Month: June 2008

I listened to a number of versions of this and I found myself preferring the studio version.

EDN Magazine reports on a new technology for making solar cells. Printing them. This week, Nanosolar put up a video of its 1GW (in annual production) solar ink coating machine, which the company says costs $1.65M. The coater, which works in a normal factory environment, and coats metal film with a proprietary ink based on…

Analyzing bigotry can be more fun than satire. This antiwar ad from Moveon.org is one of the most stunningly illogical pieces of propaganda I’ve seen in a long time. Holding a rented baby she calls “Alex,” the actress in the video denounces McCain based on the bogus “hundred years war” meme, and then makes an…

For some time now, I have noticed that defenders of free speech are more concerned with whether they agree with the speaker than with the principle of free speech itself. For leftists, free speech is fine for Bush-hating antiwar activists, disruptive demonstrators, artists who ridicule Christianity by putting crucifixes in urine or throwing dung at…

Demand down, prices up. How can that be?

Via Glenn Reynolds, I see that John McCain is getting what I consider a little help from Donald Rumsfeld, who (so far) has repaid McCain by declining to back his candidacy. I say this not to attack Rumsfeld, but McCain needs to distance himself from the Bush administration in order to win. Not only that,…

I know I complain a lot about the way almost everything gets politicized, although I try not to do it too often lest I get tired of listening to my own complaints. However, considering this blog’s longtime focus on cultural issues, I often feel duty bound to complain — all the more so when an…

And for those of you wondering where I have been lately? Busy learning the ARM instruction set. Preparatory to writing a simple FORTH for the ARM. The whole concept is supported by a number of companies so code written for one companies chips should with modification work on another company’s chips. Right now I like…

I’m back from the Midwest, but I’ve had zero time to blog. Sold a very used car which had been sitting in the yard for three years today, which entailed getting it running, putting air in the tires, and tearing the house apart looking for the silly lost paperwork. I’ll try to find some time…

At last John McCain is getting towards an energy policy I can back. Drill for oil. Most voters favor the resumption of offshore drilling in the United States and expect it to lower prices at the pump, even as John McCain has announced his support for states that want to explore for oil and gas…

Not me, but the wall…. Actually, I’ll be hitting the road soon, so I need to get into full robot mode. Maybe this store will help. Here I am, trying to get with the program: Why aren’t there more stores like that?

The year was 1900. The speaker was William Jennings Bryan. From a sign I saw in Ann Arbor the other night reminding student activists of their long and glorious, um, tradition:

I did a bit last night about a site with a bunch of Obama posters. It turns out you can make your very own. To prove it I made one of my own: To make one of your own just click on the picture. I had some trouble loading the site. It works. Just try…

After an all-day drive through several of the worst downpours I’ve ever driven through, here I am in Ann Arbor, Michigan. While the flooding is further south, the ferocity of the rain I drove through (it could not possibly come down harder or faster) gave me a glimpse of what people are experiencing in Iowa…

Hard to Swallow has some very nice Obama posters for your viewing pleasure. I especially like this one: *

In Dymaxion Man Elizabeth Kolbert discusses the life of Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller. Prompted by a major retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art which opens later this month. One of Buckminster Fuller’s earliest inventions was a car shaped like a blimp. The car had three wheels–two up front, one in the back–and a periscope…

Yes, I’m leaving this morning for another long road trip to the Midwest. My blogging output will necessarily be light to nonexistent, but with any luck M. Simon will keep people entertained and enlightened. (Don’t miss his latest fusion report.) I’ll try to check in when I can, time and weather permitting. Ugh, weather! People…

I just read a report that not all Democrats are endorsing Barack Obama, and I was reminded of an interesting topic I heard discussed on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show — is Obama to the left of McGovern? The consensus was that he is, and by any objective standard I think that is so, as Obama…