Waterloo recognized for leadership in giving

The University of Waterloo was named the recipient of the Leadership Giving Award at the United Way Kitchener Waterloo and Area's Community Spirit Awards ceremony held yesterday morning at the Waterloo Inn.

Community Spirit Awards recognize individuals and organizations that have made a difference in the community through their involvement with United Way KW.

The Leadership Giving Award "recognizes an organization that most successfully organized an exceptional Leadership Giving Campaign through motivation and encouragement of giving personal gifts of $1,000 or more." The University of Waterloo was nominated alongside Economical Insurance, Equitable Life, FEDDEV, Stantec, and Teledyne DALSA.

On Twitter, Vice-President, University Relations Tim Jackson thanked the KW United Way for "recognizing our staff, faculty & students."

The university's United Way campaign raised $280,000 in 2012.

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The return of Nutrition Month's "Myth vs. Fact"

March is Nutrition Month, and last year, Health Services dietician Sandra Ace provided me with a month's worth of "myth vs. fact" nutrition tips, which I posted on a daily basis. Based on the positive feedback we received last year, we'll be running a new set of myth and facts throughout the month of March.

The theme of Nutrition Month 2013 is "Best Foot Forward: Plan Shop Cook Enjoy!" and is supported by the Dieticians of Canada. "It is about providing practical advice to consumers on navigating the grocery store and bringing home and preparing simple and healthy choices," writes Ace, who will be

presenting a talk at Monday's Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Lunch & Learn session entitled "Bring Healthy Home" at 12:00 p.m. in TC 2218 A/B.

She has put together the month's worth of tips based on questions she gets asked regularly and nutrition-related topics that have been in the media recently. Judging from the number of empty coffee cups in my wastebasket, the first tip is relevant to my interests:

"Myth": Drinking coffee is an unhealthy habit.

"Fact": Coffee lovers will be happy to know that the opposite may be true. New research shows that coffee might provide more than just a caffeine jolt.  Antioxidants in the coffee bean itself may offer some disease protection, although much more research needs to be done before it can be concluded that coffee benefits health. Considering coffee’s caffeine content, daily caffeine intake up to 400 mg/day, or about 3 cups (300 mg/2 cups for pregnant and breastfeeding women), is not associated with adverse effects for most healthy adults. Coffee shop creations and specialty coffees are typically laden with calories, so limit how often you indulge or choose a smaller size. A typical large, double-double coffee has about 270 calories, so if this is how you like your morning java, try substituting milk for the cream, changing to a “regular” or choosing a smaller size. If you have heartburn or sleep problems, coffee will probably make these worse.

If you have any comments or questions about these daily nutrition submissions, please contact Sandra Ace.

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Campus abuzz this weekend for Brain Bee

High school students with neuroscience on their minds will swarm campus this weekend for the annual University of Waterloo Brain Bee, a competition for students in grades 9 to 12 hosted by the Department of Kinesiology. The event will be held on Saturday, March 2, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. in the Sun Life Financial Auditorium, Room 1621, in the Lyle S. Hallman Institute Building (LHI).

So what is a Brain Bee, exactly?

According to the event website, it is a competition for high school students, where competitors answer questions about the brain and neuroscience. Prior to the event, high school students in Waterloo Region will have studied topics on memory, sleep, intelligence, emotion, perception, stress, aging, brain imaging, neurology, neurotransmitters, genetics, and brain disease, to name but a few, and then compete in a one-day competition with other local students to determine a winner, who may proceed to the national or international competition.

Up for grabs are first and second place prizes of $400.00 and $100.00, a chance to compete at the CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee, which will be held at McMaster University in June, and from there a shot at the International Brain Bee.

"It is an exciting opportunity for students to learn about the brain and the importance of brain research," says the Department of Kinesiology's website. "It also provides the opportunity to visit the University and to meet some of our students and professors who are involved with these areas."

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Notes as a March lion flounders in the slush

Today, the Faculty of Mathematics is holding its Three Minute Thesis (3MT) heats from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in DC 1304.

The Departments of Philosophy and Women's Studies are hosting the Visiting Humphrey Professor in Feminist Philosophy Anita Superson of the University of Kentucky, who will be delivering a talk entitled "Honky Tonk Women: The Right to Bodily Autonomy and Prostitution." The event takes place in HH 334 at 3:30 p.m. today. "Honky Tonk Women" is also a terrific episode of Cowboy Bebop. Check it out.

Tomorrow, the 41st annual Black Forest Coffee House will take place at St. Paul's University College at 7:00 p.m. in MacKirdy Hall (doors open at 6:30 p.m.). Billed as a coffee house-style talent show, the event was first held in 1972 and is one of the longest-running events of its kind on campus. Tickets are $10, and complimentary coffee, tea and black forest cake (natch) are provided. Tickets are $10 at the door.

Tomorrow's OUA West division finals game between the Waterloo Warriors men's hockey team and the Windsor Lancers will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Columbia Icefield. The game will also be streamed online. The Warriors are one win away from the provincial final, known as the Queen's Cup, which is the final stop before the national championships. This is kind of a big deal, folks.

Looking ahead to Monday, March 4, the 2013 Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings will be released online. The reputational ranking, published by Britain's Times Higher Education magazine, is a spin-off of the long-running World University Rankings and employs "the world's largest invitation-only academic opinion survey to provide the definitive list of the top 100 most powerful global university brands." So stay tuned for analysis.

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