Where Will Pope Benedict XVI Retire?

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Someone with a suspicious mind and deep knowledge of Vatican trivia might have guessed that something was going on months ago. Last November, a community of cloistered nuns vacated the  Mater Ecclesiae monastery, located inside Vatican Gardens, two years before they were expected to do so.

The monastery has since been closed for renovation.

On Monday, in the press conference that followed Pope Benedict XVI's announcement that he will resign at the end of the month, Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office,  revealed that the monastery will be the retired pontiff's new home. (Photo Gallery: Inside the Vatican.)

"When renovation work on the monastery of cloistered nuns inside the Vatican is complete, the Holy Father will move there for a period of prayer and reflection," Lombardi said.

Until then, the pope will stay at the Apostolical Palace and the Pontifical Villas in Castel Gandolfo, a small lake town about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southeast of Rome, which serves as the traditional summer residence for popes.

The Mater Ecclesiae monastery was founded in 1992 by Benedict's predecessor, John Paul II, "to create a place to house an international convent for contemplative life within the walls of Vatican City," according to the Vatican City State website.

It has housed small communities of cloistered nuns whose main task has been to provide spiritual assistance to the pope and to the Roman Catholic Church as a whole by praying in Latin and singing Gregorian chants.

The nuns would also embroider papal garments and cultivate a small organic orchard and a rose garden next to their residence. In a 2009 interview with the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the monastery's then abbess said that Benedict particularly appreciated the special-recipe marmalade that the nuns would prepare out of the oranges and lemons they picked in the Vatican orchard.

It is not yet clear for how long the soon-to-be-former pope will stay at the monastery. Lombardi has said that Benedict will not participate in the March conclave that will elect his successor, stressing that there will be "no confusion or division arising from his resignation."

Lombardi also said that he wasn't sure of Benedict's future title-there are no canon law provisions or historical precedents regarding the statute, prerogatives, or titles for a retired pope.

Resignations of Popes Past

Only a handful of popes have willfully or forcefully resigned in the church's history, the last case going back to 1415, almost 600 years ago.

"It was Pope Gregory XII, who, in a very sacrificial gesture, offered to resign so that the Council of Constance could assume his power and appoint a new pope, and in so doing bring an end [to the] Great Western Schism," Donald Prudlo, associate professor of history at Jacksonville State University in Alabama, told Vatican Radio.

Italian and foreign commentators have been likening Benedict's choice to a famous case of papal abdication-that of Celestine V, who was elected in 1294 and left the Roman throne only five months later.

"At the end of the 13th century, a very holy hermit named Peter was elected as Pope Celestine V in order to break a deadlock in the conclave that had lasted nearly three years," Prudlo explained. "He was elected because of his personal holiness, sort of a unity candidate. And once he got there, being a hermit, not used to the ways of the Roman Curia, he found himself somewhat unsuited to the task."

So he resigned and lived as a hermit—or, some historians say, as a prisoner—in a castle belonging to his successor, Boniface VIII, before dying in 1296.

Celestine is widely recognized as the object of Dante Alighieri's scolding verses in his Divine Comedy. The former pope was proclaimed saint in 1313.

In 2009, Benedict XVI visited Celestine's tomb in L'Aquila (map) and left the pallium—a vestment that is the symbol of papal authority—on the grave. Now that gesture is being interpreted as a premonition of the choice he would eventually make.


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Gauging the probability of success for Obama’s agenda post-State of the Union

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LAS VEGAS — UPS worker Don Clark hobbled on injured knees to see President Obama come to his warehouse last year to tout the main ideas in the annual State of the Union address — clean energy, tax fairness, a manufacturing revival and a stronger economy.


A year later, Clark still believes in Obama, but feels frustrated by the president’s struggle to get enough support for his agenda. “It’s incomplete and more work needs to be done,” Clark, 42, said at a bar near the shipping company’s warehouse here. “I have lowered expectations.”


Obama’s swing through Nevada and four other states last year serves as a powerful reminder of the limitations of the annual State of the Union speech, which Obama will deliver again on Tuesday night, and of the presidency itself.

