Funny animation:

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs13/f/2007/077/2/e/Animator_vs__Animation_by_alanbecker.swf 

The introduction of cinema in Turkey dates back to nearly a  year after two young Frenchmen, the Lumière brothers held their  first film exhibition on December 22, 1895 in a cafe in Paris.  Initial showings in Turkey were private ones held at the Sultan´s  court, the Yıldız Palace in İstanbul. Afterwards a Romanian  citizen of Polish descent Sigmund Weinberg screened films publicly  at a beer hall in Galatasaray Square, İstanbul, thus introducing  this extraordinary art to many more Turkish people.

http://www.turkishculture.org/print.php?ID=591

What a McCain Victory Could Mean: No Money for Health Care and the End of Our Volunteer Army

By Robert Parry, Consortium News
Posted on August 28, 2008, Printed on August 30, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/96687/

Turkish people will rejoice!

After much controversy, Cologne´s city council has voted in favor of building Germany´s largest mosque. The opposition of a local far-right group wasn´t enough to stop plans that will change the city´s historic skyline forever.

Thanks for posting, this is interesting

"Masumiyet Müzesi" is the name of a museum-house in which several scenes in the novel take place, and which Pamuk actually plans to open in Çukurcuma, İstanbul´s funky antiques district. Pamuk started to collect the objects to be exhibited in the museum when he purchased the museum-house 10 years ago, and in preparation for the museum´s opening he has researched how the furniture and objects of everyday life are exhibited all around the world.  

Incredible:

http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=GPWJc8sLhjo

As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable on the planet.

"This place is a supernova," said Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on a windswept hilltop 35 miles north of Turkey´s border with Syria. "Within a minute of first seeing it I knew I had two choices: go away and tell nobody, or spend the rest of my life working here."

Behind him are the first folds of the Anatolian plateau. Ahead, the Mesopotamian plain, like a dust-coloured sea, stretches south hundreds of miles. The stone circles of Gobekli Tepe are just in front, hidden under the brow of the hill.

Compared with Stonehenge, they are humble affairs. None of the circles excavated (four out of an estimated 2 are more than 30 metres across. T-shaped pillars like the rest, two five-metre stones tower at least a metre above their peers. What makes them remarkable are their carved reliefs of boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions, and their age. Dated at around 9,500BC, these stones are 5,500 years older than the first cities of Mesopotamia, and 7,000 years older than Stonehenge.http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/apr/23/archaeology.turkey

,6 m found colossal statues. along with the colossuses of Memnon of XVIII Dynasty 

World interest in ancient city of Sagalassos increases

Large-scale excavations started in 1990 under the direction of Professor Waelkens. Many buildings, monuments and other archaeological remains have been exposed, documenting the monumental aspect of the Hellenistic, Roman and early Byzantine history of this town.

Last year the team led by Professor Waelkens uncovered fragments of a colossal marble statue of Emperor Hadrian in the rubble in Sagalassos. The statue, which stood about 4.5 meters tall, dates to the early part of Hadrian´s reign. The elaborate decoration on the sandal suggests he was depicted in military garb. It is considered one of the "most beautiful depictions" of the emperor ever found. Excavators unearthed the head, foot and part of a leg.

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=151607

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  • photographs of the Muslim holy cities Mecca and Medina, taken by a Japanese convert, Ali Kazuyoshi Nomachi, are something new for most Westerners, and perhaps even for many Muslims. Non-Muslims are never allowed into Mecca, and it is almost unheard-of for religious and government leaders to allow such pictures to be taken. Most of these images were shot during the holy month of Ramadan, when many faithful are in Mecca and Medina on pilgrimage.

    Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, has contributed an essay explaining the history and significance of the two cities. "Mecca and its twin city Medina flourish as the heart and sacred Center of the Islamic universe and will continue to do so as long as there are men and women who accept the truth of Lailaha illa´Llah and Muhammadun rasul Allah," he writes.

    Nomachi has worked for National Geographic and Life, and his pictures have the information-packed clarity one might expect. There are fascinating images: literally hundreds of thousands of white-robed believers circling the Ka´bah, Mecca´s sacred center; men ritually shaving one another´s heads; tired families fasting; small children praying. Nomachi´s pictures are oddly cool, but they convey the all-encompassing nature of the faith. Mecca the Blessed, Medina the Radiant will be especially thrilling to those Muslims still planning their pilgrimage.