area i want to go into is advocacy and then public policy. >> on the home front things are looking up. >> i just started to build a relationship with my biological family so i spent most of my christmas break with them and my foster family. it's like i got two families to go to so i got twice as much food to eat on christmas. >> julie peterson, cnn, tuscaloosa, alabama. hello. it's 3:00 on the east coast, noon on the west coast. i'm gary tuchman. let's get straight to the news. the florida primary is looking like a two-man race for sure. front-runners newt gingrich and mitt romney have fanned out across the state ahead of tuesday's primary there. supporters of both camps have released new negative ads and both campaigns are courting the state's hispanic vote. >> we are very committed to having every american of every background come together. i talked about inclusion rather

than outreach and i remind people outreach is when five white guys hold a meeting and then call you. inclusion is when you are part of that process. we are working with the hispanic community across the country to develop policies and issues. >> challengers rick santorum and ron paul have left the sunshine state. we'll go live to florida in a few minutes for an update on the campaign. the arab league is out of the monitoring business in syria for now. too violent, too many people killed, too many people hurt. here's one of the reasons why. watch and listen to this. amateur video reportedly taken today in the town of holmes. mortar explosions, automatic fire, syrian security forces clashing again with anti-government fighters. an arab league official says one condition of the mission was that they could travel and work in a safe environment. that is not the case. stay right there. we're live from damascus in just a minute. in st. louis, missouri

thousands of people turned out for a welcome home parade to honor iraq war veterans. organizers say this is the country's first major home coming parade. one of the organizers said he didn't want to wait around for someone else to do it so he and some others planned the whole thing privately. people lined the streets to see the war vets plus floats, a budweiser clydesdales and several high school marching bands. authorities in maine say blood has been discovered in the home of missing toddler ayla reynolds. ayla was reported missing by her father december 14th. he reportedly told police he put his daughter to bed the night before she disappeared. police aren't saying if they know whose blood was found in the house but it's a terrible sad story. social media including twitter played a critical role during recent historic events like the arab uprising. but your tweets could soon be deleted depending on where you are. twitter says it will now delete tweets if specific countries require it. those tweets will still be visible to the rest of the world. saying good-bye to music

legend etta james with her signature song. ♪ at last my love has come along, oh, ♪ >> christina aguilera gave a powerful, emotional service of the song just a few minutes ago. stevie wonder also performed. the reverend al sharpton is presiding over the memorial service. etta james died earlier this month of complications from leukemia. she was 73 years old. we'll have much more of christina aguilera's rendition of "at last" a little later in this newscast. now for more politics. many of those watching cnn's

debate were scratching their heads this past week when newt gingrich started talking about putting a colony on the moon. but this lego man has beaten him to the punch sort of. thanks to a couple canadian students, hence the maple leaf flag. lego man soared 144 miles above earth, 144 miles attached to a weather balloon. the cost? just $400. very affordable. isn't there a lesson here? joining us now in orlando, florida joe johns who is covering newt gingrich. hey, joe. maybe lego man could give newt gingrich, nasa the rest of us a tip or two. >> you said it. you never know, gary. newt gingrich, the headline i would say, for today, here in florida is that he is in it for the long haul and that doesn't even depend on whatever happens on tuesday in the primary. newt gingrich had been very busy here in florida over the last 24 hours crisscrossing the state

expected to appear within the hour at a latino church here in the orlando area earlier today in the port st. lucy area we got a chance to catch up with the former speaker of the house when he made it clear he is not throwing in the towel in this campaign even though here in florida he appears to be outgunned in the polls. he doesn't have the ground game that the romney campaign has. he also doesn't have the kinds of television ads or the money to put into them. so listen to what newt gingrich said earlier today in port st. lucie. >> i will go all the way to the convention. i expect to win the nomination. you just had two national polls that show me ahead. why don't you ask governor romney what he is going to do if he loses since he's behind in both national polls? >> reporter: closing arguments starting now as the primary is on tuesday. i've talked to some of gingrich's supporters.

they say anything could happen in the last 24 hours of this race, so let's just wait and see. gary, back to you. >> closing arguments. sounds like you're in a courtroom, joe, and the voters are the jury, right? joe johns. thank you. >> that's just about right. >> that's exactly right, joe. thank you very much. good talking to you. you can also watch a replay of thursday night's debate tonight, 5:00 p.m. eastern. a great way to see the candidates one more time before the florida primary on tuesday and keep it here on cnn for the coverage of the primary tuesday night our special coverage begins at 6:00 eastern time. too dangerous in serbia. outside observers call it quits in syria. the arab league shuts down the mission. we're live from damascus with fallout and where that leaves chances for a cease-fire.

