SokSa Lair

Turkish Village

Sun, 11 May 2008 20:58:49 GMT

I've come across this amazing article today. Pay attention to the date: 1965; to my amusement, it is still valid, true to the letter and quite insightful. I enjoyed it throughly, mostly because - I think - it aligns well with my way of comprehension and my own experiences. I do not, however, think that it is "personal" or "subjective" in its depiction of Turkey, Anatalia and the village life. I find it very comprehensive and accurate. This is a must read for anybody interested in the socio-economic and socio-politic fabric of Turkey; urban and rural.

Cheerios

-Icy

"...

Villagers frequently talk about law, kanun, usually in the course of explaining institutions or behaviour, or in arguments about rights. These references imply a finality; the law is the law and that is that. On the other hand they know that the law is often ignored in the villages, and are not impressed when an opponent uses law as an argument. `Kanun manun yok köyde, there is no law and all that stuff in the village' one of the men of Sakaltutan once remarked.

In fact, of course, the law affects the villages profoundly and in many ways. The main obvious impact is threefold. First, administrative law and regulations, and especially the Village Law, sets out the formal arrangements for village institutions and for relations between village and state. Secondly, the villagers are frequently charged in the criminal courts, mainly for breaches of the peace and acts of violence. Thirdly, rights to land can only be finally decided by the civil courts. As I have shown z] (p. 209) the effect of those parts of the Civil Code that govern marriage and the family have at present almost no bearing on the village.

Turkish Village

..."

Click here to read the entire article by Paul Stirling on the web site of Univercity of Kent at Canterburry, UK.

Gravity ... It's just a theory

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:05:56 GMT

Excellent History

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:40:08 GMT

A very well written article on the History of Turks, Ottomans, Arabs and the region in general.

Although I no longer enjoy discussing the issue with anybody, I still feel obliged to relay articles that are well prepared, thought and researched, as they pop infront of me out of nowhere. This is one such article. It's quite long and meticulously well prepared. I am extracting the "hot topic" issue part, to which I have given a lot of space in this blog with references and bibliographia. As I said, I am disgusted at its current state, the way both sides argue it and the rest of the world act the idiotic herd of sheep. Don't forget: "History belongs to people who write it", and "the victor lives to tell the story". Enjoy. And please, don't buy everything you read, see, hear. Do a research on your own accord, with all this wealth of information, none of us has the luxury to be so poor.

Cheers.

- icy

<quote begin>
Still Standing for Islam - and Against Terrorism
By Mustafa Akyol
FrontPageMagazine.com | Friday, October 08, 2004

Armenian Genocide?

Mr. Bostom speaks about the Armenians, too. But in a different way. He writes about the "Armenian genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks during the initial two decades" of the 20^th century, adding yet another link to his chain of evil.

But that is an argument by assertion. "Armenian genocide" is not an established historical fact, it is the "Armenian thesis" that some prominent historians such as Bernard Lewis find erroneous. The Turkish thesis is that there was not an extermination policy against the Armenian population of Turkey in 1915, as has been alleged, but rather the tragedy was mutual killing in war conditions. The slaughter of tens of thousands of Muslim (Kurdish and Turkish) civilians by the Armenian militias aligned with the invading Russian army gives credence to that assessment.

Justin McCarthy, professor of history at Louisville University, in his book titled Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922, documents this view. As historian Daniel Pipes well summarizes, McCarthy's book, "Puts into perspective the deportation of Armenians in 1915 and turns this from an act of hatred into one motivated by fear (had the Armenians, with Russian support, rebelled, Ottoman Muslims could have expected to be slaughtered)."

In his book, Justin McCarthy examines many of those incidents in which Armenian rebels killed local Muslim populations. During the Armenian revolt, which preceded the alleged "Armenian genocide,"

Everything Islamic in Van was destroyed. With the exception of three antique buildings, all the mosques were burned or torn down. The entire Muslim quarter was destroyed. When the Armenian work and the battle between Ottomans and Armenians were finished, Van more resembled an ancient ruin than a city . . .

When the Armenians attacked Muslims' own villages or nearby villages, Muslims fled with whatever moveable property they could carry. On the road, Armenian bands first robbed them, then raped many of the women and killed many of the men. Usually, but not always, a number of women and young children were killed as well.[xv]

In fact, "After the Armenian retreat, much of eastern Anatolia was a graveyard."[xvi]

What is called the "Armenian genocide" was partly the attacks of revenge on the Armenian population by local Turks and Kurds. That was indeed inter-communal violence. On the other hand, the decision by the Ottoman government to deport the Armenians in Eastern Turkey caused many deaths and that is horrible, but it was not a genocidal policy either. According to McCarthy,

The Ottoman response to the Armenian Revolution was approximately the same as that taken by other twentieth-century governments faced with guerrilla war: isolate the guerrillas from local support by removing local supporters.[xvii]

