aram

aram, 2 months ago to Israel

The people of #Israel have been on the streets for over a year, double digit percentages of the population, week after week, demanding Netanyahu's resignation and raging against his #Gaza policy, but you wouldn't know it by looking at US media. All we get to see is how the war is bad for Biden.

Screenshot of a Washington Post article headline reading: "MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT - Six months into Gaza war, Biden confronts the limits of U.S. leverage," by Karen DeYoung.

aram, 1 year ago to random

Happy #TowelDay friends. Here's a recording of me interviewing #DouglasAdams 25 years ago. We talk about the internet, video games, and the arbitrary nature of the Gregorian calendar. https://archive.org/details/ASDA042198 #scifi #sff

aram, 3 months ago to random

Wow! After spending most of the past 17 years working as a university professor, my remaining student loans have officially been forgiven under the #PSLF program.

THANK YOU JOE BIDEN!!!

aram, 5 months ago to academia

If you know any #academics who have seemed stressed out, down at the mouth, or even a little paranoid lately, this @washingtonpost article does a good job of explaining why. The strain of working for a bulwark of democratic society that is under sustained right wing assault is... significant. [gift link]
https://wapo.st/41NdAet #academicchatter #academia #commodon @academicchatter @academicsunite

aram, 8 months ago to academia

Academics get the shittiest bribes.

#academia #academicchatter #commodon @academicchatter @commodon

aram, 9 months ago to random

This is potentially huge news. As @jesse and I discuss in our forthcoming book THE SECRET LIFE OF DATA, thus far International Human Rights law has done a poor job of holding (government-sponsored) hackers accountable for the lives they ruin. https://www.wired.com/story/icc-cyberwar-crimes/

aram, 11 months ago to random

I just had a surreal conversation with a customer service rep from #PayPal.

@dunia and I started a new LLC for our music & community work, and tried to open a PayPal account for the company.

We got flagged as a "risk" and banned FOR LIFE from using the platform. But they won't tell us why we were flagged, and there's no appeals process. It's totally opaque and arbitrary.

Guess we'll be using Venmo, Zelle, or Square with our suppliers and customers. 🤷🏻

aram, 11 months ago to random

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy

My very first novel.
On paper.
With a pretty hardcover.
In my hands.

aram, 9 months ago to climate

This long and thorough @washingtonpost article about the extreme heat experienced across the US this summer doesn't mention #ClimateChange (let alone connect it to human activity) once.

But that's pretty much all people are talking about in the comments section (even the minority of climate deniers).

Wonder whether this is a deliberate editorial strategy or just an oversight. Either way, it's a dereliction of basic journalistic duty.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/09/02/heat-wave-midwest-plains-midatlantic/

aram, 8 months ago to Israel

I said some things to @Forbes about the new wave of #disinformation swarming social media in the wake of the Hamas attack on #Israel.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2023/10/09/misinformation-spreading-online-as-war-erupts-in-the-middle-east/

aram, 9 months ago to Mexico

#Mexico just decriminalized #abortion nationwide, and is about to have a Jewish woman physicist as its next president.

Why can't my backward country learn from our enlightened neighbors to the south?

aram, 1 year ago to random

My son's boyfriend, a trans man, goes to a private high school that doesn't approve of gay relationships. So my son has to go to the prom with him in full drag, pretending to be a woman.

I know this sounds like the farcical plot to a semi-progressive sitcom, but no, it's just life in DC in 2023.

aram, 2 months ago to random

Mastodon will pass 15 million accounts today. https://mastodon.social/@mastodonusercount/112116343266897662

aram, 6 months ago to random

As of today, US residents can order 4 more free #COVID tests: https://special.usps.com/testkits

aram, 5 months ago to random

How to be a creative professional:

1. Learn to make a thing
2. Make a thing
3. Find someone who wants to sell the thing
4. Negotiate a contract
5. Read contract
6. Think "Hey, I'm gonna get screwed here"
7. Sign contract
8. Get screwed
9. Be thankful
10. Repeat

aram, 10 months ago to random

Dear @washingtonpost, please don't legitimize the racist BS of a guy who writes spurious books about how people with different colored skin than him are inherently stupider than he is by giving him the ink to tout a disproven theory of criminology that's been responsible for widespread civil rights abuses.

Instead, maybe run an op-Ed by actual scholars who have analyzed actual data. Like these folks: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027795361830649X

aram, 3 months ago to infosec

It's time for us professors who study #data #surveillance #infosec #internetgovernance #privacy to start hassling our university IT departments whenver they integrate extractive platforms into our professional workflow.

Feel free to repurpose my verbiage in your own emails.

#academia #academicchatter @academicchatter @academicsunite

aram, 3 months ago to random

It's almost as if abandoning personal homepages hosted on private servers for commercial social media platforms during Web 2.0 was a bad idea.

https://www.404media.co/tumblr-and-wordpress-to-sell-users-data-to-train-ai-tools/

aram, 4 months ago to bookstodon

Hey, do you love:

✅ Reading books
✅ Saving money
✅ Thinking about tech & society
✅ Snubbing Amazon

Then you'll love pre-ordering my new book THE SECRET LIFE OF DATA on B&N and getting 25% off. Just use the code PREORDER25

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-secret-life-of-data-aram-sinnreich/1143793950

#bookstodon #commodon @bookstodon @commodon @jesse @themitpress @jkehoe

aram, 30 days ago to random

Rest in Power the incomparable #DabneyColeman. Few have ever been so delightfully hateful onscreen, yet still oozing humor and humanity with every gesture. 💔
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/17/dabney-coleman-actor-dead-obituary/

aram, 1 month ago to random

Hi, I'm a US Jewish professor & Columbia University graduate and I'm here to say:

1. Killing civilians is evil whether Hamas or Israel does it.

2. Students should be able to say anything they want, short of threatening/inciting violence or harrassment.

3. Protesting the mass killing of Gazans is not anti-Semitic.

4. Anti-Semites are part of the protests, which makes them dangerous for Jews.

5. Israel = less colonialist than US, China or UK. Heal thyself.

aram, 1 month ago to books

My book THE SECRET LIFE OF DATA comes out tomorrow (4/30) from @themitpress. Please help us launch with a splash by preordering today:

https://a.co/d/gLsDG1c

#bookstodon #newbooks #books #data #commodon @commodon @bookstodon

aram, 1 month ago to random

Rest in power to the great #SteveAlbini. Hard to overstate what an important role he played in shaping the sound of American popular music in the 90s. Also his explainer about record contract fuckery is a classic I've included on many a syllabus.

https://pitchfork.com/news/steve-albini-storied-producer-and-icon-of-the-rock-underground-dies-at-61/

aram, 1 month ago to music

Text-to-music #GAI is getting closer and closer to an everyday commodity.

As a songwriter, performer, and #music lover to my core, I say BRING IT ON

Pop music has been created by committee for decades anyway. At least now the kids will have a seat at the committee table.

Can't wait to hear how this #AI gets fucked with.

https://venturebeat.com/ai/elevenlabs-previews-music-generating-ai-model/

aram, 3 months ago to random

Ok, here's an ill-considered thread that's gonna get me blocked... Like a lot of '80s kids, I grew up thinking the '60s were pretty great, and wishing I'd been around for them. When I became a political activist in high school, my NYC peers and I adopted the "hippie" aesthetic in our clothes, our hair, and even our music and our way of speech. 1/10