Skygazing: Brightest Stars of Summer

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the brightest starts of winter. To recap briefly they were Orion (constellation, with its famous belt), Rigel, Betelgeuse, Sirius, Aldebaran, Capella, Procyon, Pollux and Castor (Gemini, the twins). Now that winter is over, I would like to make a similar post about summer stars. In the table below, I listed 21 brightest (1^st magnitude) stars in the order of brightness. The ones highlighted in grey are visible in the summer from the northern hemisphere.

Similar to Belt of Orion in winter, the Summer Triangle (Vega, Altair, Deneb) can easily be spotted in summer days (on south-east direction). Yet unlike Orion’s belt, all 3 stars of summer triangle are 1^st magnitude stars.  Among them, Vega is probably the most spectacular one. It is the fifth brightest star in the sky and just 25 light years away from the earth. Vega was the northern pole star around 12,000 BCE and will be so again around the year 14,000 AD. Then there is Altair, 12^th brightest star in the sky and 17 light years away from the earth. Last but not least, there is Deneb, which is app. 200,000 time more luminous than our Sun. It’s exact distance from the Earth is uncertain, latest estimates is around 2,600 light-years.

Below is a picture of what you would see if you look at sky towards south these days:

Antares  is a golden orange color as winter star of Betelgeuse. It is app. 500 light years away from the earth and 10,000 time more luminous than the Sun. However it is very low in the southern sky and might be difficult to see from some place.

Finally there are two first magnitude spring stars that are still visible in the summer: Arcturus & Spica. Arcturus is 4^th brightest star in the sky and relatively close to the earth, 37 light years away. Spica (262 light years away) is located close to the ecliptic so lies very close to the moon and the planets.

The stars are symbols of humanity’s top aspirations. There are only a few things in life as inspirational as observing Stars. I invite you all to the skygazing, the road of Copernicus, Kepler,Galileo, and Newton. Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground!

Classical Guitar

I believe doing sport and playing musical instrument enrich people’s lives a lot.  I have been doing various kinds of sports since I was a teenager and sport makes up a significant part of my life.  From time to time I was thinking about playing a musical instrument and finally four months ago I started taking classical guitar course. In this post I would like to share some of my learning’s about playing classical guitar.

Tuning: The first thing you need to do before playing a guitar is to tune it. Learning how to tune manually was a big deal in the past, yet luckily, there are now very good free smartphone apps that make tuning simple.  I tried several apps and currently using n-Track Tuner and in less than a minute I make perfect tuning. I advise it to guitar players at all levels.

Metronome: Another area that beginning players needs to focus is tempo. Metronome is the name given to the devices that produces regular beats, ticks, clicks. Again free smartphone apps are good option.  There are countless of them and performance is good for most of them. I like and I am using n-Metronome yet like I said most free metronome apps do a good job. I am doing most of my exercises between 60 – 100 bpm (beats per minute) ranges.

Finger Trainings: I spend most of my courses till now on finger trainings. There are variety of finger trainings, starting from top or bottom left end of guitar and then moving right, down, up…At some of them all four fingers are all the times pressed, sometimes only one finger… The tracks for some exercises are like spider’s web. Sore fingertips are major challenge to cope with when started to play guitar. After four months I still have sore fingertips problems, hope it will be over one day J

Chords: A, Am, C, D, Dm, E, Em, G, B7,F are the first chords are I learned till now. However I am still plucking each string only one by one. Only after making sure that I plug each of them perfectly I will move on to plucking them all together. Among them my favorite is Em, especially 4^th stroke, G.

Open String Names: It is a good idea to memorize the names of open strings. In standard way, they are in the following order: E,A,D,G,B,E (from 6^th to 1^st.  Fattest string is 6^th) A good way to remember is Every Adult Dog Growls Barks Eats.

Being an engineer, I would like to also mention technical side of sounds created by plucking strings. Strings vibrate at certain frequencies when plucked. The 6^th string (the thickest one) vibrates at 82 hertz when plucked and not pressed by any finger. That is it goes up and down 82 times in a second. The 1^st string (the thinnest) vibrates at 329 hertz.  Humans can hear sounds between 20 to 20,000 hertz.

Beethoven called the guitar as a miniature orchestra in itself. Guitar expresses things which cannot be said. When words fail, music speaks and music is what feelings sound like.  I think, one day, playing guitar could be a good way to express myself. Enjoy the Music !

