Bosphorus Chronicle May 2015
Transcription
Bosphorus Chronicle May 2015
IN THIS ISSUE İ. Furkan Özcan in THIMUN Qatar Film Festival • 2 Say No to Discrimination! • 2 Spring at RC • 3 RCyberbullies • 4 Never without Desserts • 4 DAT - Turkey’s Biggest DI Tournament in RC • 5 The Man and the Lion Problem • 7 IBM Watson: A New Era of Supercomputers • 13 - 14 Ms. Bobcat: Lisa Seed Trujillo • 5 F = m • a ... and the Rest is Math: Ernest Verbowski • 6 Eyes on me Champions: Stephen Shifflett • 6 - 7 An Esssential Thinker and ASL Teacher: Jonathan Rau • 8 - 9 Colorful Socks, Interesting Ties, Purple and Blue Glasses: Philip Gee • 10 - 11 Finding the Glass Slipper: Güler Kamer • 12 Erkcan Özcan’s Higgs Boson Seminar • 14 Hack Your Life with Your iPhone • 15 Peer Mentoring Program • 16 The Mpemba Effect • 16 Diary of a Mad Performer • 17 Hidden Secrets of Izmir • 17 and... STATE OF SOUND • 18 - 19 Bosphorus Chronıcle May 2015 Issue Bosphorus Chronicle is the quarterly newspaper of Robert College Study, Grow Up and Conquer Your High School Zeynep Ünsal Özsu Rişvanoğlu Is there anything cooler on earth than becoming the main topic of a symposium organized by the school you graduated from? While you are studying there, with all the stress and the chaos, you cannot foresee the future. Would you study more vigorously if it was guaranteed that you would be invited back, with great admiration and respect, by your school 30 years after your graduation? Orhan Pamuk, was an introvert, a shy student, who had infinite creative madness. This positive madness flowed from his heart to his fingers and finally to his paper, in the form of art and writing. He was given all the main responsibilities in both the Art Club and the school newspaper at Robert Academy. In his interviews, he always mentions that as a teenager he read and painted while everybody else went to parties. In the symposium, he did not look like an introvert with his confidence and his bold and daring jokes. His height of 1.95 m (6 ft 5) and well-fitted suit only added to his confidence. The symposium began at 10 AM, with an introduction by Hande Akat and speeches from Mehmet Uysal and Headmaster Anthony Jones. Mr. Uysal mentioned his personal interest in and admiration of Orhan Pamuk; he even told us a memory that the two of them shared. In 1983, Mr. Pamuk was 31 years old and Mr. Uysal was already a teacher at RC. Mr. Pamuk had come to talk about his most recent novel, Silent House (Sessiz Ev). He had a small audience and the talk was in one of the Gould classrooms. Today one of the classrooms in Gould is dedicated to Orhan Pamuk. Mr. Jones talked about his earliest memories with literature and its importance in general. A very amusing quote from his speech: “If teachers told me to read, I ran in the opposite direction, and the more I was told to read, the faster a runner I became. A book felt like a large boulder dropped on me.” He also told us how his sister made him (at age 10) memorize Whitman’s poetry for her own amusement and how his brother gave him a copy of The Great Gatsby at the age of 15. After these introductory yet inspirational speeches, five notable academicians took turns speaking. Each one of them focused on a book of Orhan Pamuk’s. Prof. Dr. Nüket Esen (Boğaziçi University Turkish Language and Literature, Head of Department) was the chairwoman. She first talked generally about each Pamuk novel and then she did an analysis of Istanbul: Memories and the City (Istanbul: Hatıralar ve Şehir). It is an autobiographical novel. He mostly writes about his years in college, how his ideas were formed, how he started believing what he does today and how he left the Architecture Faculty and decided to become a writer. Engin Kılıç (Sabancı University, lecturer) talked about Silent House (Sessiz Ev). The ideas in this book create the basis for all Pamuk’s other books. The clash between the westernized intellectuals and the nationalist poor is shown widely and thoroughly. The polyphonic structure of the book is also admired because it shows how even a silent house is actually filled with both chaos and love between every family member. Doç. Dr. Özlem Öğüt from Boğaziçi University analyzed White Castle (Beyaz Kale). This book seems to have two main characters, but it doesn’t. And that’s the entire thing. Quoting from the book’s jacket,“The characters change places as the story goes from morning to evening.” Prof. Dr. Sibel Irzık, lecturer from Sabancı University, talked thoroughly about Snow (Kar). Snow is Orhan Pamuk’s first and only rather political novel. She stated that it should be read rather ironically and that if you take it too seriously when you read it, you miss the meaning. If you don’t take it seriously, you miss the love part of it. It’s a love story with politics interlaced in it. Prof. Dr. Besim Dellaloğlu, lecturer from Sakarya University, did an analysis of The Museum of Innocence (Masumiyet Müzesi). He mentioned that he likes the actual Museum of Innocence (in Çukurcuma, Beyoğlu) more than the book itself. He even said that if they make an encyclopedia of museums centuries later, they will use this museum’s opening as a turning point. There will be terms like ‘Before Museum of Innocence,’ ‘Museum of Innocence Era,’ and ‘After Museum of Innocence.’ The book itself is a very strong and important dictionary of obsessive love. The main character, Kemal, falls in love with Füsun. As in every Orhan Pamuk book, they have to break up and when they do, Kemal expresses his obsession thoroughly in 200 pages, making us feel his obsession. Even though the book is, plot-wise, a love story, it is mainly about objects. Kemal (and we can say Pamuk, too) believes that objects are very significant in our lives. He doesn’t mean a useful technological tool, he doesn’t mean a book that changed your life, The 10th Annual Culture and Literature Symposium, titled “Orhan Pamuk’s Novel Writing” and organized by the Turkish Language and Literature Department took place on Saturday, April 18. he doesn’t even mean the souvenirs you bought from your favourite city on earth. He believes in the strength of everyday objects. In Turkey, for some reason, on top of every television is a square piece of white lace placed diagonally, and on top of that there’s a ceramic dog figurine. In Füsun’s house, there are a bit too many of them –about 20 in the living room—so nobody even notices when Kemal pockets one of them every time he comes over for dinner. Kemal becomes a bit too passionate about this object collecting hobby; he starts to collect everyday objects like a grater, the soda bottle that Füsun drank from, and most importantly, cigarette butts. Exactly 4,213 of them. In the real life museum, those cigarette butts are carefully lined up and labeled. They look so beautiful and so full of love and passion that you want to collect and frame some from your lover. If you’re still not convinced that this is a great book, full of great ideas, it also has one of the best plot-twists in world literature. It is a classic one, but it comes when you’re least expecting it and it hits you because Pamuk is a master at making the reader feel what his character feels. In his speech before the long question and answer session, Orhan Pamuk talked about how he met and became comfortable with literature. During Turkish Literature lessons he put his head on the desk and slept, but one day his literature teacher wanted them to write a story. The teacher didn’t give the class any topic to write about; students were free to write what they wanted to. Mr. Pamuk said that this was the first time he felt close to literature. He was also writing poems, but he never showed them to others. One day he sent one of them to a poetry competition at Robert Academy but he didn’t win. He said that actually he was happy because nobody learnt that he was writing poems, but he waited for the teacher who evaluated the poems to come and tell him that he actually wrote a good poem. Now, all the litterateurs are thankful that he didn’t stop writing and instead became a master of expressing emotions. Left: Orhan Pamuk with RC Students | Middle and Right: Orhan Pamuk in the Library - Photo Courtesy of robcol.k12.tr May 2015 Issue BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE 1 Ekin Vardar Sinem Meydanlı One of Robert College’s students has recently won a prestigious award for his short movie “Blind Owl”. The film won the best cinematography award in THIMUN Qatar Film Festival. For those of you who wish to learn more about the Blind Owl, the Bosphorus Chronicle interviewed the director of the film, İbrahim Furkan Özcan (RC’16). Can you briefly talk about the plot of your film Blind Owl? Blind Owl portrays the story of a man who escapes from the city. The main character of the film isolates himself from all human connections, yet the real thing is that he is actually running away from himself. Since no one can hide from himself, he is trapped in his own mind. How did you come up with this idea? I go to dershane by using the metro very frequently, and one day I looked around and saw the city filled with sad people. I thought to myself “Aren’t we all sad?” and caught up in this rush. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be good to just leave all this behind?”, and after that I started to develop this idea. What was the process of shooting the film? What did you do? It took about three days for us to shoot the film. The actor in the film, Fuat Cem Özyazıcı (RC’16) and I go to the same dershane, so we shot the film right after the dershane. To be honest, I did not have a scenario; I used a storyboard to connect the ideas. Have you done anything like this before? Is this your first time? THE BC STAFF edıtors-ın-chıef Ece Selin Timur M. Miraç Süzgün Deniz Şahintürk A Screenshot of the Film NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION Interview with İbrahim Furkan Özcan I had shot a film for the Film and Literature class before. It was more of an experimental one, in which I tried some techniques like blackand-white and silent. How did you apply to the competition? My Film and Literature teacher said that there was such a competition Tuvana Kankallı Göksu Kalaycı (Guest Editor) Ayşe Leyla Ok Ezgi Yazıcı layout edıtors Tuvana Kankallı M. Miraç Süzgün layout Assistants Mert Akan Tunahan Ekincikli İdil Kara Ezgi Yazıcı Cover Photographs: Alex Downs *** Publisher: Birmat Matbaacılık *** RC adına sahibi ve yazı işlerinden sorumlu müdürü: Güler Erdur *** Bosphorus Chronicle is published quarterly during the academic year by Robert College students. We welcome letters to the editor, feedback, and articles by students. However, we reserve the right to edit all materials for reasons of appropriateness of length. Give your submissions to the advisor or one of the editors or send it to us via e-mail. All photographs published are taken by the writer unless otherwise credited. How to contact us: By mail: Robert College, Arnavutkoy 34345 Istanbul, Turkey. By e-mail: [email protected] Yerel Süreli Yayın 2 Bilge Tatar advısors Carolyn Callaghan Robin Carnegy wrıters Ali Berk Eroğlu Ali Çataltepe Arda Başaran Ayşe Leyla Ok Ayşe Esin Gezer Bilge Tatar Burak Tunahan Ekincikli Deniz Şahintürk Ece Selin Timur Ece Toprak Ege Ersü Ege İşkesen Ekin Vardar Ezgi Yazıcı İdil Çetin İdil Korkut İrem Deyneli Mehmetcan Özhan Melis Şingin Melisa Saygın M. Miraç Süzgün Oğuz Ceylan Oktay Şen Özsu Rişvanoğlu Rabia İdil Demirelli Roza Sürme Mızrak Sinem Meydanlı Şeyda Zeynep Ünsal Tuvana Beliz Kankallı Umut Deniz Dinç Zeynep Karababa Zeynep Naz Türkmen Zeynep Nehir Türkarslan Zeynep Sabuncu As the Bosphorus Chronicle, we congratulate Furkan for his success and wish to see more of his works in the future. Say No to Discrimination! sectıon edıtors Tunahan Ekincikli and someone had already applied for it before and won an award, so I applied as well. Furkan stated that he didn’t think he had a chance to get an award but it was an honor. You can watch his short movie “Blind Owl” which is posted on the Youtube account of THIMUN Qatar. People are louder, stronger and more assertive about a topic when they hold the majority. It is easy to defend a side that most people support because you know that someone has your back. It is harder to speak your mind or express your choices and your ideas if no one has heard them before, or if people strongly disagree. This is the main reason why minorities have not been able to define their identities and must hide who they truly are. Sometimes these minorities were the black people in the USA, Jews in Germany during World War II, and many more. They were under strict control, and from the movies we have seen and the books we have read, we