Thus, McCarthy concludes, "The blame for the deaths of Armenians in the convoys must be shared by the Ottomans -- shared with the Armenian revolutionaries and their supporters and with the Russians"[xviii]

</quote end>

Click here to read the entire article (I highly recommend it. As I said, it is not limited to the issue above, nor Turks, neither Islam)

Never ending "waiting for localhost" on FireFox bug

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:47:41 GMT

I recently noticed a weird behavior of FireFox. On some pages that I've developed, the browser finishes loading, displays "Done" on the status bar, waits for a split second and switches to "Waiting for localhost" and stays in this state indefinitely. This effectively prevents the "onLoad" event to fire and there you are trying to figure out "what the hell is it still loading?". The behavior is non existent with Internet Explorer (7).

After a short search I have found out the below page. Explains the reason, with the possible solution. The diagnosis and the prognosis are the same. I'm putting it here for reference and few more keywords for search engines :)

Cheers all

http://geekswithblogs.net/bcaraway/archive/2007/08/24/114945.aspx
"...When a certain ASPX page completed rendering and emitted it's final markup to the browser, I noticed the status bar read 'Done' for an instant, but then immediately changed to 'Waiting for localhost...' again. It definitely seemed as if the page was being requested twice. I immediately looked at FireBug to see what was loading, and indeed the same page showed up twice in the 'Net' listing. To see it in action, I ran the site in DEBUG mode and put a break on Page_Load. Sure enough, the page WAS being requested twice. IE(7) worked just fine. It was not behaving in this odd manner, so I set out to figure out what was causing this strange behavior in Firefox..."

David Crook | Billie Jean

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:26:17 GMT

David Cook is one of the finalists of American Idol. But never mind that. The links below point to an acoustic cover version of Billie Jean (Michael Jackson).

This version is composed by Chris Cornell (Soundgarden, Audioslave) and was released on his solo album "Unplugged in Sweden". It is by far, the best alternative cover version of this song I have ever heard in my life. It has an amazing flow, an incredible structure. Now, the interesting thing is David Crook sings it better than Chris Cornell; David has an awesome studio voice. I have no idea if he won AI or whether he is still singing or not, frankly I don't even give a crap. Of course, Chris Cornell is a semi-god, which makes him an angel I suppose, or a half-deamon at best. Maybe a troll, he does resemble one :))

The "original" acoustic live cover of Chris Cornell (studio recording):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIvbjmQadSM&feature=related

David Cook's version (studio recording):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUfbLtZHrog&feature=related

Chris covered this song because he was trying to show his wife what the "art of covering a song" is all about: reinventing, bringing something new, changing, shifting staying true to the original but making the song on your own at the same time. His wife said "I don't get it, do a song and show it to me". So, Chris went and dug up Billie Jean.

For those who are also interested, Billie Jean (the original) is a very interesting song, in almost all aspects. It is the first "real" video clip, it is almost perfect in all technical points (recording, mixing, the song structure, melody, rhythm, instrument usage) and is widely regarded as the best song written after 1980. It also has a very interesting story, here's an excerpt:

"... Michael Jackson and Epic Records had planned to present the music video for the song to the executives of newly-formed cable network MTV, which was at the time not playing videos by black performers or even dance artists. Since its inception, the network's playlist was predominantly white and mainly featured videos by the top rock artists of the day such as Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, The Clash, Blondie, Journey, Pat Benatar, Genesis, and Billy Idol. In 1983, Jackson and CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff informed MTV's President that if the cable channel didn't play Jackson's video, CBS would not allow them to play any of their white artists who were getting exposure on the network (most notably Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Joel), and would denounce them publicly as racists. With that ultimatum, MTV finally bowed to pressure and premiered Jackson's "Billie Jean" video on March 10, 1983. This account was disputed by Les Garland, co-founder and originator of MTV, VH1, and The Box, saying "I called Bob (Pittman, MTV co-founder) to tell him, 'I just saw the greatest video I've ever seen in my life. It is off the dial it's so good.' We added it that day. How (the myth) turned into a story literally blew our minds."
..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Jean

Fried Food.

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:33:25 GMT

Today, I wondered "why is fried food so unhealthy?" and a quick research revealed these facts... (Yesterday I was wondering why we humans could not fly, at least without the aid of technology; and a quick research revealed nothing, but I'll get back to it someday... promise...)

Meanwhile...

Heating vegetable oil above 300 degrees Fahrenheit damages the oil causing toxin formation. Heating the oil increases the rate of chemical reactions (oxidation) especially if it is in the presence of air (oxygen) and light. Many toxic products of oxidation occur, including trans fatty acid and other unnatural breakdown products (dimers and polymers etc). Our cells accumulate these toxic product and age more rapidly.

The nutritional value of browned food is poor. Proteins turn into acrolein a known carcinogen.

Frying food is an unhealthy practice and should be avoided.

