Albert Einstein

Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.

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What does this mean to you?

Children on the mines

Among the saddest aspects of old time mining were the accidents suffered by boys -some of quite tender years- and by the young girls employed in surface operations. Before the invention of automatic machinery to carry out the various refining processes, every mine required a large amount of this kind of poorly-paid, unskilled labour; and the general poverty prevailing at the time compelled parents to send children into this kind of employment to raise the family income.Many of the resulting accidents to children were caused by their disobedience or playfulness. A grim example of this occurred at Dolcoath in Wales, in April 1869. During the previous summer, the boys had begun the practice of climbing on to the wooden roofs of the houses in the mine to eat their dinner. They preferred this airy and elevated place to the room provided for them; but as this open-air dining injured the roofs and put the kids in danger, they were scolded and fined for this offence by the owners.One day a little boy of eight was released at twelve for his dinner. Half an hour later he was found crying for help from the top of a cottage: the roof was so damaged that it could not stand the weight of his body.

Leaving home

So you’re about to leave home and go to university or college. Afraid ? No doubt youve had advice from parents and teachers. But what you really need is to hear it from the experts - the students themselves. So here are some tips from students who volunteered to pass on their strategies for getting through that awful first term.

Paul: “The thought of everything I would be leaving behind got me worried: Mum’s cooking. Mum doing the washing and ironing. Dad lending me money (maybe) ! At first, takeaways and launderettes seemed the easiest option, but soon pasta and beans on toast took the place of takeaways, and doing my own washing and ironing replaced the launderette. It works out better on your wallet. You soon settle down, and parents are only a phone call away.”

Claire: “The best thing about my first term was the wonderful feeling of living with my friends and having no one to tell us when to go to bed or get up. The problem was that there was also no one to clean up after us, and it got to the point where you couldn’t use cutlery or a plate without having to wash up first. One day we decided enough was enough. We drew up a chart listing household jobs and dividing it so no one got lumbered with doing everything.”

Catherine: “When I was shown my room on my first day, my heart sank and my mother cried. It had grey walls, no carpet and a lumpy grey mattress. Then I remembered some advice a friend had given me. Pack a rug in case there’s a stain on the carpet, and a poster to cover cracks in the wall. Once I’d got these things out, it looked better already. As I got to know people, I realized I wasn’t the only one who felt awful. My advice is not to worry about feeling homesick: it’s totally normal.”

A big thank you to all the graduates and undergraduates who wrote to us.

Dear Alice...

Dear Alice,

How are you? I thought I’d better drop you a line from Ireland before I get home this weekend. I am having such a wonderful holiday here that I haven’t had much time for writing, but I’ve taken three films of photos already! I hope they turn out so that I can show you how nice Ireland is.

Do you remember how worried I was before I came, when you tried to calm me down? Well, I am glad I listened to your advice. Ellie is so nice and friendly -you’d love her. She hasn’ got red hair or freckles- so much for stereotypes! She is really funny and she loves to show me around Dublin. We’ve had a tour of Trinity College and yesterday we went to the Irish Writer’s Museum which is well worth visiting! It is the nicest café I’ve ever been in and there’s a great atmosphere. It’s the only place here in Ireland where you can drink proper coffee-Bliss!

Ireland is really one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever visited. It is as green as they say. Mind you, it does rain a lot here! The people are really friendly and that makes up for the weather! We went on a tour of southern Ireland last week but we couldn’t do much camping because of the rain.

We visited the National Parks in Connemara and Killarney and I went to Jameson’s Distillery to see how whisky is made. I was going to get some for my dad, but alcohol is much more expensive here than in Spain and so it wasn’t worth it.

I’ve already decided that I’d like to come back to Ireland. How do you fancy coming with me? Anyway, we can talk about it next week and then once you meet Ellie in October, I’m sure you’ll be convinced.

I’ll see you very soon. Love. Luisa.

Mark Twain

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

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Do you think this is true?

Couples

If you do not get legally married, the law will almost never treat you as if you were, no matter how long you live with someone. If it is a choice between marrying someone or living with them longterm, then marriage wins when it comes to financial security, especially for women. It may be the twentyfirst century, but it is still women who earn less, stay at home more and generally look after any children.

They are usually financially weaker when a relationship ends. If you are married, both partners normally have a right to a share of the marital home and its contents, whether they have contributed financially or not. A spouse who has been left, especially with children, may get it all. An ex-spouse may be entitled to personal maintenance, quite apart from any other maintenance paid for the children, plus the right to a share of the other's pension fund. An unmarried partner has no such rights.

