This maddox guy

I happen to be following some links from some blog and ended up at this guy's site. Well apparently he is rather famous and there is a wiki about him. He specializes in satirical stuff and has some rather hilarious phrases complete with some hand-drawn comic illustrations. Totally enjoyable!

Desktop Tower Defense

Those that play tower defense on Warcraft 3 will no doubt take to this game almost immediately. I am still trying to clear version 1.5 on hard mode. If you have played with this, submit your scores to the "Devil" group.

The types of beer

After reading Wikipedia's extensive articles on beer to make some sense of the different types of beer, I realized that there are two main categories: ale and lager. Not to mention sub-styles such as IPA, stout, pilsner, steam beer, alt beer etc, from different brewing regions. Seems like I am more of an ale person. Sadly it seems that almost all beers brewed where I'm at are lagers. I wonder how many others are ale people as well.

Turkiye Day 8 - Istanbul - Bosphorus Cruise

If you have not done so, read the previous related post here, or start from the beginning of the Turkiye posts here.

This is the final entry on my vacation to Turkey, a very nice place with a good mix of things to view. Took me more than a month after I returned to complete documenting the entire journey.

The time has come for our final day in Turkey. Being on a holiday for 8 days (excluding flight) somehow makes you think that it will be nice to be on holiday all the time. Our last day in Istanbul started off with some free time in the morning. As our hotel was near Taksim square, a retail area, we went out to take a look around. At noon, we were going for a cruise along the Bosphorus, the straits that divides the Sea of Marmara with the Black Sea. Essentially we will be cruising between Europe and Asia. After the cruise and our lunch stop-over, we headed to the largest shopping complex in Europe. Although it is actually average sized by most standards elsewhere.

Some sort of monument in Taksim square


A rare sight, a church, notice they have dome designs too


Pushing off in our cruise ferry. Paid quite a bit, the ferry could easily carry 200 or more but there were only like 20 of us chartering the whole ferry.


Picking up speed


Asia side of Istanbul


Minarets galore!


The first bridge we encountered that spanned the Bosphorus. We crossed it when we came back from Bolu.


A mosque by the sea, there are a few of these


I think this was some government building during the Ottoman Empire


The sultan's summer palace


Reaching the first bridge


Another mosque, we will return here later for lunch


Passing under the bridge


Seagulls


Some old fortifications






Passing the second Bosphorus bridge, after which we were bordering the Black Sea and the ferry made a U-turn.


Expensive houses that are conserved


One of the conserved houses. They can cost something like USD$60 million and you are not allowed to change the exterior design.


Military school


Another Mosque


We disembarked next to this mosque, there are lots of food stalls and relaxing cafes around here too. The black soot on the mosque is a result of heavy shipping.


Lunch, a really huge potato! I think they call it Kampir


Looks familiar? We also saw some stalls selling prata -- yes they called it prata.


Efficient use of parking space


A glass blower showing some tricks


The time came for us to leave this place, our coach captain was pretending that there was something wrong with the engine since he cannot stop at this side of the road for long. Rather hilarious!


The roof of the largest shopping mall in Europe -- a clock that did not seem to be working. There is also a small indoor amusement park here.

Evening came and it was time to catch our flight back home. Thus ends our vacation with a heavy heart, some wine and hazelnuts.

Return to the first post and index here.

Some interesting tech news

I thought I would take a break from the last Turkiye travel entry to highlight some interesting technological news that caught my eyes.

Firstly, a robot with the head of a teddy bear is being developed by the US military to retrieve injured combat personnel. Why the teddy bear head? Well, it is supposed to be more reassuring to the individual and adds a "human touch". Somehow I have not exactly seen a teddy bear in such medical situations so I have no idea how this makes it more human...

Next up we have something that does not sound really new -- the wireless transmission of energy. These guys from MIT implemented their theory into a working experiment in which they powered up a light bulb from 2 meters. Kind of reminds me of RFID, just that I never seem to get so much energy to it from my experience. The intuition has something to do with resonance. You can "direct" the wireless power to the correct receiver that is sharing the same low-frequency(e.g. 10Mhz, high is considered in GHz levels). The receiver will "resonant", hence directed power. Also the low frequency used is supposed to be human safe (much like our FM radio receiver). I guess this is what sets it apart from other wireless power transmissions like RFID and some electric toothbrushes that seem to use raw signal power to induce EMF.