For those who cannot help themselves and insist on frying, the following suggestions are made:

Saturated fats are the most stable to heat. Monounsaturated are the second most stable. Polyunsaturated fats are unstable to heat. Canola oil, corn oil and other liquid vegetable oils form the most toxins when heated. This is because they are damaged the quickest with heat and air. Never fry with Canola oil.

Saturated fats that are low in the essential fatty acids are safer for frying. They are however also to be avoided because the raise your cholesterol.

Mixing water with the oil when cooking helps prevents overheating of the oil.

Safer (not safe but less toxic) oils for frying are (in order of safety):
- Butter
- Tropical fats
- Peanut oil
- Sesame oil
- Olive oil

By the way
Virgin olive oil is the only Supermarket oil that has not been heated to 392+ during processing!

The Forgotten, Part II; Joe Satriani; Living In A Blue Dream; 1989 Strange Beautiful Music Publishing Ltd.

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:18:09 GMT

Joe Satriani pays homage to Carlos Santana with this Middle Eastern-flavored tune, based on the C Aeolian mode (also known as natural minor), spelled: C,D,Eb,F,G,Ab,Bb. The tune begins with a slow melody which features many sustained tones, remeniscent of Santana's "Europa." Notice Joe's subtle use of tremolo bar vibrato, used to enhance the vocal quality of the phrases. Supporting the lead guitar are two rhythm guitars split left and right in the mix, both with a clean tone; these two rhythm guitars are arranged here for one guitar. Notice also Joe's frequent use of "rakes," downpicking across muted strings into the target note, and his use of pinch harmonics, articulated by getting the edge of the pick and part of the thumb into the pick attack. Joe displays a beautiful vibrato during the melody section, both with and without the tremolo bar, and I suggest close listening to the recording in trying to recreate it.

Joe begins his solo with a riff based on C pentatonic minor (C,Eb,F,G,Bb) reminiscent of Jeff Beck's "Highways," before moving back into C Aeolian. The real beauty of Joe's playing is that all his phrases have great fluidity and conviction, and his playing here rarely sounds "scale-y." His lines combine precision with spontaneity, creating a spirited soloing style that most chops-oriented players fail to achieve. Joe returns to the second half of the melody after the solo, this time perfoming it with slight variations. When playing this tune, feel free to "hear" the melody in your own way, as I'm sure Joe does each time he performs the tune.

For the final section, Joe establishes a repeated rhythm pattern to solo over, moving from Cm to Fm7add4/Ab. Notice the hammer-ons used in the rhythm part and Joe's use of unusual chord voicings. Overall, this isn't a hard song to play and contains many of the techniques Joe is known for.

PS: This write-up does not belong to me, I don't know who wrote it. I find it to be exact and satisfying to my taste, so I posted it here. If you know to whom it belongs, please let me know. -icy

The Antichrist

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:51:35 GMT

—Let us look each other in the face. We are Hyperboreans—we know well enough how remote our place is. “Neither by land nor by water will you find the road to the Hyperboreans”: even Pindar, in his day, knew that much about us. Beyond the North, beyond the ice, beyond death—our life, our happiness.... We have discovered that happiness; we know the way; we got our knowledge of it from thousands of years in the labyrinth. Who else has found it?—The man of today?—“I don’t know either the way out or the way in; I am whatever doesn’t know either the way out or the way in”—so sighs the man of today.... This is the sort of modernity that made us ill,—we sickened on lazy peace, cowardly compro mise, the whole virtuous dirtiness of the modern Yea and Nay. This tolerance and largeur of the heart that “forgives” everything because it “understands” everything is a sirocco to us. Rather live amid the ice than among modern virtues and other such south-winds!... We were brave enough; we spared neither ourselves nor others; but we were a long time finding out where to direct our courage. We grew dismal; they called us fatalists. Our fate—it was the fulness, the tension, the storing up of powers. We thirsted for the lightnings and great deeds; we kept as far as possible from the happiness of the weakling, from “resignation”... There was thunder in our air; nature, as we embodied it, became overcast—for we had not yet found the way. The formula of our happiness: a Yea, a Nay, a straight line, a goal....

Cf. the tenth Pythian ode. See also the fourth book of Herodotus. The Hyperboreans were a mythical people beyond the Rhipaean mountains, in the far North. They enjoyed unbroken happiness and perpetual youth.

2.

What is good?—Whatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man.
What is evil?—Whatever springs from weakness.
What is happiness?—The feeling that power increases—that resistance is overcome.
Not contentment, but more power; not peace at any price, but war; not virtue, but efficiency (virtue in the Renaissance sense, virtu, virtue free of moral acid).
The weak and the botched shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one should help them to it.
What is more harmful than any vice?—Practical sympathy for the botched and the weak—Christianity....

3.

