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Here is a video of supersonic streams of hot gas coming out of young stars, as observed by Hubble: And here is the video of NASA's Cassini probe approaching Saturn: These terrific videos remind me of the memorable passage in Battlestar Galactica, where the most intellectual of the different Cylons - robots in form of humans- resents his creators for giving him a human body and human soul: Ellen: The five of us designed you to be as human as possible. John: I DON'T WANT TO BE HUMAN! I want to see gamma rays ! I want to hear X-rays , and I -- I want to -- I want to smell dark matter ! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to -- I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid, limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine, and I could know much more, I could experience so...

I don't wanna be human . I want to see Gamma Rays . I want to hear X-Rays and I wanna smell Dark Matter . I wanna reach out with something other than these paws. And feel the solar wind of a Super Nova . So lamented Brother Cavil in Battlestar Galactica, to his creator. Now, thanks to University of Cardiff, you will at least be able to see Gamma Rays and X-Rays. In their new site ( link to the site ) you can see the result of the brand new Planck Satellite' ( link to the site ) full sky scans in different wavelengths. They are gorgeous!

If my ramblings about Battlestar Galactica, almost unanimous positive reviews and the awards it received haven't convinced you of the awasomeness of Battlestar Galactice, this Youtube clip must do the job. If this doesn't do the job, I suggest you try watching Young and Restless. Despite the action packed into 3 minutes from 4 seasons, I'd like to remind you that BSG is not a science fiction series. It is rather a political, personal, religious, legal, family drama set to a science fiction setting. Try it, you won't regret!

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...

It is the second Battlestar Galactica season which I am watching real-time. I watched the first two from DVD's, which I did in the matter of two or three days. From the first 7 episodes so far, and the eagerness with which I wait the next episode, I can say season 4 has been much better than season 3, and keeping in mind how much I liked season 3, I am very excited about the next 3 episodes before the series goes on its mid-season break. In my previous posts about the show, I attributed the quality of the show mainly to its content -the issues that they deal in the freedom of a sci-fi setting, which belong to the very human experience such as faith, trust, torture, law, reconciliation, mistakes, morals, lies, beliefs, disappointments, xenophobia, patriotism, workers rights, democracy, tyrants, press freedom, policing, crime. The seventh episode of the 4th season reminded me how good most of the episodes are, from a film making and drama perspective also. Named after a 60s movie de...

I am going to write about Battlestar Galactica again, because it really is the best thing I watched on TV. The last episode was simply great, and for those who watched it, I think it was the best episode finale of all. There is civil war, there is democracy, there is a benevolent tyrant, there is intermarriage tensions, there is alienation that makes a mother try to kill her own child, there are humans trusting humans, and Cylons distrusting Cylons. There are compromises in politics, there is a hidden agenda. All in one episode, but that’s not what I’m gonna write about. I simply want more people watching this great show if they are interested. I am going to write about walnuts, brain, evolution, and meaning of being alive. I was eating walnuts -with Grana Padano cheese, delicious combination- when watching the last episode, and noticed -again- how our brains, almost all brains for that sake, are like walnuts. Then it occurred to me what a great thinker was Darwin again. Similar evol...

I don’t watch a lot of TV, so I cannot claim that Battlestar Galactica is the only show that deals with deep existential problems of the individual and societies. However I am sure that this is one of the reasons why Battlestar is gathering much attention from outside of your classical sci-fi fan community -see this entry from the Battlestar blog I contribute for law professors interviewing the producers of the show. After a somehow trivial and boring start to the season, the second episode of the final season had everything what this great show is about. You have Gaius transforming into a prophet, conflicting with his own rationality on the way, you have Cylon’s dealing with the perils of democracy when they have to take action on disobedient soldiers, and you have the final 4 Cylons and the humans questioning the meaning of being a human or a Cylon, or if it ever matters, you have personal conflicts between two struggling people of power -the president and the chief of staff,- you h...

My favorite female celebrities are Katee Sackhoff, who plays Kara Thrace in Battlestar Galactica, and Charyln Marshall a.k.a Cat Power , the American singer. I'd love to sit and get nerdy with Katee and talk about Dylan for hours with Charyln. Here is a song Cat Power wrote for Bob Dylan, from her latest album, the Jukebox:

Less than a month to go. BSG Season 4 premieres on 4th of April, I missed you Kara...

My dear friend Ozan was here for the weekend. Among other " finer things " we have talked about Battlestar Galactica, and it's cute star Kara Thrace. I'd like to dedicate the following song to Kara, who visits me in my dreams, until the new Battlestar Galactice Direct-to-DVD Movie Razor comes to the screens.

In my previous post I jokingly asked if Dylan was a Cylon, after his song All Along The Watchtower was used as the wake-up call for the 4 of the remaining 5 Cylons in the fleet. After thinking about it, I realized that Dylan can really be a Cylon... In Battlestar Galactica, the Cylon warships, named the Basestars , are just like other Cylons half machine half human. Each base star is for the sake of control and identity is a hybrid : Hybrids control the whole ship with their subconscious mind. Their consciousness, stuck between life and death utter incoherent sentences, which a certain group of Cylons interpret as words of god. Here is an example of their utterances: "Two protons expelled at each coupling site creates the mode of force the embryo becomes a fish that we don't enter until a plate we're here to experience evolve the little toe atrophy don't ask me how I'll be dead in a thousand light years thank you thank you Genesis turns to it's source reductio...