Obama is likely to promote the same goals for the country that he did in last year’s address, a reflection of the fact that many of the major items on his agenda remain outstanding.

More broadly, Obama is still working to strengthen the economy in the profound ways he describes, facing both short-term challenges — such as an unemployment rate stuck near 8 percent — and long-term challenges, like slow-growing wages and an anxious middle class.

Nevada, one of the states worst hit by the recession, exemplifies the progress made under Obama, as well as the tremendous ground still to be covered. In interviews around Las Vegas — at a park, an outdoor mall, a college campus and a Home Depot parking lot — Obama’s supporters and opponents alike said he has not yet achieved what he set out to do: build a durably strong economy.

Some blamed him, while others accused Congress of standing in his way.

“He’s doing the best he can,” said Tone Pondaharn, a 34-year-old electrical engineering major at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “Congress isn’t making it easy.”

But Jeanne Berry, who owns a pool cleaning business in the area, said Obama comes at the issue all wrong. “As long as we have this president who doesn’t understand business, we will continue to spiral downward,” she said. “My question is: ‘Who aspires to be only middle class?’ People aspire to be great.”

Obama enjoyed a strong victory in Nevada in November, edging out GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney by seven percentage points and turning a recently red state decidedly blue. He won in part because of the power of Las Vegas’s labor unions, offsetting the conservative-leaning rural areas.

Over the past year, Nevada’s economy has begun to recover, with an unemployment rate that fell from 13 percent to 10.2 percent. Yet that rate is still the highest in the nation, tied with Rhode Island.

Nevada, which suffered a terrible housing crash, has seen home prices jump significantly in the past year. Yet it is still the most battered state in the nation, with more than one in two homeowners underwater — owing more on their properties than they are worth.

Deborah Shalev, a stay-at-home mom whose husband is a podiatrist, said she had hoped for more progress when Obama was first elected. But her family hasn’t recovered from the housing bust.

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IBM puts supercomputer to work on cancer

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WASHINGTON: IBM is putting its Watson supercomputer to work fighting cancer, in what is described as the first commercial program of its kind to use "big data" to help patients with the disease.

The US computing giant last week unveiled its initiative with health insurer WellPoint and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

The supercomputer, which gained fame by defeating two human champions in the "Jeopardy!" quiz show, has been sifting through some 600,000 pieces of medical evidence, two million pages of text from 42 medical journals and clinical trials in oncology research.

This can speed up the way data is analysed to make the best diagnosis and find the optimal treatment, says Craig Thompson, Sloan-Kettering's president.

"It can take years for the latest developments in oncology to reach all practice settings," Thompson said.

"The combination of transformational technologies found in Watson with our cancer analytics and decision-making process has the potential to revolutionise the accessibility of information for the treatment of cancer in communities across the country and around the world."

IBM first announced plans to work with WellPoint in 2011, and last year began receiving data from the New York research hospital which specialises in cancer.

The first application will work with 1,500 lung cancer cases, where clinicians and analysts are training Watson to extract and interpret physician notes, lab results and clinical research.

The Maine Center for Cancer Medicine and Westmed Medical Group will be two centres testing the service and providing feedback to WellPoint, IBM and Memorial Sloan-Kettering.

"IBM's work with WellPoint and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center represents a landmark collaboration in how technology and evidence based medicine can transform the way in which health care is practiced," said Manoj Saxena at IBM.

"These breakthrough capabilities bring forward the first in a series of Watson-based technologies, which exemplifies the value of applying big data and analytics and cognitive computing to tackle the industry's most pressing challenges."

The program is being commercialised under the name Interactive Care Insights for Oncology, powered by Watson.

Watson, named after IBM founder Thomas Watson, can ingest tens of million pages of data in just seconds.

- AFP/jc



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Punjab cop among 2 held for minor's rape

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FARIDKOT: Police on Monday arrested two persons, including a Punjab Police constable, for allegedly abducting and gang raping a minor girl in a Faridkot village.