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the street violence across syria has not let up. the clashes and killings have not stopped. that's the reason the arab league announced today that its international monitoring mission is now over. this video shot today in holmes shows a city like many others in syria deserted except for security forces battling opposition fighters from roof tops and windows it is very dangerous. at least 50 people reportedly died just today in clashes across the country. on the phone now is our reporter in dplas cuamascus. thank you for joining us. the arab league says it is too dangerous to work. what does this do to hopes for the end of the fighting and the violence in syria? >> it certainly does not bode well. the arab league is basing its

decision on the spike in violence we have really been seeing in recent days thursday and friday reported amongst the highest numbers of casualties since the uprising began. even the head of the mission inside syria itself was saying that the spike in violence was something that was unacceptable. what is concerning is that if this means the monitors are then withdrawn the arab league is going to effectively lose its eyes on ground and even though the commission has come under much criticism by both sides the only thing worse would be for perhaps the mission to end. we are continuing to see this increasing violence even for ourselves and we're seeing the free syrian army the opposition military mostly made up of defectors though some civilians have joined their ranks increasingly gaining ground by the day. the clashes in some cases are taking place just 15 minutes outside of central damascus. the crisis, the sticking points when it comes to syria, is that no one really has a solution.

the activists do not have any faith in the arab league or the united nations. they believe they have been abandoned. the syrian government continues to stand defiant refusing to accept the peace plan that has been put forward by the arab league. diplomats are struggling to put together some sort of resolution that russia is not going to veto but most certainly when one looks at the picture of syria as a whole the outcome is definitely not a good one. >> was the arab league making any progress? >> well, the arab league had been putting forward this initiative, this peace plan that was going to be seeing the president hand over power to the vice president, the formation of a national unit government, that would then pave the way for some sort of free and democratic elections. the thing is that the arab league is effectively a toothless organization though we have been seeing it taking positions when it comes to the arab spring as we call it that have been much stronger than any

positions taken by the arab league in the past. the head of the arab league meeting with members at the united nations over the weekend. he was presenting to the united nations early in the week so it is on the one hand trying to do something but at the end of the day his hands could end up being tied because the syrian regime still believes that it is in a position of power. as long as the russians don't change their position the syrian government, many people will tell you, is going to continue to remain defiant and knowing that it has international support in russia and in china and of course knowing that it has the very, very strong support of original power house in iran. and many people will tell you that when it comes to syria the dynamics that are surrounding this are not just polarizing the population to a point where the window of any sort of reconciliation may be closed but to a certain degree is also polarizing the region and the

entire international community so it's making resolution very difficult on every single level. >> thank you for your reporting. to you and your crew. please stay safe in syria. well, it's now time for everybody to get up. come on. off the couch if you're on the couch. is it working? are you up? well, either way if you are or you aren't, at least i tried. but if you want to be more fit, that's what we're talking about. stick around. we have more effective ways to get off the couch and back in shape.ri e financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪

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kids are skipping school and enrolling online. but are virtual classes as effective as classroom studies? athena jones takes a look at getting a virtual education. >> reporter: katarina is training to become a ballerina dancing four days a week up to eight hours on fridays when most seventh graders would be at school. that's why katarina goes to school here online. >> sometimes i'll study in the

morning and i'll do a few classes and then i'll go to ballet for maybe like three, four hours. and i'll come back home and do some more. >> reporter: we sit in on an algebra class led by a teacher a few miles away. select your best answer. >> jessica henry has taught math for 12 years. the last two online. >> it was a correct answer. fantastic. i'm always trying to check for understanding saying do you agree with me and they can put a certain symbol next to their face, yes i agree. thumbs up i agree. thumbs down i disagree. smile. confused face. that type of thing. >> reporter: students use their key board or a mike to ask questions. teachers hold monthly phone conferences with students and parents. an estimated quarter million students in kindergarten through 12th grade were enrolled in full-time online schools last year. a 25% increase over the previous year. some parents choose online schools because their children are struggling in ordinary ones. others do so for their flexible

schedules. k-12, inc. a for profit company runs many of the programs contracting with school districts to receive state aid for online education. >> five years ago we were about 1/5 the size we nouar. i would expect that we've grown fivefold over that period and would probably grow fivefold again over the next five to ten years. this is a movement that is just beginning. >> reporter: in 2010 the u.s. education department said more study was needed to determine how effective online education is for k-12 students. the national education association, a teacher's union, supports using online content in traditional schools but questions whether learning online full-time is the best approach. >> there is so much more to learning than just content acquisition. there's socialization. there is discussion in the classroom. you have to be able to look at their face and know whether they need a push or maybe a hug. >> reporter: state testing data shows virginia virtual academy students, katarina's program, didn't perform as well as kids at brick and mortar schools. k-12 says many academy students

were behind grade level when they joined. supporters and critics of online schools say how wiell they work often depends on the child. for katarina, a highly motivated student, it's the right choice. >> i always wanted to be like a mouse in the nutcracker. i also want to be a fairy in sleeping beauty. >> reporter: athena jones, cnn, washington. athena, thank you very much. okay. now i'm going to try this again, our fitness thing. it's time to get up, get off the seat, get off the couch, off the bed, wherever you are. get oust the bath tub. are you up? either way if you are or aren't, at least i tried. but if you want to be more fit stick around. we have other more effective high tech ways to get off the couch. or the bath tub or the bed and get back in shape. [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus presents: the cold truth.

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28 days into the new year are you still sticking to your new year's resolution? if your goal was to slim down and stay healthy there are high tech ways to keep you on track. joining us now on the phone our tech expert marc saltzman from toronto with health and fitness gadgets. let's start with a small device called the strive. what exactly is the strive? >> right. the strive is a small, 2-inch gadget you can clip on to your clothes or attach to your key chain and it's really a three

part gadget. it measures your steps. the other part is it is a game. air unlocking rewards in this game called my land as an extra incentive to exercising. and the third part is basically a fitness motivator along with games it has unlockable trophies for reaching milestones and the more you exercise the more money is sent to charity. it is not out of your pocket. it does cost $99 for the product. but they say that once you reach certain goals money is donated to various organizations. so really just trying to give you extra motivation for staying fit in a very lightweight and small device. >> that's strive striiv. >> right. >> now unveiled last week is a new fitness gadget from nike called the fuel band. what is that? >> this as similar product in concept. however, it's a high tech

bracelet opposed to a small striiv. when you wear the bracelet you are also measuring your activity, whether running, playing basketball, whatever you're doing. there is a pedometer and so it measures movement and shows you your step. it shows you how many calories you're burning. yet that information is actually shown on the bracelet itself and it wirelessly through blue truth synchronizes with a free app for smart phone users. monitor your results and set goals for yourself, you know, look at your progress on a smart phone or on a computer. there is also a u sb option to connect it with a cable. so along with the information on the wrist band itself nike has also added this color coded, you know, theme to it. you've got yellow, red, or green with how close you are to reaching your daily goals. you set that up ahead in advance. so this is brand new. i haven't seen this one yet opposed to. striuv. it is called nike fuel band and

is about $150. >> there is this new bathroom scale. they don't normally sell high tech but this is the first. wi-fi enabled bathroom scale. why do you need a bathroom scale with wi-fi? >> so this is really for convenience sake. what this wi-fi bathroom scale does, it is from a french health technology company, what it does is it automatically uploads your information to a password protected website or to an app, so it measures your weight, body mass index. and you also can set goals. again, it's not just showing you this graph or chart, which it can do, but you can set goals for yourself and monitor your progress. so that's how it works. if you want, depending on the type of person you are and how open you are with your friends you can also have this information such as your weight loss uploaded automatically to social networks like twitter or facebook so you're essentially broadcasting your progress as an extra incentive if that's the

