Month: October 2007

A friend recently purchased a vacation house and is furnishing it. He sent me an instant message: “I made up a nice AR15 and put it in the new house in a wall safe. A house is not a home until the rifle is there.”

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Some ideas for the Google millionaires… http://philip.greenspun.com/non-profit/

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/nyregion/24chambers.html is a story about Robert E. Chambers, the “preppy killer” who murdered Jennifer Levin in Central Park in 1986. He is back in the news for a new brush with the law. What struck me most was the line “Shawn Kovell, 39, who fell in love with him shortly before his trial for the Levin killing”. The guy was convicted of murdering a teenage girl and served 15 years in prison, yet apparently is so charming that he was able to hang onto a girlfriend the whole time.

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Gentle readers,

I’m trying to write up a Christmas gift guide for photo.net. I’d like to find a camera phone to recommend. As our readers are photographers first and talkers second, I want a camera phone that looks just like a point and shoot digital camera. It should have an optical zoom lens and 5-10 megapixel resolution. Somewhere in there should be a phone so that photos can be mailed to friends. I think Samsung has made some of these, maybe for the Korean market (e.g., SCH-B600). Is there anything like this on the US market or possibly an unlocked GSM phone? It doesn’t have to be the world’s best phone, just adequate.

Thank you in advance.

Philip

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Everyone I met in Turkey hates American foreign policy. Nobody I met in Turkey hates Americans. How is this possible? It seems that George W. Bush is the Jesus Christ for our [American] times, taking all of our sins upon his shoulders. The Turks with whom I spoke blamed George W. personally for all of the harm done by the 300 million people here in the U.S. As far as I can tell, George W. never does anything except ride as a passenger from speaking venue to speaking venue. Therefore, the things of which the Turks are complaining must have been done by at least some of the rest of us, yet W. personally gets 100% of the blame.

George W. does not simply follow Jesus. He is Jesus.

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Ellis Vener sent me this BBC story that reports a claim about global shipping producing more carbon dioxide than airplanes: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7052037.stm

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Our high school here in Cambridge, Massachusetts made it into yesterday’s Boston Globe. Only 35 percent of students passed the biology exam (sample questions). We have the distinction of the lowest passing rate in the state, below towns such as Lawrence and Brockton that are blighted by poverty and challenged by immigrants who don’t speak English.

How much did it cost to produce this spectacular result? Our spending is among the highest in the state of Massachusetts, at $23,611 in 2004-5; presumably somewhat higher now (source).

[You might expect kids in Cambridge to be motivated to study for the biology test because most of the growing employers in the town are biotech.]

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Our host family in Turkey watched the TV news every night. My father, who was a teenager during WWII has the same habit of taking news seriously. Within the memory of our hosts and their 18-year-old son, Turkey has been through financial crises, military coups, more than 30,000 people killed by Kurdish separatists, and small wars that nearly turned into big ones (e.g., Cyprus). What is currently keeping them glued to the TV are recent attacks by Kurdish separatists that have killed 15 Turkish Army soldiers and the idea that the Turkish Army may go into Iraq.

[I pointed out that the last country to invade Iraq didn’t achieve very good results. Upon further reflection, it occurred to me that maybe this is our solution for the Iraq problem. We pull our troops out and give the country back, not to Saddam or his heirs, but to the Turks, who governed it as part of the Ottoman Empire.]

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One guide talked about the Turkish custom of giving substantial cash to newlyweds: “I make between $500 and $1000 per month. If I were invited to a wedding, I would have to give at least $200 to the couple or people would talk about me.”

We learned later that the president and prime minister of Turkey had taken advantage of this custom by inviting nearly 5000 people to their childrens’ weddings, raking in literally $millions from distinguished and wealthy guests (who could be expected to give $thousands).

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The Turkey trip is winding to a close. Here were some of the highlights (this posting is mostly for friends and family)…

Days 0-2: Istanbul. Loved the boat rides on the Bosphorus. Had fun on the main pedestrian street of Beyoglu (home to three Starbucks, one McDonald’s, one Pizza Hut, etc.). A “pedestrian street” in Turkey means that cars only drive through every 2-3 minutes (illegally). They push into crowds of dozens of people at 5-10 mph and honk if folks don’t jump out of their way fast enough.