The problem that I set here is not what shall replace mankind in the order of living creatures (—man is an end—): but what type of man must be bred, must be willed, as being the most valuable, the most worthy of life, the most secure guarantee of the future.

This more valuable type has appeared often enough in the past: but always as a happy accident, as an exception, never as deliberately willed. Very often it has been precisely the most feared; hitherto it has been almost the terror of terrors;—and out of that terror the contrary type has been willed, cultivated and attained: the domestic animal, the herd animal, the sick brute-man—the Christian....

4.

Mankind surely does not represent an evolution toward a better or stronger or higher level, as progress is now understood. This “progress” is merely a modern idea, which is to say, a false idea. The European of today, in his essential worth, falls far below the European of the Renaissance; the process of evolution does not necessarily mean elevation, enhancement, strengthening.

True enough, it succeeds in isolated and individual cases in various parts of the earth and under the most widely different cultures, and in these cases a higher type certainly manifests itself; something which, compared to mankind in the mass, appears as a sort of superman. Such happy strokes of high success have always been possible, and will remain possible, perhaps, for all time to come. Even whole races, tribes and nations may occasionally represent such lucky accidents.

5.

We should not deck out and embellish Christianity: it has waged a war to the death against this higher type of man, it has put all the deepest instincts of this type under its ban, it has developed its concept of evil, of the Evil One himself, out of these instincts—the strong man as the typical reprobate, the “outcast among men.” Christianity has taken the part of all the weak, the low, the botched; it has made an ideal out of antagonism to all the self-preservative instincts of sound life; it has corrupted even the faculties of those natures that are intellectually most vigorous, by representing the highest intellectual values as sinful, as misleading, as full of temptation. The most lamentable example: the corruption of Pascal, who believed that his intellect had been destroyed by original sin, whereas it was actually destroyed by Christianity!—

6.

It is a painful and tragic spectacle that rises before me: I have drawn back the curtain from the rottenness of man. This word, in my mouth, is at least free from one suspicion: that it involves a moral accusation against humanity. It is used—and I wish to emphasize the fact again—without any moral significance: and this is so far true that the rottenness I speak of is most apparent to me precisely in those quarters where there has been most aspiration, hitherto, toward “virtue” and “godliness.” As you probably surmise, I understand rottenness in the sense of décadence: my argument is that all the values on which mankind now fixes its highest aspirations are décadence-values.

I call an animal, a species, an individual corrupt, when it loses its instincts, when it chooses, when it prefers, what is injurious to it. A history of the “higher feelings,” the “ideals of humanity”—and it is possible that I’ll have to write it—would almost explain why man is so degenerate. Life itself appears to me as an instinct for growth, for survival, for the accumulation of forces, for power: whenever the will to power fails there is disaster. My contention is that all the highest values of humanity have been emptied of this will—that the values of décadence, of nihilism, now prevail under the holiest names.

7.

Christianity is called the religion of pity.—Pity stands in opposition to all the tonic passions that augment the energy of the feeling of aliveness: it is a depressant. A man loses power when he pities. Through pity that drain upon strength which suffering works is multiplied a thousandfold. Suffering is made contagious by pity; under certain circumstances it may lead to a total sacrifice of life and living energy—a loss out of all proportion to the magnitude of the cause (—the case of the death of the Nazarene). This is the first view of it; there is, however, a still more important one. If one measures the effects of pity by the gravity of the reactions it sets up, its character as a menace to life appears in a much clearer light. Pity thwarts the whole law of evolution, which is the law of natural selection. It preserves whatever is ripe for destruction; it fights on the side of those disinherited and condemned by life; by maintaining life in so many of the botched of all kinds, it gives life itself a gloomy and dubious aspect. Mankind has ventured to call pity a virtue (—in every superior moral system it appears as a weakness—); going still further, it has been called the virtue, the source and foundation of all other virtues—but let us always bear in mind that this was from the standpoint of a philosophy that was nihilistic, and upon whose shield the denial of life was inscribed. Schopenhauer was right in this: that by means of pity life is denied, and made worthy of denial—pity is the technic of nihilism. Let me repeat: this depressing and contagious instinct stands against all those instincts which work for the preservation and enhancement of life: in the rôle of protector of the miserable, it is a prime agent in the promotion of décadence—pity persuades to extinction.... Of course, one doesn’t say “extinction”: one says “the other world,” or “God,” or “the true life,” or Nirvana, salvation, blessedness.... This innocent rhetoric, from the realm of religious-ethical balderdash, appears a good deal less innocent when one reflects upon the tendency that it conceals beneath sublime words: the tendency to destroy life. Schopenhauer was hostile to life: that is why pity appeared to him as a virtue.... Aristotle, as every one knows, saw in pity a sickly and dangerous state of mind, the remedy for which was an occasional purgative: he regarded tragedy as that purgative. The instinct of life should prompt us to seek some means of puncturing any such pathological and dangerous accumulation of pity as that appearing in Schopenhauer’s case (and also, alack, in that of our whole literary décadence, from St. Petersburg to Paris, from Tolstoi to Wagner), that it may burst and be discharged.... Nothing is more unhealthy, amid all our unhealthy modernism, than Christian pity. To be the doctors here, to be unmerciful here, to wield the knife here—all this is our business, all this is our sort of humanity, by this sign we are philosophers, we Hyperboreans!—