kind of person you are. again, some people find weight loss or getting fit a very personal goal that they want to keep those numbers to themselves but we are in a very socially networked age. if you find that is extra incentive the wi-fi body scale will do that for you. that's about 159 bucks. >> let's all posting our weight on facebook. a new trend. >> we're sharing everything else. >> that's very true, marc. it's really cool. i appreciate you joining us. marc saltzman thank you. >> thanks for having meenchts for more high tech ideas and reviews go to cnn.com/tech and look for the gaming and gadgets tab or follow marc on facebook, twitter, and linked in. he will tell you his weight. maybe he won't. he said he would. are you ready for some inspiration? i have the story of a young woman who made it out of a really tough past to create her own success story. be on locatio-

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fans of the nbc comedy "the office" know actor ray wilson as the ego maniac but hilarious dwight. but unlike his character he is committed to helping others. in 2007 he saw a story about one of our cnn heroes, an every day person changing the world, and was so moved he decided to lend a hand. fast forward five years later. he is still involved and inspired. >> i was literally sitting in my trailer at the office and i was looking at the cnn website and the cnn heroes i think in the first year and i saw this story on this guy aaron jackson. this is a young kid from florida, grew up on a golf course. didn't really have much direction in his life. then he went traveling in the third world and saw poverty and he decided to just devote his life to making the world a better place. >> today we dewormed an estimated maybe a little over a hundred people. it's been great to be able to help out aaron jackson in

planting peace by doing fundraisers and introduce him to people and help raise money and just help his organization really get moving. he's the amazing guy who is doing all the really hard work and, you know, give him the cash and let him go do what he does best. they have four or five orphanages in haiti and i also went out when they distributed the deworming medication out in the rural villages and towns. >> we're distributing food, aid, all around the country. so many kids can be, you know, eating their fill but because they're so filled with worms they're unable to digest and process that food so it is really kind of a waste. >> you deworm the kid and the worms shoot out within usually 24 to 48 hours. it's amaza. you see a kid highly anemic, not alert at all and once you rid them of worms they come back to life. an immediate impact. >> since the hero segment in

2007 we've raised enough money with reiain's help to deworm 2 million kids. >> anybody can be a hero. it just takes a little work. >> ah! ah ha! >> there is one thing i could take away from my experience with cnn heroes these stories are incredibly inspiring. they inspire me to step up my game and try and do more to help the world. >> he as great actor and very good man. you know, someone who is making a big difference in the lives of others? go to cnn heroes.com now and tell us about them. your words might just change the life of someone working every day to help others. nominate a 2012 cnn hero today. how does an abused and neglected child go from foster care to becoming a high achiever who is headed to law school? you may be shocked by what caroline james had to endure and you'll be inspired by her courage and her determination.

julie peterson has her story. >> reporter: caroline james earned a masters degree from the school of hard knocks long before she got to the university of alabama. >> i have a bruise right now that persists for years and it's on my leg. it is very long from a heated belt. he put the belt on the stove and it took the skin off just like that. >> reporter: the college senior says the bruise is a reminder of her father who died when she was 16. >> my father was, because he was a drug addict, oftentimes he wasn't at our home so he would just go off for weeks on end and my mother had left us when we were very young and so during those times i would just take care of my brothers. i would do anything from gathering food from neighbors to fixing food in the house. >> reporter: because they missed so much school james taught herself and her younger brothers many of the basics like how to read. finally, she got help. >> i remember at 11 when i actually got us into the foster

