Odds and Ends #60: Greenpeace is complaining about... solar energy?

Plus why the west has semiconductor politics all wrong, and why you should watch Conclave.

Photo by American Public Power Association on Unsplash

Hello! It’s time for Odds and Ends, your weekly round-up of the most interesting links I’ve seen this recently – complete with some shorter takes.

But first, a few brief notes:

Last week’s event: Earlier this week, I was delighted to host the third ever Odds and Ends of History live event, talking about how AI can fix the government, with my friend Alexander Iosad from the Tony Blair Institute. We had a great turnout, and I hope if you came along you learned as much as I did.

Catch-up: I’m afraid there’s not going to be a recording of this one posted – but if you want to get a flavour of the conversation, you can check out Alexander’s guest post for me on his ideas for the National Data Library.

My next event! On March 25th, I’ll be speaking to the excellent Anya Martin about housing politics and how the YIMBY movement has been so damn effective over the last few years. You can find out more details and buy tickets here.

Radio silence: Apologies again for the lack of larger essay this week – I’ve been suffering from a cold since Wednesday morning, which meant that I spent most of the week lying on the sofa, feeling sorry for myself. The good news though is that I’m now on the other side of it – so I can promise you that next week I’ll be publishing the piece I’ve been the most excited about writing in a while. It’s currently around 60% complete in my drafts. I’m hoping it should land on Tuesday because…

Radio not-so-silent: On Monday, I’ll also – hopefully – finally be dropping something completely new, with an old friend of mine…

Anyway, this mini-newsletter is supposed to be about links.

This week, I’m featuring:

• What completely changed my perspective on the politics of restricting semiconductor sales to China

• Some mad, self-defeating shit that Greenpeace is doing

• How Europe is screwed without America, in specific military detail

• The film to watch to prepare for what might be about to happen in real life

• A new AI thing that is either cool or dystopian, and I can’t decide which

• A new AI thing that is definitely dystopian

• …And a crazy new way to watch a basketball match

Now let’s get started!