Zedonk?

I bet that many of you saw the news reports on this very rare occurence... It seems that a donkey and a zebra, living at a wildlife preserve in Georgia, mated and produced this cute little female 'zedonk.'

Officials at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve, where the little crossbred was born, are as surprised as anyone by the very rare coupling. "The animals have been running (in the fields) together for more than 40 years, but this is the first time that this has happened here," says the preserve's founder. "We never suspected that they (had mated), so it was quite a surprise when the zedonk was born." With the distinctive black stripes of a zebra on her legs and face, and the narrow head of a donkey, the wildlife preserve's newest resident looks to be a perfect hybrid. When it comes to temperament, however, it seems the five-day-old takes more after her dad, preserve general manager C.W. Wathen told the Gainesville Times: Usually, a foal will lay over on its side, sunning itself. But the zedonk sits up at all time -- like she's on alert looking out for predators. She's still got some of her wild instincts. Chances are the baby zedonk will never meet anything quite like her -- the infertile hybrid is actually quite rare -- though she'll have no shortage of companions at the Chestatee Wildlife Preserve, which is home to a variety of animals from around the globe.

Swine Flu

We are all concerned about the Novel H1N1 virus this season, and it makes sense to pay close attention to the risks and the news that hopefully helps us to prepare as best we can. We've certainly talked about it at school, and we are careful to make sure that all of us cover our coughs and wash our hands frequently. But... life does go on from day to day in spite of the swine flu. I ran across this picture and thought it was a fun and light-hearted look at what is a serious issue -- dealing with this virus:

Blind Faith?

I saw a news broadcast tonight about a group of climbers on Mt. Kilimanjaro (15,100 ft). Just climbing the mountain is a pretty amazing feat, but it is even more amazing to realize that these climbers are all legally blind. Over rocks and up steep cliff faces, accompanied by sighted guides, they climbed to the summit by feel and by raw courage and by "blind" faith. I wanted to put their story here so that on the days when I feel like I can't do whatever is in front of me at the moment, I have their courage and their faith to be my inspiration. Here's the link to their blog telling the story of their training and their climb.

Uighurs (Weegers)

If you are listening to news this summer (and of course you are!), you may have heard about the unrest in Western China -- involving the Uighur People (pronounced Weeger). This article explains who they are and what the disagreements are about...

Coup in Guinea

We talked a lot about military takeovers and dictatorships during our study of South America.

Today, there is news of a military takeover (a coup), not in South America, but in the country of Guinea -- in Western Africa. There, President Conte, has died after a 24 year rule that some have called dictatorial. Without any mechanism for naming a successor, the military has stepped into the gap and suspended all the government institutions along with the constitution. This is an opportunity for those who are interested to see this sort of political/governmental process unfold.

It is too early to know what the ultimate outcome of all of this will be, but here are news reports on the event from around the world:

Aljazeera News The Guardian -- UK

Yahoo News

The Lost Ladybugs Project

I was listening to National Public Radio this afternoon, and I heard an interview with a scientist from Cornell University about a neat science project called the Lost Ladybugs Project. If you are just hanging around outside this summer, you can help the scientists at Cornell University track down and study ladybugs. All the directions and information about the project are here:

The Lost Ladybugs Project

All the information that you need to take part in this really interesting and important project is right there. They explain how to catch them and how to photograph them. It is really pretty neat. Go look.