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C'mon, man! South Florida has NO JOB market for IT! They could offer $20,000/year, and I bet one of the 10,000 former Motorola guys would jump at the chance to stop waiting tables and use their skills. Not to mention the IT house cleaning that went on in nearby Tampa/St. Pete. Anyway, I don't think Largo is a competetive market on par with the National mean by Comparison.

the first human clone has probably already been walking around for a while

And you base this on what? Your abundant lack of knowledge about cloning technology and basic biology?

The first adult mammal cloned was Dolly the sheep. She has some rather serious defects as a result of that cloning, such as rapid aging. It took 277 attempts to produce a viable clone.

A cow was cloned in 1998 without the aging problems, and it took a "mere" 104 attempts.

China cloned their first cow in October of this year. Brazil attempted to clone a cow and wound up with a bull instead.

Cloning isn't easy. It's not like you can just go to the corner drug store and buy a clone'o'matic. It requires a great deal of lab resources, time, and lots of money.

And while you may very well find scientists who would try to clone a human, you also have to find 50-100 women willing to be implanted with a cloned embryo, given that 90%+ of them will miscarry (the human body is pretty good at detecting and aborting non-viable fetuses -- and I apologize right now to anyone who has had to deal with a miscarraige in their family, I know they are deeply traumatizing). This immediately increases the number of potential leaks.

Right now is about the earliest it would have been possible to clone a human... after all, no matter what you try to do, it's going to take 9 months from implantation until birth.

It has nothing to do with fear, at least not for me. I think the ethics are questionable at best, primarily due to the large number of failures in current cloning methods. For the record, I'm pro-choice, but that doesn't mean that I would want dozens of women subjected to the trauma of a miscarraige (or worse), or that I think playing with human life this way is a good thing.

I dislike it greatly when a person states a truth then follows it up with an obvious untruth in order to give the latter credibility. Yes, evidence can be manipulated. yes, it should be protected against. No, being able to discern something you could not discern before does not invalidate that evidence out of hand. Perhaps she's heard of DNA?

I think just about anyone familiar with Photoshop/gimp and actual photographs will realize that details can be brought out of a picture that aren't immediately obvious. Don't believe me? Take just about any non-perfect picture off the net, open it with gimp, then:

• right-click on the image.
• Image > Colors > Levels
• Tweak settings.
• Profit! (just kidding...)

Should it be held under the cold light of courtoom examination? Sure. Is it pseudoscience? Not on it's face.

You're probably caught up in the modern world of computers, offices, Starbucks and malls. What many people forget is how fragile the modern world is. Most people aren't self-reliant any more. Without water or electricity things get bad REAL fast. Looters come out, fires burn, anarchy rules, at least for a while. The police can't handle a natural disaster like a major hurricane or earthquake. It has historically taken quite a while for things to settle down. Are you going to let looters steal your food and water and have your family go without?

Take a look at this piece on Hurricane Andrew: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/weather/hurricane /sfl-hurandrewgallery.gallery

I hope I never have to point a gun at anyone, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. Most criminals look for easy targets. It's stupid to be an easy target.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorid a/sfl-govrace091202.story?coll=sfla%2Dhome%2Dheadl ines
-~qrst

The Cartoon Network 1050 Techwood Dr., NW, P.O. Box 105264, Atlanta, Ga., 30318. 404-885-4390

From: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/entertainment/tv/sfl-t vradiocontact.htmlstory?coll=sfla-tv-utility

As well as the potentially lame: http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/gen/help/index.html

There were a few ideas on the go:

• The VentureStar
• The X-30

There are some interesting links here about orbital vehicles and other programs.

The biggest problem is people don't want to pay for it. Most people have no idea the kind of impact the space programs of the world have had on everyday life. Freeze dried foods, powdered drinks, plastics, computers, digital cameras, compsite materials, GPS, cell phones, long distance phone calls, satellite TV... The list goes on and on.

Washington Post

Sun Sentinel

20% OF U.S. TEENAGERS IGNORANT ABOUT U.S. INDEPENDENCE
Proof that U.S. public schools are dismal failures

CALIFORNIA PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE SO BAD THAT:
75% of 9th Graders Fail Math Skills Test and 50% fail English skills test when 70% is score needed to pass
Rather than teach, Calif. considers LOWERING passing score!

CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE SO BAD THAT MORE THAN HALF OF ALL STUDENTS MUST GO TO SUMMER SCHOOL
More than 215,000 failed Basic Skills Test!

GAY PERVERT WITH HIV RAPES9 YEAR OLD BOY
School teacher molests student; ALLOWED TO REMAIN ON THE JOB!!

SUPREME COURT SAYS LAW SCHOOLS CAN USE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
Just what we need, more incompetent lawyers

"STRAIGHT PRIDE" T-SHIRT STUDENT WINS IN COURT
Was told by school he could not wear shirt because it was "offensive to gays."

13 YEAR OLD SAVAGE NEGRO BEAST FOUND GUILTY OF MURDERING WHITE SCHOOL TEACHER
Shot teacher in the head after being thrown out of class for water balloon; faces 25 years to life in prison

FLORIDA UNIVERSITY RUNS PLAY PORTRAYING JESUS AS GAY
Your Tax Dollars at work!

I think the reason behind this is that they're enlisting a stereotype. Other articles on the subject talk about 'teen hackers' and 'whiz-kids'. It seems that the people planning this believe 'hacker' is another word for a punk kid who spends too much time online.