Zig Ziglar : Positive Thinking and Motivation

Life is full of ups and downs. During these cycles, staying positive can help improve quality of life a lot.  To stay positive, everyone needs some motivation and inspiration from time to time. In this area, Zig Ziglar (1926 – 2012) is considered to be one of the legends. His most productive period was way before my generation yet still I had the opportunity to read some of his books. Among them “See you at the Top” is the one that I liked most. To be motivated, to feel power of positive thinking, it is just enough to read the title of one of his book: “See you at the Top”. Simply Great!

His books and videos are full of positivity. I just never read and heard negativity from Zig Ziglar. He is even considered to be the father of motivational speaker profession. A traffic signal, to Mr. Ziglar, is a “go light,” the morning alarm is an “opportunity clock” and every setback is a steppingstone. He is also one of the finest salesman and sales trainer. For the ones in sales profession, Ziglar is a must read.

By just entering Ziglar in Google one can see hundreds of Ziglar’s quotes. Here, I would like to share top 10 quotes, that I like most, from Ziglar:

1. You can have everything in life that you want if you just give enough other people what they want.
2. You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.
3. Success occurs when opportunity meets preparation.
4. It is not what happens in life that determines how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you.
5. Success is achieved by ordinary people with Extraordinary Determination.
6. You were born to win, but to be a winner you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win.
7. Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.
8. Don’t count the things you do. Do the things that count.
9. Go as far as you can see. When you get there, you’ll be able to see farther.
10. If you can dream it, you can achieve it.

Millions have credited their achievements to what they’ve learned from Ziglar, a man who created a successful life by helping others do the same. So it makes sense to listen to this motivational master’s positive messages.

In Zig Ziglar’s world, the morning alarm rang on the “opportunity clock.” Yesterday ended last night, he liked to tell himself. Today is a brand-new day and it’s yours !

Siddhartha & Shantaram

Siddhartha and Shantaram are two bestselling novels, taking place in India. Almost a year after reading Siddhartha, I read Shantaram and it reminded me of Siddhartha, perhaps because both stories happening in India and lots of eastern philosophy in them. Both books deal with the journeys of extraordinary men, with 2500 years difference. Below there is a quick synopsis of these two novels to briefly remind the characters:

Siddhartha is written by Hermann Hesse, a Nobel literature. Siddhartha is the former name of Buddha, so one might think it is a biography of Buddha yet it is not. It deals with the spiritual journey of a man called “Siddhartha” during the time of the Buddha and Siddhartha’s journey for enlightenment.

It is the story of a man’s quest for meaning of life and it’s a good one. The following paragraph from the book gives a quick glimpse about it:  “When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.”

I do not think people would give up their material possession after reading this book, but they would think differently, have a different perspective about what really matters in life and how to deal with disappointments and dissatisfactions of life.

Shantaram is written by Gregory David Roberts, influenced by real events in his life: escaping from a prison in Australia and fleeing to India and then hectic life in Mumbai, Bombay.  Shantaram is like “Slumdog Millionaire” with an Australian hero.

The recurring themes of the book are forgiving, love – hate, wealth – poverty, recognizing each person’s ability to change his fate, and “doing the wrong thing for the right reasons”.  There’s a lot of philosophy in the book. It is about life, everyone’s life. It provides insights about India, like: the slums of Bombay are filled with happy people and full of life. It makes me think that our happiness is inversely proportional to the size of our houses.

I highly recommend both Siddhartha and Shantaram to those who are interested in India and Eastern Philosophy.

Democracy – Justice, Equality, Liberty

Anyone following developments in Turkey these days would notice that its Democracy is going through a tough test. The form and the way Democracy is implemented profoundly affect the quality of human lives. If any reader fails to recognize this directly, it is perhaps because he or she is living under a relatively stable Democracy where not much changes from year to year. A lot is being discussed in the media about specific daily developments in Turkey. In this post, I would look from a wider angle and give some historical perspective on Democracy.

The word Democracy originates from the Greek word Demokratia, meaning “the rule of the people” (Demos mean people, Kratos means power, rule). Translation of the word “Democracy” is one of the easiest one in the world: It is almost always very close to the original Greek word in most major languages. However countless meanings are attached to the word “Democracy”. The true meaning is probably stored up in heaven; but unhappily has not yet been communicated to us yet.

