Photo source: nydailynews.com

Often mistaken for a pigeon or a duck, the Brazilian Merganser is usually found within the country of Brazil although a few of them are located in Argentina. Because of farming and mining activities that have interrupted the ecological balance, this merganser’s population has declined to about 250.

Justification
Recent records from Brazil indicate that this species’s status may be marginally better than previously thought. Nevertheless, the remaining known population is still extremely small and fragmented, and the perturbation, damming and pollution of rivers are likely to be causing continuing declines. For these reasons, it is listed as Critically Endangered. Further information on the population size (in particular whether it exceeds 250 mature individuals) and on the subpopulation structure may result in its downlisting to Endangered in the future.

Identification
49-56 cm. Dark, slender duck with long crest. Dark hood with petroleum-green sheen. Pale grey breast finely vermiculated dark, paler towards whitish belly. Dark grey upperparts. White wing speculum. Long, dark saw-bill. Pinky-lilac legs. Long, bushy hindcrest usually worn and shorter in females. Similar spp. Neotropic Cormorant Phalacrocorax brasilianus is larger and darker with hooked bill. Voice Harsh and dry jrrec contact call. Also louder nasal juac calls. Hints Hides under overhanging vegetation.

Sources: birdlife.org, list25.com

Source: ufitbootcamp.co.uk

By Wendy Schmid, Q by Equinox, Sep 22, 2014

Once considered the foundation of any healthy diet, the morning meal may now be negotiable.

The belief that we won’t have our get-up-and-go unless we down our Cheerios has turned the concept of eating upon rising into a die-hard dietary rule. Original research on whether breakfast made an impact on health did find that healthier people ate breakfast. But data, as we know, doesn’t always tell the whole story.

“Lots of people who skip breakfast or practice intermittent fasting are healthy too,” says Dr. John Berardi, co-founder of Precision Nutrition. “About 85% of the clients we work with eat breakfast and tend to follow a guideline of eating small frequent meals throughout the day, but that’s largely to help them learn to practice healthier eating habits. If you’re a person who regularly makes good nutritional choices, then eating breakfast is more negotiable.”

In fact, skipping that first meal may lead to some real benefits — from possibly losing a few pounds to increasing your level of anti-aging growth hormone. And don’t worry, your metabolism won’t suffer. Eating small meals throughout the day, starting with breakfast, isn’t necessary to stimulate metabolism, says Berardi, who co-authored an extensive study review on meal frequency for the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

His suggested revise to the dictate: Breakfast is optional. Hard-and-fast rules don’t allow for much mindfulness, anyway — and that’s an integral part of any nutritional approach. So if you love how breakfast gets you going, feel free to stick with that routine, but if you’re not a morning person, there’s no harm in forgoing food first thing.

Here, Berardi suggests 5 reasons to skip breakfast:

1. It’s not required to boost metabolism. The idea that metabolism slows radically in response to not eating certain meals in a single day just isn’t accurate. The amount of calories you’re taking in and the composition of those calories — proteins, carbs, and fats — are really what impact metabolism.

2. It may lead to eating less overall. If you skip breakfast, you can eat fewer, larger meals beginning later in the day, rather than 6 smaller meals throughout the day, which may be less satisfying. This can lower your total caloric intake for the day and may lead to weight loss.   

3. There’s a payoff even if you’re an occasional skipper. Intermittent fasting reduces insulin levels, so you can actually increase your insulin sensitivity for better blood sugar management. At the same time, your body will release more growth hormone, which helps to preserve lean tissue and burn fat tissue.

4. It can help lower your total carb intake for the day. Most of us are over-carbed. We eat too many refined carbs, too little protein, and too much fat. So by skipping breakfast it can steer you away from the typical high-carb breakfast foods — toast, oatmeal, cereal, pancakes — that may trigger an insulin response that kicks you out of fat-burning mode.

5. It can help you tune in to your body. You just might feel better sipping water with lemon or a green juice rather than forcing food in the morning. Some people feel nauseous and not ready to eat right when they get up and in that case you’re better off listening to your body’s cues. Ideally, you want to figure out what works best for you.

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Love yourself—accept yourself—forgive yourself—and be good to yourself, because
without you the rest of us are without a source of many wonderful things.

~Leo F. Buscaglia

We have all been hurt one time or another by someone we loved, or we thought we loved. Carrying negative feelings into future relationships will only prove to be disastrous. No two people are the same, so it’s unfair to hold a future partner to a standard set by an ex. Try to begin each new relationship with a clean slate. ~Elite Daily

At the end of the day, the only person you can count on 100 percent of the time is yourself. Do not make the unfortunate mistake many people do and put your happiness in the hands of others. A relationship is not going to fulfill the void if you can’t even make yourself happy. You need to achieve happiness on your own before you can find someone else to share it with. This creates a detrimental dependency that will prevent you from becoming self-sufficient. ~Elite Daily

Many of us walk for the sole purpose of getting from one place to another. Now suppose we are walking to a sacred place. We would walk quietly and take each gentle step with reverence. I propose that we walk this way every time we walk on the earth. The earth is sacred and we touch her with each step. We should be very respectful, because we are walking on our mother. If we walk like that, then every step will be grounding, every step will be nourishing.

We can train ourselves to walk with reverence. Wherever we walk, whether it’s the railway station or the supermarket, we are walking on the earth and so we are in a holy sanctuary. If we remember to walk like that, we can be nourished and find solidity with each step.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

http://leelavadeeflower.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-earth-is-sacred.html

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We have all been hurt one time or another by someone we loved, or we thought we loved. Carrying negative feelings into future relationships will only prove to be disastrous. No two people are the same, so it’s unfair to hold a future partner to a standard set by an ex. Try to begin each new relationship with a clean slate.

~Elite Daily

http://leelavadeeflower.blogspot.com/2014/09/someone-we-loved.html

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A calf is stuck in the water and can’t get out. After 10 minutes of determination,
the herd manages to rescue the baby elephant.

You are angry, and you watch it. You are not just angry, a new element is introduced into it: you are watching it. And the miracle is that if you can watch anger, the anger disappears without being repressed. ~Osho

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Responsibility does not only lie with the leaders of our countries or with those who have been appointed or elected to do a particular job. It lies with each of us individually. Peace, for example, starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us. When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities, and so on.   ~Dalai Lama