adminBackground of Telegram’s Creation – Pavel Durov, influenced by his technology background, co-founded VK, a popular social media platform in Russia, before creating Telegram. – After refusing government demands to censor VK, Durov left Russia to protect his freedom, leading to the development of Telegram in 2013. – Telegram was designed to prioritize user … Read more
I see a new article nearly every week about the state of higher education due to the rise of generative AI. These are mostly pessimistic articles, and they definitely carry some truth. Still, in a broader perspective, I cannot help but think that higher education/academia was in trouble before generative AI. The latter pushes it … Read more
EFF recently listed 10 dangers of Age Verification. Governments and corporations increasingly mandate users to undergo types of age verification. Online age verification can protect children from some harms, but it also introduces significant risks around privacy, security, surveillance, discrimination, and free expression.scientificamerican+1 Here are the major risk points: Privacy and data security Most robust … Read more
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