The Silver-Tongued Savior of Mankind gave his first press conference as President-Elect this afternoon, and, in an example of what's being praised as looseness, Lightbringer Alpha took a gratuitous shot at, of all people, Nancy Reagan.

Video below the fold: more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 05:55 PM | Comments (277)
Post contains 211 words, total size 2 kb.

RPI is calling this a "game changer". I don't know if I'd go that far, but boosting your ability to absorb light by just under 50% is pretty significant development.

...An untreated silicon solar cell only absorbs 67.4 percent of sunlight shone upon it — meaning that nearly one-third of that sunlight is reflected away and thus unharvestable. From an economic and efficiency perspective, this unharvested light is wasted potential and a major barrier hampering the proliferation and widespread adoption of solar power.

After a silicon surface was treated with Lin’s new nanoengineered reflective coating, however, the material absorbed 96.21 percent of sunlight shone upon it — meaning that only 3.79 percent of the sunlight was reflected and unharvested. This huge gain in absorption was consistent across the entire spectrum of sunlight, from UV to visible light and infrared, and moves solar power a significant step forward toward economic viability.

LinÂ’s new coating also successfully tackles the tricky challenge of angles....

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 04:56 PM | Comments (64)
Post contains 204 words, total size 1 kb.

Yup, big shocka there.

It certainly backs up the message I got from co-blogger Blackflag:

That being said, almost every online dealer of AR/AK mags and ammo is sold out, mad rush going on in the firearms industry in preparation for AWB2.

AWB2 being Assault Weapons Ban 2, if you're a Concern Troll, unable to grasp the fine points that we can actually see through Obama's bullshit that:

During an October appearance in Ohio, Obama sought to reassure gun owners. "I will not take your shotgun away," he said. "I will not take your rifle away. I won't take your handgun away."

They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.

These so-called "assault weapons" are semi-automatic rifles, no different than the semi-automatic 30.06 my father in law hunts with (I have a bolt action .300 WinMag). So he's lying yet again. He does want to take your rifle away.

My fellow morons, you have less than three months to stock up. I know I am.

Major update: After reading the updates at S&L, I took a screen shot of the quote noted above from changedotgov.

View image

more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 04:25 PM | Comments (153)
Post contains 254 words, total size 2 kb.

Governor Palin goes medieval on dat ass.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called her critics cowards and jerks Friday for deriding her anonymously and insisted she never asked for the expensive wardrobe purchased for her use on the presidential campaign.

"I never asked for anything more than a Diet Dr. Pepper once in a while."

She also said she wouldn't demand that perennial lout and convicted criminal Senator Stevens resign:

"The Alaska voters have spoken and me not being a dictator, won't be telling anyone what to do."

Interesting. Not being a dictator. This is not the spray-shooting, law-breaking, power-abusing IceTyrant that I have been introduced to by the MSM.

UPDATE: Hot Air has the video. more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 04:12 PM | Comments (211)
Post contains 127 words, total size 1 kb.

Tanking a short (weekend) vacation.

Try to hit those meetups yourselves. We need it.

Posted by: Ace at 01:03 PM | Comments (76)
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

So baits the amateurish, story-fabricating TNR, finding it bizarre that the right would turn on Schmidt, Wallace, etc., for turning on our best candidate in 20 years.

Say, Christopher? Speaking of big tent parties, and a healthy right to dissent against a party's standard-bearer, how are Joe Lieberman's committee assignments looking these days?

Stupid asshole.*

This is what happens when a magazine is built on almost nothing but partisan snark. It's just an endless circle-jerk of self-flattery and bloggish digs.

TNR was always kinda like that -- its juvenile style (which I employ as well) was always proto-bloggish.

But they used to try their hand and light wonkery once in the while in the old days.

And once in a while they dared to cross the Democratic establishment with, you know, criticism.

Michael Kinsley ruined both Slate and TNR. You had legions of young, stupid leftists thinking they could get by on Kinsley-esque snark and nothing but that, failing to comprehend

1) they weren't as good at it as he was,

2) within five or six years Kinsley himself was overtaken with reflexive, predictable partisanship and lost the contrarian edge that had made him interesting, rather than merely readable, as well, and

3) Kinsley occasionally dabbled in real policy debates rather than partisan rah-rah.

