Moore’s farewell speech in İstanbul. Once again Istanbul as an international intelligence scene The British spymaster's farewell speech in İstanbul—delivered by outgoing MI6 chief Richard Moore—was significant both for its symbolism and content, reflecting Türkiye's central geopolitical role and…

A secret talk between Trump’s son and Erdoğan in İstanbul before the White House meeting on September 25. CHP leader Özgür Özel revealed at a rally in Bahçelievler, Istanbul, on September 17, 2025, that Donald Trump Jr. secretly met with President Erdoğan at the Dolmabahçe Palace working office on…

A summary of the policy report can be found on the TechPolicy.Press website: www.techpolicy.press/policy-direc...

A video: “Jack Ma Thought He Was Untouchable…Ended Up Losing $891 Billion” Key Insights for Jack Ma Thought He Was Untouchable...Ended Up Losing $891 Billion by Merlin AI Jack Ma's Speech and Its Consequences - In October 2020, Jack Ma delivered a controversial speech at the Bund Finance Summit,…

CPJ: Israel’s killing of 31 Yemeni journalists marks deadliest global attack in 16 years erkansaka.net/2025/09/20/c...

Goodbye Taylan! Yesterday I saw the news online. Taylan Kulaçoğlu has passed away. We followed each other on X. I saw him once or twice in my life. He had a bar in Taksim for a while, and I visited the bar and met him there. He was a sincere man. That's what I can say about him. Our politics were…

Hail to the #SumudFlotilla A background, news sources to follow On September 8–9, 2025, when the movement’s main vessel, the "Family Boat," was reportedly struck by what organizers claim was a drone while docked at the port of Sidi Bou Said in Tunisia. The Sumud Flotilla is a large, multinational…

A video: “Can Google Reinvent Search Faster Than AI Competitors Bury It?” Google's Advertising Dominance - Google's core business model is primarily an advertising one, contributing over 75% of Alphabet's total revenue as of 2024. - The search engine revolutionized how users find information with…

On a Sunday midnight, the police blockades the main opposition party building… Turkey’s main opposition party faces police blockade as court appoints new leadership in İstanbul ... and our internet connections are allegedly throttled (I cannot watch YouTube properly at the moment), so that…

Now seems public: Öcalan criticizes Demirtaş I have been hearing about this for a while from many Kurdish friends. Now I see it is on the news: Abdullah Öcalan stated that Selahattin Demirtaş’s famous 2015 slogan “Seni başkan yaptırmayacağız” (“We will not let you become president”) was a…

23-minute standing ovation to “The Voice of Hind Rajab” The movie "The Voice of Hind Rajab" has ignited widespread emotional and critical reactions, especially following its premiere at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, where it received a record-breaking 23-minute standing ovation. Critics and…

A new LLM from Europe to challenge American and Chinese models erkansaka.net/2025/09/04/a...

A video: The Strange Math That Predicts (Almost) Anything [Markov Chains] How a feud in Russia led to the development of modern prediction algorithms. 0:00 The Law of Large Numbers 4:37 What is a Markov Chain? 9:43 Ulam and Solitaire 12:21 Nuclear Fission 15:46 The Monte Carlo Method 16:32 The…

Istanbul’s Ferries I came upon a piece on  Istanbul's Ferries, A Beloved Link Between Two Continents - Barron's Something that I rarely experience recently, as I prefer to drive through the bridges. Below, you will find the basic information about the famous ferries. The Bright Side: Istanbul's…

Hypocrisy of Ethical claims. Claude’s recent Consumer Terms and Privacy Policy updates Claude.ai remains one of my favorite AI assistants. I never took their ethical stance seriously, so I am not that much disappointed with the recent reversal of terms.  This reversal is another example of abusing…

In Bayburt, 2025 Version I am here in Bayburt for my uncle's daughter's wedding. Too many wedding drama etc but I took the opportunity to explore a few sites. The highlight was the Varzahan Monastery. Bayburt is surrounded by several villages worth visiting for their historical, ethnographic, and…

A video: “How “Free” P*rn Sites Really Work (and Who Runs Them)” Based on the video's transcript, here are some highlights of the insane history of Pornhub's parent company, MindGeek: Mindgeek's Monopoly: Mindgeek, a company that rebranded to "Ethical Capital Partners," holds a monopoly on the…

A Tribute to Prof. Mete Tunçay Turkey has lost a great person, historian, and intellectual. I did not have the chance to meet him much, except for greetings on campus. Rest in peace, Prof. Tunçay. Prof. Dr. Mete Tunçay: An Intellectual Biography A Pioneer of Political Thought History in Turkey…

A video about the history of OpenAI There is nothing INSANE. Based on the video's transcript, here are some highlights of the insane history of OpenAI: Early Beginnings of Sam Altman: The video introduces Sam Altman, his early career, and his rise to power in Silicon Valley, including his time at…

"Extreme speech thrives in encrypted spaces, but killing encryption won’t stop it, says a group of researchers that have studied the problem from multiple angles. We need context-driven governance, not backdoors, they say. www.techpolicy.press/policy-direc... @techpolicypress.bsky.social

Wikipedia entry on “Gaza Genocide” erkansaka.net/2025/08/22/w...

Trump vs. the European leaders As far as I observe, most Turkish commentators on social media were interested in the diplomatic power play.  Public interpretation of this photo centers on its strong symbolism in international relations and current events. Here are the main themes: Showcase of…

A video: “Streaming Is a Scam, Piracy Is Back.” Based on the video's transcript, here are the key highlights: The Return of Piracy: The video argues that a new wave of piracy is emerging, driven by a perception that modern streaming services are a "scam" due to increasing prices, the addition of…

Diyanet stepped up its crusade for social-cultural engineering erkansaka.net/2025/08/18/d...

Misogyny was the common thread in an analysis of more than 100 extremist manifestos erkansaka.net/2025/08/17/m...

This is a book project I have been thinking about for over six months. The book idea emerged from our doctoral seminars in İstanbul. The CFP borrows vocabulary from the recent decolonial literature but is not necessarily bound to its frameworks. erkansaka.net/2025/08/16/d...

A tribute to Celil Oker. Celil Öker, one of the masters of Turkish crime fiction who passed away in 2019, told stories of the loneliness of cities and the new middle class, extending beyond murder, in his novels. We have discussed at SosyalKafa a newly defended PhD thesis: Elif Otluoğlu Kısa's…

A video: “Ordering with apps: Why gig workers are suffering” Having food delivered through the tap of an app is part of everyday life. Even care workers can be gig workers now. Algorithms decide who gets the job. What does this mean for the labor market and consumers? #Technology #dwdigital…

My Google Maps photos performance-300 million views. Still lots of place to visit… My Google Maps Profile here.

Anas Jamal Al-Sharif is the latest victim of IDF who killed at least 240 journalists ‘Israel has succeeded in killing me’: Anas Jamal Al-Sharif’s last words According to major international watchdogs and news organizations, the number of journalists and media workers killed by Israeli armed forces…

Another SosyalKafa video: Interview about the Türkiye’s first AI Influencer, Seren Ay erkansaka.net/2025/08/11/s...

A video: “How Governments Spy On Protestors” Law enforcement’s ability to track and profile political protestors has become increasingly multifaceted and technology driven. In this edition of Incognito Mode WIRED Senior Editor, Security & Investigations Andrew Couts and WIRED Senior Writer Lily…

Our new video on academic AI tools at SosyalKafa After a long hiatus, Sinem and I streamed a new video at SosyalKafa. This was an update to our academic AI tools stream that took a few years ago. It is in Turkish, but a lengthy summary in English is available here. Artificial Intelligence and…

Recommended band: Confess (originally from Iran) Just listened to their third album, "Revenge at All Costs" (2022) It has a strong traditional thrash sound, but the band is classified as a groove/nu metal band originally from Tehran, Iran, now based in Oslo, Norway, best known for being imprisoned…

