Jason Rylander thinks that cloning extinct species, mammoths in particular, is "a profoundly bad idea". (He even brings Jurassic Park into it.)

I disagree. I don't know about cloning dinosaurs (which is almost certainly impossible), but mammoths are a completely different animal, literally and figuratively. They only went extinct very recently. More importantly, they (almost certainly) went extinct due to human agency, at least in part. I not only think it's acceptable for human agency to try and bring the mammoth back, it's our duty.

Besides, I think seeing a mammoth would be neat.