Psychology of encouragement

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Greenhousetax/

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Not raise Council Tax for houses with 'Green' upgrades. There are reports that local councils are considering raising the Council Tax on houses which have eco-friendly improvements such as solar panels and wind turbines. People should not be financially discouraged from making their own energy saving improvements. Council Tax should not be affected by positive environmental improvements."

Live long and prosper!

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Get plenty of exercise. Keep your mitochondria fit ...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070305202936.htm

"A calorie-restricted diet provides all the nutrients necessary for a healthy life but minimizes the energy ... The researchers found that a 25% caloric deficit for 6 months, achieved by diet alone or by diet plus exercise ... may contribute to more efficient metabolism, less oxidative stress, and increase longevity in humans as it does in lower organism."

A devil of details

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/windsolar/

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Simplify Planning permission for Wind turbines & Solar Panels. In a further effort to promote the use of Domestic Renewable Sources of Energy, we appeal to The Government for the removal of some or all planning restrictions imposed by Local Government on the erection of Wind turbines & Solar Panels."

My initial response to this is .. Yes ... but ... but ... but ... however, I refrain from comment at this time, to avoid over-direction of responses.

M*cr*s*ft file geeks - help required!

There's some information trapped inside a corrupted Word file. We don't need any of the formatting, just the text. WordPad gets 10% of the way in, then gives up.

Is there any way of cracking open this file and getting out the text?

(We can't get hold of the person who created the file, nor access their computer to see if they have an uncorrupted copy.)

Dud

Many thanks to everyone who tried to help me with the corrupted Word file. Lots of fine suggestions. In the end, even HexEdit couldn't save me. It looks like what we could see with WordPad was all there was left that was salvageable. So this goes as a black mark against the person who supplied the file, and they get left out of the game!

I'm still using OpenOffice otherwise, honest! (And Firefox ... and ... mutt :-)