Widows and widowers also get more financial protection from the law than live-in partners. If you die without a will, your widow or widower will automatically inherit - a lover will not, and a spouse has the right to challenge a will if they or any children are not provided for. And, married or not, there exists a strange concept in law called "joint and several liability", whereby, as far as debt is concerned, what's hers is his and what.s his is hers. In other words, you both owe all the money.

Suppose you buy a TV and DVD player costing £1,000. You take out a loan over two years. Then, love being love, one of you decides to move out and stops paying the bills, but takes the TV and DVD. Who has to pay the debt? The finance company can sue either of you, no matter who actually has possession of the property. And if you are the one left behind, you are easier to find. One way out is to choose who buys what. Take it in turns so you know exactly who owns what.

Electricity

Electricity is so much taken for granted in modern city life that we rarely think twice when turning on the light, when waiting for the traffic lights to change, or when using the many household devices that surround us. We rarely bother to think about this “wonder” of modern science until something goes wrong.

In the summer of 1959, something did go wrong with the power station that provided New York with electricity, so that for many hours normal life ground to a halt. Electric trains refused to move, the people in them being forced to sit helpless in the dark. Lifts in skyscrapers left their occupants stranded between floors for hours, or otherwise they had to walk down hundreds of stairs in the dark. Broadway and Fifth Avenue in an instant became gloomy and uninviting, and people couldn’t leave their homes for fear of being robbed in the dark streets, for although the police had orders to stand by in case of emergency, they were just as isolated and confused as everyone else.

Meanwhile, in the homes, disorder prevailed as well. New York can be stifling in the summer and this year was no exception. Cool, air-conditioned apartments became furnaces, cakes and joints of meat remained uncooked in cooling ovens, and people sat impatient and frightened in the dark as if an unseen enemy had arrived from Mars. The only people who remained untroubled by the darkness were the blind. One of the strangest things that happened was when some fifty blind people led many sighted workers home from the factories. When the lights came on again, hardly a person in the city could have turned on a switch without reflecting how great a servant he had at his fingertips.

Sense and Sensibility

When Mr. Dashwood dies, his estate, Norland, passes to his eldest son, John. This leaves his second wife and three daughters, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret, at the mercy of their stepson/half-brother and his selfish wife Fanny. Treated like unwelcome guests in their own home, the Dashwood women begin looking for another place to live. Meanwhile, Elinor has become attached to Fanny's brother Edward Ferrars, an unassuming, intelligent young man. But because Mrs. Ferrars wants her son to marry a woman of high rank, Elinor does not allow herself to hope for marriage.

Mrs. Dashwood and her daughters move from Norland to Barton Cottage, owned by their distant cousin Sir John Middleton, who lives at Barton Park with his family. Also staying there are Mrs. Jennings (Lady Middleton's mother) and Colonel Brandon, an old friend of Sir John. The gossipy Mrs. Jennings decides that Colonel Brandon must be in love with Marianne, and teases them about it. Marianne is displeased: she considers Colonel Brandon, age thirty-five, to be an old bachelor incapable of falling in love or inspiring love in anyone else.

Marianne, out for a stroll, gets caught in the rain and sprains her ankle. The dashing and handsome Mr. Willoughby rescues Marianne, carries her back home, and wins her admiration. He comes to visit her every day, and Elinor and Mrs. Dashwood begin to suspect that the couple have secretly become engaged. However, Mrs. Dashwood's sentimental nature prevents her from asking Marianne about her relationship with Willoughby. Marianne is devastated when Willoughby announces that he must go to London on business, not to return for at least a year.
Edward Ferrars visits the Dashwoods at Barton Cottage, but seems unhappy and is distant towards Elinor. She fears that he no longer has feelings for her. However, unlike Marianne, she does not wallow in her sadness.

Shortly afterward, Anne and Lucy Steele, cousins of Lady Middleton, come to stay at Barton Park. Sir John tells Lucy that Elinor is attached to Edward, prompting Lucy to inform Elinor that she (Lucy) has been secretly engaged to Edward for four years. Though Elinor initially blames Edward for engaging her affections when he was not free to do so, she realises that he became engaged to Lucy while he was young and naive. She understands that Edward does not love Lucy, but that he will not hurt or dishonor her by breaking their engagement. Elinor hides her disappointment, and convinces Lucy that she feels nothing for Edward.

Elinor and Marianne spend the winter at Mrs. Jennings' home in London. Marianne's letters to Willoughby go unanswered, and he treats her coldly when he sees her at a party. He later sends Marianne a letter informing her that he is engaged to a Miss Grey, a very wealthy and high-born woman. Marianne admits to Elinor that she and Willoughby were never engaged, but that she loved him and he led her to believe that he loved her.

