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Where Shoddy Construction Could Mean Death

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“If there is the big one here, you are all alone to cope with whatever you have, at least for the first 72 hours.”

Outside a community center where children sat at computers playing Farmville on Facebook, Mr. Cantekin inspected the container contents with the team leader, Cuma Cetin, 36, a father of five and a factory worker.

“We’re not waiting for the disaster,” Mr. Cetin said as he and his team, dressed in orange coveralls, accompanied Mr. Cantekin while he pointed out fatal flaws in nearby buildings

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An Art Historical Tour of Istanbul’s Quakes

Yok aslında durum o kadar kötü değilmiş, bir çaba var en azından. Fakat yine de çocuklar Farmville takılacaklarına felaket anından sonraki en kritik 72 saat için domates falan yetiştirseler daha iyi olmaz mı?

AKP gücünü nereden alıyor?

Yani sahayı eş zamanlı olarak siyasi iktidar (AKP iktidarı) düzenliyor. Ama burada sorulması gereken temel soru, "AKP gücünü nereden alıyor?". AKP iktidarı gücünü, oligarşik bir hal alan ama kendi içinde çelişkiler yaşayan sermayeden, hâlâ birikim ve benzeri fayda bekleyen kesimlerden, daha da önemlisi kültürel bilinçdışını harekete geçirdiği kesimlerden alıyor.

AKP'nin, gücünün önemli bir kısmını, farklılaşan sermayelerden aldığını söyleyebiliriz. AKP bir yandan Türkiye'nin uzun zamandır büyük sermayesi olan sermaye kesimlerinin belirli bir kesiminin desteğini arkasına almakla kalmadı, son zamanlarda hızla yükselen yeni sermaye gruplarının da desteğini aldı. Ve Sanayi Bakanlığı dolayında ihracata yönelecek küçük orta boy işletmelerden de destek alıyor hâlâ.

Yukarıda işaret ettiğimiz, doğal kaynakların (su havzaları-ormanlar vs) ve özelleştirme ya da kamu ihalelerinin açtığı yeni sermaye değerlendirme alanları, gerek erken gerekse geç sermaye birikimi yapan aile/şirketlerinin desteğini canlı tutuyor. Yani bu kesimler arasında çatışmalar sürerken emekçi kesimleri, kadınları ve çevreyi tahrip edecek goller de atılıyor.

Kısaca ama önemli olduğu için ısrarla tekrar edilmesi gereken şey: Siyasi iktidar öncekinden farklı olarak hem önceden birikim yapan büyük sermaye grubunun hem de yeni gelişen sermaye grubunun gücünü arkasına alarak farklılaşmayı gerçekleştirmek istiyor.

Hazır yirmi yaş dişlerimi çektirirken sigarayı hepten bırakmayı denesem mi?

Controversial French Anti-Smoking Ads Depict Oral Sex

New anti-smoking ads have caused controversy in France because they show teens in a position that suggests oral sex. The ads are meant to show smoking creates "dependency and submission," but critics say they trivialize sexual abuse. [Reuters, Le Post]

Volkan'la "ekolojik binalar"dan bahsederken hep sonradan ekleme değil baştan binanın en önemli parçası olarak yerleştirilen ekolojik iyileştirmelerin daha etkili olduğunda karar kılıyorduk. Dediğine göre mimari projeler inşaat aşamasına gelip maddi sıkıntı olduğunda vazgeçilen ilk kısımlar böyle sonradan binamız "ekolojik" olsun diye eklenmiş parçalarmış. Aynı şekilde bakımı da minimum yapıldığı veya hiç yapılmadığı için bir süre sonra zaten hiç kullanılamaz hale geliyormuş.

İngiliz mühendisler de raporlarında benzer bir uyarıda bulunmuşlar. Hatta bu süs kıvamındaki güneş panelleri ve rüzgar türbünlere 'eco-bling' ismini uygun görmüşler.

