Etc...

This is getting us nowhere

What do you suppose it's like to be Lost in Scotland? Answer: Expensive. So much so that residents of the tiny Aber-deenshire village say they no longer can afford to put up a new road sign every time tourists steal the old one. The things cost $400 apiece and have had to be replaced seven times since 1999. Lost signs have been - um - found as far away as Brazil. Why not simply do without? Because drivers of delivery trucks who aren't familiar with the area tend to become - well, you know. The solution: a new name, Lost Farm.

In Reggio Emilia, Italy, if a resident wants to keep a pet, he'd better be affluent. Under a new town ordinance, each canary or cockatiel must have a mate. Every dog must have a spacious, well-shaded house of its own. Violators can be fined up to $618.50 for each offense.

Without question, California attracts a far greater percentage of immigrants than any other state. But results of a new study by University of Southern California researchers, using Census Bureau data, show the pace of new arrivals, relative to what it had been, has dropped significantly, from 38 percent in 1990 to roughly 25 percent in 2000. And, while immigration gains in other states may be relatively small compared to California's, they reflect the increasing distribution of newcomers. Those states experiencing the greatest growth in the pace of new arrivals between the 1990 and 2000 census, with the percentage share of that growth, from the USC study:

1. Texas 1.9%
2. Georgia 1.6%
3. North Carolina 1.4%
4. Arizona 1.1%
5. Colorado (tie) Illinois 0.9%
7. Washington 0.7%
8. Minnesota (tie) Nevada 0.5%
10. Indiana (tie) Oregon (tie) Tennessee (tie) Utah 0.4%