Colonel Brandon tells Elinor that Willoughby had seduced Brandon's foster daughter, Miss Williams, and abandoned her when she became pregnant. Brandon was once in love with Miss Williams's mother, a woman who resembled Marianne and whose life was destroyed by an unhappy arranged marriage to the Colonel's brother.

Mrs. Ferrars discovers Edward and Lucy's engagement; when he refuses to end it, she disinherits him. Elinor and Marianne feel sorry for Edward, and think him honourable for remaining engaged to a woman he will probably not be happy with. Edward plans to take holy orders to earn his living, and Colonel Brandon, knowing how lives can be ruined when love is denied, offers Edward his parish at Delaford. Elinor meets Edward's boorish brother Robert and is shocked that he has no qualms about claiming his brother's inheritance.

Marianne, miserable over Willoughby, wanders in the rain and becomes very ill. Colonel Brandon goes to get Mrs. Dashwood. Willoughby arrives and tells Elinor that he was disinherited when his benefactress discovered his seduction of Miss Williams, so he decided to marry the wealthy Miss Grey. He says that he still loves Marianne, and seeks forgiveness, but has poor excuses for his selfish actions. Meanwhile, Colonel Brandon tells Mrs. Dashwood that he loves Marianne.

Marianne recovers and the Dashwoods return to Barton Cottage. Elinor tells Marianne about Willoughby's visit. Marianne admits that though she loved Willoughby, she could not have been happy with the libertine father of an illegitimate child even if he had stood by her. Marianne also realizes that her illness was brought on by her wallowing in her grief, by her excessive sensibility, and that, had she died, it would have been morally equivalent to suicide. She now resolves to model herself after Elinor's courage and good sense.

The family learns that Lucy has married "Mr. Ferrars". When Mrs. Dashwood sees how upset Elinor is, she finally realises how strong Elinor's feelings for Edward are and is sorry that she did not pay more attention to her unhappiness. However, the very next day Edward arrives and reveals that it was his brother, Robert Ferrars, who married Lucy. He says that he was trapped in his engagement with Lucy, "a woman he had long since ceased to love", and she broke the engagement to marry the now wealthy Robert. Edward asks Elinor to marry him, and she agrees. Edward becomes reconciled with his mother, who gives him ten thousand pounds. They marry and move into the parsonage at Delaford. Still, Mrs. Ferrars tends to favor Robert and Lucy over Edward and Elinor.

Mr. Willoughby's patroness eventually gives him his inheritance, seeing that his marriage to a woman of good character redeemed him. Willoughby realizes that marrying Marianne would have produced the same effect; thus, had he behaved honourably, he could have had both love and money.

Over the next two years, Mrs. Dashwood, Marianne and Margaret spend most of their time at Delaford. Marianne matures and decides to marry the Colonel even though she feels more respect than passion for him. However, after the marriage she realizes that she truly loves him. She and the Colonel set up house near Elinor and Edward, so the sisters and their husbands can visit each other often.

Source: Wikipedia

The Full Monty

Gary "Gaz" Schofield (Robert Carlyle) and Dave (Mark Addy) Horsefall are desperate to make some money, going so far as to try stealing steel beams from the abandoned factory they used to work at. When Gaz finds out that his ex-wife wants full custody of his young son, Nathan, because he's £700 (700 quid as he says) in arrears, Gaz has the idea of stripping to make money. He originally gets the idea from seeing Dave's wife Jean with some friends at their favored tavern, reasoning that if the Chippendales dancers can do it, so can he. Slowly, he assembles a group of similarly desperate men, including his former foreman, Gerald Arthur Cooper (Tom Wilkinson).

Film opening: The year is 1972, and the place is "Sheffield...the beating heart of Britain's industrial north", as described by the narrator in a short film visualising the city's economic prosperity, borne out of Sheffield's highly successful steel industry. The film shows busy steel mills, producing everything from kitchen cutlery to tensile girders, along with the run-off from the mills...successful retail establishments, nightclubs, and attractive housing. The film concludes with "Thanks to steel, Sheffield really is a city on the move!"

Fast forward to a quarter century later. The same town, but in a far different light than that of the early-1970s. The once-successful steel mills of then have grown brown with rust, rolling equipment has been removed, and the lines are silent. Gaz and Dave are inside their former workplace trying to get a steel beam out of the mill with the intent of selling it. They attempt to get the beam out of the mill by securing it to the roof of a car, which promptly sinks. Undaunted, they try to salvage the beam, but their attempts prove futile.

Gaz is later informed by his ex-wife that she intends to take court action against him for the child support payments that he's failed to make since losing his job. Compromising the situation further is Gaz's son, Nathan, who spends time with his father basically out of reluctance. He grows tired of his father's seeming lack of motivation to do something with his life and get his act together.

