That Was the Week Vol. 12: March 17th - 21st, 2025
Trouble at Columbia University, the heat on the solar system's ice giant, the dawn of artificial general intelligence, and Trump's plans for Ukraine's nuclear power
Columbia University's Decline and the Need for Intellectual Balance
Earlier this month, the Trump administration pulled funding from the college due to concerns over how the university handled on-campus protests against Israel
Yesterday Columbia agreed to some of the conditions set out by the Trump administration
“I'm not in favor of monolithic conservative universities who don't listen to anybody on the other side, and I'm certainly not in favor of this. What you have to do on the part of the leadership at Columbia, which is now temporary, is they have to essentially say we screwed up over the last 25 years. The problems with the Middle Eastern studies programs here is, they've been like this since I don't know 1990 or whatever the year turns out to be. Well, if that's the case, then it's a total breakdown in institutional failure,” Richard Epstein, Civitas Institute
Heat on an Ice Giant
Recent independent discoveries by two research teams find that Uranus possesses an internal heat source
One long-standing theory posits that a massive collision likely caused Uranus' extreme axial tilt and might explain its weaker internal heat
“Scientists have long—for decades—thought that maybe something really big, something maybe two times the mass of the Earth slammed into the planet Uranus billions of years ago and knocked it over. If so, that presumably would have disturbed the interior of the planet Uranus and maybe a lot of its heat that it had back then got released in that collision, and as a result, the planet has less heat today,” Ken Croswell, Science News
The Next Step in AI: Artificial General Intelligence:
Brandon Weichert highlights the crucial role of data centers as the beating heart of AI, which require massive amounts of electricity to power their operations
This energy demand will only escalate in the future, potentially forcing a trade-off between powering AI and meeting the energy needs of the human population
“Everybody in the tech sector, whether here in the United States or overseas, is talking about human-like AI capabilities by 2026, 2027. That means greater demand on the energy infrastructure globally, certainly in the United States—not less. This is why it's interesting: the the tech sector in Silicon Valley were the biggest proponents (for the most part) of global warming and cutting fossil fuels and seeking solar and wind energy. That's gone. Eric Schmidt himself has called for dropping the global warming energy demands that the policymakers had imposed upon industries for the last 30 years in favor of the most efficient effective power generation, which is fossil fuels, nuclear fusion, nuclear fission, and geothermal,” Brandon Weichert, The National Interest
Trump’s Plans for Ukraine’s Nuclear Power
New York Times reports that the White House requested ownership of Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, the largest in Europe
The plant's importance to Ukraine's energy grid is significant, and the damage sustained due to the Russian occupation poses immense technical and financial challenges associated with restoring its operation
“You're now talking about quite a lot of other things besides a fresh coat of paint on the reactor. And if you take a look, we are spending $1.6 billion to refurbish and bring online some plants at Three Mile Island that have been under safety maintenance and custody. Well, these plants have not been maintained while they've been on cold shutdown so much as they've been targets for all sorts of bad activities and not the least of which is some firings. So, you got to imagine we're talking, just for the six reactors, billions of dollars. And if you talk about all the other things, it starts growing. This is not a cheap project,” Henry Sokolski, NPEC
Londinium Chronicles Recap with Michael Vlahos: March 17th, 2025
LONDINIUM, 91 AD: Gaius (John Batchelor) and Germanicus (Michael Vlahos) observe the events of the 21st century.
Author Interview with Brandon Weichert: March 19th, 2025
The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy by Brandon Weichert on Amazon
Special Report: Canada’s Future with Jon Hartley: March 20th, 2025
LINKS:
The views and opinions expressed are those of John Batchelor and guests, and not those of CBS News.
What happened with “HK Mackinder”? Hope he is well.