contributions from those he has since charged. He has said that Corbett should step down as attorney general if he intends to continue to run for governor.

  Citing the example of Virginia Governor-elect Bob O'Donnell, who stepped down from his post to run for governor this year, Gerlach has said Corbett should do the same.

  We agree.

  Overseeing the Bonusgate prosecution requires a full-time attorney general. Running for governor is a full-time job.

  Corbett should make a choice.

talkngptsmemo

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/4UnBnkmA_z8/swiss_really_on_a_roll.php

You may have heard that Swiss voters on Sunday voted 57.5% to ban the construction of any new minarets in the country. The grand total of four existing Swiss minarets may remain; there just can't be any more. A short line of text will incorporate the ban in the Swiss constitution.

Now it seems that the Swiss may be warming to really warming to the idea of religious intolerance. Christophe Darbellay, the president of the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland (a mainstream party which is part of the country's current coalition government) on Thursday told a TV interviewer that there should also be a ban on separate Muslim and Jewish cemeteries.

As with the aforementioned minaret ban, Darbellay doesn't think the current cemeteries should be dug up. He just thinks there shouldn't be any more in the future.

talkngptsmemo

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/PE_Z4Dbmm38/click.phdo

http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=53c18aaedd3cae88a4cfb8605419a18d&p=4

overheardnyc

http://www.overheardinnewyork.com/archives/021081.html

White guy in suit to drunk Asian girl coming out of the subway: Will you come home with me?
Please?
Asian girl: What? Why?
White guy: I'm lonely and I want to sleep together.
Asian girl: I'm not a prostitute, you dick!

--Time Square

daily_kos

http://rss.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/3eLxyM2sJmc/-Salvation-Army-Gets-Into-The-Holiday-Spirit

How sweet -- it only took a load of critical media reports and a public protest to convince the Salvation Army that screwing over children during the holiday's might be bad for business:

On Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reported that a few charities in Houston — including the Salvation Army — were checking the immigration status of needy families before giving out gifts in its annual toy drive. The organization then disputed the report, claiming that it requires at least one family member to present a Social Security number to deter fraud, not to “discriminate.” Yesterday, however, the charity reversed course. After a few dozen immigrants protested outside of a Los Angeles Salvation Army branch, the charity said that it was changing its policy and will no longer be checking Social Security numbers.

Apparently they realized that no one was going to mistake their obviously racist policy for anything other than what it was, and that no one was buying their story about grifters tricking the red bucket brigade out of Barbie Dolls and Easy Bake Ovens.

atrios

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/bRuz/~3/TOUQviUOUtc/not-quite-late-night.html

wittyknitter

http://manainkblog.typepad.com/witty_knitter/2009/12/a-headsup.html

daily_kos

http://rss.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/d3Z3AP5aKiU/-Question-of-the-day

Courtesy of Andrew Sullivan, who is mulling over the resistance of warhawks to setting a deadline for U.S. troop involvement in Afghanistan:

One weird contradiction in current conservative thought. Isn't an open-ended commitment of arms and money and troops to a weak foreign country a dangerous form of dependency-generating welfare?

daily_kos

http://rss.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/JlW4uPptMFI/-Matthews-apologizes-to-troops-by-slamming-the-President

Tuesday night after President Obama's speech on Afghanistan, Chris Matthews said that the President had given the speech at "the enemy camp." That didn't go over too well with the West Point community, so on Wednesday he offered an apology that has to rank up there as among the dumbest things he's ever said.

Matthews explained that he didn't mean to suggest that the troops were somehow unpatriotic by opposing the President, but rather that because the President had opposed the Iraq War from the beginning, making him "dovish," he assumed that the strong-on-defense West Point crowd couldn't be won over by their (apparently wussy) Commander-in-Chief.

Watch:

The thing that makes this so stupid is that Matthews is equating opposing the war in Iraq with somehow being "dovish," which is just a synonym for weak or soft.

Do we really need to remind Matthews that (a) Obama said he did not "oppose all wars, just dumb wars" and that he was right with respect to Iraq, that (b) Iraq was a dumb war and that West Point cadets aren't clamoring to fight in dumb wars, and that (c) the troops cheered loudly in February year when President Obama announced our combat mission in Iraq would end next August.

But no, Matthews is still stuck in that old pre-Iraq War framing of Republicans as "tough" and Democrats as "weak." The reality is that it's more a question of "stupid" vs. "smart." And whether or not you agree with President Obama's decision on Afghanistan, I think we can all agree that he wouldn't be faced with it today if we -- including people like Chris Matthews -- hadn't been so completely stupid about it back in 2002 and 2003.