While Gaz, Dave, and Nathan are walking down a street, they see a line of women gathered for a Chippendales show outside a Working Man's Club they frequent. Intrigued by the women's willingness to stand in line for a striptease act, Gaz is convinced that his ship has finally come in: he decides to organize a similar act of his own, with the intent to earn enough money to pay for his child support obligations.

The first to join the act is Lomper (Steve Huison), a security guard at Harrison's, the steel mill where Dave and Gaz once worked. After Lomper finally loses his job long after the mill shuts down, he tries to commit suicide by asphyxiating himself in his car through carbon monoxide poisoning. Dave pulls him out, much to Lomper's protests. With new-found friends, Lomper is also added to the lineup. His rescue and inclusion in the group gives Lomper a new outlook on life.

Next on Dave and Gaz's list is their former foreman Gerald, whom they witness attending a dance class with his wife. They later approach him about giving them lessons, but Gerald rebuffs them with insults, telling them he's on his way to a job interview. Gaz and Dave tail Gerald to the interview, where they distract him from outside the office window to the point where he blows the interview. He confronts them both at Jobclub and physically assaults Gaz, revealing that had he been successful, he would have been able to conceal his unemployment from his wife, who is still spending money not knowing that her husband has been out of work all this time.

A despondent Gerald leaves Jobclub and sits on a park bench, all but emotionally defeated. Gary and Gaz patch things up with Gerald and tell him of their scheme. With literally no options left, Gerald agrees to be the act's choreographer.
In a sequence of darkly comic scenes, various former co-workers of Gaz and Dave perform a strip-tease for them as their audition. One of the auditioners is invited to sit down after he flunks; he says that he still has his children in the car, and that 'this is no place for kids'. The auditioner then glances over at Nathan, who was recruited by his father to work their stereo, before leaving. Other auditioners are hired for their penis size (both mythical, in the case of 'Horse', and real, in the case of Guy).

As the men practise, doubts continue to creep in about whether this is the best way to make some money, due to their individual insecurities over their appearances (Dave is overweight, for example). When the men are approached on the street by women who have heard of their show, Gaz declares that their show will be better than the Chippendales dancers because they'll go "the Full Monty" - strip all the way - hence the film's title. Dave quits less than a week before the show, deprecating himself as a 'fat bastard' whom no one would want to see in the nude - including his wife, Jean.

During a dress rehearsal in front of Horse's family, the rest of the men get literally caught with their pants down in the abandoned factory they use for their practice, causing an unconventional chase scene involving most of the main characters running from their pursuers wearing orange leather thongs. Two of the strippers, Guy and Lomper, successfully escape, and fall into a homoerotic embrace after they climb into the window of Lomper's house. The police show the men the surveillance tapes from the factory and soon their secret is out. All seems lost, with the entire city of Sheffield knowing who the members of Hot Metal are and the cast ready to quit, until the owner of the pub informs Gaz that he has already sold 200 tickets for their show.
With not much left to lose, and a sold-out show, the men decide to go for it for one night (including Gerald, who has gotten the job from the interview he thought he'd failed). Dave finds his confidence and joins the rest of the group, stripping to Tom Jones' version of You Can Leave Your Hat On (their hats being the final item removed).

Source: Wikipedia

Blood diamond

Set in the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1999, the film shows a country torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces.[1] The film portrays many of the atrocities including rebels cutting off people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections.

The film begins with the capture of Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a fisherman, by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels. Separated from his family, Solomon is enslaved to work in the diamond fields under the command of Captain Poison (David Harewood). The RUF use the diamonds to fund their war effort often trading them directly for arms. While working in the RUF diamond fields as a forced laborer, Solomon finds a large diamond of rare pink colouring. Moments before government troops launch an attack, Captain Poison sees Solomon hiding the diamond. Captain Poison is injured in the attack before he can get the stone, and both he and Solomon are taken to prison.

Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), a white mercenary from Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), trades arms for diamonds with a RUF commander. He was imprisoned when smuggling the diamonds into neighboring Liberia. His smuggling-beneficary was a South African mercenary named Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo), who is in turn employed by South African diamond company executive Van De Kaap (Marius Weyers). Coetzee is Archer's former commander in 32 Battalion, the most decorated unit of the South African Border War made up of Angolan and Rhodesian soldiers and white South African officers. Archer is desperate for a way to repay Colonel Coetzee for the diamonds he lost when he was thrown in jail. While in prison, he overhears Captain Poison ranting to Solomon about the discovery of the large diamond and makes plans to hunt down the stone. He arranges for Solomon's release from prison and offers to help him find his family in exchange for the diamond.

