I have a morning class starting at 9 am, and I didn’t check the news, but my students informed me about the developments during the break. Because of the internet throttling, it isn’t easy to access many social platforms. Police closed some of the main routes, my students had difficulty arriving at the campus, and … Read more
Remember Yelp? Back in the early 2010s, Yelp was plastered over everything restaurant you could think of. They would have signs like: “Help us with Yelp”. Yelp had quickly become the go-to place to review restaurants, shopping centers, and entertainment venues, but since then, Yelp has largely faded from the spotlight. It seems that most … Read more
The protests in Serbia, particularly the recent rally in Belgrade on March 15, 2025, have been described as the largest in the country’s history. The demonstrations were sparked by the tragic collapse of a railway station canopy in Novi Sad in November 2024, which killed 15 people and is widely attributed to government corruption and … Read more
However, getting a visa still takes time. I waited a year for a tourist visa interview last year. A draft circulating inside the administration lists three tiers of countries whose citizens may face restrictions on entering the United States. via
Here are some instances of bootleg alcohol-related deaths in Turkey in 2025: Istanbul (January 2025): At least 30 people died in Istanbul over a three-day period after consuming bootleg alcohol, with dozens more hospitalized. This was part of a broader crisis where high taxes on legal alcohol led to increased consumption of counterfeit drinks1. Istanbul … Read more
The recent closure of Gazete Duvar triggered a new series of criticisms towards Google’s search engine algorithm changes. Below is a curation of news on this topic ending with a comparative angle with other countries. My approach to Google has turned relatively sour recently, but I still don’t believe the platform itself is the only … Read more
I hoped that this was just speculation or propaganda, but unfortunately, many Syrian Alawites were massacred in the last couple of days. Here is a curation I made through Perplexity: Unprecedented Sectarian Violence Against Minorities in Syria: March 2025 Crisis Recent weeks have witnessed one of the deadliest outbreaks of sectarian violence in Syria since … Read more
An anthropologist plunges into the world of Patagonian heavy metal music in Argentina to explore how the genre relates to language and cultural revitalization. Read the rest here: How Heavy Metal Fuels Indigenous Revival in Patagonia
BeReal was one of the fastest-growing apps in the world. Within a year it leapt to number 1 on the App Store, with over 100 million downloads. It was hailed as the “anti-Instagram” that encouraged healthier social media habits and didn’t push ads down user’s throats. However, as much as these were positive attributes from … Read more
For ages, I have written about the restrictive measures against academic freedom in Türkiye. It was nearly unthinkable to imagine this for the US setting, but here comes a period when American academics may be under more pressure than back home. Yesterday, I saw the news that Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian … Read more
19 February 2001 Among myriad tasks and projects, I continue unboxing my personal history. Here is the print of the email from Prof. George Marcus. He announced my acceptance to the Rice Anthropology PhD program. I remember that day vividly. I got the message while working as a TA at the Bilgi Media Department. It … Read more
European Alternatives is a project by Constantin Graf that collects and analyzes European alternatives to digital services and products, such as cloud services and SaaS products. We regularly receive advice and suggestions from European Alternatives users, so feel free to reach out! Read more here Here is the growing list of alternatives categories.
In the last week, the U.S. government has taken several significant measures against the Zelensky government in Ukraine: Suspension of Military Aid: Following a heated Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the U.S. halted all military assistance to Ukraine. This decision affects hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons … Read more
The image shared in the tweet by @alemannoEU triggered both positive and negative comments about the Turkish flag’s inclusion. Well, I don’t mind at all. I hope the current geopolitical crises may help Türkiye become better positioned within the European frame. But both parties, the EU and Turkish leadership, should really work for it. Let’s … Read more
Aitana Lopez is the most popular of the new wave of realistic-looking AI influencers and the agency that created her say they are making thousands a months from her. We visit the Barcelona-based creators of Aitana – the most popular and highest earning AI Instagram model to find out how they curate and create her … Read more