The accused have been identified as Kulwinder Singh, 25, a constable posted with the Faridkot police, and Kuldeep Singh, 24. Both the accused, who belong to the victim's village, were produced in the local court on Monday which remanded them in police custody of four days.

According to police complaint, the 14-year-old girl was abducted by the duo on Sunday evening and allegedly raped. The complaint was filed by the girl's grandfather after she did not return home till late Sunday evening.

Police have registered a case of abduction on Sunday night and arrested the accused and recovered the girl on Monday morning from near Hariwala village and added the charges of rape after medical examination confirmed the crime.

Sadar police station SHO Pratap Singh said the car used for abducting the minor girl has also been recovered. The car is registered in the name of Kulwinder's father, the SHO added.

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Kumbh Mela: Pictures From the Hindu Holy Festival

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Benedict's Legacy Marred by Sex Abuse Scandal

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When Pope Benedict XVI resigns at the end of this month, he leaves behind a Church grappling with a global fallout from sex abuse and a personal legacy marred by allegations that he was instrumental in covering up that abuse.


As the sex abuse scandal spread from North America to Europe, Benedict became the first pope to meet personally with victims, and offered repeated public apologies for the Vatican's decades of inaction against priests who abused their congregants.


"No words of mine could describe the pain and harm inflicted by such abuse," the pope said in a 2008 homily in Washington, D.C., before meeting with victims of abuse for the first time. "It is important that those who have suffered be given loving pastoral attention." During the same trip to the U.S., he met with victims for the first time.


For some of the victims, however, Benedict's actions were "lip service and a public relations campaign," said Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota lawyer who represents victims of sex abuse. For 25 years, Benedict, then known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, headed the Vatican office responsible for investigating claims of sex abuse, but he did not act until he received an explicit order from Pope John Paul II.


In 1980, as Archbishop of Munich, Ratzinger approved plans for a priest to move to a different German parish and return to pastoral work only days after the priest began therapy for pedophilia. The priest was later convicted of sexually abusing boys.






Vincenzo Pinto/AFP/Getty Images







PHOTOS: Church Sex Scandals


In 1981, Cardinal Ratzinger became head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the office once known as the Inquisition -- making him responsible for upholding church doctrine, and for investigating claims of sexual abuse against clergy. Thousands of letters detailing allegations of abuse were forwarded to Ratzinger's office.


A lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of the Survivors' Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a victims' rights group, charges that as head of the church body Ratzinger participated in a cover-up of abuse. In an 84-page complaint, the suit alleges that investigators of sex abuse cases in several countries found "intentional cover-ups and affirmative steps taken that serve to perpetuate the violence and exacerbate the harm."


"Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, either knew and/or some cases consciously disregarded information that showed subordinates were committing or about to commit such crimes," the complaint says.


Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's lawyer in the U.S., told the AP the complaint was a "ludicrous publicity stunt and a misuse of international judicial processes."


In the 1990s, former members of the Legion of Christ sent a letter to Ratzinger alleging that the founder and head of the Catholic order, Father Marcial Maciel, had molested them while they were teen seminarians. Maciel was allowed to continue as head of the order.


In 1996, Ratzinger didn't respond to letters from Milwaukee's archbishop about a priest accused of abusing students at a Wisconsin school for the deaf. An assistant to Ratzinger began a secret trial of the priest, Father Lawrence Murphy, but halted the process after Murphy wrote a personal appeal to Ratzinger complaining of ill health.


In 2001, Pope John Paul II issued a letter urging the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith to pursue allegations of child abuse in response to calls from bishops around the world.






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Marco Rubio emerges as GOP’s star. But is he the answer for Republicans?

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Lately, it seems just about everyone is fascinated by the junior senator from Florida.




Time’s current cover proclaims Marco Rubio “The Republican Savior.” The Web site BuzzFeed last week solicited his views on immigration, climate change, gay rights — and the relative artistic merits of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. That test of his hip-hop fluency came after Rubio released a Spotify playlist of 16 songs he is listening to, generating a flood of instant analysis in the blogosphere.


