title, what title?

Here are some of the most interesting readings from last week: How does learning Turkish feel to a German writer? Our reluctance to use the word no seems to be a big problem:   http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/10/20/how-to-say-no-in-turkish/ A Syrian Law student's precarious journey over 10 borders from Syria to Sweeden. A must-read before any discussion on refugees:  http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/26/ten-borders Early detection could make living with Schizophrenia possible:  http://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/stop-the-madness/ U.S is a terrorist state, which used human Guinea Pigs and advanced psyhcology to develop torture methods beyond the imagination of Mengele. When it was found out that one of the torture victim was innocent, the official reaction was: "One can only be sure of the suspects innocence after the suspect fails to give any information after such horrendous torture." This is beyond outrageous:  https://medium.com...

My latest posts have not been cheerful, to say the least. Over at Pharyngula there is a BBC short of Caribbean Monkeys -yes, the ones that populate the legendary Monkey Island, which have acquired a taste for alcohol. It is both relieving and sad to see how similar the mankind is to monkeys. It is relieving from the perspective of mankind. At least I can explain some of our foolish behaviour with the Stone-Age brains we have and share with apes. It is sad from the monkeys' perspective, that I use their species to explain the low-intelligence behaviour of their ape cousins Homo Sapiens. The video I added above is a must-watch. So, if the monkeys got a taste for it, maybe Lou Reed was right. There is a power in positive drinking: Talking of Lou Reed and animals, if you happen to be in Sydney, and have a house pet, make sure you don't miss the Vivid festival curated by Lou Reed and his wife. They will be giving a concert just for the pets. Here is the ( link to the articl...

At the core of evolution lies the natural selection, which is an algorithm more than anything. There are many units that have different properties, which are distributed randomly in the beginning. All of them get to reproduce themselves, albeit with an efficiency that is related with the suitability of their inherited properties to the environment in which they are reproducing. It's all that simple. I'd like to share two possible applications of this algorithm in two widely separated, yet very interesting fields. Quantum Darwinism : It is a mystery, why the infinite number of ways a quantum states that a particle can be in manifests itself as a single classical state. In plain words, why don't we see two versions of ourselves in the mirror - until we look at the mirror, but that's another exciting story -, where as this may be the case for photons or atoms. One possible solution to this question invokes the natural selection algorithm a la Darwin. They postulate that th...

Every dog owner, every dog lover, every animal lover should watch this great BBC documentary on the incredible and unique bond between humans and dogs. It is looking more and more likely that the dogs have evolved traits such as being able to tell human emotion from facial gestures, being able to understand human mimics, human words. It is also likely the dog barking is an evolutionary trait selected since it allows inter-species communication. I wish so dearly that the Turkish State TV would air more of this kind of educational programs, instead of the anti-Evolution bullshit they've been airing for some time.

via Pharyngula : This is übercool. Researchers from American Museum of Natural History first profile the hydrological features of the Lower Congo River. They find out that there are canyons which are hundreds of meters deep. These canyons are separated from each other via strong currents. So for a fish getting in one of them there is almost no way out. They then collect fish of the same species - where species is defined from the way they look - from different canyons. They analyze their DNA, and they see that evolution is in action, and the difference in their genome sequences correlate with their geographical location. Speciation has not started, but it is on the brink of starting. This is my friends, Evolution in action.

Sir Richard Dawkins' favorite species . Just another demonstration how where an animal lives strongly determines its locomotion capabilities. Sadly, another twist of evolution, this incredible animal lives only and only in Madagascar, relying on a certain tree there. It's habitat being destroyed by farmers, its hunted for its fur, and as a result there are less than 1000 Silky Sifakas left in the entire Universe. They are one 25 critically engendered primates in the world. Just another repetition of the same old story.

Meet Ardi. She is the oldest human ancestor ever found. She lived in the forests of the area what is now Ethiopia, 4.4 million years ago. This makes her allegorically the mother of Lucy , who lived 3.2 million years ago, and the grand mother of the Turkana boy , who is 1.5 million years old. An us? We are all the descendants of a handful of her great grandchildren who left Africa 50 000 years ago! The story of Ardi is a very interesting one. It started with a single molar teeth discovery in 1992. Careful excavation has gathered a complete skeleton: Recently 440 anthropologists published their findings in 10 papers. It is said that there are even older fossils that has been found in the same area, which are being investigated at the moment. So be ready for even more exciting results! The importance of Ardi is that it could both walk and climb. This is against the hypothesis that bipedal walking was an adaptation to the drier landscape of Africa, which had fewer trees. I am very excited...

