Ants Lead the Way on Earthquake Prediction

Ants Lead the Way on Earthquake Prediction - Ants with the world's worst taste in real estate seem to sense earthquakes before they strike, according to research presented today (April 11) at the European Geosciences Union annual meeting in Vienna.

Active faults, fractures where the Earth violently ruptures in earthquakes, are the preferred housing site for red wood ants in Germany. Researcher Gabriele Berberich of the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany has counted more than 15,000 red wood ant mounds lined up along Germany's faults, like candy drops on a conveyor belt.

Red wood ant mounds on an earthquake fault in Germany.

For three years, Berberich and her colleagues tracked the ants 24-7 with video cameras, using special software to catalog behavioral changes. There were 10 earthquakes between magnitude 2.0 and 3.2 during the study period, 2009 to 2012, and many smaller temblors. The ants only changed behavior for quakes larger than magnitude 2.0, which also happens to be the smallest quakes that humans can feel.

During the day, ants busily went about their daily activity, and at night the colony rested inside the mound, mirroring human diurnal patterns, Berberich said at a news conference today. But before an earthquake, the ants were awake throughout the night, outside their mound, vulnerable to predators, the researchers found. Normal ant behavior didn't resume until a day after the earthquake, Berberich said.

So how do ants know an earthquake is coming? Berberich suspects the insects pick up changing gas emissions or local shifts in the Earth's magnetic field.

"Red wood ants have chemoreceptors for carbon dioxide gradients and magnetoreceptors for electromagnetic fields," she said. "We're not sure why or how they react to the possible stimuli, but we're planning on going to a more tectonically active region and see if ants react to larger earthquakes," Berberich added. ( LiveScience.com )

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Humanity's Closest Ancestor Was Pigeon-Toed, Research Reveals

Humanity's Closest Ancestor Was Pigeon-Toed, Research Reveals - The most complete investigation of the anatomy of what may be the immediate ancestor of the human lineage is now shedding light on secrets about how it might have behaved, researchers say. 

For instance, the human ancestors may have moved in an entirely new way, with a somewhat pigeon-toed gait with a twisty trunk, the researchers added. 

Thefirst specimens of the extinct species Australopithecus sediba were accidentally discoveredby the 9-year-old son of a scientist in 2008, in an area in South Africa named the Cradle of Humankind, one of the richest fossil sites in Africa. Australopithecus means "southern ape," while sedibameans "fountain" in Sotho, one of the 11 official languages of South Africa, due to how scientists hint the human lineage might spring from this species. 

Au. sedibalived nearly 2 million years ago, about the time when scientists think the human lineage Homooriginated. It possessed a bizarre jumble of human and more apelike traits, perhaps revealing this might be the species from which humans' branch of the family tree originated. 

"These skeletons are just interesting, wonderful blends of characteristics," researcher Steven Churchill, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University, told LiveScience. 

The findings, detailed in six papers in the April 12 issue of the journal Science, firm up the idea that Au. sediba was one of humanity's closest ancestors. 

Here a composite reconstruction of Au. sediba, which may be humanity's closest relative. The reconstruction isbased on material from a younger male skeleton (MH1), a female skeleton (MH2) and an adult (MH4), and based upon the research

Who was Au. sediba? 

Now scientists have probed more deeply into the anatomy of the remarkably well-preserved skeletons of Au. sediba. These include a younger male skeleton, commonly referred to as MH1, and a female skeleton, known as MH2, as well as the shinbone of an adult known as MH4. This is the most comprehensive exam yet of the anatomy of an early member of the hominins — the group that includes modern and extinct human species and their direct ancestors. 

Au. sediba possessed long, apelike arms, suggesting it could still climb and possibly hang from trees, perhaps more so than any other australopith — the primates that preceded Homo, and the first to walk bipedally on two feet. 

"Its scapula or shoulder blade is most similar in shape to that of orangutans, the most arboreal or tree-dwelling of all the apes," Churchill said. "This suggests climbing was still an important part of its behavior and ecology." 

However, Au. sediba may have also possessed fingers one might expect of a toolmaker and tool user — ones potentially suited for precision grasping. 

"They're still capable of very powerful grips, which is what you'd need if you were climbing or suspended under a branch," Churchill said. "It looks like a hand good for both tools and climbing." 

"For now, however, we don't have any indications of tool use at the site, no examples of tools," researcher Lee Berger, a paleoanthropologist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, told LiveScience. 

Odd walkers? 

The legs of Au. sediba suggest it moved in an entirely unique way. For instance, its small heel resembled that of a chimp's, hinting it probably walked with an inward rotation of the knee and hip, with its feet slightly twisted. This primitive method of walking might have been a compromise between tree-climbing and upright walking. 

