Here, the cranium and mandible of the rhino are shown as they may have appeared when the animal was alive some …According to recent reports, an international team of scientists digging in Central Turkey uncovered the fossil of an adolescent rhino skull, and whereas that is not a particularly unusual event, this fossil shows signs that the poor animal died in a way similar to the unfortunate residents of Pompeii — by being instantly cooked to death.
According to the report, published in the online journal PLOS ONE, “the body of the [rhino] experienced severe dehydration”, “was then dismembered within the pyroclastic flow”, and “the skull being separated from the remnant body and baked under a temperature approximating 400°C.”
[ Related: Blame Canada for ancient and massive 1,300-year ‘Big Freeze’ ]
The skull and jaw bone of this two-horned rhino (Ceratotherium neumayri) were found at a site just to the east of Karacaşar, Turkey. According to an email sent to LiveScience by Pierre-Olivier Antoine, the lead author of the study, “the bony surface was rough and corrugated all around the skull and mandible, and the dentine (the internal component of the teeth) was incredibly brittle, and even kind of ‘corroded’ [in] places,” and “there were no other rhino bones in the surroundings, except for some rib fragments, potentially of rhino affinities,” which led the team to the conclusion that the poor beast had been ripped apart by the searing volcanic flow that killed it.
A ‘pyroclastic flow’ is a current of volcanic gases and ash flowing down the side of a volcano that can range in size anywhere from a hundred cubic meters to over a thousand cubic kilometers. Pyroclastic flows from the eruption of Mt Vesuvius, in 29 A.D., are thought to be responsible for the destruction of the ancient Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The flow that killed this rhino apparently originated from the ‘Çardak caldera’, about 30 km to the south of where its skull was found, which shows the immense power of this kind of flow, that it could transport the skull that far.
“There was not a real volcano, but a caldera which spread huge amounts of volcanic ash over Cappacocia, during millions of years, throughout the late Miocene-Pliocene interval,” said Antoine.
The so-called Çardak caldera, which spread huge amounts of ash over Cappacocia, is inactive today. Even so, thick …
[ More Geekquinox: U.S. planned to nuke the Moon to win Cold War ]
Today, the caldera is quiet and docile, and is described by Antoine as “among the most magnificent landscapes I’ve ever seen.”
via Rhino fossil ‘flash cooked’ 9 million years ago in Turkey | Geekquinox – Yahoo! News Canada.
A group of Internet hackers appeared in an Ankara court on Monday on charges of terrorism, the first time alleged cyber criminals have been put on trial in Turkey, local media reported.
Turkish men use computers in an internet cafe in Istanbul in 2009. A group of Internet hackers appeared in an Ankara court on Monday on charges of terrorism, the first time alleged cyber criminals have been put on trial in Turkey, local media reported.
The 10 members of the “Redhack” group are accused of belonging to an armed terrorist organisation, illegally obtaining confidential documents and personal information, as well as cracking into private systems without authorisation.
The court released three of the suspects who had been in custody since March, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.
The defendants, who deny the charges, risk prison sentences ranging from eight to 24 years if convicted.
Redhack claims to be affiliated with the international hackers’ group Anonymous group, and has carried out several online attacks against state and private domains since 1997.
Some of the websites they targeted have included the Turkish intelligence agency, the country’s Internet watchdog and Turkish Airlines.
Turkey has strengthened its legislation in recent years to fight hackers.
via ‘Hackers’ on trial in Turkey for first time | Bangkok Post: tech.
The Making of Modern Ankara: Space, Politics, Representation
Date: 23 November 2012
Time: 2.00pm – 7.00pm
Location: 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS – View map
Open to: Academic, Alumni, Public, Student
The making of a modern Ankara
An international symposium organised by the Department of Architecture at the University of Westminster in conjunction with SOAS Seminars on Turkey
The making of modern Ankara is a momentous yet oft-neglected episode in twentieth-century history. The transformation of this ancient Anatolian town into the capital of the Turkish Republic captured the world’s attention during the interwar period, when Ankara became a laboratory of modernism and nation building.
Largely designed by European architects, the new capital embodied the reformist ethos of a secular state firmly projected towards the West. Today, as this sprawling city of over four millions seeks to reinvent its identity, its modern development is the subject of growing scholarship and public interest.