A video: “Why Europe Failed to Dominate Tech” Exploring Europe's Decline in Tech Dominance and the Factors Behind Its Absence in the Global Digital Landscape. 00:05 Europe's absence in global tech is striking despite its historical contributions. - Most top websites are American, with only Yandex…

A short nice read: “Politically Correct Bedtime Stories” I just came across this book of stories. A very clever idea! Rewriting the fairy tales with a "politically correct" style! Makes it very funny. “Red Riding Hood screamed, not out of alarm at the wolf's apparent tendency toward…

Family retreat in Sapanca We held our annual family retreat in Kırkpınar, Sapanca, located just south of Sapanca Lake. My sisters organize these retreats, and we all pay for the rented places. I guess this is the third or fourth time, and mainly for the sake of our parents. My brother had a…

Hamdi Ulukaya of Chobani’s Fenerbahçe Sponsorship Sparks a Nationalist Uproar As far as I know, the core idea against Mr. Ulukaya is that he appeared right in the middle of the government's Kurdish peace process to give support to the process in some way. Whatever the real political motivations,…

We have a new controversy: “NEXT Teknofest Social” I don't understand why the platform would name itself in English if it claims to be local and national... Selçuk Bayraktar, a prominent Turkish engineer and chairman of Baykar and TEKNOFEST, and son-in-law of Erdoğan, announced NEXT Teknofest…

A video: “Can the Internet Archive save our digital history?” I think it can, to some degree. Here's a summary of the video "The Internet Archive: Preserving the Web's History" with timestamped highlights: Introduction to the Internet Archive [00:04]: The video introduces the Internet Archive as a…

An overview of last week’s (July 22–29, 2025) Forest Fires in Turkey Citizens in the opposition strongly emphasize the (ir)responsibility of the government's response on social media. Here is a roundup based on the available data: Locations of Major Fires Bursa Province: The most devastating…

Playing and winning at Deity level in CIV 7 erkansaka.net/2025/07/29/c...

France’s decision to recognize the State of Palestine For whatever reason, it is good to hear about this, as Gazans are subjected to mass starvation. France’s decision—announced by President Emmanuel Macron—to recognize the State of Palestine has sparked significant criticism and debate on the…

TGC, RSF, TGS ve DİSK Basın İş, İsrail'in gazetecilere yönelik saldırılarını ve son dönemde medya temsilcilerini de vuran aç bırakma pratiğini kınamak için gazetecileri ses yükseltmeye çağırıyor! 29 Temmuz'da (Salı) saat 10.30'da İstanbul'daki İsrail Konsolosluğu önünde toplanıyoruz!

Columbia University’s recent settlement looks like a disgrace Critics of Columbia University's Recent Settlement Columbia University's high-profile settlement with the Trump administration—involving over $200 million to resolve federal investigations related to allegations of failing to prevent…

A video: “Sony Gives Up On Consumer Electronics…What Happened?” 🎥 Video Overview: The Rise and Fall of Sony in Consumer Electronics This video examines Sony’s journey from pioneering tech leader to a company in decline within the consumer electronics industry, and how it eventually shifted its…

Why Turkey Wants to Buy Eurofighters Despite Defense Industry Progress Well, the Kaan Jet is still in the development stage, so Turkey still needs jets. Why Turkey Wants to Buy Eurofighters Despite Defense Industry Progress Turkey's rapid progress in its defense industry—especially in drone…

What to do on the hottest day in Istanbul? erkansaka.net/2025/07/24/w...

Catastrophic Hunger in Gaza This is a human-made disaster made by Israel and its allies. The scale of hunger in Gaza is among the worst ever recorded, with the entire population of approximately 2.1 million facing acute food insecurity—the vast majority at crisis level or worse, according to…

A video: “… Airbnb Loses Big” Airbnb used to be the affordable, easy way to travel. Now it feels like a scam. You book a place for hundreds of dollars, get hit with a $100 cleaning fee, and then they ask you to do the chores. Guests are fed up, and it’s showing—Airbnb’s income dropped 40% in Q1…