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#32850 06/26/01 02:38 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes Bob, i saw a PBS special on Lancaster county (PA) -- which has some of the richest best farm land in the world-- and this farm land is being turned into suburban housing .. and then the new residents complain about the farms- the cow manure smells, the tractors are two slow (when they travel on by roads) They complain about the dust, and the trucks, etc. But amish farms find when they relocate to Iowa, they need 2 to 3 times the acrage to have the same yield they did in Lancaster. --

I not sure that farmers complain any more than anyone one else.. and i sometimes think casino gambling might be a safer bet-- at least you know the house take--with mother nature.. there is no limit to the risk.. and should every one else fail, and you succeed in bringing in a crop-- the city folks get up in arms about "windfall profits" and accuse the farmerss of being unreasonable to charge what the market will bear..

the more things change, the more they remain the same...


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”40 percent of Californians spoke a language other than English at home…./……/….Reflecting this new diversity, 18 percent of all residents who were at least 5 years old spoke a language other than English at home, up 4 percent from 1990. Of those people, 60 percent spoke Spanish, and 43 percent reported that they did not speak English "very well…./……/…..the populations of 27 states are now at least 5 percent foreign-born, compared with 14 states in 1980. States with large populations of new immigrants tended to ride the economic upswing. In a dozen states, including Nevada, more than half the population was born in other states or overseas…."

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/06/national/06CENS.html?todaysheadlines


Does any of this represent interesting trends?


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>more than half the population was born in other states or overseas….

how to make a meaningless point (or a point meaningless)


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Does any of this represent interesting trends?

i think the trend is as wonderful as it is essential. unless things have changed since i was in high school (over a decade ago), US'n students are required to take only 2 years of foreign language, and short of private schools (my own children are required to begin a 5 year course of latin in the fifth grade, but this is certainly not the case in public schools), there is absolutely *no opportunity for the acquisition of a foreign language at the elementary school level, when students' facility for reception and retaining of said knowledge is arguably higher than at older ages.

one would think that the powers that be in USn education would want to more closely tailor the language education standards to the [rapidly] changing demographics. seems it's time that we wake up and smell the cat food... i'm not sure i understand what it is that folks are skeered of; the kids in europe do just fine with their language requirements at an early age. unless perhaps the problem is that we simply don't have the teachers? god forbid we have to model ourselves after many of the asian countries, and hire *foreigners* to teach our kids; we might unwittingly produce a whole generation of useful citizens .

FWIW, though i speak only kitchen spanish, and have forgotten most of the french i learned, my kids are used to my esperanto and respond in kind (they, however, have the advantage of growing up with spanish-speaking nannies).


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