Online piracy has evolved into Telegram hubs, IPTV streams, and cloud leaks—driven less by rebellion than by platform greed and user fatigue.

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 game set the stage for numerous sequels, leading to the creation of Maxis, which became a key player in the gaming industry.

Universities are run by administrators more loyal to neoliberal metrics than scholarship itself. How did management culture overtake academic life?

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 Türkiye 27–30 November 2025, then continues to Lebanon, making this his first apostolic journey abroad since his election in May 2025.

Experts are divided on whether AI’s rapid growth is a sustainable revolution or a speculative bubble echoing the dot-com era.

As I stay indoors today to get rest, it was a busy week. Let me recount some of the activities: I served as a facilitator at the EELISA Student-led Bootcamp held at İstanbul Technical University. I prepared a glossary for the participants: Term Definition (Simple + Precise) Synthetic Media

Key Insights for Whatever Happened To GoPro? by Merlin AI Market Position Decline - GoPro's stock price plummeted from $86 at its IPO in 2014 to approximately $1.30, reflecting a 33% bankruptcy probability. - Once the leading brand for action cameras, GoPro now faces stiff competition from smaller companies and smartphones. - Financial losses have reached hundreds of millions, marking a significant downturn in market presence.

A few days ago, I was invited to serve as a panelist at a RESAID project ("Creating Societal Cognitive Resilience Against Information Disorders - RESAID") event. This EU-funded project has substantive online course content and has developed a few online games related to disinformation issues. The panel was reported by AA as well. Here are my highlights from my talk:

New international student enrollment in U.S. universities dropped 17% in Fall 2025 amid stricter visa rules and immigration policy changes.

A heart-wrenching one, if you dare to read. “This posthumous translation of Rosales, a Cuban-American writer who committed suicide in 1993, delivers a raw, powerful story set in a Miami home for the m...

A heart-wrenching one, if you dare to read. “This posthumous translation of Rosales, a Cuban-American writer who committed suicide in 1993, delivers a raw, powerful story set in a Miami home for the mentally ill… It’s a frightening, nihilistic cousin of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest .”― Publishers Weekly Never before available in English, The Halfway House is a trip to the darkest corners of the human condition.

Key Insights for From Bankruptcy To Billions: The Rebirth Of Nokia by Merlin AI Nokia's Rise and Fall in the Mobile Market In 2008, Nokia's revenue peaked at over $76 billion, dominating the mobile industry. The launch of the iPhone in 2007 marked a significant shift, introducing a sleek design and touchscreen technology that rendered Nokia's traditional brick phones outdated.

Over 1,000 players, referees, and officials suspended in Turkey’s biggest football betting scandal, shaking clubs like Beşiktaş and Galatasaray.

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 scandal, which has rocked the nation's football, implicates not only footballers but also referees, club officials, and executives, shaking the credibility of Turkish football at all levels.

Turkey indicts Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on sweeping corruption and organized crime charges, sparking outrage and fears of political persecution.

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, and various forms of corruption. Prosecutors are seeking between 828 and 2,352 years in prison for İmamoğlu, with some reports mentioning up to 2,430 years.

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 to our host, HECAS.

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 are sold or used before the software vendor has had any time to address them, making them extremely valuable.

YouTube deleted 700+ videos from Palestinian rights groups, erasing war crimes evidence and exposing a global risk to digital human rights archives.

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 invites participants to explore how the relationship between science, technology, and society has been imagined in the past, present, and future; and how these imaginings have shaped everyday life, social order, and regimes of knowledge.

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. Initially an obscure state assemblymember, he secured the Democratic nomination over the widespread support for former Governor Andrew Cuomo from establishment figures.

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 - 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 Federation of Journalists (IFJ), WJS3 provides comprehensive insights yet into the state of journalism worldwide.

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 there was a market for simpler alternatives to Adobe's complex software.