text:
Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has unveiled Singapore's latest architectural icon, which will be open for use by students from the new academic year later this month.
An advanced educational hub by top UK designer Thomas Heatherwick, the man behind the London Olympic Cauldron, it will support NTU's ambitions in pushing the frontiers of innovation in learning and sustainable building design.
Its 56 latest-generation smart classrooms are fully equipped for collaborative learning and student interaction, which is the hallmark of the university's blueprint for preparing students with skills needed in the 21st century workplace.
The futuristic building will also be a hive of student initiatives and programmes that will foster the spirit of entrepreneurship, innovation and social awareness among students. An example of how a student could typically spend his or her day at the new learning hub is Nicholas Lim's story.
NTU engineering freshman Nicholas Lim is raring to go for his tutorial at the learning hub, where he's making a presentation on how the study of astronomy has transformed in the last century. Before his class, he stops by the Library Outpost to retrieve his reserved book using an automated book dispensing machine that simply scans his matriculation card. He then goes for a quick one-to-one coaching session at the Communication Cube to polish his presentation skills before his tutorial.
During his class, he uses his handheld tablet to take an individual quiz based on the previously assigned readings. He then discusses his own answers on the quiz with his classmates, and his professor helps to clarify their ideas. After his class, Nicholas heads off for lunch at the student-run cafe downstairs with his friends, before joining a film screening also attended by his peers from the arts and business schools.
NTU Professor Kam Chan Hin, senior associate provost (undergraduate education) says: "The new learning hub offers one of the world's best learning environments for students of the 21st century. It provides an exciting mix of learning, community and recreational spaces for NTU students, professors and researchers from various disciplines to gather and interact. By bringing people and their ideas together, NTU can spark future innovations and new knowledge that increasingly happen at the intersection of disciplines."
New home for learning innovations and student enterprise
The eight-storey building is envisioned to be a place where students might meet their future business partner or conceive an amazing idea with a university mate. Heatherwick Studio was appointed to design the building following an international competition for best design concept in 2011.
Founder and Principal Thomas Heatherwick, Heatherwick Studio says: "Heatherwick Studio's first major new building in Asia has offered us an extraordinary opportunity to rethink the traditional university building. In this information age, the most important commodity on a campus is social space to meet and learn from each other. The learning hub is a collection of towers surrounding a central space that brings everyone together, interspersed with nooks, balconies and gardens for informal collaborative learning. We are honoured to have had the chance to work with NTU, a forward-thinking and ambitious academic institution to realise such an unusual project."
The learning hub houses 56 smart classrooms that will take higher education in Singapore to new heights. Each classroom comes complete with flexible clustered seating for small group discussions, multiple LCD screens and wireless communication tools.
The new classrooms support the 'flipped classroom' pedagogy that NTU has introduced, where knowledge transfer from teacher to students takes place before class through various online materials which students can access in their own time. Class time is then better utilised as students actively engage their professors and classmates in discussions and debate, instead of being passive recipients of information. The clustered seating is designed for students to discuss their ideas in small groups, before sharing and presenting their ideas with the rest of the class.
Associate professor Kwok Kian Woon, associate provost (Student Life) at NTU says: "The building's atrium will be a focal point for expanding the range of community-based activities and initiating new collaborative projects among students. This will not only deepen their learning beyond the curriculum, but also enable them to develop important life skills such as leadership and intercultural competence."
Students will take the lead in the food and beverage outlet on the ground floor. By the start of the next academic year in August, a student-owned social enterprise will run a café, which will serve healthy food at affordable prices. There will also be regular activities throughout the academic year, for example talks, workshops, hackathons, debates, film screenings, and performances. Outside of tutorial hours, the classrooms and auditorium will be available for booking by student groups.
Key features of the learning hub
As part of Heatherwick's design, the walls of the inner corridor and staircases are embedded with 700 specially commissioned drawings from illustrator Sara Fanelli which are cast into the concrete. Designed to be ambiguous thought triggers to spark students' imagination, the drawings take reference from diverse disciplines, ranging from science and technology to art and literature.
The building will also house a Library Outpost offering a broad-based Discovery Collection that comprises a treasure trove of 11,000 video titles and 1,200 books that will eventually grow to about 5,000.
The collection aims to widen students' horizons beyond their formal studies. One interesting section is the collection named Books Your Professor Reads which is built from requests to professors to nominate their favourite works.
With Wi-Fi available throughout the building, users will also be able to stream other video and audio resources and educational materials from the Outpost to their mobile devices.
A new facility that will be implemented at the Library Outpost is the Automatic Reserves Machine, an automated book dispensing machine. Located just outside the Outpost, students can check out and check in reserved books on their own with this robotic system anytime.
A new Communication Cube run by NTU's Language and Communication Centre will also be housed at the learning hub. At the Comm Cube, students will have designated coaches, who are senior undergraduates and postgraduate students, giving them one-to-one personal advice and coaching in communication.
Professor Kingsley Bolton, head of the centre says: "The Centre works on the tested principle that students often learn more effectively from their peers than from classroom teachers. In the case of language teaching, this is a principle that has been proven to work at leading universities throughout the world, such as Brown University, Harvard, MIT, and Stanford University."
The Communication Cube is open to all NTU students and is expected to assist about 1,000 undergraduates and postgraduate students each semester.
21st Century model for innovative green design and sustainability
NTU is known for sustainability, not just in research but also in its infrastructural developments. In 2013, the learning hub received the Green Mark Platinum Award from the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), Singapore's national benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.
One of the building's inventive green features is its unique ventilation system as a more sustainable alternative to conventional air conditioning. No fans are needed for air distribution. In addition, the openings between pods allow for natural ventilation to the atrium, corridors, staircases, and lift lobby.
In line with NTU's garden campus, the learning hub incorporates a generous amount of natural foliage in its design. Internal vertical greenery and rooftop terraces enhance the garden experience. The greenery also reduces solar glare and natural heat gain, diminishing reliance on artificial cooling devices, while providing reprieve from the tropical heat. The building's inverted shape enables the upper floors to shade the lower levels, further reducing exposure to solar heat.
Other energy-saving features include energy-efficient light and motion sensors in classrooms, toilets and staircases that keep lighting usage flexible.
The eco-friendly building represents another feather in the cap for NTU, which is already a global leader in sustainability, having garnered more than $1.2 billion in competitive research funding in this area.
If you would like to know more, head over to the Nanyang Technological University website.
Enjoying this content? Sign up for free today to receive the latest opinions, interviews, resources and news from Tech&Learning UK directly to your inbox.


text:
A computer virus that targets the popular file-sharing program Winny isn´t the most destructive bug or even the most widespread. But it´s the most talked about in Japan as it generates headline after headline, month after month.
The malware, called Antinny, finds random files on Winny users´ PCs and makes them available on the file-sharing network. So far, the data leaked have been varied and plentiful: passwords for restricted areas at airports, police investigations, customer information, sales reports, staff lists.
The constantly updated virus seems to have spared no one airlines, local police forces, mobile phone companies, the National Defence Agency. Even an antivirus software manufacturer has suffered.Read Full Story

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the State Committee for Military Industry of Belarus have refuted media reports about the death of our compatriots in Syria, reports TUT.by.
On 15 April, Israeli website Debka reported that during an Israeli Air Force raid on a Syrian scientific research center near Masyaf military specialists from Syria, Iran, Belarus and North Korea were killed and injured. According to the Israeli website, North Korean and Belarusian specialists were involved in upgrading the surface-to-surface missiles for Syria and Hezbollah, the production of solid fuel for missiles and the installation of new precise navigation systems. The reports suggested that the majority of Belarusian military specialists arrived in Syria via the Belarusian state-owned company Belvneshpromservice.
When asked by Euroradio, Defense Minister's spokesman said there was no Belarusian serviceman in Syria but the military attache.
Belarusian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Anatol Glaz told TUT.by journalists: "We categorically denounce this information."
Belvneshpromservice is part of the State Committee for Military and Industrial Complex. Their spokesman Uladzimir Lauranyuk stressed in his comments that Belvneshpromservice exports military equipment and not missile technologies. "I can assure you that there are no representatives of Belvneshpromservice in Syria," he added.
Both the Foreign Ministry and State Committee for Military and Industrial Complex have described the publication by the Israeli website a falsification.


