SPIKE

MICROSOFT WORD:

Better than the clipboard, Spike can hold together several portions of text or pictures from the same or separate documents.

For instance to move three non adjacent portions of text to the top of your document:

1. Select the first portion and cut to Spike with Ctrl + F3

2. Repeat the Spiking for portions 2 and 3. Each time, your selected text is cut and added to the existing contents of the Spike clipboard.

Finally, to drop the three selected portions on top of the document for instance:

3. Ctrl + Home to move your cursor to the beginning of your document,

Ctrl + Shift + F3 inserts the contents of Spike. Spike is cleared.

Undue Impact

The terror inspired by rising gas price is somewhat strange since gas is one of many household expenses and not the most significant. Still this increase psychologically has a significant impact on the level of happiness of the consumers.

The main worry should be about the unrest in the Midddle East particularly if it should spread to Saudi Arabia.

The dreaded 4 0 0

The Price of GAS

The popular mood is affected by the price of gasoline. People read and hear about expenses in the millions and billions without batting an eye but an increase of a few cents in the price of a gallon of gas conjures visions of a faulting economy, unemployment, large budget deficits, and inflation galore.

The price of milk also goes up but a few extra cents there are not readily noticeable in a total grocery bill in the fifties or higher. But the gas tank requires twelve to twenty gallons at a time. The higher price now becomes visible.

Particularly since it is posted on large signs at gas stations along your city driving route.The bad news are flashed every few blocks, begging you to watch for the dreaded 400 .

Jacques

Cleaning WIdows

You should periodically clean up your Windows computer: the Directory and the Disk.
Use the Glary utilities obtainable at Glarysoft.com. Download and instal the free version (the professional version is free after you purchase other software!!)
Run the Disk cleaner program and then the Directory Cleaner.
This should improve the performance of your system.

Jacques

TAINTED MEAT - STAPH GERM

STAPH GERM

ATLANTA (AP) — Half the meat and poultry sold in the supermarket may be tainted with the staph germ, a new report suggests.

The new estimate is based on just 136 samples of beef, chicken, pork and turkey purchased from grocery stores in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Flagstaff, Ariz. and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Proper cooking kills the germs, and federal health officials estimate staph accounts for just 3 percent of foodborne illnesses, far less than more common bugs like salmonella and E. coli.

The new study found more than half the samples contained Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that can make people sick. Worse, half of those contaminated samples had a form of staph that's resistant to at least three kinds of antibiotics.

"This study shows that much of our meat and poultry is contaminated with multidrug-resistant staph," Paul Keim, one of the study's authors, said in a statement. "Now we need to determine what this means in terms of risk to the consumer."

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in a large group

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in a large group

OVERPOPULATION

I remember hearing some bleak predictions on overpopulation some twenty years ago. No doubt the Palm Beach County population has enlarged much in the past twenty years, so have Florida and the United States. Our life span has increased. In spite of murderous wars where millions disappeared, humans are procreating at an increasing rate.

The Indian Continent ( India Pakistan Bangladesh) and China are the leaders. The US has less than one fourth the population of China,  

Having dinner in a restaurant shows you oversized portions served to well-fed diners and make the notion of starving people and shortage of food difficult to visualize.

Some years ago when we still had young children at home, one of them complained about his dessert of ice cream. “Oh! Vanilla again.” I could not resist saying: “ When I was your age during WW2 in occupied Paris I did not even know how ice cream looked. There was nothing to eat.” After some reflection my young son said:” Then how come you did not die.” Yes, how come?

Maybe at his young age he had that foreboding that like the dinosaurs the human race -ever increasing with diminishing resources- is slowly working towards its extinction.

FABLE

La Cigale et la fourmi by Jean de La Fontaine La cigale ayant chanté Tout l'été, Se trouva fort dépourvue Quand la bise fut venue : Pas un seul petit morceau De mouche ou de vermisseau. Elle alla crier famine Chez la fourmi sa voisine, La priant de lui prêter Quelque grain pour subsister Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle. « Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle, Avant l’août, foi d’animal, Intérêt et principal. » La fourmi n’est pas prêteuse : C’est là son moindre défaut. « Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ? Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse. — Nuit et jour à tout venant Je chantais, ne vous déplaise. — Vous chantiez ? J’en suis fort aise : Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant. »

The Cricket and the Ant translation by Don Webb The cricket had sung her song all summer long but found her victuals too few when the north wind blew. Nowhere could she espy a single morsel of worm or fly. Her neighbor, the ant, might, she thought, help her in her plight, and she begged her for a little grain till summer would come back again. “By next August I’ll repay both Interest and principal; animal’s oath.” Now, the ant may have a fault or two But lending is not something she will do. She asked what the cricket did in summer. “By night and day, to any comer I sang whenever I had the chance.” “You sang, did you? That’s nice. Now dance.”

La Cigale et la fourmi by Jean de La Fontaine La cigale ayant chanté Tout l'été, Se trouva fort dépourvue Quand la bise fut venue : Pas un seul petit morceau De mouche ou de vermisseau. Elle alla crier famine Chez la fourmi sa voisine, La priant de lui prêter Quelque grain pour subsister Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle. « Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle, Avant l’août, foi d’animal, Intérêt et principal. » La fourmi n’est pas prêteuse : C’est là son moindre défaut. « Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ? Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse. — Nuit et jour à tout venant Je chantais, ne vous déplaise. — Vous chantiez ? J’en suis fort aise : Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant. »

The Cricket and the Ant translation by Don Webb The cricket had sung her song all summer long but found her victuals too few when the north wind blew. Nowhere could she espy a single morsel of worm or fly. Her neighbor, the ant, might, she thought, help her in her plight, and she begged her for a little grain till summer would come back again. “By next August I’ll repay both Interest and principal; animal’s oath.” Now, the ant may have a fault or two But lending is not something she will do. She asked what the cricket did in summer. “By night and day, to any comer I sang whenever I had the chance.” “You sang, did you? That’s nice. Now dance.”

La Cigale et la fourmi by Jean de La Fontaine La cigale ayant chanté Tout l'été, Se trouva fort dépourvue Quand la bise fut venue : Pas un seul petit morceau De mouche ou de vermisseau. Elle alla crier famine Chez la fourmi sa voisine, La priant de lui prêter Quelque grain pour subsister Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle. « Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle, Avant l’août, foi d’animal, Intérêt et principal. » La fourmi n’est pas prêteuse : C’est là son moindre défaut. « Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ? Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse. — Nuit et jour à tout venant Je chantais, ne vous déplaise. — Vous chantiez ? J’en suis fort aise : Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant. »

The Cricket and the Ant translation by Don Webb The cricket had sung her song all summer long but found her victuals too few when the north wind blew. Nowhere could she espy a single morsel of worm or fly. Her neighbor, the ant, might, she thought, help her in her plight, and she begged her for a little grain till summer would come back again. “By next August I’ll repay both Interest and principal; animal’s oath.” Now, the ant may have a fault or two But lending is not something she will do. She asked what the cricket did in summer. “By night and day, to any comer I sang whenever I had the chance.” “You sang, did you? That’s nice. Now dance.”