care system because i had to gather information on my father. i was taking crack and marijuana to the school to show my teacher, look. my father is a drug addict. we're not able to live in our own household. and so i was stepping up to be a mother to raise myself at an age where most children are jumping rope. >> reporter: she was taken in by a foster family. then ther big break came in ninth grade. a magnate high school recruited her. it was a place that recognized her potential. later at 18 she aged out of the foster care system. success at the magnate school led to a college acceptance leaving her past behind. >> as soon as i got to the university of alabama i did not want to discuss it. i said, you know what? i'm not going to be that kid who needs another handout. i am sick of it. i'm sick of being ashamed, sick of everyone knowing what has happened to me. i'm embarrassed. i don't want to be that kid put

on display anymore. >> james has a 3.8 gpa, carries a double major and is a member of mortar board. >> so this is my home. >> reporter: she is proud of her first apartment. >> i'm very excited to have things that are of my own, excited to have something to bring into a space that's my own. >> reporter: where did you get your couch? >> at a thrift store. it was $15. >> very nice. >> yes. >> reporter: even so it's not easy. >> there is a crisis point after crisis point continually. and most of it stems from the lack of a support both financially and emotionally. >> reporter: she says these aren't the only hurdles. so are the stereotypes. >> i think that many people perceive foster students to be purposefully under achievers. i think that they think given the background that we've come from we don't want to achieve. we don't want to do anything with ourselves. we have the tools yet we don't really want to work with them. and i think what they're missing out on is oftentimes foster

youth don't have the tools and further more they don't know what to do with the tools when they get them. >> reporter: as the self-starter pursues law school and nonprofit work she is knocking down the foster child stereotypes every st step the way. julie peterson, cnn, tuscaloosa, alabama. what does it take for foster children to make that leap to overcome a troubled past and build a future where they cannot just succeed but thrive? here's one crucial element. a support group. cynthia moreland is executive director of the nonprofit educational foundation here in atlanta. her group is all about providing a circle of support for foster kids who want to attend college. the organization provided college scholarships support for caroline whose story you just saw and sean who we profiled last hour. cynthia, thank you for joining us first of all. >> thank you. >> congratulations on your great work. tell us how you chose these two fine young people. >> well, i think they speak for themselves. they really left us no choice.

students who age oust the foster care system simply submit an essay to the foundation scholarship committee, which is led by one of our board members but compiled of community leaders from our partner organizations and we also have a scholar alumni who is a recent graduate of the university of georgia who helps us make decisions on which students receive an nsoro scholarship. >> a lot of the stories of these foster kids are very similar. absent father, abuse in the house. is that something you see all the time? absolutely. they experience abuse with their biological families and, unfortunately, a large percentage of them also experience abuse in their foster care placement. >> so your group offers all kinds of support, scholarship money. tell me what else in addition to financial means you do for these kids. >> certainly. we try really to provide a comprehensive approach to supporting students. many of our scholars, and we ask

them what we can do to serve them better, many have told us that while they're in high school they're not groomed to go to college so no one is telling them you need to take the advanced placement courses. you need to make sure you're doing something constructive with your summer. they're actually being told they're not college material. so we partner with places like the university of alabama where we take a cross section of students who are currently in high school and foster care and they live on the university of alabama's campus for a week during the summer. they hear from students like sean and caroline. they hear from college administrators so that they can see what college life is like and as caroline mentioned our students need the same support that their peer group with loving families need. so we send them care packages. i call on a regular basis. and thanks to the support of the at&t foundation, we also match each of our nsoro scholars with an at&t volunteer mentor who not

only, at&t not only invests in our student scholarship fund but also invest the time of their associates. >> your heart though must break on a regular basis. there must be so many sad stories you deal with. >> actually not at all. my heart is lifted because as you heard from caroline, our students have experienced abuse that no adult should have to endure. but they are still driven to succeed. and my job is to make sure that i support them, that we are there for them, we make a commitment to our students once they enter college and we stay committed until they graduate. >> i guess what i meant is when you first hear these stories your heart must break. >> absolutely. >> then you get involved with these kids and it lifts your heart because you do so much. the final question i have for you, you've led into it perfectly, is how rewarding is this job for you? >> it is immensely rewarding. we have a benefactor who founded us in 2005. he runs the nsoro company which

is a mass tech company. they give us office space. our work is so well supported. we can always use more. but the results that we're getting are insurmountable. we are breaking generational cycles of broken families, which of course leads to poverty and under achievement. >> cynthia moreland i love talking to people like you because you are so inspirational. thank you very much. >> thank you so much for having me. >> nice meeting you. >> very nice to meet you as well. >> congratulations on the great work. >> thank you. well, the economy is struggling to get back ontrack and lots of people are still struggling to find work. could businesses be to blame? and is there a solution? ali velshi will break it down for us coming up next. people with a machine.

