Episode 3: The Q1 Journal Fetish A colleague proudly announced his latest publication, adding Q1 even before the title. I see self-promotional Instagram posts that mention the Q number, mostly Q1. This moment crystallized something I’ve observed throughout my career in Turkish academia. However, the phenomenon extends far beyond Turkey’s borders: we have developed what … Read more
I want to resume my active Beşiktaş fandom, but it is so hard to focus on the game itself amid these scandals. Türkiye is currently facing a major football betting scandal, with over 1,000 professional players under investigation and suspended by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) for alleged involvement in illegal sports betting activities. The … Read more
Here is an overview by Perplexity. Overview: The İmamoğlu Indictment On November 11, 2025, Turkish authorities announced a sweeping indictment against Ekrem İmamoğlu, the jailed Mayor of Istanbul and a leading opposition figure. The nearly 4,000-page indictment accuses İmamoğlu and 401 others of forming and leading a criminal organization, bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, tender rigging, … Read more
This becomes a routine: Staying and resting at home on Saturdays and socializing on Sundays. The last three days of the week were so hectic; now it is hard to do anything today besides reading, blogging, etc. However, a state of satisfaction is here as we have one of the most productive STS conferences thanks … Read more
Key Insights for Where People Go When They Want to Hack You by Merlin AI Understanding the Zero Day Market The zero day market revolves around the sale of undisclosed vulnerabilities in software, which can be exploited before the developers are aware and can issue patches. These vulnerabilities are often termed “zero days” because they … Read more
I saw an Intercept news (YouTube Quietly Erased More Than 700 Videos Documenting Israeli Human Rights Violations) and remembered a few previous cases that Human Rights Organizations complain about: There have been numerous documented cases in which social media platforms, especially YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, have deleted content that served as critical evidence of human … Read more
As I always state, I am lucky to be one of the convenors of STS Turkiye, a platform for social scientists focused on Science and Technology Studies. While the political agenda is always hectic and chaotic, we work to coordinate STS-related studies that are distracted by it. Call for Papers The STS Turkey 2025 Conference … Read more
Zohran Mamdani’s historic mayoral victory in New York City is notable not only as a milestone for representation but for how he challenged both the Democratic establishment and Donald Trump’s threats, signaling a pivotal moment in American urban politics.bbc+3 Challenging the Democratic Establishment Mamdani’s win was a major upset for the city’s entrenched political elites. … Read more
As I had mentioned before, Google’s best generative AI tool is NotebookLM. In addition to personal use, you can also create public notebooks. Here I uploaded 20 of my selected writings for public use. Here is the link for that.
The new Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS3) Report, “Journalism under duress”, is now available – https://www.worldsofjournalism.org/reports-wjs3/ Drawing on responses from over 32,000 journalists in 75 countries, this report examines how journalists across the globe navigate risk, uncertainty, and transformation in today’s rapidly changing media landscape. Supported by UNESCO, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and the International … Read more
Key Insights for How Canva Quietly Took Adobe’s Crown by Merlin AI Background of Canva’s Disruption – Melanie Perkins, a college dropout, founded Canva in 2012 after facing over 100 rejections from venture capitalists for her vision of simplifying design software. – Her initial project, Fusion Books, demonstrated demand for user-friendly design tools, proving that … Read more
I recently saw a news On the rare earth element reserves in western Turkish town of Beylikova: What is known and what remains unknown and decided to make a deep research about the reserves thanks to ChatGPT. Rare Earth Element Reserves in Turkey: Current State and Historical Development Turkey has recently emerged in the spotlight … Read more
I believe this is really shameful. Tele1 TV seized by state, broadcast interrupted mid-air The authorities appointed a trustee to pro-opposition broadcaster Tele1 TV on the evening of Oct 24, taking the channel off air during its main news bulletin. But this was not the first time: Since 2016, Turkey has systematically seized, shut down, … Read more
Thanks to the new peace process. Koma Amed is a pioneering Kurdish music band formed in 1988 in Ankara by medical students from Ankara and Hacettepe universities. Their distinctive style mixes Kurdish folk music with contemporary influences, and they became emblematic of cultural resistance during a period when the Kurdish language and music were heavily … Read more
Here’s a summary of the video “The Streaming War Is Over. Piracy Won.”: Streaming once seemed perfect, offering affordable, convenient, and comprehensive access to media. Netflix, for example, was $8.99/month, and all content was in one place. But between 2020 and 2024, streaming services began raising prices dramatically (Netflix and Disney+ doubled, HBO Max exceeded … Read more