(comment NSFW) ^ do you mean a variation of this?

Re your wife joining, I'd say that was non cheating for both of you. In fact, if you both had clones, and spent time with each other irrespective of each others cloneness, I'd say none of that was infidelity.

On a side note, might the possibility of a clone providing slef pleasure ever be a female fantasy? (youdiejoe has shown that it could for a guy, and that two female clones could be a fantasy for a guy goes without saying, and isn't what I mean).

Moving back off the sub topic, I was wondering if a good use of cloneing would be to experience things of possible high reward but also greater risk. (World travel partly falls into this, the risk also being reduced by simultaneously being able to stay at home and work, funding said trip. which sucks for that clone).

Or, would the survival instinct/self preservation be no more diluted than the situation of identical twins.

Infact, does the concept of identical twin completely break the clone concept, because we never just mean genetic parity, but also mental and "self" parity...

E.g. a clone does not take normal time for their body to grow to a level of development matching that of the cloned person, and that a mental imprint is taken too, such that the clone IS the same person from that point.

However, Id think that this would still allow divergence of person hood, from this point of cloning.

Thinking about this, and considering possibility's of telepathy/mental communication and communion, I'd think the next stage up from the above cloning (immediate, and self clone as well as genetic) would be for the two individuals to be in continual contact mental, sharing ideas/thoughts and relating their divergent experiences (one at work/one traveling, or one at work/one with the wifes clone).

Next level up form this, and what I'd perceive to be the ideal, is the concept of OverMind with clone body's being subprocess units.

Let me use computer analogies to explain what I mean.

1.Genetic Cloning (Identical twin paralel)
Two PCs, built with the same hardware. They initially run the same program, but each program is fed distinct data. Due to the divergence in data, the program states diverge form each other with time, this divergence becoming increasingly noticeable.

2. Instant Cloning with Mind Copy.
1PC is built, and a program is set running. It is fed data.
Another PC is built with the same hardware as the first PC. The program running on the first PC is loaded into the new PC. A snapshot, of the first PCs program state and data history, is used to initialize the 2nd PCs program.

Although both are in sync at this point, they will be fed distinct data from here on and thus grow apart form each other.

3. Instant cloning with Mind Copy and Experience Sharing/Communication.
Same as above, but once running, the 2nd PC feeds its experience data to the first, and vis versa. Communication is constant and "self" decisions are shared by discussion.

4. OverMind, many bodys.

Instant Bodys clones are made as needed. Each one is capable of providing its brain as an extra CPU... e.g.

Mainframe. One program running. Whilst running, Hardware is upgrading, adding and removing CPUs as bodies are created/destroyed. Rather than multiple programs being run/stoped, its always the same single program, the same "self" just using more brain capacity when tis their.

I think option 4 is definitely the most desirable, allows self to fully experience all the "Rolls" to which a body is assigned (ala mlx's original ideas) and there can be no concept or worry about either infidelity or clash of self with divergent self (identical twins are far from guaranteed to get along). Also, the self is less threatened by danger to an individual unit/body, and is therefore free to gain the rewards of greater experience through greater risk taking.

SF has dealt with these ideas quite often. A pop SF overmind parallel would be the Borg from ST, although that doesn't use cloning but predatory parasitic invasion/assimilation and has gone way beyond a sensible safety net of a few helpful Units.

This is a good read, and handles clone + mind copy for life extension/self recovery after accident, as well as complications and other themes.

unfortunately, none of which will help mlx do the activities of 5* a single person, or me get to Burning Man any time soon.

I don't know there are several ways of looking at the oil factor and how Greenspan saw it and the effects that these will have in the future for the US economy.

Saddam used to either max out or dry out production in the oil market, this would destabilize oil prices, most OPEC countries and the western world would want price stability in such a commodity.

With the removal of Saddam and the promises that the Iraq war would quickly we actually made the situation worse with oil prices rising to around $80/barrel. OPEC countries don't mind this because it’s direct profit for them, nor do the oil companies.

Saddam also threatened to move away from oil trade in US dollars to oil trade in Euros. This scenario would also collapse the US economy as it relies on the printing of the US dollar to bankroll its huge foreign debts.

However with the economic instability in the subprime markets, exposure of bad loans, credit squeeze, expenditure on war, huge foreign debts coupled with high import expenditure in the US. We are seeing the US dollar slowly being put away as the currency of reserve in favor of the Euro since it promises more sustained value then the US dollar at the moment and in the coming future. The Euro has just reached the highest level against the dollar; the Canadian loonie has reached parity with the US dollar for the first time in 31 years.

Consumer expenditure is one of the largest driving forces in the US economy and it's slowly waning as well, since much of it was bank rolled on debt via credit.

Is the US headed for a recession? Well that really depends, if the current course of events prevails and there is no economic shock then a general recession can be avoided. There will be a growth recession, as these factors are the same ones that MNCs look at in projecting growth and doing capital expenditure. Will it be all that bad? Probably not, but you will see a further increase in the income gap because those on the lowest bar will be the most effected.

Let’s not forget that the myriad range of cuts in state expenditure meant that large parts of the infrastructure have depreciated, The American Society of Engineers gave an average grade of D, and the highest grade of C+. Not to mention the $59 trillion that tax payers would need to foot for future Medicare and social security. Not to mention the continuing the Iraq war is close to half a trillion so far with a realistic, if things remain the same, projected cost of 2 trillion. Tax cuts are nice and all, but they are unrealistic if they are made on infrastructure and parts of the government that have sustained the US way of life for so long, you do away with them and the system starts to depreciate.

How did the US come to be exposed so badly to these economic shocks? Poor fiscal planning by an administration that is only conservative on the surface.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

From your linked article gluonium:
The main causes of neonatal mortality in developing countries are infectious diseases (36% of cases): pneumonia, tetanus and diarrhoea. Premature births (27%) and asphyxia (23%) are also major causes of infant mortality. In 60 to 80% of deaths, the child’s weight is very low, a condition related to the mother’s state of health.

So again, I would say that the causes are a reflection of poor health, nutrition and disease. I will battle your Google-fu with a bit of my own:

"For the Netherlands, as the only country with a sizable proportion of natural childbirths (home birth as proxy)…Dutch national perinatal statistics from 1986 …found that perinatal mortality rates were much higher for obstetricians in hospitals than for midwife-attended home care or midwife-attended hospital care, at all levels of risk when controlling for gestation, maternal age and parity" (p. 17---from studies by Treffers and Laan 1986 and Tew and Damstra-Wijmenga 1991).

as usual i have some trivia:

This is by far one of the most popular songs of german carnival. It is sung by millions each year at carnival parities across germany. i bet that at least 80% of all germans know the lyrics and can sing along. with carnival just have taken place a few days ago it still is in my ears ;-)