Day 2 at Sonisphere Istanbul 2010

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6 hours later Volbeat takes stage and I am trying to recover from the first day’s action. Thanks God I have seen Rammstein at stage live. My neck aches bad, throat soar and bad headache of hangover. Let me have a nice breakfast with Çetin and his family and go back to action. More quality … Read more

73.7 % for Aşk-ı Memnu

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Turkish series Aşk-ı Memnu [Forbidden Love] broke a new record last night. In the very last episode where the main female protagonist, Bihter, commits suicide the series got a 73.7 % share in ratings… Last night every three among 4 watchers were looking at Bihter… I managed to miss the event completely though, I was … Read more

“Constitutional reform: a summary of key amendments

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Serap Yazıcı Constitutional reform: a summary of key amendments by istanbulnotes Serap Yazıcı has a very useful article in the most recent issue of Insight Turkey, outlining the constitutional amendments that are currently with the Constitutional Court for consideration and that are set to be voted on in a referendum on 12 September. The most … Read more

Nationalist unconsciousness at work

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http://www.medyatava.com/haberimages/2010/24062010092322.jpg

Supposedly leftist Leman humor magazine hits at “Kurdish opening” by making word plays at the word “açılım [opening]”.

http://i.milliyet.com.tr/YeniAnaResim/2010/06/22/bu-fotograf-tartisiliyor-705798.Jpeg
Some of the Turkish media also criticised this photo: How come statesmen crouch like that. In order to show the strength the Statemen should stand erect….

and TÜSİAD back off, as usual:

Turkish business group slams democratic initiative, divisive politics

Top officials with the country’s largest business association have criticized the failure of the government’s democratic initiative and urged cooperation.

TIMELINE: Turkey’s Kurdish initiative has faced rocky road

from Hurriyet Dailynews
The upswing in terror attacks marks a major setback for the government-led Kurdish initiative launched last year. Here are some of the key events in the initiative?s history.

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Gods of Metal coming to town…

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… Islamist Akit barks.http://whoisthefins.com/assets/Images/7_8/rammstein.jpg

tomorrow’s program here.

Islamist fundamentalist and highly provocative Vakit barks at Sonisphere festival that starts tomorrow. The festival has a line up beyond imagination for the Turkish metalheads (Sonisphere festival in Turkey. 25-27 June. A lineup beyond imagination)

Vakit labels Rammstein as the most morally depraved band of Europe and it calls for cancellation of the festival while “we have so many martyrs”. The festival is organized by a company “that is owned by Jews” blah blah blah. Anti-semitic, populist, regressive assholes these Vakit people are…

http://www.europopmusic.eu/Images/Newsletter_images/newsletter_nov_09/Rammstein-PussySingle2009.jpg
Rammstein wants to play with people from Vakit

Sonisphere reaction from Islamist daily

from Hurriyet Dailynews
Istanbul is preparing to host the Sonisphere Festival this weekend, but it is receiving reactions from Islamist media in the country.

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New study on Sexting

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Medvedev Tweets from FP Passport by Joshua Keating

Twitter stumbles as Medvedev visits

from FT.com – World, Europe
The Russian president, who is touring Silicon Valley companies, sends his first ‘tweet’ from the offices of the messaging service, which is struggling with outages because of usage spikes during the World Cup

“Sexting”: legal and practical issues

from Berkman Center Newsfeed by syoung

The Berkman Center is pleased to share our Youth and Media Policy Working Group Initiative’s latest document, which addresses legal and practical issues related to the practice colloquially known as sexting:

Sexting: Youth Practices and Legal Implications (PDF)

The document was prepared by Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, based at the Berkman Center, for the Risky Behaviors and Online Safety cluster of the Youth and Media Policy Working Group Initiative. It is intended to provide background for discussion of interventions related to sexting. It begins with a definition of sexting, and continues with overviews of research and media stories related to sexting. It then discusses the statutory and constitutional framework for child pornography and obscenity. It concludes with a description of current and pending legislation meant to address sexting.

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Open Democracy: Is the EU too big to be democratic?

