title, what title?

I'll start with a question, a very basic question. How many basic tastes are there? Until last week I could come up with 4: Salty Sour Sweet Hot Which was not complete and also wrong. Hotness associated with chili is not a basic taste by definition. The complete taste list looks like this. Salty Sour Sweet Bitter Umami I am not joking. Umami is a relatively newly discovered tasting capability with humans, and associated with the amino acid glutamic acid, which is the building block of many proteins. however taste comes from the free form or the salt of glutamic acids. It literally means the "delicious taste" in Japanese. It is associated with fermented protein containing products, such as cheese, ham, East Asian Fish Sauce, and as well as vegetables like aspargus, sea weed and tomatoes. I came across this flavor, when I got interested in Old Roman Cooking. Back in the days, the Romans stored fish in salt, to prevent them from roting. After 4 months the fermenting bacte...

The most successful "entertainer" in Rock'n'Roll, at least I have ever seen, died 17 years ago on this day. I would like to pay my respects to this great artist with the video of one of his great performances from Live Aid, which I mentioned in my blog earlier.

Advantage of being a supporter of a club like Besiktas is to find something to make you happy every time you are down. These are moments from our victory against Efes Pilsen, der rekordmeister, from last week. During the week we beat Zeleznik Beograd in Belgrade in ULEB Cup. I am waiting for Saturday to come to watch Besiktas, probably to deliver another miserable performance- when I think about it I don't remember a game we played inspiring football. In the mean time I listen to old chants, like this one we sang in 2003 against Lazio Rome, being 2-0 down, and out of the competition... I fell in love with you already, And therefore I cannot love another, They are calling me mad, Let them call me mad, I cannot change, Let them call me mad, I cannot change, ooooo...

Brian May, one of my childhood heroes, and the guitar player of my childhood band Queen was elected anonymously as the chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. He had finished his Bsc in astrophysics before his success with Queen, and luckily his undergraduate research topic was not a hot one, allowing him to obtain his PHD in 2007 with his thesis titled "A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud" which is about the interplanetary dust, that is crucial to understanding of the formation of the solar system.

Bu yaz okudugum, bir Italyan gazetesinin seküler ve vahiy kaynakli ahlak anlayislarinin benzer ve catisan yönlerini irdelemek amaci ile ünlü Italyan yazar ve dusunadami Umberto Eco ile Milan Kardinali Carlo Martinelli arasinda baslattigi mektup alisverisinden olusan “Inanmayan Neye Inanir- Inanc ya da Inanmamk*” adli kitabin en ilginc kismi Carlo Martinelli’nin sekuler ahlak anlayisinin dayanak noktalarini sorguladigi mektubu, ve Umberto Eco’nun “Öteki sahneye cikinca…” adli cevabiydi. Eco insanlarin kendilerinden sonrakiler icin bir ornek olmak, ve kendilerinden sonrakilerin hayatlarinda iyi bir iz birakmak adina hayatlarini ahlakli gecireceklerini, ve kisisel cikarlarin otesinde hareket edebileceklerini idda ediyordu. Yani bir insanin erdemi ve tüm insanlik icin degeri gelecek nesillerde biraktigi hatiralar, ve sansli birkaci icin de kendilerinden sonrakilerin hayatlarinda ön ayak olduklari degisiklikler ile ölcülebilirdi… Beni 31 Ekim 2007’de kaybettigimiz Erdal Inönü’nün arkasindan...

are happening in Turkey and in Germany... Turkey is recovering slowly from the trauma caused by the surge of attacks by the Kurdish-separatist terrorist who call themselves, PKK, Kurdistan Workers Party. For those outside Turkey, and following the news from international news conglomerates, the name is an intended oxymoron. PKK is a "party" in the same sense that Nazis were a National Socialist party. In the very last attack, in which they killed 16 Turkish soldiers -in their spare time they stop village buses and kill dozens of civilians just because they do not support them -, PKK took 8 Turkish soldiers as hostage. They were freed after involvement of certain members of the Parliament who have active links to this terrorist organization. In an unexpected move the 8 soldiers were arrested by the Military Court... The events are rich with speculation possibilities, and have to be clarified to the public. 8 Soldiers were used as a justification for a possible incursion to the...