The half-day symposium brings together a panel of scholars from architecture, planning, art history, heritage, and Turkish studies to revisit the making of modern Ankara in a cross-disciplinary perspective, while also debating its legacy on the eve of the Republic’s 90th anniversary.
The event will be followed by the launch of Building Identities, an exhibition about Ankara’s Republican architecture curated by the Turkish Chamber of Architects, Ankara Chapter.
Registration:
The event is free for all
Please book at: themakingofmodernankara.eventbrite.co.uk
For further information, please contact Dr Davide Deriu: deriud@westminster.ac.uk
via The Making of Modern Ankara: Space, Politics, Representation – University of Westminster.
In addition to seven current research centers scattered around the world, Harvard Business School is on track to open a new research center in Istanbul in early 2013, Dean Nitin Nohria said in an interview with The Crimson last week.
These centers are not campuses, Nohria said, but rather leanly staffed offices designed to assist Business School faculty in writing cases about the global economy. The program began in 1997 with the opening of the California Research Center in Silicon Valley, and has since expanded to Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Tokyo, Paris, Mumbai, and Shanghai.
“The reason that we’re now thinking about Istanbul is that we look at the map of the world and we say, where are we missing?” Nohria said.
“Istanbul was always the gateway between the East and the West if you think about history,” Nohria said. “I think it’s one of the best vantage points from which we might also get connected to the Islamic world.”
The Business School convened a meeting in Istanbul in July 2012 to assess interest and support for the center. Since then, administrators have narrowed down a search for an executive director to two or three candidates, Nohria said.
HBS’ current research centers offer a variety of services for faculty writing cases about a particular region. With a small team of researchers and interpreters, the centers recommend research directions, help faculty members set up interviews, and assist in translation.
“Most business schools think of the global economy as an opportunity for additional revenues,” said Felix Oberholzer-Gee, senior associate dean for international development at HBS. “We think of the research centers much more as a window to the world as opposed to an opportunity to deliver programs.”
Michael S. T. Chen, who directs the Asia-Pacific Research Center, wrote in an email that there are currently six staff members with him in Hong Kong. Victoria W. Winston, executive director of HBS’ Global Initiative, added that each research center’s staffing varies based on the demands of the region.
“The [Asia-Pacific Research Center] has been up and running for almost fifteen years,” Winston wrote in an email. “It would not be our expectation that a new enterprise in Turkey would reach that level of activity for some time.”
In addition to the eight research centers that Harvard Business School will maintain after Istanbul opens, the School also has two international classrooms in Mumbai and Shanghai that offer executive education programs for business managers. Nohria said that he also sees opportunities for the school to set up research centers in Africa and Southeast Asia in as soon as two or three years.
“I think once we have that [centers in Africa and Southeast Asia], I’d feel confident that we had enough of a real coverage in most of the world,” Nohria said.
via Harvard Business School Plans Research Center in Istanbul | News | The Harvard Crimson.
Istanbul (CNN) — “Hurry up,” one of my rivals curtly warns me, as I clumsily try to decide which tile to add to my deck.
Ali doesn’t seem to realize that part of my dawdling is because I’m learning to play the Turkish game Okey for the very first time. Coached by my colleague, CNN producer Gul Tuysuz, I reach for a number. Then, in an effort to create some goodwill, I buy a glass of Turkish tea and send it over to Ali’s side of the table.
“Thanks,” he writes. But I still proceed to lose the game.
Instead of playing Okey the traditional way, shuffling plastic numbered ties on a green-felt table in a smoky cafe, Gul and I are exploring the game digitally.
This online version of Okey lets you win digital dollars and play with your friends via Facebook. It is definitely designed for a Turkish audience: Among the gifts you can send people are Turkish coffee, a nargila water pipe,and even a belly dancer. There is also a function called “flört” that lets you flirt with other players.
It is a fairly simple formula that the game’s online designers say has been wildly successful. Since Turkish start-up company Peak Games released Okey less than two years ago, the game has attracted more than 19 million users, with an average of more than 3 million players a month.
“We’re only 2 years old,” says Rina Onur, one of Peak Games’ founders. The Harvard-educated former investment banker then rattles off accomplishments that would make any entrepreneur jealous.
“We started with three people, and now we’re with 200. Five offices around the world, 10 million daily and 30 million monthly active users, to be the third-largest gaming company in the world.”
An intense work force
Onur speaks in the company’s offices, which overlook Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait.