text:
I don't believe I'm
either, but I sure am having fun playing around with my new art journal...
the first page in my Strathmore 5.5" x 8.5" mixed media...
I did a background
of Mustard Seed, Chipped Sapphire and Broken China Distress Ink. Did some ghosting with a Crafters Workshop Chunk Chevron stencil and water then a little stamping. The banner and flowers are made from Glitz Vintage Blue 6" x 6" paper pad. I doodled around on the stems, leaves and flowers with a Faber-Castell S Pitt pen and shaded with the Chipped Sapphire. The flowers were cut with Alterations Tattered Florals and shaped with the handle of a small paint brush. The flower centers are colored with Mustard Seed Stickles. The text is from Cosmo Cricket's Tiny Text Art sticker sheet and edged with the Pitt pen. The rhinestones are TPC Studio.
The doodling at the
bottom was done on a strip of paper and glued onto the page. I actually stamped it first with Unity She Art Doodles then went over it all with my Pitt pen. I filled in with a white Gelly Roll pen... can't seem to leave things as is... just have to keep on playing! Actually, as I'm looking at it, I think I'll go back and do some shading on the leaves.
We'll be leaving for our
trip to Florida soon, so I won't be around much the next couple of weeks. I had planned on getting ahead with projects and scheduling them, but with a large family that's not always possible. I will try to keep in touch, though.
I'm linking up at:
Balzer Designs - Art Journal Every Day
City Crafter Challenge - All That Glitters
Make It Monday - Anything Goes
Thanks so much for stopping by!


text:
If you arepublishing open data (or you are thinking about it), you are usually doing sobecause you want people to reuse it. But how do you get them to do that?
Engaging with potential reusers needs to start early and should be an ongoing process. This ensures thatorganisations publish the right data in the right ways, andget the right people to use it in ways that help them achieve their objectives.
Engagement is about recognising that open data isn't just about technology: it's about people and communities using data to help them make decisions. Helping reusers to understand what data means and what its limitations are can help organisations maximise the value of releasing open data in the first place.
To help organisations identify ways of gettingreusers interested in their data, we've drafted a guide and we're looking for comments on it. What are the strategies that have worked for you? If you are a reuser, how would you like data publishers to engage with you?
Feel free to email, tweet, or comment directly on the draft. In a few weeks time, we'll roll in your comments and publish both the finished guide and a post that summarises the comments we receive. Thanks in advance!


text:
A spellbinding story of love, hope, and a child's innocent Christmas dreams. When Savannah Ivey agrees to teach photography to a group of at-risk children, she doesn't expect a sweet-spirited little crippled girl to steal her heart and become an important part of her family. Even Rags, the kleptomaniac cat, is captivated by the child named Marissa. When she goes missing, everyone, including Rags, experiences the pain of loss.
Detective Craig Sledge fears that Marissa's unscrupulous, non-custodial father may be behind her disappearance and the search escalates into high gear. When even a pack of rescue dogs can't find the child, the detective turns to Rags and everyone prays for a Christmas miracle. Can Rags succeed where the others have failed?
While this story involves some intense drama, it will also make you smile and even laugh out loud. Bring out the tissues for the beautiful ending. A Picture-Purrfect Christmas is one of those feel-good holiday stories you'll want to read over and over again.
My Review
I chose to read this book after receiving a free e-copy from the author. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased.
This is the first Klepto Cat Mystery I've ever read. It stands on its own so even though it's #13, I had no problem.
Savannah helps her friend Shelley teach a photography class to troubled children. She becomes close to Marissa, a girl in foster care who has had a troubled life. When Marissa disappears, no one, including Detective Craig Sledge, is sure where to begin searching because there are so many possibilities: her deadbeat father, her foster parents, their nephews, or maybe someone else…
Although this book deals with abuse and kidnapping, it's a sweet and light-hearted read for the most part. The animals make it even sweeter. Rags is the star animal: he's a cat who seems to have more than good intuition. He's super smart. The Iveys' other animals are amusing too.
I'm glad I finally got to read one of these books. I have three Christmas Klepto Cat Mysteries to read, so my next read will be #22, A Christmas to Purr About.
About the Author
Patricia has been writing for publication for over 40 years, having been fortunate enough to establish a career doing what she loves. Hundreds–maybe thousands–of her articles have appeared in over 500 different publications and she has published books on a variety of topics–grandparenting, local history, youth mentoring, journaling and many aspects of publishing and book promotion. After years of writing nonfiction, in 2012, she decided to branch out and try writing fiction and the Klepto Cat Mysteries were created.
The Klepto Cat Mysteries feature Rags, an ordinary cat with a most extraordinary habit–he's a kleptomaniac. Currently, Patricia is producing anywhere from three to five books per year in both ebook format and in print. Read the Klepto Cat Mysteries and you'll laugh, you'll sit on the edge of your chair in suspense, and you'll smile at the good-feeling you're left with when you finish each book in the series.
Website: http://www.KleptoCatMysteries.com


text:
Penn Station is getting a new entrance as part of its overhaul.
Gov. Cuomo announced the new entrance at 33rd St. and Seventh Ave. as part of his effort to renovate Penn into a facility featuring a new train hall inside the old James Farley Post Office that'll be named for the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
"Sen. Moynihan's idea was, you don't need this whole building for the post office anymore, let's turn it into a train station. Great idea. The tracks are underneath. You can make it a train station and access the tracks," Cuomo said Thursday. "That was about 30 years ago. And once again, we've been talking, we've been thinking, we've been cogitating, but we haven't been doing. And we're now getting to the doing phase."
Construction crews will be transforming the palatial post office into a retail space and train hall that'll be the new home of Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak.
"There's a lot of good bones still here," said Howard Zemsky, chief of the Empire State Development Corporation, which is managing the Moynihan Train Hall project, said during a tour of the site. "This is an amazing engineering accomplishment."
The Moynihan construction work will be done by 2020, and ready for people to use it the following year. The Penn Station entrance will open in 2022.
Though there's no effort in the plan to add track space to run more trains, transit advocates said the space left behind at Penn Station from LIRR and Amtrak moving to Moynihan Train Hall makes it possible.
"If you're making Penn Station nicer, but not adding capacity, you're not really doing the job," Nick Sifuentes, director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign said. "What was talked about here today, I think, gets us part of the way there."
Cuomo in remarks at Penn Station tied the redevelopment of the cramped, dingy rail hub to $100 billion worth of infrastructure and construction projects for airports, commuter rail lines, roads and bridges and the MTA's $33 billion capital program.


