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Snow Leopard Discovery In Tajikistan

A recent biodiversity survey in a remote corner of Tajikistan has yielded surprising results.

Fauna & Flora International (FFI) recently teamed up with local and international scientists to conduct a survey of life in the Zorkul nature reserve, near the Afghan border. FFI's team planted camera traps which captured images of five different snow leopards  in one valley.

Wired UK reports that the FFI team, with the help of Panthera, planted 11 cameras around a 5.8 square mile (15 square kilometer) area in August 2011.

The survey's results have prompted a quick response. FFI's Dr. Alex Diment told Wired UK that FFI is training local rangers in the nature reserve "on how to work in the harsh field conditions, and how to combat illegal poaching and other threats."

Their actions are undoubtedly warranted. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species currently lists snow leopards (Panthera uncia) as endangered.

FFI reports that habitat loss and poaching have caused at least a 20 percent decline in snow leopard populations in the past 16 years.  Huffington Post

A Safe Haven for Leatherbacks

"Leatherback sea turtles migrate an astonishing 6,000 miles across the Pacific to feed on jellies in the waters off the U.S. West Coast.

Along the way these gentle giants face a gauntlet of threats, including fishing gear, pollution and plastic bags that look like food. Scientists have reported that on average, 1,500 mature females were accidentally caught each year in the 1990s.

After such a long journey, wouldn't you want somewhere safe to rest?

Now, thanks to a new rule, leatherbacks have a safe place to call their own. The National Marine Fisheries Service has decided to protect nearly 42,000 square miles off Washington, Oregon and California for Leatherback sea turtles.

This "critical habitat" designation is the first permanent safe haven for leatherbacks in continental U.S. waters and is the largest area set aside to protect sea turtle habitat in the United States or its territories.

The designation is in response to a petition filed by Oceana, Turtle Island Restoration Network, and Center for Biological Diversity, and it's a huge win for sea turtles. Oceana has been campaigning for increased protections for Pacific leatherbacks since 2007.

Leatherback sea turtles have been on Earth for more than 100 million years, but now they are critically endangered, and could go extinct in our lifetime if we don't act to protect and recover their imperiled populations.

If you watch leatherback hatchlings begin their journey to the sea you can see that leatherbacks already face very long odds to reach adulthood, even without additional threats from humans.

"Establishing the first permanent safe haven for leatherback sea turtles is a huge victory. Every step counts, and hopefully this will inspire more people to join the cause," Walsh said.

While the Obama administration has now designated critical habitat for the leatherback's foraging areas--a huge victory--actions are still needed to protect these ancient animals from their nesting beaches and across their migratory pathways.

But with these new critical habitat protections, Pacific leatherbacks have a far better chance of coming back from the brink of extinction, and that's wonderful news." Ted Danson, Huffington Post

Magical Aurora Borealis

 

Kreamy Avocado Soup

 

Kindness is forever

"People will forget what you said; People will forget what you did.
But people will never forget how you made them feel."  Anonymous   

Too Cute for Words

Great story sent from Peru, land of the Incas. Gracias Amigo!

The squirrel’s name is Finnegan.

"The tiny squirrel’s new family found an unlikely nurse's aide—their pregnant Papillion, Mademoiselle Giselle."

"Two days after giving birth, mama dog Giselle allowed Finnegan to nurse; family photos and a videotape show her encouraging him to suckle alongside her litter of five pups."

"Finnegan and his new litter mates, five Papillion puppies, get along together as if they were meant to.”

MORAL OF THE STORY 

Love everyone, even the squirrelly ones!

 

Food to improve memory and brain power

1. Spinach = Vitamin B6: 11%, Vitamin E: 5%, Folate: 33%, Calcium: 12%, Magnesium: 20%, Potassium: 12%Others foods sthat are rich in anthocyanins, formidable antioxidants are blueberries, strawberries, jambu fruit (jamun)
2. Black-eyed beans (peas) = Vitamin B6: 3%, Folate: 26%, Calcium: 11%, Magnesium: 11%, Potassium: 10%
3. Acorn squash = Vitamin B6 : 12, Folate: 6%, Calcium: 6%, Magnesium: 13%, Potassium:16%,
4. Kidney beans = Vitamin B6 : 6%, Folate: 29%, Calcium: 3%, Magnesium: 10%, Potassium: 10%
5. Orange juice, calcium-fortified (3/4 cup) = Vitamin B6 :5%, Vitamin C: 103%, Folate: 8%, Calcium: 23%, Magnesium : 5%, Potassium: 11%
6. Papaya = Vitamin E : 17%, Folate: 29%, Calcium: 7%, Magnesium: 8%, Potassium: 22%,
7. Bock Choy = Vitamin E, Vitamin C, Magesium, Potassium
   
