title, what title?

She is definitely the most beautiful woman in the world for me.

I listened to this nice story in Death in June/Boyd Rice collobaration "Alarm Agents". Even if Rice is a psycho whose ideas make me wanna throw up most of the times, he has a point in this story: "An ancient tale is told of how the gods, having stolen from Man his divinity met in council to discuss where they should hide it. One suggested that it be carried to the other side of the Earth and buried. But it was pointed out that some Men are great wanderers and that they might find the lost treasure on the other side of the Earth. Another proposed that it be dropped into the depth of the sea. But the same fear was expressed; that Man in his insatiable curiosity might dive deep enough to find it even there. Finally, after a space of silence, the oldest and wisest of the gods said, "Hide it in Man himself, 'cause that is the last place he will ever think to look for it." I sent my soul to the Invisible, the afterlife to foretell. And returning it sai...

I had mentioned in my previous post the humor and kindness of last.fm error messages. Here is another one from today: Someone chewed through our cables Unfortunately, a third party provider has poured tea into their equipment. Tea is dangerous. But we suggest you go and grab a cup whilst we run around shouting at people. We're sorry for the inconvenience. Please come back soon. Lots of love, The Last.fm team. By the way the previous message is 6 months old. Errors don't happen that often in last.fm. This is exactly why I don't want Microsoft buying facebook.

"Footballers hairstyle" is a term in Turkey, which you use when your best friend gets a bad haircut -it is also wrongly for those good looking individuals with a mullet, but lets skip that. This section from German newspaper Welt, a collection of best haircuts from 80s Bundesliga, shows why it is true: http://www.welt.de/sport/article1196218/Eine_schrecklich_schoene_Familie.html

It was the first Tour de France I followed from from the start to the end. Floyd Landis, who later won the Tour, was completely destroyed on one of the mountain stages. He fell 15 behind the leader of the stage, and lost his leadership. Everything looked bad for him. Then 2 days later he made a comeback, which at the time I regarded as the greatest sports comeback I've experienced, and lead the whole pack with a time difference of 15 minutes in the next mountain stage. After this impressive attack the Tour was his. I cheered for him in front of the TV for inspiring millions of people like me, and making them believe it is possible to come back once you fell on the ground... Now... I feel cheated. I feel mislead. It is now certain that he used doping . I was never a fan of cycling, now I hate it. Mr. Landis has to live his life as a liar, and an anti-role model. He has to carry the sign of the first Tour winner to be stripped off of his title. I hope it was worth it Mr. Landis.

Warp Records , the record label which gave the world musical giants like Autechre, Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, Boards of Canada, and Two Lone Swordsmen, have finally signed a post (math) rock band, The Battles . Their debut album The Mirrored is available in digital format through Bleep, Warp's no-hassle-no-DRM online music store. They collaborated with the celebrated visual artists UVA for their new single Tonto: I recommend the album Mirrored, for those looking for freshness in Rock music scene.

Been listening to my Pink Floyd collection today. I am struck once again by the novelty and braveness of their first two albums. From many great songs Pink Floyd made, their first song from their first album stands out as the greatest opening song of an album, and also of a groups musical life, I have ever heard. The opening tunes of Astronomy Domine are more than opening tunes to a normal song. They are opening to a new era in the history of music. Just like the opening tunes of Like a Rolling Stone. Here is an early recording from 1967 which aired on BBC: This song also marks the birth of one of the most creative music duos, Waters and Barrett. The duo's rise to musical greatness is marked by their next album, A Saurcerlful Of Secrets, which is my second favorite Pink Floyd album. The spirit lived in the epic Atom Heart Mother and Wish You Were Here, which is dedicated to Barrett, and last time in Final Cut, another favorite of mine. The outsider David Gilmour killed this spirit ...

is, in my humble opinion, the asymmetry between the sizes of the electorate that mandates executive power to a government, and the electorate on which this particular government exercises this executive power. A prime example to this anomaly is the mass media-manipulation campaign going on in USA about the strategy in Iraq. I was watching a global show on BBC World in which people from all round the globe express their opinions on current issues. It was revelatory and shocking to watch BBC asking the Americans about the condition in Iraq! In the end it will be their vote which will decide the fate of Iraqis, whom they have never seen or met. So the question to be answered deals with the fates of millions of Iraqis. They are the electorate on which the executive power is being exercised. The government who exercises this power is voted, however thousands of miles away in the USA. This is the asymmetry I am talking about. Now as the electorate in US, does not live in Iraq, they receive i...

Abdullah Gül'ün cumhurbaskani adayi gösterildigi kargasali günlerin basinda siyasi blog 'umda yeni bir anayasaya ihtiyacimiz oldugunu söylemistim. Ne yazik ki AKP "pre-emptive" bir sekilde ilk anayasa taslagini ortaya atti, ve seküler kesim yine cözüm üretmek yerine AKP'yi elestirmek pozisyonunda kaldi. Ki bu da genis halk kitlelerinde "AKP is yapiyor, digerleri oyaliyor" izlenimi uyandiriyor. Seküler kesim bu yeni anayasaya kendi alternatifini bir an önce getirmelidir. Ama ne yazik ki bunu yapacak gücte bir parti göremiyorum, o zamana kadar yeni Anayasa Önerisi'ni incelemek ve elestirmek en iyi is bizim icin. Bu baglantida 'te tam metnini bulabilirsiniz.

In what will surely be remembered as the most controversial decision ever given by FIA, the governing body of F-1 , will decide today on the future of McLaren Mercedes Team, who were found guilty earlier of industrial spying but not punished due to lack of evidence. In recently obtained e-mail exchanges between Fernando Alonso and the test driver Pedro de la Rosa, there are hard-to-deny evidence that McLaren Mercedes Team had access to secret Ferrari information and were testing them on their cars. McLaren Mercedes will again try to defend (!!!) itself on the lines that there is no evidence that these information were used in races, which I find totally unacceptable. The case involves a close cooperation between the head designer of McLaren Mercedes, Mike Coughlan, and Ferrari's now sacked head of development Nigel Stepney, and it is utterly stupid to think that these information were not used for increasing McLaren's competitive advantage. I am eager to see if principles wi...

My sister made an entry about one of the tragicomic Turkish movies of the late 90s called "The Forbidden Streets" on her blog . A child music star, Emrah was unfortunate to play -on more than one occasion- a boy whose mother has to consult prostitution to survive, and is therefore subject of many not so nice jokes in Turkish pop culture. In this low budget direct-to-TV movie he plays a poor guy falling in love with a rich girl whose brother is a gang member a.k.a West Side Story. This movie reminded me of another Turkish version of an international blockbuster Cocktail. Thanks to Seckin, I came up with the name of this "great" Turkish movie called "Never Without You." I found two great clips from the movie which thought me a lot how (not) to dance. PS: Ilk video'da Yasak Sokaklardan Amerikan Ceketli Tayfun diye hatirladigimiz, Seckin'in ise kimligini Nartallo olarak desifre ettigi dansci bir cok Turk filminde dansci roluyle karsimiza cikan biyik...

I visited Athens for a conference. I stayed the weekend to experience this antic city on the other side of the Aegean. Unfortunately I am not impressed. That is not to say that Athens is not a fun town, with beautiful girls and a nice beach just 30 minutes away with tram. All that is true. But the city itself is so reminiscent of Turkish cities like Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul that I did not feel I was in a foreign city. And therefore I was not all that impressed. Yet I think it is a decent 3 day trip for those of you who are not from Turkey. For my Turkish friends I wouls suggest visiting the Greek islands or rural Greece instead. Here is a small guide to athens, which is also available as a Google Map . The Airport: is connected conveniently to the city center with subway (called Metro). The tickets cost 6€. Ride takes 45 minutes, the firs train leaves at 5:30 from the city. The City: The city center is also meshed with many subway station. Daily card which includes trams costs 3€. I...

On my prolonged flight to Athens, I had to stay in Munich for a night as a result of weather and airport efficiency problems in Tegel, I had time to check out the international press. I found out this article written by the new British Foreign Secretary David Miliband which appeared on today's Daily Telegraph. Miliband, who started his Turkish visit today clearly put out the reasons why Britain is firmly backing a full Turkish EU-Membership. He also quoted newly elected Turkish president Abdullah Gul. Contorary to his previous fundamentalist comments, he made a good definition of the much disputed term läicite in Turkey: " A country cannot claim to be contemporary if even a single citizen is being discriminated against based on his or her religious, linguistic or ethnic characteristics or economic status. " Let's see if his actions will follow his newly adopted secular stance...

Recently I found out that the endless discussions that I have with my dear friend Ozan about the development path Turkey should follow is a part of a 200 year old debate involving free traders and protectionists . Ozan's on the side of an import substituting industrialization and I on the side of free traders - I found out accidentally that one of the strongest voices of protectionists is Dani Rodrik , an Istanbul-born Turkish Jew from Harvard. Another topic that I discuss often with Ozan is football -word discussion is not appropriate here since we don't "discuss" we just talk about our love for Besiktas. So when I read an article from Mustafa Denizli, an ex football star turned journalist, which was protectionist in nature I wanted to bring it up here on my blog and gather your opinions. I think it serves good to demonstrate pros and cons of both approaches to development. In Turkey various different broadcasting companies broadcast almost all the European footba...