Unresolved Questions from LOST

SPOILER WARNING--also, if you're not a fan of the show this is meaningless. Tune back in next time when I discuss the finer points of chocolate fried chicken or some other absurdity.

Anyway, as the show was winding down, we were left with a bunch of questions that I'd hoped would be resolved, but weren't. Or at least left themselves open to interpretation. These include:

1) What were the "rules" between Ben and Widmore? Clearly if the rules had anything to do with not killing one another, Ben violated that when he shot Widmore to death. Was there some loophole?

2) Did the nuclear weapon actually explode at the end of last season? I'd have to suppose not, since the island wasn't wiped clean and the characters survived. Instead, it appears there was some electromagnetic disturbance that caused one final time travel to 2007. The bomb had to be a dud.

3) What was the point of the numbers?

4) What was special about Walt?

5) What was the deal with mothers unable to give birth (or conceive?) on the island?

6) Jacob said he picked the candidates because they were "alone." Er, what about the Korean couple? He picked them at their wedding for cripes sake! They weren't actually "alone".

7) What was the rule about smoke monster not killing candidates? It seemed he could plant a bomb on the sub to do so. Unless you argue that the bomb wouldn't have worked if Sawyer hadn't pulled the wires.

8) How on earth does anyone think that jumbo jet would have been able to take off again? And then it works???

9) What was the point of the "Others" and were they serving Jacob or the smoke monster?

10) If the sideways world was a construct created in the heads of the survivors, why was the island underwater (rather than nonexistant?)?

11) How did the dog (Vincent) manage to stay alive from the year 1975 (when Rose and Bernard set up house in the woods) to 2007? A 32 year old dog?