Democracy and Internet Access

People mostly using internet tool to communicate and to access the information. People are exchanging their ideas, in a virtual world people's races, ages and identities are not important so they feel free to express themselves in this communictaion base.

Censorship is a big issue in Turkey. If we are living in a demopcratic country people should have access to every single bit information. Democracy means:" is a political government carried out either directly by the people or by means of elected represantatives of the people." But in Turkey, as we have been told, as a democratic country it seems to be breaking this concept.

The internet is fundemantel tool for the people who are living in a democratic country. People are need to be able to reach the same internet connection equality. This is why the internet must become a tool without limitations, it helps countries to develop culturally and it is neccessary on a community to have wider access.

The use of the internet is can be defined as civil rights and an explanation of demoracy. Politicians of our country behaved prejudiced. They have been banned the sites according to their own wills. As we are talking about the democracy then we need to be open - minded and farsighted.

To sum up, people should not be obstructed by the minority in order to serve their wills. Politicians need to look at the wider side and need to consider the people's benefits more than thmeselves.

Higher Power, Less Individualism, Lower Masculinity, More Uncertanity.

The technology has brought the countries closer to each other. As people start to communicate with each other and work together with other cultures, need of understanding other cultures becomes inevitable. People need to know their associates culture therefore the both sides compromise easily. Employer or a person who wants to make a business arrangement he/she must know the other culture well. There are differences between cultures, such as cultural values and taboos. You need to link up with another cultures, you must know how to start your conversation. If you want to be successful in your business life you must consider those cultural values and you need to develop a strategy according your business partner.

" Here is the photo of Dr. Geert Hofstede. "

I am going to compare the Turkey and United States according to those dimensions.

Four Dimensions Of Culture:

Power Distance: " The degree of inequality that exists in a society" (1) In order to be a successful in foreign countries which has higher Power Distance you need to be definite to people who are working with you. You should emphasize the deadlines and need to be respectful the people who are in higher status.

Uncertanity Avoidence: Hofstede explained the Uncertanity Avoidence as “The extent to which a society feels threatened by uncertain or ambiguous situations.” (2) As we consider those two countries with each other we see that Turkey is higher Uncertanity Avoidence comparing to U.S. Uncertanity avoidence is the reaction you give the uncertain things happens in your daily life. People in Turkey are wants assurance more than U.S people. For example if a Turkish Company wants to make a deal with an U.S Company they need be more open to new ideas and Tukish firm needs to give him a right to manage himself on his own and needs to puts his trust on him.

Individualism: "The extent to which a society is individualistic. Individualism refers to a loosely knit social framework in a society in which people are supposed to take care of themselves and their immediate families only." (3). As we look to the chart we see that U.S is more individualistic than us. In our country we like to work as a groups and we prefer to say "we" rather than "I". If an American Company wants to arrange an bussiness contract with Turkish people they should understand our family ties and if they going to offer a promotion to a person, this person should be the most experienced employee of the company. Because in Turkey duties are less important than our relations with each other.

Masculinity: "The extent to which the dominant values are assertiveness, money and things (achievement), not caring for others or for quality of life. The other end of the spectrum would be femininity (relationship)" (4). In this case, Turkish people are more emotional than Americans. In U.S money and things are important but , in Turkey we give importance to the people who are weak and if there is a problem occurs Turkish people are trying to solve it by negotiation whereas Americans solve it by fighting each other. If the Turks wants to commmunicate with the Americans they need to know asking personal questions is inappropriate and they don't interested in being friends with their colleagues.

In conclusion we see that both countries have advantages and disadvantages in my personal idea I think Turkish people are becoming more individualistic and masculine day by day. If we look at this chart from five years now I think we will see a completely a different chart.

" Comparision Turkey and United States Cultural Dimesions"

Work Cited

1-http://www.tamu.edu/classes/cosc/choudhury/culture.html

2-http://www.tamu.edu/classes/cosc/choudhury/culture.html

3-http://www.tamu.edu/classes/cosc/choudhury/culture.html

4-http://www.tamu.edu/classes/cosc/choudhury/culture.html

And Cut!