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Is the EU too big to be democratic?, Peter Baldwin

from open Democracy News Analysis – by Peter Baldwin

Back in the days ? let?s say 1932 just to pick a moment ? when European politics were really polarized, the spectrum ran from Moscow-faithful communists at one extreme all the way to monarchists and fascists. During the same time, the US political spectrum spanned all the way from Republicans to Democrats, which is to say from what Europeans would call center right liberals to center left liberals. Neither extreme questioned the premises of democracy, neither sought the embrace of the state in a socialist fashion, or even ? on the far left of American politics ? in more than a very moderate quasi-social democratic manner. The answer to Sombart?s classic query, why is there no socialism in America, also served largely as the answer to its necessary pendant: why is there no fascism in America? American politics in the twentieth century was a model of consensus compared to the ideological extremes found across the Atlantic.

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Declaration against web censorship in Turkey (in Turkish)

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Declaration is first announced in these addresses: (to sign declaration personally click here: http://www.sansursuzinternet.org.tr/) Alternatif Bilişim Özgür Interent Cyber Rights Temel Hak ve Özgürlükler Engellenemez 1. Internet kullanıcılarının düşünce özgürlüğü ve bilgiye erişim hakkı engellenemez. 2. Türkiye?de bireylerin, kurumların, ve şirketlerin bilişim alt yapılarını istedikleri şekilde oluşturmaları ve istedikleri servislerden yararlanmaları engellenemez. Sansür ülke ekonomisine … Read more

Erkan recommends: Watch masters’ last movies: The White Ribbon, Antichrist

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The White Ribbon (2009)

Haneke’s White Ribbon is more humane than many of his previous movies.  Maintains tension to the end, cinematographically perfect, as usual:)

http://planetofthenerds.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/antichrist.jpg

Antichrist (2009)

The first word to use after watching it is “excuriating”. It is just too challenging. I warn you:)

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Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) ahahahah Michael Moore is probably a pain in the ass for the Republicans. I felt like he skillfully skipped corporate relations in the Clinton era and continued to hit Bush period. Well, compared to Bush period all others are innocent of course. After all they have done, and no punishment for them… maybe voters just deserve what happened…

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Day 9&10: South America rules the World Cup!

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The second games are over now. Argentina, Chile and the Netherlands have taken all the points up to now. England, France and Italy are constructing the miserable side of the campaign however they still have the chance to qualify for the upper round. North American teams have been showing great performance since the opening. On … Read more

Iceland may become a haven for investigative journalists

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Iceland’s parliament approves legislation to make the country a haven for investigative journalists from Editors Weblog – all postings by Emma Heald Iceland has passed a package of legislation that intends to make the country an international safe haven for investigative journalists, it was reported by the AFP and the Independent among others. The new … Read more

PKK’s latest terror campaign might be the end of Kurdish gains

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Once I stated that Turkish State have lost Kurds after the closure of DTP. Kurdish opening etc progressed slowly but there had been gains. 30 years ago, you could not utter the word “Kurdish” publicly in this country. Now there is a state TV channel in Kurdish. I don’t claim these are enough but such a thorny issue cannot be solved easily. And Kurdish national consciousness has been gaining ground, more and more public spaces for Kurdishness appeared in the last year. However, organized Kurdish response to politics is to step up terroristic activities. Unfortunately not only the guerilla movement but its political dimension, many leaders of BDP explicitly support terrorist activities. Latest wave of attacks are unbearable. It is highly possible that the Turkish State may start an anti-terror campaign in unprecedented scales with an unforeseen popular support…

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a brief note for the Anti-web censorship meeting

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Three kingpins of web censorship in Turkey: Fethi Şimşek, Binali Yıldırım, Tayfun Acarer via The meeting took place at Kadir Has University. It has a New Media Department. But the meeting was not explicitly supported by the department. Coffee was not allowed: A person in charge rudely warned me that “Floor has been cleaned and … Read more

Turks reading, Grup Yorum, Ali Nesin

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It is a bit of old news now. In last weeks, a Turkish NGO in cooperation with a local municipality tried to break a world record: Biggest number of people reading together. People gathered in a stadium to do it. They could not break the record. The act itself is a little bit silly and I assume conservative sections of Turkish public attempt to create new sphere of action like this. Still it is better than nothing. It was a nice try:)

Toplu okumada rekor kırılamadı

more photos here. 14 thousand gathered, says Hürriyet.

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Most Turks have no vacation travel plans and Erkan is one of them…

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http://www.brentstirton.com/

found in Brent Stirton

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Like in the beginning of every summer, people around me have alredy finished planning where to go and I haven’t even started. But I am glad that I am not alone:)

Most Turks have no vacation travel plans, survey shows

from Hurriyet Dailynews
One out of every two people in Turkey does not make plans to take a vacation, according to a survey that evaluates the travel habits of people in 16 countries.

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