text:
During the darkest days of the Third Reich, a little old man would walk to the newsstand each day, glance at the front page, then walk away. After weeks or maybe months, the news stand owner approached him. "Are you looking for anything in particular?"
"I'm looking for an obituary," the old man replied.
"Oh," said the news stand owner, "you'll find that on the obituary page."
"Not the one I'm looking for," replied the old man as he walked away.
Like the millions of others who grasped the nefariousness of the Bush regime from pretty much the beginning, I have spent the past six years looking for a sign of hope that a critical mass of Americans understood that the perpetrations and intentions of this cadre have less to do with right and left than they have to do with right and wrong. Sadly, the Democrats have been more of a hindrance than a help in moving forward the "up-wising."
Both Gore and Kerry -- and of course the Democratic Central Committee -- failed to recognize that the voter repression, miscounting and fraud in both 2000 and 2004 constituted a de facto coup. The Democrats' general approach to confronting the Republicans' boldface lying, cheating, manipulation, and cultivation of ignorance and fear is reminiscent of the archetypal out-of-town tourist timidly approaching a New Yorker: "Excuse me, could you tell me what time it is, or should I just go f--- myself?"
Now, after the courageous Rolling Stone article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on voting fraud,
even the mainstream Democrats have awakened -- possibly too late to prevent widespread misdeeds this election, but certainly in a better position than two years ago. At least these "dimocrats" are now aware of -- and speaking out loud about -- the clear and present danger of fascism. But even that belated courage doesn't address the one criticism of the Democrats which could -- if anything does -- keep them from an overwhelming victory tomorrow: We know what they're against, but what are they for?
I've been making calls on behalf of MoveOn.org over the past few days to folks in key Congressional districts, and the one thing that has stopped me cold hearing it from voters "first ear" is how the Republicans are associated with "moral issues" and the Democrats with gay marriage. Nowhere do we hear, the Democrats favor a sane foreign policy where war is not the first option, the Democrats favor an energy policy where we find alternatives to oil dependency, the Democrats favor taking big money out of elections so we the people can have greater representation, the Democrats favor breaking up the media monopolies so we get real news for a change, the Democrats believe in treating all citizens with respect and not discriminating against gay people, and in fact the Democrats represent the values that are the heart and soul of America -- individual liberty, protection of the commonwealth, and being a stand for truth, justice and freedom. Oh, and by the way, the latest careful rereading of the New Testament proves JESUS WAS A LIBERAL.
The Democrats -- in part because they too are caught up in the "money, money uber alles" political system, but also because their "leadership" seems to lack courage, vision and a faith in their own beliefs -- have failed miserably to articulate boldly the values that 75% of Americans believe in, and instead have allowed themselves to be defined by Karl Rove. Consider this ... two thirds of Americans disapprove of the job George Bush is doing, and at the end of the day tomorrow the Republicans MAY STILL control one, if not both houses of Congress.
Awakening From the Nightmare -- Finally?
So, what's the good news? What might indicate the beginning of the end of the nightmare? Well, while the headlines conveniently blare the conviction of Saddam Hussein, the other headlines render an equally-damning verdict on the Bush regime. In an unprecedented editorial, the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Times -- the newspapers for the armed forces that tend to reflect the opinions of otherwise voiceless service-members -- have called for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary.
Citing the failed policies and the troops that have more and more come to see themselves as targets in a thankless mission, the editorial acknowledges how unheard of it is for the military to question publicly its own military venture. Initially, it was just retired generals who spoke up, but,
"Now, however, a new chorus of criticism is beginning to resonate. Active-duty military leaders are starting to voice misgivings about the war's planning, execution and dimming prospects for success.
"... when the nation's current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads."
The article concludes:
"Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised. And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt.
"This is not about the midterm elections. Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth:
"Donald Rumsfeld must go."
Let's take a moment to "grok in fullness" the implications of this extraordinary "preemptive" editorial. First of all, it may as well be a call for George Bush to resign, since he, Cheney and Rumsfeld seem to be the Siamese Triplets of the Apocalypse, and Bush just recently expressed full faith in Rumsfeld. The second piece of good news is that a significant number of our own military people are not sold on the Administration's suicidal / homicidal path. Thirdly, let's examine the precedent. When was the last time a military publication representing the "voice" of the military in this country asked for their boss to resign? The answer is, not in our lifetime, and as far as I can tell, not ever.
But the most important implication of the editorial is this: Should the President decide that the popular will is not to his liking, and that he chooses to assume the dictatorial powers he recently legislated to himself, he cannot count on the unequivocal support of the military. While undoubtedly such a contingency would throw the nation into a turmoil not experienced since the Civil War, there's a heartening indication that there are those at all echelons of power who have not been "ethically cleansed."
And so, as Karl Rove and company cart out every dirty trick they can think of to promote injustice and disinformation, we can take heart in one thing: No matter what the final tally tomorrow, the tide has turned on the "turd blossom" and his ilk. Even if the Democratic Party's so-called leadership is the last to get it, there is a new vitality in the body politic. It's not just the tens of thousands of volunteers who've been making calls on behalf of MoveOn not because they love the Democrats but because they love democracy, and see this election as a chance to demonstrate the tide has turned. It's that finally, America is awakening from the nightmare.
The wall of lies is crumbling, and will fall like the Berlin Wall. Now it remains to be seen over the next four years whether the Democratic Party or some more relevant force will leave the familiar harbors of "left" and "right" and come front and center to reclaim the heart and soul of America.


text:
Lupe gestures at us animatedly, one hand wrapped around an overflowing beer mug as the other balances a large slice of roasted-fig pizza. This man with remarkable balance is singing the praises of some unholy-sounding concoction called a "Brewnog," but we're not quite sold on the idea.
Our bar neighbor at The League of Extraordinary Brewers, Lupe is quite the beer connoisseur. He loves a good Christmas ale, especially one fancied up with some good old-fashioned eggnog, and this is the place to get it.
Besides Lupe (full name Guadalupe Hernandez), right now there are only about eight other patrons in the front room of the brewpub, a place created by and for lovers of beer. The main room is comfortably small, especially compared to the massive kitchen in which patrons are free to pull up a bar stool and chat. It feels full with only a handful of people scattered about, though.
Housed in downtown's historic Kitchen Incubator building, the League is steps away from the bustling Market Square area, but with a much different vibe than nearby bars like The Pastry War and Dean's. It's a pub and brewery rather than a traditional bar, staffed by individual beer artisans instead of bartenders. Often the person who brewed the beer flowing from the tap is the person serving it to you while chatting about its origins. Customers are free to question their brewer/server on everything from technique to ideas for future batches.
The unpretentious, communal feeling carries over into the atmosphere. The League has given special care to exposing the crumbling old brick in the walls, giving the interior added richness and warmth. It's as comfortable as an old friend's living room, with table games like checkers and chess scattered throughout and an entire back room devoted to old-school game systems. Some of the beer taps even have Sega controllers as handles.
Each brewer has a chalkboard hanging on the wall that serves as a menu for the week's beer selection. These change from week to week as specific batches run out and others take their place, and first up was a selection from the Warlock. A man who also serves as the League's general manager, the Warlock handed us a tiny glass full of caramel-colored liquid as Lupe nodded approvingly.
Warlock's beer is delicious, and Lupe knows it.
Founded by Lucrece Borrego, the League has been a formal brewpub only since October, but the brewery part has been around much longer. Until recently, stringent Texas law forbade craft brewers from selling their beer on-site, restrictions the League circumvented by selling tickets to events at which it gave away the beer.
But in June 2013, Governor Rick Perry signed a massive craft-beer legislation package that allowed packaging breweries like Saint Arnold to sell their product on-site, and brewpubs to sell their wares at both the wholesale and consumer levels. It was a win for Texas's craft brewers across the board.
The general public has embraced the changes, as we saw firsthand at the League. Seven specialty beers had been scribbled across the pub's steampunk-ish chalkboards when we first arrived, but one by one they disappeared from sight as we downed our holiday-themed Gingerbread Stouts. We went through every remaining beer on our tasting mission, all brewed by members of The League, and found them exceptional.
That's the beauty of a place like this, though. The meager offerings on its three boards are completely unique to the small pub. Quaffing a Wassailcopter in this homey atmosphere while chatting with the person who brewed it simply makes it taste better. Beer-making truly is a craft, and missing the opportunity to indulge in the brews on offer means they may be gone for good by your next visit.
That "blink and you miss it" mentality is not quite as evident in larger places, though, and Saint Arnold Brewing Company dwarfs a place like The League. Here, at one of the best-known breweries in Texas, there's little anxiety about running out of beer, but the abundant supply hardly negates its craft-brew credentials.
Our recent trip felt a bit like we were sneaking into the facility. In order to reach the coveted taps in the brewery's inner workings, you make your way up a staircase complete with ropes to keep you in the safe zones. The feeling is industrial from the moment you heave open the heavy metal doors; gone are the feelings of warmth exuded by a place like The League. Saint Arnold produces an astounding amount of beer by comparison, but it's equally welcome during a weekday lunch.
When we finally made our way through the brewery's maze, we found the Oktoberfest-themed dining hall, complete with bright paintings of the patron saint of beer. (That's Arnold, a Frankish bishop born in the sixth century A.D.) Ironically, these digs are much like an amped-up version of The League, complete with a view of the area where the beer is carefully crafted.
Whether you embark on a tour or just stop by for lunch, Saint Arnold offers the opportunity to sample as much beer as you can handle. Everything from seasonal ales to the darker, frothier Santo is available.
But the staggering number of people playing hooky on a Monday helped to quell the factory-like atmosphere. We saw parents with young children in tow, groups of businessmen, and folks just hanging out by the taps, chatting with the bartender about the selections. The room buzzed with the chatter of people eager to try out their next ale; turns out free beer is quite popular.
As we headed toward the overwhelming number of taps in the room for another round, we had but one regret. We wished Lupe was there to give out a little beer advice.
Email us your after-dark tips at [email protected]houstonpress.com.