Next up: On Tuesday night, Rubio will give the GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union address — in English and Spanish.

“He carries our party’s banner of freedom, opportunity and prosperity in a way few others can,” House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in announcing Rubio’s selection to deliver the rebuttal. Republican uber-strategist Karl Rove has called Rubio “the best communicator since Ronald Reagan.”

Rubio is indeed a politician of unusual gifts. But the spotlight that has fallen on this relatively new arrival to the national scene says as much about the state of the Republican Party as it does about the 41-year-old senator. And it remains to be seen whether he represents the solution to the GOP’s problems, or whether the party’s sky-high hopes in an untested newcomer are just another measure of its drift.

His appeal starts with the fact that Rubio embodies two demographic groups with which the GOP needs to connect: young people and Hispanics.

And he has been trying to add substance to his sizzle. Rubio, in the first high-profile tryout of his legislative skills, is taking a leading role in shaping an overhaul of immigration law.

He is part of a bipartisan group of eight senators who put together a carefully calibrated set of principles that include a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million-plus immigrants in this country illegally. Rubio is the group’s point man tasked with selling that idea to the hard-liners on the right, who see it as heresy.

Rubio declined to be interviewed for this article. Aides explained that Rubio wants to dial things back a bit between now and the State of the Union response. When the Time cover appeared, he tweeted: “There is only one savior, and it is not me. #Jesus.”

“Like most things in politics, we are keenly aware of how fleeting this all is and how most news hype is all sound and no fury,” said Rubio’s senior strategist, Todd Harris. “You run the risk of becoming overexposed and overserved, not to mention the fact you might screw up.”

Rubio’s new prominence also comes at a difficult time for his party. Schisms have developed within the GOP as it searches for a path out of the electoral badlands after two presidential defeats.

He is that rare Republican who is beloved by both the party establishment, which is focused on reaching out to centrist and independent voters, and by the anti-establishment insurgent forces who say the party has erred in not holding true to its most conservative principles.

The Florida senator argues for both. Admirers often point to his 2011 declaration that “we don’t need new taxes. We need new taxpayers, people that are gainfully employed, making money and paying into the tax system.” It neatly skirted the charge, prosecuted to great effect by Democrats, that Republicans were simply favoring the rich.

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Basketball: Balanced attack propels Clippers past Knicks

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NEW YORK: The Los Angeles Clippers defeated the New York Knicks 102-88 with the help of a strong bench attack and Chris Paul's 25 points, seven assists and a half dozen rebounds.

Jamal Crawford had a team high 27 points and Blake Griffin finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Clippers, who won despite 42 points from New York forward Carmelo Anthony at Madison Square Garden.

Los Angeles won for the second time in three National Basketball Association games as their reserves easily outscored New York's bench 48-15.

Anthony also had eight rebounds and Raymond Felton was the only other member of the Knicks to score in double figures, finishing with 20 points. The Knicks have lost two of their last three games.

The Clippers held a 71-70 edge heading into the fourth quarter.

Crawford and Eric Bledsoe combined for 13 points during a 19-5 run in the fourth to put the Clippers ahead 90-78 with five minutes to play.

The Knicks rebounded with an 8-2 push to get back within 92-86 but Los Angeles scored the next seven points to regain a 13-point lead with 1:11 left and cruised to the win.

It was Paul's second game back after missing nine straight with a bruised right kneecap.

The Pacific Division-leading Clippers are now 16-12 on the road and will close out their current road swing on Monday at Philadelphia.

- AFP/jc



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CRPF’s braveheart men and women foiled terrorists’ designs

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NEW DELHI: Not many of them fell to fidayeen bullets but they were bravehearts no less. The men and women of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), who were guarding various gates of Parliament on the fateful day of December 13, 2001, were the reason why the five rampaging militants' designs were thwarted.

They killed with clinical precision all the terrorists one by one before the jihadis could enter Parliament to kill and take hostage members of India's political elite.

