Since 13, I listen to heavy metal and its derivatives. I never had a close relationship with Turkish music. If I ever listened to it, it was a derivative of Anatolian rock genres. Regarding Anatolian rock, Erkin Koray is a pioneer, and I listened to him a lot. He recently passed away. I am quite … Read more
This website is designed for the dissemination of History of Istanbul from Antiquity to XXI. Century, a work prepared by the cooperation of Türkiye Diyanet Foundation Center for Islamic Studies (İSAM) and İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality Kültür ve Sanat Ürünleri A.Ş. The Project for the preparation of the Turkish version of the work was launched in late 2012, and … Read more
The usual suspects were at work again. Here is the summary of what happened: The controversy emerged after the announcement of the planned liturgy, and a representative from the Islamist New Welfare Party in Turkey criticized it[1]. The Good Party spokesperson, Kursad Zorlu, called for the annual religious ceremony at Sumela to be canceled, which … Read more
I will write more about my recent travels if I have the energy. However, I wanted to point out a moment. I was driving from Bayburt to Trabzon and in the early morning, I saw an old man sitting on this stone bridge. Probably he was out of the morning prayers. I was driving, I … Read more
For you visitors, istanbul is nice, but for the residents, life is getting harder… Cost of dining out in İstanbul soars by 91.6% in a year Istanbul ranked as 185th most expensive city in the world Duvar English An international survey has compared the cost of more than 200 goods and services in 227 cities, finding Istanbul as … Read more
Since the electoral defeat, I have been following the CHP administration. Kılıçdaroğlu’s leadership would be chaos for Turkey. CHP is in a total shitshow. Every day another shitshow. Look what they are dealing with now. A Zoom meeting that is leaked. YouTube leak sheds light on internal power struggle in CHP following election defeat After … Read more
Istanbul is also under a heatwave, and I feel like I switched back to my life during the pandemic. I prefer to stay home, start AC occasionally but not always, and pass the time without direct sun rays. I am glad I can mostly do work online, and I had my AC fixed a few … Read more
My chapter, Metaverse and Diversity, is now published in this edited volume: The Future of Digital Communication The Metaverse If you want to look at the chapter’s pre-publication version, here is the link. What are some of the risks associated with a lack of diversity in the metaverse? The risks associated with lack of … Read more
I am a hidden Google Maps influencer (!). I save places to see, visit them, upload pictures, and sometimes write reviews. Here are my ten most viewed pictures there. On the top left-hand side, you can see the place names. From Peplexity.ai: Google Local Guides is a program by Google that allows users to … Read more
Cost of living in İstanbul rises 64 percent in a year Click to read the article in Turkish An İstanbul Planning Agency (İPA) study revealed that the cost of living in İstanbul increased 63.86 percent this month compared to the same month last year. The cost of living for a family of four was calculated at 35.380 … Read more
The video is in Turkish, but thanks God, there are automatic subtitles now, and a summary in English is below. Summarized by Merlin App: A group of friends planned to do something but couldn’t in the afternoon. They discussed social media and gaining followers. 00:00 Social media influencers should consider diversifying their platforms 03:50 Twitter … Read more
Summarized by Merlin App: Friends discuss social media addiction, Twitter’s place in history, and screen sharing. Barış has been on social media fast. 00:00 Twitter’s future is uncertain due to data privacy concerns and recent changes in leadership. 07:18 Twitter’s business model is transforming towards monetization. 14:58 Decentralized social media platform using Activity protocol 21:32 … Read more
This time, our destination was Nizip, Gaziantep, where my sister and her husband are appointed as a judge and as a prosecutor until the next year. We are now back in Ankara and will drive back to İstanbul soon. We might stop by Sapanca or Bolu on our way. We visited Gordion Ancient city close … Read more
Unfortunately, it is in Turkish (but a summer in English below). I have meant to make it for a while, and finally, I did it last night. Here is the video: Of course, there are always new tools, and I may switch my favorites. But for the moment, these are what I like. I listed … Read more
Erkan Saka, professor of journalism and media studies at Istanbul Bilgi University, says the power of trolls may be overstated. The mainstream press reaches a larger audience, and much of it is friendly to the president. “The whole media establishment is in fact using disinformation,” Saka says. The full text here Adam Tooze: Why … Read more