As we learned last year with our posts about the Decorah "eagle cam," there's a lot of interest in watching animals in the wild. Especially when there are babies involved.

So here's some important information for nature lovers:

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- In Italy, Search Of Stricken Cruise Ship Suspended.

-- If You Really Need Wikipedia Today, You Can Get To It.

• 18th Day of 2012 / 348 Remaining
• 62 Days Until Spring Begins

• Sunrise:7:23
• Sunset:5:18
• 9 Hr 55 Min

• Moon Rise:2:58am
• Moon Set:1:02pm
• Moon’s Phase: 23 %

• The Next Full Moon
• February 7 @ 1:56pm
• Full Snow Moon
• Full Hunger Moon

Though forecasters have scaled back from ominous predictions of up to 10 inches of snow today in Seattle and 4 feet in the Cascade Mountains, it's still going to be "a mess" in much of western Washington State today, The Seattle Times reports.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Lancaster is not social networking, but it is fighting crime with real tweets by birds. The city's mayor tells The Wall Street Journal that birds put residents in a "better place." And though police say the causes are many, crime in the city is down.

Just to be clear:

Wikipedia's English pages have indeed "gone black" until midnight ET tonight — part of an organized protest by it and many other websites over pending anti-online piracy legislation in Congress.

"Divers searching the capsized Italian cruise liner Costa Concordia suspended work on Wednesday after the vast wreck shifted slightly but officials said they are hoping to resume as soon as possible," Reuters reports.

Scott Sanders will be eating lunch at his desk again. Sanders is the general sales manager for the NBC affiliate in Columbia — South Carolina's capital — so all his time is devoted these days to handling ad traffic ahead of Saturday's Republican primary.

"It's been crazy this week," Sanders says. "It will be hard to watch TV, because there are so many ads."

All five major GOP candidates have ads running during the station's nightly news programs. Their messages are also being amplified and augmented by supportive superPACs.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Today's last word in business comes from China, and the word is: Red Pad.

It's a device that looks a lot like an iPad, except it's red in color and in ideological purity.

The Wall Street Journal picked up on the device, which was advertised briefly in China's state media. It offered Web content for the party faithful, like quick access to the Communist Party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily. The device however, was apparently priced at more than $1,500 - good deal more than an iPad.