According to the German news outlet tagesspiegel.de, that’s the case, but I asked Perplexity for more confirmation. Here is what I found: The phrase making the rounds is partly accurate but also somewhat misleading. Denmark’s military intelligence has, for the first time, described the United States as a potential security risk in its annual threat … Read more
Key Insights by Merlin AI Overview of the Internet Layers – The surface web constitutes only about 1% of the internet, which is indexed and easily accessible via standard search engines. – The remaining 99% includes the Deep Web, consisting of unindexed content such as private databases and email records, which is mostly harmless. – … Read more
An op-ed at the Guardian (Trump’s new doctrine confirms it. Ready or not, Europe is on its own) looks to represent a broader tendency among Europeans. The arguments in that Guardian commentary are not unique; several analysts, think tanks, and policymakers in Europe and beyond are making closely related points about a “Trump doctrine” of economic … Read more
I saw Mozilla’s Betrayal of Open Source: Google’s Gemini AI is Overwriting Volunteer Work on Support Mozilla in my Mastodon feed and asked Perplexity if there are other critiques. Well, there are. Critiques about SUMO/Gemini translations Several community threads and reports echo the article you shared, focusing on Support Mozilla (SUMO) and the Kitsune-based … Read more
Despite all the congestion I am exposed to in İstanbul, I still remember LA’s congestion, which prevented me from visiting the city as many times as I desired (while staying in Irvine, CA). The Zag Daily piece reports that Istanbul ranks as the world’s most congested city in the latest Global Traffic Scorecard published by … Read more
Israel’s policies are defined as genocidal by several global entities, but still included in many civilized world events, unlike Russia. Four European countries took an honorable stand. As of early December 2025, four countries have officially announced their withdrawal from Eurovision 2026. Multiple major news outlets and the EBU itself report that the following national … Read more
The Global Fact-Check Chatbot (GFC) has been officially constituted, launching with 38 founding members (the list is available below). This initiative, which originated during the convening in Bosnia in June 2024, was developed to address the urgent need for innovation in the field. Since then, the team has focused on engineering a multilingual, easy-to-use tool designed … Read more
Key Insights for by Merlin AI Historical Context of Japan’s Semiconductor Dominance – In the 1980s, Japan held over 50% of the global semiconductor market, surpassing the United States. – The rise was facilitated by government intervention, strategic corporate planning, and a focus on technological innovation post-World War II. – The Ministry of International Trade … Read more
In Istanbul’s traffic, I listened to long YouTube videos a lot recently, and I came across a series of videos claiming that online piracy is back (such as this one: Piracy 2.0: How the Internet Outsmarted the System). I believe these arguments have validity. Here I outline novel forms of piracy, but I think the … Read more
Historical Context of SimCity – SimCity was created by Will Wright and released in 1989, marking a groundbreaking shift in gaming with its open-ended gameplay. – The franchise quickly gained popularity, selling over a million copies by 1993, largely due to a successful port on the SNES. – Despite its initial slow start, the … Read more
Episode 4: The Administrator Problem—More Royalist Than the King Episode 1- The Performance of Transparency Episode 2 – The Theater of Scholarly Collegiality Episode 3- The Q1 Journal Fetish Think of a curriculum reform meeting where the university administrator unveiled a new “strategic excellence framework.” The presentation featured organizational charts, key performance indicators, and deliverables. The word … Read more
We have a visitor in town! Pope Leo XIV’s ongoing visit to Türkiye is being framed as a highly symbolic first foreign trip, aimed at interfaith dialogue, Christian unity, and signaling Türkiye’s role in regional peace, building on earlier papal visits to the country.aa+2 Key facts about the current visit Pope Leo XIV is in … Read more
I see more and more content about an incoming AI bubble that reminds users of the dot-com crash. I asked Perplexity to curate pros and cons arguments about an AI bubble: An “AI bubble” debate usually centers on whether current investment and expectations are wildly out of sync with what AI can realistically deliver in … Read more
Key Insights for Why Yahoo Finance Still Dominates Wall Street by Merlin AI Corporate Decisions and Missed Opportunities – Yahoo’s executives rejected a $1 million offer for Google in 1998, believing search engines were less valuable than web portals. – In 2008, Yahoo turned down Microsoft’s offer of $44.6 billion, claiming it was undervalued, … Read more
As I stay indoors today to get rest, it was a busy week. Let me recount some of the activities: I served as a facilitator at the EELISA Student-led Bootcamp held at İstanbul Technical University. I prepared a glossary for the participants: Term Definition (Simple + Precise) Synthetic Media Media (text, image, audio, video) generated … Read more