This month’s feature articles:

Regular monthly features:

"An enriched environment:

1. Includes a steady source of positive emotional support;

2. Provides a nutritious diet with enough protein, vitamins, minerals, and calories;

3. Stimulates all the senses (but not necessarily all at once);

4. Has an atmosphere free of undue pressure and stress but suffused with a degree of pleasurable intensity;

5. Presents a series of novel challenges that are neither too easy nor too difficult for the child at his or her stage of development;

6. Allows for social interaction for a significant percentage of activities;

7. Promotes the development of a broad range of skills and interests that are mental, physical, aesthetic, social, and emotional;

8. Gives the child an opportunity to choose many of his or her own activities;

9. Gives the child a chance to assess the results of his or her efforts and to modify them;

10. Provides an enjoyable atmosphere that promotes exploration and the fun of learning;

11. Above all, enriched environments allow the child to be an active participant rather than a passive observer. (Diamond & Hopson, 107-108, 1999)"

Dr. Anandkumar is coming to Toronto, August 21-25, and will be looking for financial and material aid for his schools. Accent on Skills Consulting has been involved with this project that began a few years ago. The need is great! Please read his recent letter and consider assisting in any way you can.

The readership of this newsletter includes many educators, students, business people and parents of children with challenges and disabilities. Your advice, expertise, input, suggestions, learning from experience and material or monetary assistance would be greatly appreciated. Below is just a sample of what could be done.

Suggested Ways to Help:

1. Gather new and used learning/teaching materials, assistive devices for those with disabilities, and send them directly to Sri Lanka.

Aug 9 – International Day of Indigenous People

Aug 9 – Full Moon tonight

Aug 11 – City of Toronto Taxi Driver Appreciation Day

Aug 12 – International Youth Day

Aug 23 – International Day of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

August (last Wed of month) - World’s Biggest Tomato Fight - Bunyol, Spain

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"Accent on Essential Life Skills" – a resource book of 48 personal "how to" skills that enhance and enrich life and learning in a holistic way. The skills are for children and adults. Use the skills in personal, educational, and business settings. Teachers and business people will find it particularly valuable.

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• ketchup was originally made in China with anchovies, mushrooms, walnuts and kidney beans.
• Feeding diluted whisky, gin, vodka or tequila to some plants will stunt their growth but not affect the blossoms.
• The younger and wealthier you are, the higher the chances of being a victim of identity theft.
• People who attend religious services regularly live about two to three years longer.
• Australia is the only country that is also a continent.
• Giraffes are the only animals born with horns. Both males and females are born with bony knobs on the forehead.
• Teeth are the only parts of the human body that can't repair themselves.
• The only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica.
• The only rock that floats in water is pumice.
• There is a city called Rome on every continent.

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This is obviously not for everybody. With an expertise in neurobiology, mathematics, physics, computer science or engineering, you will try to bring a unique technical expertise to bear on the research at hand.

In this job, a depth of expertise in the above disciplines will allow you to integrate the various approaches and techniques to accelerate the advancement of the field.

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Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak may not be fantasy after all. An international team of physicists suggest that it is possible to create high-tech "metamaterials" that can funnel light around objects to make them invisible.

The assembled small artificial bits of patterned metal films can be engineered to bend around a electromagnetic field. This would first of all be used to protect equipment from microwave radiation. Protecting objects from visible light is the next step but further along.

Like water flowing around a rock in a stream, a "hole" is produced behind it and things can be hidden and remain unnoticed there.

It is expected that the first invisibility devices would be rigid "shells" rather than pliable and supple substances that are cloth-like.

A related problem is that light could not enter the cloaking device so a spy would not be able to see out.

Potential uses are stealth and camouflage.

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(We wrote about this last year and will continue to post it each year.)

This is garage salers heaven! Imagine a trail that is 725 kilometers long with endless garage and yard sales. Well it is real and in the USA.

Starting on Hwy 127 in Gadsden, Alabama, winding through Georgia and Tennessee, visitors can see thousands of official and unofficial yard sales on their way to the end in Covington, Kentucky.

The idea was made into reality in 1987 to encourage tourist travel through the rural South. The sale lasts 4 days (this year August 3-6) and lures more than 60,000 people.

You name it and it’s probably for sale. Bumper-to-bumper traffic and all those people soon clear out the best of antiques and collectibles. Bargains and rare finds abound.

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In light of a major problem of obesity, it is important to determine how we are made to eat more than is necessary each day. Studies show that people eat about 200 calories more each day than they did 10 years ago

Here are some of the major reasons why people eat so much:

1. Advertising is allowed to all ages. Start brainwashing people when they are very young and develop brand loyalty. Influence shopping habits.
2. Supersizing. Larger portions are offered with the incentive of savings on the regular price. Would you buy oversize clothing because you save money? Would you purchase a larger car because even though it costs more you think you are getting a bargain?
3. Persuasion to eat at many different times in the day. Snacks, comfort foods, various other foods are advertised throughout the day as being appropriate when tired, low in energy, looking for something to share, while running, while having a drink, etc. This attachment to other foods adds many extra calories on top of regular meals.
4. Appeals to weaknesses. Sugars, salts, fat are very popular and difficult to turn down. Being urged to give in and eat them regularly adds on pounds.
5. Added layers of processing. This encourages buying convenience foods and foods that require less preparation. Some of these are flavoured chips, microwave-able popcorn with added butter and salt, TV dinners.
6. Dependency on an industrial food product to go with other foods e.g. chips with cream dips, nachos and cheese, cheese and crackers, etc.
7. Government policies can support the growth and distribution of unhealthy food crops. Agricultural lobby groups influence monetary support for what may be nutritionally poor foods e.g. genetically modified
8. Appeals to a population that is more sedentary. These people are easy targets. If they are not doing anything, then something they can do is eat.
9. Making foods become almost staples of purchase. Corn is the most versatile food and most popular. It is easily grown, and can be processed into many different products that may or may not be healthy. It is also easy to attach and relate many other foods to its consumption.

The reason that much of the above goes on is because on average,companies need to grow about 10% a year to keep shareholders happy. The general population growth is only about 1% per year. People, therefore, almost have to be encouraged to consume more.

Many people don’t consider that humans need only a certain amount of food intake each day. It is often that quantity, quality and frequency of consumption are considered as limitless. Perhaps we should think about our food purchasing in light of purchasing a pair of shoes. It is a purchase for a specific need and the next purchase is when there is need again. Quantity and quality are always a factor.

Food purchasing needs to be kept in check. Shop for energy, not necessarily taste and/or looks. Buy healthy calories.

Do not think that the shadow of your lofty words can cover low intentions.

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a debate that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between the two ‘wolves’ inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one that you feed."

In times of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves beautifully equipped to live in a world that no longer exists. -Eric Hofer

Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming. – Richard Branson

Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. That’s where the best fruit is found. – unknown.

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own." – Benjamin Disraeli

He gasps: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator says: "Calm down, I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a gunshot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says: "OK, now what?"

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