This month’s feature articles:

Regular monthly features:

The general public enjoys movies that depict genius at work. Examples of very successful movies about gifted people are Jimmy Neuron: Boy Genius, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Good Will Hunting, and Young Einstein. It seems that genius is ok.

Unfortunately, in real life, however, when genius is nearby, people often resent or misunderstand those with superior intelligence – especially extremely bright young school children.

A disturbing belief is that gifted students should not have to be given any special privileges, accommodations or differentiated curriculum. They are gifted after all and should be able to handle things themselves. Many people believe that effort and money should be invested in those with greater need and challenges.

As a result, gifted children are often expected to work at a lower, common-ground level and other children in special education are helped to work at a higher level.

Many movies show the frustration that highly intelligent people face when dealing with "normal" people. All of us need to value intelligence more. The movies listed in the link below show what many kinds of superior intelligence can do positively for our society. This attitude of valuing and praising intelligence in movies needs to be moved into all classrooms and homes where gifted children live.

The brightest minds, after all, have the greatest potential to produce the greatest for society.

Many people want to be rich. Unfortunately, it may not make you any happier.
Studies have shown that people with above-average incomes don’t have all the time they would like to do things they might enjoy.
Happiness has different dimensions. Most people think of it as their over-all well being, which is often exaggerated.
The "Day Reconstruction Method" is used to determine how people experience life moment by moment. Income was hardly a factor.
An "enjoyment scale" shows that people are happier when they are socializing, doing work around the house, doing active leisure-type activities.
A surprise in the study showed that those with higher incomes tended to give more free and leisure time to high stress and tense tasks such as work, childcare, shopping, exercise.
Higher incomes can lead to misallocation of time e.g. longer commutes for higher pay, sacrificing time with friends and socializing.
When asked if people are happy, they usually respond based on their thoughts at that moment. This is "focusing illusion."
People usually don’t know how happy they are or satisfied with their lives like they know their phone number or address.
"Nothing in life is quite as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it."

Oct 1 – International Day of Older Persons

Oct 2 – Jewish Yom Kippur

First Monday – World Habitat Day

Oct 5 – World Teachers’ Day

Oct 7 – Full Moon tonight

Oct 9 – World Post Day

Second Wednesday – International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction

Oct 9 – Thanksgiving Day

Oct 16 – World Food Day

October 16 – Boss’ Day

Oct 17 – International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Oct 21 – Diwali (Hindu holiday)

Oct 24 – United Nations Day

Oct 24 – Ramadan ends (Islam)

Oct 24 – World Development Information Day

Oct 29 – Daylight Savings Time Ends

Oct 31 – Halloween

October is also National Sarcastics’ Awareness Month

_______________________________________________

"Accent on Essential Life Skills" – a manual 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.

____________________________________________

• The English origins of the word "left" come from the Latin "laevus" meaning "the shield" or "lucky side."
• Left-handed brains can often handle music easily, but have trouble with language. Bob Dylan, a lefty, wrote the music for "Blowin' in the Wind" in less than five minutes, but it took him a month to write the lyrics.
• Of the five people that designed the Macintosh computer, four were left-handed.
• Most champion fencers are left-handed.
• A lefty is less likely to be able to roll their tongue than a right-handed person.
• On a left-handed person, the nails tend to grow faster on the left hand than on the right hand.
• On a standard "qwerty" keyboard (top row letters), there are 1,447 English words that are typed solely with the left hand. There are only 187 words typed with the right hand alone.
• When typing, the left hand does most of the work, as the most popular letters (a,e,r,s,t) are on the left side of the keyboard.
• When looking at Michelangelo's David, look at the hand David held his sling in. It seems David was a lefty.
• Miss Manners declares that while food id properly served to the left of a guest, it is ok for a left-handed person to request to be served from the right.
• The official Boy Scout handshake uses the left hand, not the right. The founder of the Scouts was ambidextrous, but he chose the left hand because it is closer to the heart.

____________________________________________

Flying can be a different blast if you are flying a blimp. Everybody has seen them slowly making their way around sports stadiums and at air shows or mall openings. Somebody has to fly them.

Beekeepers Reference Pages and Resources

_____________________

1. A man waits for someone to back out of a parking spot and steps behind the car. He bangs the trunk and falls to the ground in "pain."
2. A high-end car is set to be exported to another country. A few months later a claim is filed that the car was stolen.
3. A minor repair job from a scrape results in an enormous bill for replacement parts. The body shop was billing for parts on another car.
4. "Chop shops" are illegal garages where stolen cars are stripped for parts.
5. Claims for auto theft of vehicles that are hidden and sold for parts by the owner.
6. Collusion with paralegals, etc. result in expensive injury claims and treatments.
7. Bogus insurance applications to get car owners into cheaper rate groups. Salespeople at dealerships were charging "consulting" fees to set this up.
8. Staged car accidents involving several friends or other recruits.
9. Forged employment forms were used to make false claims by supposed employees of a company.
10. A man injured in a collision signed a bunch of papers for a paralegal without knowing what was in them. The paralegal then negotiated with the insurance company without the man knowing, forged the man’s signature on the settlement cheque and cashed it.

_____________________

On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency. As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly.
Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.
"Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "A person, who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended , is still defined as committing suicide." That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.
In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun.... The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Mr. Opus.
When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B". When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her. Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, if the gun had been accidentally loaded.
The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident. It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother. Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.
Now comes the exquisite twist. (...ta da)
Further investigation revealed that the son was in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth story window. The son had actually murdered himself, so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide!

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it that you can. – Danny Kaye

If you’re going through hell, keep going. – Winston Churchill

Few people would have gotten to the new world if they had had a chance to get off their ship during a storm. – unknown

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. – Oprah Winfrey

A problem is never as permanent as a solution.

"There are no shortages, only a lack of willingness to receive."

The great challenge for the garden designer is not to make the garden look natural, but to make the garden so that the people in it will feel natural.
- Lawrence Halprin

The bend in the road is the end only if we fail to make the turn. - unknown

What do Skeletons say before eating?
Bone Appetite.

Why did the Vampire get fired from the Blood Bank?
He was caught drinking on the job.

Why do ghosts have so much trouble dating?
Women can see right through them.

What kind of clothes do Zombies wear?
Decay NY.

Why aren't there any famous skeletons?
They're a bunch of no bodies.

What kind of music do Mummies listen to?
Wrap.
____________________________________________