Apparently the Peoples Republic of China has decided to subvert our way of life with weaponized cuteness.
On Friday, the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda rolled out 36 panda cubs for no other purpose than public enjoyment.
“Instead of introducing the pandas one by one, the center opted for making one huge good news blast by debuting all of the babies to the public at once,” writes People.These are 36 out of 42 total pandas bred at the Research Center this year, its most productive panda year yet. Baby pandas appear to be good at lining up in rows and meowing, not so much motor skills, which means that if you were in charge of one, it would need you to carry it around everywhere. “For 2 months after birth, baby pandas basically only feed on milk, sleep, and poo,” we learn from ChinaHighlights.com. As America’s beloved baby Fiona the Hippo verges on her disillusioned rebel teen phase and (I hate to say this but) sexual maturity, that’s a comforting thought.
Open thread!
Mary G
Dodgers win!
Adam L Silverman
Also, when did the PRC get its own corps of Ghostbusters? And why are they taking care of the baby pandas?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
they knew he was a scorpion, and yet…
amygdala
Emphasis on “rolled.”
Baby pandas are adorable, but I’m #TeamFiona all the way. It’s the ear wiggle. Too cute.
Adam L Silverman
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is a bit awkward given that the Republican National Committee is paying for his and his son’s attorneys.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Adam L Silverman: Ronna Romney McDaniel… I like to think old man George would be ashamed of his descendants
jl
I for one welcome our new world hegemon of cuddly cuteness. The Chinese understand soft cuddle power.
What is with the uniforms on the panda-minders? Those are the Chinese panda-troopers who will invade after they soften us up.
I eagerly await Adam’s post on it.
Adam L Silverman
@jl: See my comment #2:
Roger Moore
Which isn’t that odd for a bear. They all have extremely altricial young.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Adam L Silverman: Obviously you’re trying to get Corner Stone to stroke out.
danielx
@Adam L Silverman:
Well, nobody has ever accused Trump of lacking chutzpah. Come to think of it, if and when the RNC tells Trump to fuck off and he can pay his own legal fees – it will be a tell that the water is rising past the salon windows on board the Titanic. Time for all good rats to don their life jackets, etc etc.
On another topic, I recently saw video from a reasonably reputable source showing a swarm/cloud of small inter-active and inter-aware and co-operating drones at some test/proving ground somewhere in the US. These appeared to be maybe a foot in diameter. What I’m wondering:
1. did anyone else see this?
2. am i correct in thinking that this *phenomenon* and associated developments are, like, the biggest thing since gunpowder for ground warfare?
3. am i further correct that there is a leader in mass produced drone of every variety, and it ain’t us?
Amir Khalid
@Adam L Silverman:
I don’t know about you, but I just want to break out the tub of Glee Hand Cream and say, “Excellent.”
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
Look, there’s no way Yellowstone is going to be an extinction event (the immediate fallout will barely affect the East Coast) but has anyone done studies on its eruption’s effect on American agriculture?
lamh36
Speaking of babies…I’m still up and for some reason watching Baby Boom and realizing, that Baby Boom came out 30 YEARS AGO!!! Yet, it could be remade today just barely change the fashion, but keep the sexism…STILL RELEVANT!
Oh, and I totally forgot James Spader was in Baby Boom, in full on 80s Spader-esque doucheness! Gawd wasn’t he like the go to prototype for the 80s smug douchebag
Adam L Silverman
@danielx: You’ve said too much. Implement your ex-fil plan immediately!
jl
@Adam L Silverman: Ha ha ha. That was obviously a joke. Now I want the real scoop.
danielx
@lamh36:
Indeed he was, although he was good in some of his roles. I distinctly recall that White Palace was seriously hot, Spader and Susan Sarandon.
lamh36
@lamh36: oh and Sam Shepard was in it as the vet (RIP). Has anyone seen Something’s Got To Give with Diane Keaton & Jack Nicholson? Seeing the chemistry between Diane Keaton & Sam Shepard in Baby Boom I’m reminded of the chemistry between Keaton & Keanu Reeves, who just so happened to also play a doc love interest in that movie. Probably the thing I disliked most about Something’s Gotta Give was that she ended up with Nicholson. She had better chemistry wKeanu…
MomSense
@lamh36:
There are so many funny scenes in that movie like Diane Keaton pouring her heart out to the veterinarian played by Sam Shepherd.
MomSense
@lamh36:
Ha! On the same oage
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@danielx: Spader was in yuppie douche mode in Wolf, with Jack Nicholson and Michelle Pfieffer. I can never decide if that movie is a guilty pleasure or not. It is not without a healthy serving of cheese, but… Jack Nicholson plays a werewolf.
danielx
@Adam L Silverman:
Ex-fil my ass, you have no idea of the amount of impedimenta the other family units consider essential. If it was up to just me and thinking through the essentials – if i had a go bag ready (i don’t), just a question of grabbing it and walking out the door***. For them it is more like half a day to decide what to take, another half day to pack it. Then to have your humble obedient servant sweat his left ventricle off carrying their shit downstairs…well, you get the idea.