text:
Top: Striped top from LOFT (old)
Blazer: Black suit blazer from Banana Republic (old)
Pants: Old Navy Rockstar Super Skinny Jeans (730770) in Batman wash (old)
Bag: Louis Vuitton Lumineuse PM Monogram Empreinte in Infini (old review here)
Shoes: J.Crew Sloane patent pumps in soft desert (similar here)
Spring temperatures are finally here to stay (I hope). This means that I feel motivated to put more effort into what I wear once again. Springtime also gives me a reason to pull out my nicer bags from storage. The Lumineuse PM (let's call her Lumi) was gifted to me by my fiancé last year for my 30th birthday. See an old review here comparing it to my trusty Ann Taylor gallery tote.
I'd been lusting after Lumi since she came out a few years ago and I feel blessed that my fiancé gifted me something that I couldn't quite bring myself to pull the trigger on due to the hefty price tag. Just imagine how many LOFT shopping sprees that would fund (especially at 50% off)! Ha. All kidding aside, the classic shape and beautiful embossed leather pulled at my heartstrings and in my eyes it was the perfect black/dark navy bag.
Out of everything I love to shop for I'm most selective about my investment bags. They tend to be a statement piece that helps to pull together my outfits since I don't really accessorize. I was concerned that Lumi would be too big for me since I'm 5'2″. However, I've snapped a few pictures of the different ways I like to carry it along with today's outfit and I'm pleased to report that it's a great oversize bag for someone of similar height and stature. Now if only it didn't weigh so much but I really have no cause for complaint. Here's to a fabulous second year with this beauty. 😉


text:
Recently someone posed this question to me…Is there a difference between your load and your burden?
My answer was…yes of course there is a difference. But when I tried to articulate the difference I found I struggled to give a clear explanation.
A load is something with substantial weight. Something you can physically see, touch and feel. It is something that can be weighed. On the other hand a burden is something that weighs you down emotionally. It's a perceived load. It doesn't have physical traits. You cannot see it, touch it or feel it.
Yes, a load can be burdensome but that isn't what I am talking about here…
According to God's word, in Galatians 6, we are to carry each others burdens and we are to carry our own load. We should have empathy and sympathy for those who are hurting physically and struggling emotionally with the things that are out if their control. We should be there to help them carry their burden. However, we should not be expected to carry someone's load…bail them out of situations that were caused by their choices.
The more we carry someones load for them the less likely they are to learn to carry it for themselves. The more dependent they will become. It will be difficult in the beginning…the load will seem too heavy for them but over time they will grow stronger in their abilities and their belief that they can do it. Empathize with their burden but encourage them to pick up their load and walk.


text:
Choose any car from mini to cargo van for the size and capacity of you needs and book online today.Use our car rental search form, narrow your travel dates and receive confirmation within minutes!
Rent a Car Heraklion
Latest Car Rental Heraklion Booking Requests
|Pick-up Location
|Reservation Dates
|Car Class
|Car Model
|Price per day
|Requestper formed
|Crete Airport (HER) (7 days)
|12/10/2022 07:00 - 19/10/2022 21:00
|Fiat Panda
|5 day(s) and 7 hour(s) ago
|Crete Airport (HER) (3 days)
|08/09/2022 10:00 - 11/09/2022 10:00
|Fiat 500
|43 day(s) and 19 hour(s) ago
|Crete Airport (HER) (7 days)
|08/09/2022 10:00 - 15/09/2022 10:00
|Citroen C1
|49 day(s) and 5 hour(s) ago
|Crete Airport (HER) (7 days)
|20/09/2022 10:00 - 27/09/2022 10:00
|Toyota Aygo
|79 day(s) and 0 hour(s) ago
|Crete Airport (HER) (10 days)
|09/09/2022 10:00 - 19/09/2022 10:00
|Toyota Aygo
|83 day(s) and 23 hour(s) ago
|Crete Airport (HER) (7 days)
|10/10/2022 10:00 - 17/10/2022 10:00
|Fiat 500
|113 day(s) and 22 hour(s) ago
|Crete Airport (HER) (6 days)
|01/08/2022 10:00 - 07/08/2022 10:00
|Chevrolet Spark
|119 day(s) and 1 hour(s) ago
|Crete Airport (HER) (7 days)
|15/06/2022 10:00 - 22/06/2022 10:00
|Citroen C1
|120 day(s) and 6 hour(s) ago
|Crete Airport (HER) (4 days)
|22/06/2022 10:00 - 26/06/2022 10:00
|Peugeot 301
|120 day(s) and 22 hour(s) ago
|Crete Airport (HER) (6 days)
|22/06/2022 19:00 - 28/06/2022 17:00
|Toyota Aygo
|123 day(s) and 2 hour(s) ago
Other popular car rental pick up destinations near Heraklion, Greece
|Corfu (~663km/412mi)
|Skoda Citigo
|22 Oct 2022 - 29 Oct 2022
|Kefalonia (~515km/320mi)
|Volkswagen Up
|20 Oct 2022 - 27 Oct 2022
|Athens (~321km/199mi)
|Fiat Panda
|19 Nov 2022 - 21 Nov 2022
|Kalamata (~331km/206mi)
|Citroen C1
|05 Oct 2022 - 09 Oct 2022
|Rhodes (~305km/190mi)
|Toyota Aygo
|06 Oct 2022 - 18 Oct 2022
|Lefkas (~553km/344mi)
|Hyundai i10
|27 Sep 2014 - 04 Oct 2014
|Chania (~104km/65mi)
|Citroen C1
|14 Oct 2022 - 16 Oct 2022
|Naxos (~199km/124mi)
|Kia Picanto
|17 Sep 2022 - 28 Sep 2022
|Volos (~489km/304mi)
|Citroen C1
|22 Oct 2022 - 29 Oct 2022
|Preveza (~560km/348mi)
|Volkswagen Up
|20 Sep 2022 - 27 Sep 2022
|Santorini Island (~122km/76mi)
|Citroen C1
|07 Oct 2022 - 10 Oct 2022
|Patra (~444km/276mi)
|Seat Mii
|26 Jun 2017 - 03 Jul 2017
|Skiathos (~454km/282mi)
|Citroen C1
|03 Sep 2021 - 10 Sep 2021
|Lefkada (~553km/344mi)
|Volkswagen Up
|22 Mar 2020 - 29 Mar 2020
|Larissa (~535km/332mi)
|Hyundai Getz
|12 Sep 2014 - 15 Sep 2014
Cheap Car Rental Heraklion
This is the only place to get a cheap and dependable car rental throughout Heraklion, Greece. Between our huge selection of vehicles and our dedicated staff, we are certain to get the car rental that is right for you at the price that fits your financial budget. Our site is user-friendly and updated constantly to make certain you get the perfect deals on car rental in Heraklion. Whether you are here with regard to business or pleasure, now we have the perfect car rental available for you. Save yourself time and money with one of our great car rental.
The earlier you make a reservation for car rental in Heraklion, the cheaper the price will be. With your car rental in Heraklion, you will notice more, do more and enjoy more of the area than ever before thought possible. The car rental is affordable plus the destinations are ever closer. Do not be confined with a small area, book your cheap car rental for Heraklion and explore many of the great surroundings. With the cheap car rental, the rich history of Greece might be awaiting your discovery. Using a reliable car rental, Heraklion is more accessible, more inviting and others interesting. You can cruise the car rental to destinations rarely visited by other tourists. You can take your car rental to hidden beaches, small towns and also ancient attractions. There isn't any better way to watch the city of Heraklion than with the freedom of a car rental.
Cheap Car Hire Heraklion
This is actually best place to seek for a cheap and reliable car hire around Heraklion, Greece. We are here to help you to find all your car hire demands. Search through our variety of autos to get the right car hire. Take some time to browse your current available options and make a wonderful choice for your car hire getaway. With a car hire reserved through Getrentalcar.com, you are ready to start your holiday throughout Heraklion.
Heraklion has a great number of great deals on car hire as they have such a significant supply. There are numerous pick-up locations around Heraklion waiting to give you the keys towards a great holiday. Find a car hire pick-up site that's most convenient and book vehicle today. Heraklion Airport is a superb place to start your car hire vacation. With a car hire at Heraklion Airport, you can easily get a car and get on the way. There are also many other ways to pick-up your car hire in Heraklion. Make a booking for one of the car hire pick-up locations within the city and gather your car hire any day. You can arrange for the car hire to get delivered to your accommodation. So many great options means you must determine the best strategy for your holiday and reserve a car hire soon.
Car Rental Crete Airport (HER)
IATA Code: HER; Lattitude: 35.333333; Longitude: 25.183333;
Crete Airport (HER) is situated ~5 kilometers from Heraklion city center.Crete Airport (HER) offers flights to more than 54 destinations including Tirane, Salzburg, Linz, Vienna and Graz. It is served by 27 airlines such as Aegean Airlines, Aeroflot, Air Berlin, Air One and Alitalia.


