title, what title?

"I looked for you to give me transcendent experiences To transport me out of self and aloneness sent alienation Into a sense of oneness and connection, ecstatic and magical I became a junkie for it" from Rilkean Heart by Cocteau Twins: in memory of great German poet Rilke, who wrote many of such mesmerizing lines: Der Panther Im Jardin des Plantes, Paris Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe so müd geworden, daß er nichts mehr hält. Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäbe gäbe und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt. Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte, der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht, ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte, in der betäubt ein großer Wille steht. Nur manchmal schiebt der Vorhang der Pupille sich lautlos auf -. Dann geht ein Bild hinein, geht durch der Glieder angespannte Stille - und hört im Herzen auf zu sein. and my humble translation into Turkish: Panter Parmakliklarin gecit töreninden, Öyle yoruldu ki bakislari, artik dayanamiyor hic birseye....

I was on a street music festival this weekend on Kreuzberg65. There were stands from dir Linke, die Grüne, Amnesty International and... Barack Obama. Apparently there are 20 000 Americans in Berlin, and they were looking for them. If I am not mistaken, absentee ballots played some role in the last elections. They are not leaving it to chance.

One of the most striking passages I read in Hagakure , the Samurai's guide, was the following: "In the words of the ancients, one should take his decisions in the matter of seven breaths." It suited my way of thinking back then, when I read the book. The western tradition has a profound belief that the more you think, the more sound your decisions will be. Though I believe in the power of deep thinking when it comes to creating something, or coming up with new ideas, this does not mean the same applies to taking decision based on existing facts. Now the scientists in Norway, Holland, USA and Germany have made a very interesting discovery, which somehow verifies this Japanese wisdom. By scanning the decision making parts of the brain using a functional MRI, they have shown that the decision making parts of the brain are activated 10 seconds before the decisions are taken at the "conscious" level. In other words, we became aware of the decisions we take at the cel...

Su aralar gündemde olan birkac olay cok ama cok sinirimi bozuyor. 1. MNG Holding'in Bodrum'da Pina yarim Adasinda Yaptigi Dolgu MNG Holding'in cevre bilinci kampanyasi acmasi ise iki yüzlulükten baska birsey degildir. Bu tarz "kurumsal sorumluluk" kampanyalarinin ictensizliklerine bir örnek daha. 2. Hayasiz kiyafeti yuzunden 6 ay hapis cezasi alan Kadin Konu ile ilgili Oral Calisar'in yazisi ve NTVMSNBC haberi 'ni okumanizi tavsiye ederim. Yargi ile Yasama arasindaki makro tartismalar icinde kaybolmusken, ve "Irtica"ya karsi en önemli koruma mekanizmasinin yargi oldugunu düsünürken bu tarz bir haber ile karsilasmak gercekten cok moralimi bozdu. 3. Kamu arazilerinin isgalinin suc olmaktan cikarilmasi, ve iskan ruhsati olmayan binalara altyapi hizmetleri verilmesinin suc olmaktan cikarilmasi Konuyla ilgili NTVMSNBC haberi . Bu konular ile ilgili tepkimi göstermek, göstermekden ziyade birseyler yapmak istiyorum. Eminim bu haberleri okuduktan son...

Bugün macta oynamasa da bu basarida onemli pay sahibi olan beyefendi'ye: armağan(nihat kahveci için) benim zamanımdan efsanelere karışan nihat kahveci benim istanbul'umdan avrupa'nın diğer ucunda bir kahraman nihat kahveci benim beşiktaş'ımdan dünyaya armağan nihat kahveci golden sonra poz veren beyfendi vedat özdemiroglu

I mean it metaphorically of course. I hope it will be a fair game on the pitch and on the streets of Berlin alike. Inanin Cocuklar, Cocuklar inanin, Güzel günler görecegiz, günesli günler, Almanyayi Baselde devirecegiz, Sampiyonluk sarkilari söyleyecegiz*! *This is a Besiktas chant which is derived from the great Turkish Poet Nazim Hikmet. My humble translation goes like: Believe in it Boys, believe in it, We will see beautiful days, sunny days, We will knock out Gemany in Basel, We will sing songs of championship!

Seküler etik -daha önceki yazimda belirttigim gibi etik dogasi geregi sekülerdir, bu seküler sifatini daha sonra dogan din bazli etikten ayirmak icin kullaniyorum- bu aralar kafami mesgul eden konulardan biri. Milli Takim'in basarisi bu aralar bu konulari biraz gündemde geriye dusurmus olsa bile AKP'nin kapatilma davasi ve Yargi ile Genel Kurmay arasindaki ilginc iliskiler bu konuyu baska bir acidan bakmama vesile oldu. Seküler etik'in en basit sorularindan biri birey'in neden yalan söylemedigidir. Cok hakim olmasam da Kant'tan baslayarak filozoflar bu konuya cevaplar getirmeye calismislar. Benim en kafama yatani önemli Özgürlükcü düsünürlerden biri olan David D. Friedmann 'in aciklamasi oldu. Insanlarin kisitli hafiza ve hesaplama yetenegine sahip varliklar oldugu, ve söyledikleri yalanlarin hepsini hatirlayamayacaklarini, ve bir kez yalan söyleyince yiyecekleri yalanci damgasinin bedelinin dogruyu söylemenin bedelinden daha yüksek olacagi icin yalan söylemedik...

1. Music On the Streets, that is as good as Portishead: 2. 2 beautiful parks, and one waterfall: 3. Germans, Turks and tourists celebrating the Turkish win over Croatia on the streets the Turkish style:

(*) The Triumph of never-giving-up Fighters, from Spiegel online's coverage of yesterdays unbelievable game against Czech Republic.

D10S Existe!

Iyi insan olmadan, iyi Besiktasli olunmaz. Istanbul'daki Besiktas'lilar lutfen bu adrese giriniz. Cumartesi gunu Seref Bey'i topluca aniniz.

I don't like some of the players in the national team. I don't like the trainer. I don't like the way the players were picked. But I love football and my country. It was a delight beating Switzerland on the extra time, and party on the streets to the late hours of the night. Here are some low resolution videos from yesterday, when 1000s of Turks closed one of the busiest streets in Berlin:

This Financial Times article sums up nicely the current situation in Turkish politics very well. It might be of interest to the non-Turkish readers of this blog.

According to this article in Turkish press, the fan zones are not that fun in Switzerland. This reminded me the best month of my life in this lovely city during the World Cup. Isn't it a shame, that life gets more boring when you are rich?

I love British humor. I've written about my favorite British comedian, who is not a comedian, Jeremy Clarkson previously in my blog. Sifting through my old DVD's I came across a collection of my favorite British comedy series, the coupling. Set in London around the lives of 3 guys and 3 girls in their 30s this series is almost good as Seinfeld to me. I'd recommend this 4 season ling series to all those in need of a good laugh. How can you not love Jeff: Or Susan:

Walking and running are so much different from the primate mode of walking and running. As a matter of fact all the "technical" modes of movement are different from their "natural" counterparts. There are no fish with propellers or no birds with jet propulsion. I was always perplexed with walking. I mean we are not pushing or pulling anything, but we are able to move horizontally. Until I watched a documentary, I had no idea what was the underlying principle. When I learned what the principle was I was filled with joy, and had to share this with you science loving readers. It turns out that we are nothing but 2 inverted pendulums. Our body is the mass on the pendulum, and our legs are the rods. As we step, our feet function as the pivot of the pendulum. Figure 4 from this article was the best pictorial explanation I could find. This fundamental difference between the modes of transport of the animals and the machines reinforces my understanding that evolution produ...