In a message dated 3/22/2001 11:14:58 PM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

<< .... if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to make a house out
of
 it, does that make it less useful as house-building material? >>

No, it becomes even MORE useful if the log gets fished out of the river after
having been mudogenically preserved for 100 years and somebody charges Bill
Gates $1,000,000 per board inch for the lumber.  If it rots, it becomes less
useful, but then it becomes food for generations of new, up to date,
postmodern trees, so it's useful again.

Ralph