This month’s feature articles:

Regular monthly features:

Want to provide stimulating, challenging, meaningful activities for your gifted child all year round? This is for you!
The DiscoverTeenergy "Activities Database" is a list of about 500 activities mostly available to young people in Canada. They involve: leadership training, conferences, special courses, festivals and presentations, university related courses, yearly enrichment activities offered to bright students, and much more.
The list can be searched in several ways: by month, category of interest or alphabetically. Each listing has a description, the contact information and in most cases a direct link to the website of the organization.

Having recently read the da Vinci Code and then investigated the controversy that it has created, it is truly unbelievable that people have been taken in by this book. This is a huge leap in faith that is quite entertaining to watch. To begin, the book has been identified and should be accepted as pure fiction! Readers, however, consider it to be factual and therefore believable. There are even Catholics who have had their faith shaken by reading it.
There are many things that religious and non-religious people are prepared to believe on faith, without any kind of tangible, real proof. Like what? How about UFO’s, the Loch Ness monster, Yeti, buried treasure on Oak Island, Atlantis, countless urban legends, Big Bang Theory, Theory of Evolution, etc.

Most of the above involve a naïve trust and acceptance of what "experts" say. If only a few "experts" or the scientific world suggest there MAY be truth to it, people make the leap of faith and believe it BE truth and fact! As well, there is another consideration. The more people are told something the more likely they are to eventually believe it unquestioningly. (advertisers certainly know that). It doesn’t even matter who is conveying the message!

Why do people believe Dan Brown and not the Catholic Church? The church has had to taking the extraordinary step of defending and explaining itself and addressing the onslaught of criticism and enquiry. Part of the reason is peoples’ lack of historical knowledge of religion, beliefs, myths, history and religious institutional structure. They are easily taken in by some pretty good "logic," "evidence" and "credible" stimulating writing. It just sounds too good to not be true! Another reason is a lack of expertise in analyzing data for accuracy. Most people are quite easily convinced because they trust others too easily and readily. (Ask scam artists) Others enjoy watching great institutions suffer and squirm.

Faith can be described as a loving trust. The idea is to believe fully not just with concrete proof but with also an inner gut-level knowledge that something just is. All religions have beliefs that people hold to be true based on faith. It is interesting to note that the same people who are willing to believe – by faith – that The Da Vinci Code is true dismiss many religious beliefs as untrue. Why one and not the other?

How can anyone decide what is believable without physical proof? Modern scholarship gives us some of the ways:

1. "Dissimilarity" – reports that are different from normal, customary, usual practices, teachings of the day are probably not made up. (the Da Vinci Code simply combines existing information into a sensational novel. There is nothing new. In religions, meticulous research is done by countless experts over centuries to assure accuracy and believability to as high a level as possible. A strong, solid basis for belief and also faith is established. Dan Brown writes a fiction book and is instantly transformed into an expert without any qualifications.)
2. "Multiple Attestation" – the same reports come up from a variety of sources, possibly in different lands and in different time periods and are not linked or passed on from one country to another. (Nowhere else outside of the contents of the book has the "conspiracy" in The Da Vinci Code ever been suggested to be true. If it has been presented before, it was dismissed by experts.)

What a naïve world! People actually believe The Da Vinci Code conspiracy to be true. Along with the fact that the book does not meet the criteria for credibility, people continue to make leaps of faith. They believe that fiction writer Dan Brown is a trustworthy expert and he knows more than the most learned and wisest world religious thinkers, experts, historians and instructors throughout the centuries and alive today. Great way to sell books. Ask L. Ron Hubbard who had the same thing happen with his sci-fi fiction book that became the "Bible" for Scientology.

June 5 – World Environment Day

June 13 – Jewish Shavout

June 17 – World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought

June 19 - Father’s Day

June 20 – World Refugee Day

June 21 – National Aboriginal Day/First Nations Day

June 21 – first day of summer. Summer solstice. Longest day in the year – northern hemisphere.

