Cloudy Logic
...As Latanya Sweeny has shown in her study “Discrimination in Online Ad Delivery,” Google searches for names “racially associated” with black people return promoted results that imply the person you’re...
Tiktok LLM
Tiktok's opaque censorship protocol has led to the development of euphemisms adopted offline too, but the language acquisition users are modeling has precedent.
Sunday Reading
...privatization "In response to a question concerning the questionable educational value of some of his institution’s new online classes, [San Jose State President Mohammad H.] Qayoumi said the following: 'It...
Selfie-Correction
...mocked for the unrestrained qualities of their online presence. It is not so much authenticity that the show demands, but compliance with a set of social norms, regarding self-control and...
Writing Like a Partisan
Forbidden Notebook by Alba De Céspedes offers insight into contemporary Italian fascism
New Neighbor, Who's This?
The sitcom trope of the intrusive neighbor isn't required in an era that treats exclusion as a social necessity
Islamic Astropolitik
...while the United Arab Emirates have announced to launch an unmanned mission to Mars by 2021. But not everyone welcomes the imminent era of Muslims in space. A religious organization...
Ramadan Diaries: Analysis
...I accidentally apologize back. The next morning, there will be an announcement about U.S. combatants exiting occupied Afghanistan by 11 September, 2021. There is no discussion after the headline read...
Vol. 76 Editors’ Note: Assets
Just how much?
Assets
The breakdown of the political economy and the means of value production have led to cultural and ideological confusion about what is valuable—and the resulting vacuum in...
Sunday Reading: May 13, 2023
...more than mediocre content. To which Fabrega adds, “I don’t think the studios think they’re making mediocre content.” In 2021, Business Insider announced that "network executives have reportedly been fretting...
Organized Plunder
In the absence of the tax dollars city governments rely on, American are now funding themselves by fining the poor instead of taxing the rich.
In the Mood for Loss
How finance facilitated China's authoritarian takeover of Hong Kong
Exporting the Revolution
In memory of Mahsa Amini (1999-2022), Mohamed Bouazizi (1984-2011), and Sarah Hegazi (1989-2020)
London (Poverty)
Referencing the history of high-end design magazines, Thatcherism, and London’s financialized housing market, Guo looks at the historical conditions which produced her current “world of interiors.”
The Job of Consent
The Joy of Consent: a Philosophy of Good Sex (October 2023) tests the limits of consent as a heuristic for "good sex," exposing the wide berth between pleasure and what is legible to the law.