Notices by Amir E. Aharoni (aharoni@wikis.world), page 2

Unsubscribed from Vox's Today Explained podcast after about 6 years. I enjoyed it as one of my main news sources, but then they called someone who writes for Electronic Intifada "a journalist". It is legitimate to agree with that website; it is not legitimate to call it "journalism".

Annual reminder that the holiday celebrated more or less today is commonly called "Lunar New Year" in the U.S. and in some other English-speaking countries, but actually it's the New Year in the culture of China and some other East Asian countries. English Wikipedia correctly says that are lots of Lunar New Years in different seasons—Jewish, Muslim, Indian, Native American, etc.

I am indifferent to pretty much all holidays, but I wish happiness to all who celebrate.

@evan That's certainly one example (relevant, but one sided). The comparison of Benny Gantz to Joe Manchin is another (if anyone really insists on comparing Gantz to an American politician, maybe I'd suggest Mr. Biden, but even that is *far* from perfect). Talking a lot about Israel-U.S. connections (which are true) and not mentioning Palestine-Russia connections (which really shouldn't be ignored). And so much more, not just in this in this interview, but in everything he writes.

For people reading English mainstream media about Palestine and Israel issues... I'd like to say that a lot of it is actually OK! I'm mostly for mainstream media, and you should be, too.

But then there's Thomas Friedman, who is, like, the heart of the mainstream and who is taken seriously by lots of people for reasons I can't comprehend. Some of the things he says are sensible and some are mind-blowing malarkey. If you don't live in the Middle East, telling the two apart is probably too hard.

@sslaia that, and even more. Russian school students learn about six: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, and prepositional. In advanced linguistics, even more than six are identified, but there's no consensus on how to call them (vocative, partitive, etc.)

@clacke except Japanese is ACTUALLY not related to anything :)

(Explanation, just in case you need it: Latin is an Indo-European language, and so is Russian, which already makes them related. So is English, but Russian preserves ancient Indo-European features, such as noun cases, much more than English does, and in that regard, it's even more similar to Latin. So it's not remote at all.)

I actually love Poland A LOT, but you know, people sometimes say that Jews should "leave Palestine and go back to Poland", and events like this are just *one* of the reasons why Jews are not enthusiastic about this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFAmS5JRORU

@rlcw of course it's 100% racist bullshit 🤷🏻♂️

It's very disappointing that you and I even have to say explicitly, but we live in this stupid world where it's necessary.

@shachar I haven't read anything else about it, but several articles in The New York Times say that the exact opposite is the truth, e.g.:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/16/us/cte-youth-football.html

American schools: Pay so much attention to allergies that there is a (Canadian) brand called "School Safe", which makes snacks without nuts and milk (albeit with a lot of sugar).

Also American schools: Encourage children to play (American) football, in which, according to the New York Times, the only way to avoid severe brain injuries is not to play.

Someone called me on the Be My Eyes app again. Not to ask for help with reading a label, turning on an appliance, or checking the color of a piece of clothing. He said he just felt alone and wanted to talk to someone. It was his first time trying the app, and he said he's very surprised someone would just do it as a volunteer.

He's from Belarus. I told him I am very curious about his country (I really am!) and wished him a happy new year. I think it made him happy.

https://bemyeyes.com?utm_source=android_app&utm_campaign=sighted&utm_medium=share_app_post_call

So I heard this on a podcast, as a conversation between two Americans:
— "How did you learn Russian?"
— "I went to the University of Vermont, and I needed to choose a language, and I learned Latin in highschool, and it wasn't for me and I wanted to choose a language not even remotely similar to Latin, so I kind of randomly chose Russian."

* * *

And that's all I remember, doctor.

So I'm filling
A form and it begins
With the instruction
"Do NOT use this form if: You are NOT an individual"
And it must be the
Best piece of found poetry I've
Ever seen.

@evan Was it in 1943?

Some observations.

I already wrote it here, but I just can't stop being surprised about finding more and more Israelis who posted super-radical leftist stuff before October 7, and began posting super-Zionist stuff after it.

It was immediately clear that this event is very different from all the previous escalations that happened every year or two. I immediately expected a more brutal military response. But not such a big change of these folks' opinions.

I created an account on Instagram and then on Threads. I occasionally post on Instagram. I don't post anything on Threads. It does kind of look a lot like Twitter, but almost without anyone I know. It has some celebrities and journalists, but I haven't seen any linguists or Wikimedians yet, which is okay, because I find more and more of them here on Mastodon.

Threads, like Twitter, does have a lot of strangers posting opinions about Israel, though.

So Threads doesn't have a lot of things that interest me, and I therefore don't even open it. Then how do I see these strangers' post? Because they are embedded into Instagram.

I don't know why am I shown posts on this topic, however. Surely it's not the only thing people write on Threads about. What did I do to indicate that I'm interested in it? My phone number is American, and on Instagram I mostly follow Wikimedians and musicians.

On the other hand, I do follow a small number of Jewish accounts, although most of them are not political. And my phone is set to Hebrew. So okay, maybe these are the reasons Meta's algorithms prioritize strangers' commentary for and against Israel, but it's not actually *good*. I'm on social networks mostly for local connections, old friends, Wikimedians, and linguists. I want get political commentary from real (online) newspapers. Am I a dying breed?

As for the quality of these strangers' posts... Well, they are mostly junk. Both for and against Israel. Threads is not the place to seek balance or nuance.

Nevertheless, there is a LOT of that junk. And I do wonder why.

Who DOES use it? I never reply to those strangers, but at least some other people do. Is the embedding into Instagram of Threads posts that might interest people enough to provoke them to reply? Or is there something bigger?