If we'd listened to Barack Obama before the Iraq War started, we'd not only have made the smart decision, but we'd be a helluva' lot stronger for it.

daily_kos

http://rss.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/xBspw8f4QiY/-Snowe,-Lincoln,-and-Landrieus-Move-to-Weaken-Insurance-Regulation

These are the last three Reid should be trying to work out a public option compromise with. Via Jon Walker, Politico is reporting on an amendment by Snowe, Lincoln, and Landrieu to basically eliminate state regulations on what insurance companies must cover.

Jon:

SA 2859 Snowe/Landrieu/Lincoln – nationwide plans: deletes state opt out language, adds rating requirements to plan requirements

If you live in a state with strong minimum benefit insurance regulations (California, Minnesota, New York, and Vermont come to mind), you will lose your current health insurance, and your insurance coverage will get worse.

What are nationwide plans? As I explained in an earlier post, they are an idea strongly championed by the health insurance lobby. The Senate bill would effectively nullify current state regulations on what insurance plans must cover by allowing insurance companies to sell “nationwide plans” in any state. These nationwide plans would only be required to meet the minimum coverage benefits mandated by the federal government and the state in which they are based. (Think of the deregulation of the credit card industry.) These nationwide plans could sell in other states, and would be exempt from those states’ insurance regulations. In effect, this completely guts state insurance regulation of minimum coverage. Utah, for instance, has very lax regulation, so expect all insurance companies to be based there by 2016.

The merged Senate bill allows for states to opt-out, to prevent nationwide plans that would violate and would nullify current state regulations from being sold in their state, lowering the bar dramatically for what what insurance companies could get away with, and taking away the right of states to regulate insurance. But the insurance lobby sure does love it.

More evidence that these three are not operating in good faith on actually reforming the insurance system, and more evidence that any deal reached with them is unlikely to be worth the price they extract.

icanhaschzbrgr

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ICanHasCheezburger/~3/zuwUlo7GTQQ/

http://icanhascheezburger.com/?p=214599

human, go over there and fetch me the remote. and a soda, with a bendy straw

u betteh maek sur iz a bendy straw.

Picture by: Queenmoreta Caption by: A00a via Our LOL Builder

» Recaption This!

» View All Captions

atrios

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/bRuz/~3/ChgxGccD3Lg/thursday-night-thread.html

passionknit

http://www.passionknit.net/?p=1745

Pattern:  Argyle Vest by Veronik Avery 
Yarn:       Knit Picks Swish and Cotton Ease
Needle:   Knit Picks 5 and 7s

Lynette: Is that the term kids are calling clothes these days?  I’m so happy to be finished with  my son’s vest.  Back in February my son asked me to knit him an argyle vest.  Of course I agree and told him he’d be wearing it sometime during the 2009-10 school year.  But honestly, colorwork and I do not get along.  I’ve avoided it at all costs no matter how nice the pattern is.  Miles and I looked through knitting books and on Ravelry for the perfect pattern.    Next, he looked at all the colors on the Knit Picks Swish DK page and selected his colors.  I ordered about 4 of the blue colorways and none were the right color.  Eventually, I ended up using Cotton Ease in the Ice Blue colorway.  How could I NOT knit this vest?   He even  suggested I change the pattern a bit.  Instead of the hem as the pattern called for, he wanted ribbing.

Once I had the pattern and yarn, I cast on for the vest in September.  And believe me, this vest and I have had our struggles.  I tried to finish it for Vestvember (Ravelry link) , but I got sidetracked and worked on a few other projects.  It was 2 days late.

I cast on and ripped five times.  I showed it to my knit group one night and they were honest with me and told me my tension was tight.  Sooooo, I had a ripping good time.  Some nights I would be working on his vest in my bedroom, and he’d come in and ask “hey mom, how’s it coming along.”  The pressure!!! Despite all the problems I had with this vest, I truly like the outcome.   We’re going to his high school’s Mother/Son dance this weekend and he’ll be sporting his vest.  I need to go shopping so I could look as nice as he does.  LOL!

Can you see his fist balled up?  It was 34 degrees outside and yet he stood “patiently” while I tried to get that perfect shot.

I’d like to think that this is his pensive look, but really I think it’s his “OMG, my mom won’t stop taking pictures.”  Hahahaa!  Kids, don’t you love ‘em.  Well, I think he’d better be plenty grateful because I KNIT COLORWORK.  Half way through knitting this vest, he showed me another sweater and asked if I could replicate it.