Archer meets Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), an American journalist covering the war and investigating the illegal diamond trade. Archer convinces Bowen to help him and Solomon find Solomon's family. They find his family in a UN refugee camp in Guinea inhabited by over a million refugees. But Solomon's son Dia has been kidnapped by the RUF and conscripted into becoming a child soldier. Archer says he will help Solomon get his son back if he helps him find the diamond.

Archer and Solomon pretend to be journalists to accompany a convoy of journalists along with Bowen. The convoy is attacked and Archer, Solomon and Bowen escape and find their way to the South African mercenary force under Colonel Coetzee. There they learn of the attack force preparing to retake Sierra Leone. There they leave the camp while Bowen boards a plane that is carrying foreigners out of the conflict zone. After a demanding struggle, the men find the mining camp, again under RUF control, where Solomon discovered the large diamond. Here, Solomon is painfully reunited with his son Dia, who refuses to acknowledge him due to having been brainwashed by the rebels. The South African mercenary force, also after the diamond, dispatches the RUF rebels in a massive air strike; and, through a deal with Archer, forces Solomon into retrieving the stone. In a desperate battle, Archer kills Coetzee and the other two soldiers with him after realizing that they would have killed both Archer and Solomon upon locating the diamond. At this point Dia holds Archer and Solomon at gunpoint, but Solomon manages to convince him to side with them.

As Archer turns a body over to take equipment he realizes he has been shot, but he doesn't say anything and phones his pilot, Benjamin Kapanay, who demands that Danny dumps Solomon and Dia. Up on the top of the mountain (they are currently in the valley), there is an airstrip, and the group begins to make their way. It is a slow and painful process, and along the way Archer demands the diamond from Solomon. They begin to climb the mountain, whereupon Archer collapses and Solomon carries him up the mountain. Finally unable to continue due to a punctured lung, Archer gives Solomon the diamond and urges him to leave Sierra Leone to sell the diamond in London. With a CAR-15 carbine taken from the battle at the digging site, Danny shoots down the soldiers chasing them, and then makes a final phone call to Bowen, asking her to help Solomon as a last favor. With the help of Bowen, Solomon trades the diamond for a large sum of money and the reunification of his family: as Solomon's wife and children deplane from a Lear Jet at a London airport, he and Van De Kaap make the exchange. Bowen, who secretly photographs the deal, later publishes a magazine piece exposing the trade in "conflict" or "blood" diamonds. The film ends with Solomon addressing a conference on blood diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa, describing his experiences. This refers to a real meeting that took place in Kimberley in 2000 and led to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which seeks to certify the origin of diamonds in order to curb the trade in conflict diamonds.

Source: Wikipedia

Mahatma Gandhi

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

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Could you do it?

Hello Dolly

When the most famous lamb in history emerged into the world in 1996, she brought with her a host of ethical and scientific dilemmas. The modest shed where she was born near the Roslin Institute in Scotland, may prove to be one of the most significant sites of scientific history.

Today, Dolly lives inside a locked concrete building. She has never eaten grass or been in the open air for fear that she might get ill, and questions still remain about her true age: “Is she her chronological age, or the age of the sheep from which she was cloned?”.

Cloning raises a huge number of pressing questions and some ethical dilemmas. Firstly, it has raised the possibility of deliberately altering parental chromosomes to favour selected creative talents, a resistance to disease and ageing, or even a predisposition towards crime, that is to say, engineering another Mozart or Al Capone.

Secondly, cloning challenges our sense of ourselves in a more ambiguous way. In fact, our belief in our unique selves is all we have, the one reassurance that our lives have some kind of special meaning simply simply by being unique. Even when we shrink into virtual anonymity, at a football match or political rally, we still sense that our own particular bundle of quirks and reflexes give us our chief reason for being alive at all.

Finally, cloning interferes with the process of nature and in some way seems to threaten our idea of the soul. As parents we are delighted when our children resemble us, but do we want them to be our replicas, with our same dreams, ambitions and fears?

Books

Books and audio-visual media should not be seen as opponents but rather as interaction to which young people should be introduced. The mass media offer .educational impulses.: they stimulate imagination, arouse curiosity and the desire to learn more, but what is heard and seen must be supplemented with books.

Let us give one practical example: a television programme is announced about developing countries. The teacher or youth group leader draws the attention of the students to it and announces that the programme will be discussed (or preferably the programme is viewed by the group). The young people are then asked to find books in the library on the subject and read about the problem. The television programme arouses interest and puts forward questions.