***eta: cats! i forgot cats! Forget the whole thing, fast ex-fil and cats don’t mix
MomSense
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
What about Secretary? That movie sketched me out.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Oy, what someone has done with photoshop at this twitter feed…
glad I’m recording it, the Spokesviper deserves all the grief they can give her
MomSense
@lamh36:
I would have chosen Keanu. I think they dated IRL for awhile.
danielx
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
White Palace is a low rent pleasure. I was raised as an episcopalian, we don’t do guilt. Granted that a Jesuit education played hell with some of my episcopalian non-virtues, i came out with not *hanging on to guilt too long* stiil more or less intact. And yes, come to think on it, he was a yuppie douche rocket in White Palace, although Sarandon kind of humanized him.
lamh36
@MomSense: Diane Keaton & Keanu Reeves!!! Well attagirl Diane K!!!
Love me some Keanu!
MomSense
@danielx:
He went to school in Mass and I know several people who were classmates. Not a lot of acting going on if you know what I mean.
Major Major Major Major
Awww, how cute.
I had a terribly productive day and I’m tremendously anxious for no reason. I don’t know why. I’m going to meditate for a bit I think, and then I’m gonna read Seveneves and play Witcher 3 and possibly Warcraft. And of course annoy y’all.
Hate the random anxiety, though. Feh.
Hill Dweller
The new Netflix series Mindhunter is good. I’ve been watching it over the last couple of days. Netflix liked what they saw so much during filming, they ordered a 2nd season last April, six months before the 1st season debuted.
rikyrah
@Adam L Silverman:
They don’t have to pay. No other President has had them pay.
Plus, he has over $50 million from the Inauguration that is unaccounted for.???
rikyrah
The pandas are adorable ??
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
As I recall, no POTUS before Trump ever incurred such legal expenses, let alone demanded his party pay them.
Bruuuuce
The pandas are Too Freakin’ Cute. Reminded me of the pandas falling compilation that had been going around a week or three ago, so watched that one again, too
FlipYrWhig
I’m not sure the repulsive campaign Execrable Ed Gillespie is running for Virginia gov has gotten quite enough national attention. Tonight’s version had him complaining that the top tax rate in Va. kicks in at $17,000, which must mean not that Virginia has too low taxes on rich people but that Democrats think that $17K in income makes a person rich. Every ad he does is like this: brutally stupid and stuffed with more lies than can fill the hollow space where his chin should be. Fuck this guy.
lamh36
@DCMonteverde
New Orleans will have its first female mayor for the first time in its 300-year history.
https://twitter.com/DCMonteverde/status/919387841649696768
Major Major Major Major
@FlipYrWhig: wow.
Duane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Bannon didn’t leave the Trump administration. He’s taken a position as a private contractor.
Director of Propaganda.
Mnemosyne
A quick Weinstein-related thing I was trying to explain myself the other day — doing interviews and auditions in hotels is a very normal thing, because they happen in a suite with a living room, not in a bedroom. When I was doing entertainment journalism, I did several interviews in hotel suites, including Leonardo DiCaprio (when he was about 19) and Brad Dourif. The publicist stayed in the room the whole time and it was totally normal.
Basically, Weinstein would lure women to what they thought was going to be a normal business meeting and then the assistant would leave and he would pounce.
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne: helpful to know, thanks!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mnemosyne: Chuckie Brad Dourif or Deadwood Brad Dourif?
Mnemosyne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Post-Chucky, pre-Deadwood. He was very kind to a nervous young journalist (me).
frosty
@Mnemosyne:
So that key scene in Notting Hill when he’s interviewing her for Horse and Hound wouldn’t have happened IRL? Rats.
Ladyraxterinok
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): John Storey (end times prophet) has been with Jim Bakker on several shows warning about the Yellowstone earthquake and the disasterous effect on agriculture.Buy Bakker’s tubs of surmvivalist food NOW!!
Soon we will all be living in the Puerto Rico world, they warn.
And BTW the price is going up as the quake gets closer.
frosty
@Ladyraxterinok: Read “Ashfall”. A good trilogy set after the Yellowstone caldera erupts.
rikyrah
@lamh36:
Going to look up these women now?
rikyrah
@lamh36:
Ok lamh,
Give us the 411.
Just by the bios, and maybe I am stereotyping, but Desiree gives off OKOP vibes.
bystander
@lamh36: By all accounts, Spader has maintained his commanding douche levels through the 90s and on into the new century.
Steeplejack
@MomSense:
I take (slight) exception. Is there anyone that wouldn’t have some group of people from back in high school who thought they were a douchebag?