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‘Hoot-Dash Display’ Brings the Chicks In. Guest Post by Robin A.

‘Hoot-Dash Display’ Brings the Chicks In

Smith, National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) Why does an ancient ritual still have so much power? The 40 day Christian Olympiad of fasting and good works is upon us.

Why does an ancient ritual still have so much power?

Climate Change Will Help Spread West Nile Virus. 100-foot asteroid buzzes past Earth: Watch the replay here. This image shows the relative locations of asteroid 2014 DX110 and Earth on March 4, 2014.

100-foot asteroid buzzes past Earth: Watch the replay here

The asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth on March 5 at about 1 p.m. PST (4 p.m. EST).NASA/JPL-Caltech The asteroid 2014 DX110 is seen as a point of light in this image from the Virtual Telescope Project in Ceccano, Italy, captured on March 3, 2014.Gianluca Masi Update: Asteroid 2014 DX110 has flown past Earth, but you can see a replay of the show below. A newfound asteroid will buzz close by Earth Wednesday, flying safely between our planet and the orbit of the moon, and you can follow the space rock encounter live online.

The asteroid 2014 DX110 will zip by Earth at 4 p.m. "This asteroid, 2014 DX110, is estimated to be about 100 feet across," officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California wrote in an alert. The first asteroid 2014 DX110 webcast at 3:30 p.m. Remembering Rodney King & What He Meant For Black America. Earth 2 #21 Review. Lakers' rally falls short against New Orleans Pelicans. Ashleydarlene. Diving-into-kepler-data-astronomers-discover-hundreds-of-planets. Pope Francis: Church could support civil unions. By Daniel Burke, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN) - Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church's opposition to gay marriage on Wednesday, but suggested in a newspaper interview that it could support some types of civil unions.

Pope Francis: Church could support civil unions

The Pope reiterated the church's longstanding teaching that "marriage is between a man and a woman. " However, he said, "We have to look at different cases and evaluate them in their variety. " States, for instance, justify civil unions as a way to provide economic security to cohabitating couples, the Pope said in a wide-ranging interview published Wednesday in Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily. State-sanctioned unions are thus driven by the need to ensure rights like access to health care, Francis added. A number of Catholic bishops have supported civil unions for same-sex couples as an alternative to marriage, including Pope Francis when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 2010, according to reports in National Catholic Reporter and The New York Times. LA Banned Smoking E-Cigarettes in Public Places. Screencap via CNN on Youtube Last month, in a piece about third-hand smoke being potentially deadly, I said banning e-cigarettes "would be a fucking stupid thing to do.

LA Banned Smoking E-Cigarettes in Public Places

" Well the Los Angeles City Council is officially fucking stupid. Like five states and the District of Columbia before it, Los Angeles has passed an ordinance banning the use of e-cigarettes anywhere you can't smoke regular cigarettes. The law just adds "Oh, and also e-cigarettes" to existing bans on smoking in public. In Los Angeles, that means obvious places like your desk at work and in Starbucks, but also outdoor dining sections of restaurants and city-sponsored farmers' markets. Scientists dig up giant virus more than 30,000 years old in Siberia. Dogs Have 'Inner Compass' When Pooping, Study Suggests.

BERLIN - German and Czech researchers studying squatting dogs doing their business have found the pooches have an "inner compass" that may help explain how they find their way home over great distances.

Dogs Have 'Inner Compass' When Pooping, Study Suggests

When the four-legged friends stop during a walk to defecate or urinate, they tend to do so along a north-south axis, provided the earth's magnetic field is stable at the time, the scientists said Friday. There was no notable difference in magneto-sensitivity among breeds, which ranged from a tiny Yorkshire terrier to a large St Bernard, said team member Dr Sabine Begall of Germany's Duisburg-Essen University. "We found that the dogs are wonderfully aligned north-to-south -- somewhat more so when they defecate than when they urinate -- but only when the magnetic field is stable," Begall told AFP. Initially, the scientists crunched the data from over 7,000 such events but found no clear trend. Image: Jaromir Chalabala / via Shutterstock. Your Smartphone Photos Could Make You Instant Money.

New SAT: The essay portion is to become optional. WASHINGTON (AP) — Essay optional.

New SAT: The essay portion is to become optional

No penalties for wrong answers. The SAT college entrance exam is undergoing sweeping revisions. Changes in the annual test that millions of students take will also do away with some vocabulary words such as "prevaricator" and "sagacious" in favor of words more commonly used in school and on the job. College Board officials said Wednesday the update — the first since 2005 — is needed to make the exam more representative of what students study in high school and the skills they need to succeed in college and afterward.

The test should offer "worthy challenges, not artificial obstacles," said College Board President David Coleman at an event in Austin, Texas. Major-changes-in-sat-announced-by-college-board. Photo Saying its college admission exams do not focus enough on the important academic skills, the College Board announced on Wednesday a fundamental rethinking of the SAT, ending the longstanding penalty for guessing wrong, cutting obscure vocabulary words and making the essay optional.

major-changes-in-sat-announced-by-college-board

The president of the College Board, David Coleman, criticized his own test, the SAT, and its main rival, the ACT, saying that both had “become disconnected from the work of our high schools.” In addition, Mr. Coleman announced programs to help low-income students, who will now be given fee waivers allowing them to apply to four colleges at no charge. The New York Times.

Black Dahlia Biography. Nicknamed "the Black Dahlia," Elizabeth Short was brutally murdered in Los Angeles in 1947, her body cut in half and severely mutilated.

Black Dahlia Biography

The Black Dahlia's killer was never found, making her murder one of the oldest cold case files in L.A. to date, and the city's most famous. Synopsis Nicknamed "the Black Dahlia," Elizabeth Short was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 29, 1924. Twenty-two years later, Short, an aspiring actress, was brutally murdered in Los Angeles, California, her body cut in half and severely mutilated. Her body was found on January 15, 1947, in a vacant lot near Leimert Park. Early Life. Bicyclists Plan to Crash L.A. Marathon Course — Despite City Shutdown. Click to enlarge LA Weekly file photo.

Bicyclists Plan to Crash L.A. Marathon Course — Despite City Shutdown

California storms did little to ease drought conditions. The storms that slammed Southern California dumped much needed rain, but experts said they did little to ease the drought conditions. "This is no drought-buster, but it's a nice, fat down payment" in the water bank, said Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. Patzert said the latest storm, the largest since December 2010, helped put an end to an unusually long wildfire season and to ease the three-year drought conditions plaguing the state.

He said it would bring the Los Angeles region to about half its normal rainfall for the season; it started the week at just 10% of normal. He Was a Crook - Hunter S. Thompson. "And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. " ---Revelation 18:2. HIV disappears in 'Los Angeles baby,' doctors say. A baby infected with HIV appears to be free of the virus after doctors at a Long Beach hospital initiated aggressive drug treatment just four hours after birth. A pediatrician at Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach and her colleagues disclosed the case Wednesday at a Boston AIDS conference. The newborn girl was initially confirmed to have HIV through blood and spinal fluid tests. However, after six days of treatment with antiretroviral drugs, the virus could no longer be detected, doctors said.

Minnesota-mystery-whats-killing-the-moose. News.