Wise Words for You

Megabus ads promising fares from £1 have been banned after the company admitted as few as one seat per coach was available at that price. The web ad for a new Aberystwyth to Birmingham Megabus route featured the text "From £1". The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said consumers would expect to be able to find the "from" price if they booked in advance. A Megabus spokeswoman said future marketing would not focus on prices. The ASA also took the Stagecoach-owned operator to task for another web ad that listed routes from Leeds to new Yorkshire destinations, claiming: "As always our fares are from £1*." And it questioned a Facebook post that promised "day trips from £1*" from London to Bath. Two complainants, who searched for tickets and believed that fares were not available at the stated price, challenged whether the claim "fares are from £1*" was misleading and could be substantiated. The ASA found that only 4% of fares for...

An elderly carpenter was ready to retire. He told his employer-contractor of his plans to leave the house-building business to live a more leisurely life with his wife and enjoy his extended family. He would miss the paycheck each week, but he wanted to retire. They could get by. The contractor was sorry to see his good worker go & asked if he could build just one more house as a personal favour. The carpenter said yes, but over time it was easy to see that his heart was not in his work. He resorted to shoddy workmanship and used inferior materials. It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career. When the carpenter finished his work, his employer came to inspect the house. Then he handed the front-door key to the carpenter and said, “This is your house… my gift to you.” The carpenter was shocked! What a shame! If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently. So it is with us. We build our lives, a day at a time, oft...

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn to not judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away. The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen. The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no – it was covered with green buds and full of promise. The third son disagreed, he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfilment. The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but one season in the tree’s life. He told them that you cannot judge ...

An old man walked across the beach until he came across a young boy throwing something into the breaking waves. Upon closer inspection, the old man could see that the boy was tossing stranded starfish from the sandy beach, back into the ocean. “What are you doing, young man?” He asked. “If the starfish are still on the beach when the sun rises, they will die,” the boy answered. “That is ridiculous. There are thousands of miles of beach and millions of starfish. It doesn’t matter how many you throw in; you can’t make a difference.” “It matters to this one,” the boy said as he threw another starfish into the waves. “And it matters to this one.”

Sometimes people come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there, to serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson, or to help you figure out who you are or who you want to become. You never know who these people may be (possibly your roommate, neighbour, coworker, long lost friend, lover, or even a complete stranger) but when you lock eyes with them, you know at that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way. And sometimes things happen to you that may seem horrible, painful, and unfair at first, but in reflection you find that without overcoming those obstacles you would have never realised your potential, strength, willpower, or heart. Everything happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of luck. Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness, and sheer stupidity all occur to test the limits of your soul. Without these small tests, whatever they may be, life would be like a smoothly paved, s...

“This life is what you make it. No matter what, you’re going to mess up sometimes, it’s a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you’re going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends – they’ll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything – they’re your true best friends. Don’t let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they’ll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them – actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can’t give up because if you give up, you’ll never find your soulmate. You’ll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn’t mean you’re gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don’t, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most impor...

Building brain connections for literacy written by Guest Writer  David Ludden Ph.D. Talking Apes I grew up in B.C. days—Before Computers. The closest thing I had to an iPad was an Etch-A-Sketch, which kept me entertained on many a family drive. Nowadays, it seems every four-year-old has a mobile device. The digital world is fraught with dangers but also with wonderful possibilities. To the extent that we load Junior’s favourite cartoons and movies onto his tablet, we may be raising a generation that expects to be entertained 24-7. But there’s also plenty of quality educational software available, including programs that can teach kids reading skills. However, if these programs aren’t designed according to sound psychological principles, they may not be effective at teaching literacy. Many children in middle-class families start learning the names of the letters at around four years of age. The most common way of teaching letter names is the see-and-say metho...

When it comes to gun violence, is the problem people instead of guns? In light of the “March For Our Lives” happening in Washington D.C. I want to address the logic of the argument I have seen most often in the wake of the Stoneman Douglas High shooting—an argument against imposing stricter gun regulations, such as universal background checks and banning assault rifles. The argument goes like this: “We don’t have a gun problem, we have a people problem.” It’s related to the NRA’s argument that “guns don’t kill people; people kill people", but it actually goes a little deeper. Understanding the argument The suggestion is essentially that the real cause of why we have more gun violence in America (compared to other developed nations) is because of the moral degradation of our society; people in America are more immoral and more prone to violence, and  this  is why we have more gun related violence—not the prevalence of guns. So, to address the pro...