Ferry boats glide past the window, as employees stare intently at banks of computer monitors. The age of the work force here looks to be in the mid-20s, and the dress code is casual. But the atmosphere is pretty serious. I’m struck by how clearly I can hear the sound of clicking mouse buttons.
It isn’t easy to independently confirm some of Peak Games’ claims.
The young company does not reveal its revenues. As Rob Fahey, a British gaming industry consultant and columnist explains to me, there is a culture of secrecy within the online gaming industry.
“This is a very young market, and there are people who are treating it as a gold rush and there are others who are saying ‘Listen, you have to build something sustainable,’ ” Fahey says in a phone call from Britain.
Regardless where Peak Games falls in this ongoing debate, it is clear that the Turkish start-up has quickly become a significant player in the online gaming industry. According to the application tracker AppData, Peak’s 23 games have a total of more than 22 million monthly active users. That puts Peak Games within the world’s Top 20 most popular application designers.
Targeting an overlooked market
Part of Peak’s successful strategy appears to be that it has focused on a region apparently overlooked by many of the world’s more established game designers.
“We just saw there were huge opportunities around the Turkish and Arabic speaking market,” explains Onur. “We realized that there was so much demand, so much usage and Internet consumption, but not enough local content and local games.”
With more than 31 million users, Turkey is the world’s seventh-largest Facebook country, according to Socialbakers, another social media tracking company. Peak Games first targeted this enormous Turkish market by “localizing” games that had been designed for foreign audiences and converting some Turkish traditional games such as Okey to the digital realm.
Statistically, Peak claims one in five Turkish Facebook users has now played Okey.
Less than a year after its launch, Peak Games expanded its operations to the Arab world. The company established an office in Amman, Jordan, and this year acquired a Saudi Arabian online game designing company.
Half of the company’s millions of consumers now log on from the Arabic speaking world.
Bridging a cultural divide
Fahey, who writes columns for Gamesindustry.biz, credits the ambitious Turkish start-up with getting a head start in Middle Eastern markets.
“The rest of the world doesn’t really engage with these markets because it’s hard. Selling games to American or British or German people is very easy, because it was figured out in the 1990s,” Fahey says.
“If you’ve got a country that can organize a revolution over Twitter and one of the first things the government does when people get grumpy is it turns off the Internet,” Fahey adds, referring to the 2011 revolution in Egypt, “that should have been a wake-up call for business people.”
Onur agrees it isn’t always easy to translate games designed for American teenagers for an audience in, say, Saudi Arabia.
“The Arabic region and Arabic culture is even more difficult than Turkey to understand and penetrate, because of the cultural differences, religious differences, even the way that the alphabet works and the language works is different,” she says.
To avoid triggering religious taboos in Arab markets, for example, Peak Games had to transform a game character named Horus from an ancient Egyptian deity to a “hero.”
On the other hand, Peak Games has gambled that online gaming will likely grow in the Arab world, in part because it provides conservative Middle Eastern societies with an easy, alternative way to socialize.
“It’s not as easy in a lot of these countries to go up to a bar or a cafe and meet someone and have a meaningful conversation,” she says. “These games provide a platform and a medium to talk to others without being shunned or looked down upon.”
Barring linguistic divisions, the online gaming world effectively has no borders. As a result, designers at Peak’s Istanbul offices have made some cultural observations, while monitoring game play of participants from different countries.
In the hard-core, empire-building strategy game New Battles, for example, designer Balkan Cilingir said German players tended to focus on teamwork within their alliances, whereas Arab players were “the most competitive” and Turks were “in the biggest rush to make the biggest army.”
Peak is now in the process of designing a new strategy game, “War of Mercenaries.” Its slightly cartoonish cast of warrior characters includes a Persian sapper, a Bedouin hunter, an Ottoman janissary and the legendary Ottoman aviator Hezarfen.
The Turkish Society for Infrastructure and Trenchless Technology (TSITT)held its No-Dig Turkey 2012 Conference in Sanliurfa, Turkey, Oct. 2-3, with the support of ISTT. Many local and international participants attended this unique trenchless event of Turkey.
The No-Dig Turkey 2012 Conference started with a welcoming speech from TSITT chairman Yasin Torun. Afterward, ISTT executive director John Hemphill and ISTT chairman Dr. Sam Ariaratnam gave their opening speeches, followed by opening speeches from Sanliurfa deputy mayor Fevzi Yucetepe, deputy general manager of DSI Guven Karacuha, and Southeastern Anatolia Project Regional Development Adminstration president Sadrettin Karahocagil.
