Word: pitting
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...kraits breed, as many as half a dozen males may pile on a lone female. Copulation is usually brief but can last more than a day for Western diamondbacks (probably to reduce the female's exposure to rival males). Female snakes too deploy cunning reproductive strategies. North American pit vipers, for example, store sperm for months, until some instinct tells the cold-blooded creatures that the temperature is right for fertilization. Like birds (close kin), most species are egg layers, though some give birth to fully formed young...
...snakes, which have catlike eyes). That flickering forked tongue, for example, loathsome as it may seem, actually gives the snake the chemical equivalent of stereoscopic vision; by responding to the relative number of odors on either side of the tongue, the snake can pinpoint potential prey, mates or enemies. Pit vipers, for their part, are equipped with keen infrared sensors near their nostrils, so even if blinded, they can strike a mouse several feet away simply by detecting its body heat...
...praise for the new release, Hanley never comes across as obnoxious or self-absorbed. An easygoing, conversational tone stamps out any question of pop rock pretentiousness--she is a normal person unaffected in her personal life by widespread radio airplay. Whether discussing her favorite Boston bands (Trona, Gravel Pit, Sterlings), pausing to discuss her mother's daily phone call or thinking about the dinner awaiting her, she is in every way a normal person...
...listen to as typical YES!! fare. There's nothing wrong with pithy lyrics and limited vocal abilities--check out Cibo Mat-to--but such an approach needs to be tempered by some skilled irony in the delivery. Knox takes himself so seriously that he is dragged into a pit of self-involvement from which there is no escape. Knox is clearly in trouble delivering a line like, "There's love and there's lust/and there's a fine line between them," as if it were a revelation...
...Trent Lott and some bipartisan Senators want to redesign the Senate chamber [NOTEBOOK, Sept. 8]. This would be the biggest government money pit since the construction of the Rayburn Building. The idea of putting up something that is "tasteful, historically appropriate and...television-friendly" will give way to things that are gold plated and unnecessary. The cost will easily hit $20 million because when Senators are doing for themselves, they just can't stop. I would much rather the public revolt and rip out the seats and air conditioning from both chambers. Uncomfortable legislators just might get the people...