...using rust.

...This allows water splitting to take place that leads to the capture of about 15% of the energy in the incident sunlight - that which falls on a set area for a set length of time. This energy can then be stored in the form of hydrogen...

The big thing about hydrogen production has always been that it took power to crack water apart. If that power comes from free sunlight, and doesn't need any fancy/expensive chemicals, the production value equation changes.

A pretty good commercial solar panel will be about 15% efficient. The really cheap poly-silicon stuff is in the 10% range. So 15% out of rust-tech looks pretty good. All the usual caveats about hydrogen apply to commercialization though...hydrogen embrittlment, seal issues on fittings, splodyness in crashes, etc.

Mid-morning open thread major, with a minor in Zimmerman trial.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 04:49 AM | Comments (209)
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Yea, of course he's still pimping spend, spend, spend pretty hard, but there's a modestly different tone now, a slight shift in ambient lighting scheme to something darker and more foreboding, allowing for the slight possibility that the usual quick fixes maybe won't do it.

...Full recovery still looks a very long way off. And IÂ’m beginning to worry that it may never happen...

... If unemployment rises from 6 to 7 percent during an election year, the incumbent will probably lose. But if it stays flat at 8 percent through the incumbentÂ’s whole term, he or she will probably be returned to power. And this means that thereÂ’s remarkably little political pressure to end our continuing, if low-grade, depression...

If you read nothing else, the slug is pretty devastating :

Defining Prosperity Down

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:29 PM | Comments (114)
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OMFG Obama To Deploy 15,000 Russian Troops in US Under DHS Orders!!!!!

An unsettling report prepared by the Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) circulating in the Kremlin today on the just completed talks between Russia and the United States in Washington D.C. says that the Obama regime has requested at least 15,000 Russian troops trained in disaster relief and "crowd functions" [i.e. riot control] be pre-positioned to respond to FEMA Region III during an unspecified "upcoming" disaster.

Well actually no.

In fact Stacy McCain actually did some digging and found that the story is bullshit:

That article is bullshit, so far as I can tell. It links to a seemingly legitimate Russian news site's report about the U.S.-Russian meeting, but that article says nothing at all about a report "circulating in the Kremlin" or Janet Napolitano requesting 15,000 Russian troops.  The EU Times (bullshit) article also says this:

FEMA Region III, the area Russian troops are being requested for, includes Washington D.C. and the surrounding States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, "strongly suggesting" that the Obama regime has lost confidence in its own military being able to secure its survival should it be called upon to do so.

We have zero official sources for this, and good luck finding any mainstream news organization - Associated Press, Washington Post, Reuters, etc. - that has even taken notice of the June 25 U.S.-Russian meeting which (a) we know actually happened, based on a statement from the Russian agency, but which (b) apparently wasn't considered important enough to merit a press release from FEMA.

Apparently officials from FEMA and the Russian equivalent did meet in June but the result seems to have been the usual nicey-nice-let's-agree-to-share-experiences-and-training-tips bureaucratic argle-bargle. Not a mention of any troops or really anything claimed in the article.

By the way the EU Times isn't a newspaper,  isn't affiliated with the EU, and apparently will print anything that people send in as long as it gets hits. The fact that they have a Zionism section, lots of links to Infowars, and stories like this, this and this tells you pretty much where they're coming from and how much credibility they deserve.

In fact this whole story is a case study of how click-attracting bullshit gets peddled and passed into the conservative blogosphere. Here's what the actual June press release from the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense and Emergencies said:

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry and the USA Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are going to exchange experts during joint rescue operations in major disasters. This is provided by a protocol of the fourth meeting of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission Working Group on Emergency Situations and seventeenth meeting of Joint U.S.-Russia Cooperation Committee on Emergency Situations, which took place in Washington on 25 June.

The document provides for expert cooperation in disaster response operations and to study the latest practices.

In addition, the parties approved of U.S.-Russian cooperation in this field in 2013-2014, which envisages exchange of experience including in monitoring and forecasting emergency situations, training of rescuers, development of mine-rescuing and provision of security at mass events.

And here's how the EU Times (and Infowars and many other cut-and-paste sites) reported it:

Russian Forces to Provide "Security" At US Events

As part of a deal signed last week in Washington DC between the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry and FEMA, Russian officials will provide "security at mass events" in the United States, a scenario that won't sit well with Americans wary of foreign assets operating on US soil.

According to a press release by the Ministry of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense and Emergencies, US and Russian officials met on June 25 at the 17th Joint U.S.-Russia Cooperation Committee on Emergency Situations.

Are these even vaguely the same thing? Hell no. And this exaggeration and deliberate misinterpretation is no mistake or accident. You see it in article after article. And sadly quite a few well-known conservative blogs also engage in the same bullshit-bait-and-switch as well.

So why do they do it when it's so obvious? Because they think you're stupid and gullible. And because it works.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:50 PM | Comments (455)
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Senator Ted Cruz's father. Wow. This is impressive as hell.

Dave's take: Why Marxism sucks, and why America rocks.

"They have both hands in our pockets taking our our hard earned dollars to buy votes."

Absogoddamnedlutely right. Tammany on steroids. This is plain talk, straight up no chaser.