We have shot a music video this weekend. It was our assignment for "Visual Communication Project". Our song is about a Volkswagen car, the song haven't been publised. There is a Volkswagen car which has graffiti on it. So we have need to turned our car into the original car. We have bought a toy car and we have painted into red. After the preparations ,we took the equipments we started to shooting immediately. We have started to shooting on Friday and we have finished it on Saturday night.

Here are some shots from out set.

"This is the car which is painted by Sezen and a maquette which is done by me and Duygu".

After we captured the movie, we have decided to re-shoot it. We move the car by using fishing line,in some part of the movie we see it. We decided to solve this problem by using different "Stop Motion" technique. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion).

We are planning to design new decors by Tuesday, so we can get the rough cut by Wednesday.

Here are some videos from the set.
I hope you enjoy it.

It's Getting Hot In Here!

Over the ages, people improved their life style and life quality. The technology has been improved, life becomes easier whereas, ozone layer becomes bigger, world warms up. Nowadays global warming generates a big problem. Day by day as we try to make our lives easier, we are making the world worser place. If we don't act now our children's will live in a hotter, dirtier air and more disasters.

Greenhouse Effect

What we know about global warming? Global warming can be defined as rise in temprature of earth's atmoshpere. People are given gases to the atmosphere and that is creates greenhouse effect so that the earth surface heats increases. In the climate glossary defined greenhouse as "A general warming effect felt on Earth’s surface, produced by greenhouse gases. These gases allow incoming solar radiation to pass through the Earth's atmosphere, but trap heat by preventing some of the infrared radiation from the Earth’s surface from escaping to outer space. This process occurs naturally and has kept the Earth's temperature about 60 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it would otherwise be. Current life on Earth could not be sustained without the natural greenhouse effect. However, the greenhouse effect is becoming stronger as a result of human activities, which is causing the warming we have observed over the past century."(1)

Temprature is Rising

According to the majority of the Earth scientists believes that there is a global warming. In 2008 most of the scientists agreed on global tempratures have been rising. Many scientist believed that it is because of human activities. "An increasing body of observations gives a collective picture of a warming world and other changes in the climate system... There is new and

"Greenhouse Effect"

stronger evidence that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities." (2). The majority of the researches agree upon the human activities are definitely changing the balance of the atmosphere. The harmful gases is result of the human activities. Those human activities can be brutal for some human societies, because scientist are also believed that global warming can lead to some disasters all around the world.

Your Health Is Melting
Global warming is affecting human health. Many health association claims that global warming is effecting human health badly. Every year, thousands of people are dying or getting ill because of the global warming. It is threating human health by spreading infections of diseases from human to human. In 2008 World Health Organization claimed that " The changing climate will inevitably affect the basic requirements for maintaining health: clean air and water, sufficient food and adequate shelter. Each year, about 800,000 people die from causes attributable to urban air pollution, 1.8 million from diarrhoea resulting from lack of access to clean water supply, sanitation, and poor hygiene, 3.5 million from malnutrition and approximately 60,000 in natural disasters. A warmer and more variable climate threatens to lead to higher levels of some air pollutants, increase transmission of diseases through unclean water and through contaminated food, to compromise agricultural production in some of the least developed countries, and increase the hazards of extreme weather"(3).

Wildlife Melting Global warming is not just affecting the humans, unfortunately it is also affecting wildlife. Many species are under the threat of the extinction. In the commercials we are seeing that polar bears are sitting on a small island of ice. Many habitats are not able to conserve their living species. Nowadays these loss of habitat are seen mostly in north pole. The icebergs are melting and causing the extinction of polar bears. It is so important to pursue food chain. As humans we all need to protect animals in order to maintain our lives. Many species are in danger of extinction and with the global warming.

Icebergs Melting The icebergs are melting day by day. The melting of icebergs are also cause to water levels to rise and that threatening other habitats. In the rise of sea-level can cause the floods and hurricanes. According to an Science Daily (Mar. 16, 2009) "Global warming is expected to cause the sea level along the northeastern U.S. coast to rise almost twice as fast as global sea levels during this century, putting New York City at greater risk for damage from hurricanes and winter storm surge, according to a new study led by a Florida State University researcher."(4).