First 7 sections from "The Antichrist" by F. W. Nietzsche. Translation by H. L. Mencken. Pocket Book Edition, Published September, 1923

Icy Evolution

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:26:33 GMT

State Mottos

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:01:01 GMT

Alabama: Hell Yes, We Have Electricity

Alaska: 11,623 Eskimos Can't Be Wrong!

Arizona: But It's A Dry Heat

Arkansas: Literacy Ain't Everything

California: By 30, Our Women Have More Plastic Than Your Honda

Colorado: If You Don't Ski, Don't Bother

Connecticut: Like Massachusetts, Only The Kennedy's Don't Own It-Yet

Delaware: We Really Do Like The Chemicals In Our Water

Florida: Ask Us About Our Grandkids

Georgia: We Put The "Fun" In Fundamentalist Extremism

Hawaii: Haka Tiki Mou Sha'ami Leeki Toru (Death To Mainland Scum, But Leave
Your Money)

Idaho: More Than Just Potatoes...Well Okay, We're Not, But The Potatoes Sure
Are Real Good

Illinois: Please Don't Pronounce the "S"

Indiana: 2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free

Iowa: We Do Amazing Things With Corn

Kansas: First Of The Rectangle States

Kentucky: Five Million People; Fifteen Last Names

Louisiana: We're Not ALL Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That's Our Tourism Campaign

Maine: We're Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster

Maryland: If You Can Dream It, We Can Tax It

Massachusetts: Our Taxes Are Lower Than Sweden's (For Most Tax Brackets)

Michigan: First Line Of Defense From The Canadians

Minnesota: 10,000 Lakes... And 10,000,000,000,000 Mosquitoes

Mississippi: Come And Feel Better About Your Own State

Missouri: Your Federal Flood Relief Tax Dollars At Work

Montana: Land Of The Big Sky, The Unabomber, Right-Wing Crazies, And Very
Little Else

Nebraska: Ask About Our State Motto Contest

Nevada: Hookers and Poker!

New Hampshire: Go Away And Leave Us Alone

New Jersey: You Want A ##$%##! Motto? I Got Yer ##$%##! Motto Right Here!

New Mexico: Lizards Make Excellent pets

New York: You Have The Right To Remain Silent, You Have The Right To An
Attorney....

North Carolina: Tobacco Is A Vegetable

North Dakota: We Really Are One Of The 50 States!

Ohio: At Least We're Not Michigan

Oklahoma: Like The Play, Only No Singing

Oregon: Spotted Owl... It's What's For Dinner

Pennsylvania: Cook With Coal

Rhode Island: We're Not REALLY An Island

South Carolina: Remember The Civil War? We Didn't Actually Surrender

South Dakota: Closer Than North Dakota

Tennessee: The Educashun State

Texas: Si' Hablo Ing'les

Utah: Our Jesus Is Better Than Your Jesus

Vermont: Yep

Virginia: Who Says Government Stiffs And Slackjaw Yokels Don't Mix?

Washington: Help! We're Overrun By Nerds And Slackers!

Washington, D.C.: Wanna Be Mayor?

West Virginia: One Big Happy Family... Really!

Wisconsin: Come Cut The Cheese

Wyoming: Where Men Are Men... and the sheep are scared

Newspaper Headlines in the Year 2035

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:59:39 GMT

Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions inthe seventh largest country in the world, California.

White minorities still trying to have English recognized as the California's third language.

Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops & livestock.

Baby conceived naturally.... Scientists stumped.

Authentic year 2000 "chad" sells at Sotheby's for $4.6 million.

Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies in the American Territory of the Middle East (formerly known as Iran, Afghanistan, Syria,and Lebanon.)

Iraq still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least ten more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.

Castro finally dies at age 112; Cuban cigars can now be imported legally, but President Chelsea Clinton has banned all smoking.

George Z. Bush says he will run for President in 2036.

35 year study: diet and exercise is the key to weight loss.

Texas executes last remaining citizen.

Upcoming NFL draft likely to focus on use of mutants.

Average height of NBA players now nine feet, seven inches.

Microsoft announces it has perfected its newest version of Windows so it crashes BEFORE installation is completed.

New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screw-drivers and baseball bats must be registered by January 2036.

Cows & Politics Explained

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:58:55 GMT

A CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor.

A SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.

AN AMERICAN REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So what?

AN AMERICAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office who tax your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money and buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous.

A COMMUNIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk.

A FASCIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and sells you the milk. You join the underground and start a campaign of sabotage.

DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, then pours the milk down the drain.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when the cow drops dead.

A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create clever cow cartoon images called Cowkimon and market them World-Wide.

A GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

A BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. They are mad. They die. Pass the shepherd's pie, please.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You break for lunch.

A RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.

A SWISS CORPORATION: You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.

A BRAZILIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You enter into a partnership with an American corporation. Soon you have 1000 cows and the American corporation declares bankruptcy.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship both of them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported on them.

AN ISRAELI CORPORATION: There are these two Jewish cows, right? They open a milk factory, an ice cream store, and then sell the movie rights. They send their calves to Harvard to become doctors. So, who needs people?

AN ARKANSAS CORPORATION: You have two cows. That one on the left is kinda cute.

A Guide to U.S. Newspapers

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:58:17 GMT

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

2. The New York Times is read by people who think they run the country.

3. The Washington Post is read by people who think they should run the country.

4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand the Washington Post. They do, however like the smog statistics shown in pie charts.

5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could spare the time, and if they didn't have to leave L.A. to do it.

6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country.

7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country, and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country either, as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

9. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country, or that anyone is running it; but whoever it is, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority, feministic atheist dwarfs, who also happen to be illegal aliens from ANY country or galaxy as long as they are democrats.

10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.

Good-bye Clarke

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:41:41 GMT

Good bye Clarke

...

Icy says (or rather quotes)...

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:25:16 GMT

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.

It is the first lesson that ought to be learned and however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.

-Thomas Henry Huxley (1826-1895)

Sinan the Architect | Mimar Sinan: Respect to Sinan Project

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:43:51 GMT

http://www.soksa.com/thread.aspx?lt=1&lp=0&sku=233

To all... Basic Manners and Rules

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:33:50 GMT

Manner rule #1: Cover your mouth when yawning!

It is one of the primary etiquette rules and public manners. I do not want to see deep into your throat, your dirty teeth, your fillings and whatnot. Animals yawn like that, we humans don't!

Manner rule #2: Keep your mouth shut when chewing your food!

Unless you are a peasant this rule does apply to you. Basic table manners require any civilized human to behave, and try to keep the food processing going on inside their mouth private. The person sitting opposite of you is not very interested in seeing the chewed food inside your mouth, or hearing the noises you so joyously produce whilst chewing it. IT IS DISGUSTING AND ANNOYING! Animals, for the lack of lips and basic manners, chew food like that. Actually, most of you do look like animals when you are chewing your food with your mouth open and making a rackett in the sack! When I'm eating with such an individual the inevitable mouth movements accompanied by the slurping noises always reminds me of cows, cats, dogs and various farm animals enjoying their meals. And don't even get me started on the way you chew your gum! Just have a friend capture you on a video camera, then sit down and compare your chewing gum with a cow grazing happily. You do belong with the cow, really!

Manner rule #3: No matter how quiet you do it, you do not fart when you are in the company of others!

I don't know who set you free. But you ought to be locked up in a room with people of your kind; farting and excusing yourself from your nitrous by-products. Go to the bathroom, fart there and use the darn room spray. There's a reason for it!

Manner rule #4: Keep your voice down!

Your private conversation is no longer private if everybody within a half-mile radius can hear it. Whether you are on the phone or on a roll, if you are not on the stage and if I didn't pay to hear you mumble about your love life, keep it to yourself. It's really not that hard. Just talk a little lower and respect other people.

Boy, am I in the wrong part of the universe or what? How did civilization move in the opposite direction?

Here, a search for "books on public manners" on Amazon, done for you. Buy a couple of them and study.

Turkce

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:13:26 GMT

artik turkiye'de pek kullanilmadigini turkiye'den gelen "arkadaslarim" sayesinde uzulerek isittigim; "guya en yuksek trajli" gazetesinin internet sitesindeki imla hatalari sayesinde icim sizlayarak gordugum lisan. biraz olsun iletisimde oldugum arkadaslarimi uyara uyara basima agrilar girmesine de sebep olan bir lisan ayni zamanda. kurallari gayet net, sinirli ve takip edilebilir; kendisi de okundugu gibi yaziliyor olmasina karsin, 21 yuzyil turkiye'sinin "adam sendeciligi", "vurdum duymazligi", "oha felan oldum yaneciligi" sayesinde, 600 yillik osmanli baskisindan dahi kurtulabilmis ama 80 yillik okuzluk altinda yitip gitmis lisan.

