anybody familiar with Hutterites?
 

Sure. I grew up with them in Montana and Alberta. On summer back from BYU, I arranged to visit one of their farms to try to learn a bit more about them. I wasn't really interested in their religious beliefs... more interested in how they live.

Why do you ask?

One of Mrs. Hippie's classmates in PA school did her "masters project" on some weird disease that Hutterites get. In a normal population I think it is WAY rare (like 1 in 100,000,000 live births) but in Hutterites it is more like 1 in 300.

I think it's called Bowen-Conradi syndrome.

National Geographic did an update photo article on them in the June issue. It was interesting since I knew nothing of them. Seem to work hard, mind their own business and have this strange fascination with baseball.

I bet they would make good neighbors.

Go watch the slide show:

Sights & Sounds: Hutterite Sojourn

In-bred populations. They need to get some converts.

Il Padrino will probably convert before the slideshow is over.

They are listed as anabaptists religiously, but they will accept a certain amount of technology, including computer access.

They do suffer from youthful defections for work elsewhere.