Source: FrontPage Magazine.

Censorship is so common now that it almost isn’t newsworthy anymore.

Source: Bacon’s Rebellion.

Intermittence is the deadliest sin of electrical generation from renewable energy sources. Thankfully, Virginia’s electricity provider is aware of the risks and is telling us about them:

• The growth rate of electricity demand is likely to continue to increase from electrification coupled with the proliferation of high-demand data centers in the region.
• Thermal generators are retiring at a rapid pace due to government and private sector policies as well as economics.
• Retirements are at risk of outpacing the construction of new resources, due to a combination of industry forces, including siting and supply chain, whose long-term impacts are not fully known.
• PJM’s interconnection queue is composed primarily of intermittent and limited-duration resources. Given the operating characteristics of these resources, we need multiple megawatts of these resources to replace 1 MW of thermal generation.

The last bullet is the one that best illustrates the folly of trying to produce civilization-grade electricity from wind and solar technology. It _can_ be done, technically speaking, but not in any optimal way.

Source: Astral Codex Ten.

This astonishing essay begins:

Around the wide world, all cultures share a few key features. Anthropologists debate the precise extent, but the basics are always there. Language. Tools. Marriage. Family. Ritual. Music. And penis-stealing witches.

It ends with an equally astonishing observation.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China.

Yesterday I shared a Chinese position paper, “US Hegemony and Its Perils,” published by the MFA just a few days prior. Today, another MFA statement, this one published on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Continue reading “China’s Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis” →

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China.

Most of us most of the time don’t want to see ourselves as others see us. But we should try.

Below are the Introduction and the Conclusion of a long paper written by China that criticizes the United States. I imagine that many Americans don’t want to hear about China’s view of our nation, but shame on them that don’t want to hear it. What’s important is that the 2/3s of the world that doesn’t pledge allegiance to the U.S. may find China’s message compelling.

Continue reading “US Hegemony and Its Perils” →

Source: The Wall Street Journal (free link).

I don’t know anything about this fellow. My first impression of him on TV last night was that he reminds me of Ben Shapiro, an unfavorable connection.

But, the more the merrier I say. I’ll listen, at least, to anyone running for president who wants to change the world.

Source: The Wall Street Journal (free link).

The U.S. is starting to look like a fall-down drunk stumbling across the world stage under a spotlight. We demand apologies from China for our own foolishness (attacking weather balloons) and throw down “red lines” that we couldn’t walk if our life depended on it.

The issue at hand, according to SoS Antony Blinken, is our fear that China will provide “lethal support” to Russia for its war in Ukraine. This admittedly is a worrisome prospect, given China’s nearly infinite manufacturing capacity. But apart from slobbery complaints and stamping our feet, what, realistically, can we do about it?

WSJ recommends that we “get serious about rebuilding U.S. defenses.” I agree, but the first step is an unlikely one: Stop sending arms to Ukraine.

Source: AP.

President Biden’s visit to Kyiv is doubly surprising. First because it was unexpected, and second because recent think tank reports have been sounding caution alarms over escalation of the war against Russia.

Did Biden go to Kyiv to show the flag, or to deliver unpleasant news?

I worry that Poland is planning to front a NATO coalition that will enter Ukraine to fight the Russians directly. This would be consistent with a show-the-flag visit. On the other hand, the White House may have decided that it is time to begin the process of ending the war. This would be consistent with a delivery-of-unpleasant-news visit.

Either way, I expect Biden’s bellicose and defiant rhetoric will continue, at least for the time being.

Transcripted version.

I have long believed that science will eventually prove the existence of God.

That’s a somewhat crude way to put the matter. What I really mean is that nature seems to offer evidence that it was created and that we will someday be able to describe this observation in a scientifically rigorous way, perhaps even a testable (or falsifiable) one.

I see the conversation in the video as advancing along lines such as these.

Source: ZeroHedge.

This story reports two different improprieties. One is federal efforts to violate freedom of speech. The other is federal employment of private, non-profit companies to perform tasks that government cannot or should not perform on its own.

I don’t know which is worse.

Apart from that, some people say that disinformation is dangerous and — because of the danger — it is good to prevent it. There are a number of problems with this way of thinking.

For example, there are problems of definition: How can we know which information is good and which is bad? Who decides, and how can we know their motives are honorable? There are also problems of performance: How should we organize to prevent disinformation? What should the rules of operation be? How will disputes be settled?

I subscribe to the theory that open debate and social tolerance for dissenting views is the best approach, but I think my subscription is in the minority today, as the story indicates.