A lot of historical figures worked on the development of Democracy: Aristotle acted as tutor to Alexander the Great, Machiavelli attempted to counsel the Medicis in Florence. Jean-Jacques Rousseau through his book The Social Contract had a huge impact during the French Revolution. Nowadays, most of us are using the term to mean almost all the bright and beautiful things we think, as a civic ideal, as representative institution, and as a way of life. Asked to define the term, many would say “majority rule”.

With the majority rule comes problems of intense and persistent minority. The intense minority is the case where those who vote with the majority are affected much less by the decision, or have fewer interests at stake, than those who form the minority. Counting heads equally does not result in fair calculation of preferences and interests. The persistent minority is the case when one group finds itself in a minority repeatedly when votes are taken.

Democracy needs certain preconditions to function successfully. It needs a wealthy and literate population, media of mass communication so that ideas and opinions can circulate freely, a well-functioning legal system that people respect. Also a large middle class is essential for successful operation of the democracy. Both extremes of wealth in the hands of a few and extremes of poverty at a significant portion of the population would negatively affect it.

It turns out that Democracy is a demanding business. In Turkey, Democracy is like a raft, it never sinks but your feet are always in the water. But the good thing is there is no turning back against the current of Democracy.

Skygazing, Brightest Stars

Winter is the best season for skygazing. Many people would tell “The stars shine brighter in winter” and that is true because there are more bright stars in the winter for the observers in northern hemisphere. (This post is for the ones who live in northern hemisphere.) We just had march equinox, which is considered as end of winter  and shortly winter stars will become unobservable so before that I would like to give quick facts and guidelines for detecting bright stars of winter. Below is a picture of what you would see if you look at sky at nights towards south-west these days:

The single brightest constellation (group of stars) of any season is Orion, the Hunter. On any winter evening Orion can easily be spotted with its striking belt of three stars, so called Belt of Orion. Apart from its belt, Orion has two 1st-magnitude stars: blue-white Rigel and golden orange Betelgeuse. Rigel and Betelgeuse lie diagonally from each other, with the Belt of Orion between them. Betelgeuse is 640 light years away. You might remember it from the popular science fiction book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, where main character “Ford Prefect” was from “a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse”.

Then there is Sirius, the brightest of all stars, star of stars! It is on the left of Orion’s Belt, which roughly points to it. Sirius is actually a binary stay system, 8.6 light years away from us. That means what you see is actually light emitted from Sirius 8.6 years ago. If you have a kid around 8-9 years old, by showing Sirius you can tell him / her that that light started its journey when he / she was born 🙂

At a similar distance from Belt of Orion as Sirius but in opposite direction, there is orange-gold Aldebaran.  Aldebaran represents the face of Taurus, the Bull.  If you look far up above Aldebaran you will see yellowish Capella. Its name is derived from the Latin “goat”. It is 42 light years away from us and it radius is 10 times our Sun.

If you look up above Sirius there is Procyon. The constellation of Sirius is Canis Major, the Big Dog, and Sirius is therefore often called the Dog Star. The constellation of Procyon is Canis Minor, the Little Dog, so Procyon is called the little Dog Star. It is 11 light years away from us.  Above Procyon and Jupiter (it is a planet not a star), there are two very bright stars: Pollux and Castor. They are the head of the constellation Gemini, the Twins.

The stars are symbols of humanity’s top aspirations. There are only a few things in life as inspirational as observing Stars. I invite you all to the skygazing, the road of Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, and Newton!

50th Anniversary of Turkish immigration to Belgium

In July 1964 Turkey signed bilateral worker immigration agreement with Belgium. 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of Turkish immigration to Belgium. I lived in Belgium between 2007 – 2011 and with this occasion I would share my views about situation of Turk’s situation in Belgium.

Current Turkish population in Belgium is estimated to be around 200,000 – 250,000. Historically, Turkish migration to Belgium began in the 1960s when Belgium was encouraging immigration to meet its economical targets. These immigrants, called as “guest workers”, were generally blue color workers and the majority of them arrived from the rural regions of Turkey, particularly from Afyon and Eskisehir.

There is also another wave of Turkish migration to Belgium. They are generally expats, who moved to Belgium to work for head offices of multinational companies there. These knowledge workers are generally graduated from good universities in Turkey, some holding high ranking positions (i.e. in Toyota Head Office in Belgium, where I worked there were Turkish Senior Managers, VP and Director). My observations, these groups of Turks are well integrated socially with their colleagues in the offices yet not with the local communities where they live due to local language, French & Flemish, issues.