can determine that there were not many people who were lending an ear to them. Plus, people were judgmental and negative toward these people; discrimination was inevitable in the end. If I study my own country, discrimination is a part of our daily lives. The main cause of this problem is our differences. I live in Erzincan, and every time I go out for a bicycle ride, all eyes gaze at me. Why? Because I am a woman. Because they don’t see a woman riding a bike every day. Because I am different. When I went to the UK for a summer camp, students were having a hard time making friends with participants from other countries. Why? Because they were not the same nationality. Because they BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE didn’t share the same culture. Because they were different. An acquaintance of mine couldn’t get into a police school when he was a kid, even though he passed all of the tests successfully. Why? Because he was an Alevi. Because he was different. I, too, have discriminated against others before. (Probably you have at some point in your life, as well). I was on an IETT bus with two of my friends. There was loud background noise, and it was hard to hear what my friend was saying. Then a transgender woman got on the bus. Silence. Everyone, including us, stopped talking. She took a seat. We started to stare at her. I knew it was wrong, but she was different from us, so I kept staring. A few people giggled. My friend made a joke, and I laugh at it. I did laugh at it. I can’t imagine how uncomfortable that person must have felt. As a person who has been discriminated against before, I regret every second I spent staring at the woman. Ayşe Arman interviewed a transgender woman on June 30, 2013. She asked her what difficulties she faced as a transgender person. She responded, “Every part of our life is full of challenges: To rent a house, to use public transport vehicles, to go to cafes, restaurants, to be treated in a hospital, to get education. The list goes on and on! In a nutshell, to live!” LGBT people also think that Europe is one step ahead of us. “If you lived in Europe, would it be different?” asked Ayşe Arman. The answer: “Of course. Societies who embrace LGBT people are more independent.” The same question was asked of Sedef Cakmak, first lesbian municipal member in Turkey. She replied, “In Europe, if you are assaulted by a stranger, you can go to the police and request protection under both civil and criminal law. Whereas in Turkey, the fear of being raped or being harassed makes LGBTs change their minds. Unfortunately in Turkey, violence is also committed by government agencies.” I see no reasonable explanation for discriminating against and marginalizing people. I think no one should. If someone thinks that living is a challenge, then there is a huge problem. As students, maybe we are not able to change the laws and make gay marriage legal, at least for now. As Mustafa Kemal Atatürk said, “ The rising new generation, the future is yours.” I’m speaking as the future of Turkey: Let’s say no to all discrimination. We have to accept that we are all different from each other. But we are all humans. That is why we all need to be treated equally. Works Cited: Andrew O’Brien. Man Demonstrates Against Discrimination of LGBT Persons. Digital image. Making LGBT Rights Human Rights Through the Global Equality Fund. AP Photo, 10 Dec. 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. Arman, Ayşe. “Her Yerdeyiz Ayol!” HÜRRİYET. N.p., 30 June 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. May 2015Issue January 2008 Issue NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION Spring at RC Robert College community missed its famous wisteria on Gould Hall this year, but spring is always the best time to be in RC. Here are the photographs of the campus as seen through students’ eyes. (From left to right): Top: AP Photography Class and Alex Downs, Middle 1: Ozge Erbay (RC15), Middle 2: Sarah Patterson, Bottom: Philip Gee/Facebook Account May 2015 Issue BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE 3 NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION NEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWSNEWSNEWS RCyberbullies Roza Sürme Mızrak Years ago, using a mobile telephone was a huge amount of work all by itself. First, you would have to find someone who owns a telephone. O.M.G. Can you imagine that? Fortunately nowadays, we all have new iPhones to help us reach whoever we want. Even teenagers, who require the ultimate care, have that kind of power under their hands. But, are they capable of the responsibility or the maturity that comes with that power? I think the newly found term “cyberbullying” is the answer for that. Although, “bullying” has its origins even before the industrial revolution, cyberbullying is a whole new level of harassment. As Raychelle Casada Lohmann wrote in her article “Cyberbullying versus Traditional Bullying”, contrary to the traditional bullies who face the victim directly, cyberbullies may remain “anonymous” and say or do things they would not do normally. Since it doesn’t involve a face to face interaction, it “decreases the level of empathy they feel toward the victim”. Because of this, cyberbullying is now more common than traditional bullying. According to research done by the University of British Columbia: “About 25-30 per cent of youth report that they have experienced or taken part in cyberbullying, compared to 12 per cent of youth who say they’ve experienced or taken part in schoolyard bullying.” Also, when it is about technology, it is harder for individuals to go offline and forget about what happened; you cannot just leave the school to leave it behind. It can reach you through your phone, computer and any technological device you have. Plus, it’ll never be truly erased or forgotten. Now, the fact that cyberbullying is much worse than traditional bullying is known to us, it is time to question the Robert College community to find out if we have victims of cyberbullying among us. In Turkey, it is known that parents and society will not endure a “visible” bullying. For instance, if you go straight to your friend and say: “You are as pretty as a frog”, everybody around her will develop an attitude towards you. However, because cyberbullying resolves the “visibility problem”, it is now one of the most common aggressive acts between teenagers in Turkey. But, there is a preferred method that bullies or groups of bullies use. It is called a forum or dictionary community. Like the international version of the Urban Dictionary, these “dictionaries” resemble huge chatrooms where you can ‘express your thoughts’ without giving your personal information. For most young people, it also means that you can offend others and be as aggressive as you want without being judged, or caught. There are lots of examples for these “dictionaries” like Uludağ Sözlük or ITU Sözlük. Yet, I’d like to talk about Ekşi Sözlük (Sour Dictionary), since it is one of the biggest online communities in Turkey with over 400,000 registered users. Ekşi is not a strict dictionary and the users don’t have to share or post factual information about the topic. This “information” sharing is on various topics ranging from scientific subjects to everyday life issues, but it is also used as a virtual socio-political community to mention disputed content and share personal views. The major problem begins at this point. Under the name of “personal view”, users/ authors of the dictionary pick a target and directly comment their -most of the time- offensive opinions about it. And the RC community is not exempt. Any scandalous news about the school, any teacher who got angry with them… just like that, our “beloved” members share their “personal views” in these dictionaries. And they are not only rude but also vicious and aggressive with their comments. Knowing that nobody can point a finger at them, our cyberbullies cross the line without giving much thought about it. But is that it? No, of course not. RCyberbullies, know that Ekşi Sözlük and others are not the only online platform that they can use to hurt someone’s feelings. Social media offers that option too. So, Instagram profile “@dedikodu_rob_dedikodu” was born in beginning of ast September. This profile shared pictures of girls in our school and captioned them with authors’ “personal” opinions about how they look. It was open to everyone and immediately went viral amongst students an hour after it was created. Although it was deleted the next day, by that time nearly the whole school knew it or at least saw the screenshots of the posts in their WhatsApp groups. Besides being critical and offensive, the authors mainly targeted physical appearance, which is already a huge issue for teenagers. The problems mentioned above are just the visible side of the iceberg. There are countless victims of cyberbullying that I’m unable to mention because they are too personal. And these are the ones only I know! Think about it. Were you or one of your friends talked about in a social media platform? Or have you seen your photo with a hideous caption? Or worse… Have you done anything like this to one of your friends? If you did, I’d like to tell you something. It might seem like a hilarious joke at the time and everybody might laugh at it. Maybe even the friend whom you made fun of, laughed at it too. However, as the days pass, your friend will hurt everytime he looks at his picture with a wig captioned: “What a chick!” And you would not be able to delete it because the Google Search archives literally EVERYTHING. Be aware and don’t put your friends in a position that she would have to explain that dance video in a job interview. Because the real meaning of the “www” is “Whole World is Watching.” Works Cited: Lohmann, Raychelle Cassada, M.S., L.P.C. “Cyberbullying versus Traditional Bullying.” Psychology Today 14 May 2012, Teen Angst sec.: n. pag. Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, 14 May 2012. Web. 08 Apr. 2015. Shapka, Jennifer. “Cyberbullying and Bullying Are Not the Same: UBC Research.” Thesis. University of British Columbia, 2012. The University Of British Columbia. The University Of British Columbia, 13 Apr. 2012. Web. 08 Apr. 2015. mix in the chocolate chips. If made correctly and blended long enough, this should have the exact texture of real cookie dough! Banana Cherry Garcia Ingredients: (makes 2 servings) - 2 frozen bananas, cut into 2 cm chunks -1 or 1/2 cups cherries, pitted and frozen (divided) - Splash of milk - 1/4 cup dark chocolate chunks (70% +) Place banana chunks, 1 cup cherries and splash of milk into blender/ food processor and blend until just combined. You may need to scrape down the sides a few times or add another splash of milk to help the mixture move. Add in chocolate and remaining 1/2 cup cherries, pulse until just combined. Serve immediately as this is a soft-serve ice cream. Top with shaved dark chocolate, cacao nibs or raw chocolate chips. Frozen Banana, Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chip Milkshake Ingredients: (makes 1 large shake or 2 small shakes) -2 medium bananas, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks - 2 tablespoons peanut butter - 1 cup milk -1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract -1/4 cup chocolate chips Freeze the bananas in a covered container for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Blend frozen bananas, peanut butter, milk, and vanilla in a blender until smooth. Add the chocolate chips at the end and pulse or blend briefly until they are chopped. Never Without Desserts Esin Gezer In the following weeks, we will all start to pay attention to our bodies to stay fit during summer. Exercising and working out are still the best ways to achieve your goals, but your diet also affects your weight. In this article, I am going to share some healthier desserts that you can prepare when you have sweet cravings. Healthy Cookie Dough Dip Ingredients: (high in protein, sugar- free!) - 1 or 1/2 cups chickpeas or white beans (cooked) - 1/8 tsp plus 1/16 tsp salt - Just over 1/8 tsp baking soda - 2 tsp pure vanilla extract - 1/4 cup nut butter of choice - Up to 1/4 cup milk of choice, only if needed - 3 tablespoons brown sugar - 1/3 cup chocolate chips - 2 to 3 tablespoons oats Add all ingredients (except for chocolate chips) to a food processor, and process until very smooth. Then Photo Courtesy of Thekitchn.com 4 BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE Photo Courtesy of Cakenknife.com JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 January 2008 Issue NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION NEWSNEWSNEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS DAT-Turkey’s Biggest DI Tournament in RC Zeynep Türkmen The weekend of 14-15 March, 2015, Robert College was Turkey’s center of imagination-- Destination Imagination’s Affiliate Tournament (DAT) took place at Robert College. More than 80 teams took part in the competition. Our school’s DAT club organized the tournament. Over 70 volunteers worked for 7 months, planning Turkey’s biggest DI tournament in history. The teams showed their efforts the whole weekend by completing their challenges. For the team challenge there were 6 categories: scientific, technical, fine arts, improvisational, service learning and structural. Teams had to create their own stories according to their challenge and present it within a budget of $150. Their job wasn’t finished after that. They still had to complete an instant challenge, seen for the first time in the challenge room. RC students prepared a video for the opening ceremony. In the video, RC students, staff, and teachers welcomed the DI community to our school. After the video Joe Welch (a.k.a. Mr. DI) made a short speech about the spirit of DI. With his up- lifting speech, DAT started with full speed. In several buildings team and instant challenges were held. In the meantime Robert College student organizers and volunteers tried to make sure that competitors were having the best time. In the end, DI is all about having fun. That’s why Woods Hall turned into a kind of disco. This event was designed to relax teams who were going into instant challenge, but it became very popular among the teams, so loud speakers were also placed in the canteen area. Participants danced to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” during the closing ceremony. The fun didn’t end with activities before and after instant challenges. The canteen area served as a fun hall for DAT. Charades, the hot lava game, a costume making contest, and mini instant challenges were part of the participants’ weekend. Adding to the entertainment, a pizza party and cupcake sale were part of DAT. In the dance studio they held a mini karaoke party. Contestants had no time to be bored. After a weekend full of teamwork and creativity, the closing ceremony started. You could feel the excitement in the air. First they showed a video clip made of photos of the weekend. Then it was time to announce the winners. First, second, and third place teams were called to the stage. Different emotions were all around the room. Two teams from Robert College, Dumb Ways to DI and DIdim DIdim Inanmadınız, took first place in their respective challenges and earned places in the Global Finals –“the world’s largest celebration of creativity”-- which will be held in Tennessee this May. Works Cited: “The World’s Largest Celebration of Creativity.” Destination Imagination. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. always caring. See you on Thanksgiving! - Lal Toker (RC’15) You are one of those people who believe in others no matter what; you started a dream that became a precious family for many of us. In this family I learnt what it means to be a team and to love it with all the good and the bad, with no judgments but only faith and trust. You were there when I scored my first goal; you were there when I missed the easiest shot in Portugal. No matter what, you’ve always been there for me. You welcomed all of us into this family and never even thought twice. Thank you for everything; hope you won’t think twice at thanksgivings as well! - Yasemin Tekgürler (RC’15) The blank page of my RC life had found all the colors in my prep year with Ms. Seed Trujillo. She always brought out the best out in me. Sometimes what I accomplished was so unbelievable that I found myself hugging her tightly as if she would never go away. I was incomplete when I entered her class and she found all of the missing pieces of me. I don’t know how to thank her for what she has done for me. She is my teacher, my coach and my role model. I hope one day I will also be someone who inspires many lost people, I hope one day I’ll become someone who is as determined, passionate, rightful, thoughtful as Ms. Seed. She made a change in hundreds of students’ lives in a short amount of time but she will always stay in the best place of our hearts. Thanks for everything you’ve done for us Ms. Seed, thanks for the changes you’ve made in our lives. -Aysu Sarıgül (RC’18) In home group, 4 years from now we would be seniors, we would get inside only after 2 seconds the bell rang but you would still mark us late, you would still be surprised to see a part of dress-code on us. We will be seniors and most probably we’ll have something that we won’t call home group without you. Ms. Seed you’re our whole prep year and one of the most precious people I got to meet in this school. I’ll miss you so much but I don’t worry cause you invited us once and nothing can withhold us from bothering you in your house in the states. You are an absolutely brilliant, annoyingly clever teacher, and a caring friend. Thank you for everything you’ve done for us. I love you so much. - İrem Özturan (RC’18) As Bosphorus Chronicle, we would like to share some of our favourite Mrs. Seed catchphrases. “Nice make-up!” “Hey, can you pull that skirt down? Looks a little short.” “The bell doesn’t dismiss you, I dismiss you!” “Not your bell!” “Ladies and gentlemen that is the bell!” “Happy ice cream Tuesday!” “Thumbs on your shoulders, eyes on me!” “Listen first, move second!” “Blackmail time!” “Hey, my ears work even when my eyes aren’t on you!” “Go Lady Bobcats!” “My baby Bobcats.” Farewell to Ms. Seed Trujillo Sinem Meydanlı Ekin Vardar Another wonderful teacher that the RC community is going to say goodbye to at the end of this school year is the Lise Prep Core teacher and the girls’ football team coach Ms. Seed Trujillo. The Bosphorus Chronicle interviewed her to learn about her experience in Robert College. What was it like working with the soccer team? I think it is one of the best things that I did during my years at Robert College. We started with four players four years ago and barely had a program, but now we have 32 players. I’m really proud. What is one thing you are going to miss the most about İstanbul? The ferryboats, I think. I love the ferryboats. I can see them from my balcony at home so sometimes I watch them avoid each other all the time. I am amazed everyday that there aren’t more ferryboat accidents. Could you tell us one of your favorite memories in RC? I fell down a lot around school so those are not my favorite memories as they are also embarrassing. But they are the students’ favorite memories because I looked silly when I fell. When I fell down the stairs after my knee surgery, that was really scary. I don’t think I can choose a favorite. I have too many good memories, but having former students return to my classes to sing was pretty cool. How would you describe your teaching experience in RC in a sentence? “If you must speak, use English.” What advice do you have for JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 your student here before they graduate? Read as much as you can. We know that it is a necessity that you have to go back to Colorado, so we wish you the best of luck Ms. Seed Trujillo. Farewell Messages from teammates and students: I can’t tell how I felt when she first shouted at me in the class because of my “non-dress code” clothes or when I tried to give an attitude and kept disrupting the class. Now it is really ironic that I can’t tell my feelings when I learned she was leaving school, a teacher that touched both my hateful and loving side. She is a teacher that taught me how to be tough and strong. And a coach to be always remembered… - Evin Cemre Sönmez (RC’18) To the best coach ever, I promise that I will carry the sportsmanship you have taught me everywhere throughout my life and will never beat anyone 7-0 -no matter how much I want to :)-. Thank you for everything, for believing in us, in me, for helping us become better athletes as well as people and for Photo Courtesy of Lisa Seed Trujillo BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE 5 NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION NEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWSNEWSNEWS F = m • a ... and the Rest is Math: Ernest Verbowski Zeynep Türkarslan How did you decide to come to Turkey and teach in RC? At that time, and this was quite a while ago, I was looking for a teaching position abroad. I had two offers: one to come to Robert College and one to go to Bermuda. I asked my son where he’d like to go and he chose Istanbul. That’s how we decided to come to Turkey. How would you explain to an outsider the life in Robert College? To me the most important thing about RC that kept me here would be the students. I saw that almost all of the students really do want to learn and to go to university. I think they are all genuinely inter- Mr. Verbowski (RC Yearbook of 2003) ested in getting a good education so that’s what distinguishes RC from other schools. In many other schools there are a good number of students turned off for various reasons. As a result there are many problems a teacher would have to deal with besides just being concerned about what to do to help students learn. Also I find the students in RC very patient and forgiving…at least openly, maybe behind my back not so much. What do you enjoy the most about your lessons? That’s probably the only part I enjoy about the school. I hate marking, I don’t like all the administrative work but I enjoy interacting with the students and also getting responses from them in class. Have you participated in any of the activities/clubs in RC? I’ve been a judge in DI for quite a long time, about 6-7 years. I’ve been doing floor hockey since it was introduced to the school. I was actually one of the people that introduced it to the school. Also I enjoy the Lise Live concerts if I’m able to attend them. End of the year concerts are the ones I enjoy the most. Sometimes I attend some of the sports events. It’s fun to watch the soccer games. How was living in Turkey for you apart from Robert College? I actually enjoyed the Turkish culture a lot. What kept me here was Turkey more so than the school. I stayed for the students and for Turkey more than anything else. I found the culture and the city very interesting when I came here. Most of the people I socialize with are not other teachers in school; they are Mr. Verbowski Looking Good (Photo Courtesy of Zeynep Türkarslan) people outside of the school. Many teachers just socialize with other teachers. They live on campus and mostly go out with the foreigners as a group. I spend most of my time on the Anatolian side. There are very few foreigners there. Some people think I’m a Turk. What are your plans after leaving Robert College? I’ve been here so long that I’m used to it and I’ve got attachments to many Turkish people. So I’ll probably live here roughly half of the year and the other half in Canada mainly because my children live there. Also I have other extended family in Canada. I’ll spend my time in between the two. How? …I don’t know. What are you going to miss the most about RC ? Probably I’ll just miss being with the students. My focus has always been being in the classroom with students, without the marking. It’s nice to know that you just helped students and they enjoyed learning. They may not like you as a teacher but you should try your best. You can’t satisfy everyone. There are some students who love their teachers and some don’t. I had some students who hated me. I hated some students and loved some too. That’s just the way it is. We have to all get along. That’s the reality. What is your favorite memory with RC students? Well, I don’t know. Through the years I’ve had a good time with the students. Having a laugh with them and even having them laugh at me. Or when somebody comes up to you and says, “I liked your class even though I didn’t get a good mark!” If you had a chance to change the past, would you still become a physics teacher? If not, what would you do? Well, I didn’t go into teaching until my late twenties. So I do have experience doing other things. I decided to go into it because I was interested in education and I stayed in it because I liked it. Whether I would do it again...I don’t know. If I didn’t do it again it would be probably because of financial needs, not because I wouldn’t enjoy it. Interview With Mr. Shifflett: The Only Thing as Awesome as Texas BBQ Umut Deniz Dinç Roza Sürme Mızrak “Eyes on me Champions,” says Stephen Shifflett, and it’s not just for fun. If I was to take a last look on earth, my focus would