The argument from perfect design never made sense to me. The human body seems all too fragile and vulnerable to me to be a "evidence" for a designer. If I were a creationist, my choice of the animal for presenting as "evidence as perfect design" would definitely be the crow. Think about it, how long could a human survive on the streets without any medical care, no shelter, no guaranteed source of food, no clothes, no form of protected sex? The crows can survive as long as 70 years! And now this: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/aesops-fable-this-one-turns-out-to-be-true-1767920.html The crows throw rocks in a half full cup with worms on the top of the surface of the water to raise the water level. Given the right tools and time, I am sure they can open a lock. Thats no wonder from a species whose evolutionary forefathers include the great dinosaurs. A lot of blind design went into them. Here is the link to the video, thanks to Pinar. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1...

This is from the avesome blog Pharyngula . Click to zoom. On the left is a timeline of universe, with Human involvment in it. Just in case you still think we play an important part in the Universe. On the right the same timeline from a young earth creationist point of view, which takes Genesis in Bible literally. Yes, there are still some crackpots out there.

Odtü'lü olmaktan gurur duymak.

Intelligent Design indeed. (source: http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/id/24945229/ )

I'll have to admit, Science and Religion do have something in common. People who devote themselves to these human activities willingly spend their days in desolate places, trying to to make sense of the world. Both activities certainly stimulate a certain part of our brains, so that these devoted people overcome their natural tendencies to socialize. Since I think that the scientific method of obtaining the truths of the universe is superior to the religious method -if there is one at all-, I am very much touched by some scientists devotion to their research. Take Peter and Rosemary Grant. They have been spending 6 months of their year in a lonely rocky island in the Galapagos Archipelago, meticulously measuring, tagging, identifying Galapagos Finches since 1973. They were able to demonstrate that they are evolving their beak sizes over the years, matching the changes in weather, insect types, and sizes: It was the same devotion to trying to understand the world through evidence, t...

2009 is the 200 anniversary of Darwin's birth, and also his monumental work "The Origin of the Species." I will be writing extensively on Darwin this year. Before that, I suggest all interested to have a look at this issue of BBC Focus magazine on Darwin: http://content.yudu.com/Library/A113su/FocusMagazine/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yudu.com%2Flibrary%2Fitem_details%2F32174%2FFocus-Magazine

18 days and there is no end in sight for the situation in Gazza. I have written about my disgust at the unbelievable disrespect to human dignity and human life from both sides, and my disillusionment with political progress earlier . With no changes in sight to the cruelties, and stupidities on the politics side of things I want to write about something else, which caught my attention. We use the word "inhumane" when we are describing Israel bombing a school, or Hamas blowing up a bus in Israel and killing innocent people -who is an innocent person by the way?-. This is nothing but a misnomer to say the least. Humans are the only species on this earth who use their intelligence to lock their siblings underground for years, and rape them, who built factories of death to kill other humans, build atom bombs to kill hundreds of thousands in a slip second, and come up with ideologies which praise killing yourself and others as a backstage pass to some imaginary place. So these ...

Checkout this seriously cool post on Roger Alsing's blog . He explains how genetic algorithms can be used to draw Mona Lisa using simple poligons who are coded in soft-DNAs. Here is a quote from his webpage, which I loved: "Just because natural selection is so cool that you are able to read this.."

Auth (c) 2005 The Philadelphia Inquirer. Reprinted by permission of Universal Press Syndicate. All rights reserved.

Richard Dawkins'in sitesi Harun Yahya takma adli Adnan Hoca'ya hakaret icerdigi gerekcesiyle Türk mahkemelerince Türkiye'de erisime kapatildi. Hicbir aciklama olmadigi icin asagidaki yazinin mi baska bir yazinin mi bu kapatmaya sebep oldugunu bilemiyorum. Sansür arkasinda gerceklerin örtülmemesi icin Richard Dawkins'in Harun Yahya'nin Yaratilis Atlasi adli komik kitabi ile ilgili yazisinin cevirisini yayinliyorum, bu blogu takip eden ve blog sahibi olan herkesten de aynisini yapmasini rica ediyorum. Zehirli Yilanlar, Kaygan Yilanbaliklari ve Harun Yahya Richard Dawkins - Ceviri Kutluhan Celik 2006 yilinda, Musluman Turk apolojist Harun Yahya tarafindan yazilmis, Atlas of Creation isimli kitabi, siparis vermemis olmasina ragmen, tamamen ucretsiz olarak posta kutusunda bulan dunya capinda onbinlerce bilim adamindan biri oldum. Onbir dilde yayimlanan kitabin tezi, evrimin yalan oldugu. Ana "kanit", her biri gunumuzdeki karsiliklari esliginde sayfa sayfa sunul...

As the physicists go searching for the Theory of Everything with LHC the legendary game producer Will Wright -Simcity, Sims- has already come up with the game of everything, The Spore. In this game you lead a bunch of cells through their journey of evolution from oceans of blue earth to galaxies when they evolve into space faring civilizations. I share Frank Drake's enthusiasm about the games potential as a tool to attract more young brains to science, when the number of science students are dropping in the western world. I downloaded the free creature creator, and share it with you my creation. I may buy the game next week, when I have more time.

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.

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...