Feathers

When it comes to dino outerwear, shag might be the new scales. Fossil evidence from a trio of 125-million-year-old dinosaurs that were relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex indicates the giant creatures wore primitive feathers. The three tyrannosauroids -- one adult and two juveniles -- belong to a newly described species discovered in northeastern China. The full-grown Yutyrannus huali weighed 3,000 pounds and stretched about 30 feet from nose to tail. The younger ones were still impressive at about 1,100 and 1,300 pounds.

At dress shops across Los Angeles, mother-and-daughter pairs dressed in jeans and high school sweat shirts that read "Seniors 2012" are on a mission. It's officially springtime, and for many a young woman in high school, that can mean only one thing: prom season has arrived. The hunt for just the right dress can be a challenge. The little black dress may be the suitable go-to for almost every other occasion, but for prom, a simple black dress won't do. The perfect prom dress has to dazzle in pictures, make the wearer feel like a princess and hold up to a full night on the dance floor.

At dress shops across Los Angeles, mother-and-daughter pairs dressed in jeans and high school sweat shirts that read "Seniors 2012" are on a mission. It's officially springtime, and for many a young woman in high school, that can mean only one thing: prom season has arrived. The hunt for just the right dress can be a challenge. The little black dress may be the suitable go-to for almost every other occasion, but for prom, a simple black dress won't do. The perfect prom dress has to dazzle in pictures, make the wearer feel like a princess and hold up to a full night on the dance floor.

When it comes to dino outerwear, shag might be the new scales. Fossil evidence from a trio of 125-million-year-old dinosaurs that were relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex indicates the giant creatures wore primitive feathers. The three tyrannosauroids -- one adult and two juveniles -- belong to a newly described species discovered in northeastern China. The full-grown Yutyrannus huali weighed 3,000 pounds and stretched about 30 feet from nose to tail. The younger ones were still impressive at about 1,100 and 1,300 pounds.

ONE of the most dazzling tidbits in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's big show "The Arts in Latin America 1492-1820" is enshrined in a gallery devoted to silver. A richly ornamented chalice made in Mexico City around 1575 and given to the museum by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst in 1948, it stands a mere 13 inches tall. But in terms of 16th century Mexican silver, the chalice has everything: silver gilt, rock crystal, boxwood and hummingbird feathers. Hummingbird feathers?

Robin went for a walk in the park with her mother. "Mommy," she said "tell me a story about yourself, when you were a little girl." Her mother smiled. "This happened many years ago. In those days we lived on a farm, not far from a small town. We grew and prepared our own food, and went to town only to buy our clothes, matches, candles, soap, farm equipment and other supplies we needed. We had our own apples, plums, carrots, potatoes, cabbages and our own chickens, geese and cows.

If we see them at all, they're usually plastered to the grill of our car or limp beneath a house window. Rarely, a few of us witness a mass die-off, like the thousands of blackbirds that recently fell from the Arkansas sky. The death of a bird is usually invisible. How many of us have looked at the delicate skeleton of a vireo, the tiny trellis of hummingbird bones? Birds are mostly small, dying out of sight and mind, turning quickly to the earth they once flew above. They are done in by predators, poisons, wind farms and utility lines; they are confused to death by light pollution and fireworks; they are shot by hunters — whose licenses also provide funding to help prevent the biggest cause of bird mortality, habitat loss.

Do studies of a feather flock together? It certainly seemed that way when two reports on the coloration of early dinosaur feathers were released a week apart. Courtesy of the discoveries, creators of the next "Jurassic Park" knockoff can now render the fuzzy or feathered reptiles in vivid -- and accurate -- Technicolor. One study, published Jan. 27 in the journal Nature, revealed the presence of "ginger" coloring in ancient feathers of several bird and dinosaur fossils. Notably, the scientists from Britain, Ireland and China described the orange crest and orange-ringed tail of the tiny 125-million-year-old Sinosauropteryx , a dinosaur that had primitive, bristly plumes not unlike those of the modern-day kiwi.

A trove of prehistoric feathers both primitive and complex is providing scientists with a snapshot of the diversity of down-covered dinosaurs and birds during the late Cretaceous. An account published in Friday's edition of the journal Science describes a host of feathers and feather-like filaments found ensconced in 70-million-year-old amber from western Canada. The structures reveal what the precursors of modern feathers really looked like. "The simplest feathers are of greatest interest because these protofeathers have been inferred to be the evolutionary precedent to evolved feathers," said study coauthor Alexander Wolfe, a paleoecologist at the University of Alberta in Canada.

If the fashion that appeared on the Grammy red carpet seemed relatively tame, a handful of artists made up for it when they performed onstage during the awards ceremony. Lady Gaga led the pack with her arrival in a Hussein Chalayan-designed pod that was carried in the manner of an ancient Egyptian litter. She "hatched" from the egg-like structure wearing a transparent yellow raincoat-style jacket and a wide brim hat, and her cropped top and long skirt with a high slit allowed her to successfully sing and dance after she emerged.