"The implications of this study are that multiple forms of bipedalism were once practiced by our early hominin ancestors," Berger said. "Different species of australopiths utilized their anatomy in different ways — some climbed trees, some walked on the ground, and some did both." 

The extinct species' teeth are a combination of primitive and humanlike traits. Their features suggest Au. sediba was a close relative of another southern African australopith known as Australopithecus africanus. The researchers say both these species appear more closely related to humans than australopiths from east Africa such as Australopithecus afarensis, most famed for the hominid Lucy and at one time thought to be the closest relative of humans. 

"Our research on teeth can't definitively settle if either sediba or africanus is more closely related to humans than the other species," said researcher Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg at Ohio State University. "But our findings do suggest that both are closely related to each other and are more closely related to humans than afarensis." 

Au. sedibastood a little more than 4 feet high (1.2 meters). Analysis of its spine revealed it had a humanlike curvature of the lower back. However, its lower back was longer and more flexible than modern humans, and more like primitive, extinct members of Homo. 

"We think this feature of its lower trunk may have helped with its locomotion," Berger said. "Humans twist their trunk when we walk, a movement we counter by moving our arms. Maybe sediba was twisting its trunk as well when it moved." 

Svelte-chested ancestor 

The remains of the upper rib cage or thorax of Au. sediba suggest it was narrow and apelike, different from the broad, cylindrical chest seen in humans. 

"The broad thorax we have is unique to humans — the only mammal that doesn't have narrowing at the shoulders is humans," Berger said. "We can lift our thorax to breathe, change the capacity for respiration, which is one of the main reasons humans are good long-distance runners. Chimpanzees don't have that." 

However, the less well-preserved lower rib cage fossils were more humanlike. This might have helped accommodate its strange form of walking just as its odd lower back did. 

"Everywhere we look in these skeletons, from the jaws on down to the feet, we see evidence of the transition from australopith to Homo; everywhere we see evidence of evolution," said researcher Darryl de Ruiter at Texas A&M University. 

All in all, these findings provide support that Au. sediba is one of the closest relatives to early humans. 

"We need to find more sediba remains to help fill in the missing pieces of this evolutionary puzzle," Guatelli-Steinberg said. 

Discoveries such as Au. sediba "demonstrate the need for further African-based exploration in the rich fossil fields of southern Africa, and additionally demonstrate the tremendous promise of the paleosciences on the continent," Berger said. ( LiveScience.com )

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Mysteriously Shrinking Proton Continues to Puzzle Physicists

Mysteriously Shrinking Proton Continues to Puzzle Physicists — The size of a proton, long thought to be well-understood, may remain a mystery for a while longer, according to physicists. — Speaking today (April 13) at the April meeting of the American Physical Society, researchers said they need more data to understand why new measurements of proton size don't match old ones. 

"The discrepancy is rather severe," said Randolf Pohl, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics. The question, Pohl and his colleagues said, is whether the explanation is a boring one — someone messed up the measurements — or something that will generate new physics theories 

The incredible shrinking proton 

The proton is a positively charged particle in the nucleus of atoms, the building blocks of everything. Years of measurements pegged the proton at 0.8768 femtometers in radius (a femtometer is a millionth of a billionth of a meter). 

But a new method used in 2009 found a different measurement: 0.84087 femtometers, a 4 percent difference in radius. 

The previous measurements had used electrons, negatively charged particles that circle the nucleus in a cloud, to determine proton radius. To make the measurement with electrons, researchers can do one of two things. First, they can fire electrons at protons to measure how the electrons are deflected. This electron-scattering method provides insight into the size of the positively charged proton. 

An alternative is to try to make the electron move. Electrons zing around the nucleus of an atom, where protons reside, at different levels called orbitals. They can jump from orbital to orbital by increasing or decreasing their energy, which electrons do by losing or gaining an elementary particle of light called a photon. The amount of energy it takes to budge an electron from orbital to orbital tells physicists how much pull the proton has, and thus the proton's size. 

Pohl and his colleagues didn't use electrons at all in their measurements of the proton. Instead, they turned to another negatively charged particle called the muon. The muon is 200 times heavier than an electron, so it orbits the proton 200 times closer. This heft makes it easier for scientists to predict which orbital a muon resides in and thus a much more sensitive measure of proton size. 

"The muon is closer to the proton and it has a better view," Pohl said. 

