title, what title?

Thinking on the current state of affairs in the international politics, I came to the conclusion that there are fundamentally two approaches one can take in making a case. First approach is to concede that the states are not bound to the ethical obligations of the individuals, and must follow their interests, how ever they are defined inside the state, no matter what the moral results are. Those who favor this view however, loose their right to criticize the actions of other states, as any action can be matched to these state interests. Furthermore, they are obliged -in my opinion- to present a model, in which this type of behavior of individual states can sustain a world in which the dignity of individuals are not hurt by the immoral relations between the states. Second approach assumes that the states by definition composed of ethical individuals, and being so subject to such obligations by definition. Of course there will be cheaters. I think the more people take the second approach...

The second half of the final season of the best thing on TV, Battlestar Galactica, will start January 2009. I am already dreaming about it. Literally, I had a dream about the show last night, in which I was Adama, and had to command my ships against Cylon base ships to find earth. After reaching earth, I led a search effort into the underground caverns where we found human survivors from thousand of years ago. Fascinating dream. One of the reasons I love BSG is that it can discuss contemporary issues pretty openly, as it is set in the future in an imagined society. So there is no holding back due to concerns of "hurting" certain group of peoples feelings. In the episode The Woman King , a group of Saggitarians -an imagined nation in BSG, is taken on board the Galactica. Then a deadly epidemic breaks out. However the interpretation of Saggitarians of their holy texts forbids them from using modern medicine. The show opens up with a woman's struggle with her faith and the p...

Kanatlarinin altinda, Sever adim yürüyoruz, Güzel günlere, Günesli günlere. Walking under your wings, Love at every step, Heading for beautiful days, Heading for sunny days...

Being a materialist (as opposed to a dualist, not in the bling-bling sense of the word) one of the topics that come out often in discussions with dualist or dualist-leaning friends is the limits of observation. The argument goes, what if there is some form of matter that you cannot observe? Well the answer is, there is such matter, which does not interact with the electromagnetic radiation, and thought to be made out of particles that are not included in the current standard model of particle physics. But their mere existence should be detectable by some means. This means is the gravity that they cause. As a matter of fact their existence were first postulated by observations of the rotational speeds of the galaxies and their distribution in the cosmos, which required more matter than the observed matter within the galaxies. A new study of the collision of galaxy clusters -nor galaxies but their clusters- provided more evidence on the properties and the existence of dark matter. When ...

My Bloody Valentine, the big guns of shoegazing are on tour after 15 years of hiatus. This is their performance from Fuji festival in Japan of their song To Here Knows When, from Tremolo EP, one of my favorites. They are on tour, however following the festival season they will be doing US gigs mainly. So unfortunately it is highly unlikely that I will loose my self among guitars listening to You Made Me Realize...

Keciören'deki vahsi iddalar üzerine yazdigim girdiye dostum Mehmet yorumda bulunmus. Ben bu olayi siyasallastirmanin efektif olmayacagini savunurken, Mehmet bilakis bu olayin siyasallasmasinin bu olayin mesulü olan iktidar partisinin zararina olacagini ve siyasallastirilmasi gerektigini söylemis. Sanirim bu nokta da siyasallastirmadan ne anladigimi aciklamam gerekli. Siyasallastirmadan kastim bu olay ile siyasi ve hukuki boyutta yapilan mücadelenin birbirine karistirilmasi. Söyle ki, ortada idari, adli, ve siyasi boyutlari olan bir olay var. Idari kismi Kecioren Belediyesi'nin tüm vatandaslardan toplanan vergiyi dini vecizeler yazdirmak icin kullanmasi, ve belediye calisanlarinin icki satanlara kanun disi yaptirimlar uygulamalari. Laik bir sistemde bunun mümkün olmamasi gerekli. Ancak Diyanet Isleri gibi devasa bir kurumun oldugu bir ortamda isin bu boyutuyla mucadele etmek isteyen kisilerin zorunlu din dersi'nin karsisinda tavir almalari, Diyanet Isleri'nin finansman...