British engineers slam home wind turbines as 'eco-bling'

January 20, 2010 -->

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Installers for Namaste Solar connect solar panels to the roof of a home on in 2009 in Boulder, Colorado. In Great Britain, installing wind turbines and solar panels in people's homes is "eco-bling" that will not help meet Britain's targets on cutting carbon emissions, engineers warned Wednesday.

Installing wind turbines and solar panels in people's homes is "eco-bling" that will not help meet Britain's targets on cutting carbon emissions, engineers warned Wednesday.

In a new report by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE), Professor Doug King said it was better to adapt buildings to make them more energy efficient than try to offset energy use with "on-site renewable energy generation."

The leader of Britain's main opposition Conservative party, David Cameron, is among those who have installed wind turbines, fixing one onto the roof of his home in the plush west London district of Notting Hill.

"Eco-bling is a term I coined to describe unnecessary renewable energy visibly attached to the outside of poorly designed buildings," King told the Daily Mail newspaper ahead of the report's publication.

"It achieves little or nothing. If you build a building that is just as energy-hungry as every other building, and you put a few wind turbines and solar panels on the outside that addresses a few percent of that building's energy consumption, you have not achieved anything.

"It's just about trying to say to the general public that 'I'm being good, I'm putting renewable energy on my building'."

In existing buildings, which account for the vast majority of those in use in 2050, King suggested low cost alternatives such as installing thermostats on central heating systems or using low-energy light bulbs.

The report said it was also vital to engineer buildings to minimise energy demands in the first place, including using masonry to store heat or ensuring a good use of natural light in homes and offices.

"Before renewable energy generation is even considered it is vital to ensure that buildings are as energy efficient as possible, otherwise the potential benefits are simply wasted in offsetting unnecessary consumption," it said.

However, it warned a lack of skills in understanding energy use in buildings meant the construction industry would struggle to meet government targets to make all new buildings "zero carbon" by 2020.

(c) 2010 AFP

Lego robotu zeka kübünü kendi kendine çözdüğüne göre çocuğun bir fonksiyonu kalmamış. Gereksiz. Gerçi çocuksuz eve o kadar Lego alan adama da manyak derler.

Sayfada Sudoku çözen robot da var bu arada...

Hiddink Rusya'ya ilk gittiğinde ¨Hollandalı Çiftçi¨ lafları yemiş de bir gazeteciden o açıdan diyorum. Aşağıda daha Türkiye ile anlaştığı kesinleşmeden önce (dün yani) Guardian Sport Blog'da Hiddink'i öven ama ¨artık Rusya'yı bırak¨ diye biten bir yazı var. Özetle iyi futbol oynattı, Rusların Sovyetler sonrası yıkılan kendine güvenlerini yerine getirdi ve birçok Rus futbolcuya Avrupa'da oynama fırsatı yarattı diyor.

NOT: Yazıyı tarayıp geçebilirsiniz ama yorumları kesin okuyun. Gorbaçov bizi demokrasi diye diye yaktın bak Çin'e diye başlayıp Alman Panzerleri'ne ne oldu takımın yarısı göçmen diye bitiren arkadaşa (HowlingSeth) dikkat.

Guus Hiddink is leaving Russia as he found them, out of the World Cup and with their future uncertain, but the national side made great strides under his tutelage. Photograph: Yuri Kochetkov/EPA

Guus Hiddink took the Russia job just after they had failed to qualify for the World Cup and he walks away from the Russia job just after they have failed to qualify for a World Cup, but to suggest he has left them where he found them would be absurd. While his departure, of course, is tinged by disappointment %u2013 and perhaps even a little recrimination %u2013 in his four years in charge he has overseen the country's elevation to a serious football nation.

Hiddink's contract does not formally expire until 30 June, which complicates any attempt to lead a side at the World Cup (and he has said he would not take a World Cup job out of respect to Russia), but he has been linked with Turkey, Nigeria, Ivory Coast and even a return to South Korea, while Russia have remained tight-lipped over a possible replacement. Given that problems financing Hiddink's reported �6.25m a year are thought to have contributed to their split, though, it seems likely that Russia will opt for a domestic coach.

