tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2799914692887174209.post917163440848440697..comments2024-01-15T21:30:40.609+03:00Comments on Istanbul's Stranger: Wildflowers: A Post That's Educational and StuffStrangerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09933997864575809110noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2799914692887174209.post-2868213060484618752011-04-29T16:21:24.352+03:002011-04-29T16:21:24.352+03:00Stranger, the YOK guy is doing things that he got ...Stranger, the YOK guy is doing things that he got put in place to do and getting support from people who want those things done. So, as far as that goes, everything is working fine and the guy's earning his keep. Of course in the world I [or perhaps we?] live in the entire thing can be described by choice words that happen to be illegal to use. I'll say what's legal then: I love him, I think he's great, I also love the esteemed hierarchy he heads. I have deep respect for the imprimatur he's entrusted with and the ability of that to turn [s]crap into gold. I furthermore love it that creationists and such are getting into academic positions to further spread inner peace and deep wisdom among our scientists. Glory be to our paternalistic gov't and His esteemed servants and licenced institutions. (There, I feel better.)<br /><br />As far as 'programming' goes, yes, Monasonto or others can and do make sure that new seeds will need to be bought every year. The mechanism for that is well understood, I think. That's different than programming time bombs to harm Turks X years from now. <br /><br />I'll go further, this gov't spends a considerable amount of money on sending students abroad for graduate study (they pay good stipends + school tuition). I don't know if the YOK guy got that U of Chicago PH.D. on his own or through a gov't deal. If the latter, given his demonstrated intellectual prowess and approach to facts I'd question what we got for our money. I don't expect people to turn into monuments of ingenuity and intellectual integrity merely through the acquisition of a diploma, but I do expect the process to teach them to produce high quality an harder-to-detect BS even if they choose to go that route. That doesn't seem to have happened in this case.Bulent Murtezaoglunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2799914692887174209.post-46816792381384281042011-04-28T22:30:42.779+03:002011-04-28T22:30:42.779+03:00@ Nomad, the worst part it what losing battle it ...@ Nomad, the worst part it what losing battle it is to try to save the world. Wind power is great, but it kills birds and disturbs the worms. Solar is nice, but the fossil fuels needed to make the panels are killing us all. I love my iPhone, but the Chinese workers who build them are jumping out of factory windows in despair. Just eating a single Cheerio is committing such massive destruction, it hardly bears thinking about first thing in the morning as I sip my Starbucks (Yes, Starbucks, shame on me but it's the only decent whole bean coffee I can find here) Fair Trade Ethical Global Warming Worker Exploiting Plastic Packaged coffee. The minute inter-connectedness of nature is becoming mirrored by the minute inter-connectedness of globalization and every level of production. It's mind-blowing.<br /><br />I don't think we're strong enough to kill our Gaea. Hopefully, the sun will nova on us first. Life will carry on regardless, just as it always does. It's just that life doesn't give a flying fuck whether we're part of it or not.<br /><br />@Bülent, loved your comments over on Kamil Pasha. I wonder if the whole thing was about those Black Tomatoes that suddenly appeared everywhere. Or should I say, Evil Terminator Communist Brain Implant Turkish Baby Killer Tomatoes Without Birth Certificates? In any case, the YÖK guy's ideas trouble me more than I can say, and I wish he would worry more about higher education, particularly those issues that have nothing to do with headscarves but more to do with higher education.<br /><br />He's not too far off with the "genetically programmed" gaffe however. Monsanto caused a few mini-famines in third world countries after learning farmers were using the ancient (and clearly communist) practice of seed saving, thus growing Roundup Ready crops for free. To combat this terror, they "programmed" their seeds (and named them Terminator, ironically enough) to produce only mules (in the sense of being barren), or seeds that would die soon after planting. Unwitting farmers planted them, expecting to, you know, reap their livelihoods, and instead found themselves with a bunch of nothing.Strangerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933997864575809110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2799914692887174209.post-5419297508986085422011-04-25T02:28:12.784+03:002011-04-25T02:28:12.784+03:00A creepy aside to this is a few months ago, I saw ...<i>A creepy aside to this is a few months ago, I saw the Ministry of Education on the news "informing" everyone that Israel was engaging in some sort of attempt to make Turks weak and sick with their GM crops.</i><br /><br /><a href="http://kamilpasha.com/?p=3607" rel="nofollow">Here</a>. (It is worse, the guy who came up with this bright theory is the head of YOK.)Bulent Murtezaoglunoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2799914692887174209.post-13244704847361573392011-04-25T01:42:06.163+03:002011-04-25T01:42:06.163+03:00I was writing for another blog that was much more ...I was writing for another blog that was much more political minded and I noticed one of the guest poster wrote about her "liberal cruise." Before I vomited I distinctly remember looking at all her photos, her standing next to famous celebrity liberals (mostly washed up actors from the 1990s). And then there was a long part about the food they ate on the cruise ship and a small bit about one or two of the causes that listened to. And I thought if this is what an activist looks like then we'd better be kissing the poor world goodbye.<br /><br />As I reach a certain age when the big ugly nose of Death is constantly shoved in my face, I think what a gift it is to be alive and we just don't appreciate the really incredible gift we have all been given. <br />And then I think how every day in a thousand ways we are destroying it, not just for our own species but for all life. And although brainy scientists tell me that life is probably scattered all over the universe, I have my doubts. I sometimes think how tragic it would be if and when we have made life here completely impossible. It makes me quite sad and quite angry.Nomadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03686282358562565742noreply@blogger.com