The National Zoo's giant pandas attempted to mate Thursday, apparently unsuccessfully.

Their keepers... ummm... tried to help them out, though.

Wouldn't it be cool if the pandas conceived in time for the inaugural? Anyway, I figure Butterstick needs a baby brother or sister...

(Okay, I'm not sure if calling the baby panda "Butterstick" instead of his official name "Tai Shan" is a national joke or not. When the cute little feller was born, it seemed that every news story described him as being "the size of a stick of butter". Hence, the nickname Butterstick was adopted almost universally. Tai Shan was chosen via an on-line poll, from a list submitted by the Chinese. Some creative souls hacked the web server so that Butterstick was an option.)