While there are many problems with the balloting system, the idea that it "takes too long" is silly. This is not an instant-win scratch-off game, there are month-long delays between election day, the meeting of electors, and inauguration exactly so that problems can be dealt with.

Also, the suggestion that some people should be able to vote from their homes while those who can't afford, or choose not to own, computers have to wait in line raises serious "equal protection" issues - not to mention huge technical hurdles. Forget it.

Yes, we needd better tech at the voting booth and the counting centers. But the concern should be accuracy and usability (check out the Sun-Sentinel's virtual Palm Beach ballot and tell me we can't do better!), not speed of results.

according to all graphics i have seen, e.g. this the number next to Gore is "5"!!! How does that make you punch the 3rd hole??

Wrong -- there are only 337 card carrying Reformers in PBC. Sodium Attack was kind enough to find a link to official Florida voter registrations.

And to add insult to your injury, ChiChi, even Pat Buchanan doesn't think those votes are his. The man may be misguided and racist, but he's honest to a fault.

He's not anti-Gore, he's anti-stupid. "Elderly people are... not as sharp." I agree that the elderly in general need more attention than the rest of us, but that's not the issue. Being old is no excuse for not reading the ballot. Have you seen the ballot? There are very clear arrows showing which candidate goes with which bubble. Heck, here's a link to it:

Palm Beach Ballot

-\/

See: http://enight.dos.state .fl.us /report.asp?Date=001107 (click on President/Vice President in the left frame, then click on President/Vice President at the top center..)

This is county-by-county ballot counts for the State of Florida.

Pat Buchanan received a total of 16,989 votes in the entire state.

Buchanan's highest vote total was Palm Beach with 3,407 votes.

Buchanan's *next* highest was 1,012 in Pinellas.

Buchanan's **next** highest vote total was 845 in Hillsborough county.

In other words (or numbers..) Buchanan received 3.36 times more votes in Palm Beach than in his next highest county.

Another way to look at it is to see that in Palm Beach, Buchanan received 61% of the vote cast for Nader.

In Pinellas, Buchanan got 10% of Nader's vote; in Hillsborough Buchanan got 11.3%. That was the general relationship between ballots cast for Nader vs ballots cast for Buchanan.

Another approach is to see that Buchanan received 20.05% of all votes cast for him in one county: Palm Beach.

Now, having said all that, I've looked at the ballot examples and in MNSHO you'd have to be pretty fsck'ing stupid to screw that one up...

...but, as everyone but the Libertarians know, there's a helluva lot of stupid people out there.

t_t_b
--
I think not; therefore I ain't®

Oh boy....
This is really gonna throw a wrench in the election.

check out the Ballot and count down to the third Canidate (Harry Browne)

... Now count down to the third Hole. It points to Al Gore! It looks as though Al Gore may have stolen votes from Harry Browne! This is so confusing!!!

It seems obvious to me that Harry Browne should win the state of Florida.

(If the preceding link doesn't work, try www.cnn.com , as they have the picture up on their web site for the news story.)

I completely agree. I took a look at the ballot posted at Sun Sentinel.com and anyone confused by this ballot is probably not qualified to vote!

Um... Have you seen the ballots there??? Ohio's ballot has all the candidiates for Pres on the left side of the page.. Each punchhole is separated by at least a row of punches.

like this.

Bush -> 0
0
Buch.-> 0
0
Gore -> 0

etc.

Palm Beach look's like this.

When you are as old as some of these people are, would you like someone to tell you that you can't vote because you might screw up? 19,000+ people did this. One is a mistake, a couple of mistakes is coincidence, but this many mistakes just doesn't happen.


-- Bucket

See: http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/report.asp?Date=0011 07 (click on President/Vice President in the left frame..)

This is county-by-county ballot counts for the State of Florida.

Pat Buchanan received a total of 16,989 votes in the entire state.

Buchanan's highest vote total was Palm Beach with 3,407 votes.

Buchanan's *next* highest was 1,012 in Pinellas.

Buchanan's **next** highest vote total was 845 in Hillsborough county.

In other words (or numbers..) Buchanan received 3.36 times more votes in Palm Beach than in his next highest county.

Another way to look at it is to see that in Palm Beach, Buchanan received 61% of the vote cast for Nader.

In Pinellas, Buchanan got 10% of Nader's vote; in Hillsborough Buchanan got 11.3%.

Another approach is to see that Buchanan received 20.05% of all votes cast for him in one county: Palm Beach.

Now, having said all that, I've looked at the ballot examples and in MNSHO you'd have to be pretty fsck'ing stupid to screw that one up...

...but, as everyone but the Libertarians know, there's a helluva lot of stupid people out there.

t_t_b
--
I think not; therefore I ain't®

As well as dubious voting forms (Sun sen tinel (florida local)), you have to remember that Florida has always been notoriously corrupt when it comes to elections. Xavier Suarez, a Hispanic Independent, managed to get dead people voting for him. In 1990, Bush (senior) appointed him to serve on the board of Legal Services. Also bear in mind that George Bush senior (who was CIA chief before president) was involved in the rigging of various foreign elections (Panama, Nicaraua, Haiti etc). Good practice no doubt. I'm sure it helps that Jeb runs Florida..... You can see how much power the Bush family has by the way it crushed the story about W forcing his girlfriend to have an abortion in the 70s and covering it up (source 1 .. source 2 )

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