I watched the 3. season finale of Battlestar Galactica. I am not into series so I cannot compare it to other season finales, but as an episode from a science fiction series shown on free tv, I have to say it was a masterpiece, both in terms of the dialogues, the story, the editing, the music... Lee Adama gave a speech on the trial of Dr. Gaius Balatar, a populist scientist turned politician who lead the fleet to settle down on New Caprica, only to be occupied by the Cylons, and was the head of the puppet government on New Caprica, about innocence, guilt, and clemency and justice which would not be off the story on great trial movies such as Nurnberg Trials or A Few Good Man. Bear Mc Creary, the composer behind the great music in Battlestar, arranged Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" in a very eerie way, which was heard only by the remaining 4 Cylons in the fleet. Before discovering their true identities the Cylons used lyrics from this great song: There must be some wa...

My favorite TV show Battlestar Galactica starts with the video clip above. The Cylons, who are evolved machines in human form, have a plan, and that is why they destroyed all but 40 thousand plus humans on the 12 planets (of Kobol). After 2,5 seasons (that's where I am at now, in UK and USA the third season has already ended) the Plan is not clear. But the clues are there. So I am gonna try to unfold the mystery. !!!! (POSSIBLE) SPOILER !!!! The 12 colonies mythology goes like this: The Humankind was living peacefully on Kobol with the Gods. Sometime later the humanly sins such as greed and jealousy took their toll on Kobol, and the humans had to leave the planet. There were 13 tribes of humans. 12 of them stayed together and ended up in 12 different planets on the same constellation. 1 of them, the 13th tribe , ended up in a planet called Earth and lost contact with the other 12 colonies. The sacred texts of 12 colonies prophesy that the 13th tribe lives in harmony on Earth, an...

I attended a two day meeting at our contractor Siemns, oops Nokia-Siemens after their merger . I had no internet access, and couldn't update my blog. I guess this thing is getting addictive, my mind was full of things to write... So lets start with the (almost) perfect extended-weekend I had last week. Long time ago, I and Diego, defined the "Articles of a Happy Life for an Unattached Young Male" -I can give the link to those interested. Last weekend was a manifestation of the articles. On Friday we started at a cocktail bar, Nachbar , then Refik's dorm room, and ended up in Matrix - one of the most lame clubs in Berlin in my opinion, as usual for a night when we are high on alcohol. But it was one of the best nights in Matrix. Then on Saturday we gathered at my apartment and cooked Manti - Turkish dumplings filled with meat served with garlic yogurt and red pepper fried in butter, my favorite dish by far: - which was followed by a Pro Evolution Soccer Tournament...

I am not an avid house-furnisher. As a matter of fact I bought the furnitures for my apartment with my dad, and organized them with my mom. Various ornaments in the apartment are either presents or stuff that my mum brought with her when she came to visit. Everything was fine until I came back from Turkey after the New Years break. I had not noticed how empty my walls were until I was back home in Turkey. It took another 3 months for me to take action, but I am proud of the result. What I did was to download the poster from Battlestar Galactica Website, get a print out on a A1 Paper and buy a passing frame from Ikea. Here is the result: Last weekend was a great sporting weekend for me. I haven't compiled a statistics, but the number of weekends, on which Ferrari won a GP and Besiktas won, is not very large. This weekend was in this sense a nice exception. Kimi Raikkonen drove a commanding race leading from start to finish. It was obvious that Ferrari was a a good .5 seconds fast...

After a stormy Friday I'll be leaving for the Three Valleys in few minutes. I want to ski until I can't ski anymore. Ill be away from the net for a week, I am looking forward to that. While I was surfing the web not to fall asleep last night I found this great Battlestar Galactica Tribute Video: What I've learned from this video? Tom Zarek used to play Apollo, and the blond guy in A-Team was Starbuck, and Starbuck is so cute. The new one of course...

I am pretty motivated for the skiing trip next week to the Three Valleys. So I went to the gym on both Saturday and on Sunday. On Saturday I decided to jog outside, benefiting the spring weather in Berlin. I could manage 20 minutes, I just hate jogging. Sunday was not different either, I tried my luck on the fitness bike, and managed 15 minutes. I dunno what to do. I plan running for the remaining 5 days to build up more stamina. Apart from that I concentrated on shoulders, chest, triceps and abs. I watched 3 episodes of Battlestar Galactica over the weekend. Lieutenant Thrace, a.k.a Starbuck is becoming my favorite character slowly. I'd like to dedicate the great Flaming Lips Song "Yoshimi Battles Pink Robots Pt. 1" to Starbuck, who is working her motherfrackin ass to save the humanity from the evil Cylons... "Her name is yoshimi She's a black belt in karate Working for the city She has to discipline her body 'Cause she knows that It's demanding To def...

Things started out bad right from the start. I missed the bus, which cost me 20 minutes under the rain. Then I went in the gym, only to notice that I've forgotten my sport socks at home. I had to go back to the locker room three times because I forgot my magazine, towel and water bottle respectively. It was clear I had no concentration or motivation whatsoever. I stepped on the bike and could only manage 10 minutes. I tried my luck at the weight room, did some abs but I was just not in the mood. So I gave up, went back home and watched two episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I can't get enough of the series, I need a game to go with it. Here is the opening scene which excites me every time: I'll go today instead. I am pretty motivated. Besides, it's a great way to spend the Valantine's Day. (*)Bu kliseyi dillendirmeden duramayacagim "Sevgililerimizi yalniz sevgililer gununde degil, hergun hatirlamaliyiz."