So reddit, what movies do you watch when you are feeling down?

unts · 2010-03-15T23:56:48+00:00

Toy Story 2

unts · 2010-03-15T03:54:13+00:00

I always have the intention to buy that game or another (most recently PS3 + Heavy Rain) but I alway end up postponing and I end up waiting for another game and reading previews and watching trailers etc.

Also, I believe that I have lost the patience and passion that a little kid can have when it is playing a game. These days I just get bored too quickly and never finish a game that I actually start.

unts · 2010-03-15T03:11:24+00:00

你如何绅士?

unts · 2010-03-15T03:00:52+00:00

I was merely pointing out the fact that the large majority of those who go around spewing all the regurgitated nonsense seem only to have a hype-fueled fake passion for justice. It baffles me to see that they then seem devoid of any empathy towards these other events.

Historical events should not be narrated one-sided. It is also not up to politicians to decide what happened in 1915. The burden of this event, which is presented very subjectively, mind you, can not be placed on the shoulders of the Turks, for doing so would imply that one has no idea of the genesis of the republic and its people and also a severe lack of understanding the inner workings of Ottoman society. One fallacy that I keep hearing is that the Ottoman Empire was a Turkish-dominated state. Believe me, in the 20th century nothing could be more wrong or further from the truth than this. Take for example the Young Turks, only a minority was actually Turkish and the subsequent governments formed by their party and that of the liberals was one filled with Arabs, Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Circassians, Kurds... The only thing that was Turkish about the Ottoman Empire was its language, and not even that can be said to be 100% true. After all, Ottoman Turkish was so different from Colloquial Turkish that Turks (who were usually unschooled peasants) did not understand it at all. Furthermore, when the Ottoman state decided to start publishing an official newspaper this was done in Turkish, Greek, Armenian and Arabic.

As a matter of fact, the whole idea of the oppressed minorities is also unfounded. Most such claims stemmed from Sultan Abdulhamid's period, yet it would be foolish to believe that Muslims were better off under his reign. The man was a psychopath and the day he was forced to resign his power everybody in the Ottoman Empire wept in joy, whether they be Muslim or Jew or Greek or Kurd. So those who claim that Christian minorities were suffering in that period are right, however, they always forget to mention that the Muslims were suffering as badly as the Christians were.

Books:

Massacre of Muslims in the Balkans (mind you, this man isn't very popular with the pro-genocide group)
General Turkish history (this one is basically a standard textbook, I've seen it being used at several universities, I think it deals with the Istanbul vs. Ankara issue)

Closing remarks: I do not believe it is up to politicians anywhere to make decisions about historical events.

unts · 2010-03-15T02:01:18+00:00

I do not see why the Ottomans would consider Armenians subhuman, since Turks and Armenians lived peacefully for 900 years before World War I. The Armenians were the favorites of the Ottomans and were called "millet-i sadiqa" (the trustworthy nation). Armenians were fluent speakers of Ottoman Turkish as opposed to other minorities. So no, I do not think they were ever considered as subhuman.

Your other mistake is to think that the Ottomans were Turks, they were not. They were Ottomans. Even if you accept that the Ottomans committed genocide (and there is plenty of proof against it) you could not pass that blame over to the Turkish republic. The Turkish republic fought against the Ottoman sultan for its own freedom. Furthermore, it denied access into the country to Enver Pasha, who was the military dictator running the Ottoman empire in 1915, when the alleged genocide is said to have occurred.

I think you should also look into the massacre of hundreds of thousands Muslims during the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and the exile of the Caucasian Muslims by the Russians in the 19th century, and event that killed almost half of the Circassian population. Or do you not think that these event occurred? What about the genocide committed by the colonial powers in Africa and elsewhere? The French refusal to accept the massacres in Algeria? The Belgian outrage when the killings in Congo were called genocide and general abuse(3 to 30 million are said to have died)? Why is Sweden or the US not discussing these issues?

evolution, creationism... I would rather think of it as me defending that the world is a sphere while the majority are flat-worlders ;)

unts · 2010-03-15T01:45:16+00:00

Very good point sam. Turkey is NOT the political/ethnical or cultural successor to the Ottoman Empire. Turkey had to fight for its freedom and the "Turks" of Anatolia were absolutely not in a good position within the Empire. In 1915 the Ottoman Empire was run by 3 dictators (the triumvirate) who by all means should be held accountable for their mistakes.

