3/26/2004: Polar bears turn green

[Undertoad]

This is Sheba and her 13-year-old son Inuka in their cage in a Singapore Zoo. They're polar bears, and polar bears are white. Except Inuka there is GREEN.

What zookeepers figured out was that they had some sort of algae actually growing in their hair shafts. Not ON their hair shafts -- IN them.

Polar bear fur is not really white to begin with; it's actually clear, but reflects as white. And the follicles are hollow: because dormant air is a great insulator. But when your hair shafts get clogged up with algae, well that's gotta be embarrassing. Y'see these bears are not typically found in a warm, humid climate like Singapore...

So they treated Sheba with bleach, and were able to successfully clear up the problem, and were watching to make sure there were no problems before going ahead to bleach Inuka.

[Beletseri]

My memory is tugging at me about seeing something similar to this before - I think this happened to the NYC Central park polar bears too.

[Clodfobble]

It was tugging at my memory as even having been an IOTD before too, but I'm too lazy to go digging through the archives.

[Happy Monkey]

Here it is. It just goes to show that polar bears are Drazi.

[e unibus plurum]

polar bears are more now more highly evolved -- they can photosynthesize!

[Scopulus Argentarius]

Originally posted by e unibus plurum
polar bears are more now more highly evolved -- they can photosynthesize!

I'd lichen it to an almost symbiotic relationship.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Groan.

[seriously]

thought you might be interested in this red glacier.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science....ap/index.html

[lumberjim]

"We all have a need to decorate Mother Nature because it belongs to all us," Danish artist Marco Evaristti said Thursday. "This is my iceberg; it belongs to me."

this was from that link posted by seriously

and people say Americans are arrogant.

[hermex]

He spent too much time in the hot-tub

[funkykule]

What an asshole... did you see what he did to those fish?? not my type of "art"

[linknoid]

I've only seen one polar bear in real life, at the Fresno zoo many many years ago, and it was also green. Apparently it's must not be that uncommon a problem.

[OnyxCougar]

Originally posted by funkykule
What an asshole... did you see what he did to those fish?? not my type of "art"

You mean the exhibit where he put the fish in the working blenders?

And someone turned the blender on?

So how is this guy the asshole? Wouldn't the asshole be the guy that turned the blender on?

There was a thread about this in IOTD, IIRC.

[funkykule]

He's an asshole because, IMHO , someone who urges people to something as cruel and wrong as that is just as bad as the person who did it and in some cases worse.

For the record I think the guy who did it was a prime ass aswell, but three scenarios could have occured:
1. accidental: He didn't really think the blenders were real (.....mabye)
2. mean: He just wanted to be cruel and got off on the whole thing (....possibly)
3. foolish: He was the idiot who does stuff so people will notice him(......quite likely)

So I don't know which one he was but I do know that the artist was well aware of what was going to happen and was actively encouraging it. That makes him an asshole.
Do you not think so?
or are you just saying that the other guy was to blame also, in which case I agree with you.

[OnyxCougar]

So a man who presents a group of people with an opportunity, "push this button and a dog will be given a bowl of food", is a great guy, even if no one pushes the button

and a guy who presents an opportunity, "push this button and the fish will be blended into soup", is an asshole, even if no one pushes the button?