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samuelwa.de

@samuelwa.de
3K followers 1.1K following 925 posts

Tracking and translating content on censorship and other human rights issues in China. Knows changes aren't permanent, but change is. Will stand on the ocean until I start sinking.

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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 4h
“Verschlimmbessern” is just “life,” no?
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Robert Barnett @robbiebarnett.bsky.social · 6h
"The Quiet State: Micro-Surveillance and Normalisation in Tibet" is finally out, open access & available for free here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007.... It's about the new methods of authoritarian rule indicated by mechanisms used to manage Tibetan nuns, and about research methods in closed areas.
link.springer.com
The Quiet State
This open access book uses open-source analysis to reveal hidden state surveillance of Tibetan nuns, offering new methods for post-ethnographic research.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 14h
It mystifies me that people think of #4 as a bad thing.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 14h
If our current moment AI-wise had happened to coincide with the depths of the pandemic … what?
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Alex Dukalskis @alexdukalskis.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
My department - @ucdpolitics.bsky.social - is hiring two PERMANENT posts in any area of politics, international relations, theory, or development studies. Please apply if you are on the academic job market, and if you're not, please do us a solid & spread the word! Deadline NOV 9.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 15h
In capitalist West, tech bake you.
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Ciaran Martin @ciaranm.bsky.social · 22h
I was wrong. It’s happening
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Cyrus Farivar @cfarivar.bsky.social · 20h
Are there any Chinese speakers out there that would like a paid gig (one day or less) doing some online research and translation for @eastbaytimes.com ? Email me: cfarivar@bayareanewsgroup.com Text/Signal: 341-758-0888
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 29/09/2026
A box of my clothes from 20 years ago has resurfaced. Quite a time capsule, like scrolling through an old iPod. An excellent “Gameboy Variations” Beck t-shirt, and a pair of cargo pants that seems to have at least one pocket for every year they’ve been in storage. I keep finding more, it’s amazing.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 29/09/2026
Like, is this a 172-liker, really? It’s barely funny even if you know who I am, which only about three of these people do. Spillover enthusiasm from the previous post, I guess. But still, again: I do not understand how these things work.
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China Digital Times @chinadigitaltimes.net · 28/09/2026
Translation: Censored Commentary on Beijing’s Drone Storage Ban "The logic behind this new rule is to move the security perimeter from the sky right down to the level of equipment possession."
chinadigitaltimes.net
Translation: Censored Commentary on Beijing’s Drone Storage Ban
The post below, from WeChat account 白桦视界 Báihuà Shìjiè, or “White Birch Vision,” is a censored response to new restrictions on drone ownership and storage
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 28/09/2026
My “Involved in Human Trafficking“ shirt has a lot of people asking questions that are making me want to stop wearing my shirt rather than reconsider my involvement in human trafficking
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 28/09/2026
I should never sit at an empty table on the train. Every time I do, I end up with absolute zoo animals.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 28/09/2026
Gangsta’s Paradise turned 31 last month, too
m.youtube.com
Gangsta's Paradise
YouTube video by Coolio - Topic
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 28/09/2026
Every person on this website who cannot competently air-drum the Tom Sawyer fills is gonna have soooo many opinions about Canadian guerilla resistance strategy.
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The Quietus @thequietus.com · 28/09/2026
'Wonder was 26 when Songs In The Key Of Life was released—at that point, he was absolutely on top of the world, the greatest soulman on earth whose magnificence overshadowed even rock and pop' Many Happy Returns to #StevieWonder's Songs In The Key Of Life, which turns 50 today! buff.ly/zD17vVM
Stevie Wonder's Songs In The Key of Life album cover with concentric orange-to-yellow torn-paper rings drawing the eye to a small sketched, sunglasses-wearing face at the centre.
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The Relevant Organs @relevantorgans.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
PANDA FACT: Zoological research shows that Pandas thrive when national security secrets are loudly discussed in their vicinity.
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Bonnie Glaser @bglaser.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Mid-career experts from Europe and the US, apply to join GMF’s Taiwan-Europe-US Policy Program (TUPP). GMF’s TUPP fellowship brings together a transatlantic cohort of policy experts to better understand Taiwan and strengthen ties with Taiwan. www.gmfus.org/taiwan-us-eu...
gmfus.org
Taiwan-US-Europe Policy Program
The Taiwan-US-Europe Policy Program (TUPP) is a groundbreaking two-week program that enhances the understanding of Taiwan among future American policy leaders. Prior to 2024, TUPP was short for the "T...
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 28/09/2026
This is what’s really behind the leadership extension: he’s irritated, and refusing to leave until people get it right. Still, beats “Eleven.”
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Deb Chachra @debcha.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Some news: I’m (officially!) writing another book, tentatively titled TACTILE: MATTER, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE WORLD WE MAKE, working again my brilliant editor @armadilloproxy.bsky.social at @riverheadbooks.bsky.social. I wrote a bit more about it at my newsletter: buttondown.com/metafoundry/...
Publishers Marketplace
Deal Report

TACTILE
By Deb Chachra
Imprint: Riverhead

Materials scientist, design educator, and author of HOW INFRASTRUCTURE WORKS Deb Chachra's TACTILE, an articulation of the irreplaceable value of the material world and why the ways we interact with physical objects matter more than ever in a digital age, to Courtney Young at Riverhead, in an exclusive submission, by Zoe Pagnamenta at Calligraph (world).

