Escamillo - do you have a link to the report of the rats? I thought that this phenomenon was going on in our country as well so it's kind of a shock to find that it's been rats all this time.

Also, I'm curious. Given that nothing with mass exceeds the speed of light, and that light itself can't avoid the extreme forces of a black hole, what happens to the ejecta on the other side of the hole?

And for those that don't believe, have you ever seen an atom? Pictures don't count! They could be altered! Have you ever seen a quark? What about those other scientific subdivisions of subparticles that we all accept because of mathematics? Does it not make sense that in a universe with "billions and billions of stars" (Thank you Mr. Sagan)to put a number on the concept, a small percentage of which, like this solar system, contain planets, a small percentage of which have earthlike conditions (M-class - whatever that means), that at least one more out of these billions and billions of stars should by the odds alone have a life form if not an intelligent life form? And since we have "traveled to the stars" in the form of landers, satellites and such that they have or will do the same?

My friend here just told me that there's no intelligent life on this planet so I guess it's all a moot point!