The suspicious movement of the beacon-fitted white Ambassador that the terrorists traveled in was first spotted by CRPF's woman constable Kamlesh Kumari and Watch and Ward staff J P Yadav when it entered from the main gate on Parliament Street side and started speeding. Both Yadav and Kumari ran from gate No.11 to stop it, only to fall to the bullets of the terrorists. Kumari was awarded Ashok Chakra by the President for her valiant effort.

After abandoning the car at gate No.11, the terrorists ran towards gate No.1 where head constable Y B Thapa and constable Sukhvinder Singh, taking guard behind a pillar and a wall, fired at one of the terrorists, a suicide bomber, who blew himself up.

"I can never forget that day. I had come to Delhi from Assam only two months ago and was still getting a hang of Parliament security," Thapa said. He was posted at gate No.1 as guard commander with Sukhvinder assisting him. The duo mistook the first grenade blast for cracker fire but soon saw five men running, spraying bullets.

"I ran and took position behind a pillar while Sukhvinder took guard behind a wall near gate No.3. We both started firing at one of the terrorists running towards gate No.1. Soon there was an explosion and I saw the terrorist had died. When I tried to move, I just couldn't. I looked and there was blood all over. I had been hit," said Thapa who then limped to the CRPF tent even as bullets kept flying behind him.

Thapa took one bullet in his thigh while other was lodged in his knee and has remained there ever since. "It could not be taken out as it was lodged in my bone. It keeps reminding of that day," Thapa said. His subordinate Sukhvinder too sustained bullet injury in the abdomen but survived.

However, the most effective of all was D Santosh Kumar, then a young sepoy with CRPF, who positioned himself strategically and shot dead three terrorists at gate No.9. "I was at gate No.6. As soon as I heard the burst of fire, I knew it was an attack. I took position behind a tree and soon saw three terrorists running towards gate No.9. They wanted to enter Parliament but as they were being fired at from the other side, they were forced to take position near the gate," recalled Kumar.

This worked in Kumar's favour as the AK 47-toting terrorists were in his direct line of fire. "I took aim with my SLR and one by one shot all three of them," said Kumar who did not sustain any injury. A proud Kumar is still guarding the edifices of democracy with his current posting being at Vidhan Bhawan in Delhi.

The fifth terrorist who had run towards gate No.5 was shot dead by CRPF constable Shyambir Singh. Amidst all this chaos was "ready-to-retire" inspector Mohan Prasad who commanded the men through deft strategy. "He was an old man on the verge of retirement. But he had great energy. He guided us throughout the attack, running from one gate to another shouting, 'Idhar se gher, udhar mar'," reminisced Kumar.

All four CRPF men who shot dead terrorists were awarded Shaurya Chakra with an out-of-turn promotion. Kumar, however, said while the central government rewarded him, state government in UP, from where he belongs, did not consider his effort worthy of any reward. "Other people were rewarded by their respective state governments. I feel sad, but it's ok," said Kumar.

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Year of the Snake: The Serpent Behind the Horoscope

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On February 10, people all around the world will ring in the Lunar New Year with paper lanterns and firecrackers. At the heart of it all sits the snake, a slithery reptile feared for its sharp fangs and revered for its undeniable charm. (Watch videos of some of the world's deadliest snakes.)

Those born in the Year of the Snake are said to be intelligent and quick thinking, but they can also be dishonest and prone to show off. Though based on Chinese astrology, some of these traits are similar to characteristics of the actual serpent.

Snakes are known to be great at outsmarting their predators and prey. Their colorful, patterned skin makes them some of the best tricksters in the animal kingdom. And despite a bad rap as frightening creatures, snakes never fail to fascinate scientists, explorers, and zoo-goers. (See pictures of snakes.)

With more than 3,400 recognized species, snakes exhibit incredible diversity in everything from behavior and habitats to skin colors and patterns.

"As a vertebrate lacking in limbs, all snakes look largely like other snakes, yet they succeed in tremendous diversity in multiple directions," said Andrew Campbell, herpetology collections manager at the University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute.