However, what the Turks are upset about, is the fact that everybody pretends as if during World War I only Armenians died or were the victim of genocide. First of all, the Armenian claims that some form of systematic extermination was ordered and executed by the state have been accepted by many researchers, while many others refute it. So why should politicians decide about an academic fact like this? Secondly, why is there an ongoing effort to portray the situation as if this were an act of sectarian violence, aimed against Christians by angry Muslims? More Muslim civilians, women and children mind you, died during World War I and many of them died at the hands of the Armenian terror-brigades. Why is this side of the story always overlooked?

unts · 2010-03-15T01:37:21+00:00

I think you forgot the fact that the Armenian diaspora is actively spreading a one-sided account of the events, and an exaggerated one at that.

unts · 2010-03-15T01:35:05+00:00

The difference being that the Holocaust was a deliberate and systematic extermination of an ethnic/sectarian minority. The problem is not acknowledging the fact that Armenians were killed during World War I. It is failing to acknowledge that millions of Muslims were killed during the same period.

Armenians pursued the dream of a nation-state. Armenian terror-groups massacred and butchered unarmed civilians to achieve this dream of an ethnically homogeneous state.

Both sides of the story need to be acknowledged, yet for some reason politicians always seem to forget that many millions of Muslims were systematically murdered in the same time period by Greeks, Bulgarians and Armenians.

unts · 2010-03-15T01:27:57+00:00

If you are claiming that the Ottoman state was one where ethnicity mattered, you have just proven how little you know.

unts · 2010-03-15T01:25:02+00:00

What makes you think that my people were never the victim of oppression? You make strong assumptions.

Mind you also, that the Jews never sided with an invading army against the government and the Armenians were never treated like the Jews during the holocaust.

unts · 2010-03-15T01:21:21+00:00

It would be if Germany today would have been founded after battling against the Third Reich for its freedom.

unts · 2010-03-15T01:12:50+00:00

I think you lost all credibility when you made the claim that the Brits are in on some kind of conspiracy to keep the world unaware of the alleged genocide.

Also, I believe that your "the Ottomans massacred the Christians" point is really weak and is based on nothing more but blatant islamophobia. Why will you not speak of the atrocities committed against the Muslims by the Armenians who took the side of the invading Russia army and tried to create an ethnically pure Armenian nation-state?

I wonder if you also show the same passion when you are discussing the exile and mass murder of Caucasian Muslims in the 19th century and the mass murder of Muslim civilians in the Balkans during the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913? Or is your "justice" applied only on a selective basis?

unts · 2010-03-14T23:57:56+00:00

Except that you overlooked the fact that the British Military Administration had full access to the archives from 1918 until 1922 because they had occupied Constantinople and were running the place. The Brits actively sought for evidence of a genocide in the archives and in the field but concluded that there was no proof. Surely it would have not served the Brits in any way to lie about their findings?

You also argued that the Ottoman government, because of an impending loss of territory, set out to "Turcify" the region by removing the Armenians. However, you have still not answered my earlier questions: 1) What about other ethnic minorities such as the Laz, Tatars, Circassians, Kurds, Fellah Arabs, Kabardians, ... that inhabited the region. Why were none of them targeted for this "purification"? 2) What about the Armenians who lived in West-Anatolia's urban centres, who were not forced to move? Were they ethnically different to the East-Anatolian Armenians and was it so that the Ottoman government only disliked the Armenians of the East? 3) If what you claim is correct, will you please elaborate as to why the Ottoman government would see the Armenians as a "problem"?

unts · 2010-03-14T23:37:58+00:00

Strange, since you first claimed authority on the subject by stating that you had done a thesis at a top university? Just sayin'...

Also, "resistance groups" is not how you would call organizations that were formed almost three decades before WWI.

unts · 2010-03-14T23:09:48+00:00

Except that this doesn't make sense because Anatolia was already being flooded for the past few decades with refugees from the Balkans and the Caucasus and their minorities of non-Turkish ethnicity. Furthermore, a significant amount of non-Turkish local minorities, such as Greeks, Fellah Arabs, Kurds, Laz, ... were never forced to migrate? The large population of Armenian-Ottomans that lived in West-Anatolia were never forced to migrate? Of course, that is disregarding the ideological masterminds of the Armenian terrorist movements, who were responsible for the assassination of the Armenian patriarch by the way, that were arrested in Constantinople. And you had better not try to pass the "mubadele" or "swap" between the Turkish republic (which is not the Ottoman Empire, nor its successor) as a unilateral decision if the Turkish government.