penche.com'dan bir Besiktaslinin yazisi benim dusuncelerime tercuman oldu: Utanmışlarmış... Bugün bütün medya, ağız birliği etmişçesine, utanmaktan sözediyor. Size ne oluyor? İster 10-0 yeneriz, ister 8-0 yeniliriz. Biz seviniriz, biz üzülürüz. Rahat bırakın bizi. Acımızı demlendirelim, kavgamızı edelim. Aşkımızı tazeliyelim. Sınavda, 8 notunu "kendisi alan"; ama notu 3 olunca, "hocanın verdiğini" söyleyen sorumsuz talebe anlayışı vardır. Aynı o talebeler gibi, -ama mâsum olmayan- medyacılar da, 2 hafta önce "Liverpool''u yendik" diyordu. Bugün, "kahrettiler", "utanmazlar", "utandırdılar" vb. başlıkları attılar. Dün maçtan sonra yorum yapan Mehmet Aslan, bugün "İkitelli''nin en bi utangaçı" E.Özkök''ün Hürriyet gastesinde ne yazmış diye baktım. Yazısını şöyle bitirmiş: "Shankly Gates... Liverpool’un kurucusu... O, "Futbol hayat memat meselesi değildir, ondan çok, çok daha önemli...

I have recently moved out. Germany being the service desert that it is I will need about 2 weeks to get internet at home. That's why I cannot contribute to my blog as much as I would have liked. I would like to write an Obituary on late Erdal Inonu, the physicist turned politician turned physicists, who passed away las week, and had a deep influence on my intellectual development. I would like to write about my trip to London and Liverpool. I would like to write about my altered views about football. But I need time for all that. Until I find time I want to entertain the blog readers with my favorite Elliot Smith song Son of Sam: which is, though denied by Smith himself, based on David Berkowitz, better known as Son of Sam, who terrorized New York City in the summer of 77. Those interested can refer to this great Crime Library article , or the movie by Spike Lee called the Summer of Sam . The movie is definitely worth watching, especially for the performances of John Leguizamo and ...

In the third of Turkish Football Chants series I want to talk about Göztepe, and their loyal fans. Goztepe is from the third largest city of Turkey, Izmir. Along with Karsiyaka and Altay, it is one of the 3 Izmir giants. It was one of the few Turkish clubs to play semi final in major European cups. In 2003, they were turned into a corporation, and this was the spark for the fastest fall in the Turkish football history. After 4 years, they are playing the lowest level, the Amateur league. Their fans, however, are still following them and singing chants like the "March of Rebellion", which in my opinion the best Turkish football chant. It goes: We are walking on the streets of Izmir, with our shirts on our backs Our numbers reached 100s of thousands, with your yellow and your red May your yellow be the sun, and your red be the blood in my vein So that not a single day of my life goes without you, this is what all my struggle is for Our glorious Goztepe was born on 1925, May thi...

I was introduced to Johnny Cash via my readings on Dylan. In the old folk music tradition, Cash gave his guitar to Dylan, as a symbol of a master ordaining an apprentice to a guild. One of the most important feature of American -as a matter of fact of all- Folk music is its storytelling side. Here is the story of a boy who was named Sue by his father, as told by one of the masters of this guild:

I am speechless. I can watch her sleeping for hours.

We won 2-1. I am in heaven. I find it hard to write down my feelings. Its not the score, its not the game, it's not the team we beat. It's this love I share with millions. It's this love, which finally found its lover. I know this will be a short coming together. I know the players will forget this game soon and play miserable as they have done for the last years. But everything was worth fot these 10 minutes, when love -in my humble opinion- appeared in it most pure form in televisions: We did not sing my favorite chant, Gündogdu - The day has broken, during the game. I am sure they did sing it after the game. Here is the chant that means so much to me, and its translation We woke up when the day broke, and we made it to the stadiums Covered us with flags, in the name of Besiktas, Our neighborhood is the neighborhood of honest men, it charms every one, May the shadow of my flag never be far away from me, Here we are, standing shoulder to shoulder on days of trouble, Don...

