Thank you, this is very helpful.

> Third, watch out for microinverter-based designs. ... a horrific generator of radio frequency interference. It'll do everything from reduce your wifi ...

On microinverters, though: I don't know about other microinverter systems, but I've been running a 10 kW array with 34 Enphase microinverters for about a year now, and we've had zero problems with our wifi reception - and it's going a large distance across the house. (There is a different issue: The microinverters embed panel performance data in the AC line, and an Envoy unit inside the house, which is connected to the router, extracts it and sends it to a server, so your web and smartphone app can work, give per-panel data, etc. *That* AC line encoding doesn't work well when we have lots of stuff turned on, using power. But it can buffer up the data for months, if necessary, and we've never had it go more than a day without being able to extract and send the data.)

Almost every article I read says "efficiency" (% of photon energy converted to electricity) is the problem with solar panels, and there is all this focus on higher-efficiency panels. But let's get it straight: It won't be rising efficiency (watts/m^2) that make solar panels really take off; it's not like limited roofspace is the bottleneck that we're all fighting here. It's cost: dollars per watt. As cost drops, solar panels should further proliferate.

Where else do you propose finding people with the relevant experience to these government positions? Fairyland?

Perhaps that's a valid positive aspect of violence in video games. But what about the negatives: that it desensitizes us to violence, and we even grow to enjoy it? Take television as an example. When I look around in the U.S., I see a nation of television addicts, whose priorities, interests, and cultural views are largely influenced by what they absorb watching television. One inevitable aspect of watching a lot of TV is witnessing violence. This might provide a cathartic outlet for some of us, but I think it also trains us to accept, expect, and even enjoy such violence... after all, if people didn't enjoy it, it wouldn't sell, so it wouldn't be on TV. Now, maybe adults can separate reality from fantasy (I personally don't believe this, but it is arguable), but can kids? From my experience, they are *drastically* less adept at this than adults, and I think adults forget this (until they have kids of their own, and then begin to take a conservative viewpoint on it - for a reason). Video games are in the same boat. Violent video games also desensitize people to what real-life acts of violence - such as murder and war - mean. Violence becomes glorified; it gets associated with fun, recreation, pleasure, endorfins. I'm not saying that what this study says is wrong; I'm sure that video-game violence is a cathartic outlet and can sometimes play a positive role. But that's only one aspect of it; we have to look at the big picture. Now, I know a lot of you slashdotters love video games, and I expect to get ripped for this one... but please, you don't have to dismember me - let's keep the discussion fair and mature, ok? Ryan Geiss