surely be at Mr.Shifflett. He deserves the eye, and here goes BC’s interview with the most fabulous teacher on earth. What is it that Istanbul has to offer more than Texas or anywhere else in the world? The reason for Istanbul being the number one travel destination on Earth is its very very rich history and beauty. Like Napoleon said, if he would have conquered the whole world he would run it from Istanbul 6 because it’s the meeting of East and West and every major area is reachable from here very quickly. What significant observations did you make about our country during your stay here? Very kind people. I was surprised at the lack of crime compared to Texas. When people from two restaurants in Kadıköy got into a fight and stabbed one another the headline in Turkish News read “It is becoming like Texas”. In the US that occurs so much that it doesn’t make headlines anymore unless it’s racially biased or something like that. When I moved here to Istanbul, my neighbor asked, “Oh, is it really dangerous over there? Are you dodging bombs and terrorist all over bla bla bla” That week, a lady that worked in a gas station got shot in the head near my hometown. Some man killed his wife, put her in the back of his truck. And so when you get here, I mean there is crime always. The major thing here is breaking into people’s apartments, which has happened to me. But that also happened in Texas. Because of insurgents and radical Islamic groups, people in the West think there are so many problems with Islamic groups. Any little thing happens, it gets blown up in the news in the West. But crime is so commonplace because of drugs and racial things in the US that, no one ever knows about most of it. Can you compare your experience living in Egypt and living in Turkey? Both places are very big and have a lot of traffic. Most problems come from being overcrowded. But it was in Cairo where I learned how to walk in and dodge traffic. Because as bad as it is here, you are even more likely to get run over in Cairo. At least three times our service bus got in an accident, and even ran over one guy on a bicycle. One time we were on a head on collision with two school service busses. Do you have the intention of becoming a family man? BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE If I can get this second novel written, I can think about the rest of my life. Is it true that everything is bigger in Texas? That does have some truth to it. You can fit two and a half of the UK inside Texas. Our GDP is roughly two times bigger than Turkey’s. Our ranches are giant. Our cowboy hats are the biggest. And our boots are the biggest. But we also have some of the biggest knuckleheads in the world in the form of the Tea Party. I will say this, some of the biggest social and religious fundamentalists in the world, even though they wouldn’t call themselves that. So it comes with the good and the bad. What is your first memory of RC? Also please compare students here to students you had in Egypt? Well, I’m glad you didn’t say Koç because that would get me in trouble. (Laughing) I remember coming out to the campus and being stunned by how beautiful it is. Just the build- ings and the view of the Bosphorus. You guys are much more studious than the students I had in Egypt. You guys are the cream of the crop. Students in Egypt were very lively, euphemistic way to put that. I do miss them. They were very quick with jokes. Extremely witty. Why two f’s and t’s in your surname? Because people back then were illiterate and didn’t know how to spell their names. And so, people’s spellings of Shifflett varied. First Shiffletts were brought to America to fight in the Revolutionary War. Afterwards we wandered up into the mountains,you know mountain people and making moonshine and running guns. So eventually we came down from the mountains and started going with the western front. Also double the fun, double the trouble right? (laughing) So you were trying to get to that. JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 January 2008 Issue NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION NEWSNEWSNEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS Mr. Shifflet Thinking for His Next Greatest Idea е = -1 πі Now here comes a serious question. We know that you are near finishing your second novel. Will your book sell in respect to what sells in today’s markets? That’s actually a very very good question because I have to make that decision every day. Whether I want to go more the way of literary or more the way of just complete pop fiction. People have been able to be successful with both. But success at all in book publishing has become such a rare thing that you can hardly gage it either way. I’m trying to do like Fitzgerald or Shakespeare where you are playing to both audiences but without ruining the integrity of what I’m trying to write. We know that travelling is a true passion of yours. Could you talk about that car accident which at the end encouraged you in this respect? My whole life, I had wanted to travel. So I was in a really really bad accident. It was a head on collision. The car was completely destroyed. People couldn’t believe that we made it out alive. The driver almost died and she still has a lot of problems from that accident. I was the luckiest. My head got split open, I was picking glass out of my head for two years. And my left arm was completely shattered. They had to reconstruct it and put two bars in it and they had to remove a lot of the muscle. They thought I would never be able to use my hand again. My sternum was also broken. Something occurred to me when the helicopter came to get the other person who was the worst hurt. I said I can either be dead or alive right now. The Universe doesn’t owe me anything. If I wanna accomplish anything, I need to do it now and not keep putting it off till tomorrow. So, in that next year I finished the novel Josie Unlimited and I started travelling to Greece. And I got a job in Egypt. That’s actually quite inspirational and extraordinary. Another extraordinary thing about you is that once you were blacklisted by Homeland Security. So how did that happen? For some reason, two or three people from Texas have joined ISIS, and they went through Turkey. Before I came here because of the book that I’m writing right now, I had to look into terrorist groups and I had to look into Special Ops stuff. I copied a lot of stuff and put it on the internet and then I look up that kind of Math Puzzles #3 stuff all the time. So that time that I went to Houston, in the kiosk in the very beginning where you scan your passport and it gives you a printout, well mine had an x across my face. And then I got taken to the back, not to the side to be questioned like they usually do. There were three other men and they were all Middle Eastern. I got questioned, they did research on me and they asked me so many things that only by researching my Facebook, getting access to it and that kind of stuff, they would have known. So I was on the list for a long time. Every time at the airport they had to look at all my electronics, check whether I was carrying explosives and so on. But finally I got it cleared up after a year or so. Lastly, what would you say about your alma mater UTexas at Austin? I expect some big insults to Harvard? Even the British education system ranks us as 22 in the world. Once you get past freshman English, especially in liberal arts, you are being taught by Harvard, Yale and Princeton professors. And so you are getting an Ivy League education at a much better rate. v - e + f = 2 The Man and the Lion Problem A man is stuck in a perfectly circular arena with a lion. The man can move as fast as the lion. Is it possible for the man to survive? (Assume each has infinite strength). * Hint 1: The following diagrams might help you to set up a strategy and solve the problem. * Hint 2: Infinite Series *** If you want to send your solution(s) to the Man and the Lion Problem, please send it as an e-mail to [email protected] or [email protected]. This question and the diagrams are taken from: “The Man and the Lion Puzzle: Pursuit and Evasion Game Theory.” Mind Your Decisions. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May 2015.. "Mathematics Moderne." Flickr. Yahoo!, 25 June 2009. Web. 05 Jan. 2015. JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE 7 NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION NEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWSNEWSNEWS An Interview with English Teacher Jonathan Rau Oğuz Ceylan Ece Toprak Before Robert College, what did you do, where did you grow up, where did you graduate, where did you teach? Why did you come to RC? So before I start, can I add my own preface? Today’s April Fools day, and you’ve got quite the fool in front of you. I don’t think... Don’t take it too literally. My sense of things is I am happy to answer stock questions and those kinds of things. Since I used to be the advisor for Bosphorus Chronicle. That’s not surprising. Yeah, you can say that, but I am a little worried, but not terribly worried, that a lot of what may come up in this interview will never make it. You must have a policy where you share whatever it is that you’ve done when you talk to a teacher, faculty member, whatever, before you publish it. You know what I’m saying? Yeah. But we couldn’t stay there for long. I mean, this city, Istanbul calls you. Yes, it has grown too fast, it has too many people, it drives you crazy, but it is a remarkable and unforgettable city. And you carry it wherever you go. Cool. Having said that, let’s go back to the question. Did you do research before you came? Yeah, we know that you travelled a lot before RC, but did anything have a great impact on you? I have a very long connection in my family to Turkey, as a country, as a culture, as a place etc… because I came to Turkey as a child a couple of times (and that was a long time ago) and a couple of times as an adult, in terms of teaching positions. The reason is my father worked for the US State Department; he was a diplomat, a Foreign Service officer, and among his postings, when I was very little, initially we were in Izmir, way back in the early 1970s. It was a very different time, and after that for 2 or 3 years he was assigned to Istanbul as an economic counselor, and this would’ve been the mid-70s or so. And that was my first experience of Istanbul as a child. We lived in Rumelihisarı, I can even show you the house that we lived, which is right next door to where my boy goes to preschool. A lot has changed since then. Anyway, flash forward many many years later, in the United States, I was in university, and got my bachelors and my masters. I knew I was going to be a teacher, but with my background, rather How would you explain to an outsider the life in Robert College? So, when you say outside you mean someone who doesn’t live in the school or is not connected to the school? Not connected to the school. (Puffing.) It’s very tricky. So, it depends on that person. If I was talking to a person in Turkey, I’d have a different answer to an American. Photo Courtesy of Hayatturizm.com than immediately seeking work in the United States, I said, “It’s a big world, I am still young, I am interested in going abroad teaching somewhere outside of the United States”. And one of the first places that came to my mind was Turkey. I don’t want to make this too long of a story, but eventually I ended up getting a job in Üsküdar American Academy. In a way sort of RC’s sister school, because they both go way back in terms of history, although Üsküdar had a different orientation from the very beginning. Anyways, that was my first experience of working and teaching in Turkey, and that was when I got married to my wife who’s from Istanbul, and it was a good experience for the most part - very different but quite good. But after that point, we decided to go and work in the United States. My wife got an American citizenship, and we returned to Washington, D.C. for 7 years. (I’m returning to DC now, as that is what I call home). Think that you’re talking to a parent who wants their kid in Robert College. What would you say to that person? So, a parent here in Istanbul who wants their child in RC? I’d ask them, “Why do you want your child in RC?” Because it’s a costly place as elite private schools are. So, I’d ask what their ultimate aim was, what they expect out of this school, do they expect their child to be accepted by a high brand university or whatever, I’d say it’s a very mixed bag. But I understand why people want their children to be in this school, I know what state schools are like, and I understand parents