Books on the subject are read with interest and in the hope of learning more. Another possibility: in a programme, mention is made of appropriate books for supplementing it and the opportunity is announced for participating in a discussion on the subject, to be held on radio or television or in centres for popular education where everyone can take part actively.
Endeavours of this kind have had very positive results.

Starway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

And when she gets there she knows if the stores are closed

With a word she can get what she came for

Woe oh oh oh oh oh

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure

And you know sometimes words have two meanings

In a tree by the brook there's a songbird who sings

Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

Woe oh oh oh oh oh

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a feeling I get when I look to the west

And my spirit is crying for leaving

In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees

And the voices of those who stand looking

Woe oh oh oh oh oh

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

And it's whispered that soon, if we all call the tune

Then the piper will lead us to reason

And a new day will dawn for those who stand long

And the forest will echo with laughter

And it makes me wonder

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow

Don't be alarmed now

It's just a spring clean for the May Queen

Yes there are two paths you can go by

but in the long run

There's still time to change the road you're on

Your head is humming and it won't go in case you don't know

The piper's calling you to join him

Dear lady can't you hear the wind blow and did you know

Your stairway lies on the whispering wind

And as we wind on down the road

Our shadows taller than our soul

There walks a lady we all know

Who shines white light and wants to show

How everything still turns to gold

And if you listen very hard

The tune will come to you at last

When all are one and one is all

To be a rock and not to roll

Woe oh oh oh oh oh

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

And when she gets there she knows if the stores are closed

With a word she can get what she came for

And she's buying a stairway to heaven, uh uh uh.

How to spell

Let's begin with the bad news. If you're a bad speller, you probably think you always will be. There are exceptions to every spelling rule, and the rules themselves are easy to forget. George Bernard Shaw demonstrated how ridiculous some spelling rules are. By following the rules, he said, we could spell fish this way:ghoti. The f as it sounds in enough, the i as it sounds in women, and the sh as it sounds in fiction.

With such rules to follow, no one should feel stupid for being a bad speller. But there are ways to improve. Start by acknowledging the mess that English spelling is in - but have sympathy: English spelling changed with foreign influences. Chaucer wrote gesse, but guess, imported earlier by the Norman invaders, finally replaced it.

If you'd like to intimidate yourself - and remain a bad speller forever - just try to remember the 13 different ways the sound sh can be written:

shoe /suspicion

sugar /nauseous

ocean /conscious

issue /chaperone

nation /mansion

schist /fuchsia

pshaw

Now the good news

The good news is that 90% of all writing consists of 1,000 basic words. There is, also, a method to most English spelling and a great number of how-to-spell books. Remarkably, all these books propose learning the same rules! Not surprisingly, most of these books are humorless.

Just keep this in mind: if you're familiar with the words you use, you'll probably spell them correctly - and you shouldn't be writing words you're unfamiliar with anyway. USE a word - out loud, and more than once - before you try writing it, and make sure (with a new word) that you know what it means before you use it. This means you'll have to look it up in a dictionary, where you'll not only learn what it means, but you'll see how it's spelled. Choose a dictionary you enjoy browsing in, and guard it as you would a diary. You wouldn't lend a diary, would you?

A tip on looking it up

Beside every word I look up in the dictionary, I make a mark. Beside every word I look up more than once, I write a note to myself - about WHY I looked it up. I have looked up "strictly" 14 times since 1964. I prefer to spell it with a k as in "stricktly". I have looked up "ubiquitous" a dozen times. I can't remember what it means.

Another good way to use your dictionary: when you have to look up a word, for any reason, learn - and learn to spell - a new word at the same time. It can be any useful word on the same page as the word you looked up. Put the date beside this new word and see how quickly, or in what way, you forget it. Eventually, you'll learn it.

Some rules, exceptions and two tricks

Some spelling problems that seem hard are really quite easy. What about -ery and -ary? Just remember that there are only six common words in English that end in -ery:

cemetery /monastery

millinery /confectionery

distillery /stationery
(as in paper)

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Memorize them and feel fairly secure that all the rest end in -ary.

Here's another easy rule. Only four words end in -efy. Most people misspell them with -ify, which is otherwise usually correct. Just memorize these, too, and use -ify for all the rest.

stupefy /putrefy

liquefy /rarefy

As a former bad speller, I have learned a few valuable tricks. Any good how-to-spell book will teach you more than these two, but these two are my favourites. Of the 800,000 words in the English language, the most frequently misspelled is alright.; just remember that alright is all wrong. You wouldn't write alwrong, would you? That's how you know you should write all right.

