BSA National Pike District

Look to the western skies after sunset on Saturday, March 20, and watch a rare convergence of the Moon and the Pleiades star cluster. The Moon’s glow will actually cover some of the Pleiades’s lesser stars.

Saturday night also marks an equinox; a date on which spring begins in one hemisphere and fall begins in another. Day and night will be of the same approximate length.

Hundreds of thousands of starfish washed up on beaches near Budleigh Salterton, England, this week. Experts say the starfish probably became exhausted after spawning, leaving them susceptible to high tides and storms.

Events like this usually occur once or twice a year in Great Britain, but it had never happened in Budleigh Salterton until now.

On March 23, the United States Mint will make available for sale the BSA Centennial Silver Dollar. Proceeds from the coin surcharges will benefit the BSA National Foundation in efforts to bring Scouting into underserved communities. If every coin is sold, $3.5 million will be generated for this very worthy cause. Are you ready to get yours? Beginning at 12 p.m. Eastern on March 23, coins can be ordered through the U.S. Mint at www.usmint.gov or at 1-800-USA-MINT. For the first 30 days, the proof coin will be offered at $39.95 and the uncirculated coin will be offered at $33.95, after which the prices will be $43.95 and $35.95, respectively.

Be sure to visit the coin webpage on the 100 Years of Scouting website.

NASA has discovered a shrimp-like creature living in a lightless area 600 feet beneath an Antarctic ice shelf. The 3-inch long creature was found using a small video camera lowered to take the first-ever images of an ice shelf’s underside. Scientists previously believed nothing could live in that environment.

This shrimp-like creature could “lead the way to larger expeditions into harsher environments that scientists previously believed could not support life.”

Today marks 25 years of dot-coms. On March 15, 1985, the very first domain name appeared on the Internet. That first site — Symbolics.com — began the “commercial age of the World Wide Web.”

Domain names made it easier for users to access sites — typing in Symbolics.com was far simpler than entering a long string of code. By 1995, the Internet consisted of about 18,000 domain names. Today there are more than 80 million.

Let the Madness begin. The 2010 NCAA men’s basketball championship bracket will be announced Sunday. Tune in to CBS at 6 p.m. Eastern to find out if your favorite team made the cut.

The tournament’s round of 64 begins Thursday, March 18. The Final Four will be played April 3 and 5 in Indianapolis, Ind.

Electricity shut off in southern Oklahoma this week when a bobcat climbed to the top of an electric pole. An Oklahoma Gas and Electric official said repair crews “found the smoldering body of the bobcat Tuesday at the top of a utility pole in Johnson County.”

The power outage affected 3,100 customers.

One First Class Scout celebrated the BSA’s 100th anniversary by battling malaria. Nathaniel Stafford, 12, put together Trek 4 Nets, a 100-mile hike through five North Carolina counties. Trek 4 Nets benefits Northing But Nets, a global grassroots malaria prevention campaign that provides mosquito nets to families in Africa.

Nathaniel’s hike began on Feb. 22, which is also Scouting founder Lord Baden-Powell’s birthday. He finished the journey March 2 in Fayetteville, N.C.

While Nathaniel has already collected hundreds of dollars, he won’t stop until he’s raised enough to purchase 1,000 nets. Click here to get involved.

Atlanta-area Scouts met a gold medal-winning Eagle Scout this week. Steve Holcomb participated on the United States bobsledding team at the Vancouver Olympics last month. Holcomb—a bobsled driver from Park City, Utah—guided the first U.S.A bobsled team in 62 years to win Olympic gold. Holcomb’s team set a track record by finishing the second heat in 50.86 seconds. Holcomb’s bobsled also posted a top speed of 95 miles per hour.

The Atlanta Scouts met Holcomb at Atlanta Motor Speedway. They were able to talk with the Olympic Eagle Scout and pose with his gold medal.

The second season of BL’s very own television show, Scouting for Adventure, will re-air starting April 1 on the Outdoor Channel. See episodes each Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern and each Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Eastern.

