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WITandWISDOM(tm) - October 17, 2005 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibers. – Victor Hugo, 1802 – 1885 Source: The Most Brilliant Thoughts of All Time, Edited by John M. Shanahan, Copyright © 1999, http://isbn.nu/0060194111 ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: "Dear Ruth, I’m going to be in your neighborhood Saturday afternoon and I’d like to stop by for a visit. Love Always, Jesus" Her hands were shaking as she placed the letter on the table. "Why would the Lord want to visit me? I’m nobody special. I don’t have anything to offer." With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets. "Oh my goodness, I really don’t have anything to offer. I’ll have to run down to the store and buy something for dinner." She reached for her purse and counted out its contents: $5.40. "Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts, at least." She threw on her coat and hurried out the door. A loaf of French bread, a half pound of sliced turkey, and a carton of milk ... leaving Ruth with a grand total of twelve cents to last her until Monday. Nonetheless, she felt as she headed home, her meager offerings tucked under her arm. "Hey lady, can you help us, lady?" Ruth had been so absorbed in her dinner plans, she hadn't even noticed two figures huddled in the alleyway. A man and a woman, both of them dressed in little more than rags. "Look lady, I ain’t got a job, ya know, and my wife and I have been living out here on the street, and, well, now it’s getting cold and we’re getting kinda hungry and, well, if you could help us, lady, we’d really appreciate it." Ruth looked at them both. They were dirty, they smelled bad and, frankly, she was certain that they could get some kind of work if they really wanted to. "Sir, I’d like to help you, but I’m a poor woman myself. All I have is a few cold cuts and some bread, and I’m having an important guest for dinner tonight and I was planning on serving that to Him." "Yeah, well, OK lady, I understand. Thanks anyway." The man put his arm around the woman’s shoulders, turned and headed back into the alley. As she watched them leave, Ruth felt a familiar twinge in her heart. "Sir, wait!" The couple stopped and turned as she ran down the alley after them. "Look, why don’t you take this food. I’ll figure out something else to serve my guest." She handed the man her grocery bag. "Thank you lady. Thank you very much!" "Yes, thank you!" It was the man’s wife, and Ruth could see now that she was shivering. "You know, I’ve got another coat at home. Here, why don't you take this one." Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman’s shoulders. Then smiling, she turned and walked back to the street . . . without her coat and with nothing to serve her guest. "Thank you lady! Thank you very much!" Ruth was chilled by the time she reached her front door, and worried too. The Lord was coming to visit and she didn’t have anything to offer Him. She fumbled through her purse for the door key. But as she did, she noticed another envelope in her mailbox. "That’s odd. The mailman doesn’t usually come twice in one day." She took the envelope out of the box and opened it. "Dear Ruth, It was so good to see you again. Thank you for the lovely meal. And thank you, too, for the beautiful coat. Love Always, Jesus" The air was still cold, but even without her coat, Ruth no longer noticed. - A Parable Submitted by Bill & Bev Maxey ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: Oxymoron's: Synthetic natural gas Passive aggression Taped live Clearly misunderstood Peace force Extinct Life Temporary tax increase Plastic glasses Terribly pleased Computer security Political science Tight slacks Definite maybe Pretty ugly Twelve-ounce pound cake Diet ice cream Working vacation Exact estimate Submitted by Pasadena Phil ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: School days can be the happiest days of your life -- if your kids are old enough to attend. ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: When background noise is horribly loud - in a tank, on an airport runway or aircraft carrier - ordinary microphones are useless. Even mics that clamp to the throat or skull are no good because the noise vibrates the sensor. So four inventors deep in the heart of US Defense territory, in Maryland and Virginia, have come up with a mic that is clamped to a back tooth. This shields it from external vibration while still picking up speech from the jaw bone. The team provides an example of the problems that background noise can cause. In Afghanistan, a device with an external microphone is used by soldiers to automatically translate English battle speak into the local language, Dari. But background noise can lead to misinterpretation. In the new device, a vibration sensor is set in resin and molded to fit like a dental cap or plate. A low-power radio link transmits audio to a higher-power transmitter built into ear-muff headphones, so wearers hear their own voice as it is sent to others. A push-to-talk function is provided by a tongue-operated switch. The inventors say the system works in noise up to 160 decibels, which is louder than a jet aeroplane taking off. They also note that the mic works inside gas masks and that encryption can be added for security. The mic can be removed for cleaning to avoid infection. From: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8060 Source: Nybble Bi-Weekly Newsletter, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nybble