want- Left: Mr. Rau on His Way to Home | Right: Mr. Rau in His Office (Photo Courtesy of Robin Carnegy and Ece Toprak) 8 BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 January 2008 Issue NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION NEWSNEWSNEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS Mr. Rau with His Senior Students (Screenshoots from the Senior Film - RC’15 by Derin Eğrikavuk) ing their children to have a better school experience than they’d have there. And why Robert over other private schools in the area? - and this would include my answer to someone outside of Turkey. RC is what some people call a legacy school; it’s been around for so long, it’s older than the modern Turkish Republic, and its intricately bound to the history of Istanbul for the last 150 years certainly, and it has produced some of the best known figures in Turkish politics, art etc… So, the reason why it is a legacy school is because it has a reputation that it can rest on, even though it has gone through certain changes. So there are tremendous rewards for people that come here. But I know that RC, like any other institution, has its problems, that the school does not advertise, like all other institutions. And I wish that this school could be more forthcoming, more open, and more transparent about things. Let me give you an example, there has been a certain incident involving a young person whose family wanted to get her into RC, with what some people call a loophole, and using some connections in MEB to mandate that the student to be admitted. I think one of the best things to happen was that the headmaster let everyone in the faculty know this was happening. That’s a degree of what I call transparency. And I think far more of that should happen. -This is me being idealistic here- because I think that a school should not be like other businesses. You know? A school is a special kind of place. A school should exist because of students and nothing else in my mind. At the very least a student should learn about ideals in terms of education and human behavior etc… So that when you get out to the rest of the world, you’re going to experience bad things. But you should be able to imagine a better situation. What are your plans after leaving Robert College? For me, I will continue to be a teacher as I like to be in a classroom. I genuinely like that. I know that a high school can be tricky at times, however I really like high school students, I like the age group. So again, my plan is to teach at a secondary school, which is what a high school is. What was your favorite memory with RC students? God, there are so many. They’re so hard to pick because I have to exclude other ones. I have lots of memories, but there is one thing that never changed for me that I really like. Anyone teaching here in Turkey will know what I am talking about. This goes all the way back to Üsküdar, and it has happened everywhere and it is a strange phenomenon. I’ll be travelling on a plane, on the airport, and inevitably I’ll somehow see students and former students. And this is not like encounters on Facebook or Twitter, this is like in a museum in NY, encounters in shopping malls, odd ones here in Turkey. Someone says, “Mr. Rau!!!” and I’m like, “It’s happening again.” And often I remember the faces; most often I can remember the names too. And let’s say if I see you again in 10 years I’ll be like, “Was it Oğuz? Or was it something else?” It’s not that Turkish names are hard, it’s just there are so many. I remember being in Vatican Museum one time with my family on a trip and I heard this voice behind me saying, “Mr. Rau what are you doing here?” And I turned around and it was a student that I had here in Lise 10 7 years ago. And this happened about 5 years or so ago. And I said, “What are YOU doing here?” It happened over the Atlantic Ocean, on a plane. I’m not lying, I was back from the bathroom or something and I am walking the aisle and the voice, “Mr. Rau!” and I’m like, “Oh my god I can’t get away.” What are you going to miss the most about RC/Istanbul? I’ve been eating Turkish food since I was child, so not that. I like food from all kinds of places and to be honest, you can find quality Turkish food in NY too from the immigrants that go there. I won’t have to hesitate about RC, because it is going to be the students. No question about that. I’m not saying that to curry favor. If Robert didn’t get such cool people as students - and when I say cool I mean smart, clever and mostly humane - without them this school would be a beautiful campus that meant nothing. What I already miss about Istanbul – and this is me being nostalgic and getting oldas crazy as this sounds, when I go out with my wife and my boy and we have been doing this recently, invariably we go to the older parts of the city. I know there is change and economic progress, but I miss old Istanbul. I miss institutions. Pamuk writes that Istanbul has a feel to it that is absolutely unique. This feel includes some melancholy, not depression, like a beautiful sadness of this city that has been around for so long. It just seems to be exuded. It’s getting harder to find. But that feeling of Istanbul is one of the things I’ll miss most of this city. What would you change that you found ineffective or inappropriate during your time in RC, especially during recent times? It depends. There are so many different ways I can answer this question. The thing is, the administration needs to look over their most powerful resource and it’s not technology; technology is a great tool, but it does not create human capital. They don’t need to look outside of these walls to look for new ideas, more humane ideas, that’s what makes us a school. And I think if they invest in human capital, it’ll be better building towards trust. This school, I think should have the best morale, feeling of well-being, of any place. Yet I often find just the opposite is true. There’s too much under the table, too much gossip. That’s what I meant by transparency. Trust and utilize teachers and students more. Mr. Rau with His Students As the school year is coming to an end, the joy of summer and the idea of a long awaited vacation are emerging in everyone’s heads. Summer is also bringing bittersweet memories for the members of the Robert College Community. Bosphorus Chronicle wants to bid farewell to the beloved teachers who are leaving RC at the end of the year and hear about their future plans and what they will miss the most. We sure will miss them. JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE 9 NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION NEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWSNEWSNEWS Colorful Socks, Interesting Ties, Purple and Blue Glasses: Philip Gee Ezgi Yazıcı M. Miraç Süzgün Melis Şingin After spending seventeen years in Robert College as an English teacher, Philip Gee talks about the time he first came to RC, how he became a student-favorite teacher and recounts his infamous stories in Robert College since 1998. Exclusive to Bosphorus Chronicle, Mr. Gee also gives us a sneak peek about his speech for RC’15 Graduation Ceremony. How and why did you come to Turkey years ago? Do you want me to tell you the whole story? Okay, I will keep it short. I took a year off at the school I worked at in Sweden and did a master’s degree. I should have gone back to the school where I worked, but I decided to have a year off. During that year I got bored, and I started sending my CV all over the world. I was particularly looking for schools where it said they have very smart children. It’s easy to work with clever kids. Then I saw this school advertised in a conference, it was Robert College, and it said “We take the best and the brightest.” Those were the words they used. I contacted Mr. Edmonds; he forwarded my e-mails. And then, the school asked me if I would be interested in working for two months, because two teachers were ill. That’s how I came. April of 1998... and I have stayed here for seventeen years. What are your plans after you leave RC? I will go to Sweden; my ex-wife lives there. I need company. I will definitely travel, but my ex-wife was thinking about living in Iceland. It is one of the nicest places on Earth. Is there anything that you wish to do before you leave Istanbul? Before I leave, I want to go down to Eminönü again. That region is my favorite place in Istanbul: Beyazıt down to Galata Bridge. How was living in Istanbul for seventeen years? PG: Oh, I’ve got so many memories about Istanbul. The school, Robert College students got better and better. When I first came, it was very difficult with the old Lise. But, I’d say, the last 5 years, at least, students have been much easier, discipline-wise. Before, there were some tough classes. Now the problem is just the computers, kids playing on phones and computers. Also, the kids in Turkey never stop talking. That was a culture shock for me when I first came from Sweden to Turkey. In Swedish classrooms the kids are silent, but here . . . There is never any silence, is there? In EkşiSözlük it is written that you negotiate about grades. Is this true? Don’t tell anybody about that. I used to do pop quizzes, and I knew who didn’t read the book. Nobody reads the books now. So, I don’t even bother to give pop quizzes. What is the point of teaching the book if no one has read it? Anyway, I used to give these pop quizzes, and I used to do all sorts of tricks, like I’d give them the paper and put the questions overhead. Then I would walk out the room to my office. Then I would look from the window of my office, where I could see them all, running around. They would be copying and asking each other. After a while, I would walk back and make a big noise as I came in the room, they would all be sitting quietly. I would said “Nobody spoke? Nobody cheated?”. When I would start asking the answers, all the kids that hadn’t read the book would start giving all the right answers. But, that was probably the only time they learned anything, when they asked their friends. I used to make those deals as well. I used to go and say “If you haven’t read the book, admit it now, and I’ll give you ten marks.” I wouldn’t give them the points, but then they would confess that they hadn’t read the book. And I always allow students to appeal against their grade, in writing, and referring to the marking criteria. By doing this, they examine their own work and are able to defend their writing, It’s a great teaching tool. So, if you were a student at RC, would you read the books and be a “good student”? When I was in school I was a bad student, but I did read the books; I enjoyed reading. You are an English teacher, that is why. What about Science and Mathematics? Science and maths were all zeros, and also French. I was a very bad student. I mean, I can count; I can Janelle Bondor, Philip Gee, Andrea Holck 10 BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE Mr. Gee Looking Smart (RC Yearbook of 2003) do multiplication. I was good at mathematics and geometry; but then, logarithms came. I got lost there. It didn’t mean anything, and chemistry: never meant anything. All those equations, and I was like “Ha?” paintings on Facebook. But you seem like you are not very good at technology... No, I am pretty good at technology. You have a big collection of songs, poems, paintings, photographs and you like to show them to the class... Really? You came to our prep class, three years ago, to substitute for a teacher and you opened your computer in fifteen minutes or something. Yes, I used to have them as desktop background, remember, changing throughout the class. It just makes it nicer, doesn’t it? The reason is you, it is for your benefit. To make life pleasant for you. I played music in the mornings in class. I use Facebook in the same way; I put nice quotations or Maybe I was doing it deliberately, because I was substituting for a lesson. Probably I was not very excited about it, but still I believe technology is very useful but overused. Kids are just learning now to sit in the room with a computer or a mobile phone. I just looked out the window in break time and I Mr. Gee Holding the Fire Extinguisher in front of the Cafeteria JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 January 2008 Issue NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION NEWSNEWSNEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS pen again, so I spent around two years preparing a speech and two years writing a letter, refusing to do the speech. So, you have some kind of a speech ready now? I’ve got the speech, just need to polish it everyday. I am leaving it for a while now, when I go back and