Turkey bans biologist Richard Dawkins´ website

http://ma.tt/2007/08/blocked-in-turkey/

Baghdad Railway, railroad of international importance linking Europe with Asia Minor and the Middle East. The line runs from Istanbul, Turkey, to Basra, Iraq; it connected what were distant regions of the Ottoman Empire. The railroad was initially financed chiefly by German capital; its Anatolian sections were completed in 1896. The ambitious project was then formed to extend the railroad to Baghdad, and a company, again backed chiefly by German capital, was organized for the purpose. Immediate protests were made to Turkey by France, Russia, and, particularly, Great Britain, which saw in the projected line a direct threat to its empire in India. Operations were held up for several years by these international representations and by engineering difficulties, but in 1911 work was resumed. By playing on imperialistic rivalries, the construction of the railroad was a factor in bringing about World War I. By the end of the war only a stretch between Mosul and Samarra remained to be completed on the main line, which Syria and Iraq later undertook and finished.

By 1915 the railway ended some 50 miles east of Diarbakr (now called Diyarbakýr). Another spur, heading east from Aleppo, ended at Nasibin (now called Nusaybin). Additionally some rail was laid starting in Baghdad reaching north to Tikrit and south to Kut. This left a gap of some 300 miles between the railroad lines. Additionally, there were three mountains which the railroad was going to go through, but the tunnels through these three mountains were not complete. So the railroad was, in fact, broken into four different sections at the start of the war. The total time to get from Istanbul to Baghdad during the war was 22 days.^[24] The total distance was 1,255 miles (2019 km). The breaks in the railroad meant that the Ottoman government had significant difficulties in sending supplies and reinforcements to the Mesopotamian Front. The fighting in Mesopotamia remained somewhat isolated from the rest of the war. During the conflict, Turkish and German workers laboured to complete the railway for military purposes but with limited manpower and so many more important things to spend money on, only two of the gaps were closed.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/boshtml/bos139.htm

My post was aimed at extravagant behavior.

 Is “show-off” less of a sin than alcohol? Does the Koran not remind Muslims in every other verse to avoid “going to extremes?” Are some teachings of the Koran holy and the others less holy?

Did Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan not explain the source of his multi-million dollar wealth by the jewelry gifted to his son during the little boy’s circumcision ceremony? I do not want to imagine the ceremonial set-up that merrily produced millions of dollars in gifts to a little boy.

  That was perfectly in line with Mr. Erdoðan’s son’s wedding at the Dolmabahçe Palace, which was guarded by 4,000 policemen and supported by four ambulances and a fire brigade, plus a fancy broadcast on state television. Only a Sultan could have had a wedding like that; minus the TV broadcast.

  That was also perfectly in line with Foreign Minister Ali Babacan’s little son’s circumcision ceremony which was no less extravagant than an Ottoman Sultan’s merry ritual: clowns, a marquee, teeterboard and a treasure box so that generous guests could leave their precious gifts.  

  And all those were perfectly in line with President Abdullah Gül’s daughter’s wedding ceremony which was no less modest than any one of the “observant Muslim” traditions of celebrating “a la orient.”

For the first time ever, Turkey is hosting the Millionaire Fair, where ultra-luxury consumer goods are displayed for curious visitors.

from Today´s Zaman

 Her classes on Sufism were always well attended, and one of her courses metamorphosed into her most famous book, Mystical Dimensions of Islam. She was also a much sought-after lecturer, and her style of delivery was famous: she would clasp her purse with both hands, shut her eyes, and speak for exactly the amount of time allotted to her. She maintained that she could lecture without a manuscript in German, English and Turkish, or with a manuscript (and open eyes) in French, Arabic, Persian and Urdu.

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/12.16/31-mm.html

I think these must be two of his poems or songs?

May the friends remember me

After I pass, my name remains
May the friends remember me
Weddings happen, holidays come
May the friends remember me

Soul flies from the cage
World is an inn, settlers depart
The moon wanders, years go by
May the friends remember me

Body will be deprived of life
Hearth won’t burn, smoke won’t rise
By armfuls, salutes I pass
May the friends remember me

Many blooms thrive and fade
Who had laughed, who’ll be glad
Desire’s lie, real is death
May the friends remember me

Into evening will turn the days
Behold what soon will take place
Veysel departs, his name remains
May the friends remember me.

Long Narrow Path

I’m on a long, narrow path
I’m walking on, day and night.
I’ve lost my sense of self.
I’m walking on, day and night,
Day and night, day and night,
Day and night.

Ever since the moment I came into this world,
I was walking from the very beginning.
In a caravansary with only two doors.
I’m walking on, day and night,
Day and night, day and night,
Day and night.

In a caravansary with only two doors.
I’m walking on, day and night,
Day and night, day and night,
Day and night.

When contemplated deeply,
It seems far away, when looked at.
The road is but a minute long.
I’m walking on, day and night,
Day and night, day and night,
Day and night.

The road is but a minute long.
I’m walking on, day and night,
Day and night, day and night,
Day and night.

Veysel is confused in this state,
Sometimes crying, sometimes laughing,
On the road to reach my destination.
I’m walking on, day and night,
Day and night, day and night,
Day and night.

On the road to reach my destination.
I’m walking on, day and night,
Day and night, day and night,
Day and night.

Was this his funeral?

He was fond of Victorian and Art Deco furniture. He owned two of the largest collections of Art Nouveau Glass and 18th. century Japanese "Imari" porcelain in Turkey.

Youtube defender: Turkish author and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk criticized Turkey´s ban on YouTube and other websites while speaking Oct. 14 at the Frankfurt book fair.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1030/p06s01-wome.html

This is a preserved old  Anatolian  village on the outskirts of Bursa. Founded by Osman I in 1320, Cumalikizik represents the point in which the Ottomans abandoned their nomadic past and became a sedentary people.

Our Vanishing Night

Most city skies have become virtually empty of stars

If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars, we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal species on this planet. Instead, we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun´s light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don´t think of ourselves as diurnal beings any more than we think of ourselves as primates or mammals or Earthlings. Yet it´s the only way to explain what we´ve done to the night: We´ve engineered it to receive us by filling it with light.

This kind of engineering is no different than damming a river. Its benefits come with consequences—called light pollution—whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky, where it´s not wanted, instead of focusing it downward, where it is. Ill-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and radically alters the light levels—and light rhythms—to which many forms of life, including ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect of life—migration, reproduction, feeding—is affected.

For most of human history, the phrase "light pollution" would have made no sense. Imagine walking toward London on a moonlit night around 1800, when it was Earth´s most populous city. Nearly a million people lived there, making do, as they always had, with candles and rushlights and torches and lanterns. Only a few houses were lit by gas, and there would be no public gaslights in the streets or squares for another seven years. From a few miles away, you would have been as likely to smell London as to see its dim collective glow.

Now most of humanity lives under intersecting domes of reflected, refracted light, of scattering rays from overlit cities and suburbs, from light-flooded highways and factories. Nearly all of nighttime Europe is a nebula of light, as is most of the United States and all of Japan. In the south Atlantic the glow from a single fishing fleet—squid fishermen luring their prey with metal halide lamps—can be seen from space, burning brighter, in fact, than Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro