Global deforestation “improves.” West Papua is still being carved up. While the world celebrates better forest numbers, roads, mines, palm oil and military-backed “development” keep eating one of Earth’s last great rainforests. Averages are elegant lies.

Not a single day has passed so far without Israel violating the "ceasefire" in Lebanon several times

"1894-1895 Sason ve Zeytun isyanları, 1909 Adana katliamları ve 24 Nisan 1915 gerçekliği var. Kamuoyunda sadece 256 aydın olarak bahsedilir ama [toplumu savunmasız bırakmak için] gerçekte toplumda önde gelen 2 bin 400 kişi tutuklanıp katledildi."

This is dark, but I think there's a darker twist to this: Schools, Foucault tells us, are always about making the kind of people that capital and state have uses for. In his days, that meant a disciplinary schooling system. One that got kids used to rigidly timed days, synchronous movements, etc. 1/

"Bireysel patolojiye yönelmek kolaycılığa kaçmaktır... Sizin ruh sağlığı yasanız yok. Çevresel faktörleri düzenleyecek sosyal hizmet odaklı toplum merkezleriniz var mı? Yok. Bir odada, bir uzmanla yapılan görüşmeden ibaret bir müdahale var... [Çocukları] bu hale getiren sistemi konuşmak gerekiyor."

"[Çocukların b]azıları konteyner kentte hala yaşamaya devam ediyor. Üstüne bu travma da geldiği zaman ben bundan sonraki süreçten çok emin değilim. Çocukların bu depremden sonraki yaşadıkları, onların ruh hallerini daha çok bozacağından ve ileride de belki travmalara yol açacağından korkuyorum."

Massacre upon massacre in Beirut in the last hour. AUBMC announced a “code disaster.” Over 100 airstrikes in 10 minutes across the country. One hit right behind my house. Sirens ambulances & the smell of sulphur. The city is in total chaos the people in complete panic

Anywhere in Kurdistan these days death can come from the night sky and people around the world will shrug and say it has to be that way because the Kurds don’t have a state and people are incapable of grasping that their lives still matter even if they can’t fit into the boxes people want them to.

Israel has hit Beirut’s southern suburbs at least 8 times today, in one of the most violent days since the intensification restarted in March.

NEW: air permit applications for a data center being built with investment from google shows it would rely on a natural gas power plant that emits more than 4.5 million tons of greenhouse gasses each year google has publicly touted its commitment to renewables but appears to be privately eyeing gas

"Ama bizim kaygımız şudur; bölgede maden ocakları var. Petrol var diyerek Gabar’ı yok ettiler. Ormanlık alanlar yok edildi. Biz şimdi bunlarla savaş halindeyiz. Bu maden ocakları ve petrol adı altında yapılan aramaların Şırnaklılara hiçbir faydası yok."

'When the data centers go dark is a phrase I often use (I must write about this for monroelab.com). I mean this very literally. Data centers are industrial sites dependent on constant inflows of capital, labor and manufactured goods all of which is in flux, indeed, collapsing.

"...birçok infaz kurumunda trans mahpuslar için ayrı ve uygun koşullara sahip koğuşlar oluşturulmadığını, bunun yerine küçük odalarda toplu şekilde ya da [infaz rejimince bir sebep olmamasına rağmen] tek başına tutulduklarını..."

This is largely by design. If we stop thinking about AI as simply technology and instead as part of a political and economic program, its chief function become easier to see: namely to erode interpersonal trust so that ultimately we give up on forms of agreement & negotiation arbitrated by people.

As a way to spread the word about the various Lebanese mutual aids that support all those affected by the ongoing Israeli war and occupation of Lebanon, I thought I'd share a bunch of contemporary Levantine musicians who are popular among my Beirut peeps, a thread 🧵

The mantra that AI is "just maths" not only ignores the materiality (humans have to mine rare earth minerals) but also the political & human harms like fascism and indentured labour. The idea that AI is detached ideas — and not stolen data & labour that runs on colonial lines — is harmful itself.

GenAI is not inconsequential, but exorbitant attention on its failures diverts attention away from all of the other—far more thoroughgoing—forms of AI that are being used to violate and impoverish citizens by means of data extraction and arbitration.