Possible explanations 

These sensitive muon measurements are the ones that gave the smaller-than-expected result for the proton radius, a totally unexpected discovery, Pohl said. Now, physicists are racing to explain the discrepancies. 

One possibility is that the measurements are simply wrong. Pohl said this "boring explanation" is the most probable, but not all physicists agree. 

"I would say it's not the experimental side," said Massachusetts Institute of Technology physicist Jan Bernauer. 

The electron-based measurements have been repeated many times and are well-understood, Bernauer said, and muon experiments have the advantage that if they're done wrong, they don't provide results at all. 

If experimental error turns out not to be the culprit, there may be some calculation issue, "so we actually know everything that goes on but we are just not calculating it quite right," Bernauer told reporters. 

Most exciting of all, the discrepancy could reveal some new physics not explained by the dominant physics theory, the Standard Model. Perhaps there is something unknown about how muons and electrons interact with other particles, said John Arrington, a physicist at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. 

One possibility is that photons aren't the only particles that carry forces between particles — perhaps an unknown particle is in the mix, causing the proton-measurement discrepancies. 

Next steps 

To find out what's going on, physicists are launching a new set of experiments across multiple laboratories. One major line of research involves testing electron-scattering experiments to be sure they've been done correctly and that all the facets are understood, Arrington said. 

Another goal is to repeat the scattering experiments, but instead of shooting electrons at protons they'll shoot muons at protons. This project, the Muon Scattering Experiment, or MUSE, is set to take place at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. The facilities there will allow researchers to simultaneously measure electron- and muon-scattering in one experiment. 

"The hope is that on the electron-scattering side, we'll have double-checked all the things that are challenging in these measurements," Arrington said. "If we still have this discrepancy, we'll be able to fill in this last box and look at the muon-scattering and see, independent of how you make the measurement, do electrons and muons give you something different?" 

The plan is to start collecting data in that experiment in 2015 or 2016, Arrington said, meaning the size of the proton will remain in limbo for a little longer. 

"It's not easy," Arrington said. "We hope to do it in a little less than 10 years, but maybe we're being optimistic." ( LiveScience.com )

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Two million-year-old creature had mix of ape, human traits

Two million-year-old creature had mix of ape, human traits - A 2 million-year-old ancestor of man had a mixture of ape and human-like features that allowed it to hike vast distances on two legs with as much ease as it could scurry up trees, according to research published on Friday. 

Discovered in cave near Johannesburg in 2008, the fossils of a species named "Australopithecus sediba" have given researchers clues about the evolution of man and which traits in our ancestors fell by the wayside. 

Standing about 1.3 metres (4 ft) tall, sediba had a narrow rib cage similar to apes but a flexible spine more similar to that of a human. Its long arms and powerful torso helped in climbing, according to the research published in the journal Science. 

Sediba's small heel resembled a chimpanzee's and it walked with an inward rotation of the knee and hip on slightly twisted feet with a flat-footed gait that would have helped it cover ground, the researchers said. 

"It is the perfect compromise of something that has the need to walk on the ground efficiently for long distances. At the same time, it is a very capable climber," said Lee Berger, project leader at the Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute in South Africa. 

The researchers plan further studies to see how these fossils of early human relatives known as hominin compare to other remains, to help put together the pieces of evolution. 

"We have more complete specimens of fossils than for any other early hominin species that has ever been discovered. What this means is that we can make assessments of the anatomy and behaviour of this species with a great deal of confidence," Berger told Reuters. ( Reuters )

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64-Million-Year Controversy: Grand Canyon Age Debated

64-Million-Year Controversy: Grand Canyon Age Debated - Since two researchers suggested last year that the Grand Canyon was carved 70 million years ago (much older than the consensus of 6 million years), a rousing debate over the canyon's true age has played out at scientific meetings, through email, and now, in the pages of a respected journal.

In today's (April 11) issue of the journal Science, several geologists who've spent years roaming the Southwest's red rocks and cliffs respond to the original old Grand Canyon study, published in November 2012 in Science. Their critique hinges on two primary points: Assessing the laboratory techniques that revealed when the Grand Canyon's deepest rocks were brought to the surface, and rock evidence that points to a young Colorado River, the waterway now filling the gorge.

Grand Canyon viewed from Hopi Point, on the south rim. New evidence suggests the western Grand Canyon was cut to within 70 percent of its current depth long before the Colorado River existed.

View of the western Grand Canyon and the Colorado River from the canyon bottom. New data suggests most of this portion of the canyon was carved by 70 Ma, more than 60 Ma earlier than generally believed.

