title, what title?

I'll start with a question, a very basic question. How many basic tastes are there? Until last week I could come up with 4: Salty Sour Sweet Hot Which was not complete and also wrong. Hotness associated with chili is not a basic taste by definition. The complete taste list looks like this. Salty Sour Sweet Bitter Umami I am not joking. Umami is a relatively newly discovered tasting capability with humans, and associated with the amino acid glutamic acid, which is the building block of many proteins. however taste comes from the free form or the salt of glutamic acids. It literally means the "delicious taste" in Japanese. It is associated with fermented protein containing products, such as cheese, ham, East Asian Fish Sauce, and as well as vegetables like aspargus, sea weed and tomatoes. I came across this flavor, when I got interested in Old Roman Cooking. Back in the days, the Romans stored fish in salt, to prevent them from roting. After 4 months the fermenting bacte...

The most successful "entertainer" in Rock'n'Roll, at least I have ever seen, died 17 years ago on this day. I would like to pay my respects to this great artist with the video of one of his great performances from Live Aid, which I mentioned in my blog earlier.

Advantage of being a supporter of a club like Besiktas is to find something to make you happy every time you are down. These are moments from our victory against Efes Pilsen, der rekordmeister, from last week. During the week we beat Zeleznik Beograd in Belgrade in ULEB Cup. I am waiting for Saturday to come to watch Besiktas, probably to deliver another miserable performance- when I think about it I don't remember a game we played inspiring football. In the mean time I listen to old chants, like this one we sang in 2003 against Lazio Rome, being 2-0 down, and out of the competition... I fell in love with you already, And therefore I cannot love another, They are calling me mad, Let them call me mad, I cannot change, Let them call me mad, I cannot change, ooooo...

Brian May, one of my childhood heroes, and the guitar player of my childhood band Queen was elected anonymously as the chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. He had finished his Bsc in astrophysics before his success with Queen, and luckily his undergraduate research topic was not a hot one, allowing him to obtain his PHD in 2007 with his thesis titled "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" which is about the interplanetary dust, that is crucial to understanding of the formation of the solar system.

Bu yaz okudugum, bir Italyan gazetesinin seküler ve vahiy kaynakli ahlak anlayislarinin benzer ve catisan yönlerini irdelemek amaci ile ünlü Italyan yazar ve dusunadami Umberto Eco ile Milan Kardinali Carlo Martinelli arasinda baslattigi mektup alisverisinden olusan “Inanmayan Neye Inanir- Inanc ya da Inanmamk*” adli kitabin en ilginc kismi Carlo Martinelli’nin sekuler ahlak anlayisinin dayanak noktalarini sorguladigi mektubu, ve Umberto Eco’nun “Öteki sahneye cikinca…” adli cevabiydi. Eco insanlarin kendilerinden sonrakiler icin bir ornek olmak, ve kendilerinden sonrakilerin hayatlarinda iyi bir iz birakmak adina hayatlarini ahlakli gecireceklerini, ve kisisel cikarlarin otesinde hareket edebileceklerini idda ediyordu. Yani bir insanin erdemi ve tüm insanlik icin degeri gelecek nesillerde biraktigi hatiralar, ve sansli birkaci icin de kendilerinden sonrakilerin hayatlarinda ön ayak olduklari degisiklikler ile ölcülebilirdi… Beni 31 Ekim 2007’de kaybettigimiz Erdal Inönü’nün arkasindan...

are happening in Turkey and in Germany... Turkey is recovering slowly from the trauma caused by the surge of attacks by the Kurdish-separatist terrorist who call themselves, PKK, Kurdistan Workers Party. For those outside Turkey, and following the news from international news conglomerates, the name is an intended oxymoron. PKK is a "party" in the same sense that Nazis were a National Socialist party. In the very last attack, in which they killed 16 Turkish soldiers -in their spare time they stop village buses and kill dozens of civilians just because they do not support them -, PKK took 8 Turkish soldiers as hostage. They were freed after involvement of certain members of the Parliament who have active links to this terrorist organization. In an unexpected move the 8 soldiers were arrested by the Military Court... The events are rich with speculation possibilities, and have to be clarified to the public. 8 Soldiers were used as a justification for a possible incursion to the...

penche.com'dan bir Besiktaslinin yazisi benim dusuncelerime tercuman oldu: Utanmışlarmış... Bugün bütün medya, ağız birliği etmişçesine, utanmaktan sözediyor. Size ne oluyor? İster 10-0 yeneriz, ister 8-0 yeniliriz. Biz seviniriz, biz üzülürüz. Rahat bırakın bizi. Acımızı demlendirelim, kavgamızı edelim. Aşkımızı tazeliyelim. Sınavda, 8 notunu "kendisi alan"; ama notu 3 olunca, "hocanın verdiğini" söyleyen sorumsuz talebe anlayışı vardır. Aynı o talebeler gibi, -ama mâsum olmayan- medyacılar da, 2 hafta önce "Liverpool''u yendik" diyordu. Bugün, "kahrettiler", "utanmazlar", "utandırdılar" vb. başlıkları attılar. Dün maçtan sonra yorum yapan Mehmet Aslan, bugün "İkitelli''nin en bi utangaçı" E.Özkök''ün Hürriyet gastesinde ne yazmış diye baktım. Yazısını şöyle bitirmiş: "Shankly Gates... Liverpool’un kurucusu... O, "Futbol hayat memat meselesi değildir, ondan çok, çok daha önemli...

I have recently moved out. Germany being the service desert that it is I will need about 2 weeks to get internet at home. That's why I cannot contribute to my blog as much as I would have liked. I would like to write an Obituary on late Erdal Inonu, the physicist turned politician turned physicists, who passed away las week, and had a deep influence on my intellectual development. I would like to write about my trip to London and Liverpool. I would like to write about my altered views about football. But I need time for all that. Until I find time I want to entertain the blog readers with my favorite Elliot Smith song Son of Sam: which is, though denied by Smith himself, based on David Berkowitz, better known as Son of Sam, who terrorized New York City in the summer of 77. Those interested can refer to this great Crime Library article , or the movie by Spike Lee called the Summer of Sam . The movie is definitely worth watching, especially for the performances of John Leguizamo and ...

In the third of Turkish Football Chants series I want to talk about Göztepe, and their loyal fans. Goztepe is from the third largest city of Turkey, Izmir. Along with Karsiyaka and Altay, it is one of the 3 Izmir giants. It was one of the few Turkish clubs to play semi final in major European cups. In 2003, they were turned into a corporation, and this was the spark for the fastest fall in the Turkish football history. After 4 years, they are playing the lowest level, the Amateur league. Their fans, however, are still following them and singing chants like the "March of Rebellion", which in my opinion the best Turkish football chant. It goes: We are walking on the streets of Izmir, with our shirts on our backs Our numbers reached 100s of thousands, with your yellow and your red May your yellow be the sun, and your red be the blood in my vein So that not a single day of my life goes without you, this is what all my struggle is for Our glorious Goztepe was born on 1925, May thi...