The very fact that Russia's playoff defeat to Slovenia prompted such a gnashing of teeth, rather than the resigned shrug it would have provoked pre-Hiddink, is evidence of the advances they made under his leadership. The first seven major tournaments after the Soviet Union's fragmentation brought three first-round exits and four failures to qualify.

Hiddink, though, gave them Euro 2008 and the memories not merely of reaching the semi-final, but of two matches %u2013 against Sweden and Holland %u2013 in which they played scintillating football reminiscent of the best Soviet style. In practical terms, his legacy was to ensure that they go into the qualifiers for Euro 2012 as one of the top seeds, but the emotional and symbolic impact was far greater than that: in giving Russian football a modern, cosmopolitan outlook, he restored its pride.

Given the hype that followed, it is easy to forget that when Hiddink arrived one columnist described him as "this Dutch farmer", while the former Russia coach Valery Gazzaev asked how a foreigner could possibly "understand the complexities of the Russian soul". Whether he understood them or not, Hiddink removed from them the fear. Players were encouraged to swear in training and, on the first day of get-togethers, to joke about each other's club form. Roman Pavlyuchenko was one of a number of players to speak of how players began to look forward to national matches rather than seeing them as a bit of a chore.

Euro 2008 and Zenit's Uefa Cup success opened western Europe's eyes to the potential of Russian players, and since then there has been a steady drip of their players into western European leagues. Some of them have been accused of losing their focus on the national side, but the overall effect of exposure to the highest level of league football must surely be beneficial (even if making the Russian league the equal of La Liga or the Premier League is the long-term goal).

And yet for all that Russia, again, will not be at the World Cup. Memories of throwing away a 2-0 lead in the play-off against Slovenia will haunt Hiddink and the nation's fans and, quite understandably, raised the first real criticism of him. To an extent he was undone by a loss of form on the part of pretty much every centre-forward he could have picked, but his continued faith in the Sergei Ignashevich-Vasili Berezutsky defensive partnership was baffling.

Moreover, his reluctance to select players from the Russian champions Rubin Kazan seemed odd %u2013 and awoke all the old gripes about Moscow-centrism that he seemed to have been done away with %u2013 particularly his sparing use of the holding midfielder Sergei Semak. Presumably Hiddink felt that at 33 he could not manage two such demanding games in such a short space of time but the fact remains that in the 106 minutes he played Russia scored two without reply, and in the 74 he didn't they conceded twice. Whoever replaces Hiddink, sorting out the centre of defence and finding a new holding midfielder must be a priority.

Hiddink benefited, of course, from the wave of optimism that swept Russia in the latter part of the decade. As Vladimir Putin became an increasingly significant figure on the diplomatic stage, CSKA and Zenit both won the Uefa Cup, and Russia won the world ice-hockey championship and even the Eurovision Song Contest. Shortly after Zenit had beaten Rangers in that 2008 Uefa Cup final in Manchester, their manager Dick Advocaat received a call from Putin, congratulating him on having "written another chapter in this glorious age of Russian sport".

The question now is how long that will endure, not just post-Hiddink, but post-boom. Russian GDP dipped in 2009 after years of stellar growth, and the impact is already being felt in football. FK Moskva have been forced to withdraw from the league after NorNikel decided it could no longer afford to fund them, while Krylya Sovetov could follow them out of existence this week with debts reported to total $80m.

That could force more Russian players abroad and, if the quality of imports declines, there must be concerns for the coming generation. While top players may benefit from exposure to life abroad, there must be a domestic league of sufficient standard for young players to develop to the necessary standard to compete internationally.

Hiddink inspired great progress in Russian football, but now might be a good time to leave.

ama geçti çok şükür. Sırf bizi değil tabi birbirlerini nasıl görüyorlar ama ilgi çeksin diye böyle bir başlık attım. Link'i takip edip diğerlerine de bakın bence.