en basit iyelik ekini anlamayan, soru eklerini ayiramayan, "dahi manasindaki -de ayri yazilir" dediginde "dahi manasi ne? yani aynstayn gibi mi olunca hoca/haci/dayi/abi?" diye cevap veren sahsiyetlerin toplumun en cok takip ettigi basin / yayin organlarinda editor, kose yazari, metin yazari, "duz yazar" ve "yazar kasa" olarak ise alinmalarinin bunda buyuk payi olduguna inaniyorum. inaniyorum da, bir yandan da "ulan yillarca trt kurtarmaya calisti bu lisani da ne oldu?" diye dusunmeden edemiyorum. uc yillik 10. sinif ilkokul musameresi kilikli sallama dizi kicindan terim urettiginde herkesin diline dolaniyor da neden kimse "yahu bu dort kelime bir araya geldiginde bir sey ifade etmiyor ki, ne demek bu simdi?" diye soramiyor? "gecim derdinde" oldugu icin mi? ugrasmasi gereken cok daha onemli sorunlari var da bu yuzden mi giderek ne dedigi belirsiz bir insana donusebiliyor? gecim derdi televizyon basinda oturup zihin ozurlu cocuklar gibi ne gecerse ezberleyip sonra da papagan gibi tekrarlamanin bahanesi midir ki? neden guzel dizilerin guzel turkce kullanimi ezberlenmiyor peki? neden her cumlenin icinde en az 10, cogunlukla 300 tane "falan/felan" geciyor? ben lisede iken edebiyat ogretmenimiz konusmanin icinde cok fazla "himm", "sey", "iiiii" kullandigimizda kizardi. "madem soyleyecek bir seyin yok, madem kafanda uc tane kelimeyi bir araya getirip de bir cumle kurup dusunceni ifade edemiyorsun, o halde konusma sen. karsimda inek gibi "moo"lemenin ne sana bir yarari var, ne de bana" derdi. simdilerde ben bunu bagira cagira turkce konusmaya calisan herkese soylemek istiyorum (bakiniz, herkez ve herkes ayni manaya gelen iki kelime degildir. turkce'de herkez diye bir kelime yoktur. "her kez" diyebilirsiniz, ki "her defa" manasina gelir. herkes ise "insanlarin butunu" demektir -www.tdk.gov.tr). "hoca simdi ben yani demek istiyorum ki, harbiden, oha felan oldum yane" bana hicbir sey ifade etmiyor, inanin.

tabi, butun bunlarin yani sira, biliyorum ki eksisozluk cumlelerin basindaki butun buyuk harflerimi kucultecek, turkce karakterlerim ucacak ve ben kendim, elestirdigim seyin bir parcasi olacagim.

eh bir cay da icilir simdi.

ne mutlu turkce konusabilene

Lucali Retaurant | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, NY

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 06:12:15 GMT

I am ASHAMED of myself. I have lived, for four years, three blocks away from this restaurant - ahem sorry, kitchen - and never been in there. I've passed by its door a thousand times, heard about it a gazillion times, alas, never been inside. But hey, it's not my fault. The place opens after 6 pm. It's on "the other way" of my regular path to the subway. And frankly, if I ever walk by it at night, it's probably because I am quite drunk and made a wrong left turn instead of a right one, so I usually fail to notice this place... No signs or anything... Well, they do have a sign, a "street sign which reads HENRY STR." but it's hanging from a pole and it is unsatisfactorily located INSIDE the place. So, you get the picture...

As they say: "better late then never". We've been there tonight, and, well, I've nothing more to add to the reviews. But I can, with a full stomach and a full heart say or, rather shout, that IT IS THE BEST DARN PIZZA I'VE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFE! AND I'VE EATEN PIZZA IN ROMA, VENEZIA AND FRENZE!

Now that we've got that out of our systems, here are the details:

Call them, after 6. They tell you when you MAY come over, and give you a call before that. No reservations!
They are awesome people; warm smiling beautiful and handsome (I'm not kidding)
They tell you "oh, we may have a table in like 45 minutes, but definitely before an hour, would you like that?" and you tell them "sure, I'm waiting for your call. I live 3 blocks from you" and they call you in 5 minutes and say "we have a table for you if you can make it in 3 minutes" and you leave home in 30 seconds and be there in under 2.

The prices are CHEAP! I mean they are what they ought to be. A pizza (they do have one size only, but amazing toppings, fresh toppings) is about $20 and with the toppings it comes to ~$30.

You have to bring your own wine, booze, what-ever - $4 charge (I'm sure somebody wrote these somewhere below - or above. But I am so full of dough and stuff and wine now and wield them as excuses for not reading stuff - and making horrible grammar mistakes)

Anyway. The ambiance is what everybody said it is, just a beautiful kitchen with low lighting and amazing pizza.

We went there 3 people, had a pizza, had a calzone, and I wasn't quite full so I wanted them to cook me something like bread so that I can go on licking the sauce off the bottom of the plate. They not only cooked me bread (pita sort of) but they also gave me another plate full of sauce (the guy just carried it over in a cup and poured it into the plate - must be thinking quite highly of me).

We brought our own wine, well actually, after learning that it is BOYOB we just left my wife at the table and ran back to the liquor shop and bought a bottle and ran back.