" Polar bears" "Penguins"


Act Now To sum up, global warming threating all of the living creatures life including us. The earth is getting warmer everyday. Most of the scientists are trying to underline the danger that we are facing in near future. If we all want to exist and live in this planet we need to take an action as soon as possible in order to continue our species. We need to protect the animals which are under the danger of extinction. We need to realize how it is essential to maintain the food chain for our survival. There are ten things you can do to reduce global warming. As we all humans, can take an action right away we can stop the global warming with a little damage and leave a safe place for the next generations.

REFERENCES

1-http://epa.gov/climatechange/kids/glossary/gh_effect.html

2-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change

3-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change#Human_health

4-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090315155112.htm

5-http://environment.about.com/od/globalwarming/tp/globalwarmtips.htm

Internet History

Internet was found for the American Defense Ministry and for the usage of some universities. ARPANET was found in 1970. ARPANET was just includes 15 computers which are connected to each other and was closed to public service. In 70's the idea of "internet" was developed and e-mail has been found. When the Queen of England sent the first e-mail the internet became more popular. At the 80's the number of the "host" was just about "1000". World Wide Web as we know "www" was published in 1991. After 1994 the banks and companies started to open their virtual branches on the internet. Governments and many other organization groups have opened their web sites. After those developments, with the commercials on the internet people started to realize howthe internet is important. A whole new understanding of marketing and economics was born by the internet.

Now i'm going to talk about some people who have become celebrity from internet. The person which i'm going to talk is Tavi. Tavi Gevinson is a girl who is 13 years old. She was on the cover on the Love and Pop Magazines. She's just started to high school. Her blog address is http://tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com/. The blog's name is "Style Rookie"She is wathcing the catwalks in the first row and she is hanging out with Marc Jacobs and many other fashion gods.

In my personal idea i don't find appropriate to put a 13th year old girl on the front row of a couture show. I think she is really talented but, i think this kinds of behaviors may encourage other children's to open their own blogs. They may think that they can do anything to be known by the world and this could only be beneficial for the people who are abusing the kids through the internet. Maybe Tavi can be lucky but, not all the kids who opens a blog can not be that lucky.

Next person is Lauren Luke. She is a make up artist and she published her own videos on the "youtube". She has selling her own make up kits on eBay and she decided to put her own make up videos on the you tube. According to Wikipedia "Her YouTube channel, Panacea81, has 60 million views and over 300.000 subscribers since her first upload on July 22, 2007. She is now has her own brand. She is selling her brands on her own website.

The last subject i want to mention is a new word. Nowadays there is a new term come into our dictionaries. The term "infomania" has been used since the 1980s. Infomania is used for people who are can't live without the internet. The Wikipedia has explained it as " Infomania is the debilitating state of information overload, caused by the combination of a backlog of information to process (usually in email), and continuous interruptions from technologies like phones, instant messaging, and email. It is also understood as distraction caused by the urge to check email, text messaging and other sources of information, which causes the person to show symptoms to neglect other, often more important things - duties, family, etc. (For instance, a typical symptom of infomania is that of checking email frequently during vacation.)".

Maximum number of days I could live without the internet is three. After the third day, my hands start to shaking and i immediately start to looking for a place that i could access to internet. If you are a person like me than nowadays people are calling us "infomaniac". I know that Baran is an infomaniac just like me.

He and i have a disease, people may say "infomaniac" to us but i prefer to call us just "obssessed with the internet"

iPad versus P88

Apple have published its last innovation "iPad" in the past week. It is an awesome device but, it has started a new fight with China and Apple. The Shenzhen Great Loong Brother Industrial Co. argues that the Apple have has stolen iPad from their device P88. Acoording to sources P88 have been in markets for 6 months. And they are blaming Apple for stealing their devices.

He said;

"I was very angry and flabbergasted when I saw the news of the iPad presentation two days ago... It is certainly our design. They've stolen because we present our P88 to everyone six months ago at the IFA (International Electronics Fair in Berlin)."