title, what title?

The companies and the public bodies spend a lot of effort allocating electromagnetic spectrum (frequency) to new wireless technologies. For those that don't know what electromagnetic spectrum is, the easiest way to understand would be the radio station frequencies. All know that two radio stations cannot transmit or be received at the same frequency. What about the audio spectrum? Sound waves, just like electro-magnetic waves have a frequency. The beautiful process of evolution has provided the millions of species that are competing for audio frequencies like radio stations an almost perfect allocation of sound frequencies. As this great article in Wired Magazine explains, if you scan the audio frequencies in a forest, each species have their own. If not their mating calls would be lost, and they would not be able to produce. Pretty straight forward. Until the humans came up with their machines that produce sound in all the frequencies that you can think of. It looks like there ar...

I wanna fall asleep, wake up and be able to speak Japanese, just like in Bedazzled.

1981 was declared the Atatürk year by the UN and UNESCO. Here is the decleration: Convinced that personalities who worked for understanding and cooperation between nations and international peace will be examples for future generations, Recalling that the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, will be celebrated in 1981, Knowing that he was an exceptional reformer in all fields relevant to the competence of UNESCO, Recognizing in particular that he was the leader of the first struggle given against colonialism and imperialism, Recalling that he was the remarkable promoter of the sense of understanding between peoples and durable peace between the nations of the world and that he worked all his life for the development of harmony and cooperation between peoples without distinction of color, religion and race, It is decided that UNESCO should collaborate in 1981 with the Turkish Government on both intellectual and technical plans for...

Ahlak'in kaynagi din'ler degildir. Din'ler Insan Cins'ini basarili kilan -yasamda kalma acisindan basaridan bahsediyorum- ahlak diye butunledigimiz davranis kaliplarini ozetleyen dusuncelerdir. Bu davranis bicimleri evrimsel olarak aciklanabildigi gibi akilsal olarak da aciklanabilir, ve Tanri'ya inananlar Akil'i verenin Tanri olduguna inandiklari icin yine Ahlak'i Tanri'ya baglayabilirler. Eger Ahlak'in temelinin din -ozelinde Kitap'lar ve hadisler/azizler/hikayeler- olduguna inanirsak, bunun sonucu diger dinlerden, hatta ayni dinin baska yorumlarindan olan insanlari ahlaksiz olduguna da inanmaktir. Ki bu da ahlakli olmanin en buyuk itici gucu -incentive- olan diger insanlar ile guven baglari kurabilme sansini yokedecegi icin aslinda Ahlak'i baltaliyici bir yaklasimdir. Bu konuyu yazili medya'ya tasiyan Ismet Berkan'in yazisini okumanizi oneririm. Su anki laiklik tartismalarinin merkezinde de aslinda dunya tarihinde ilk defa Isla...

There is a common saying among the guys. When you want to underline the unattractiveness of a female, you say "I wouldn't be with her, even if she payed." Microsoft will be paying -in terms of rebates- users if they use Microsoft Live Search. This should be a sign how bad it is. I've never used it, but this news will keep me away from it for sure.

The greatest football player of all time Maradona was honored by the Serbian director Emir Kusturica's Cannes 2008 movie. The news conference after the movie showed once more why Diego is still not only the greatest player of all time, but also the coolest player of all time in football. Here is a summary of what he said: About Julia Roberts: "Julia Roberts. I would do anything to see her come along the Croisette. I would cut off my hand for that – even the hand with which I scored against England." About Pele: "I promised my daughters that I wouldn't talk about Pele, but well, I can't prevent myself — I regret it for him," Maradona said. "If I hadn't done all the bad things that I've done in my life, Pele would never have been able to come along as No. 2 behind me, because he used to go to bed at 10 o'clock at night, whereas I was still out on the tiles until 5 o'clock in the morning. That's the big difference between us."...

So apparently David Bowie and Moby are neighbors. Here is a video of Moby calling Bowie during a concert to request my favorite Vorglühen song these days, Sound and Vision: and here is the lovely song:

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...

have something in common. Daydreaming from Blue Lines (1990), the debut Massive Attack album: "Up against the wall, behaving like de Niro" And here is de Niro up against the mirror in Taxi Driver (1976), my favorite movie, from one of its most famous scene:

David Bowie's It's No Game Part 1 from his 1980 album, Scary Monsters (Super Freaks): Shirueto ya kage ga kakumei o miteiru Mo tengoku no giu no kaidan wa nai Ore genjitsu kara shime dasare Nani ga okkote iru ka wakara nai Doko ni kyokun wa aruka Hitobito wa yabi oorareteiru Konna dokusaishani igashima rareru nowa kanashi Nammino kiroku eiga Hioteki o se ni shita koibi to tach Michi ni ishi o nage reba Konago na mi kudake Kino ni hutao sureba Kyohu wa masu Ore no atama ni tama o buchi kome ba Shinbun wa kaki tateru

After a long, somehow slow, but tasteful period of reading I've just finished Kafka's The Castle . I read it in German, which is something I recommend to those who can, as the English translation of this never completed work is a Kafkaesque tale itself. The German is so free flowing, and free of cold long sentences, that even reading out loud and listening to flow of the words is a pleasure itself. The tale of a land-surveyor who is not a land-surveyor who is lost in the Maelstrom of his choices amidst the calm and dark waters of a perfect Bureaucracy which is not perfect definitely took the place of 100 Years of Solitude as the best book I've read. On the "screenplay" side -where the screen is inside my mind- the tragicomic scenes exceed the Marquez works, to the point where I laughed to the absurdity. However the surreality in the Castle is not magical like in Marquez works. They are so real that you feel you should simply -or maybe forcefully- accept them. W...