Reruns of the second season will lead up to the premiere of Season Three in July.

For most Cub Scouts, the closest thing to experiencing the thrill of NASCAR — short of attending a race — is the chance to build and race their own pinewood derby cars. Before last weekend’s NASCAR race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, one lucky group of Atlanta-area Cub Scouts had the opportunity to do both.

Last Friday, as part of Atlanta Motor Speedway’s annual “Scout Day at the Races,” eight Cub Scouts from the Flint River Council met, “talked shop” and raced their pinewood derby cars with four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon.

Gordon’s meeting with the Cub Scouts aired as part of Fox Sports’ prerace coverage of the Kobalt Tools 500, which was held Sunday.

“It was a lot of fun for me to spend time with the Scouts and see how much energy and creativity they’ve put into building their race cars,” Gordon said. “I appreciate the work that Scouting does to create good citizens and future leaders. I salute the BSA as it begins its next century of service.”

Late last year, sea lions in San Francisco disappeared from their home at the California city’s Pier 39. The population had swelled to around 1,700 before the animals left. This week, much to the delight of tourists, the sea lions began returning.

An expert says the “sea lions’ sudden departure (was) unusual but not worrisome.”

New fossils found in India prove that ancient snakes dined on dinosaurs.

The discovered fossils show that an 11-foot snake slithered up to an unguarded dinosaur nest. The snake than saw a newborn dinosaur hatching from its egg. The snake curled around the hatchling, prepared to attack, but “heavy rains sent mud surging out of a nearby channel—smothering both snake and prey.” The snake and dinosaur were fossilized by the mud until the recent discovery.

NASA scientists say the massive earthquake that shook Chile last week may have tilted our planet’s axis by 3 inches. This new tilt will actually shorten our days by 1.26 microseconds. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

Natural disasters have tilted Earth before. In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake that caused a monstrous tsunami in the Indian Ocean shortened the length of our days by 6.8 microseconds.

Peter Parker, Spider-Man’s alter ego, loses his photography job in the newest issue Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man. Parker had been working as the mayor’s official photographer. He previously worked at The Daily Bugle.

“He’s going to struggle with unemployment and trying to save the city while he can barely afford to keep a roof over his head,” said Steve Wacker, Marvel Comics senior editor.

The BSA’s National Executive Board has approved a change in the age requirements for joining its Venturing program. Starting May 1, 2010, the minimum age requirement will be changed to 14 years of age, or 13 years of age and completion of eighth grade. The maximum age for participation remains 21.

Until May 1, the eligibility requirement to join Venturing will remain 14 years of age and the completion of eighth grade.

Click here for more information.

The United Kingdom has given Treo, an 8-year-old black Labrador, the highest military honor an animal can receive—the Dicken Medal. Treo earned the recognition for twice detecting improvised explosive devices while serving in Afghanistan.

The founder of an animal health organization established the Dicken Medal in 1943. It has now been awarded to 27 dogs, 32 messenger pigeons, three horses and one cat.

Treo is now retired and living as a family pet. He and his handler served together for five years.

Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur in Eastern Utah. Excavators used explosives to unearth the fossils, which were buried in slabs of sandstone.

The discovered bones belonged to a type of sauropod—a long-necked plant-eater. The fossils have revealed new details about the dinosaurs’ eating habits and how their teeth developed and changed over time.

The 2010 Winter Olympics are more than halfway finished. The United States is leading the way with 25 total medals, seven of them gold, through Tuesday’s afternoon action. Germany has also earned seven gold medals, and the Germans have won 22 total medals. Norway is third with 14 total medals, six of them gold.

Plenty of medals are left to be awarded. Check out the action on NBC’s family of networks through Sunday, Feb. 28.

Click here to see the medal table and get other information.

“Giant George,” a Great Dane living in Tucson, Ariz., has been named the tallest living dog and tallest dog ever by Guinness World Records. George is 7-feet long from head to tail, and he weighs 250 pounds. George stands 3 feet 7 inches from paw to shoulder.