Sanliurfa governor Celalettin Guvenc gave the conference’s keynote speech. He said that trenchless technology is a must for Sanliurfa as well as the entire country of Turkey and that he was honored that this year’s conference is held in the City of Sanliurfa — a unique city having a history more than 12,000 years. Additionally, Guvenc said that the government would continuously support TSITT as well as the International No Dig 2015 Conference and Exhibition, which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey.
Following the opening and keynote speeches, Dr. Rustem Keles – General Manager of SASKI (Sakarya Water and Sewerage Administration), made a presentation with the title of “Trenchless Technology and General Applications in Turkish Water Administrations.” Afterward, Prof. Dr. Magdy Abou RAYAN, chairman of the International Water Technology Association (IWTA) made a presentation titled, “International Approaches in Non-Revenue Water Management.’
In the afternoon session, Umit Canturk, managing director of TEKSU, and Arcan Haciraifoglu, managing director of DOGUS VANA, made separate presentations titled “Trenchless Technology and Applications of Non-Revenue Water Management in Turkey.” Onur Kaya, managing director of BORETEC, made a presentation, “Trenchless Technology and Applications of Horizontal Directional Drilling in Turkey.” Dr. Ihsan Engin Bal, of ITU (Istanbul Technical University) made a presentation titled “Trenchless Technology and Applications of Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) in Water Transmission Systems,” followed by Abdullah Sarikaya, deputy general manager of ENERMAK, who discussed “Trenchless Technology and Applications of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) in Turkey.” Suat Mizrak, manager of SAMPAS presented “Underground Infrastructure Mapping and Information System” and Sener Polat, CIPP Consultant of TSITT, presented “Trenchless Technology and Applications of Cured-In-Place Pipe (CIPP) in Europe.”
Day II kicked off with a presentation by Yasin Torun, “The Situation and Importance of Trenchless Technology in Turkey,” followed by Dr. Sam Ariaratnam’s excellent presentation on “Trenchless Technology in International Dimension – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” Afterward, associate professor Dr. Cemal Balci of ITU (Istanbul Technical University) discussed on “TBM Selection and Rock Cutting Tests.” Later, professor Dr. Hanifi Copur of ITU made a presentation titled “Trenchless Technology and Applications of Microtunneling in Turkey,” and BOHRTEC managing director Dr. Gregor Nieder discussed “Microtunneling for Small Diameters up to DN800 – 30 Years of Experience in Germany.” ITU professor Dr. Nuh Bilgin made the last presentation in the day, “Trenchless Technology and Applications of Tunneling in Turkey.”
In the afternoon session, a technical tour was arranged to the site of the Suruc Tunnel project, the world’s fifth longest water transmission tunnel under construction in Sanliurfa. A TBM with a diameter of 7.83 m. has been working since 2010 for 17 km of the total length of the tunnel. After the conference, TSITT held a two-day short course on Mechanized Tunneling and Microtunneling in Sanliurfa Oct. 4-5.
TSITT is thankful to ISTT, governorship of Sanliurfa, Southeastern Anatolia Project Regional Development Administration, Sanliurfa Municipality, General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works, General Directorate of Highways, Sakarya Water and Sewerage Administration, Istanbul Technical University, Harran University, International Water Technology Association, Turkish Tunneling Society and many other national/international institutions for their valuable support. TSITT also thanked the participants from Turkey, United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Egypt and Palestine for their large level of attendance.
TSITT proudly announces that No-Dig Turkey events will take place each year in Turkey. After organizing 2013 and 2014 No Dig Turkey events, International No Dig 2015 Istanbul Conference and Exhibition will take place in Istanbul. TSITT invites all individuals, institutions and companies around the world to take place in No Dig events in Turkey in a unique country located in the intersection point of Europe, Asia and Middle East.
Here, the cranium and mandible of the rhino are shown as they may have appeared when the animal was alive some …According to recent reports, an international team of scientists digging in Central Turkey uncovered the fossil of an adolescent rhino skull, and whereas that is not a particularly unusual event, this fossil shows signs that the poor animal died in a way similar to the unfortunate residents of Pompeii — by being instantly cooked to death.
