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Showing posts from November, 2008

Derbinin Ardindan ya da Nasil Kaybedilir

Battlestar Galactica televizyonda duymaya ve gormeye alisik olmadigim hayat ile ilgili konularin islendigi bir dizi. Dizinin ana karakterlerinden biri olan ve hayatta kalan son 43 bin insanin korunmasindan sorumlu olan Amiral Adama ogluna hayat ile ilgili su ogutu verdiginde cok etkilenmistim: "Nasil kaybettigimiz, kim oldugumuzla ilgili daha cok sey anlatir." Gercekten de kaybederken verdigimiz tepkiler, bizi digerlerinden ayiran onemli bir unsurdur. Dün maci kaybettik. Kaybederken bu soz geldi aklima, ve Besiktasli oldugum icin bir kez daha mutlu oldum ve Baba'ma tesekkur ettim. --- 1-0 geriye dustugumuzde de, beraberligi yakalayip yeniden geriye dustugumuzde de, 3 as oyuncumuz yedek beklerken icimde bu maci alacagimizin guveni vardi. Tek kale oynuyor, pas yapiyor, oyunu kontrol ediyorduk. Yedigimiz goller Fenerbahce'nin usta oldugu yan toplardan, bizim defansimizin usta oldugu genis alanda adam kacirmaktan geldi. Ama macin gidisati yedigimizden cok gol atacagimiz y

Üzerim'den eksilmesin bayragimin gölgesi

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(For those not familiar with Turkish football, there are 3 big teams in Turkish soccer. Besiktas, Galatasary, Fenerbahce, all from Istanbul. I am a Besiktas fan ever since I am aware of my existence) It was a windy, rainy London Saturday night. I was visiting my sister, before going to Liverpool to watch our Champions League game on Wednesday. I had to watch our derby game against Fenerbahce. We had a record of not losing to them in their own stadium for a long time. I had asked few other Besiktas fans about places to watch the game. Unlike Berlin, where you could literally walk into any betting shop to watch the Turkish league, the options are not that rich in London. Especially if you wanna stay close to the center. I was informed that a fancy kebab restaurant would be a good choice. I was disappointed to find the restaurant full, and small. I was literally shaking and sweating with anxiety. I rushed to a Internet shop, and began intense Google'ing. I found a reference to an &qu

Where we (probably) all came from...

At least some of the components of the self sustaining chemical system we call life took a very similar journey like this meteor. Filmed from a police camera in Canada. Amazing footage. Unfortunately, Turkish viewers cannot view this incredible scientific footage, thanks to some idiots who managed to obtain law degrees.

Of hope, love, and teachers...

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Today is Teacher's Day in Turkey. I would like to use this opportunity to thank all my teachers, and professors for helping me shaping my world view, understanding, and personality. The teacher-student relation is one of the most delicious and important aspects of the human experience, in fact perhaps one of its defining charachteristics. Each year we would celebrate this day in school, and I would spend the festivities listening to Queen on my walkman - I was not conscious of the importance of the day yet- praising the memory of Freddie Mercury, who died on 1991 this day. He was not a teacher, but his voice takes me in a delightful journey in another defining dimension of human experience, music. Here is Queen, with Teo Torriate, the only song in Japanese I can sing: This weekend was out of this world. 3 days with my love, to be crowned with a 2-0 victory over Eskisehirspor, which brought tears in my eyes, just like this fellow " galera " in the stadium:

Cocuklarini Koru(ya)mayan Toplum II

Bebekler yumusak seylerle oynamayi severler. Eger oynayacak yumusak oyuncak, ya da dokunacak sicak bir ten bulamazlarsa kendi gozlerini kendi elleriyle cikarirlar. Bu cumleyi bir kac kere okumanizi, ve kafanizda cis ve bok kokan bir yatagi cevreleyen demir parmakiklara tutunmus goz delikleri kapkara bebekler canlandirmanizi istiyorum... Cavusesku'nun "nufusumuzu arttirmaliyiz" politikasi -ki Basbakan'imizin soylemlerinden hic de farkli degil- ve Katolik Klise'sinin bugun de Afrikada milyonlari AIDS'den olduren dogum kontrolu yasaginin meyveleri, aileleri tarafindan bakilamayip devlet yetimhanelerine birakilan cocuklara yardim etmeye gelen Bati Avrupa'li gonullulerin karsilastiklari manzara aynen buydu cunku. Cavusesku'nun devrilmesinden sonra Bati Avrupa'li medya kuruluslarinin ortaya cikardigi bu manzara Romanya'nin Avrupa Birligi'ne giris macerasinin bir simgesi oldu senelerce. Eminim Romanya medyasi yillarca Avrupa Birligi'ne giris

What Rock is All About

I wanna head on collision with my love.