read through it, I immediately see where it is wrong or where it sounds like a speech. I don’t want it to sound like a speech. In 2009, some students said, “You put so many quotes.” I know what was wrong with the one in 2009: it was when I got serious, it wasn’t good. I have to be serious, but in a different way this time. Students say that you are one of the best teachers at RC now, is it true? Mr. Gee’s Famus Mind Maps saw five boys sitting, all of them were on mobile phones, but that is the way that the world is going. I mostly use technology in the class, but for the last several days I only used a piece of paper. Those classes were the two best lessons I had in Modern Novel course, all year. and: “Ah! That’s the way to deal with them.” I had a trouble with a boy called Alperen Elibol (RC’15), and I had to find out how to deal with him and I read about it. “Ah, he is an Aries. It’s no good fighting with them.” Alperen and I are good friends, so it is a very helpful book for teachers. On the first day of a school year, you ask students their horoscopes and write it down. Your mind maps about everything are famous among your students. How did you start doing them? You are an Aries, aren’t you? If I have a problem with you in class, I would look at my horoscopes book. It tells me everything about the student. When I have a problem with a student, I can read it When I was in my university’s first year, I was a normal, mediocre student. And in the second year, I read a book called “Use Your Head” by a man named Tony Buzan. He gave me the idea of doing the mindmaps. I went back to college, stuck in boring lessons with boring teachers -you know what it’s like- and I started doing mindmaps and it made it all interesting. Then, I’d read books and I’d copy things from the book. I’d do them sort of a design, so I could see everything. And, when I went to exams, I was able to turn the pages of the notes in my head. So, I became the top student at my second year at (Manchester) University. I noticed the best students started doing them. Deniz Saip (RC’15) was always a mind mapper since she met me, and where is she going next year? Yale? Is it true that this year’s seniors (RC’15) chose you to make the graduation speech? No, it is Mr. Verbowski. Really? No. (Mr. Gee laughs) How was writing another speech six years ago, for the Class of 2009? I can show you the document and you can see I worked on it for twelve hours, just editing the document. I edited it 124 times. I lost 4 kilos in weight. I lost sleep. In the end of the speech, Mr. Chandler (the former headmaster) said “It was torture for me.” I had begun preparing it in 2007 because I knew that class would probably vote for me. I spent two years doing it. This class now, I also knew this was going to hap- In the world . . . I’m just kidding. I don’t really, but I think I am the best teacher at making contact with students and understanding how they feel. I think I’ve got a gift for being in the classroom. It is like “I just said the right thing at the right moment to a certain person that can inspire him.” I thought about it a lot, saying the right word at the right moment. I thought about great footballers; it always goes right for them. Why do they always do the right move? It is just a gift, isn’t it? They have been given that little gift, and I think I got that little gift, for hitting the right moment and saying the right things and not upsetting the students, or if I am upsetting them, to be able to realize it. If you were to define yourself with three adjectives, what would they be? Considerate (people keep saying that to me, so I will say that), irreverent, cantankerous. The Evolution of the Mr. Gee - Actually He Never Changes, But How? [Left: 1998, 2003, 2008] (Photo Courtesy of Facebook, RC Yearbook of 2003 and LinkedIn) JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE 11 NEWS&OPINIONBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS&OPINION NEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWSNEWSNEWS Finding the Glass Slipper: Farewell to Güler Kamer İdil Korkut Zeynep Sabuncu Turkish director Güler Kamer is a beloved person who has been in charge of our school for many years. She is known for her eloquent speeches in ceremonies and kind-hearted behavior toward students. She is also a successful and well-known director who cares about other people’s feelings and is open to new ideas. Unfortunately, she has been ill for a few weeks, so instead of giving a farewell interview, we decided to interview people around her and learn more about her journey at Robert College. Before coming to RC, Güler Kamer was living in İzmir with her family. The previous RC Turkish Director retired; at Maria Orhon’s recommendation Güler Kamer applied for the job and became the new Turkish director of Robert College. Maria Orhon explains: “I met Güler Hanım at a conference in Bilkent University the year before she came to RC. She was then the Turkish director of ACI. She was a relatively new teacher, but I really liked her energy and she seemed to know a lot about education. A few months after that our Turkish director retired. I said ‘I know somebody who speaks Turkish and English; she is really fun and she really likes education.’ At first, she said ‘Thank you very much. I feel so honored that you’ve asked me, but you know my life is here,’ and then two or three days later she called and said, ‘I actually asked my family and I am really interested in the position.’” Güler Kamer has had very nice memories with her colleagues throughout her Robert College journey, and she has been a lovely person to the people around her. Tulu Derbi narrates, “It was my first year in Robert College. It was either December 2004 or January 2005. Her dog gave birth--the dog that passed away, the mother of Panda--and I was one of the first ones to see the babies, and they were really cute and tiny. Also one day one of our faculty members ran over a mother cat that had one kitten. I was looking for a home for it and Güler Hoca said, ‘I will take her.’ I love her heart. She has a very big, compassionate heart. She is also passionate about her job. She loves people, and she wants the best for people.” Tulu Abla is not the only one who appreciates Güler Kamer’s heart. Margaret Halıcıoğlu says, “Güler Hanım has taught me so much and she has always been willing to support and guide me. We are all learning new things every day and Güler Hanım has been a very influential teacher for me. I also love that one of her favorite colors is orange!” Headmaster Anthony Jones says, “Her high school experience in Izmir shaped her thinking and life profoundly. It is not that she refers to it occasionally out of some blind pride; it is the opposite: she reconnects to it and draws strength from her years there with a deep, heartfelt sense for the values her school provided her; the people who gave their lives to educating her and other students of her generation; and the principles for which they stood. I always marvel at and appreciate Güler when I catch these glimpses into her past, seeing the origin of her principles and actions, recognizing how entwined they are, deep-rooted, life-long, passionate and steadfast. That is truly remarkable.” Another person close to Güler Hanım, her assistant Lora Demirciler, states, “She is very fair, humane and humble. I enjoy working with her, and she is really peaceful. She is the kind of woman that even though you make a mistake, she can tolerate it.” She is also sincerely loved by RC students. She always treated them in a friendly and kind manner. As Ahmet Kadri Türker (RC’18) says, “Once she greeted me in the corridor, even though she didn’t know who I was. I think it’s nice and sincere that she cares about students.” Her energy and enthusiasm about education reflects her attitudes toward Robert College students. Every student appreciates her personality. As Emre Akşehirlioğlu (RC’18) says, “She said she was very sorry that she couldn’t attend my play because she was ill. It was really nice to know that she cared.” Whereas Emre Akşehirlioğlu’s memory shows Güler Hanım’s sensitive side, Buket Mat (RC’18) has a fun memory about her. “We came across each other on the top of a castle in Greece by coincidence. She was very friendly. She kissed me without knowing my name, took a photo and shared it on Facebook.” Baran Abalı (RC’18) points out, “Although she is the director and an important person, she is not someone unapproachable.” Students also love to listen to her speeches. İdil Çetin (RC’18) says, “She prepares her speeches conscientiously and I can see that she enjoys her job,” and Meltem Özge Güneş (RC’18) admits, “I adore her speeches. They are so sincere and sentimental that sometimes they make me cry.” Although everyone appreciates her personality, dedication and hard work, she has other traits and hobbies as well. Margaret Halıcıoğlu says, “Güler Hanım is an amazing classroom teacher. I wish that more RC students had had the chance to have her as their Turkish teacher. She is innovative, very creative, engaging, and passionate about literature and film.” She also loves MUN, as Tulu Derbi states, “Until this year she attended TIMUN for so many years, and she loved it.” Another hobby is writing and collecting old treasures. As her assistant Güney Savaş says, “We both love Robert College Community Will Miss Güler Kamer second-hand shops. Sometimes we go there and have so much fun. We never turn back home without buying something. She is also really good at writing. She has poetry collections and she loves writing poems.” Consequently, she loved her years in Robert College and fulfilled her responsibilities as Turkish Director. Güler Hanım talked about being a Turkish director in the “Memories at RC” prepared by Levent Keser (RC’07), Cansu Aydede (RC’07) and Levent Tüzün (RC’07), “Today I feel the responsibility and the pride of being the Turkish director of the most respected school in Turkey. I live in one of those houses that I had eyed with great admiration and a little bit of envy on that first day. I teach the most intelligent and perceptive students and enjoy my profession. Who knows, perhaps I made a subconscious wish from my heart on the day that I strolled through this green paradise with Güliz Hanım… and somebody heard this wish.” After that she completes her thoughts with these two sentences, “In short, I was offered to try on the glass slipper that I had left behind, years ago, in a hurry. And, I think, it fit me…” Left: Güler Kamer Giving a Speech at the 2012-2013 Opening Ceremony | Right: 2014 Teacher’s Day Luncheon (Photo Courtesy of robcol.k12.tr) 12 BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 January 2008 Issue NEWSNEWSNEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS FEATURESBOSPHORUSCHRONICLEFEATURES IBM Watson: A New Era of Supercomputers Arda Başaran Tunahan Ekincikli Especially in the last decade, technology has become an essential part of our daily lives. Every day we send tweets, talk to people who are kilometers away online, do assignments and browse the internet with computers, play online games, eternalise our memories with cameras, listen to our favorite bands with music players, read novels with e-book readers and even check the time with smart watches. It is irrefutable that technology makes our lives easier in many ways and therefore we consult it maybe millions of times every day. In fact, the article you are reading right now wouldn’t be published without the devices mentioned above. Is this the end of the story, then? Well, according to engineers at IBM, technology will continue to provide more inventions that will change our lives radically, and one of them is Watson, a supercomputer made by IBM. In seven questions, The Bosphorus Chronicle decided to find out what is so important and groundbreaking about Watson. First of all, what is a supercomputer? Supercomputers are basically computers that perform at very fast rates compared to regular ones. For example, the current fastest supercomputer is the IBM Roadrunner, and it is designed to make 1.7 petaflops (1.7*10^15) calculations every second, whereas a regular computer is capable of making 3 billion (3*10^9) calculations. Of course, such a great performance has costs: Supercomputers are very expensive; their starting price is more than 6 million US dollars. Furthermore, they occupy a lot of space, 15.000 m^2 on average. Therefore, only institutions and universities use them. For example, using supercomputers, researchers at CERN try to develop a model of the universe after the Big Bang, climate scientists at universities forecast hurricanes and seismologists simulate the effects of earthquake