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BY NATALIE ANGIER Northern flickers have a poor division of domestic labor. Among these tawny, 30-centimeter woodpeckers with downcurving bills, the male flickers are more industrious housekeepers than their mates, according to a new report on their sanitation habits in the journal Animal Behavior . Researchers already knew that flickers, like many woodpeckers are a sex role reversed species. The fathers spend more time incubating the eggs and feeding the young than do the mothers. Now scientists have found that the males’ parental zeal also extends to nest hygiene: when a chick makes waste, Dad is the one who usually picks up the unwanted presentation and disposes of it far from home. “It takes away microbes, removes smells that might alert predators, and makes the whole nest much cleaner,” said Elizabeth Gow, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia and an author on the new report. “It’s an important aspect of parental care that we often forget about.” ...

How to See Yourself As You Really Are (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It could be something religious, or simply a matter of taste... I leave the decision to you. ----- By ANDY NEWMAN As religious question go, it is a relatively small one. But inevitably, it must be asked: Is it O.K.to eat a chocolate statuette of your favorite holy figure? The matter arose at Bond Street Chocolate, a boutique in Manhattan that traffics in detailed figurines of Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh. Last month, an organization called Universal Society of Hinduism issued a demand: “Upset Hindus urge withdrawal of Lord Ganesh -shaped edible chocolate.” The owner of the store, Lynda Stern, was puzzled. For more than five years, she has been selling the gold-dusted Ganesh and his shelfmates, beside passion fruit bonbons and chocolate- coated wasabi peas, with barely a whiff of controversy. In the news release, the society’s president, Rajan Zed, wrote that Ganesh...

English: A "Golden False Acacia" in the Swiss Garden at Old Warden. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Is this something like the same tree that adapts to the changing season? Far out? Ahh... just read on... ----- DEBORAH STRANGE As the pursuit of multiple professions and passions has become the norm, people juggle multiple identities. Kevin Gleeson, for instance, is a graphic artist for the New York Police Department , where he designs banners and materials for news conferences. He usually wears a jacket, tie and his long hair pulled into a ponytail. But one day, when he was called to the commissioner’s office unexpectedly, he wore pink pants and his hair undone. Mr. Gleeson was dressed as his alter-ego, a Keith Richards impersonator. “They call me the Keith-iest Keith,” Mr. Gleeson told The New York Times while preparing to play with the Stony Rollers, a Rolling Stones tribute band. Mr. Gleeson has been performing Keith Richards’s music for more than 40 years....

Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Scholars Are Unsure of the Effects of Exposure to Online Sex DAVID SEGAL Starting late last year, Internet service providers in Britain made “family-friendly filters,” which block X-rated websites, the default for costumers. Now any account holder who wants to view adult material needs to actively opt in – effectively raising a hand to say, “Bring on the naughty.” The initiative, which was conceived and very publicly promoted by the government, is intended to prevent what Prime Minister David Cameron called the corrosion of childhood, which, he argued in a speech last year, happens when children are exposed to pornography. In the same speech, he seemed to toss teenagers into the group in need of protection, referring to “young people who think it’s normal to send pornographic material as a prelude to dating.” And here is where the topic starts to get very murky. It tur...

English: Times Square (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) BY JANE E. BRODY Lenore Skenazy, a New York City mother of two, earned the nickname “America’s Worst Mom” after reporting in a newspaper column that she had allowed her younger son, then 9, to ride the subway alone. The criticism she endured, including a threat of arrest for child endangerment, intensified her desire to encourage parents to give their children the freedom they need to develop self-confidence and resilience. One result was the publication in 2009 of her book “ Free Range Kids : How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts With Worry).” A second results is the Free Range Kids Project and a 13-part TV series , “ World’s Worst Mom .” In it, Ms. Skenazy rescues children from parents’ overprotectiveness by guiding the children through a sequence of once-forbidden activities and showing the parents how well the children do. Parents who subscribe to Ms.Skenazy’s approach include Danielle and Alexander Meiti...

Film poster for Steel Magnolias - Copyright 1989, TriStar Pictures (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I for one would say that the movie date night is having the factor of the couple being together, doing something together, which is very much against today's techonology found in smartphones or similar devices - very much anti-social to begin with... ------ BY TARA PARKER-POPE One of the great divides in male-female relationships is the “chick flick” – a movie like “ Terms of Endearment ” or “The Notebook” that often leaves women in tears and men bored. But a new study shows that sappy movies can actually help strengthen real relationships. A University of Rochester study found that couples who watched and talked about issues raised in movies like “ Steel Magnolias “and “Love Story” were less likely to divorce or separate than couples in a control group. Surprisingly, the “Love Story” intervention was as effective at keeping couples together as two intensive therapist-le...