This sweater costs over $100 on some urban wear website.  Ummm, yeah….I think I can handle it.

sandiegofeed

http://blogs.sandiegozoo.org/blog/2009/12/03/14th-exam-panda-star/

http://blogs.sandiegozoo.org/?p=6692

Keeper Kathy Hawk had her hands full this morning: during Yun Zi’s weekly exam, it was all she could do to keep a good grip on him! The panda keepers knew that the cub was getting too mobile to examine him on the table any more, so they rolled out the carpet this week to give Yun Zi more space to move around. Then, when Kathy set him down, all he wanted to do was move!

That 5 x 7 carpet just couldn’t contain him. He headed to the edge and walked toward the video camera. When Kathy picked him up to redirect him to the center of the carpet, he just turned right back around and headed to the light on the top of the camera. We know that he’s a star, but it looks like he’s a natural in front of the camera, too!

After keepers and vets let him crawl around a bit, they attempted an exam. But Yun Zi just wasn’t that into it. With the exam taking place on the floor, and Yun Zi being such a wiggle worm, I didn’t really get to see all of his great expressions. I just saw his raw determination to do what he wanted to do the way he wanted to do it. He was squeaking as Kathy held him while veterinarian Tracy Clippinger listened to his heart and lungs. And the squeaking continued when they held him to get a look at his ears and eyes. He has a few more teeth, and when Tracy was feeling around his mouth she assured us that he had a pretty good bite now.

In past exams, if Bai Yun hears her cub squeaking or give a bark during the cub exams, keepers can see her react on the panda monitors. With the cub so vocal today, keepers who were not participating in the exam kept a close eye on the monitors to see how Bai was doing. And how did she react? Well, let’s just say that she didn’t let baby’s squeals get between her and her bamboo. She kept sitting in her exhibit, leaning against a rock, chomping away. She didn’t seem fazed by any of Yun Zi’s squeals.

I didn’t take my own notes on his weight, lengths or girth (I’ll let the moderator add that at the end of this blog); I was just enjoying listening to his squeals and watching Kathy and Tracy try to wrangle a 17-week old panda. It was a lot like me trying to hold my cat, Austin, when he knows that I’m picking him up to carry him inside the house. He tries to find any way to go back to what he was doing – over my shoulder, under my arm, or just trying to take a flying forward leap. But despite Yun Zi’s best efforts and vocal protests, Kathy and Tracy held onto him and made it through the exam, even if they did have to cut it a bit short due to excessive wiggling.

Everything else in his development is looking good. Oh, I did note one measurement: for all those still enthralled with his tail, it still measures 7 centimeters (2.7 inches) and the black spot is still there. His leg muscles are coming along, and you’ll see in the video (that should be up on Friday) that he’s a panda on the move who wants to be heard!

After the quick exam, Kathy and Tracy let him crawl around on the carpet for a few more minutes. He kept heading toward the edge of the carpet and the lights on the camera – like a moth to a flame. He squealed some more as Kathy carried him back to his den. But when I checked Panda Cam on my way out of the Giant Panda Research Station 15 minutes later, he was already asleep and, I like to imagine, dreaming little panda dreams.

Jenny Mehlow is a public relations representative for the San Diego Zoo.

Note: Yun Zi weighed 15.9 pounds (7.2 kilograms).

talkngptsmemo

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Talking-Points-Memo/~3/ClerFYG-O8M/teabagging_is_the_new_nr.php

As conservatives grapple with how to deal with being called "teabaggers," a National Review senior editor mulls whether to embrace the term like blacks using the "N-word" amongst themselves: "[T]his brings up the question of whether 'teabagger' could be kind of a conservative N-word: to be used in the family, but radioactive outside the family."

sewchicrss

http://sewchic.blogspot.com/2009/12/giveaway-sneak-peek.html

sandiegofeed

http://blogs.sandiegozoo.org/blog/2009/12/03/a-new-okapi/

http://blogs.sandiegozoo.org/?p=6683

Uche at 3 days old

Ayana is an experienced mom; her first calf was born on September 22, 2006. Akin now lives at the Los Angeles Zoo, where he is a treasured member of their collection. Our new calf is named Uche (oo-chay), meaning “dawn” or “daybreak” in Swahili.

Ayana with her newest pride and joy!

Little Uche is a spunky little guy but has accepted handling pretty well. We continue to work with him every day, and he is making great progress. We would like him to follow in the footsteps of our other young male okapi, Zuri (now a year and a half old), who is now completely halter trained, allows hoof trims without anesthesia, and follows us into a trailer.

The weather has been a little chilly lately for Uche to make his debut on exhibit; okapi calves do not thermoregulate well until they are a couple of months old. We hope to have him available for viewing soon. I’ll be sure keep everyone posted! Welcome to the Park, Uche!

Marcia Redding is a senior mammal keeper at the Wild Animal Park. Read a previous post, New Forest for the Okapi.