I remember Saving Private Ryan for the graphic and thorough depiction of the brutality war and sudden-ness of death. The cinematic effects I'm sure contributed to this, but what I consciously remember is the content.

Given how prevalent it is in nature and human culture, there is probably a little of both. The wikipedia article on the Golden Ratio notes several diverse places where it's appeared through history and nature. It is frequently associated with beauty and harmony, and there seems to be some indication that it correlates well with what we consider beautiful when looking at people.

Pertinent to your question, the Wikipedia page does note that there seems to be some disagreement on whether we do indeed have a preference for the Golden Ratio in aesthetics. http://plus.maths.org/content/os/issue22/features/golden/index is one of the linked articles, and seems interesting reading.

While you're correct that the US's military (and other) policies don't do a lot to prevent people from hating us, and that treating civilians as "enemy resources" is the way to Very Bad Things, please don't call us Nazis. We're not. Calling us Nazis dilutes the descriptive power of the word.

Am I paranoid to be wary of using a Chinese phone, given recent articles on their extensive industrial espionage?

That is the best reason I've ever read for having nice-resistant locks when the rest of the house isn't completely secured: Don't make it hard to get in, make it hard to get in without leaving evidence of a break-in. Thanks!

You're right, he should be able to freshly articulate his points on demand. However, this might not be the right place to do so. A published version of them is likely to be more polished and thorough. "Why should we listen to you" is unlikely to get a response from Stallman, especially when he has explained in in probably as thorough detail as he cares to on his website.

This is a separate issue from "I'm still not convinced", however.

They are user profile files that live in your home directory, normally, or in /etc.

Configuring a new system is an exercise in frustration, whether it's Linux or Windows. (Macs may be different?) I chalk this up to my personal preferences being complex, and different from the defaults in _both_ operating systems. It tends to take a day+ for me to configure a new version of windows, since I need to research the tweaks that need to be done (registry changes, helper programs, etc) in order to enact the changes that I want. (I like focus-follows-mouse, don't raise windows, and install a virtual desktop system that doesn't suck.) It took me a while to figure out how to configure Windows 7's interface so that it made more sense to me, but there were always things that frustrated me. (I still haven't upgraded at home.)

In comparison, I now use Ubuntu at work. When I installed it, it had Unity as its interface, and I couldn't stand it. Some like it, but there's lots that I dislike. After spending a week trying to get one alternative desktop interface to work, I switched gears and switched to XFCE (another desktop environment for linux); installing it was simple, and ran overnight. I'll never be able to modify Windows' desktop experience as thoroughly or easily. From there, I had to configure my personal settings (menus here, mouse behavior the way I like it, etc), but __in the future__ I know it will be easier: I know the window manager that I like, and can either copy or recreate my customizations more easily than in Windows.

It's not so much that they unilaterally ignore it, it's that every police department has limited resources with which to respond to any collection of situations. They implicitly have to choose between sending officers to investigate a downed hunter-heckling drone versus responding to car accidents, domestic abuse, or even traffic violations. Which do you think they are likely to feel is a better use of their limited resources?

In effect, wolf-cryers get ignored. It's not due to a policy decision to do so, but rather due to constraints on resources and a perceived lower probability of the wolf-cryer actually needing help.

A directional microwave? :-) That's probably illegal as well.

Won't Prior art be meaningless when the US changes to a First to File system (like most of the rest of the world) next year?

You say it jokingly, but you have an interesting point. I grew up, learning an ethical framework of how to behave towards other humans that was based around "these were Jesus' teachings". I am having trouble explaining some of the virtues that are considered "Christian" virtues (e.g. compassion, honesty, etc) without this intellectual crutch when I talk with my kids. Any suggestions on how to teach a young person to be kind, honest, unselfish? "By example" covers a lot of it, but doesn't explain things like _why_ not to hurt, steal, or lie.

It's not that they are incapable of it, more that they are unwilling to.

That must make the World Series especially fun. :D

I'm pretty sure the concept is not that a rock created life, but rather that radiation and the interactions between proteins created it, by accident. Saying it's from a rock is a straw man: I don't think anyone believes that life came from "a rock".

Thanks for the reminder of his work: I read that story years ago, and loved it. I'll have to go seek out the rest of his work now.