Yeni bir sezon, yeni bir heyecan. Hakeden kazansin, tek istegim bu. Besiktasimdan beklentim esas olarak sampiyonluk degil. Endüstriyellesen futbolda Olimpiyatlar ile hatirladigimiz amator ruhun bir sansinin oldugunu gostermesi.Pascal ruhunu istiyorum. Metin Ali Feyyaz ruhunu istiyorum. Sarı Fırtına(Metin Tekin Için) Haber kötü 'Metin Tekin öldü' Beyin sarsıntısı sakarya'da Hafta ortası kupa maçında Olamaz Metin bugün ölemez Babam 'ölmez koçum' diyor Evde herkes ağlıyor Haber yanlış işte gerçek Metin Tekin hiç ölmeyecek Vedat Özdemiroglu

Here is an amazing footage of a 8 year old gorilla named Binti Jua rescuing a young child who fell into the gorilla closure in Chicago zoo in 1996. And here is a nice article by Barbara J. King, Professor of Anthropology, which points the roots of human morals and ethics to our evolutionary past.

Iddalar korkunc . Bu iddalar'i siyasallastirmadan -yani secim malzemesi yapmadan, ortada iki taraf varmis, ve birinin eline koz gecmis gibi davranmadan- sadece suclulari hedef alarak yargiya tasimak laik ve demokratik bir duzene inanan herkesin sorumlulugudur. Özgürlükler'den yana oldugunu idda eden Basbakan'dan ya da onun Icisleri Bakani'ndan birsey beklemek cok da mantikli degil, zira özgürlük anlayislarinin sadece kendi dar dünya görüsleri ile ilgili oldugunu kendileri dahi biliyorlar. Tarih ile ilgili bir konuda ettigi sozler yuzunden Orhan Pamuk'un pesine dusen aktivist hukuk adamlarindan hukuk camiasi icinde özgürlüklere inanmislarinin da olduguna inaniyor, onlarin harekete gecmesini bekliyorum. Bu vesileyle acilen ihtiyacimiz oldugunun bir kez daha altini cizmek istedigim Americans United tarzi laik sistemi demokratik yollar ile korumak icin kurulmus, siyaset üstü bir sivil toplum örgütünün bu ve bunun gibi davalarda finansal ve hukuki olanaklarina ihtiyac d...

The stars of these Olympics are Bolt and Phelps for sure. Their dominance in their respective disciplines have raised questions, and the most selling answer I came across is the "freak of nature" explanation, which tries to explain their dominance by stressing the suitability of different features of their bodies to their disciplines. Phelps is "like a boat" and so "flexible" that he cannot jog, Usain has the "legs of a kangaroo." I not only do not disagree with these explanations, but also think that these explanations which are easier to sell for the media is against the Olympic spirit. Let me try to explain why. I do not deny that some certain features bring competitive advantages in certain sports. However, this only explains why they are better than the average runner or swimmer, but not why they are so good among the best of the best, against whom they are competing. Those guys have the same advantageous features. So whats the source of t...

Luciana Aymar, the Maradona of womans' field hockey. Hope Argentina wins gold. Yelena Isinbayeva. The only queen of pole vault. Her world record in the Olympics is her 24th! I think Phelps is everyone's hero. Earlier, I had asked what the factors behind the swimming records are. Thanks for Yigit for this article , which links the records to the professionalization of the sports(the swimmers can swim longer and mature), the equipment, the deeper pool which allows more under water times, and advanced pools that minimize turbulence. There is also this interesting article from Scientific American , which links Phelps' success not to his "freak of nature" body, but his ability to sense the water and coordinate his strokes accordingly. Usain Bolt's unbeliveable performance in the 100 meters final gave me the same thrills, when I watched Floyd Landis came from behind in a mountain stage to take the lead. I hope he is really dope free.

It is unbelievable and disappointing at the same time to witness, that the farce of a scientific hypothesis called Intelligent Design will be taught in Biology classes as supplementary material in one of the states of the greatest democracy in the world. In this great article Gary Marcus brings to attention the falsehood of the conception of an intelligent design, by listing some of the biases in our mind as well as design flaws in our body. This discussion reminded me the answer of Sir David Attenborough, the legendary nature documentary producer, to questions regarding creationism: My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me...

Son bir senede depreme hazirlik konusunda siz ne yaptiniz?

