Adventures of the Blue-eyed Bear

The Blue-eyed Bear is suited up and ready to go aboard Discovery!

All paws on deck! The Blue-eyed Bear is ready to go to space as part of NASA’s “Faces in Space” program. After a long delay Mission STS133 will fly tomorrow Feb 24, 2011 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. Lift off is from pad 39A at 4:50 est. This is to be the last flight of the intrepid ship Discovery. The mission is to deliver “Leonardo” a space closet to the International Space Station as well as the long awaited  robotic astronaut. And just maybe the crew will test out whether bears might do a better job in space then any space robot! Godspeed Discovery and Crew, Godspeed Blue-eyed Bear!

The Blue-eyed Bear wants to help collect space junk!

The Blue-eyed Bear is going into space by way of the Space Shuttle Discovery! The BE Bear doesn’t usually use human conveyance, but if you want to go into outer space, the Shuttle is the best way. The Bear is going as part of the NASA program Faces in Space. Her real mission is to try and capture some of the space junk that  is collecting around the Earth from  50+ years of Humans dumping their mess. The Junk is getting so dense its becoming a danger. The BE Bear thinks if she is successful maybe NASA will deploy a crew of bears on a clean-up mission. Such a mission might prove to Humans the importance of bears and it could provide a new home for her and/or some of her wandering kin before the ice totally melts.

Discovery blasts off with the BE Bear from the Kennedy Space Center Nov 1st at 4:40 PM EDT. The mission is STS-133. The crew will be heading to the International Space Station to deliver the Express Logistics Carrier 4 and the Multipurpose Logistics Module. Stay tuned to see if the BE Bear will enjoy the ride!

The Blue-eyed Bear's Mission patch.

Bear meets Badger

The Blue-eyed bear has found a Welsh badger (meles meles) and doesn’t think this Brock looks dangerous. Brock is the Celtic word for Badger it can be translated as “grey”. It seems that some humans think think that badgers spread the disease TB to cattle through their urine. Humans want to shoot the badgers to stop the spread of the disease in cattle. All this is to happen in May of 2011. Some humans those of the Badger Trust are trying to stop this proposed badger cull. Apparently there is no good scientific proof to show that the cattle actually get TB from badgers or that killing the badgers will eliminate the TB. All studies have been inconclusive. So maybe they should look at the problem starting with how the cattle are handled. But there’s that old adage “shoot first and ask questions latter”. That is generally how humans solve their problems no matter how much pain they cause.

Badgers are one of the largest natural land mammals left in Wales and the Land of Eng. The bear had been eliminated from that land thousands of years ago. So the B-E Bear better lie low or she may get her butt shot too!

Bagders are great excavators; they dig complex burrows called setts that can house a family group or a single badger. Badgers like some bears are omnivores, They eat insects fruit, roots, small mammals etc.  Badgers are also like bears in that they have great determination and focus.  They can be independent and confident, yet fierce in their protection of their home turf and family. Badgers hibernate in the winter so the B-E Bear will soon have to say goodbye to her new friend Brock. Hopefully, he will not have to awake to guns pointed down his sett in the spring.

Please Don't Shoot!

The Blue-eyed Bear has found her wings!

A dragon from a Scottish Highland loch has saved our favorite bear from a dreadful fall.  The dragon morphed in size, as some dragons are known to do, and now is just right to carry the B-E Bear. Some might say that the dragon morphed from the bumblebee to save the B-E Bear. Bees can move in mysterious ways, especially Scottish bees. Any way the dragon is flying the B-E Bear south to Whales and the land of Eng.  The B-E Bear wants to find out who is badgering our friend Mr. Badger. Stay tuned!