text:
Certified Developer and Solution Specialist. I design and build responsive E-commerce web stores with a focus on stunning design and user-experience, fast page load speed and conversions. A design that will enable your customers to successfully engage with the site and increase sales.
I ensure that your site applies usability and conversion rate best practices so the website can offer a better service to customers and reduce the cost of sale.
As Freelancer, I work with the clients from all over the UK including London, Milton Keynes, Bedford, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, Bournemouth, Brighton, and Birmingham.
As a certified developer, I can help you design and develop your mobile responsive store from scratch. Building an ecommerce website is as much about coding as it is about understanding and solving the actual business problems!
As dedicated freelance ecommerce web designer, I ensure that your site applies usability and conversion rate best practices so the website can offer a better service to customers and reduce the cost of sale.
I can help you with:
Magento 2 is the next generation of eCommerce platforms. I am here to help whenever you are ready to move over to M2.
So that the migration goes as smoothly as possible, I'll work on a staging environment for M2 site and migrate all the data including customers, orders and products. Convert all your custom M1 mobile responsive theme and extensions to M2.
My experience will ensure that the transition will be as painless to your online business as possible with as little downtime as possible.
What is the point in a top quality Ecommerce site if it doesn't appear on search engines? I can help with:
It is one of the best software for e-commerce websites. It was first released in 2007. An estimated 30% of the world's largest and most successful e-commerce sites have been created with it.
Here are a few UK sites using Magento
Paul Smith
END Clothing
Silent Night
Land Rover
There are two types of software, community Open source (Free) and Commerce (Paid). Magento offers many core feature out of the box that every e-commerce site needs like customer management (custom attributes, groups), catalog, numerous payment and shipping options.
All the major ERP systems likes Microsoft dynamics AX and Nav, SAP, NetSuite, Cyrane, and IBM AS400 work well with magento 2. You can find pre-built extensions to integrate ERP to your website. I as a Magento expert can help you write extensions that will take CSV or XML data (Products, customers, orders etc.) from ERP and import to the website.


text:
episode guides
shopping guide
downloads & media
website info
main page
Welcome to my shopping guide for the new Sailor Moon Crystal Atsumete Figures for Girls line of figures from Japan!
Made by the same company that releases the cute Sailor Moon Crystal Girls Memories figures, these Atsumete ones ('atsumete' means 'group' or 'collection') feature a cute deformed version of the Sailor Moon characters and come in sets of three (hence the name).
This page includes images, shopping links for where to buy them online as well as Pinterest buttons for pinning these Sailor Moon images to your Pinterest boards.
After other Sailor Moon figures and models? Check out my Tamashii Nations Figuarts Shopping Guide here, Figuarts ZERO Shopping Guide here and my Sailor Moon Crystal Tamashii Nations Figuarts ZERO Shopping Guide here.
Sailor Moon Crystal Atsumete Figures for Girls Set 1
Set one featuring Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars from Sailor Moon Crystal.
Buy on CDJapan.co.jp
Sailor Moon Crystal Atsumete Figures for Girls Set 2
Set one featuring Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus and Princess Serenity from Sailor Moon Crystal.
Check back soon for shopping links
Love Sailor Moon? Sign up for my free Sailor Moon newsletter to stay up-to-date with all of the latest Sailor Moon anime, manga, and merchandise news.
sailor moon crystal anime blu-rays and dvds
sailor moon crystal anime episode guide
sailor moon characters
sailor moon podcasts
Contact Me


text:
From the late Mahesh Yogi to the lamented Nithyananda, scores of swamijis have claimed that yoga enables them to defy the force of gravity and levitate in thin air. Indeed on guru poornima last month, the latter even made a public show of it, with Ranjitha, the co-star of his now-famous video, in attendance.
In this clip from a BBC documentary, the rationalist Basava Premanand shows how a little steel could have helped Nithyananda and Ranjitha to achieve aerial bliss.


text:
By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
Who doesn't love cheese? With the rise of the local food movement and food tourism, it's no surprise that one of Ontario's Counties would try and attract new visitors to its community and showcase some of what they do best – produce cheese.Oxford County's tourism department has released its one of a kind "Oxford County's Cheese Trail" – a guide to all the specialty stores, museums, and restaurants that has something to do with cheese. Some of the highlights include:•Elm Hurst Inn – cheddar soup speciality •Gunn's Hill – artisan cheese maker •Bright Cheese & Butter Factory – cheese can be sampled and purchased•Birtch Farms & Estate Winery – sells local cheese•Norwich & District Museum – has exhibits on butter and cheese making •Ingersoll Cheese & Agriculture Museum – features history of a 3,311 kilogram wheel of cheese More information about the Oxford Cheese Trail guide can be obtained by calling Tourism Oxford at 519-539-9800, ext. 3355 — or by email at email@example.com.


