Hasnain says:

This was fascinating and I found myself nodding along, finally learning the technical term for this. I have more reading to do now.

“As we are spending more of our time in our digital persona, we need to understand the sociology involved with social media. When context collapses, the platform controls the only gate for information. It is an important lesson learned, and one that allows us to be mindful of our presence online and work to be a more accurate representation of our authentic self.”

Hasnain says:

“"Delta’s claims are based on disproven misinformation, demonstrate a lack of understanding of how modern cybersecurity works, and reflect a desperate attempt to shift blame for its slow recovery away from its failure to modernize its antiquated IT infrastructure," CrowdStrike said late on Friday.”

Hasnain says:

Just quoting twitter here:

“A year ago, Vox asked five scholars if they considered Israel to be committing genocide in Gaza. One said yes, the others said no. Returning to the same scholars a year later, Vox found that three of those who said no have subsequently changed their mind.”

Hasnain says:

I’ve been reading more about historical and/or ongoing conflict recently to better learn about how human beings can commit evil acts. Someone (rightly!) called me out for not speaking up about Syria and Yemen (and others..) often enough. I don’t have a good answer that doesn’t turn into some form of an excuse at its core. So here I am doing my part to bear witness to war crimes and genocide wherever they happen in the hopes that they will stop.

“An estimated 16.7 million people need emergency aid. More than half of the population in Syria is displaced, with 6.5 million being recognized as refugees and asylum seekers. Humanitarian efforts are desperately needed. Fully 47% of Syrian refugees are children, and one-third of them lack access to education. The UN Refugee Agency estimates that 90% of the population lives below the poverty line. [23]

Northeastern Syria, dominated by the Kurds, remains under the control of Syrian Defense Forces (SDF). Arab tribes accuse the SDF of discrimination. [43] Turkey maintains control along the northern border and have increased their attacks on Kurdish forces. The Israel-Palestine conflict resulted in increased strikes in Syria. Israel now regularly strikes different military positions in Syria, including the Damascus and Aleppo airports.

International attention has begun to shift away from the region. President Assad holds 70% of Syria’s territory and has become reintegrated into Arab League, effectively ending his previous isolation. [43] Despite the waning media attention, the Syrian conflict remains one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century. The international community must end impunity for the Assad regime’s human rights abuses and aid in the reconstruction and distribution of aid throughout the region.”

Hasnain says:

… everything else aside how the heck did this group find out before the guy himself did, I am legitimately curious. We will never know though

“Nasr said his firing was disclosed on social media by the watchdog group Stop Antisemitism more than an hour before he received the call from Microsoft. The group didn’t immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on how it learned about the firing.”

Hasnain says:

“As journalists, we take this last directive seriously, feeling the weight of the question Palestinian American writer Fargo Tbakhi posed in December: “What does Palestine require of us, as writers writing in English from within the imperial core, in this moment of genocide?” We believe that one of the most vital contributions we can make is to confront the media ecosystem that enables—and all too often promotes—the slaughter of Palestinians. Over the last year we’ve seen the spirit of McCarthyism overtake our industry, with journalists being fired or pushed out of newsrooms or barred from covering Palestine for speaking out. Many publications are punishing journalists who have the moral clarity to accurately describe the horrors of the genocide. As long as journalists on the ground in Gaza continue to risk their lives to tell the story of their own annihilation, then the least US outlets can do is follow their lead and not be afraid to show the truth.”

Hasnain says:

Why do people agree to be interviewed by this guy?

“My question started with Israel intentionally denying aid to civilians, which I think is pretty obviously going on. And you responded in part by saying that Israelis were offended that anyone could believe that they’re trying to target civilians. Without getting into a dispute about every bombing and whether it’s a war crime or not, the government was trying to keep civilians from getting humanitarian aid. How do you wrestle with that? And do you understand why that fact may make people skeptical of other things the Israeli government or military says?

I do. I do. In the immediate aftermath of October 7th, there were voices here, serious voices, that were calling for a total siege of Gaza. Those voices had quickly faded after a couple of days, and they realized that it was untenable. And here I’m very grateful, frankly, to the Biden Administration, which has behaved like a real friend to Israel, both in supporting us and also in setting limits, in setting red lines. I’m grateful for both expressions of support.

Why does Israel need to be told to allow food to starving people if this war is being fought on the up-and-up?

Because October 7th was—

Hasnain says:

Finished a non fiction audio book for a change - this one was definitely fun. Need to find a new one to keep me occupied during the commutes. Lots of eye opening insights into forensics and toxicology as well as US history. This bit from the review stood out:

“Please note: this book is not actually helpful if you were looking for tips on how to poison someone (unless you are the U.S. government, in which case there are notes scattered throughout on how to poison industrial alcohols).”

Hasnain says:

Powerful moral clarity. I can only hope to be as morally righteous as TNC.

“And to the extent that I’ve been bothered by this conversation, it’s because it has gone into a kind of meta-conversation about CBS News, ethics, who is woke and who is not, and tough interviews. And that’s bullshit.

The topic is apartheid. Apartheid is the topic. And people who don’t want to talk about apartheid, because it’s uncomfortable, much like they did with the protests last year at colleges, try to turn this into a conversation about manners.

It is amazing to me that the debate is not: “Ta-Nehisi said Israel is perpetrating apartheid, and that is not true and here’s why.” Or “Ta-Nehisi said Israel is not a democracy. It is a democracy and here’s why.” Or “Ta-Nehisi said half the population that Israel rules are second-class citizens or worse. That is not true. Here’s why.” I didn’t even get challenged in that interview. And the reason why I’m not challenged is that these are facts. There is a mountain of citations to back up those conclusions.

People don’t want to straightforwardly say: “I am defending apartheid because … ” Or “I think the apartheid is appropriate because … ” Or “I think a dictatorship over a group of people that began, conservatively, more than 50 years ago is appropriate because … ” Instead, you get this conversation about manners, man.”

Hasnain says:

I love the verge. Especially when they call out hypocritical behavior (CEO of intuit dodging the question on whether they lobby against free filing)

“We don’t do that here at The Verge. As many of our listeners and readers know, we have a very explicit and very strict ethics policy. The most important thing to note is that we never allow anyone to preview or approve interview questions, and we certainly do not allow anyone to review or alter the work that we publish. I told this to Rick, and he came back and asked that we “delete that which takes away from the conversation,” which he defined as “raised voices” or us “speaking over each other,” so that “listeners understand your question and the answer Sasan gave.”

I have to be honest with you — that’s one of the weirdest requests I’ve ever gotten. So here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to run that whole part of the interview first, unedited, so you can tell me. It’s about five minutes long, and you can decide for yourself. Then we’ll come out of it, and we’ll run the rest of the interview, which, like I said, is an otherwise fascinating episode of Decoder. Okay, here’s that bit:”