alyaza [they/she]
internet gryphon. admin of Beehaw, mostly publicly interacting with people. nonbinary. they/she
- 934 Posts
- 217 Comments
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Technology@beehaw.org•Iran war: We spoke to the man making Lego-style AI videos that experts say are powerful propaganda
161·5 months agosomething fascinating in the idea underlying that second quote there–that AI is so Western-biased currently in terms of training data that developing nations actually have a much easier time using it to generate persuasive and engaging propaganda than developed nations. critical support to Iran in this regard, i suppose lol
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
World News@beehaw.org•'I saw the bodies of children': Moral injury and mental strain breaking IDF soldiers
26·5 months agoit’s incredible that the primary thing this story does is make clear that probably the best (or second best) thing you can do for the world as an IDF soldier is just kill yourself
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Politics@beehaw.org•The birthright citizenship arguments will show what Trump has done to the United States
3·5 months agobasically none, as things stand–it’s just a matter of whether there are 5, 6, 7, or 8 votes in favor of birthright citizenship at this point. but given that the 14th is completely textually unambiguous it is categorically disqualifying that any justice could ever support the proposed interpretation being pushed by Trump and his administration. in a better world we’d immediately depose any justice stupid enough to say that there is no birthright citizenship in this country
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Humanities & Cultures@beehaw.org•Hollow Body: On attention to craft in defiance of AI.
2·5 months agoyes, when submitting i guess the link was eaten–this is now fixed:
https://longreads.com/2026/03/26/craft-in-defiance-of-ai-peter-wayne-moe/
see also the coverage this has gotten in NPR:
The campaign, “Resist and Unsubscribe,” was started by influential podcaster and business commentator Scott Galloway, who said he was increasingly frustrated by what he sees as the Trump administration’s indifference to protests and public outrage over immigration enforcement, especially in Minneapolis, where federal immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens last month.
In recent weeks, there have been renewed calls to boycott Target, demanding that the Minneapolis-based retail giant publicly show solidarity with immigrants and oppose ICE. Last month, hundreds of businesses in Minneapolis shuttered their doors for a day as a form of protest against ICE operations in the city.
Galloway, who also teaches marketing at New York University, believes the president mainly changes course on policy when financial markets are under pressure, pointing to how Trump dropped his plan to impose tariffs on eight European nations after it rattled Wall Street. So, Galloway created a website listing over a dozen companies that have either worked directly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or play such an outsized role in the economy that a slowdown in their growth would send shockwaves to the markets.
" I think this is a weapon that is hiding in plain sight," Galloway told NPR. “The most radical act you can perform in a capitalist society is non-participation.”
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Technology@beehaw.org•Meet UpScrolled, the anti-censorship TikTok alternative
8·7 months agothey’re actually more overzealous in terms of policy about nudity and sexualized material than basically any alternative

alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Technology@beehaw.org•Meet UpScrolled, the anti-censorship TikTok alternative
25·7 months agoIt’s so common for “anti-censorship” to be code for “Nazi-friendly” that I’m immediately suspicious of any platform that uses that as a selling point.
i don’t know if it’s a function of the ideological bent or just because the gigantic influx of users has totally swamped their moderation, but yes it does have problems with fascists as of writing
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Technology@beehaw.org•The copyrightability of fonts revisited: Matthew Butterick
3·7 months agooh, this is probably just because of the national strike day people are observing–it’ll be back up tomorrow
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Food and Cooking@beehaw.org•Gourmet Magazine Is Back. It’s Not Exactly Sanctioned: The defunct food publication is re-emerging as a newsletter, with new leadership and zero approval from its original owner.
2·8 months agoyou can subscribe over here:
Who are we? A collective of writers, editors, and designers who love to cook and eat, bon vivants who aspire to never be boring on the palate or the page. We will be delivering, piping hot or pleasantly cool, a newsletter to your inbox twice weekly. One will contain a recipe from our brilliant squad culinaire; the other will deliver investigations, scoops, dispatches, postcards, love letters, decoder rings, instruction manuals, vibe reports, archival cuts, menu doodles, paeans, diatribes, and gossip from the front lines of the human appetite. We will not use AI, because it has no taste.