text:
|System: DS
|Review Rating Legend
|Dev: HAL Laboratory
|1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid
|4.0 - 4.4 = Great
|Pub: Nintendo
|2.0 - 2.4 = Poor
|4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
|Release: May 3, 2010
|2.5 - 2.9 = Average
|5.0 = The Best
|Players: 1
|3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
|ESRB Rating: Everyone
|3.5 - 3.9 = Good
Starting a puzzle requires you to look at various combinations of these numbers in order to eliminate blocks that aren't in the picture, using the marking tool, which saves blocks you need, and the hammer, which breaks those you don't. So if you're looking at a three-by-three grid of blocks that's one block deep, and the solution of the puzzle is a plus sign, the middle row would have a "3" labeled on the left-to-right side, while the middle blocks in the top and bottom rows would have "1" labeled front-to-back, assuming you're looking at the grid from the front. After marking the each of these five blocks, smashing the other four would produce the plus sign and solve the puzzle. Needless to say, even with this very simple example (and much like its predecessor) Picross 3D is a very logical, left-brained kind of game that wont suit those without patience.
The game doesn't remain simple for long, however. Many times you'll start a puzzle, mark or smash whatever obvious blocks are present (such as a row of "0"s, indicating that every block in the row should be hammered away) only to be stuck with a series of circled numbers to guide you. Since without more clues you can't know which combinations of blocks circled numbers are correct, Picross 3D forces you to make logical leaps by going through the various available combinations of numbers and finding which blocks are used in all the combinations (you can also do this with normally-labeled numbers). After doing so, marking the blocks you know have to be involved no matter what the combination is will often open up new clues that may help you solve another labeled number's sequence. Thankfully, for the bigger slabs you have to work with, the game also gives you slicers, which allow you to view the inside blocks of a row or column that would normally be completely buried by outside layers. However, when you start dealing with the larger puzzles, it also means that you have even more numbers, combinations, and pattern sequences to keep track of. There's many times in the game when you feel like you may have to make a logical guess, but it's pretty much a given that it's just because you're looking at a problem using the wrong combination of number clues.
That said, Picross 3D can be both thoroughly addictive and utterly maddening. With time limits and a finite number of mistakes (as in smashing a block that's part of the puzzle's solution) it can be very taxing to take all this numeric brain-teasing without pressure (my only complaint? No undo option for accidental mistakes). But if you can manage the challenge, Picross 3D is worth checking out. The art style of simple shading, basic polygonal objects is charming, if not as great as Picross DS's Game and Watch-style aesthetic, and it's definitely rewarding when you've managed to craft a complex three-dimensional image from a giant grid of blocks. Those ADHD-addled gamers who might just as soon play a round of Modern Warfare 2 deathmatch, however, are advised to look elsewhere.
Steve Haske
CCC Freelance Writer
Game Features:


text:
Privacy Notice
This website ("website") is owned and operated by Island Girl Home, Inc., DBA Nautical Chart Shop, nauticalchartshop.com ("we" or "us"), a Florida Corporation. This privacy policy only covers information collected at this website, and does not cover any information collected offline unless specifically stated.
Personal information provided on the website and online credit card transactions are transmitted through a secure server using Secure Socket Layering (SSL), encryption technology. When the letters "http" in the URL change to "https," the "s" indicates you are in a secure area employing SSL; also, your browser may give you a pop-up message that you're about to enter a secure area. We are committed to handling your personal information with high standards of information security. We take appropriate physical electronic and administrative steps to maintain the security and accuracy of personally identifiable information we collect, including limiting the number of people who have physical access to our database servers, as well as employing electronic security systems and password protections that guard against unauthorized access. Our website uses encryption technology, such as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), to protect your personal information during data transport. SSL encrypts ordering information such as your name, address and credit card number. Please note that e-mail is not encrypted and is not considered to be a secure means of transmitting credit card information.
Privacy Policy
To help us achieve our goal of providing the highest quality products and services, we use information from our interactions with you and other customers, as well as from other parties. Because we respect your privacy, we have implemented procedures to ensure that your personal information is handled in a safe, secure, and responsible manner. We have posted this privacy policy in order to explain our information collection practices and the choices you have about the way information is collected and used. As we continue to develop our website and take advantage of advances in technology to improve the services we offer, this privacy policy likely will change. We therefore encourage you to refer to this policy on an ongoing basis so that you understand our current privacy policy.
The Information We Collect
Generally, you may browse the website without providing any personally identifiable information. However, we may ask you to provide personally identifiable information at various times and places on this website. In some cases, if you choose not to provide us with the requested information, you may not be able to access all of this website or participate in all of its features. We receive and store any personally identifiable information you enter on the website whenever you shop with us online or information you give us in any other way. For example, we may collect the following personally identifiable information: your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. If you use a credit or debit card, we will also include your account number. When you register with us as an online customer, we may ask for additional information. Your personal information is used to process your orders and will not be sold or given to others. From your purchases and other interactions with us, we obtain information concerning the specific products or services you purchase or use. When you visit this website, our web server automatically collects anonymous information such as log data and IP addresses. We may use the automatically collected information for a number of purposes, such as improving our site design, product assortments, customer service, and special promotions.
How We Use the Information We Collect
We use the information we collect for various purposes, including:
· To complete your purchase transactions;
· To provide the services you request;
· To keep you informed about the status of your orders;
· To identify your product and service preferences, so we can notify you of new or additional products, services, and promotions that might be of interest to you;
· To notify you of product recalls or provide other information concerning products you have purchased; and
· To improve our merchandise selections, customer service, and overall shopping experience.
Others With Whom We Share Your Information
Compliance with Law: We may provide access to information when legally required to do so, to cooperate with police investigations or other legal proceedings, to protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our website, to limit our legal liability and protect our rights or to protect the rights, property or safety of visitors of this website or the public.
Cookies and How We Use Them
A "cookie" is a small data file stored by your web browser on your computer's hard drive. It allows us to recognize your computer (but not specifically who is using it) upon entering our site by associating the identification numbers in the cookie with other customer information you have provided us. That customer information is stored on our secured database. We use cookies to keep track of what you have in your shopping cart and to remember you when you return to the website as well as to identify the pages you click on during your visit to our site. We use this information to improve our site design, product assortments, customer service, and special promotions. You can, of course, disable cookies on your computer by indicating this in the preferences or options menus in your browser. However, it is possible that some parts of our website will not operate correctly if you disable cookies.
Links to Other Sites
While visiting www.nauticalchartshop.com, you may link to websites operated by third parties. This does not mean that we endorse these websites. We do not make any representations or warranties about any website you may access through this website. They are independent from us, and we have no control over, or responsibility for, their information or activities. In addition, our privacy practices may differ from those of these other sites. If you provide personal information at one of those sites, you are subject to the privacy policy of the operator of that site, not the Island Girl Home, Inc. DBA Nautical Chart Shop privacy policy. Make sure you understand any website's privacy policies before providing personal information.
Online Account Registration
To make online shopping faster and easier, you may register with nauticalchartshop.com. As a registered customer, you only have to enter your shipping addresses and billing information once. They will be securely stored with us for your future use. Using your name and a password of your choice, you may access your account online at any time to add, delete, or change information. If you are using a public computer, we strongly encourage you to LOG OUT at the conclusion of your session. Your information will still be stored with us but it will not be accessible to anyone else from that computer.
When you use this website, you are automatically agreeing that both your access to the site and your use of it are:
· Subject to the terms and conditions in this legal notice, which may change at any time without notice.
· Subject to all applicable laws.
· Undertaken at your own risk.
Please refer to this page frequently to review our current terms and conditions of use.
Any Questions?
Call us at (305) 570-8038 or email us at firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Construction Completion
Spring, 2018
Building Project Summary:
Monroe County School Corporation planned to build a new Staff Childcare Center and R.E. Dimond and Associates provided MEP design for the conversion of a 11,800 SF warehouse.
Existing mechanical was upgraded to a grade commercial system with new restrooms and prep kitchen. Electrical design included lighting, power, fire alarm and new data system.


text:
Thunder and Rain: A Novel
Posted By: Guest Poster February 4, 2015
Popular Posts This Month
- How Long Should a Poetry Book Be?
- 15 Exercises You Can Do Sitting In Front Of Your Computer
- Collateral – Story Breakdown – Act Two
- The Major Differences Between Writing Style Guides
- Interview: Anita Saran
- How to Write a Successful Celebrity Blog
- How Can Handwriting Help You Focus on Your Writing?
- 7 Ways to Go From Boring Book Signing Event to Memorable Book Launching Party
- Average Typing Speed Per Minute: 5 Interesting Facts to Learn
- Show Don't Tell


text:
This ever-expanding reference list provides background on a diverse spectrum of illustrators across time, cultures, and artistic styles.
Harry Haenigsen
Haenigsen was a prolific cartoonist best known for his long-running comic strip, "Penny."
Sydney Prior Hall
Illustrator, cartoonist, and reportage artist who traveled the world.
Jay Hambidge
Artist, art historian, theorist, and re-discoverer of Dynamic Symmetry and the "Golden Ratio."
William Hanna and Joseph Barbera created Saturday morning cartoons.
Charlotte Harding
Despite facing obstacles as a female illustrator at the turn of the century, she gained national recognition for her work.
Peter Helck
Known for detailed renderings of automobiles and trains.
Dorothy Hood
Known for her black-and-white wash drawings used as advertisements for Lord & Taylor.
Edward Hopper
Illustrator of spare and finely calculated renderings of urban and rural America.
Walter Beach Humphrey
American illustrator for "The Saturday Evening Post," "Time," and "Liberty" magazines.