waves. The United States, Japan, and China are known as the biggest supercomputer manufacturers on earth. Turkey, on the other hand, is believed to have 2 supercomputers; one is located at İstanbul Technical University and the other one in Ankara. Last year, Yıldız Technical University and Huawei made an agreement to build the fastest supercomputer in Turkey. What is Watson? Is it a supercomputer as well? Watson is an artificial intelligence that was developed by IBM. It is named after Thomas John Watson, the founder of IBM. It is a computer system that has the ability to “learn.” Developed as a part of the DeepQA research program, the system is coded in Java and C++. It can be seen as the second challenge of IBM, the first one being Deep Blue-- the chess-playing computer that beat Kasparov. In 2004 IBM researcher Charles Lickel came up with the idea of an even more extensive and advanced artificial intelligence: one that would play and win the game Jeopardy!. In 2005, research executive Paul Horn supported Lickel and started working on the project for the first time. The aim was to build a system that would be able to answer questions within seconds. In 2010, Watson competed with the best competitors of Jeopardy! In the end, it left behind all of its opponents and won $ 77,147. With this victory, it became the first computer to publicly understand and analyze human language. What makes Watson so special? The main feature of Watson is that it can understand and interpret English in a way similar to that of a human being. It is a system that uses analysis, understanding, evaluation and learning algorithms. It can come up with hypotheses, look for evidence and come up with conclusions. This 3-million-dollar Watson on Jepardy (Photo Courtesy of Ibm.com) JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 IBM Watson’s Hardware (Photo Courtesy of Hoovers.com) system can analyze 500 gigabytes of data in a second! In an article published in Fortune three years ago, Watson project researcher Dr. Saxena explained that considering that most of the current information of humanity is generated in the last few years, one can easily say that there are lots of data that are not analyzed, and it is not an easy task to come up with useful conclusions with all this information. That’s where Watson comes into play. With its great processing power, it can scan 200 million web pages in just 3 seconds. How does Watson work? Watson is a cognitive computer, meaning that it just acts like a human being instead of a regular machine, following very strict mathematical relations and producing limited answers. Before making a decision, humans follow 4 steps. First, we observe the physical phenomena. Second, we interpret what we observe and what we know to draw hypotheses. Third, we compare the results of these hypotheses and evaluate which ones are correct or wrong. Finally, we make a decision. Watson can take these steps at really high speeds. Instead of using only constituted data like normal computers, Watson also does research for unconstituted data online, like tweets, articles, blogs, news, reviews, posters, literature, etc. Of course, before starting to do web research, it has to be given a massive amount of data and taught by programmers to be able to distinguish between different kinds of sources. Since it is programmed by experts, it can understand language. Different than a basic search engine that looks for certain keywords, Watson breaks the sentences down by grammar rules and actually reads just as a human does. This property makes it capable of understanding idioms, phrases that do not make sense grammatically, as well as jargon that is specific to certain fields. Finally, when Watson searches for and finds information, it does not stop. With the knowledge it has, Watson makes viable hypotheses and searches for supportive data online. Therefore, it can constitute probable questions even before they are asked by humans. In what industries can Watson be used? Since Watson looks for certain patterns, it can easily enhance our understanding and expertise in many ways. For instance, Watson can help metallurgists find new alloys by searching for chemical properties of elements and building necessary models. Watson can help researchers trying to develop effective drugs by considering treatment methods of diseases. It can help lawyers who are trying to establish new regulations by providing statistics for crimes, and even cooks by combining different spices and ingredients. Researchers at IBM state that there is an infinite number of ways that we can make use of the capabilities BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE of Watson. Will Watson be a part of our lives in the future? It has a big potential in both professional and daily life with its ability to understand human language and its fast-paced analysis. After all, it can solve very complex problems and come up with solutions or answers. Also, it may be helpful to come up with academic benefits. As mentioned above, in a vast variety of fields Watson has the ability to work fast. Like a superhuman, Watson can do the research, calculation or evaluation of thousands of people on its own. Also, if the project is developed enough and is ready to use in professional life, it could reshape banking and marketing fields. For example, South Africa Standard Bank analyzes its client information in order to improve customer services. A recent development was the release of Watson Analytics in the last quarter of 2014. Watson Analytics is a package of effective and visual tools and services. Its first version is based on cloud computing and it is being developed for use on desktop computers and smart phones. What do experts think about Watson? There are different views about the way that Watson works and what it is capable of. Even though most people agree that Watson is the ramification of riveting engineering, there are a few points that experts focus on. For instance, assistant professor Jordan Boyd-Graber from the University of Colorado states: “A huge engineering effort, and very impressive, but I don’t think it changed the way people do their research. It would have more of an impact on research if they shared their code, but IBM rarely does that” (Quora.com), meaning Watson will not really change the way research is done since it is not an open-source project and 13 NEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWSNEWSNEWS therefore will not be accessible by many. Furthermore, Abhishek Ghose, a data scientist, states “The purist in me would argue that this is a messy system and does not reflect true AI,” which means that Watson is based on probabilistic data given by the experts in IBM, and it does not have a really complex algorithm. Watson has a totally different architectural structure compared to other computers. That’s why several universities provide courses about cognitive computing and Watson itself. Maybe Watson will be the future of computer science. Maybe in the next decade we will be able to use Watson in our smartphones, and considering that there are plans to make Watson understand other languages as well, maybe Watson will be the universal artificial intelligence that actually looks as good as the ones in sci-fi movies. How far will it go? This we cannot answer, but Thomas Watson, Jr. answers, “How far should it go?” “Our machines should be nothing more than tools for extending the powers of the human beings who use them.” Works Cited: Ghose, Abhishek. “What do AI, ML, and NLP researchers think of IBM Watson?” Quora.com. N.p., 27 June 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. Graber, Jordan Boyd. “What do AI, ML, and NLP researchers think of IBM Watson?” Quora.com. N.p., 16 Aug. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. “IBM’den Bilim Kurgu Gibi İş Analitiği Çözümü.” Eticaretmag. com. N.p., 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. IBM Watson. IBM Watson: How it works. Youtube.com. N.p., 7 Oct. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. “IBM Watson, karar alma biçimlerimizde devrim yaratıyor!” Gazeteekonomi.com. N.p., 16 Feb. 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. Rouse, Margaret. “Supercomputer.” Whatis.techtarget.com. N.p., 1 Sept. 2008. Web. 9 Apr. 2015. “Watson Projesi.” Kobitek.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015. “What is Watson?” Ibm.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. Thomas Watson Jr. (Photo Courtesy of Bloomberg.com) A Slice of Life, the Universe and Everything: Erkcan Özcan’s Higgs Boson Seminar Ali Çataltepe Since time immemorial, humanity has been curious as to how it got here. Delving into that question, of course, has always been hampered by the need to develop the technology to provide the environment to do so (not to mention seeing to our more basic needs), but now since that standard of environment has finally been reached, we have been looking and theorizing billions of years backwards in time, shrunk the scales of our foci to that of subatomic particles, or expanded them to encompass clusters of galaxies. Particle, quantum physics, and cosmology meet at CERN, the home of the largest and most powerful particle collider in the world, “The Large Hadron Collider”, not to mention one of the biggest physics powerhouses on Earth. On March 5th, 2015, Associate Prof. Dr. Erkcan Özcan, a physicist from Boğaziçi who also works at CERN, came to Robert College to give a seminar on the subject of CERN and its achievements, focusing on the nature and discovery of the Higgs boson. The Bosphorus Chronicle has tried to provide an insight about the topics that were covered in the seminar. Dr. Özcan began his speech by stating that he wanted to tell the audience “the story of the Higgs from another perspective.” He went on to a short introduction to the field of physics, claiming that there was “something more than doing plain technical work” to it, then started describing CERN. The Inside of the ATLAS Particle Detector (Photo Courtesy of Nasa.gov) The Large Hadron Collider Tunnel is 27 km in cirumference. (Photo Courtesy of Cern.ch) 14 BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE Most people who have heard of the facility straddling the border between Switzerland and France know that it’s gigantic, and the figures Dr. Özcan presented regarding its user base were thus no surprise. The bulk of the people at CERN consist of independent “users”, members of observer and associate states (the latter group of which Turkey joined on May 12th, 2015, having observed since 1961 and being slated to become a full member in 2016, and also having 146 observing personnel on-site) conducting or observing experiments. It has been said that there are approximately 10,000 users onsite at any given time. The secondlargest group, way behind with approximately 2,500 people, consists of permanent staff, working at CERN full-time. The smallest group consists of approximately 1,000 contractors in charge of maintaining and constructing on-site equipment. A large membership is not CERN’s only distinctive characteristic. The things developed to make its discoveries possible (if not the actual discoveries themselves) have been milestones in technology: radiation-resistant sensors, faster circuits, new methods for inspecting archeological artifacts using non-damaging particle accelerators, and even the World Wide Web (WWW) are a few of the things to come out of the facility. CERN also has a significant place in history as one of the few “neutral zones” during the Cold War, where scientists from both NATO and Warsaw Pact JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 January 2008 Issue NEWSNEWSNEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS FEATURESBOSPHORUSCHRONICLEFEATURES The Higgs Field sticks to heavy objects just like people in a crowd gravitate to popular people. (Photo Courtesy of Symmetrymagazine.org) countries could freely meet and jointly work on research. Two Nobel Prizes have been awarded to the institution, and three laureates have claimed it as their place of study. It is irrefutable that CERN fulfills its mission statement of “pushing the boundaries of science, advancing accelerator and detector technology, training tomorrow’s scientists and engineers, and bringing people of diverse backgrounds together”. Following the introduction to CERN, Dr. Özcan moved on to the actual process behind discovering a new particle. Describing the method particle physicists use for accelerator experiments as “crude”, he likened the particle collisions to a head-on crash between two trucks on the road. The faster the speed the trucks move at (the more energy is given to the