overheard in providence

At the Atlantic, Matthew Yglesias remains a leading advocate of pandas as the world’s cutest bear. This photo, however, comes courtesy of James Fallows, another excellent Atlantic blogger and/or panda proponent (also he lives in Beijing). Since the giant panda is critically endangered, and also native to western China, there are few opportunities for us Americans to find them in flock form. (In fact, the pandas we do have are each being leased from China for $1,000,000 per year!) The need for additional pandas is clear. Their adorability multiplies when present as a pile (or even aligned). Our best bet, I feel, is to convince China to wager some against a sleuth of polar bears in the upcoming Beijing olympics. (For more fun words associated with groupings of animals, see here).

Update: I should have also linked to this slideshow documenting James Fallows trip to the Wolong Panda Reserve.