text:
Meet the Photographer
Thank you for stopping in! Take a look around and make yourself at home.
I am a wife and mother to a wonderfully smart, crazy, amazing, big hearted lil' man. He is my favorite! I'm a natural light photographer and a lover of light, color and beauty. A chocolate fiend, big fan of Jesus, an obsessive perfume buyer, and a Pinterest addict.
I have come to realize that one of the important things in life are the memories we have. I love the fact that photography can help us make those once-in-a-lifetime memories last forever! I have always loved photography and love being behind the camera. One of my favorite pastimes is opening that old box of photos and getting lost in the memories for a few hours. I love the way photos can warm your heart for years to come.
I would be honored to photograph you or your family!


text:
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a significant risk factor for cognitive impairment — when a person has trouble concentrating, remembering, or making decisions. Previous studies have examined differences in cognitive impairment between those with and without kidney disease using multiple cognitive outcomes, but few have done this for an extensive battery of cognitive tests.
In recent studies, researchers working with the Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study (MSLS), a 35-year a community-based study of cardiovascular risk factors (CVD-RFs) and cognitive function, have discussed two important points: First, the proper comparison group for people with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) is a group of individuals with early-stage kidney disease, not healthy individuals free from the cardiovascular disease risk factors that play a role in the development of CKD and cognitive impairment.
Second, there is a lack of normative data on multiple assessments of cognitive function that would allow researchers to perform comparisons between chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease.
In a new study published in the journal Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation and titled "Risk for cognitive impairment across 22 measures of cognitive ability in early-stage chronic kidney disease," researchers at the University of Maine, Temple University, and the University of Maryland revealed normative data for MSLS participants with early-stage chronic kidney disease that will allow clinicians to select the most appropriate tests for their patients' needs.
This data will hopefully allow scientists to compare the cognitive functioning of study participants with end-stage renal disease with that of an appropriate reference group.
The study was community-based and cross-sectional and included 898 individuals free from dementia and end-stage renal disease. Estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated using the chronic kidney disease epidemiology collaboration equation and classified as less than 60 or greater than 60mL/min/1,73 m2, based on consensus definitions of Stage 3 or greater CKD.
The results revealed that 146 individuals (16.3 percent) had eGFR less than 60 or greater than 60mL/min/1,73 m2 in the CKD group. Compared to participants without chronic kidney disease, those in the CKD group had a higher prevalence of CVD-RFs (25 percent vs. 12 percent) and diabetes mellitus (25 percent vs. 12 percent), suggesting that CVD-RFs related to kidney disease, such as inflammation, may play a role in the relationship between kidney disease and cognition.
Upon adjusting for these and other comorbidity-related risk factors, participants with early-stage CKD had a significantly greater risk for modestly impaired abilities in the scanning and tracking and visual-spatial organization and memory (VSOM) domains, as well as greater risk for severely impaired functioning in language.
"Targeted screening for cognitive deficits in kidney disease patients early in their disease course may be warranted," the researchers wrote.


text:
Back in October, I shared a Book Riot video about reading diversely (aka, reading books written by non-white authors). The video's creator, Amanda Nelson, encouraged readers to take a look at their "numbers" — the number of authors they've read vs. the number of authors they've read who are non-white — and try and improve those percentages.
So I accepted the challenge. How has 2014 stacked up after making it a point to read more diversely?
To recap from the last post:
- In 2013, I read 23 books. 7 were by women authors, putting that percentage at 30%. 1 was written by a person of color, so 4.3%.
- As of October, I'd read 21 books. 10 were by women (47.6%), and 1 has been by a person of color (4.7%).
And now, two months later?
- So far in 2014, I've read 24 books. Exactly 50% were written by women. 12.5% were written by a person of color (Sherman Alexie, Haruki Murakami, and Octavia Butler).
12.5% obviously isn't great — but it's a lot better than my percentage last year (and the percentage this year was on track to be, before I decided to pay attention). It makes me hopeful that when I look back at my 2015 reading list, it'll be more well-rounded. Or, as a recent Book Riot post put it:
We like books because they allow us to see the world from a new perspective, and sometimes we all need help even know which perspectives to try out. — "The Book Riot 2015 Read Harder Challenge
How has your reading year shaped up so far? (I realize we still have 2 weeks of 2014 left…I personally plan on getting one more book squeezed in there!)


text:
Year Inducted: 2011
John A. Haeber
John Haeber began his offshore energy career in 1952 with Shell Oil Company and became involved in the birth of floating drilling technology in the Pacific Coast area. He was transferred to Houston in 1954 where he developed advanced technology, concentrating on subsea wellheads and hydraulic connectors. John's team's development work resulted in the conversion of a submersible into the world's first semisubmersible MODU in 1961.
In 1964, John joined Ventura Tool Company (later Vetco and now GE Oil and Gas). There, he helped develop the MOBOT drilling and completion
system, a new generation of drilling risers, BOP frames and wellheads for drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel, the first large bore BOP stack and wellhead system, one of the first subsea production systems and the industry's first drill string motion compensator.
John Haeber was one of the key individuals that helped develop what is now a highly sophisticated subsea drilling and completion industry worldwide and the backbone of deepwater E&P.