The Poems of Things

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"The Thinker" may be in sculpture what Mona Lisa is in painting. This is at least true in Turkey. The sculptor of this and many more great works Aguste Rodin died today in 1917. I became interested in his works not by his most famous work, but through Rainer Maria Rilke, his good friend, and one time his assistant. It was he who thought Rilke the power of observation of simple things, and therefore inspired his "Dinggedichte" the poems of things. Such as "The Panther", which in my humble opinion, is the one of the warmest expressions of existentialism: The Panther Translated by Ronnie Pontiac His sight, passing by the bars, exhausted, sees nothing else. For him there are a thousand bars, a thousand bars, and beyond them no world. His limber lope and powerful pace ever turning in the smallest circle dance strength around a center where a great will stands numb. Sometimes the veil of his pupil parts silently an image goes in past the tense poise of still lim

Sarah Palin

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My dedication to America's sweet heart, and perhaps her next president, Mrs. Palin: Stephanie says that she wants to know, Why she's given half her life, to people she hates now? Stephanie says when answering the phone, What country shall I say is calling from across the world? But shes not afraid to die, the people all call her Alaska, Between worlds so the people ask her cause its all in her mind Its all in her mind. She asks you is it good or bad Its such an icy feeling its so cold in Alaska, Its so cold in alaska, its so cold in Alaska

The peoples car...

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Here is my model suggestion to GM, if they are bailed out. The Trabant, cheap, efficient, and fair to everyone.

Donated to wiki yet?

Everyone's first address for quick information is Wikipedia. They are in a donating round, and aim at 6 million dollars. You can donate with Paypal. Have you donated yet? You can do it with the link on the right side of my Blog.

A great leader

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passed away today 70 years ago. May he be remembered by one of the smartest words came out from a politician: "The most true guiding light in life is science" "I am not leaving a spritual legacy of dogmas, unchangeable petrified directives. My spritual legacy is science and reason."

Why USA is the greatest democracy in the world, and cultural hegemony

Daniella, a friend of mine who is a PHD student on democracy promotion, had told me about the work of 20th century Italian philosopher and political scientist Gramsci . His reading of the modern history, lead him to formulate the concept of Cultural Hegemony, in which a ruling class maintains control over the ruled class, simply by hijacking the ruling class' self understanding. That is when the ruled class believes that the norms of the ruling class are the correct norms, they live their lives accordingly, which ossifies the hegemony. I was puzzled to see my friends on Facebook, from different countries, dedicate their personal messages to Obama. This is making a political statement, and thus a result of self understanding. Taken to an international level this is an example of cultural hegemony. Apart from that I am relieved that Mc Cain did not win, which would give a crazy religious woman who believes that Jesus will return after Armageddon in her lifetime a realistic chance of

Going long on a book

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If Mc Cain pulls out a miracle, I will regret not going long on this book: http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Rational-Voter-Democracies-Policies/dp/0691129428

Books that I wish I hadn't (already) read... Part 1

... so that I could read them again and again and again. There are three such books, which I artificially prolonged my reading to enjoy them. I will share them one by one as time permits. The Island of the Day Before This is one of the not so well known works of Umberto Eco. On the outside the book is on the quest to find an efficient method to measure the longitude in the middle ages. Unlike latitude, which could easily be measured by the angle of the north star, the longitude requires a working time reference. If I have a clock on London time, and observe that there is a 4 hour difference between midday times, you can deduce you have a 4/24 or 60/360 degrees difference. But a reliable clock that would withstand the high seas was hard to get those days. The main character is intertwined in a conspiracy that involves the de facto ruler of France - Cardinal Richeleu - and ends up as the only survivor of a ship sent out to search the international day line. As he tries to recover what h