June 24 – St. Jean de Baptiste Day (Quebec)

June 26 – International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

June 26 – U.N. International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

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• the average weight of Americans (and Canadians probably too) has increased by about 4.5 kg. Airlines are expected to spend about $275 million more for 1.6 billion litres of fuel to carry the additional weight. Some airlines are almost being forced to reduce the number of seats or charge passengers for two seats because of the increase in size. Transport Canada has ruled that a Georgian Express crash was caused by the plane being too heavy.
• Recent remakes of old movies: The Grudge, Shall We Dance?, Manchurian Candidate, Stepford Wives, Dawn of the Dead, Cheaper By the Dozen, Count of Monte Cristo, Freaky Friday, The Italian Job, The Ring, Thomas Crown Affair, Swept Away, Thunderbirds, The Time Machine, Vanilla Sky, Walking Tall.

• Statistically men die about 7 years younger than women. Men are also more likely to die a violent death (war, crime, sports, occupational, etc.)
• To escape the grip of a crocodile's jaws, push your thumbs into its eyeballs-- it will let you go instantly. (Note: probably best done before he gets you into a death spiral)
• About 1 in 10 police shootings is a result of a "suicide by cop" choice made by a despondent person. The person sets him/herself up to be killed by police. In many cases, several other suicide attempts have failed.
• The ancient Greeks believed that lettuce induced sleep, so it was served at the end of a meal.
• HeeHaw holds the record for the longest-running weekly first-run syndicated show in TV history. It has run for more than 4 decaded from the 60’s to 90’s.

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A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toes. A young girl is stuck in a Mennonite community and dreams of escape. Her mother and sister have disappeared and she needs to find out why they didn’t take her along.

Runaway by Alice Munro. The emotional and decisive moments in women’s lives are expressed through much dialogue.

All that Matters by Wayson Choy. A war-time tale of a Chinese family told from the viewpoint of the number one son.

The Tiger Claw by Shauna Singh Baldwin. Noor Inayat Khan is a real spy for the British in WWII in France who engages in forbidden love.

Beyond Measure by Pauline Holdstock. Artists in Florence, Italy become fascinated by an African slave girl.

Galveston by Paul Quarrington. An approaching hurricane affects the lives of the inhabitants of a tiny Caribbean island and some tourists who visit.

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As traffic continues to increase in big cities there is an ever growing need to fine tune the movement of vehicles. Traffic lights and signage is not just for cars, they are also for pedestrians. Modern computers are often used to fine-tune the lights so that cars can move progressively through areas with a minimum of stopping. However, pedestrians also need to cross streets so the job gets more complicated.

As someone working in this field, you will be responsible for deciding where traffic lights and stop signs should be located, the time between light changes, advance left turn signals, time for pedestrians to cross.

Treasure hunters need to learn how to read history and find the stories relating to ancient treasures such as the Holy Grail, Ark of the Covenant, pirate’s treasures buried in secret locations, ancient ships and their routes. They also need to sometimes infiltrate groups and/or join them to find out what secrets they know about.

Hunters need to learn how to find and read government files, warfare and deployment maps. Researching these archives – sometimes very obscure ones – is a challenge in finding the locations of wrecks, hidden stashes, secreted wealth, etc.

Patience with a metal detector is also an asset.

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Speeding Up Cursor Moves: In order to move the cursor anywhere on a page more quickly horizontally or vertically, press and hold "Control" and then use the arrow keys. The cursor moves to the first letter of each word instead of to each letter of every word. Vertically, the cursor will go to the first word of each paragraph instead of each line. BONUS: If "Control" and "Shift" keys are held down at the same time, highlighting is sped up. Try it. With a little practice, it will make a big difference.

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Accountability Issues in Society Today
(based on an article by Sarah Lazarovic, Now Magazine)

In the good old days, people held themselves accountable for their actions. Honor, honesty, respect for self, trustworthiness and other such words were important to people. One’s reputation, self-esteem, presentation to others were held in high regard. Being able to think well and make good decisions was a badge of honor. Boy, have times changed.

With modern technology infiltrating all aspects of our lives, there seems to be a disconcerting change in this attitude. A growing trend suggests that others are somehow expected to be responsible and should worry about our actions and behaviours. The idea seems to be: "I can do anything I like and get away with as much as I want. I’ll wait until somebody makes me. Only if I get caught will it be a problem. Let others worry about keeping what they have. If they forget something, overlook or leave things unprotected then it’s mine. People should pay if they forget or negligent and deserve what they get." Our whole society suffers because of attitudes like this. Trust in others is further eroded.

