The red panda is a mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, and a ringed tail. It has a head-to-body length of 51–63.5 cm (20–25 in) and a 28–48.5 cm (11–19 in) tail, and it weighs between 3.2 and 15 kg (7 and 33 lb). It is genetically close to raccoons, weasels and skunks. Solitary, largely arboreal and well adapted to climbing, it inhabits coniferous, temperate broadleaf and mixed forests, favouring steep slopes with dense bamboo cover close to water sources. It uses elongated wrist bones ("false thumbs") to grasp bamboo. It feeds mainly on bamboo shoots and leaves. Red pandas mate in early spring, giving birth to up to four cubs in summer. On the IUCN Red List as endangered since 2015, the species is threatened by poaching and deforestation-based habitat destruction and fragmentation. It is featured in animated movies, video games and comic books, and is also the namesake of companies and music bands.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1841:
Giselle (title role pictured), a ballet by the French composer Adolphe Adam, was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique in Paris. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giselle
1904:
In the worst maritime disaster involving a Danish merchant ship, SS Norge ran aground on Hasselwood Rock and sank in the North Atlantic, resulting in more than 635 deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Norge
1942:
World War II: The Wehrmacht launched Case Blue, a strategic German offensive to capture oil fields in the south of the Soviet Union. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Blue
1978:
In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the U.S. Supreme Court barred quota systems in college admissions but held that affirmative-action programs advantaging minorities were constitutional. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regents_of_the_University_of_California_v._Bakke
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
tau: 1. The letter Τ/τ in the Greek, Hebrew, and ancient Semitic alphabets; being the nineteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek, and the twenty-first letter of the Old and Ancient Greek alphabets. 2. A Τ-shaped object or sign; a Saint Anthony's cross, sometimes regarded as a sacred symbol. 3. (Christianity) A crosier with a Τ-shaped head. 4. The ankh symbol (☥). 5. (astronomy) Chiefly written τ: used to designate the nineteenth star (usually according to brightness) in a constellation. 6. (finance) A measurement of the sensitivity of the value of an option to changes in the implied volatility of the price of the underlying asset. 7. (mathematics, neologism) Chiefly written τ: an irrational and transcendental constant representing the ratio of the circumference of a Euclidean circle to its radius, equal to twice the value of pi (2π; approximately 6.2831853071). 8. (neurology) Short for tau protein (“a protein abundant especially in the neurons of the human central nervous system that stabilizes microtubules, and when misfolded is associated with forms of dementia such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases”). 9. (physics) Chiefly written τ. 10. Short for tau lepton or tau particle (“an unstable elementary particle which is a type of lepton, having a mass almost twice that of a proton, a negative charge, and a spin of ½; it decays into hadrons (usually pions) or other leptons, and neutrinos; a tauon”). 11. (historical) Short for tau meson, now known as a kaon. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tau
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Hope for the best. Expect the worst. The world's a stage. We're unrehearsed. No way of knowing which way it's going. Take your chances, there are no answers. Hope for the best. Expect the worst. --Mel Brooks https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mel_Brooks