"If there was a canyon where the present canyon is, it would have left some evidence at the mouth of the canyon at the Grand Wash trough," said Ivo Lucchitta, an emeritus geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Arizona and one of the technical comment authors. The Grand Wash trough, a basin in the Lake Mead region west of the Grand Canyon, contains a thick pile of gravel, limestone and volcanic rocks that pin down the 6-million-year age of the Colorado River. Geologic evidence for canyon-carving in the present-day Grand Canyon before 6 million years is lacking, Lucchita and his co-authors said.

In a point-counterpoint that's common in Science and other academic journals, the lead author of the initial study, Rebecca Flowers, said the ancient Southwest was an even more arid environment, with different topography than today, which meant older rivers likely left behind less sediment than today's Colorado River. Older materials could also have eroded away when the Colorado River punched through, said Flowers, a geologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "The absence of obvious detritus in the Grand Wash trough does not preclude the ancient Grand Canyon," she told OurAmazingPlanet.

But the case for Flowers' ancient canyon primarily rests on what are called thermochronologic dating techniques that reveal when rock was exposed near the surface. Tiny mineral grains indicated the western Grand Canyon was carved 70 million years ago to within about 1,000 feet (300 meters) of its current depth, and the eastern Grand Canyon was cut more shallowly by about 55 million years ago.

Geologists led by Karl Karlstrom of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, lead author of one of the critiques, said their mineral samples support a young canyon, but Flowers said the opposing side's data could be interpreted in favor of an old canyon too. The argument rests on how the different groups model the escape of elements such as helium, uranium and thorium from the mineral apatite. The apatite measurements point to cooling of the rocks as layers of overlying sediment were removed by erosion.

"I think we have a data set that really provides for ancient canyon carving, and I agree this is going to continue to be controversial," Flowers said. One of the world's natural wonders, though the spectacular setting lays out nearly half of Earth's history in a colorful layer cake of rocks, the age of the Grand Canyon has been debated for a century.

Though the jigsaw puzzle of Colorado Plateau geology has many missing pieces, removed by erosion or tectonics, scientists do believe a consensus on the Grand Canyon's history will emerge.

"It's very complicated, but we have some hope that in the not-to-distant future we may be able to approach a solution," Lucchitta said. ( LiveScience.com )

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A Decade on, Most are Critical of the U.S.-Led War in Iraq

A Decade on, Most are Critical of the U.S.-Led War in Iraq - Ten years after U.S. airstrikes on Baghdad punctuated the start of the Iraq war, nearly six in 10 Americans say the war was not worth fighting - a judgment shared by majorities steadily since initial success gave way to years of continued conflict.

Nearly as many in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll say the same about the war in Afghanistan. And while criticisms of both wars are down from their peaks, the intensity of sentiment remains high, with strong critics far outweighing strong supporters.

Reuters Videos - The official war in Iraq may be over but the battle scars still remain, both physical and emotional, for those who served, and for their families. Lindsay Claiborn reports.

A key reason: A substantial sense that neither war did much to achieve their goals of enhancing U.S. security. Only about half of Americans say either war contributed to the long-term security of the United States, and just two in 10 say either contributed "a great deal" to U.S. security - clearly insufficient, in the minds of most, to justify their costs in lives and lucre.

WORTH IT? - As such, 58 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, say that considering its costs vs. its benefits the war in Iraq was not worth fighting; 56 percent say the same about the war in Afghanistan.

These results are dramatically different than they were when the wars began long ago. The war in Iraq, a few weeks after its start on March 20, 2003, was supported by 80 percent of Americans; in Afghanistan, in late 2001, support exceeded 90 percent. In neither case, it seems, did the public expect conflicts as long, as complicated and as costly as ultimately transpired.

Similarly, at the time of the fall of Baghdad at the end of April 2003, 70 percent of Americans described the Iraq war as worth fighting - nearly twice as many as do so today.

Nor did the war go over well in Iraq, as shown in a series of six exclusive polls there by ABC and other media partners from 2004 through 2009. Never did a majority of Iraqis support the U.S.-led war; by 2009, given the toll of the invasion and ensuing years of violence, 56 percent said it was wrong for the United States and its coalition allies to invade.

LESSON - The course of U.S. public opinion underscores a consistent political lesson: Hell hath no fury like an unpopular war. Public rejection of the Iraq war, in particular, irreparably damaged the presidency of George W. Bush; declining support for the war and Bush's falling approval rating across his second term correlated almost perfectly - at .95, with 1 a perfect fit. That's perhaps an impetus for the Obama administration's efforts to wind down the U.S. presence in Afghanistan.