It is not usual that the teams I support win on the same weekend. This weekend was different, and I hope my luck goes into the week to. On Saturday Besiktas scored an important victory away to Trabzonspor, the so-called 4th Giant of Turkish football. After conceding 2 very stupid goals in 6 minutes, every one was fearing for the worst. However Ziya Dogan, the trainer of Trabzon, made some very important tactical mistakes, and we were able to comeback in 20 minutes. We dictated our game and found the winning goal in 70th minute. Due to a clear error of judgment by the linesman our goal keeper was sent of on 80th minute. As we had used our 3 subs, the goalscorer Bobo had to play as the goalie for the last 10 minutes. After his perfect performance we won the game. It is not the first big game we won without a goalie. We had won in Fenerbahce stadium 4-3 in 2004 without a goalie too. On Sunday the most unlikely of the outcomes did take place and Kimi Raikkonnen won the 2007 Drivers Cha...

I started Box training yesterday. Just like my friend Regina warned me, the training was torture. 1.5 hours of running, push-ups, sit-ups and many creative and hard exercises followed by half an hour of basic boxing exercises. Not more than shadow boxing up to now. To keep the tempo of the exercises high, they played a well chosen mix of songs. Among them was the only Guns'n Roses song that I like, "Welcome to the Jungle!"

Thanks to my dear friend Ozan, I got my tickets to the Champions League game between Besiktas and Liverpool in Liverpool. Once I get my visa -after a process that has taken more than a month- everything will be ready to silence the Liverpool fans with "Gundogdu - The Day has broken..."

The clouds in Berlin cannot decide if they are winter clouds, or autumn clouds...

My interest for non-traditional variants of football started when I found an illustrated book in our elementary school library on the 1990 championship season of New York Giants, when they beat Buffallo Bills 19-20 in the super Bowl. Then bing the obsessive type that I am, I tried to follow other forms whenever I got a chance. The toughest being the Australian Rules Football , most fun to watch being the Gaelic Football , the fastest and one needing most tactical skills being the American Football, Rugby has always appeared to me the one requiring most strength, courage, and stamina. Despite its extreme contact sport nature, it also the most "gentleman" sport of all. The amount of respect the players show to the referee makes traditional football -soccer- look like a nursery school birthday party. The referee talks only to the captains of the team, and other players, if they bitch about referee's decisions can be expelled from the game. Like Gaelic Football Rugby has s...

The upper and lower rows shout the same melody with "laylay" and "ooo" interchangebly. Its gonna be a great game the next Wednesday. I hope the game in Liverpool will be a better one...

Daha onceki bir girdimde pdf haline getirip size sundugum AKP'nin Anayasa taslagini okudum, yorumlarimi sizinle paylasmak istiyorum. * Cumuriyetin nitelikleri (Madde 2): Turkiye Cumhuriyeti insan haklarina dayanan, Ataturk milliyetciligine bagli, demokratik laik ve sosyal bir hukuk devletidir. Görüldügü gibi korkulanin aksine "laiklik" Cumhuriyetin temel esaslarindan biri olarak kaliyor. Benim burada fazla olarak gordugum nokta Ataturk milliyetciligi kismi. Bu gozlemim iki nedene dayaniyor, oncelikle "Ataturk Milliyetciligi" kavrami cok yerlere cekilebilecek bir kavram. Ataturk'un milliyetciliginin cumhuriyetin gelisimiyle birlikte sekil degistirdigi dusunulurse boyle bir tanim yanlis oldugu kanisina varilabilir. Kaldi ki bir devlet milleti icin vardir ve bu nedenle tanimsal olarak -per se- milliyetcidir, bu baglamda milliyetci devlet yerine milleti icin var olan devlet kavrami dusunulebilir. *Kuvvetler Ayriligi: Anayasa'nin Ingilizce deyimi ile ...

She is definitely the most beautiful woman in the world for me.