Doesn't quite fit the meme but here goes:

1. Would send out a slightly different version of the letter (misspell a word, transpose words, different punctuation, white space, etc) to each person disguised as a mass/group email.
2. Find out which version is leaked and trace back to the individual.
3. Profit!

To paraphrase Churchill, "Gentlemen, we have run out of spectral bandwidth. Now we have to think."

Dr Dawkins,
I enjoyed your talk last week at the UCLA campus. I was wondering your thoughts on the applicability of evolutionary theory to politics. During your talk, I was drawing the parallels between genes and political ideas. Organisms contain a multitude of genes being selected through fitness of survival on Earth. "Good" genes are selected for, "bad" genes, against. In the same way, politicians contain a multitude of ideas, and their fitness is tested in elections. Politicians don't necessarily die after losing an election (although politically they often do), they reformulate their ideas. Politicians adopt winning ideas, abandon losing ideas, in a sense throwing out bad genes and adopt good ones. They then test their fitness in another round of elections. I would think that after a number of iterations, that we would have politicians with some damn good ideas. But here we are.

Yes, I understand that voters do a different/worse job of selecting "goodness" than nature does and perhaps it is true that we get the government that we deserve. They are judged by two contradictory measures of goodness (at least in the US). Perhaps the voting and fitness phenotype in voters are being selected for and against by the very government they select. Just some random musings from someone anxiously waiting for the elections to end.

Peter

Obfuscated Perl is redundant.

Perhaps there is a bias to include Americans, maybe not. But I think using the Wright brothers is the wrong example to pick if you want to prove your point. They did a lot more than just "happen to be around" when internal engines became light enough and powerful enough. Their realization of the need for and development of three axis control made controlled flight possible. Without proper control, the addition of and engine would have eventually led to a fate similar to Otto Lilienthal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Lilienthal#Final_flight). Lilienthal's gliders were controlled by shifting weight around-- he died when his glider stalled. The Wright brother's ability to independently control pitch, yaw and roll is the breakthrough that truly made powered flight a reality.

OK, I'll bite. That does sound absurd. But then explain why politicians are _overwhelmingly_ white, male, and christian. Why is it that you can _accuse_ a politician of being muslim? It is absurd but to ignore the real state of the current situation is even more absurd.

Another thing, invoking Ayn Rand as a guiding light for economics makes about as much sense as invoking Gene Roddenberry for space exploration.

When I see thinking like this, it makes me truly sad. I am torn between thinking you are a rational actor and a self centered dipshit. I think about the tragedy of the commons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons). The rational thing to do is to grab everything you can-- the inevitable end is total devastation.

If you grow bacteria on a petri dish, they will grow until nutrients are depleted and waste products accumulate-- then they die. A few centuries ago, the earth was in a self sustaining state. Population growth was kept in check by our ability to get enough food and calories. Starting with the industrial revolution we are now able harness the energy stored over millions of years (petroleum hydrocarbons) to push mountains, harvest the desert, build skyscrapers, send robots to Mars-- truly awe inspiring achievements. Now population growth is not food/calorie limited-- I can take $3, head down to the corner 7/11 and get more calories than are good for me.

I worry that humans have "evolved" such that they are now able to replay the tragedy of the commons on a global scale. I think that if we as a global community can't come together to solve these issues then we deserve what we get. What makes me very pessimistic about the future is that deep down inside, I think you are both a rational actor and a total dipshit.

You mean like "my program has a bug?" You probably don't mean there is moth interfering with a relay closing.
Certain phrases come to encompass more than their original meaning.

I think Apple tends to push updates for their phones for longer than are offered for Android devices.

In my case, there is no OTA update -- a lot of people have been waiting since it was announced in late 2010 for the Optimus V. Virgin Mobile still sells this phone with Android 2.2.

My point wasn't that one philosophy (open vs walled garden) is better or not. My point is that upgrading of the open Android firmware is difficult. Perhaps it is hard like the early days of installing Linux on any hardware but possibly made more difficult on purpose by handset manufacturers to promote new sales.

Here are directions from someone on the Android team: http://twitter.com/arubin/status/27808662429

Kidding aside, I think Jobs was right on this one. Because phones are locked and drivers for the phone devices are difficult obtain, the closed vs open source OS is a moot point. Android might be open but there are real hurdles to updating the Android firmware on phones-- handset manufactures just don't want you to do it.

I have a Virgin Mobile LG phone running Android 2.2. I am still waiting for the 2.3 upgrade promised sometime in 2010. I've thought about installing one of the cyanogenmod firmwares but the lack of support for all phone features gives me pause-- oh and the risk of bricking my phone. I like tinkering with electronics but I like my phone to phone.

he uses vi

I am having a hard time understanding how this can happen. How can two feet of water pressure (depth of bathtub) cause siphoning of water from the tub into the high pressure water system. I don't think I could do this if I tried. If they have less than two feet of water pressure, then yes, they have infrastructure problems.

Perhaps you are talking about a venturi effect? If the sprayer comes off at an angle from the faucet/pipe used to fill the tub, you can possibly draw water backwards into the sprayer hose but this is still downstream from the faucet and will not go back into the main water supply.

Conductivity correlates with diameter^2.
Conductivity correlates linearly with the area of the wire

In a slightly different vein, but still made of paper, these "walkalong" gliders can stay up a long time. Longer than any conventional paper airplane thrown from the ground. See the video:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Indoor-Paper-Airplane-Walkalong-Glider/