The other trick is for the truly worst spellers. I mean those of you who spell so badly that you can't get close enough to the right way to spell a word in order to even FIND it in the dictionary. The word you're looking for is there, of course, but you won't find it the way you're trying to spell it. What to do is look up a synonym - another word that means more or less the same thing. Chances are good you'll find the word you're looking for under the definition of the synonym.

Demon words and bugbears

Everyone has a few demon words - they never look right, even when they're spelled correctly. Three of my demons are medieval, ecstasy, and rhythm. I have learned to hate these words, but I have not learned to spell them: I have to look them up every time.

And everyone has a spelling rule that's a bugbear - it's either too difficult to learn or it's impossible to remember. My personal bugbear among the rules is the one governing whether you add -able or -ible. I can teach it to you, but I can't remember it myself.

You add -able to a full word: adapt, adaptable; work, workable. You add -able to words that end -e: just remember to drop the final -e: love, lovable. But if the word ends in -ee, like agree, you keep them both: agreeable.

You add -ible if the base is not a full word that can stand on its own: credible, tangible, horrible, terrible. You add -ible if the root word ends in -ns: responsible. You add -ible if the root word ends in -miss: permissible. You add -ible if the root word ends in a soft -c: (but remember to drop the final -e) force, forcible.

Got that? I don't have it, and I was introduced to that rule in prep school: with that rule I still learn one word at a time.

Originally published by the International Paper Company, 1983.

by John Irving

(author of The World According to Garp & The Hotel New Hampshire)

The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them

"It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don't make it."

Author and researcher Gregg Easterbrook

Psychologists have recently handed the keys to happiness to the public, but many people cling to gloomy ways out of habit, experts say.

Polls show Americans are no happier today than they were 50 years ago despite significant increases in prosperity, decreases in crime, cleaner air, larger living quarters and a better overall quality of life.

So what gives?

Happiness is 50 percent genetic, says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken. What you do with the other half of the challenge depends largely on determination, psychologists agree. As Abraham Lincoln once said, "Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be."

What works, and what doesn't

Happiness does not come via prescription drugs, although 10 percent of women 18 and older and 4 percent of men take antidepressants, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Anti-depressants benefit those with mental illness but are no happiness guarantee, researchers say.

Be Happy

University of Pennsylvania’s Martin Seligman offers questionnaires for assessing your happiness, beating depression and developing insights into how to be happier on his web site.
Nor will money or prosperity buy happiness for many of us. Money that lifts people out of poverty increases happiness, but after that, the better paychecks stop paying off sense-of-well-being dividends, research shows.

One route to more happiness is called "flow," an engrossing state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has found. Athletes, musicians, writers, gamers, and religious adherents know the feeling. It comes less from what you're doing than from how you do it.

Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California at Riverside has discovered that the road toward a more satisfying and meaningful life involves a recipe repeated in schools, churches and synagogues. Make lists of things for which you're grateful in your life, practice random acts of kindness, forgive your enemies, notice life's small pleasures, take care of your health, practice positive thinking, and invest time and energy into friendships and family.

The happiest people have strong friendships, says Ed Diener, a psychologist University of Illinois. Interestingly his research finds that most people are slightly to moderately happy, not unhappy.

On your own

Some Americans are reluctant to make these changes and remain unmotivated even though our freedom to pursue happiness is written into the preamble of the Declaration of Independence.
Don't count on the government, for now, Easterbrook says.

Our economy lacks the robustness to sustain policy changes that would bring about more happiness, like reorienting cities to minimize commute times.

The onus is on us.

"There are selfish reasons to behave in altruistic ways," says Gregg Easterbrook, author of "The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse" (Random House, 2004).
"Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes, and higher incomes," according to Easterbrook. "If it makes world a better place at same time, this is a real bonus."

Diener has collected specific details on this. People who positively evaluate their well-being on average have stronger immune systems, are better citizens at work, earn more income, have better marriages, are more sociable, and cope better with difficulties.

Unhappy by default

Lethargy holds many people back from doing the things that lead to happiness.
Easterbrook, also a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institute, goes back to Freud, who theorized that unhappiness is a default condition because it takes less effort to be unhappy than to be happy.

"If you are looking for something to complain about, you are absolutely certain to find it," Easterbrook told LiveScience. "It requires some effort to achieve a happy outlook on life, and most people don't make it. Most people take the path of least resistance. Far too many people today don't make the steps to make their life more fulfilling one."

.

By Robin Lloyd, Special to LiveScience

Hotel California, Eagles

On a dark desert highway,

cool wind in my hair.

Warm smell of colitas,

rising up through the air.

Up ahead in the distance,

I saw shimmering light.

My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim,

I had to stop for the night.

There she stood in the doorway;

I heard the mission bell

and I was thinking to myself,

'this could be Heaven or this could be Hell'.