Criticism of both wars has been higher than it is currently, likely reflecting the U.S. departure from Iraq and the reduced intensity of fighting in Afghanistan. In April 2007, at the height of the post-invasion conflict in Iraq, a peak of 66 percent called that war not worth fighting. Just less than a year ago an identical two-thirds said the same about the war in Afghanistan.

SECURITY - As noted, views of the wars' contribution to security strongly influence these assessments. Just 21 percent say the war in Iraq contributed a great deal to long-term U.S. security; among them, 70 percent say the war was worth fighting. Among those say the war contributed "somewhat" to security, 59 percent say it was worth it. But among those who say it didn't enhance U.S. security at all, a vast 83 percent say the Iraq war was not worth fighting. The breakdowns on Afghanistan are almost identical.

In terms of intensity, 43 percent of Americans feel "strongly" that the Iraq war was not worth fighting, more than twice as many as the number who feel strongly that its benefits did justify its costs, 19 percent. The divisions on Afghanistan, again, are very similar, 38 strongly critical vs. 18 percent strongly in support.

There are lingering political and ideological differences in views on Iraq, with support much higher among Republicans and conservatives compared with others. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans and 55 percent of conservatives say the war was worth fighting; just 35 percent of independents and 27 percent of Democrats, respectively, agree, as do just three in 10 liberals and moderates alike. Results on Afghanistan are similar among partisan groups.

HISTORY - The change in attitudes on the Iraq war, in particular, in many ways sealed the fate of George W. Bush as the most unpopular second-term president in political polling dating back nearly 80 years. Support for the war ebbed after the fall of Baghdad passed, yet the conflict continued; as noted, Bush's popularity faded with it.

By February 2004, just short of a year after it started, 50 percent of Americans said the war was not worth fighting; it reached a majority that June and stayed there, with just three exceptions, in 52 ABC/Post polls across the ensuing nine years.

In one notable exchange, in March 2008, ABC's Martha Raddatz asked then-Vice President Dick Cheney about the public's dissatisfaction with the war. Cheney said: "You cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls." At that point, about six in 10 Americans or more had described the war as "not worth fighting" continuously for two years.

Today, five years later, nearly six in 10 still do.

METHODOLOGY - This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by telephone March 7-10, 2013, among a random national sample of 1,001 adults, including landline and cell-phone-only respondents. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points, including design effect. Partisan divisions are 33-25-35 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents.

The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by Abt-SRBI of New York, N.Y.

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How to Wear Platform Shoes Like a Star

How to Wear Platform Shoes Like a Star - Platform heels are everywhere - on the runway, in magazines and on the red carpet - but can a real woman wear them?

Absolutely, as long as they're worn with the right look , says Lori Bergamotto contributing style editor of Lucky magazine.

Bergamotto visited " Good Morning America" today to give us the lowdown on how to pull off the high-fashion platform look.

First, Bergamotto revealed three foolproof tips for wearing platform shoes.

1. Try a hidden platform heel to elongate your body without all of the distractions.

2. An ankle strap low and close to the ankle works like a belt, cinching you in at your most narrow part.

3. Pairing the heel with a covered-up outfit gives you balance that reads effortless chic.

On "GMA," Bergamotto featured three models with three different platform shoes, starting with the wrong way to wear a platform heel and working her way to the right way.

Tragic Look: 

With such a bold silhouette as the red and zebra sky-high platform pump, you should try to avoid loud colors and prints that only draw the eye down to your foot. The ankle strap will be big in Spring 2013 but, in this case, the red ankle strap hits too high on the lower shin. The main benefit of a platform shoe is to create an elongating effect, but between the ankle strap, the disruptive silver buckle, and the loud red color, this shoe makes the whole look end with a giant thud.

Middle Look: 

This black and metallic pointy-toe pump is good, but it's still not quite right for an everyday purchase. For starters, the placement of the metallic gold is a dead giveaway that this is a platform shoe. Also, this pump is very similar to what's seen on the red carpet, so the model's cotton shirt dress is too casual and makes the whole outfit disjointed.

Trendy Look: 

This Gyal Platform Pump from Aldo ($74.90 at Aldoshoes.com)is a hidden platform, so even though it has virtually the same height as the other shoes, it's covered by the outsole of the shoe and elongates the body. The ankle strap is also lower and closer to the ankle, cinching in the leg. The shoe's coloring blends with the model's skin tone, creating a lengthening effect and a glow. Finally, the long sleeves and longer hemline of the model's dress ($56 atTopshop.com) allow the platform shoes to punctuate the look in a subtly sexy way that reads chic. ( ABC NEws )

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Top 7 Mistakes People Make on Dates

Top 7 Mistakes People Make on Dates - Paul Carrick Brunson left a successful career as an investment banking analyst to run his own nonprofits. Now he's a life coach and matchmaker.

