At 00:06 10/14/2002, Zorknot42@aol.com wrote:

All right. I'm going to do this in an MST format. My comments will be
preceded by a ">>>>>"

Here goes...

What's a pika?

         It's a small, grass eating rodent also known as a rock rabbit
or coney, usually native to cold, dry, high altitude grasslands and
deserts. We have quite a population of them in Colorado. Excellent
eating, by the way, tasting much like rabbit.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/mammals/lagomorphs/Pikaprintout.shtml

       "No, this one seems to be a genetic throwback," the scientist
replied. "He's more like the pandas that were extant a few thousand years
ago. That's why we are so eager to get him into the breeding program."

"extinct" is what you want to say I think. Also, it doesn't seem likely

to me that there were ever pandas that moved that fast along the evolutionary
past an aberration or mutation of the panda's genes would be my conclusion if
I were the scientist. And that would be even more exciting as it would be the
first documented incidence of a benevolent mutation. (well not exactly if you
count Darwin's accounts of Galapagos or beneficial incidences of polyploidy
in certain plants,  and Creationists could still argue that the Genma panda
was just a species that had existed all along, but anyway)

         "Extant" is a real word, and oddly enough, despite it's similarity
to the word "extinct", it has the opposite meaning. From _WordWeb_:

Adjective: Extant

         1. Still in existence; not extinct or destroyed or lost

      "Old growth cloud forest with dense bamboo understory does not have
much in the way of prey animals, or fruiting vegetation at the ground level.
Panda's adapted to eating bamboo because there was plenty of it available."

The word "cloud" is throwing me for a loop here. Also I think it should

be "forests" and "understories" and  "do not" .and  "Pandas have adapted" and
"becausit was plentiful"

         Old growth cloud forests are exactly what they sound like.. forests
that are usually engulfed in fogs or cloud on a semi-permanent basis. Just
such forests can be found in the mountains of China, and in a very few places
in South America and on the northern Pacific coast of North America. They're
usually cold, damp, and (by human standards) unpleasant.

         We have a few - and highly protected! - such spots in the US. They're
rare due to the conditions required to maintain what amounts to a 
semi-permanent
fog bank that doesn't move or burn off OR freeze off.

Right about now my inner child is squiming in the backseat of my mind.

"Are we there yet?" he screams. "Calm down," my superego soothes, "we'll get
to the point eventually. In the meantime why don't we just enjoy all the
lovely panda information?" "But I don't wanna learn 'bout pandas!" , my inner
child argues, "I wanna see some one get beat up!"

Maybe you could trim the panda lecture down a bit?

       Actually, Genma thought, those old growth forests are nice places to
visit, but not the sort of places you really want to live. Living in 'em is
tough, even for a panda.

       "Oh, really?" the reporter asked, sounding surprised now.

         Genma (and Don) are quite right. Cold, constantly damp, havens for
fungus of every sort, such cloud forests are pretty to see, miserable to
live in, unless you're specifically adapted to them.

         Ed Becerra

         "Dreamers may die, but the Dream is eternal..."



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