The Democratic Party has exhibited a very nasty top-down marching-orders strategy for eight years, destroying anyone who dared to dissent (remember the screams of outrage when Charlie Gibson and George Stephanolopolous dared to ask Obama about Bill Ayers -- for the first and last time!), but damn, if they're not all giving each other pats on the back for their enthusiasm for debate and tolerance for contrarian views.

Say, Christopher? Can you tell me the last big vigorous public debate the Democratic Party had on any issue whatsoever?

Seems to me the party line is determined by the leadership, flooded out to the masses through DKos and your own goofy little amateur website, and then ruthlessly enforced.

Yeah, I know... TNR ran a nice piece on the Obama's thuggish embrace of the Teamsters, and his demand that they finally be free of federal supervision to get all mobbed-up again.

I don't remember that getting much traction or notice, however. Except by those on the right.

And I don't recall any follow-ups.

You guys going to fight tooth-and-nail against public union balloting, I guess?

Right.

Big tent.

* I should say he's a very competent movie reviewer, though. Or at least he's on the same page as I am most of the time.

Posted by: Ace at 12:08 PM | Comments (121)
Post contains 438 words, total size 3 kb.

...as it releases eight (8!) post-cataclysmic movies this fall.

You say it's bad timing, now that The One has been elected? A bit off-message?

Nay, it's perfect timing. Eight visions of the nightmare-hell that is Michelle Obama's view of George Bush's America to purge us of despair and prepare us to hope again come January 20th.

When we begin rebuilding again. Asserting our humanity again. Telling the zombies and mutants (that would be you and me) that America lives again.

(I'm not sure who will fight in the Great Overmountain Invasion of Pakistan once Obama drives the zombie and mutants from the sunlight of the living world, but I'm sure The One has some sort of contingency plan for this.)

Thanks to Maetenloch.

Posted by: Ace at 11:54 AM | Comments (48)
Post contains 133 words, total size 1 kb.

Not sure about this...

According to columnists Rush & Malloy of the New York Daily News, Fox has issued a chilling edict to its hosts that they must cease criticism of Obama for the near future:

Fox News boss Roger Ailes doesn't want to spoil Barack Obama's political honeymoon, we hear. A source says Ailes has told prime-time hosts Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Greta Van Susteren to lay off the President-elect - at least for a while. "We're not going to have any personal attacks on Obama," a network insider says. "The public has spoken - we must treat him with respect."

One caveat: Ailes issues missives every day about how stories should be covered. The left calls this "the party line." I call it "letting all the liberals on the staff know what 'fair and balanced' means, as they are apparently incapable of figuring out for themselves (see CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, AP, Reuters, etc.)."

This could just be Ailes letting people know it's time for the traditional honeymoon period. And, as I said myself, the shelf-life of the Ayers/Wright stuff is just about passed, anyhow. (Mostly.)

We'll see if Fox really does continue with this.

Via Hot Air.

Incidentally... If Murdoch thinks he can really play nice-nice with Obama and not be harassed -- he's dreaming. Leftists have been dreaming of a Unitary Executive-Media Branch since, well, forever.

Plus there's no reason to watch Fox except for the fair and balanced pledge.

Posted by: Ace at 11:41 AM | Comments (146)
Post contains 270 words, total size 2 kb.

Saxby Chambliss is facing a run-off -- and he only got 49.8% of the vote in the election. If he gets that in a two-person race, he loses, and we lose another Senate seat.

Donate, if you can.

Palin's coming to help rally the troops for him.

We'll finally get to see Palin unshackled from McCain's overly-calibrated agenda.

Thanks to CJ for the last tip.

Posted by: Ace at 11:30 AM | Comments (43)
Post contains 71 words, total size 1 kb.

Stevens will definitely be expelled, says Reid, regardless of his appeals.

Which is the right call -- so I'm surprised they're making it. I'm surprised they're not letting the felon remain in office to hang that albatross around our necks.

So thanks for doing the right thing.

Will Palin stand for his seat?

Personally it would be ideal if she could serve out her four years, getting all that executive experience, and then run for the Senate.

But you can't time these things perfectly, of course. She'd have to defeat Lisa Murkowski in a primary if she wished to run for Senate later.

I'm not sure I want Palin in the Senate -- the Senate ruins Republicans. Plus the Democrats would mount a long campaign to embarrass her and constantly push stories like "She doesn't even know where England is!!!"

Still, it's a way to get that federal experience under he belt.

Posted by: Ace at 11:26 AM | Comments (165)
Post contains 158 words, total size 1 kb.