Brunson, the author of "It's Complicated But It Doesn't Have to Be: A Modern Guide to Finding and Keeping Love," appeared on "Good Morning America" today to talk about "flow dating."

It's a style of speed dating created by Brunson in which daters use games and activities to break the ice and ease anxiety.

Brunson said he has found that people learn more about someone when they have to move and work on activities, rather than just talking over dinner.

Indeed, he said that dinner could be the worst first date. People learn about each other through action, but getting to know a prospective romantic partner at dinner can feel too much like an interrogation.

The most important thing to do on a first date is to learn whether the other person meets your most important criteria. For example, if one person wants children but the other person doesn't, that's a deal-breaker, Brunson said. And if one person smokes but the other is asthmatic, that, too, is a deal-breaker.

Top 7 Mistakes People Make on Dates

Brunson shared the top 7 mistakes he has seen people make when they're out on dates:

1. Showing up late without a call or a text

Now, if you're going to be later than five minutes for a date and don't call or text, it's a fail on your part. Showing up late starts the date off terribly and might even set the tone. It conveys a lack of importance on your part. We prioritize what's important in our lives by how much time (and money) we dedicate to it. That being said, either aim to arrive on time or just call the moment you realize that you're going to be late.

2. Dressing inappropriately

Underdressed, overdressed, or inappropriately dressed equals pretentious, not fun or easy. On a date, especially right after work, many women often forget to dress sexy. Your business causal outfit is not hot. Conversely, don't wear close to nothing. Just because he's salivating doesn't mean he "likes" your attire. Lastly, if the date is an activity like a hike, forgo the heels and mini-dress because you think they look cute. Always dress appropriately. This, like a lot of the things that I'm going to advise, also applies to men.

3. Having poor eye contact and a fake smile

Poor eye contact plus fake smile equals not confident and/or stalker alert. The saying goes, "Eyes are the windows to our souls." If you limit eye contact because you're looking away, you simply don't look confident. Also, fake smiles are fairly easy to spot. Too many inauthentic smiles and you enter the "looks like a stalker" category. Eye contact should be focused on the person with whom you're talking. Be sure to mix in a few nods and eye blinks. The rule of thumb is that short single nods are most effective, it shows that you're listening. Double or triple nods make it seem as if you're trying to speed the person up.

4. Using your cellphone on date

One of the biggest mistakes made on a date is using your cellphone or placing it on the table and glancing at it every time you get a message. This can show that you are disinterested in your date. When you're on a date, please keep your cellphone in your purse or pocket. Your date deserves your full attention.

5. Being rude to others

If you're rude to others, it shows that you have poor social skills and aren't nice. Nothing makes a date want to run away like a rude and impolite person. If you're on your date and the waiter forgot the extra lemon wedges ... and before the waiter is out of earshot, you shout "Stupid M****..." Hmmm ... that ain't nice. It will make your date wonder how you will treat him or her in a relationship. As in life, treat everyone the way you would want to be treated.

6. Talking about your ex

By making frequent mentions of your past relationships, you might be conveying that you're not over the ex. Living in the past is extremely dangerous. If you can't stop talking about how great the old flame was or how you enjoyed the things you both did, chances are you still wish you were in that moment. Do yourself (and your date) a favor by admitting you're not yet ready for a new relationship.

7. Not knowing BBR!

It's the B.B.R. - The Belly Button Rule. This is my favorite rule and one I talk about in-depth at my coaching sessions. It is the most telling and compelling of all body language tactics. The direction our belly button faces reflects our attitude and our emotional state. When we face our navel toward someone, we're subconsciously saying we're interested in the person or the conversation. Face your navel away, and you're saying "get me the hell out of this." Most people do not know this rule, so learn it, master it, and you'll be able to better read and control your interactions. Not listening shows disrespect and is the most passive-aggressive form of disrespect. Listen to your date.

Web-Extra Dating Tips From Paul Carrick Brunson

1. Start a Personal Ritual of Forgiveness

Many of us harbor past hurt and regrets. An effective way I've managed this is by not pushing these emotions away but harnessing them and moving on as a smarter person. Try writing a letter (you don't have to send it) to get out all your feelings. Or even a journal. Any way to give yourself a regular outlet for all your emotions, regrets and worries.

