Chinese state media reported today that the country has started its once-a-decade panda census, the fourth tallying of the endangered species since it first began in the 1970s. 70 panda trackers are being trained during a pilot survey in the Wanglang National Reserve, in the city of Mianyang, in Sichuan province. According to Yang Xuyu, a forestry official, that particular nature reserve is believed to have the largest number of wild pandas in the country.

Before you get so jealous of these panda trackers' jobs that you quit your own, know that much of panda tracking actually involves collecting panda droppings for DNA analysis. This allows zoologists to monitor individual pandas and then estimate the number of pandas living in the wild. According to Xinhua, the census will not only count pandas, but also determine their living conditions, age, and habitat state.

The last official census counted 1,596 wild pandas in China -- 1,206 living in Sichuan, including 230 in the Wanglang reserve and nearby areas. There are another 290 pandas living in captivity worldwide.

And yes, we'll take this excuse to post some more cute panda photos (most of these guys live at the Chengdu Giant Panda Research and Conservation Center):

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is known for loving both cute things and adrenaline, so it's no surprise that he has taken to movie star Leonardo DiCaprio like a puppy to a new chew-toy. DiCaprio landed in St. Petersburg earlier this week to attend a tiger-conservation conference, but his journey to Russia was rife with excitement. His first Russia-bound plane was forced to make an emergency landing in New York after an engine failure. His second plane had to stop in Finland for unscheduled refueling because of strong headwinds.

According to the Telegraph, Putin spotted DiCaprio in the audience and deviated from his set speech to praise DiCaprio as a "real man" noting that "a person with less stable nerves could have decided against coming, could have read it as a sign - that it was not worth going."

DiCaprio apparently was also feeling the love, telling Putin about his Russian heritage. (A Russian film producer, noting Leo's uncanny resemblence to Vladimir Lenin, is reportedly looking to cast the Inception star as a re-animated version of the Soviet revolutionary in an upcoming sci-fi film.)

With all this love in the air, the tigers were not left out. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the International Tiger Conservation Forum ended with the approval of the Global Tiger Recovery Program, which aims to double the number of tigers in the wild. DiCaprio personally donated $1 million for tiger conservation (which should also make Malia
Obama happy).

Of course, Putin's feelings about tigers are already well-known.

Russia is one of 13 countries where tigers still exist in the wild, along with Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam.

South African tech company Unlimited IT was so frustrated with the slow Internet speeds provided by Telkom, one of South Africa's biggest internet providers, that it hired a pigeon named Winston. As the Times of South Africa reports, Winston carried a 4gb memory card from one branch of Unlimited IT to another, far faster than Telkom's transfer speed:  

The 11-month-old pigeon flew 80km from a call centre in Howick, outside Pietermaritzburg, to a head office in Hillcrest, Durban, to prove a bird is faster at transferring data than Telkom’s ADSL lines.

Winston made his delivery in 2 hours 6 minutes and 57 seconds, beating Telkom’s estimated download time of up to two days. By the time the memory card, carrying company data, had been collected from Winston and downloaded by midday, the ADSL download had managed 100MB of data.

The Christian Science Monitor's Scott Balduf, based in Johannesburg, explains why the story is more significant than just good publicity for Ultimate and Winston:

Africans pay some of the highest prices for some of the least reliable Internet service in the world. And if a country like South Africa – relatively prosperous and developed – can't solve this problem, then it's going to need a lot more pigeons.

Telkom has since responded to the South Africa Press Association and denied responsibility for Ultimate's Internet connection woes.

flickr/dubliniete

Attention D.C. residents: You know that bamboo plant livening up your office? It's needed for panda food.

The National Zoo has run critically low on bamboo and might run out before the winter ends. The zoo harvests bamboo on its premises and at other locations in the area, but for unknown reasons, the stands aren't regrowing normally.

On Jan. 14, the zoo issued a public appeal for bamboo donations for Tian Tian, Mei Xiang, Tai Shan, who munch through 1,400 pounds (635 kg) of the crunchy stalks weekly.

The three furry balls of cuteness are on loan from China. Let's hope this bamboo shortage doesn't adversely affect U.S.-China relations. Fortunately, there are some promising signs: The zoo has received many offers since issuing its appeal. However, for the bamboo to be accepted, it must meet specific criteria:

• Cover at least an acre
• Be within 25 to 30 miles from the zoo
• Grow at least 100 feet from roads
• Be free of herbicides and pesticides

By the way, check out the panda cam.

KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images

Here's some lunchtime fun for you.

YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images

Sumo wrestlers coaxed 80 babies, all less than a year old, to cry at last Sunday's annual baby-crying contest at Sensoji temple in Tokyo. The tiny winners are determined by who cries first and who wails the loudest. Participating Japanese parents apparently believe the sumo-induced cries are beneficial, with the babies crying out a wish for good health. At the very least, it probably exercises the lungs.

YOSHIKAZU TSUNO/AFP/Getty Images

Some babies reportedly refused to cooperate and stayed silent or even dared to laugh in the wrestlers' faces. Or, at least, that was the case until the wrestlers resorted to slipping on their scary masks.

