via Insty

Collinsworth: Where does the patriotism come from inside of you? Historically, what is it?

Kobe: Well, you know it’s just our country, it’s… we believe is the greatest country in the world. It has given us so many great opportunities, and it’s just a sense of pride that you have; that you say ‘You know what? Our country is the best!’

Collinsworth: Is that a ‘cool’ thing to say, in this day and age? That you love your country, and that you’re fighting for the red, white and blue? It seems sort of like a day gone by.

Kobe: No, it’s a cool thing for me to say. I feel great about it, and I’m not ashamed to say it. I mean, this is a tremendous honor.

This has been reported at least a thousand other places. But what hasn’t been is that this isn’t something new for Bryant.

Bryant put winning a gold medal above winning the Larry O’Brien trophy or MVP honors because “you’re playing for your country. You’re not playing for a region, a state … you’re playing for the United States of America and that has more importance.”

Is there nothing left to believe in anymore? Fighting corruption is hard going in New Orleans.

More housing doom and gloom, but this time with glimmers.

This isn’t such a light-hearted story as it at first appears. “Australian media say a lost humpback whale calf has bonded with a yacht it seems to think is its mother.”

The plants will cover 12.5 square miles of central California with solar panels, and in the middle of a sunny day will generate about 800 megawatts of power, roughly equal to the size of a large coal-burning power plant or a small nuclear plant.

Elsewhere in California, legal action has possibly prevented several other power plants from being built. One of the proposed plants affected by the ruling is a natural-gas facility slated for the city of Vernon. It would generate 914-MW and, according to this article, require 13.7 acres. Yes acres.

There are 640 acres in one square mile, which means the natural-gas plant planned for Vernon would generate 667 times more power per acre than the solar plants. And that’s comparing peak power from the solar facilities to anytime power from the gas. So, in reality, the Vernon facility likely would generate approximately 2000 times the power per acre than the two solar plants.

The court ruling affects 12 other facilties besides the one in Vernon. One official stated that the Los Angeles Basin needs 2000 MW of new capacity to avoid brownouts and blackouts. Solar plants using the same technology as those touted in the NYT article would require a minimum of 31 square miles of photovoltaic cells. Think the enviros will go for that? I’m not holding my breath.

UPDATE: I’d like to make clear that I believe that solar is the power source of the future – well, along with nuclear. But the idea that we can simply quit building new coal- or gas-fired plants or reduce the number of them that we currently have and still be able to provide adequate power for our homes, schools and offices is quite simply a fantasy.

Have you noticed that the people shouting loudest to make developing oil fields impossible, to tax gasoline to astronomical levels, and to have government subsidized “Manhattan Projects” to create the breakthroughs in solar, wind, waves, bio-mass, etc., are the same people who did not take the math, science and engineering courses in college? Despite their profound ignorance in these subjects, they are sure that creating enough pain will cause those of us who did grind away in these fields for all these years to suddenly have that amazing insight which will let us repeal the third law of thermodynamics. Their core belief is that genius comes forth when misery is piled sufficiently high.  Why don’t we announce the oil industry is going to build offshore “tire inflation” platforms and put some “auto tune-up centers” in ANWR for good measure, and just go about our business, with these airheads never the wiser?

You’ll have to scroll down a ways to find it. I’m not well-versed at linking within the page at Best of the Web.

Once again, the Europeans, and their friends in the pusillanimous wing of the US Left, have demonstrated that, when it come to those postmodern Olympian sports of synchronized self-loathing, team hand-wringing and lightweight posturing, they know how to sweep gold, silver and bronze.

There’s a routine now whenever some unspeakable act of aggression is visited upon us or our allies by murderous fanatics or authoritarian regimes. While the enemy takes a victory lap, we compete in a shameful medley relay of apologetics, defeatism and surrender.

[...]

There’s something odd about listening to European governments speak about the futility of diplomacy. They are the ones who usually insist that military force alone can achieve little and who say that diplomacy must be given a chance. But now they seem to say that, since we can’t stop Russia militarily, there is nothing else we can do.

They’re wrong, as usual. As Baker points out, there are steps that can be taken — such as restoring the G8 to the G7, rejection of WTO membership. Russia still looks to be seen as a responsible member of the world community even as it acts so irresponsibly. This provides a means of punishing them, although not without costs and consequences to Europe and the US. However, the Europeans default position is inaction, whatever its consequences.

via RCP

What’s the black stuff on Kerri Walsh’s shoulder?

Could everything we know be wrong? Octopuses (octopi?) don’t have eight arms. They have six arms and two legs.

Finally, other studies show that water is wet, the sun is hot, and beer goggles are real.*

A few years ago, I received an email from an acquaintance. It was one of those that had been forwarded a million times and I believe this person just sent it to everyone in the address book. Essentially, it advocated pulling all of our troops out of everywhere and closing the doors to anything coming in or going out. I couldn’t take it so I had to reply.

I stated that it would be nice to leave the rest of the world to its own devices. Unfortunately, the world needs some adult supervision and we’re the only grown-ups around. We tried to retreat from the world once, in the 1930′s, and the results weren’t too pretty.

Western Europe is currently in the longest continuous period of peace since approximately the time of the Neanderthals. Why? Because the US military has been there to enforce the peace. One unintended consequence of this is that now these countries are utterly incapable of even protecting themselves, much less projecting force to deal with problems beyond their borders. So who is going to deter the various thugs, tyrants, and despots of the world? Certainly not the Europeans. NATO? Please, without the US, NATO is incapable of anything. The UN? Ha! Ask the people of Darfur and Srebrenica about the UN. There is no one but the US.

It is only the promise of the US to intervene that keeps China from invading Taiwan. Although the South Koreans are probably capable of defending themselves now, for most of the last 55 years only the US could deter the North. Were the US to pull out of Europe you could substitute Poland, Ukraine, possibly even Germany and France for Georgia. Until very recently piracy was a major problem for international trade. Why is it not such a large issue now? Because of the presence of the US Navy patrolling the world’s shipping lanes.

If the US were to withdraw from the international stage, the results would be catastrophic. Granted, not many people advocate this drastic isolationism. But it may not take that. We need not retreat from the world, we only need to be unwilling or unable to act.

Hanson’s outlook is pretty bleak. But the reality is that he may be an optimist.