Turkiye Day 7 - Istanbul - Hagia Sophia & Belly Dancing

If you have not done so, read the previous related post here.

Today was our second-last day in Turkey and we were headed back to Istanbul from Bolu. While entering Istanbul on the highway, a car cut into the lane of our bus without warning. This resulted in a display of fists by our coach captain supported by our tour guide in the middle of a ramp leading off the busy highway with both the car and our bus blocking it entirely. A rather eventful pre-lunch affair. There was going to be a football match between the home team of Istanbul and the team currently at the top of the league. This match would actually decide which team would top the Turkish League. If you have noticed the mini-flag of a football club in some of the pictures, you would have realized that our tour guide was an avid supporter of the home team. In any case, we arrived at our lunch destination -- a chinese restaurant. After which we finally visited the Hagia Sophia.

Lunch! There's no porku in this chinese restaurant because there is simply no porku in Turkey!


Hagia Sophia or Ayasophia, built in the 6th century A.D. with a huge dome that seems unsupported.


The tulips are still here!


Frescos. Many were covered when this place was turned into a mosque. Now restoration is in progress and the old frescos are being uncovered.


Many pillars adorn the sides


Arabic calligraphy


The great dome under maintenance. This dome fell twice in history.


Huge bottle that kept anointment oil


Under the arches at the sides


Close-up of a fresco replica


Another replica, real ones coming soon


Do these pillars look familiar? When they built this place they took stuff from everywhere. These pillars were from Ephesus shown again below.




From the second level view. There is no stairs up but a winding ramp so that they can carry the Emperor/Empress up on the chair.


Fresco of an angel


I think this is Mary and Jesus


This should be Mary, Jesus and John


This hmmm... Constantine, Mary with Jesus, Hellenia


I'm not too sure who are those at the sides


When they built this place nobody believed the great dome was built and supported by the techniques of man, so four depictions of angels support the great dome.

There was one pillar near the big jar of oil that had a hole in it. It is said that if you can turn your hand 360 degrees while your thumb is in it, your wish will be granted. Apparently an angel is supposed to reside there.

The story goes that a boy was doing some errand that required him to be beside that pillar. Needing to go back to his master to settle some stuff, he did not know what to do as he feared being scolded for leaving his post. An angel came and told the boy that it would take care of the errand at the pillar till the boy returns. When the boy found his master and told him what had happened, they did not allow him to return so that the angel in keeping its promise to the boy will reside in the church forever.

Well I decided to try my luck and wished that my upset tummy will go away. Seems like it worked, and I was well before nightfall. After the Hagia Sophia, we went on to visit some other sights in Istanbul. They were more for shopping which did not really interest us except for getting some souvenirs. Tonight however, an interesting dinner and night of entertainment awaited us at "Turkish Night".

Instead of a metro they have a tram system in the old city area of Istanbul


The 500 year old Grand Bazaar. Notice the mini-flag


It is not very interesting inside but this place is huge.


Later we visited the Spice Market. I was trying to guess where the spices here came from.


Turkish what?!


Spot the WC sign contest. The winner gets a free WC entry from me.


Outside the venue for Turkish Night. Hmmm... Looks interesting inside


This is supposed to be a dance from the Black Sea region.


The first belly dancer! There was this old man from the Japanese tourist group that keeps shoving notes down her... erm, you know.


A short clip of the first dancer part 1


Part 2 of the first dancer


Belly dancer 2. Note that they are supposed to have bellies not like the 3rd one shown below.


Watching her was like a hair dance instead of belly dancing. But it didn't stop the same old japanese man and his notes tough...


Besides the belly dancers there were these Cossack dancers


Cossack dancer stuns

Turkish Night ended with a professional entertainer singing some songs and getting the crowd involved. After Turkish Night, we retired to our hotel. Apparently the football match ended with the home team losing. So we were advised not to hang around outside late in the night. Tomorrow we will have some free and easy time before we head to a cruise along the Bosphorus.

Read about the next related post here.

Return to the trip index here.