So how can we become even lazier, less alert, and less mindful of self and others? Here are some of the new intrusive technologies that will destroy our sense of personal accountability:

• A Chicago-based company is testing a new computerized mirror that can show you a composite of yourself in the future. It studies your living, eating, behaviour patterns and can calculate your weight and looks in the future. It will show the effects of drinking, smoking and an unhealthy lifestyle. You won’t even have to remember when to exercise as the "all-knowing" machine pushes you deeper into laziness.
• Australia has a cell phone service that prevents people from calling an ex or a boss when someone is drunk and beyond self-control. Hey, get as drunk as you want and the machine will stop you from doing something foolish.
• Japanese researchers have developed a system of road troughs that play music through moving cars to keep drivers awake. The sounds will also help people drive in the right direction. Will this mean that the machines can be blamed for accidents if someone does happen to fall asleep while driving?
• A TV remote has been developed that will help find itself if misplaced. Eventually, people won’t have to remember where they place things ever again. So what will happen to our brains when we don’t have to remember anything anymore?
• Security technology has become more than sci-fi in its ability to monitor, track, trace and identify not just potential criminals but everybody. It is interesting to note that most crime is committed by about 5% of the population. The other 95% of good citizens won’t have to choose to be honest or accountable anymore because surveillance equipment will make sure that people will be honest and reinforce the idea that nobody can be trusted.

If we are not careful, modern technology will continue to weaken our character, decision-making, and ability to control our own lives. We will become even less assured of ourselves and our judgment calls as we abdicate responsibility and accountability to machines that do the work and decision-making for us.

I remember seeing a young girl at a doughnut shop underestimate a bill by quite a large sum and not even realize it. She obviously had no concept of the prices of the products or mental math. It was obvious that cash registers did that work and they were never wrong. "It’s not my job."

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(in an email from a friend)

Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend by the name of Common Sense who had been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

He will be remembered as having cultivated such value lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm and

that life isn't always fair. Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not kids, are in charge).

His health began to rapidly deteriorate when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition. It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student; but, could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Finally, Common sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband; churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

Common Sense finally gave up the ghost after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot, she spilled a bit in her lap, and was awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust, his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.

He is survived by two stepbrothers; My Rights and Ima Whiner. Not many

attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

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(in an email. Does anybody know what this is all about??? – O.S.)

Any white binocyles walks.
His small golden car walks.
Mine hairy soda adheres.
Her daughters silver omprella fidgeting.
A shining little table calms-down or maybe our children small underwares smiles.
Any given shining magazine snores.
A given white underwares prepare for fight at the place that her bluish door walks.
Whose shining t-shirt fidgeting.
The hairy house smells.
Our children beautiful camera smiles.
His odd shaped sofa calms-down.
Our white sofa walks.
Our shining ram fidgeting.
Any given white camera adheres.
Her white pensil adheres.
Her purple green bicycle spit as soon as mine round tv walks however, a soft mobile phone prepare for fight and perhaps his round odd shaped camera adheres and perhaps our small camera is thinking the time that her slopy kitchen calculates the time that the round kitchen is on fire and still her small forg sleeps while our purple soft magazine run.
Whose round boots smiles.
A given soft exam book smells.
Our little gun prepare for fight or maybe her daughters odd shaped exam book snores or maybe the odd shaped fancy expensive eraser is on fire at the place that a golden white round-shaped purple car calms-down.
A noisy book falls and a little red tall exam book smiles.
Any given shining computer stares.
Her tall bottle lies.
Our shining laptop adheres the time that his soft glove stinks.
A purple car is on fire.
Our children golden glove stares.
Our children bluish laptop snores.

"Lost is a place, too." – Christina Crawford

When you ask, "Why me?" the answer should be, "Why not me?" Hardships allow us to learn to deal with difficult life experiences. We don’t only get the good stuff.

An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less until he/she knows everything about nothing.

"The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page." – St. Augustine

"Doubt whom you will, but never yourself." – Christian Bovee

"They conquer who believe they can." – John Dryden

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