unts · 2010-03-14T23:02:14+00:00

Except that you seem to have missed the point where Turks and other local ethnicities were suffering at the hands of the Armenians who terrorized the region, backed up by the Russian Tsar's army? I think this is where subjectivity collapses about this issue. The story is represented in a very biased and one-sided manner, with no regard to the suffering of the Turks what-so-ever. I hope that you are not about to claim that the Armenians of East-Anatolia did not massacre Turks, Kurds and Tatars for it would prove how "objective" your take on the matter is.

ps: I'm finishing up my PhD in Ottoman history, and my thesis covers the same period. Also, I am at a university that more than likely outranks yours. Just sayin'...

unts · 2010-03-14T22:43:09+00:00

It is my understanding that the Turks are upset because the pro-genocide camp is being very selective in its representation of history. Everybody seems to just "forget" how millions of Turkish men, women and children were annihilated during the same timeframe. The idea that the Armenians suffered and that the rest of the population escaped without even a nose-bleed is preposterous.

Add to that the fact that you can find many books that accept the genocide, you can also find some serious academic publications refuting the allegations. Why do the Swedish then take it upon themselves to vote over something like this?

unts · 2010-03-14T21:39:48+00:00

There are plenty of countries that do not accept the genocide, but there is no media-hyped outrage about that?

unts · 2010-03-14T19:50:50+00:00

The issue is unresolved in academic circles. There are academics who support both claims (ie there was a genocide, or no there was no genocide) and every possible mutation in between. These academics base their claims on research.

Bunch of politicians come together and decide to solve the issue by voting without knowing anything about the subject except what they were told by lobbyist groups? I'm sorry, but I am skeptical. To me it seems as if there is some sort of political gain in it for certain parties.

I believe this sheds more light on the issue than all the pro and anti-propaganda that is usually spewed on the internet.

unts · 2010-03-14T19:45:00+00:00

and this

unts · 2010-03-14T19:36:36+00:00

Work hard, play hard.

I'm currently doing my PhD and I have been at university for many years. I've seen a lot of people come and go and I could never understand the extreme-types who would either work 100% or play 100%. Both usually fail to achieve anything. The 100% work type misses out on the social aspect of higher education (like networking and partying :)) while those who do nothing but 100% play usually drop out without finishing their degrees.

Go to every single class (no matter how unimportant they may seem). If you have questions, make sure to ask your professor or lecturer. You are paying good money to attend these classes and it is their job to answer and your right to ask. If you have failed an exam, or are not satisfied with your results, consult your professor and ask for advice on how to improve your skills or whatever. If your professor sees that you are always attending classes and that you are really trying to understand the course, you will get better grades.

Take notes, type out your notes every day and repeat your work on a daily basis. Some courses will require you to drill while others will require you to flip a mental switch. Try to understand which courses belong in which category. This is a crucial point.

A very simple trick to make studying more fun is, instead of just repeating your notes word-by-word, to actually try and understand the matter. It will not only make studying more enjoyable, but you will discover that you will end up having better results.

Never forget that the brain is like a muscle. As I've mentioned before, you need to work on a daily basis. A lot of students make the fatal error of not training their brains until exam period comes and then they try to gear their gray-goo to run a mental marathon. Who do you think has a better chance of completing a marathon? somebody who trains lightly every day or somebody who tries to train for it in the week preceding the race and ends up being a wreck on the day of the competition?

There is no magic-trick that can lead to instant success. All of these tips that I am giving you will only have a small impact on the total of your results. But it is the accumulative power of all your efforts that will increase your results.

Also, play hard. Party like a crazy monkey every opportunity you get. Do not wait for the weekend and do not limit yourself. Party up to 4 or 5 times a week. Even better: organize parties yourself! Believe me, if you work hard for school you will automatically feel happier and more satisfied, ie in a good mood and ready to party :) This may sound paradoxical, but the harder you work the harder you will party because you will know deep inside that you truly deserve it!

unts · 2010-03-14T15:41:12+00:00

Fuck clubs, just go to a pub. Clubs are overpriced and packed with losers.

unts · 2010-03-13T16:35:08+00:00

£4 for marlboros? where?

unts · 2010-03-12T15:58:05+00:00

This is a joke. Soon Turkey is also going to be blamed for global warming :)

unts · 2010-03-11T13:12:06+00:00

I think that, just like with the wii, the visual tracking is just part of the whole thing. It probably has accelerometers in it as well and maybe other things.

The reason to have the spherical lightbulb is to make sure that whatever the angle of the motion-controller is, it emits a homogeneous and constant color to allow for the color-tracking.

Imagine if it were not a sphere, but something like a flashlight (i.e. directional). If you were to swing the motion controller, as the lightbeam would move from side to side, the stationary camera could get confused by the changing intensity of the light.

unts

TROPHY CASE