Five years ago today, on Armed Forces Day in #Myanmar, Junta forces murdered at least 114 peaceful protesters including children. Since the junta have increased their attacks & abuses against the Peoples of Myanmar. The Junta must be removed from power & held accountable Article from the day

"Savcılığın ilk günden beri peşinde olduğu şey kamuoyuna yansıyan görüntülerin polislerin WhatsApp grubuna kimin attığı. Başbakanlık Teftiş Kurulu da keza bu amaçla inceleme başlatmıştı. Bunun dışında ne savcılık ne de o günün başbakanlık yetkilileri, Hacı’nın bedenine yapılanlarla ilgilenmedi"

"[süreç kapsamında kendini feshetmesine rağmen!] "örgüt propagandası yapmak" .... iddiasıyla 15 kentte toplam 170 kişinin gözaltına alındığını" "gözaltına alınan çocuklardan biri olan 17 yaşındaki N.E.'nin kaşı çatladı, gözünün alt kısımlarında morarma, boynunda ise kızarıklar"

If I knew viewing Guernica would put money directly into the pockets of a still living Pablo Picasso, who had announced publicly that he would be using that money to terrorize, harm, and kill women, not only would I not go view Guernica, it would fundamentally change the meaning of Guernica as art.

"Kayataş, Sağlık Bakanlığı tarafından atanan bir müfettişin 10 ay boyunca hazırladığı 924 sayfalık raporda kişisel verilerine erişildiğini, çalıştığı kurumda sağlık personeliyle hakkında görüşmeler yapıldığını ve özel hayatının ayrıntılı biçimde incelendiğini belirtti."

Good piece from @lorcanlovett.bsky.social on how support from Russia enables the Junta to carry out atrocities against the Peoples of Myanmar, supplying weapons, training, tech & "legitimacy" Myanmar manufactured mortar shells & targeting kit also supplied to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine

There is a term that already describes "depopulation" and it's ethnic cleansing. Israeli politicians have already described *all* Lebanese Shias as the enemy. Not just Hezbollah, all Lebanese people of a specific faith. That's because the Israeli regime is genocidal.

But it was a science. That’s the thing, that this sort of stuff can be legitimized and indeed it has been legitimized before. I cannot stress enough that just about every intellectual in the early 20th century at least dabbled in a little eugenics, as a treat.

I describe it as such as a historian of disability because I want to remind scientists and the world that the history of science IS the history of eugenics, scientific racism and medical racism, and more. I’m not comforting them with the idea that it was a ‘pseudoscience.’ This is your history.

The US-Israel war on Iran has emitted 5 million tonnes of CO₂ₑ in its first 14 days. The world currently has 0.6 million tonnes of novel and permanent CO₂ removal (CDR) capacity annually.

"Kürtlerin Newroz’u bir direniş, mücadele ve birlik olarak kutlamasını kabul ediyor ve destekliyorum. Bu coğrafyada yaşayan herkesin etnik kimliklerine sahip çıkması gerekir ve Kürt halkı ile dayanışma içerisinde olmalı. Çünkü bu coğrafyaya demokrasi gelmezse kimse huzur bulmaz." newroz pîroz be

Gonna add to this: industrialization and war are the largest mass disabling events in history, which is to say that the system of capitalism functions only through the disabling of bodies while simultaneously treating disabled bodies as worthless. Shit sucks.

"Türkiye’de egemen sınıflar, Çanakkale’yi “milli destan” haline getirerek hem Osmanlı’nın emperyalist savaşta taraf olduğunu gizler hem de bugünkü politikalarını meşrulaştırır. Böylece emekçiler, kendi tarihlerini değil; egemenlerin kaleme aldığı bir anlatıyı hatırlamaya zorlanır."