BRISTOL, UNITED KINGDOM: Helen Park, an avid collector, adjusts her My Little Ponies as they are displayed at the International My Little Pony Convention at the Redwood Hotel and Country Club near Bristol on October 26, 2007, in England. Fans of the toys were in the city to celebrate 25 years Of My Little Pony (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

There's a convention for everything these days.

AFP/Getty Images

Yesterday, Indian students dressed as members of India's independence movement for a program marking the 138th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth. Earlier this year, the United Nations General Assembly declared October 2, Gandhi's birthday, as the International Day of Non-Violence (I guess they didn't get the memo in Iraq and Burma).

Interestingly, in a survey published last year by the Economic Times newspaper, 37 percent of Indian management students and young business leaders said today's biggest icon was Bill Gates. Gandhi trailed at 30 percent. Seventy-four percent of the young business leaders and 61 percent of the students said people of their generation could not relate to the father of the nation. Fifty-six percent said it was time to reinvent Gandhi.

The idea of monarchies may seen quaint and anachronistic, and a recent FP List, "King for a Day or Two" even examines some of the royal families whose time may be coming to an end.

But it seems the public's fascination with royalty will never die. All the pageantry, intrigue, and fairy-tale qualities associated with kings, queens, princes, and princesses infatuates us. For many, a world without monarchies just wouldn't be as fun. (And it would probably put Hello magazine out of business.)

Following the 10-year anniversary of Princess Diana's death, the most recent example of the public's obsession with royalty is today's celebration of Japanese Prince Hisahito's first birthday. Last year, he was the first male heir to be born in more than four decades, relieving a succession crisis in a country where only males can ascend to the throne. Today, photos of His Cuteness were splashed across newspapers' front pages. Articles about the royal birthday detail the 30-inch, 20.4-pound prince's impressive skills, which include crawling on stairs, playing the xylophone, and turning pages of picture books all by himself.

Of course, the attraction changes from cuteness to romance once royal children hit adulthood. Forbes magazine, famous for its ranking of the world's richest people, just produced a list of the "world's most eligible royals," complete with a slide show.

We just don't want the fairy tales to ever end, leaving the royals to live happily ever after.

President Bush has kept his dance moves mostly under wraps for six years, preferring, it seems, to let subordinates step into the limelight when the music comes on. At a recent White House event on combating malaria, though, the president just couldn't help himself. His rhythmic stylings are today's Thursday Video. Personally, I think he's got Karl Rove's moves beat.

Meet Prince Pickles, the new face of Japan's increasingly active military, known as the Self-Defense Forces for constitutional reasons.

The cute, manga-like cartoon character is intended to construct a non-threatening image of Japan's military. For the past few years, the Japanese military has been seeking a more assertive global role, and will be the platform from which Japan can become a "normal" country in the wake of its strict postwar pacifism.

Prince Pickles is our image character because he's very endearing, which is what Japan's military stands for," said Defense Ministry official Shotaro Yanagi. "He's our mascot and appears in our pamphlets and stationery."

Not surprisingly, the military's efforts to adopt innocuous-looking symbols has raised suspicions that Japan is cloaking darker ambitions, but the government insists that such imaging serves to create cultural understanding and help Japan's efforts in the military theater. In Japan's Iraq mission (where it deployed 600 noncombatant troops in its first military mission since the Second World War), water trucks were decorated with Japan's globally popular cartoon characters, and "everybody loved it," according to Foreign Ministry official Aki Tsuda. Not a single truck was attacked in the two and half year mission, which Japanese officials attribute to the cartoons rather than the fact that the deployment area was largely free of violence.

Women following the Chinese lunar calendar may hear their biological clocks ticking a whole lot louder: February 18 marks the beginning of what is widely believed to be the Year of the Golden Pig. What's so special about the Year of the Golden Pig, you ask?

Babies born in the "year of the golden pig" are believed to have good fortune and will lead a comfortable and wealthy life. [...]

People who believe in the year of the golden pig say the special year comes every 600 years. They came to this conclusion through calculations, using a combination of the Chinese zodiac and the yin and yang theory.

Chinese culture has had an enormous influence on Korea over the centuries. So this year promises to be a boon for both Chinese and Korean wedding planners and obstetricians as they handle an influx of potentially lucky infants. Regardless of whether it's just superstition or not, the impact on Korean society has been enormous. The birthrate is expected to rise 10 percent from the previous average, fueling a baby boom not seen since, well, the millennium birthing frenzy of 2000.

The 2006 Robot Awards have just been handed out in Tokyo and this year, aids for the elderly took top prizes. Paro, this furry little robotic seal used for therapy in nursing homes, took the service prize at the Japanese government-sponsored awards. I supposed Paro is meant to be a friend for the lonely, much like a real pet, since it responds to its name, coos, and reacts to petting. A feeding machine was also honored, another sign that Japan is hoping robots will help care for its rapidly aging population. Forty percent of Japan will be 65 or older by 2055.

But robot innovations this year weren't simply geared toward the elderly. There was also the giant vacuum:

Other robots to be honoured at the ceremony included a huge autonomous vacuum cleaner that moves around Tokyo skyscrapers at night, clearing up after office workers.

And the robot salesgirl (she's on the right, folks):