text:
When a close friend of mine died right before Christmas, my reaction went immediately to, "What is the meaning of life? What is it all about? Why bother?" Carol devoted herself to helping others and teaching them to love, as I do. Our careers and callings have been parallel for decades, doing counseling, teaching workshops and seminars, leading groups, coaching, and teaching coaching. She coached right up to her final struggle with cancer and I know it gave her meaning, as it always did. But it brought up the depth of questioning in me about why we do life.
Finding Meaning in Life
Psychiatrist and Auschwitz survivor Victor Frankl, in his book, Man's Search for Meaning, contends that those most likely to survive were those who had found meaning in life. Those who could cling to life's meaning and purpose had the resilience to survive through the darkest of times.
Many of us, especially people under 35 are most interested in the pursuit of happiness and living the happy life. Researchers are finding the happy life is not enough, not the ultimate goal. Real contentment and well-being comes from living a life of meaning.
Martin Seligman, the founder of Positive Psychology, defines the meaningful life as "using your signature strengths and virtues in the service of something much larger than you are." He comments that Authentic Happiness is meant "as a preface to the meaningful life."
What is Meaning in Life?
Researchers Roy Baumeister and Kathleen Vohs associate the quest for meaning in life with four main needs:
- Purpose: Present events draw meaning from their connection to future outcomes — objective goals and subjective fulfillment.
- Values, which can justify certain courses of action
- Efficacy, the belief that one can make a difference
- Self-worth, reasons for believing that one is a good and worthy person
However, George Vaillant thinks quite differently. George E. Vaillant, M.D. has studied adult development, including the lives of 800+ men and women as a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "Where are the positive emotions in all this? To see meaning as due to purpose, values, self-esteem and efficacy is to judge the brain book by its cover. Positive emotions, not cognitions, are the engines that drive meaning.
"The positive emotions that create meaning are love, compassion, hope, awe, gratitude, trust and joy.
The Atlantic wrote an article summarizing the 70-year Harvard project, The Study of Adult Development. When Vaillant was interviewed as the director of the study for 40 years, he made two rash generalizations, "The only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people," and "Happiness equals love—full stop." He has defended these, "… seemingly sentimental generalizations about the findings of a multi-million dollar, seven-decade study designed to identify the key ingredients that lead to a 'good' life" in many publications. You can find a brief article on his defense in a chapter, Love and be Loved, in a book called Character Strengths Matter.
Should We Pursue Happiness or Meaning?
The pursuit of happiness and meaning are two of our most central motivations in life. A wealth of research in positive psychology suggests that happiness and meaning are, in fact, essential elements of well-being. Happiness and meaning are strongly correlated with each other, and often feed off each other. The more meaning we find in life, the happier we typically feel, and the happier we feel, the more we often feel encouraged to pursue even greater meaning and purpose. But not always.
An increasing body of research suggests that that there can be substantial trade-offs between seeking happiness and seeking meaning in life.
In recent years, a number of studies have further supported the differences between happiness and meaning. In one, Baumeister and colleagues found that factors such as feeling connected to others, feeling productive, and not being alone or bored contributed to both happiness and meaning. However, they also found some important differences:
- Finding one's life easy or difficult was related to happiness, but not meaning.
- Feeling healthy was related to happiness, but not meaning.
- Feeling good was related to happiness, not meaning.
- Scarcity of money reduced happiness more than meaning.
- People with more meaningful lives agreed that 'relationships are more important than achievements'.
- Helping people in need was linked to meaning but not happiness.
- Expecting to do a lot of deep thinking was positively related to meaningfulness, but negatively with happiness.*
- Happiness was related more to being a taker rather than a giver, whereas meaning was related more to being a giver than a taker.
- The more people felt their activities were consistent with core themes and values of their self, the greater meaning they reported in their activities.
- Seeing oneself as wise, creative, and even anxious were all linked to meaning but had no relationship (and in some cases, even showed a negative relationship) to happiness.
It seems that happiness has more to do with having your needs satisfied, getting what you want, and feeling good, whereas meaning is more related to uniquely human activities such as developing a personal identity, expressing the self, and consciously integrating one's past, present, and future experiences.
Gallup reports that nearly 60 percent all Americans today feel happy, without a lot of stress or worry. On the other hand, according to the Center for Disease Control nearly a quarter of Americans feel neutral or do not have a strong sense of what makes their lives meaningful. Research has shown that having purpose and meaning in life increases overall well-being and life satisfaction, improves mental and physical health, enhances resiliency, enhances self-esteem, and decreases the chances of depression. On top of that, the single-minded pursuit of happiness is ironically leaving people less happy, according to recent research. "It is the very pursuit of happiness," Frankl knew, "that thwarts happiness.
"This is why some researchers are cautioning against the pursuit of mere happiness. We have found that leading a happy life is associated with being a "taker" while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a "giver."
"Happiness without meaning characterizes a relatively shallow, self-absorbed or even selfish life, in which things go well, needs and desire are easily satisfied, and difficult or taxing entanglements are avoided," the researchers write.
"Happy people get a lot of joy from receiving benefits from others while people leading meaningful lives get a lot of joy from giving to others," explained Kathleen Vohs, one of the authors of the study. In other words, meaning transcends the self while happiness is all about giving the self what it wants. People who have high meaning in their lives are more likely to help others in need. "If anything, pure happiness is linked to not helping others in need," the researchers write.
What Makes us Human?
What sets human beings apart from animals is not the pursuit of happiness, which occurs all across the natural world, but the pursuit of meaning, which is unique to humans.
"Partly what we do as human beings is to take care of others and contribute to others. This makes life meaningful but it does not necessarily make us happy," Baumeister writes.
"Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself — be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself — by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is."
Baumeister and his colleagues would agree that the pursuit of meaning is what makes human beings uniquely human. By putting aside our selfish interests to serve someone or something larger than ourselves — by devoting our lives to "giving" rather than "taking" — we are not only expressing our fundamental humanity, but are also acknowledging that that there is more to the good life than the pursuit of simple happiness.
Next time we'll talk about what you can do to add more meaning to your life.
Meanwhile, if you want help with your happiness or meaning, email me (link) or call or text me at 702-242-4222.


text:
ANAHEIM – Two goaltenders matched each other blow by figurative blow well into the night until Zemgus Girgensons finally landed the knockout punch.
Girgensons scored in the 10th round of the shootout and Buffalo's Anders Nilsson won a duel with the Ducks' Jonathan Bernier on Friday night as the Sabres pulled out a 2-1 victory in front of an announced 14,556 at Honda Center.
Girgensons scored on Bernier after Nilsson stopped Ducks winger Nick Ritchie. The Ducks (37-23-11), who shot first, appeared to have the game won twice on scores by Ryan Getzlaf early and Brandon Montour in the ninth round, only to see Ryan O'Reilly and Rasmus Ristolainen answer for the Sabres.
Those were the only shootout goals as Nilsson, who made 39 saves in regulation and overtime, and Bernier (30 saves) also made numerous stops when it came to the one-on-one showdowns. Bernier's personal four-game win streak came to an end.
"We definitely had our chances and so did they," Ducks forward Rickard Rakell said. "It's 50-50. It's you against the goalie. Yeah, they beat us today."
But the Ducks gained a point to stay in sole possession of second place, one above Calgary as the Flames defeated Dallas. With a game Saturday night at San Jose, the Ducks didn't want to come away with no points against a lower-tier Eastern Conference team.
"You want to come out of every game with one or two points," defenseman Kevin Bieksa said. "People start talking about this being a trap game. I don't think it was a trap game. It's a trap game if you don't respect the opposition. But we definitely respected their skill.
"They've got some top-end guys over there and some really good forwards. We played them hard. We played well."
Rakell stayed too hot to the touch. The winger scored for the fourth straight game, going to his backhand to bat in a rebound past Nilsson after Cam Fowler's point shot created the favorable bounce.
Rakell now has 31 goals in his breakout season as the Ducks' top sniper. But the Ducks would find Nilsson, a backup to regular starter Robin Lehner, difficult to beat as Buffalo coach Dan Bylsma turned to him after getting pulled in his previous outing.
Nilsson was stout while the Ducks particularly pushed in the final two periods of regulation. Corey Perry made a hard push down the right wing on an offensive chance but the Swede got enough of his blistering slap shot to change the direction, with it striking the far post.
Bernier was up to the task as Buffalo pushed back in the third. Evander Kane saw a chance to score a power-play goal and give the Sabres the lead disappear into Bernier's glove after seeing an earlier golden opportunity go awry when O'Reilly's pass bounced over his stick.
The Ducks could have a forlorn look when it came to the second period. Numerous chances to pad their lead either escaped them or weren't cashed in.
Josh Manson was set up low in the right circle and had Nilsson beat with a move to his backhand but couldn't get much on that shot and the Sabres swept the puck away. Andrew Cogliano shanked a redirect try from in front of the net and Patrick Eaves fanned on a one-time chance.
"I didn't think we were sharp with the puck," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said.
Rakell had another potential goal on his stick after being set up in the slot between the hashmarks but fired just wide of the net as he tried to pick a corner. And the Sabres hung around long enough to pull into a tie.
Jake McCabe let loose a shot from inside the blue line that Bernier appeared to easily track but failed on his attempt to glove it. The puck kicked away and struck the skate of O'Reilly as he battled for position with Ducks center Ryan Kesler.
And the puck subsequently ricocheted over the goal line, giving O'Reilly a fluky goal in a period the Ducks otherwise controlled.
"It's a game where we obviously out-shoot them heavily," Bieksa said. "We carried the play for most of the game. Their goal was off one of our guys and in on a lucky bounce. We had plenty of chances to score. Their goalie played well. You lose in a shootout.
"I don't think you hold your head too far down for this one. We played well. Didn't get the result."
Contact the writer: email@example.com
Join the Conversation
We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. We reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.