2. Create a Daily Mantra

Your belief system is everything so it's important to train it. Identify an inspirational quote or saying that you repeat to yourself each day. Here's one of my favorites: "I was born with potential, I was born with goodness and trust, I was born with ideals and dreams, I was born with greatness, I was born with wings, I am not meant to crawl so I won't, I have wings and I will use them and fly." -- Modified from Rumi

3. Commit to Befriending One Inspirational Person

Surrounding yourself with better people is the fastest way to change your life. The power of social media is that it allows us to connect like never before. Try dropping a line to your favorite blogger, pastor, author, etc. You might just find they respond.

4. Get a Love Mentor

Different from a friend, a mentor is a guide and a teacher. There are professionals you can hire but there are also many people in our communities qualified and willing to take this role in your life. Be diligent about your search, look for someone who shares your values and walks their talk. ( ABC News Blogs )

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Five facts about daylight saving time

Time to spring forward: Five facts about daylight saving time - Here's everything you wanted to know about the time change this weekend.

A clock hangs in Plantation, Fla. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

When is it?

The time change begins on Sunday, March 10, at 2 a.m., when clocks are moved forward by one hour.

Why 2 a.m.?

The time change is set for 2 a.m. because it was decided to be the least disruptive time of day. Moving time forward or back an hour at that time doesn’t change the date, which avoids confusion, and most people are asleep, or if people do work on a Sunday, it’s usually later than 2 a.m.

Do all states observe daylight saving time?

Hawaii and most of Arizona don’t observe the time change. U.S. territories that don’t go on daylight saving time include American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Why do we have it?

The idea is to save electricity because there are more hours of natural light. Studies have shown the savings to be fairly nominal—the time change leading people to switch on the lights earlier in the morning instead or cranking up the air conditioning, for example.

What is the history of daylight saving time?

Fun fact: The idea was first floated in 1784 by one Benjamin Franklin. While minister of France, he wrote the essay "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light."

The idea failed to see the light of day until 1883, when the U.S. railroads instituted a standardized time for their train schedules. That time change was imposed nationally during the First World War to conserve energy, but it was repealed after the war. It became the national time again during World War II.

After that, it was up to the states to decide if they wanted it, and when it would start and end. Congress finally enacted the Uniform Time Act in 1966, which standardized the beginning and end of daylight time for the states that observed it. In 1974 and 1975, the energy crisis moved Congress to enact earlier daylight start times, which were reversed when the crisis was over.

Daylight saving time since then had always been in April—until the Energy Policy Act of 2005 ordered the earlier start time to begin in March 2007. ( The Lookout )

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Five facts about sinkholes

Five facts about sinkholes - A gaping, 50-foot sinkhole that took the life of a Florida man, Jeff Bush, whose bedroom was swallowed up, made for scary headlines worldwide. But sinkholes, it turns out, are not as rare you would think. The phenomena, for instance, are common in Florida, if only occasionally deadly. Here, with help from sources including the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Geological Survey, sinkholes explained:

 

Aerial view of the sinkhole in Seffner, Fla. (AP Photo/ABC Action News-WFTS TV)

How does a sinkhole form? 

"Cover-collapse" sinkholes occur when groundwater causes underground gaps that grow so big the ground above can’t support them. These can be dramatic events, since the holes can grow big enough to swallow a house, a road, a field or a swimming pool, even as those above ground go about their lives completely oblivious to the growing danger.

Are there other types of sinkholes? 

There are two other kinds: "solution" and "subsidence" sinkholes, which don't make the nightly news. That's because the changes to the topography happen slowly over time without catastrophic results.

Which states have sinkholes? 

The entire state of Florida is prone to sinkholes since it sits on top of a layer of limestone rock known as karst, which can be dissolved by acidic groundwater, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), other vulnerable states include Texas, Kentucky, Alabama, Missouri, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.

Are sinkholes common? 

Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, sinkholes aren’t tracked. But CNN reports that from 2006 to 2010 in Florida alone, there were 24,671 insurance claims for sinkhole damage, totaling a whopping $1.4 billion.

Can humans cause sinkholes? 

Yes. According to an interview with Randall Orndorff a U.S. Geological Survey supervisory geologist, human activities like drilling for a well or mining, which lower water levels underground, can cause sinkholes. So can putting up buildings and parking lots, he added, which changes where water drains. “Instead of the water naturally soaking into the ground, it's now running off and being concentrated—being put into the ground at one point," he said.

The massive sinkhole in Guatemala that was created in June 2010 is an example of one that was probably caused by human activity. ( The Lookout )

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Giant Mars Crater Shows Evidence of Ancient Lake

Giant Mars Crater Shows Evidence of Ancient Lake - New photos of a huge crater on Mars suggest water may lurk in crevices under the planet's surface, hinting that life might have once lived there, and raising the possibility that it may live there still, researchers say.