8. Potato, baked (1/2 cup) Vitamin B6: 9%, Vitamin C: 13%, Folate: 1%, Magnesium: 4%, Potassium: 7%
9. Broccoli = Vitamin B6: 6%, Vitamin E: 7%, Folate: 10%, Calcium: 4%, Magnesium: 5%, Potassium: 7%
10. Wheat germ = Vitamin B6 : 7%, Vitamin: E 13%, Folate: 12%, Magnesium: 11%, Potassium: 4%
11. Banana (1 medium size) = Vitamin B6: 34, Vitamin C: 18%, Magnesium: 9%, Potassium: 13%
12. Vegetable juice, low sodium (6 oz.) = Vitamin B6: 9%, Vitamin C: 56%, Vitamin E: 2%, Folate: 7%, Magnesium: 4%, Potassium: 7%
13. Mango = Mango is rich in glutamine acid, which is an important protein for concentration and memory.
14. Tofu = Folate : 6%, Calcium: 3%, Magnesium: 6%, Potassium: 5%
15. Honey = The research carried out in 2007 on rats at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand shows that diets sweetened with honey may be beneficial in decreasing anxiety and improving memory during ageing. Honey may boost memory due to its antioxidant properties, which help to prevent free radicals damaging cells in the body.
16. Water = Drink 8 to 10 glasses of water daily. 85% of brain tissue is water. Dehydration can cause energy generation in the brain to decrease.

Memory Decline is Not a Normal Part of Aging
The brain receives 20% of your body`s supply of freshly oxygenated blood. When this supply is restricted through narrowing of the arteries and inflammation, the brain experiences stress and cognition is diminished. Any nutrient that can specifically target and increase the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain can slow or even reverse brain decline and restore memory and learning abilities. kipnews.org

Celebrate his dream

"I Have a Dream" is a 17-minute public speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, in which he called for racial equalityand an end to discrimination. The speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement. Delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, the speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address. According to U.S. Representative John Lewis, who also spoke that day as the President of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, "Dr. King had the power, the ability, and the capacity to transform those steps on the Lincoln Memorial into a monumental area that will forever be recognized. By speaking the way he did, he educated, he inspired, he informed not just the people there, but people throughout America and unborn generations."

At the end of the speech, King departed from his prepared text for a partly improvised peroration on the theme of "I have a dream", possibly prompted by Mahalia Jackson's cry, "Tell them about the dream, Martin!" He had first delivered a speech incorporating some of the same sections in Detroit in June 1963, when he marched on Woodward Avenue with Walter Reuther and the Reverend C. L. Franklin, and had rehearsed other parts.

"I Have a Dream" speech was originally titled "Normalcy, Never Again." and the first drafts never included the phrase "I have a dream". The popular title "I have a dream," came from the speech's greatly improvised content and delivery. Near the end of the speech, famous African American gospel singer Mahalia Jackson shouted to Dr. King from the crowd, "Tell them about the dream, Martin." Dr. King stopped delivering his prepared speech and started "preaching", punctuating his points with "I have a dream."  {The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Public Domain Resource Site--mlkonline.net}

Coca-Cola says it alerted FDA about fungicide

NEW YORK (AP)--Coca-Cola Co. said Thursday it alerted the Food and Drug Administration after it discovered via testing its own and competitors' products that some Brazilian growers had sprayed their orange trees with a fungicide that is not approved for use in the U.S.

The FDA had said Monday that an unnamed juice company alerted it in December after detected low levels of the fungicide in orange juice products after testing its own and competitors' products.

Most orange juice products made by Coke and other companies contain a blend of juice from different sources including Brazil.

Atlanta-based Coca-Cola did not say which of its own and others' products it tested contained the fungicide. Its own orange juice products include Simply Orange and Minute Maid.

"This is an industry issue that affects every company that produces products in the U.S. using orange juice from Brazil," said Coca-Cola spokesman Dan Schafer. He declined to say whether its tests shows fungicide in Coca-Cola products.

The fungicide, carbendazim, is not currently approved for use on citrus in the U.S., but is used in Brazil, which exports orange juice to the United States. Brazil is the biggest producer of oranges in the world, according to the Agriculture Department.

Coca-Cola says it continues to work with the FDA on the issue. Associated Press