This piece from @eryk.bsky.social is as good as everyone has said. "What remains urgently in dispute are the boundaries of utility: what usefulness means, for whom, and under what conditions? ... That people are using language models doesn’t make criticism of them irrelevant. It makes it urgent."

fresh off the press from yours truly: oecs.mit.edu/pub/b61joemo... I offer an overview of algorithmic bias. I trace its historical roots, examine canonical scholarship and notable real-world incidents, and explore how algorithmic bias emerged as a field of study 1/

"Sokaklarda yayılan ağır bir ölüm kokusu ve şehri kaplayan derin bir sessizlik vardı. Sokaklar savunmasız sivillerin cesetleriyle doluydu... Bazı evlerde aileler sofra başında hayatını kaybetmişti. Zehirli gazların etkisiyle insanların derileri morarmış, vücutlarında kabarcıklar oluşmuştu."

Good piece in @prachataienglish.com on the situation of Rohingya refugees in Thailand, whose statelessness increases precariousness & (alongside other refugees) face routine arrest, intimidation, extortion & detention, with Thai police sometimes using threats of arrest to extract bribes from them.

Nature published another pile of trash i am trying to catch up on some of my reading but this one is getting under my skin so here’s a thread highlighting why this piece is either ill-informed or intentionally ignorant of a wealth of knowledge from embodied cog sci and related fields 1/

Excellent video as usual, must watch: Human-shaped means you crave slaves. And since they are powered by humans in the global south, you definitely essentially get indentured labourers.

Kamala Harris should also mention she accepted more than $9 million from Israeli lobbies even while campaigning for Presidency, directly leading to the situation we are today

It doesn’t matter whether the rate of global warming is increasing. It’ll never cease to amaze me that people don’t care that it’s happening at all. It should be the most alarming thing ever.

KHRN - „Footage from #Kermanshah shows homes near 22 Bahman Police Station on Gozarnameh Street severely damaged. The area was targeted in US and Israeli attacks on 4 March, and again today, 6 March.“ #IranWar

"Bir öğretmen defalarca risk bildirdiği halde korunmuyorsa, bir kadın çocuk istismarını bildirdiği halde yalnız bırakılıyorsa burada yalnızca fail yoktur. Kurumsal ihmal vardır. Politik tercihler vardır."

"The task of AI education, then, is not merely to teach technical competence, but to cultivate the political imagination and collective capacities necessary to contest and reshape technological power," write Jan‐Philipp Siebold, Annemarie Witschas, and Rainer Mühlhoff.

Reuters Exclusive "U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school." "The strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the ​Middle East."

If anyone has a platform, and wants to have a Lebanese speaker to talk about the current situation, reach out. Im availble, but also connected to a lot of different ppl on the ground. We need to get the word out. This is ethnic cleansing!

"Akdeniz Üniversitesi’ndeki bazı doktorlar, tıp etiğini hiçe sayarak, ‘Ergenlikte olur böyle şeyler’ gibi önyargılı ifadelerle süreci kasten sabote etmiştir... Zeynep’e yaşatılanlar, bir bürokratik hata değil, trans varoluşunu imkânsız kılmayı hedefleyen sistematik bir saldırıdır."

May everyone involved burn in hell

The strikes on Iran by two colonial entities means we're going to enmeshed in yet another awful period of death. A reminder that you also don't have defend the Iranian regime to be anti-war.

Yes to this thread. AI “creates a permission structure” designed to concentrate power at the top, dramatically enhance the power of disinformation by destabilizing images and information, and hollow out the power of labor through deskilling while providing cover and impunity.

"Kobanê has been under siege by the transitional government for 25 days [as of Feb 13]. Due to water cuts and the consumption of well water, 2,000 people have so far been admitted to the hospital with poisoning complaints. [Essential supplies and] medicines are not allowed into the city."

"Sağlam olan, ayrıcalığını “normallik” olarak deneyimler. Norm görünmez olduğu için sorgulanmaz. Sağlam olan, sözleşmeden fayda sağlar; bu fayda yalnızca ayrıcalık değil, aynı zamanda tahakküm uygulama hakkıdır."

"Sanki yukarıdan bir emir gelmiş gibi davrandılar. İnsanlar emri hemen yerine getirmek istediklerini söylediler. 2 saat içinde kızımı tutuklayıp yargılamaya karar verdiler. 16 yaşında bir çocuk nasıl bir video yüzünden tutuklanıp yargılanabilir? Sonra birdenbire kızım Şakran Cezaevi’ne götürüldü."