1:00 PM -- The Associated Press reports on some innovative ideas surrounding recycled panda poop:

The Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Base has come up with a dung-for-profit scheme that turns droppings from the endangered species into odor-free souvenirs ranging from bookmarks to Olympic-themed statues of the animals, state media and base officials said Monday.

Odor-free statues are definitely a step up from poop paper.

"We used to spend at least 6,000 yuan ($770) a month to get rid of the droppings but now they can be lucrative," Jing Shimin, assistant to the base director, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

That's funny... That's actually the same business strategy used by Light Reading.

The products will be made at a local handicraft company mostly from undigested bamboo culled from the panda waste through a special process, Xinhua said...

While no price has been set, he said the most expensive souvenirs will contain a panda hair — collected from the wild — in each package.

Do I sense a little reverse psychology? Make the ever-disgusting spare-hair seem desirable by putting a high price tag on it. This scheme is every grandmother's dream!

The 2008 Olympic statues will feature "athletic pandas performing various Olympic sports," Xinhua said.

Is Colonics an Olympic sport now?

– Red Panda, Mine Don't Stink, Light Reading