Future research looking into the chances of life on Mars could shed light on the origins of life on Earth, scientists added.

 

This view of layered rocks on the floor of McLaughlin Crater shows sedimentary rocks that contain spectroscopic evidence for minerals formed through interaction with water. The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA'

The discovery came from a study of images by NASA's powerful Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that revealed new evidence of a wet underground environment on the Red Planet. The images focused on the giant McLaughlin Crater, which is about 57 miles (92 kilometers) wide and so deep that underground water appears to have flowed into the crater at some point in the distant past.

Today, the crater is bone-dry but harbors clay minerals and other evidence that liquid water filled the area in the ancient past.

"Taken together, the observations in McLaughlin Crater provide the best evidence for carbonate forming within a lake environment instead of being washed into a crater from outside," study lead author Joseph Michalski, of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., and London's Natural History Museum, said in a statement.

A wet Mars underground

Space agencies have deployed many missions to Mars over the decades to explore how habitable its surface may have been or is today. However, the Martian surface has been extremely cold, arid and chemically hostile to life as we know it for most of the history of Mars.

Instead of scanning the surface of Mars for life, scientists have suggested the most viable habitat for ancient simple life may have been in Martian water hidden underground.

On Earth, microbes up to 3 miles (5 km) or more underground make up perhaps half of all of the planet's living matter. Most of these organisms represent some of the most primitive kinds of microbes known, hinting that life may actually have started underground, or at least survived there during a series of devastating cosmic impacts known as the Late Heavy Bombardment that Earth and the rest of the inner solar system endured about 4.1 billion to 3.8 billion years ago.

Since Mars has less gravity — a surface gravity of a little more than one-third Earth's — its crust is less dense and more porous than that of our planet, which means that more water can leak underground, researchers said. Wherever there is liquid water on Earth, there is virtually always life, and microbes underground on Mars could be sustained by energy sources and chemical reactions similar to those that support deep-dwelling organisms on Earth.

"The deep crust has always been the most habitable place on Mars, and would be a wise place to search for evidence for organic processes in the future," Michalski told SPACE.com.

Subterranean Mars

While researchers currently have no way to drill deep underground on the Red Planet, they can nevertheless spot hints of what subterranean Mars is like by analyzing deep rocks exhumed by erosion, asteroid impacts or materials generated by underground fluids that have welled up to the surface.

Such upwelling would first occur in deep basins like McLaughlin Crater — as the lowest points on the surface, they would be where underground water reserves would most likely get exposed.

Scientists focused on McLaughlin Crater because it is one of the deepest craters on Mars. McLaughlin is about 1.3 miles (2.2 km) deep and is located in Mars' northern hemisphere.

The mineral composition of the floor of McLaughlin Crater suggests there was a lake made of upwelled groundwater there. Channels seen on the crater's eastern wall about 1,650 feet (500 meters) above its floor also hint at the former presence of a lake surface.

Michalski was actually originally trying to disprove the idea that groundwater breached the surface in many locations on Mars.

"Lo and behold, there was strong evidence for that process in this crater," he said. "Science is special because we are allowed to change our minds."

An ancient groundwater lake

The researchers estimate that a lake existed at McLaughlin Crater for an unknown duration between 3.7 billion and 4 billion years ago. "That makes the deposits as old as or older than the oldest rocks known to exist on Earth," Michalski said.

Mounds seen on the crater floor may have come from landslides or subsequent meteor impacts. These are important because they may have rapidly buried crater floor sediments.

"That is really cool because rapid burial is the scenario that is most advantageous for preservation of organic material, if any was present at that time," Michalski said.

Since life on Earth may have begun underground, learning more about any underground life that might have lived — or may still live — on Mars could shed light on the origins of life on Earth, researchers said.

"We should give serious consideration to exploring rocks representing subsurface environments in future missions," Michalski said. "That doesn't mean drilling, but instead exploring rocks formed from upwelling groundwater, or rocks naturally exhumed from the subsurface by meteor impact."

Michalski noted that some people may ask, "'Why do I hear about the detection of water or possibility of life on Mars all the time?' The answer is because Mars is habitable in more ways than we ever realized for many years, and we are finding water in many forms and environments on Mars — many more than we predicted for a long time."

The ingredients for life the researchers describe, "including energy sources, would have been more available early in Mars' history, but it doesn't take too much imagination to picture a scenario in which the subsurface is habitable today," Michalski said. He cautioned, however, "that is much different from saying that life is there today." ( space.com )

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