Then she lit up a candle

and she showed me the way.

There were voices down the corridor,

I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the Hotel California,

Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place),

Such a lovely face.

Plenty of room at the Hotel California

any time of year (Any time of year)

you can find it here.

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted,

she got the Mercedes Benz.

She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys

she calls friends.

How they dance in the courtyard,

sweet summer sweat.

Some dance to remember,

some dance to forget.

So I called up the Captain,

'Please bring me my wine'.

He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here since

nineteen sixty nine'.

And still those voices are calling from far away,

Wake you up in the middle of the night

Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the Hotel California

such a lovely place (Such a lovely place),

such a lovely face.

They livin' it up at the Hotel California

what a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)

Bring your alibis.

Mirrors on the ceiling,

The pink champagne on ice

and she said 'We are all just prisoners here,

of our own device'.

And in the master's chambers,

they gathered for the feast

They stab it with their steely knives,

but they just can't kill the beast.

Last thing I remember,

I wasRunning for the door,

I had to find the passage back

to the place I was before.

'Relax,' said the night man,

'we are programmed to receive,

you can check-out any time you like,

But you can never leave!'

Informal Contractions

Informal contractions are short forms of other words that people use when speaking casually. They are not exactly slang, but they are a little like slang.

For example, "gonna" is a short form of "going to". If you say "going to" very fast, without carefully pronouncing each word, it can sound like "gonna".

Please remember that these are informal contractions. That means that we do not use them in "correct" speech, and we almost never use them in writing. (If you see them in writing, for example in a comic strip, that is because the written words represent the spoken words or dialogue.) We normally use them only when speaking fast and casually, for example with friends. Some people never use them, even in informal speech.

It is probably true to say that informal contractions are more common in American English.

Also note that, unlike normal contractions, we do not usually use apostrophes (') with informal contractions when written.

On the right are some common informal contractions, with example sentences. Note that the example sentences may be a little artificial because when we use a contraction we may also use other contractions in the same sentence, or even drop some words completely.

For example:

What are you going to do? >>
Whatcha going to do? >>
Whatcha gonna do?

or

Do you want a beer?
Do you wanna beer?
D'you wanna beer?
D'ya wanna beer?
Ya wanna beer?
Wanna beer?

ain't = am not/are not/is not
I ain't sure.You ain't my boss.

ain't = has not/have not
I ain't done it.She ain't finished yet.

gimme = give me
Gimme your money.
Don't gimme that rubbish.
Can you gimme a hand?

gonna = going to
Nothing's gonna change my love for you.
I'm not gonna tell you.
What are you gonna do?

gotta = (have) got a
I've gotta gun.I gotta gun.
She hasn't gotta penny.
Have you gotta car?

gotta = (have) got to
I've gotta go now.
I gotta go now.
We haven't gotta do that.
Have they gotta work?

kinda = kind of
She's kinda cute.

lemme = let me
Lemme go!

wanna = want to
I wanna go home.

wanna = want a
I wanna coffee.

whatcha = what are you
Whatcha going to do?

whatcha = what have you
Whatcha got there?

ya = you
Who saw ya?

Vocabulary Memorization Tricks

Sometimes in order to remember a new vocabulary word you need to tie it to something that will help you recall it. A trick used by ancient and medieval scholars is to invent some strange or unusual image, a pun on some oddball phrase in English, a popular song; anything.

The more bizarre the better. When you need to recall that word, very often you can use the image or wordplay or whatever you've mentally attached to that word as a way to access it.

With a little practice, it's remarkable how effectively you can use this technique to recall otherwise unfamiliar words.

Gradually, you'll learn to remember the new words without the need to use the memory aid.

How to Study

1. Do small amounts, very often.

• Three focused 15-minute study times per day, not one two-hour session.


• Don’t try to memorize fifty words in one sitting; try six or eight words.


• Recognize when you are overloading your brain, and back off.


• Go back and repeat things often to reinforce what you’ve already learned.

2. Find ways to make memorization part of your daily routine.

• Tape vocabulary lists to your mirror or on the wall next to your bed.


• Study vocab while waiting in line at the caf.


• Recite words and phrases to yourself while working out or in the shower.


• Make vocab lists appear every time you start your computer.

3. Get as many senses as possible actively involved. Don’t just look at the words and think that you’re learning them.

• Say the words aloud.


• Listen to the words.


• Write the words down.


• Visualize the object or action that the word represents.


• Make up a song containing the words.

4. Put the words in a context.

• Make them part of a phrase or sentence.


• Group them with other similar words.


• Connect the words with an English derivative or cognate.


• Use any crazy associations your brain creates.