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we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. now for some top stories. british troops will stay in afghanistan until the end of the nato mission there. that's according to prime minister david cameron who promised the afghan president today that his troops will remain until the planned pullout of all nato forces. which is still set for the end of 2014. but no such promise from the president of france. nicolas sarkozy announced yesterday he intends to have all french troops out of afghanistan a year earlier than the rest of nato by the end of 2013. france has fewer than 4,000

troops in afghanistan, the u.s. and the uk combined have nearly 100,000 troops. the pentagon is preparing to send a floating navy base to the middle east. the navy is converting the aging u.s.s. ponce into a staging base for navy special operations forces. a defense department official says the base will support missions in areas where ground access is not available. the u.s. economy has been struggling to recover and some experts say that is because business interests have not been in line with the interests of society as a whole. ali velshi breaks down the problem and offers up some solutions in this week's fortune brain storm. ali? >> two weeks ago we began focusing on capitalism on trial here in this country. on that show arianna huffington said one of the biggest problems with american capitalism was that the interests of business are misaligned with our social values. she also suggested if we want the best ideas to fix the u.s. economy we should speak to roger martin a dean at the university

of toronto rotman school of management and also the author of "fixing the game, bubbles, crashes, and what capitalism can learn from the nfl." he joins us now. roger, you say businesses have focused on maximizing share holder value at the expense of their products and of their customers. now, why should -- why do you think customers should be focusing on their communities as well as share holders? >> well, i think those are the things that make a company succeed long term. and if they succeed long term in serving their customers well, being good to their employees and communities, the share holders will do just fine but if they focus on the share holders without thinking about the customers or their communities or employees, then shareholders won't do very well. >> how far do you go with this? the issue right now in the united states is this competition between washington and businesses about who whose responsibility it is to be hiring people, to bring jobs back to america, to open factories. is that a company's

responsibility? >> well, i think the company's responsibility is to produce great products and services that get them customers. you know, the great management guru peter drucker said the first job of a company is to acquire and keep a customer and i think if they were doing that and focusing on that then the jobs would follow. they'd need to have employees to be able to do more of that. >> all right. cnn money's poppy harlow was in davos for the week for the world economic forum and had a chance to speak to cisco's ceo john chambers about this idea of aligning business goals with social responsibility. here's what he said. >> you've got to be a company successful for shareholders but also create jobs and give back. that is something i am deeply committed to and i think it is something that all american corporations have to do a better job on. >> that was ali velshi with today's fortune brain storm. well, predicting the weather is simple, right? so simple that even an animal could do it. you may laugh but i am not kidding.

in this studio as we speak we have a groundhog and we have other amazing animals that will tell us about predicting the weather. they won't actually talk but you'll learn to predict weather including one of the animals here is a tarantula. there is no way to turn off your television set when you know there is a tarantula and owl in the studio with us. don't go away. but with advair, i'm breathing better so now i can take the lead on a science adventure. advair is clinically proven to help significantly improve lung function. unlike most copd medications, advair contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator, working together to help improve your lung function all day. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be used more than twice a day. people with copd taking advair may have a higher chance of pneumonia. advair may increase your risk of osteoporosis and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition

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stlis pitiful. 1,000 people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat. what a hype. that is bill murray and the amazingly great movie "groundhog day" about punxsutawney phil. predicting the weather every year. he's not the only animal who predicts weather. jacqui jeras is here along with tom benson from the tennessee aquarium in chattanooga, tennessee with interesting guests with him. jacqui, take it away. >> oh, yeah. also suzy grant here, the animal expert and handler as well all from the tennessee aquarium. this is chattanooga chuck.

