Whereas a previous post covered the not so sexually active Pandas on the West Coast, this past weekend, female Mei Xiang gave birth to a cub at 3:41am on July 9 at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in D.C. The cub's weight and sex is still unknown since the staff has taken a hands off approach towards the two. The webcam is live, the mother's laying there resting, can't really see the cub though. I guess it's somewhere bundled in the mother's arms. Pandas remind me of this shirt my sister bought off of Threadless.

I'm not sure where my fascination with Pandas started but I do recall that they were the subject of my STS project back in high school. No big deal, just built a website about them. I think it was hosted off of Xoom.com or some other free provider at the time. One of the more interesting things I learned was that the Giant Panda isn't necessarily related to the bear. At the time I think they were thought to be more closely related to the raccoon. But even to this day, I'm still a bit confused. Bear, raccoon or it's own family? The photo I posted up made me recall the project because the last photo I used on the site (a linear Powerpoint-like site) was of a Panda in a similar position. For such tubby beasts they can climb pretty well.