I understand a little bit more why our Junior Senator is pretty friggin awesome.

via LC Aggie

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:11 PM | Comments (99)
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The numbers released publicly were those associated with 527 organizations, another type of tax-exempt political organization.

Per Wikipedia:

A 527 organization or 527 group is a type of U.S. tax-exempt organization organized under Section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 527). A 527 group is created primarily to influence the selection, nomination, election, appointment or defeat of candidates to federal, state or local public office.

Technically, almost all political committees, including state, local, and federal candidate committees, traditional political action committees, "Super PACs", and political parties are "527s." However, in common practice the term is usually applied only to such organizations that are not regulated under state or federal campaign finance laws because they do not "expressly advocate" for the election or defeat of a candidate or party.

When the IRS makes 527 information public (which they must, per the law), they're supposed to scrub out sensitive information like Social Security numbers. But the gang that couldn't shoot straight (unless they're aiming at the Tea Party) failed to do this in thousands of case.

I'd be curious to know if the exposure of sensitive information (setting someone up for identity theft or worse) was purely random, affecting all sorts of different 527s, or if it's mostly conservative leaning ones who were abused by this latest case of malnegligence* by the IRS.

* Made up the word. They're incompetent, but their incompetence often tends to have a malign bend to it.

Posted by: Ace at 03:51 PM | Comments (197)
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This will show marijuana in his body.

I think this is kind of a no-brainer ruling, but the cries of "Racist!" are as loud as you'd expect.

Mind you, I don't think having pot in your system makes you more aggressive. Quite the opposite. And I don't think they can even tell if he was high at the time or if the THC was from a week ago. But it is probative as to the possible state of mind and judgement of Martin.

A no-brainer decision, I think, as both Zimmerman's mental state and Martin's are in question. (The prosecution keeps pushing the theory that because Zimmerman cursed ("f***ing punks") that proves the "ill will and depraved heart" requirement of Murder 2.) But not especially probative.

But oh the screaming by people who know nothing except They Want Their Racial Justice.

Posted by: Ace at 02:17 PM | Comments (169)
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Well, we had Captain Hardon announce for Mayor and then leap to a good-sized lead (25% to 20%) over his strongest rival.

Now disgraced whoremonger Elliot Spitzer is running for NYC comptroller. I can't wait for these guys to menage with NYC's finances.

And if there's anyone you want minding the city's funds for excess, it's a guy who spends $3000 a night for a whore ($80,000 over "several years").

Oh, by the way, on that: I was trying to track down how much Spitzer spent and found an old Gawker piece, spinning the number, claiming that the Media Is Blowing This All Out of Proportion because it wasn't $5000 a night, it was at most $4700 (and $200 of that was a tip, not a charge), and it's ridiculous to say it's $5000 per hour, because it works out to a much-more-understandable $750 per hour.

Well, at those costs, what are we waiting for? Let's get some high-priced callgirls.

I don't want to link them but if you search for $4700 Spitzer, Dupre, and $750 per hour you should find that.

Egregious.

Anyway, I think Spitzer is counting on the "It's only $750 per hour" Gawker demographic for his new hustle.

“I love public service,” Spitzer told the Daily News. “I believe in it, and hope I will be given a second chance.

This should make for a spirited debate:

In an odd twist, the ex-governor — who resigned in 2008 amid a high-priced call girl scandal — will be competing against Kristin Davis, the ex-madam who says she supplied him with hookers and who is running on the Libertarian line.

Yes, the madam who supplied him with whores is running against him.

Posted by: Ace at 02:41 PM | Comments (225)
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I know you all are still reeling from this mind-ripping disclosure, so I'll play some comforting music to let adjust to the strange new reality you find yourselves in.

Okay, if that didn't do it, play it seven or eight times until your brain heals.

Now that you've recovered, here's your informational LSD.

When it comes to issues of U.S. militarism and spying, the allegedly “progressive” MSNBC often seems closer to the “official network of the Obama White House” than anything resembling an independent channel. With a few exceptions (especially Chris Hayes [10]), MSNBC has usually reacted to expanded militarism and surveillance by downplaying the abuses or defending them.

Had McCain or Romney defeated Obama and implemented the exact same policies, treating whistleblowers like Manning and Snowden as foreign espionage agents, one would expect MSNBC hosts to be loudly denouncing the Republican abuses of authority.

I see many of you are still too stunned to even comment "first." One guy apparently just had a seizure and commented, "HGOH{RU NQ{)UT_{U{)ON U NP(GIH." Another guy's all like "Aaaagggh!" like Mr. Book just psi-slammed him in Dark City.

So for those of you still trying to put the pieces of your soulpatterns back into working order, here's the nonthreatening musical stylings of Don "No Soul" Simmons.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:46 PM | Comments (172)
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Muslim Brotherhood supporters confronted the military, and the military confronted back-- killing 40 of the Muslim Brotherhood protesters and wounding another 300.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:05 PM | Comments (260)
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One additional bit, too: There were "multiple" break-ins. They exited and reentered more than once.

The burglars are dressed in street clothes -- t-shirt, shorts, cap -- but then, the idea of Evil Elite Operatives always dressing in impeccably-tailored suits or wicked-cool black leather trenchcoats is probably Something Hollywood Made Up. more...

Posted by: Ace at 11:23 AM | Comments (531)
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