> ...and distribute tin-foil hats, to keep the Sputniks out of our
> brains.
>
> Seriously, with the *default* distribution, you can get the contents
> of "/root"'s directory off of the web, so there's no secrets, and no
> security advantage to having the contents world readable. Removing
> read permissions where they're harmless has a big disadvantage, in
> that it encourages people to be "root" when they need not be.

first explanation that make sense. i agree.