Efficiency can be easy - we just need to build a Dyson sphere.

If you're trying to heat the building - not so much. If the panels are in contact with the building - not then either - they tend to capture a lot of heat. If you get them far enough away that outside air removes the heat - then shade may help.

I know a guy in Alaska who uses solar for all of his power needs during the summer. So if that farmland sale doesn't pan out - you can try to sell off the land for power generation - because that'll be equally suitable too (year round).

;)

There are a number of ways to quantify the impact of one's decision, and by many measures (e.g. greenhouse gas produced by commute to work, & etc...) I'm sure the ratio is even further from unity.

Can the sun realistically power data centers? Excepting for the regions which burn primordial elements - it's powering all data centers today.

And if your passwords support Unicode 7, all you got to do is throw in that one to give your opinion to the brute forcers. With respect to passwords, it seems to me that software/touchscreen (non Windows) keyboards have led to the greatest decrease in available password security in recent times on an entropy basis. (i.e. it's no longer trivial to include extended ASCII or unicode characters).

I don't take much issue with the first part of your assessment, but you might want to take a look at the last eight or so years of SCOTUS vs DOJ. It's not exactly one sided.

Um, the Supreme Court wouldn't necessarily have a compelling reason to take up the case if the 2nd and 9th are in agreement. The quickest way for this to go to the top would be for the 9th to sustain the ruling for the EFF's client and then there'd be a 9th-2nd split.

Well put a bunch of Firsters on one side of the room and a bunch of Seconders on the other side and then let them do battle with their respective speech and arms and see who wins.

There's probably a lesson or three in there. Figuring it out is above my paygrade though; that's why I'm so appreciative that this country has an independent judiciary making sure that the people with the arms aren't able to just simply apply force majeure to prevent free speech...

Ok, Mr. McCarthy - why don't we just get you and Mr. Murrow to have this conversation on the air?

What? It's not like mob rule had anything at all to do with the downfall of the Roman Republic ;) Besides - even if it did, it took an emperor to get pax. After six civil wars inside a century, who wouldn't be ready for an imperator?

For those interested in the list but too lazy to read federal documentation (who isn't?) - here you go:

a) Avian influenza virus (highly pathogenic)

b) Bacillus anthracis

c) Botulinum neurotoxin

d) Burkholderia mallei

e) Burkholderia pseudomallei

f) Ebola virus

g) Foot-and-mouth disease virus

h) Francisella tularensis

i) Marburg virus

j) Reconstructed 1918 Influenza virus

k) Rinderpest virus

l) Toxin-producing strains of Clostridium botulinum

m) Variola major virus

n) Variola minor virus

o) Yersinia pestis

Here's a direct link to the dual use research of concern (DURC) policy.

My main concerns will be whether it's going to have a chilling effect on research; especially when it's also unclear to me whether this will have any useful impact beyond another layer of red tape. We already have IRBs, biosafety committees, and select agent lists, and I'm unsure that such a "volluntary" system of a PI tagging their own research for extra bureaucracy will make much headway before a problem occurs.

Hmm... Now there's a possibility. Find a symbiotic gut bacteria which can render fossil fuels edible.

The gizmos, gadgets, and Mac Guffins are merely there to help us ponder the question of "how would the ability to do such and such impact human life/culture/civilization/etc... ?" If that question is ignored, then the story - regardless of the do-hickeys involved - belongs to another genera: perhaps adventure, fantasy, or something else. The question can be treated at the highest levels of galactic civilization and politics or at the lowest levels of an individual's life, but it is the quintessential aspect of Science Fiction.