Rights: tdussel@penguinrandomhouse.com

Non-fiction: Science/Technology

September 22, 2026
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 27/09/2026
EXPERT FROM YORKSHIRE: What was it?
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 26/09/2026
Does my Speak-n-Spell feel pain when I type O-U-C-H? The jury is out. Philosophers and neuroscientists say that's fucking stupid, but I called a guy from the Center for Pretending that Household Electronics Are Sentient and he said there's no way to know for sure.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 26/09/2026
“Zhizhi now balances training for speedcubing events alongside her kindergarten studies, spending two to three hours on weekdays and up to six hours at the weekend on the puzzle.”
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CHRD人权捍卫者网络 @chrdnet.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
#黄雪琴 刑满获释后失联 9月18日,黄雪琴结束五年刑期并获释。然而一周过去,友人至今无法与她取得联系,也没有收到她的任何消息。 此前,60个组织曾联合呼吁当局保障黄雪琴获释后的行动、表达及通信自由,并确保她免受监视、骚扰和报复。 《卫报》报道: theguardian.com/world/2026/s...
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Maura Elizabeth Cunningham @mauracunningham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
And another @newyorker.com article on Chinese AI—this one by @changche.bsky.social, who considers how the Chinese Party-state approaches AI with an eye toward large-scale diffusion more than superintelligence.
newyorker.com
There Is No A.I. “Race”
We’re constantly told that Chinese advances in A.I. would have catastrophic consequences. But the first to innovate is rarely the one who wins.
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Maura Elizabeth Cunningham @mauracunningham.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
New piece at @newyorker.com by @afrawang.bsky.social on a visit to Liangzhu, which seems to be the Dali (c. 2008) of the vibe-coding world: "The town is hip, idyllic, contrarian, and increasingly known as an escape for workers burnt out by the grind of China’s booming tech industry."
newyorker.com
What China’s Vibe-Coding Capital Can Tell Us About the A.I. Boom
Liangzhu, a small town near the tech hub Hangzhou, has become a haven for tech workers burnt out by the grind of China’s booming tech industry.
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 26/09/2026
Alberta’s self-image as world’s only rat-free region shattered by discovery of rat
theguardian.com
Alberta’s self-image as world’s only rat-free region shattered by discovery of rat
Province’s rat patrol called in to investigate as town of Bowden announces discovery of dead vermin
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Yuen Chan @yuenchan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I thought this was @nytpitchbot.bsky.social
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 25/09/2026
I lost touch with a lot of people after deleting my account because they treated Jew-burning as a valid topic of interest for ad targeting: www.propublica.org/article/face... I do regret that. But the deletion itself? Hell no.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 25/09/2026
static.klipy.com
odysseus siren song
Alt: Odysseus, tied to the mast, wailing in anguish
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Taiwan Cambot @taiwan-cambot.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Taipei City Panorama Xiangshan Hiking Trail, Taiwan #Taiwan
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 25/09/2026
Strongly protest France’s decision to rename the English Channel the “Gulf of Armorica.”
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 25/09/2026
Sorry, Playboy, this week’s Discourse is full, please repost on Monday.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 25/09/2026
It’s grown on me again since I posted that.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 25/09/2026
Wow, still with the coffee, huh?
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Ryan Ho Kilpatrick 何松濤 @ryanhk.blue · 25/09/2026
Is it soft resistance to question what soft resistance is?
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 25/09/2026
There is definitely a bunch I’ve forgotten, but these are the ones that sprang to mind.
Nine games that rather dubiously “shaped who I am”: Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap; Populous; Advance Wars; Half Life 2; Lumines; Assassin’s Creed; Odyssey; Destiny 2; Control; Cyberpunk 2077
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Taiwan Cambot @taiwan-cambot.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The hills of Dashibi Mountain Trail, Taiwan #Taiwan
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evacide @evacide.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
A world of always-on cameras and microphones on peoples' bodies is a very serious privacy and security problem for the people wearing them and for everyone around them.
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Leon English @leonenglish.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Tired: What if Chiang Kai Shek won instead of Mao Wired: What if Bo Xilai won instead of Xi Jinping (Probably also not great and not necessarily even in a different direction)
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 24/09/2026
“Thoughts are like treasured possessions, in that they’re best kept hidden away at home. It’s fine to take them out and examine them once in a while, but you certainly shouldn’t put them out in the middle of the street for all to see.”
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The Guardian @theguardian.com · 24/09/2026
Police arrest far-right activist Daniel Thomas after dinghy slashed in Channel
theguardian.com
Police arrest far-right activist Daniel Thomas after dinghy slashed in Channel
Thirty-seven-year-old in custody suspected of committing crimes including ‘criminal damage to endanger life’ Daniel Thomas, the far-right agitator and anti-migrant activist, has been arrested on suspicion of “criminal damage with intent to endanger life”, two days after he filmed himself slashing the side of a dinghy in the middle of the Channel, while a rescuer was on board. Hampshire and Isle of Wight constabulary issued a statement saying that a 37-year-old man, of no fixed abode, had been arrested on Wednesday night “on suspicion of destroying ships or fixed platforms or endangering their safety under section 11 of the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990”. Continue reading...
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 24/09/2026
Darkly funny that this actually passes for really good news now.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 24/09/2026
“Thoughts are like treasured possessions, in that they’re best kept hidden away at home. It’s fine to take them out and examine them once in a while, but you certainly shouldn’t put them out in the middle of the street for all to see.”
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 24/09/2026
Thread.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 24/09/2026
I’m partway through a scifi trilogy that’s quite compelling in terms of its general arc, but pretty awful, to varying extents, at page altitude. I should have just read the Wikipedia plot summary. It’s very annoying.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 24/09/2026
“At the end of the Cretaceous period, Earth moved into an energy-dampening field in space ….” Man, I wish we had more Zones of Thought books.
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samuelwa.de @samuelwa.de · 24/09/2026
I nearly wished for a second Them Crooked Vultures album, but the first one’s still growing on me after 16 years, so I can’t really claim that I need one.
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JocelynH @jocelynhphoto.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
bamboo burst. #streetphotography #photography #urban #city #bamboo
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