To usher in the Year of the Snake, Campbell and herpetologist Dennis Ferraro at University of Nebraska-Lincoln weigh in on some of the snake's qualities that the Chinese zodiac predicts people born this year will have.

Horoscope: Snakes have an innately elegant personality but can also be ostentatious at times.

In Nature: Snakes come in all different colors, patterns, and textures, making them some of nature's most visually stunning creatures.

According to Campbell, the utility of their coloring falls into two main categories: to use as camouflage and to warn predators to stay away.

Among the most beautiful are the emerald tree boa (Corallus caninus)—whose vibrant green body is decorated with white stripes resembling lightning bolts—and the Brazilian rainbow boa (Epicrates cenchria), characterized by its iridescent skin and the large black rings down its back.

For some snakes, the diversity in color occurs within the same species, which is why Ferraro tells his student not to identify snakes by colors. For example, the polymorphic bush viper (Atheris squamigera), many of which are green, also come in shades of yellow, orange, red, and blue, as captured in photographer Guido Mocafico's "Serpent Still Life" photo series.

Horoscope: The snake is known to be the master seducer of the Chinese zodiac.

In Nature: Female garter snakes (Thamnophis) have all the luck with the gentlemen.

When a female garter snake is ready to mate, she announces it by producing chemicals called pheromones. Males, upon encountering the scent, immediately come crawling out and gather around the female in a large, wriggling "mating ball."

The competition intensifies when a male passing by the ball tries to fool the others by producing a scent that mimics that of the female, said Ferraro.

As soon as his rivals are led off in the wrong direction, the trickster slides right in. In areas with smaller populations of garter snakes, each ball consists of about 12 males and one female.

But in places like Manitoba, Canada, where garter snakes travel to certain areas to mate after coming out of hibernation, a mating ball can have thousands of males and only a hundred females.

Horoscope: Though snakes don't often tell lies, they will use deception when they feel it's necessary and they think they can get away with it.

In Nature: When it comes to using trickery to catch dinner, or to hide from predators, snakes are no amateurs.

Their sneaky techniques range from tricking fish to swim right into their mouths, to playing dead when threatened, to using their wormlike tails to lure in prey.

The most cunning of them all is the two-headed snake. To protect against a sneak attack from behind, the two-headed snake's tail looks just like its head. While the business end looks for food, the snake coils up its body and rests its tail on top to look like it is on guard.

The tail can even mimic the behavior of a retreating snake to trick predators into thinking they're going face-to-face with their opponent.

Horoscope: When snakes get down to work, they are organized and highly efficient, and they work quickly and quietly.

In Nature: While snakes are often perceived as lazy, Campbell said people are mistaken. "What we perceive as shy, lazy, or inactive is really efficiency," he said.

"On average, they are bigger than other lizards and can build a lot of body mass. They do that by being efficient in feeding and traveling." In other words, snakes don't move very much because they don't have to.

When it comes to food, snakes catch prey that are significantly larger than them so they can eat less frequently. This reduces the time they spend hunting and thus makes them less vulnerable to falling victim to a predator themselves.

For Campbell, the most impressive hunter is the eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus Adamanteus), which is able to hunt and kill its prey very quickly using venom, so it doesn't have to travel far. "Because they don't have to do that, they can become relatively large and heavy, being able to build up body mass and not having to spend that energy hunting."

Horoscope: Snakes are charming, with excellent communication skills.

In Nturea: For snakes, their visual and auditory senses don't mean much when it comes to communicating with each other.

Instead, they use their sense of smell and the chemicals produced by their musk glands. Unlike mammals, a snake picks up scent through the forks of its tongue.

When the snake retracts its tongue, it inserts the forks into grooves in an olfactory organ located at the roof of its mouth. Depending on which fork picks up a stronger scent, the snake knows in which direction to go when looking for prey or a mate.

It's when snakes are threatened that they use sight and sound, said Ferraro. Rattlesnakes, for example, shake their tails, making a loud rattling noise to ward off predators.


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