Like any good meal, our most basic aspiration is to fill an empty space. Food is the stuff of life, and over the last 20 years has gone from a niche concern (beyond the “everybody eats” of it all) to a pillar of popular culture. And yet we’ve seen the number of outlets devoted to exploring it with genuine curiosity and delight dwindle over that same period. The legacy brands largely botched the transition from print to digital, chasing the pipe dream of infinite glassy eyeballs, and diluted their missions in the process. In an attempt to reach everyone, they no longer speak to anyone. Least of all, us: people who really care about food and cooking. Now, 16 years after it was unceremoniously folded, Gourmet has become a symbol of a food media that once was, a name sighed nostalgically to evoke a delicious absence.
This new Gourmet will be a return to form in some ways—fascinating, well-written, eccentric, delicious—but we will rely directly on our readers to keep the lights on, and avoid the hierarchies, inequities, and bloat of the ancien régime. We would rather write for a cohort of fellow travelers, passionate home cooks and nerds, than chase the dream of infinite scale.
We’re obviously not the only ones seeking alternatives to the Old Ways of Doing Things. Countless individual writers and cooks have set out on their own with a Substack, TikTok, or YouTube channel to disseminate recipes and tell stories about food. We love what many of them are doing.
But not everybody wants to be a singer-songwriter—some of us want to be in a band. There is something about a shared effort, a wobbly but recognizable editorial voice, a publication that is a stage, not a microphone, that we missed, and wanted to try to make. There is something, in other words, about a magazine.
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Politics@beehaw.org•Support for abolishing ICE hits a new high
6·8 months agoall Civiqs polls use the methodology outline here, which is essentially that they pull a statistically representative subset of that number of people mentioned every day and ask them survey questions
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
World News@beehaw.org•Live updates: Anti-government protests spread in Iran as authorities cut communications
8·8 months agoi don’t know if these are going to topple the current government, but they’re in effect the culmination of every protest movement of the past few years and they’re coming after a reformist was elected so it seems something is going to have to give here
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Humanities & Cultures@beehaw.org•This chic side hustle is gaining traction: Renting out your clothes
10·9 months agothis feels like a good example of how rentier capitalism is totally cooking everyone’s brains. what are we doing here
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgMto
World News@beehaw.org•Gunmen kill at least 11 people in attack on Jewish holiday event on Sydney's Bondi Beach
51·9 months agodeath toll is now at least 15 plus one of the shooters; it appears the duo were father and son and it is the son that is in custody
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Technology@beehaw.org•Americans are holding onto devices longer than ever and it's costing the economy
54·10 months agoplease continue to “device hoard” folks
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgMto
World News@beehaw.org•Axios reveals text of peace plan: Ukraine to relinquish its territories permanently, Russia to receive amnesty
4·10 months agoUkrainska Pravda has no relation at all to pravda.ru as far as i’m aware
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Technology@beehaw.org•Spit On, Sworn At, and Undeterred: What It’s Like to Own a Cybertruck
1·11 months agothere’s some real deadpan gold in this one, such as the immaculate:
How do you feel about becoming a political lightning rod?
People occasionally just flip [me] off or whatever, but nobody’s come up to me and tried to make a statement about anything. Personally, it’s kind of dumb. It’s just a vehicle. So it’s ironic that it would even become a political statement, but nonetheless it is. [Editor’s note: Taylor was arrested and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. He was later pardoned by President Trump.]
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
World News@beehaw.org•Air Canada flight attendants reach ‘tentative’ deal with airline to end strike
9·1 year agoof note, CUPE leadership was willing to go to jail over the strike. for a sense of what they struck over, see these two articles from Spring Magazine, and CUPE’s “Unpaid Work Won’t Fly” page
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Politics@beehaw.org•Bruce Harrell, Katie Wilson each poised to advance to general election in Seattle's 2025 mayoral contest - still statistically tied
7·1 year agothis is significant because it initially looked like Harrell, the more centrist option, would breeze through this race; now, though, it seems like a very real possibility that Seattle will also elect a progressive mayor this November in Katie Wilson. (her platform is, though not socialist like Zohran Mamdani’s, still pretty good and deserves your support)
alyaza [they/she]@beehaw.orgOPMto
Politics@beehaw.org•Is it time to start planning a post-Trump restoration?
8·1 year agoalso in this edition: Democrats have started to introduce bills to bar federal agents from concealing their identity; there are pushes to also do this in California and New York
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here’s an interesting–but also extremely poorly argued–article for you from the New Yorker about language preservation and whether that’s an unconditionally good thing