Ilk gencligimin Nihat'li, Pascal'li, Ali Eren'li, Münsch'lü güzel Besiktas günlerimin yetenekli ve yakisikli golcüsüydü Oktay. Havasiyla Al Pacino'yu top kontrolü ve firsatciligiyla Batistuta'yi andirirdi bana. Magazin basininin, tum toplumlardaki ünlü insan linci, schadenfreude egilimlerinin kurbani oldu. Anne'sinin gercek annesi olmadigini one surduler once. Daha sonra yeni doguran esi intahar etti Oktay kamptayken. Girdigi depresyondan bir daha cikamadi. Besiktas'li Serdar ile yine yeni nisanlisi yuzunden girdigi kavga sonucu ayirilirken Besiktas'ima "Artik Besiktasli Oktay olarak anilmak istemiyorum" diyerek cok ayip etse de, sonralari hatasini anladi. Ya da anladigina inanmak istiyorum. Cogulari onu Belcika'ya attigi Maradona'vari golüyle hatirlayacak, ama benim kalbimde Göteborg'a attigi su gol ile yazildi:

I've been listening to the 4AD records super-group This Mortal Coil lately. This legendary label had names like Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance back then. Their 1991 Album Blood has a daunting cover of The Byrds song " I Come and Stand at Every Door. " The lyrics are the Pete Seeger -Pete Seeger is the country musician who wanted to cut the cables with an ax when Dylan went electric in the Newport Festival- translation of the great Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet's poem on Hiroshima, " The Little Girl ." Here is the This Mortal Coil Cover in Youtube: (ktunnel: This Mortal Coil - I Come & Stand at Every Door) This song reminded me the genius of Dylan once again. I mean who can tell the horror of an atom bomb in such a concise and mysterious manner: Darkness at the break of noon Shadows even the silver spoon The handmade blade, the child's balloon Eclipses both the sun and moon To understand you know too soon There is no sense in trying. Here is a great video...

Besiktasliyiz, Besiktasli! Anlayamaz kimse bu aski, Bekcisiyiz kopsa kiyamet, Siyah beyaz bize emanet!

Tuzla'da göz göre göre bir katliam yasaniyor. Katliam kelimesinin etken cagrisimlari iscilerini ölüme yollayan isverene, ya da denetimi yapmayan devlete, yönetmeliklerde anlasma saglayamayan sendikalara sucu yiktigim anlasilmasin. Benim ülkemde patir patir ölen bu insanlardan ben de sorumluyum, siz de sorumlusunuz. Modern anlamda devlet nedir? Bir cografyadaki insanlar bir araya gelirler ve bir arada yasamak icin bazi kurallara uyacaklarina dair taahütte bulunurlar -devletin sosyal kontrat yorumu budur. Bu kurallari yapmak, uygulamak icin aralarindan bazilarina, yine bu kurallar icinde kalmak sarti ile yetki verirler. Gelin bu kurallarin en temeli olan modern anayasalarin giris bolumlerine bakalim, insanlar ne amaclarla bir araya gelip bir millet olmuslar, ve bir devlet kurmuslar: Alman Anayasi: 1- Insan haysiyeti kutsaldir. Bu onuru korumak ve saygi gostermek her devlet kuvvetinin zorunlulugudur. Amerikan Anayasasi: Giris: Birlesik Devletler halki olarak, daha mükemmel bir birlik...

Olympics is underway in Bejing -running parallel with the most stupid war in my lifetime. The records in swimming are unbelievable, and for sure has to do with the technological advances in the swimming suits -or maybe also in the drugs, who knows? Looking at all the different sport types in Olympics, an old interest of mine has resurfaced again. I have been always interested in not so well-known sport types. I had already written about Gaelic Football on this blog. I intend to write about some interesting sports during the Olympics. First of these sport types is called Kabaddi . The game is very interesting as it is a team sport played without any balls or related accessories. It may thought of as group wrestling. At each round one team sends a raider player to the other side. This raider's task is to wrestle down one opponent player and run back to his own half. During this time, the defending team tries to make a ring around the raider by holding each others arms. Originated in...

I do not know any contemporary Western democracy where ideas of a single man are felt so profoundly in the politics and daily life. It is therefore perhaps difficult for those living in these democracies to appreciate the status of Mustafa Kemal, the founder of the single democracy in the Islamic state tradition, in the Turkish society. I´came to believe that an agreement of a true "separation of state and religion in a society is one of the main pre-conditions of democracy. In the face of rising Political-religion -Political Islam, Political Christianity, Political Hinduism- his revolutionary reformations he undertook in the 1920's have been attacked from the political Islam side in Turkey very harshly these days. In one of the recent such rows, two young Islamists were taken to the court after they declared on TV that they did not like Mustafa Kemal, but preferred the old Iranian revolutionary leader Khomeini. The draconian protection of revolutionary ideas laws -which are t...