Days 3-6: Assos, Troy, and Bozcaada (formerly Tenedos). The Aegean coast is pleasant, especially when you are staying in a 20,000 square foot beach house with courtyard, infinity pool, and full-time staff, but seeing the walls of Troy is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The site is not that popular with Turks, who claim not to see what the fuss is about and complain that the ruins are more ruined than Roman ruins. I loved it and learned something new. The famous photo of Sophia Schliemann wearing Helen’s jewels (within http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Schliemann ) I had always assumed depicted Heinrich Schliemann’s daughter. It turned out that the 47-year-old divorced German merchant married an 18-year-old Greek girl. Met a good resource for the next trip: http://www.thetroyguide.com/

Days 7-8: Istanbul sightseeing.

Days 9-12: Cappadocia, leaving girls in Istanbul, arranged by Ceylan at www.equinox.com.tr. This is truly one of the world’s most bizarre built environments. The volcanic tuff on the surface facilitated the carving of churches, monasteries, houses, and hotels into rocks. Erosion results in Bryce Canyon-style hoodoos sticking up in the middle of towns. In the bad old days when Mongol and Muslim invaders rode across the plain, the Christians here defended themselves by building massive underground shelters, up to 8 levels deep and capable of holding thousands of people.

Something new: rode a hot air balloon piloted by Cihangir, a rock solid guy with 4000 airplane hours who turned to balloons 15 years ago. Watched four guys dragging our balloon 300 meters from “near the preferred landing area” to the top of a flat trailer. It turns out that being a balloon wrangler is pretty strenuous, esp. when 28 fat tourists are hanging underneath. Earplugs are essential, at least for the one ear closest to the burner. Layers are also a good idea as it starts out cold (pre-sunrise) and ends fairly hot due to burner.

What else? Rode a horse (very different than in the U.S. due to lack of personal injury lawyers… and not in a good way). Rode a bike (very different than in the U.S. due to the lack of Turks of 6′ in height and/or with any interest in precision bicycle maintenance). Saw a beautiful silk carpet made by the Cenar family, about 1/2 square meter for a mere $67,000 (tour company, guide, and driver split a 40% commission so it would have been a good day for them if I had bought it).

Days 13-14: went into bazaar with two women; very costly error. Normally I see something attractive and expensive and think “I would buy this but I’m not sure if anyone tasteful would think it was in good taste.” Mallory and Oya have exquisite taste so when they responded positively to something that I picked out, I had to buy it. Left the bazaar with a literally empty wallet, owing Oya about $80 and trailing a guy carrying all of our stuff.

Shopping in the bazaar can be a truly pleasant experience. We sat in http://www.sengorhali.com/ (owned by one of Oya’s uncles and a great place; they don’t pay commissions to guides so you start off with prices that are 30-40 percent lower than in the standard tourist places (that said, nothing is cheap in Turkey and you can probably buy handmade rugs for about the same price in the U.S.)) and were served the beverages of our choice. When I mentioned to Oya that a doner sandwich would be nice one of the guys called up a nearby restaurant to have them bring it over. When Oya suggested to Mallory that she get some tiles as gifts for neighbors, one of the carpet shop guys ran over to the tile shop and brought back a selection of tiles (about $2.50 each).

Last full day described separately in this Weblog under “Turkish Bath”.

Things that I learned that I will write in a future photo.net article…. (notes to self)

1) try to find a great guide and arrange his or her time in advance; the standard of education is not very high in Turkey and the typical guide will not have a university education in history or archaeology but rather will have attended a 6-month guide class.

2) go up the top of the Galata Tower near sunset to get good pictures of the Golden Horn and Sultanahmet.

3) fly into Kayseri instead of Nevsehir to visit Cappadocia. The Nevsehir airport seems to have no rental cars, the flights are at bizarre times, there is no shuttle, and a ground transfer or taxi ride to Goreme will cost more than the flight from Istanbul.

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