Celebration

National Science Fiction Day

         

According to my calendar, today is National Science Fiction Day.

The poet Walt Whitman wrote:

When I heard the learn'd astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

~ Walt Whitman ~

Much the same as Walt Whitman, I have always looked up to the stars and dreamed. So it's no surprise that I've always enjoyed books, and later on, the television shows, that could take me to places I've never been, introduced me to people I've never met and showed me things I've only dreamed of.

The world of Science Fiction changes the rules I inherited from reality.

The Science Fiction genre, is almost like having your own personal sandbox. It allows us all to probe the outer limits of our imagination. It challenges our human spirit to reach beyond what we know, and to venture into new worlds with new and unconventional ideas. Whether in books or on the screen, things like alien contacts, extrasensory perception, robots and artificial intelligence, time travel and immortality, allow us to think beyond the world of the here-and-now and travel beyond all known barriers and boundaries.

Here are a couple of websites that are extremely useful if you want to delve into the world of Science Fiction, either for the first time or as a returning space-traveler.

Fantasy and Science Fiction Website - (A great resource)

The SF Site  - The Home Page for Science Fiction and Fantasy

Enjoy the trip!

Today is Hug-A-Bear-Day: Embrace the Giant Panda

On many calendars, November 7 is marked as "Hug-A-Bear-Day.

This vague annotation on the calendar may not appear to many to be much cause for celebration. If anything, some may see it as just another meaningless day in the countdown to Thanksgiving.

But, this is a great opportunity to learn about some of the bears that currently inhabit this planet, but are in danger of extinction. Like so many other wild animals, our constant use and abuse of the earth's resources have left some species of bears in a perilous position for the future of their survival.

It is said that if only one person a day makes a difference in the survival of our planet, then collectively we will all make a difference. So let's take today and deviate from our Thanksgiving preparations to learn about a couple of bear species that need our help to survive.

Giant Panda (Ailuopoda melanoleuca)

Pandas are famous for their black and white markings. The legs, shoulders, ears and oval patches around the eyes are black, and the rest of the coat is white. Pandas weigh an average of 200 to 300 pounds and reach six feet in length. Good tree climbers, pandas can also swim to escape predators. Pandas use an enlarged wrist bone that looks like a thumb to grasp objects like bamboo.

Today, only 1,000 pandas exist in the wild and 60 more, in zoos. Their lifespan in the wild is unknown but in captivity it averages more than 20 years.

It is interesting to note here, that many in the scientific community still disagree about whether the giant panda is closely related to bears or raccoons or is separate from both.

After a gestation period of 125 to 150 days, a mother panda gives birth to one or two young, but only one survives. Their eyes open at six to eight weeks, and the cub starts to move around at three months. Weaned at six months, the cub becomes independent after a year.

These solitary animals spend most of their days feeding. Although they live in cold forests, pandas do not hibernate. They move to lower elevations during winter to keep warm and to higher elevations in summer to stay cool. They do not have permanent homes but sleep at the bottom of trees and under stumps and rock ledges.

Pandas feed mostly on bamboo, a tall woody plant full of fiber. The panda's digestive system does not absorb the fiber, so it must eat a lot. Pandas also eat flowers, vines, tufted grasses, green corn, honey and rodents.

The panda lives in thick bamboo and coniferous forests (evergreens with seed cones) at 8,500 to 11,500 feet elevation. The shrinking range of the panda is limited to parts of Szechuan, Shensi and Kansu provinces in central and western China. Their habitat loss is due to the increasing human populations, poaching and, the periodic loss of entire areas of the bamboo.

Today, the status of the Giant Panda is classified as endangered.

To learn more about the Giant Panda, and ways you can participate in the survival of this magnificent animal, you might want to visit this National Geographic site, to start.

Later on today, we will talk about another species of bear that is in serious trouble.