Meta Universal Blogs

  It’s an age-old question -- to feed or not to feed birds in fall and winter.  Some people believe that feeding wild birds can cause more harm than good, like preventing timely migrations, or causing birds to depend on feeders rather than foraging food. The truth is these are myths and feeding birds is beneficial to their well-being. Birds migrate regardless of seed in feeders. It’s estimated that wild birds only get 25 percent of food from feeders, the rest is naturally sourced, so full feeders don’t keep birds from migrating. Instead, several triggers urge birds to migrate: like changes in nesting locations as trees lose leaves, less natural foods, insect decline, winds, temperature drop and day length. As days grow shorter, many birds get internally restless and head south, taking advantage of plentiful natural foods, and stocked feeders to fuel their flight.      During cold weather, resident birds that don’t migrate, need extra calories to stay warm as they burn energy keeping bo

  The pandemic is over, COVID restrictions are gone and the cruise lines are back in business. So, there has never been a better time to book a Mediterranean cruise. On a seven-day Mediterranean cruise you can visit Trevi Fountain in Rome, the lavender fields of Provence and Barcelona’s famous cathedrals, with side trips to the Italian riviera and a Spanish vineyard. With the dollar nearly on par with the euro for the first time in decades and a new generation of cruise ships plying its waters, a Mediterranean cruise vacation has never been more attractive or affordable. Convenient and Inclusive On a cruise you unpack once — no lugging bags from hotel to hotel or bus to train. Plus, your meals, onboard activities and entertainment are included in the cruise fare. A Different Country (Almost) Every Day A typical seven-day Mediterranean cruise will stop at five or six ports in several countries. Costa Cruises offers shore excursions that immerse you in the culture and history of the most

 If you want to gain greater control over the things you do in your life, an illuminating place to begin is in understanding how your personal brain chemistry shapes those dynamics. Your brain is constantly seeking comfort. Whether it’s recovering from a stressful event that gets your adrenaline pumping or the slow drip-drip of low-lying stress, how you handle yourself boils down to how you’re hardwired, by what’s embedded in your inherited neurochemistry. In OVERRIDE: Discover Your Brain Type, Why You Do What You Do, and How to Do It Better (Citadel Press), co-authors Clinical Psychologist Dr. Connell Cowan and Physician of Internal Medicine Dr. David Kipper note that while we are biologically and psychologically predisposed to perform these comfort-seeking behaviors, we can override them if we so choose. We can decline to perform our most self-sabotaging behaviors and even reduce — if not eliminate entirely — the desire and temptation to perform them in the first place.