250 km of seabed, with 50 miles between islands...i suppose consistency of units would be a lot to ask for...

Recent studies have elucidated the importance of a creature's microbiome (especially gut flora) to its digestive capabilities and overall health. How healthy can an animal whose microbiome is extinct be (unless it inherits a suitable microbiome from its surrogate elephant mother)?

| (check my /. user name)

You used to rob limos?

Could such animals possible be healthy in the absence of the gut flora & other micro-species that evolved along with it?

I removed Facebook from my Android device when I discovered it wanted permission to take photos without even notifying me :O

If the robots require us to be around for their fuel, perhaps they'll refrain from wiping us out...

Don't forget snow globes! (There actually was a recall over this - http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2009/Hallmark-Recalls-Jumbo-Snow-Globes-Due-to-Fire-Hazard/)

I spent two seasons in the mid-1980s excavating at Nohmul, and can put a rest to some of the speculation here.

Nobody in this region is unaware of the nature of these ruins, nor their significance. This part of the country is flat limestone plains, and it is generally understood that any small hills are in reality ancient ruins.

The site draws almost no tourists whatsoever (it is almost entirely unrestored), so liability is not a concern. While not amongst the better known sites, it had much historic value nonetheless, which is why it was the subject of numerous investigations by Cambridge and Rutgers Universities, National Geographic, etc. The destruction of one Nohmul's primary structures for road fill is indeed a tragedy. The gentleman who owned the site when I excavated there would never have let this happen, but I suspect that ownership changed hands in the interim.

It is estimated that bacteria alone (only one component of our microbiome) far outnumber human cells. I'm not totally up on my modern biology, but i suspect that the situation with birds is comparable; could any species be resurrected successfully in the absence of its associated microfauna?

Or is it more like this? http://hackaday.com/2009/11/03/wozs-watch-makes-air-travelers-nervous/

So Facebook, you want to be the preeminent social media site, but you want me to pay for every message sent to my non-FB friends? Let me know how that works out for you...

...Cambridge University.

...something amateur ("ham") radio operators have been using since the 1980's...

-allen
KC2KLC

Opting out at choice.live.com requires registration, including providing an email address. [sarcasm]I'm sure i'll never receive unsolicited emails from them! [/sarcasm]

I would have expected mention of what may be Slashdot's most profound contribution to the Internet: The Slashdot Effect!