I strongly believe Turks needs to be much more active in social, cultural and business aspects of life in Belgium. To give an example, Turks constitute approximately 2 % of Belgium population; similarly Jewish population in US is also around 2 %.  However the representation in the key parts of life (social, cultural and business,…) is much less for Turks compared with their % and a lot more for Jewish people compared with their %. I appreciate the position of Jewish people in US, and wish same kind of representation for Turks in Belgium too.  The main challenge here is for Turks themselves to work proactively to get high-level positions in business, sports, the professions, legislative assemblies, the civil service, and so forth.

I also believe that positive discrimination policies should be initiated by Belgium authorities to give an initial boost. Then they can act as role models encouraging others to follow their lead. Also the ways Turks and other cultural minorities are perceived and portrayed have consequences for the way they are treated generally. If, for instance, these minorities are portrayed as low skilled, then this will affect, perhaps unconsciously, the behavior of people who are hiring for jobs, or deciding promotions.

The majority of Turks in Brussels live in the Schaarbeek commune. The Chaussee De Haecht street is heavily populated with Turkish immigrants, with its pizzerias, pastry shops, cafes, and barbers, is reminiscent of a Turkish street.  Being populated in such a central part of Brussels, I hope Turks will have more and more central roles in all walks of life in Belgium when we celebrate next anniversaries!

Omar Khayyam, Nizam al-Mulk, Hassan-i Sabbah

What do these three Persian men have in common? Among many other things, they are central figures of two historical fiction novels, “Samarkand” and “Alamut”, which are based on the same story: Legend states that they made a pact of eternal friendship, in case one of them rise to prominence, he would help the other two to become powerful too. Nizam al-Mulk was the first to do this by becoming vizier at the Seljuq Empire. Then he offered positions to both of them, Hassan accepted, Omar declined.

Samarkand is written by Amin Maalouf and has two parts: First part of the story is taking place in Persia (Iran) and Asia in the 11^th Century and main figure is Omar Khayyam and his poet book Rubaiyat. Nizam al-Mulk and Hassan-i Sabbah are two other important figures of the first part. The second part of the book is about an American to obtain the original copy of the Rubaiyat during 1900s.

Alamut is written by Wladimir Bartol, takes place in 11^th Century with its story around Hassan-i Sabbah and his establishment, Hashshashins, in Alamut fortress, where Fedais are trained under the influence of Hashish and deceived Heaven promise to commit dreadful assassinations. Other two figures of the pact, Nizam al-Mulk and Omar Khayyam (to lesser extend) appears throughout the novel. The maxim of the novel is “Nothing is an absolute reality, all is permitted”.

If you are interested in historical fiction both of these books are right choices. Rather than making detailed summary of these books for the rest of this post, I preferred to highlight interesting and noteworthy parts of the actual biographies of these three Persian men:

Omar Khayyam: He was a poet, philosopher, and scientist. He lived from 1048 to 1131 and made significant contributions in mathematics and calendar systems. He taught for decades the works of Avicenna (Ibn Sina), father of modern medicine. Khayyam is one of the most famous poets of the East in the West with his work Rubaiyat. Some lines from Khayyam:

• Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.
• Dead yesterdays and unborn tomorrows, why worry about it, if today be sweet.
• Your hand can seize today, but not tomorrow; and thoughts of your tomorrow are nothing but desire. “The rest of your life” won’t last forever.

Nizam al-Mulk (Order of the Realm): He was the vizier of the Seljuq Empire from 1064 to 1092, when first Alp Arslan and then his son Malik Shah were Sultans. He was a great vizier, organizer, ideal soldier and scholar. It was only possible thanks to him for the Seljuq Turks to establish a powerful empire. Nizamiyyah schools and Siyasatnama (The Book of Government) were his main heritage to the following generations. Some people call him as the Machiavelli of the 11^th Century.

Hassan-i Sabbah: Villain or great thinker ? I am still not sure.  He lived between 1050 to 1124, travelled various cities (Tehran, Cairo, Baghdad, Isfahan…) and at the end spend last 35 years of his life in Alamut Castle in the Alborz Mountains where he established the order of the Hashshashin, or “Assassins”.