The bill was $45.

I am so happy, I can cry. Maybe I may have, not really sure there. Oh wait, I can't cry - I'm dead inside. Oh well.

[Edit | January 27, 2008] I've been there again tonight. I would like to share a feeling that I've experienced - hence the weird edit. This place FEELS LIKE HOME. I don't know why, maybe it's the music, maybe it's the waitresses, maybe it's the entire aura of the atmosphere. It just does. I feel happy inside. I feel happy when they call me back and say "we have a table in a few minutes, start running". Maybe it's the heart warming smile on everybody's faces. I have no clue. It just feels like home in this place. And that pizza; oh mamma mia!

http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=BSLFyFIdHVNhOL_yQIJWeQ&fsid=wEaxc3Tzk29otL9b3n5p9g

Bridge CS3 removes the "xpacket begin" tag from xmp sidecar files

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:56:52 GMT

I have just found out that the Bridge shipped with CS3 removes the "xpacket begin / end" tags from the XMP sidecar files. As far as I know this tag is in the XMP specification and I can not find an update to this either. The latest XMP specification is from 2005 and the xpacket begin / end tags are mandatory there. Is this a bug or what? I believe this is part of the reason why so many people have problems with images tagged with CS3 and how they can no longer see some keywords and other XMP information on 3rd party programs. Strangely enough (or is it not strange enough, stupid Bridge!) the tags are there for the "infile" documents, that are the cases where the XMP data is embedded inside the file, eg jpeg, gif, tiff, psd etc, etc.

The bottom line would be: Is there a way to disable this behavior of Bridge CS3?

To give an example, here's a "pre-cs3" bridge's XMP sidecar file (partial)

<?xpacket begin='ï»¿' id='W5M0MpCehiHzreSzNTczkc9d'?>
<?adobe-xap-filters esc="CR"?>
<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x='adobe:ns:meta/' x:xmptk='XMP toolkit 2.9-9, framework 1.6'>
<rdf:RDF........
.................
</rdf:RDF>
</x:xmpmeta>
<?xpacket end='w'?>

And here's the same file after edited by bridge cs3

<x:xmpmeta xmlns:x="adobe:ns:meta/" x:xmptk="Public XMP Toolkit Core 3.5">
<rdf:RDF....
.................
</rdf:RDF>
</x:xmpmeta>

This is a huge problem for most of my parsers

Hah! I would also like to add that the XMP-SDK-4-1-1 CAN NOT read the sidecars without the "xpacket begin" tags either. Now, I'm not that proficient in C++, but I CAN read the xmp files that have the tags; so I must at least be doing "something" right there.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3c05e4eb/0

Photo Album: Artsy Pictures of Mine

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:02:12 GMT

Artsy Pictures of Mine

Schwartz_Bros

Seperate-Lives

Shallow Tree I-3

St.Assisi.(Edit1)

The Fuse

The Meeting

ubwayS

Ocean-Avenue-(Station)-2

Of-Shoes-And-Dreams

The-Watcher

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Photo Album: October 07. It's Easier In Black& White

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 03:13:09 GMT

October 07. It's Easier In Black& White

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Photo Album: September 30, Walking BoCoCa

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 04:56:30 GMT

September 30, Walking BoCoCa

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Photo Album: September 23. Walking BoCoCa

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 04:55:04 GMT

September 23. Walking BoCoCa

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DSC_0065

DSC_0065_toneMapped

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Photo Album: May 26. SixFlags. NJ

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 05:37:26 GMT

May 26. SixFlags. NJ

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Photo Album: We had lunch. And we are pretty.

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 17:13:58 GMT

We had lunch. And we are pretty.

P1030240

P1030242

Photo Album: raki balik 101. efendim, cok kifayetli bir balik bu balik. kendisi ecnebi oldugu icin raki ile tanistirmak icab etti. gorevi igfal ettik :)

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 11:46:29 GMT

raki balik 101. efendim, cok kifayetli bir balik bu balik. kendisi ecnebi oldugu icin raki ile tanistirmak icab etti. gorevi igfal ettik :)

raki balik - giris

raki balik - gelisme

raki balik - devam

Photo Album: me, me, me, many, mini me

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 11:45:21 GMT

me, me, me, many, mini me

ihsan cem onur

icy & cato

icy

tiltil

icy & tiltil

icy

candle

frenchy-pressy

icy

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Photo Album: I did paper the wall

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:22:11 GMT

I did paper the wall

newYork.Wallpaper.1680x1050.byIcy

newYork.Wallpaper.1920x1200.byIcy

Photo Album: May 13. BearMountain. NJ

Sun, 27 May 2007 22:50:27 GMT

May 13. BearMountain. NJ

ducky

wePray

weInventFire

weBurn

icyGrills

weEatMeat

meWieldKnife

meHaveEarRings

weSmile

meGaze

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