I turned 26 the other day, and as with every birthday had some time to reflect on life. I normally don't like birthdays, but this time it was a very nice one. I have come to realize that the concept of "home" -finding it, building it, destroying it, rebuilding it, losing it, re-finding it, I am not sure- has become the defining struggle/yearning/searching of my life currently. It makes me hopeful and pessimistic at the same time, that two of my favorite singer/song writers have written about "home" the same age as I am. Scorsese's recollection of Dylan's wild beginnings is named "No Direction Home" for a reason. It's a reference to one of his signature recordings from that era, Like a Rolling Stone. The song is sung to a woman, who used to "let other people get her kicks for her," who "used to ride on the chrome horse with her diplomat, who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat" and after all this glory has to "g...

This Sunday Boca Juniors will be playing their arch rivals River Plate. They are lagging the leaders River Plate by 4 points and will have to win. I'll be in Turkey this weekend, and will catch this great game on TV. Last Sunday there was a similar derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, which Galatasaray won -and took the leadership with 2 weeks to go in the season. One of the big shots in the club administration had a version of Sos Cagon chant of the River Plate fans prepared for Galatasaray, which I have to admit was a good one. Too sad the Galatasaray fans could not sing it during the match. Here is the original one from River fans, which is amazing: But my heart beats for Boca and their fans: I will watch a Superclassico before I die. That is a must. On the home front Besiktas is having a relatively shitty end to the season, stuck at the 4. place, with no hope of a direct UEFA Cup place. All of this after having the championship within our reach 3 weeks ago. To make the m...

My only hope is some sick scientist making human cloning possible, a dictator who wants to rule do world making it legal, and me starting a career as a spy, capturing the cloning machine, obtaining a DNA of her, and cloning 1 sample of the finest sample of women, destroying the machine, saving the world, and getting me my own Gisele. How's that for a plan? Check this out.

I'm a city soul. I lived in big cities all my life, and hated my only camping adventure -though it might have had to do with the 2 drunk guys snoring in my tent. Still I feel the urge to leave it all behind go to somewhere secluded. Its not that I am having a bad time, I am lovin' it to live in a city. It's just that the idea of being alone, and feeling the utter beauty of nature, and act as if all of it were made for me is very very tempting. Just like Lou Reed, the poet of the post-modern metropolitan male, says in his song Modern Dance: So maybe I should go to Tanganyika where the rivers run, down mountains tall and steep or go to India to study chants and lose romance to a mantra's dance So if I had the chance to go right now, these would have been my choices: 1- Patagonia, Argentina 2- Shetland Islands, Scotland 3- Rural Iceland 4- Kamcahtka, Russia

David Bowie lived in Schöneberg with Iggy Pop in the late 70s. This is from the last of his Berlin Trilogy, Low-1977, Heroes-1977, Lodger-1979. He was reading the writings on the Wall, when he came across the merry word Yasasin! -Long live!-, which is used in political slogans like "Long Live Our Struggle For The Brotherhood of the Workers!" popular back then. He says he rang up the Turkish Embassy and learned what it meant. And wrote this great song: Modeselektor is an electronic music band from Berlin. They recently came to fame, after Thom Yorke started promoting them, after listening to them and liking the stuff. Here is a song dedicated to the biggest Döner chain in berlin, the Hasir :

My childhood dream was being an astronomer in the Arecibo Observatory : Unfortunately, I could not follow my dream. I still enjoy reading popular astronomy articles though. NASA has published amazing pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope , celebrating its 18th birthday, of colliding galaxies! It starts innocently like this: Ends brutally like this: Attraction is dangereous...

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the greatest visionary, leader and the transformer in the history of Turkey. Apart from pulling out the miracle of creating a modern state - more modern then European states back then, there were 15 women in the parliment when the women could not vote in Europe- from the mess of a theocratic Ottoman Empire, he was also a very humane leader, and put his belief in the children. It was in his presidency that the celebrations of the gathering of the first Turkish Grand Assembly were used to gather money for the orphans and other kids with disadvantages. It was then established as a tradition that all the seats of power would be replaced by a child for a few minutes on 23 April. This tradition evolved further, and now we celebrate 23 April as National Sovereignty and Childrens' Day in Turkey. Children -mostly dance groups- come from all over the world and stay with Turkish families. We hosted a girl from Finland and one from Thailand, which was so much fun when...

I guess it is the ultimate sign of recognition for an artist when a fellow artist makes a song about you. Dylan got two of such dedications. One from Syd Barret, one from David Bowie! This is a quite interesting topic, and here are the songs that I know which are dedicated to an artist. Let me know if you know others too! Song to Woody - From Bob Dylan to Woody Guthrie R.A.M.O.N.E.S - From Mötorhead to Ramones Song For Bob Dylan - From David Bowie to Dylan Bob Dylan Blues - From Syd Barret to Bob Dylan Buddy Holly - From Weezer to Buddy Holly Song to Bobby - From Cat Power to Bob Dylan (Thanks to Thuan for this one)

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...