Why are people holding onto this? Why would we want to know about the Titanic's sinking? I don't think using its lessons about North Atlantic shipping safety would apply at this late date. Why do we ask what happened to the dinosaurs? After all, they seem to have been at least mostly dead for a while now, and I doubt many researchers are thinking of it in terms of endangered animal preservation efforts at this point. We ask these questions because we want to KNOW. That's largely what science and archeology are about. It's disappointing that a magazine with the prestige of Smithsonian would lose sight of that.
By the way Ric, I don't know if you wrote the reply yourself, or had someone else do it at your direction, but it was excellent. Bravo to you for taking the high road!