Puzzling Solar Panel Press Release

Getting back to science, at least for the moment, I was puzzled by a press release from RPI, with the eye-catching headline Solar power game-changer: ‘Near perfect’ absorption of sunlight, from all angles. The article describes work published in Optics Letters (that I haven’t been able to put my hands on yet), developing new anti-reflection… Continue reading Puzzling Solar Panel Press Release

The Kids Are Alright

I’ve seen several people linking to Andrew Gelman’s analysis of voting in the election, which is generally good and interesting. I would like to quibble about one thing he says, though. After noting that young voters overwhelmingly went for Obama, he says: But there was no massive turnout among young voters. According to the exit… Continue reading The Kids Are Alright

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links for 2008-11-06

stevenberlinjohnson.com: The System Worked "We hear so often that the American political system is broken, but I think the last two years suggest that our national politics are healthier than we have been led to believe." (tags: politics us society culture blogs) Easily Distracted » Blog Archive » Dear President Santa "Here’s a Christmas wish… Continue reading links for 2008-11-06

It’s All About Timing

Slate (who, by the way, drive me up the freaking wall with their habit of giving each story about six different headlines, depending on where the link is) has hit the ground running with a panel of distinguished right-wing types discussing what the Republicans should do now. Jim Manzi gets the ball rolling with an… Continue reading It’s All About Timing

Thank God for the Internet

As I said in an earlier post, the only election-night coverage I watched was the Comedy Central special and Obama’s speech on C-SPAN. This morning, though, I flipped back and forth between MSNBC and CNN while feeding and walking the floor with SteelyKid (when she’s fussy, she won’t tolerate me standing still to read blogs).… Continue reading Thank God for the Internet

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The Morning After

Some commentary on the night just past. This will be somewhat scattered, as I stayed up until 1 to hear Obama and read the celebratory postings at my favorite left-leaning blogs: — As much as I believed what folks like Nate Silver were saying, I was still afraid that it would somehow all go wrong,… Continue reading The Morning After

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Yes, He Can

Heart-warming morning thought: SteelyKid is going to grow up in a world where “Can a black man be elected President?” will be considered a stupid question. That’s worth a smile: Hell, that’s worth some dancing in the streets:

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links for 2008-11-05

The Supreme Court’s 100 percent dirt-free exploration of potty words. – By Dahlia Lithwick – Slate Magazine "Perhaps it’s true that the Supreme Court can take away our F-bomb. But they cannot touch our dirty, dirty minds." (tags: US politics language law society culture) Watching the election. – By Troy Patterson – Slate Magazine "I… Continue reading links for 2008-11-05

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Non-Election Live Blogging

It seems like everybody with a blog has put up a live-blogging/ open comment thread about the election. I can’t really type fast enough to compete in this sort of thing, and anyway, it seems cruel to leave foreigners and apolitical types out of the fun. So, for the benefit of those who can’t vote… Continue reading Non-Election Live Blogging

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Stop Hitting Refresh!

There aren’t any results yet. Turn off the computer. Go vote. Already voted? Watch some silly videos. Eat a sandwich. Do some freakin’ thing. Just stop reloading FiveThirtyEight and Talking Points Memo, already.

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