For me, Thanksgiving is inevitably too much, too rich, too frenzied. Even when there were only four of us, my mother used to get up at 5:30 on Thanksgiving morning to start cooking, huffing and puffing all the way, 'til my father revved up his electric carving knife and dinner was served. We ate quickly, and just when I thought we could maybe relax and digest, maybe take a snooze, she'd clap her hands and command: Dishes! That's maybe why as an adult I rebelled against the holiday, sometimes opting out entirely and staying in to read.

Although — or perhaps because — he ruffled so many feathers when he hosted the Golden Globes in January, comedian Ricky Gervais will return to the podium at the annual awards gala in 2012, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced Wednesday. The group, composed of 83 entertainment journalists from around the world, voted Wednesday to bring back the performer for a third consecutive year, though a small but vocal minority dissented. Sixteen out of the 62 members who voted were opposed to Gervais' return, according to a person who was present at the meeting but asked not to be identified because of the confidential nature of the proceedings.

A trove of prehistoric feathers both primitive and complex is providing scientists with a snapshot of the diversity of down-covered dinosaurs and birds during the late Cretaceous. An account published in Friday's edition of the journal Science describes a host of feathers and feather-like filaments found ensconced in 70-million-year-old amber from western Canada. The structures reveal what the precursors of modern feathers really looked like. "The simplest feathers are of greatest interest because these protofeathers have been inferred to be the evolutionary precedent to evolved feathers," said study coauthor Alexander Wolfe, a paleoecologist at the University of Alberta in Canada.

For decades, pigeons have cooed and warblers warbled in a rambling, county-owned aviary near Santa Paula. But these are hard times for government-subsidized housing, particularly for birds. Lacking the money for badly needed improvements, Ventura County officials are not swayed by the call of the cockatoos, conures, parrots, parakeets, peacocks — or those who love them. They have placed 29 of their feathered friends in adoptive homes and two sick birds at rescue centers. Over the next few months, they'll seek homes for the 100 or so that remain.

If we see them at all, they're usually plastered to the grill of our car or limp beneath a house window. Rarely, a few of us witness a mass die-off, like the thousands of blackbirds that recently fell from the Arkansas sky. The death of a bird is usually invisible. How many of us have looked at the delicate skeleton of a vireo, the tiny trellis of hummingbird bones? Birds are mostly small, dying out of sight and mind, turning quickly to the earth they once flew above. They are done in by predators, poisons, wind farms and utility lines; they are confused to death by light pollution and fireworks; they are shot by hunters — whose licenses also provide funding to help prevent the biggest cause of bird mortality, habitat loss.

Dianna Duran, New Mexico's secretary of State who took office in January, sounded a tad pugnacious in March when she reported that 117 foreign nationals with phony Social Security numbers had registered to vote and 37 had cast ballots in elections. There was, she said, "a culture of corruption" in the state. Duran, who had ordered her staff to check 1.16 million voter registration records against motor vehicle and Social Security databases, also raised eyebrows by referring 64,000 voter registration records to the state police, citing irregularities.

The advertisements appeared on the back pages of women's magazines and Sunday newspapers, promising such attributes as a fuller bust or a slimmer waist. The products promoted by Jack and Eileen Feather, major shareholders of Cambridge Plan International, went by such names as the Mark Eden Bust Developer, Astro-Trimmer (a waist reducer) and Slim-Skins (sauna pants that are attached to a vacuum cleaner).

NEW YORK -- Drag queens, carnival kings, Big Bird and John Travolta are all in a day's work to Jon Coles, whose company has outfitted all of them with feathers. Coles has been vice president and general manager at American Plume & Fancy Feather Co. in New York's garment district for 29 years, ever since the company's owners, his friends Anthony and Elizabeth Trento, convinced him the feather business would pay better than his previous profession, teaching.

The famous winged and feathered fossil Archaeopteryx has been knocked off its perch as the oldest known bird, according to new research. Instead, it was most likely a dinosaur. Archaeopteryx, discovered in Germany in 1861, lived during the late Jurassic period — about 150 million years ago. On the basis of its part-bird, part-reptile features, paleontologists placed it in the avialan family, which includes the earliest ancestors of birds. Avialans are related to deinonychosaurs, bird-like dinosaurs such as Anchiornis and Microraptor that lived during the late Jurassic and subsequent Cretaceous.

Some people head to Peru to climb Incan ruins; some go to sip pisco sours. Me, I went for the birds. The very big birds. Peru contains a staggering 10% of the world's avian population, and the Colca Valley - a stunning slice of earth notched into the southern highlands of the country - is ground zero for two of the most jaw-dropping: the Andean condor, otherwise known as the world's largest flying bird, and the giant hummingbird, whose name...