a tongue twister in and of itself. isn't it? meteorologists like to think rodents cannot predict the weather but we heard this over and over. certain animals actually can predict things, like maybe storms coming, rain coming. even earthquakes we've heard as well. we'll start with the groundhog, because, of course that is what's coming in a couple of days. right? february 2nd. how did this all get started? can groundhogs really predict the end of winter? >> well, groundhogs really can not predict the end of winter. it started as european holiday centered around halfway between the winter equinox and spring. and they were using a different type of animal there. the badger, hedgehog, confusion which one. wasn't even a groundhog. and then when german settlers tame and continued that tradition, didn't have the same animal animals. looked at something similar,

that's when this came into play. folklore, sees his shadow, six more weeks of winter, ball he go back in his den. he's not interested in predicting the weather, they are an animal that's a rue hibernator. they eat meat during the spring and fall, put on lots of weight, sleep and survive on the stored fat until the spring. in many parts of their range, they would be sound asleep on february 2nd and no interest in coming out and telling us. >> i knew it all along. punxsutawney phil, of course, the most well known and accurate 39 percent. thanks nor chattanooga chuck. adorable. other animals are better predictors. this one scare meese a little. i'll be honest. tarantulas. >> interesting, right. the head of the service back in the 1800s put out a national -- >> bring the tarantula in.

>> i figure sthits way to get over the fear. actually step for. >> derchltsly the way to do it. one of the things we do, get people up close so they don't have the a fear. the head of the senate service, later the national weather service put out a national call in the 1800s send us your stories ar folklore. hundreds have weather associated with them. tranq tarantula one you would least likely. the tiny hairs are used to sense movements in air currents k. i touch? >> probably not. they have -- what's called hairs on the back and flick those. one way they use as a defense mechanism. they flick those and can cause serious irritation itching. >> i shouldn't touch it. >> i would not. >> like a rash. there's hairs on the body, sends air currents and humidity currents. the tarantula reacts to weather changes and can be thought as a walking barometer. >> we see one walking durings

day, rain son tis on the wancht according to folklore. >> sthans eastern screech owl a beautiful bird. one of the smallest owls in america. maybe may have them in the backyard and hear them at night. folklore, a mixed bag. if you hear that hooting at night it's going to be a rainy day. some say hooting, clear weather. certainly that's one that probably came into folklore because someone reported that. someone else observed it and said, wow, that's true. it became rooted in folklore. all kinds of stories about sharks, lobsters, parrots and many of them have truth, because of their adaptations that allow them to sense the natural world to help them survive. >> don't a lot of animals have a better sense of hearing? one of the things they can predict? perhaps hear thunder from a long distance away? >> a lot of times animals have heightened senses because they're survival depends on what's going on around them and what's happening. don't necessarily have the fancy weather equipment to tell them

when storm, coming. to protect themselves then have to know what's happening and keeps them protected from president ter, and other things. >> weather's been changing over the years. climate change, how does that play into this with animals? >> interesting. the latest newsmakers out there, headlines this last week how the plant zone guide has changed. plants now are finding them in locations farther north and albatross in the southern ocean depend on the wind currents. because the climate is changing, winds becoming stronger in the southern ocean around antarctica and the periods are able to cover large distance, 10,000, 12,000 mile in a shorter period of time and feeting young, gathering food map prosper. if the wind are too strong, they might not be able to fly at all. scientists are watching. >> tarantula and owls, are they friends? >> no. >> just curious. talk about sharks being predictors. next time maybe bring shark

here's? >> maybe we'll go to the sharks in the cages. can you -- chomping away. this is hilarious. animals have a lot to contribute. a lot to learn. >> thank you very much for coming. fascinating. >> thank you. >> you can keep your job. we don't need animals to predict the weather. >> thank goodness. back with more. stay with us. ♪ you want to save money on car insurance? no problem. you want to save money on rv insurance? no problem. you want to save money on motorcycle insurance? no problem. you want to find a place to park all these things? fuggedaboud it. this is new york.

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