particles), the more parts (energy given off and new particles created) fly off to be detected by a camera (sensors and detectors). A few repeats to confirm the result of an experiment are, however, not enough. CERN greatly values peer-reviewing, and anything reported by one of the six independent on-site experiment groups which include CMS, ALICE, ATLAS (where Dr. Özcan works), and LHC must be repeatedly confirmed by findings from the others, which leads to staggering numbers of people being listed on the paper of a single project no longer than a few pages. The list of names at the beginning of one such paper, shown by Dr. Özcan, was three pages long. The confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson, one of the last pieces of the Standard Model which describes matter and all of the fundamental forces of the universe except gravity, was thus not, as many would expect, a “Eureka!” moment but a very slow, multistage process. It took three years for the actual data to be separated from the background noise, the findings to be confirmed by independent experiments amongst the multiple groups, and the newly found boson to be confirmed to ac- tually be the Higgs boson and not something else. Dr. Özcan also gave a short lecture on the history of our understanding of particle physics and how it is tied into the discovery of the Higgs boson, pointing out some irony along the way: The adoption, discrediting, reappearance and acceptance in a new form of the concept of an immaterial “aether” permeating all otherwise empty spaces. People went from the four classic elements to the periodic table in chemistry, from motion of masses to the way light moves in physics, and that age-old holdover from Aristotle’s age endured, the scientific community taking the philosophers’ word for it. Even Newton and Huygens, while arguing that light was a particle and a wave, respectively, both insisted that it needed aether to propagate. A.A. Michelson and E.W. Morely finally disproved the aether, but a new concept had surfaced by then: the field, a physical effect permeating the entirety of space, thought of first by Faraday to describe electricity and magnetism and used by Maxwell in his equations. Most quantum physics theories circa 1960 argued that all particles were, in fact, fluctuations in a field, thus resolving the dilemma of whether light was a particle or a wave. The Higgs field was one of the theories developed at the time: a field that, in the same way a crowd warps in different ways in response to people of differing popularity, it (a metaphor Dr. Özcan used), would “stick” to particles in amounts depending on their properties and thus give them mass. It was confirmed by CERN on July 4th, 2012, and actually showed that the philosophers, in a way, were right about the aether after all. The seminar concluded with a few questions from the audience. From the answers to these, it was clarified that the reason the ratio of matter to antimatter in the universe is so high is still unknown, but that it is thought that the equilibrium between the two was broken when the universe was still young, that the next big discovery to come out of CERN is speculated to be related to supersymmetry (the theory that for every boson there exists a heavier “partner” fermion), extra dimensions (not parallel universes, but dimensions of existence, “extra” dimensions here refer to those posited by String Theory and alternatives), and that the Geneva airport is slated to use a CERN-developed heat insulation system. Dr. Özcan finished his speech with a statement on the virtues of skepticism and caution in avoiding scientific blunders, and that what CERN found may not be the only “type” of Higgs boson. Works Cited: “Turkey to Become Associate Member State of CERN.” CERN: Accelerating Science. CERN, May 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2015. <http://home.web. cern.ch/about/updates/2014/05/ turkey-become-associate-member-state-cern>. “The Large Hadron Collider.” CERN: Accelerating Science. CERN, 2013. Web. 25 Mar. 2015. <http://home. web.cern.ch/topics/large-hadroncollider> How to Hack Your Life with Your iPhone İdil Çetin Yes, you read it right: It’s possible to hack your life with only a phone. But you will need some applications. Here are some of the best: 1) Pocket As their slogan says, “When you find something you want to view later, put it in Pocket.” This application allows the user to save an article or web page to read later. The app also removes clutter from articles and allows the user to adjust text settings for easier reading. You can make lists and tag the items you saved to have them all organized. The app is available for OS X, Windows, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Kobo eReaders, and web browsers, and the saved articles or web pages are synced to all of the devices with this app on it, allowing the user to access saved articles from different devices. People who have JUNE 2012 Issue Issue May 2015 lots of tabs open in their browsers will like it even more, because with this app you can save those tabs and have a look at them offline, anytime and anywhere you want. 2) Things If you’re obsessed with making to-do lists, this app is the best for you. Things is an awarded personal task management application for Mac OS X and iOS. It’s a paid app, but the price pays off. What do you want to do Today? What are the tasks you want to get to Next? And what do you want to Schedule for a later day? Everything has its place. The app allows you to subdivide your tasks. When entering new tasks you can add all important information. You can also tag tasks so that you can find them more easily later. Things remembers everything so you don’t have to. 3) IF by IFTTT This app allows users to create customized “recipe-like” tasks built around the structure “If this, then that.” For instance, you can write a recipe task which saves that photo when someone tags you on a photo on Facebook. You can also see other people’s trending and featured recipes, themed collections and all-time favorites that you can install or modify instantly. Works Cited: https://culturedcode.com/ things/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Pocket_%28application%29 Photo Courtesy of Gigaom.com BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE 15 NEWS&OPINION BOSPHORUSCHRONICLE NEWS&OPINION NEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWSNEWSNEWS New Homegroup System: Peer Mentoring Program mentoring is between students, shy students are more comfortable in an environment with their peers, and it is much easier for them to ask their questions of more experienced students. It is not easy for many students to make friends in the canteen during a 25 minute break. The negative side is that we don’t have a scheduled topic for each session, because we believe forcing students to talk about only one topic might prevent them from asking a question that they are more interested in. But this means that if the students don’t have anything to discuss, then the session becomes a little quiet, and this is not what we want. Rabia Demirelli We have had the homegroup system in our school for two years now. Even though its usefulness is controversial among students, homegroup will stay with us every Wednesday between 09:40AM-10:05AM. Recently there has been a renovation of the homegroup system that can be really useful for Robert College students. This system was introduced to students under the name Peer Mentoring System. It aims to bring inexperienced and experienced RC students together so that younger students can ask older students about any problems they have in RC. This innovation has been really useful for the inexperienced students, but what is more interesting about this program is that it was invented by RC students. Buse Bakar (RC’18) came up with the idea for the new system during her prep year, and with the help of other students such as Çisenur Geyik (RC’18), her project has become a part of our system. Bosphorus Chronicle interviewed both Buse and Çise to find out how their idea became a real system at Photo Courtesy of Çisenur Geyik (RC’18) Robert College. How did you come up with the idea? In the second semester our WOW teacher, Ms. Oğuz, wanted us to research a topic we were interested in and then plan a project on the topic. So this is actually where it all started. The idea of peer mentoring came to me while watching a TV series called Da Vinci’s Demons. The main character has a mentor and that mentor helps him throughout his adventures. I realized that this idea could be really helpful for our school because most of the students probably had difficulties starting Robert College, and even though it is hard to find success, every student looks for it. This is how I came up with the idea. What are the positive and negative aspects of the program? Following the pilot program, from my friends’ responses and feedback, I realized that they learned many things about the school, lessons and teachers. In general this was what we wanted, creating a peer resource for students to get information. Also, because the this program real? How did you contact the admin? Ms Oğuz helped me; she said that she liked my program a lot and asked me if she could send my writing about the program to the Headmaster, Mr. Jones. Then Ms. Yıldırım was also informed about the program. Mr. Jones, Ms. Yıldırım and I had a meeting to discuss the program, and this is how I got permission. If you could change anything about the program, what would you change? I wouldn’t change anything yet; I think it is a bit early to decide what to change.The positive feedback we have received is greater than negative feedback. So before changing anything, I would likehave another pilot project. When did the program start? The program was planned and ready to start at the beginning of the year. Until second semester Ms. Yıldırım and I discussed what we could do to improve the Peer Mentoring Program. Ms. Yıldırım helped me to get other teachers’ ideas and to schedule the pilot programs. Ms. Yıldırım helped me a lot in the process and she still helps me. The first pilot program began last October and only three classes were involved, between preps and 10th graders. How does it make you feel to have created something in your school for the sake of everyone? It feels really nice. Because as a shy student it was hard for me to get used to school, and as I hear from students how the program has helped them, I feel like from now on students will have fewer problems in school, will have less stress, and will enjoy school more. After you had the idea for this program, what did you do to make Mystery of Water Molecules: The Mpemba Effect Melisa Saygın Hot water freezes faster than cold water does; this situation is often referred as the “Mpemba Effect” in the scientific community. There are many sensible explanations; however, they usually skip a few principles of the behaviors of water molecules. This unforeseeable heat and temperature situation is only seen in water molecules; the general reason is that hydrogen bonds in the water molecules act almost opposite to all other molecules’ bonds. Even though the effect is observable, scientists still disagree under what circumstances this situation occurs. The Mpemba Effect has been known for centuries. It is even mentioned in Aristotle’s works: “The fact that the water has previously been warmed contributes to its freezing quickly: for so it cools sooner. Hence many people, when they want to cool water quickly, begin by putting it in the sun” (Aristotle). Descartes also wrote: “One can see by experience that water that has been kept over a fire for a long time freezes faster because those particles that are least able to stop bending evaporate while the water is being heated” (Descartes). Xi Zhang from the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore is one of the scientists who has suggested an explanation of this phenomena. His key point is that hydrogen bonds bring water molecules into close Photo Courtesy of Eec247.com 16 contact, and when this happens the natural repulsion between the molecules causes the covalent O-H bonds to stretch and store energy. Why? Because when liquid warms up, hydrogen bonds stretch so that water molecules sit apart; this triggers covalent molecules to shrink and give up their energy, which is equivalent to cooling. What makes water molecules so unique is that molecules sit extremely close to each other, that’s why in many other situations it is easy to see an exception for the H2O molecules. For instance, compressing water is a lot harder than compressing numerous other liquids. Evaporation is another explanation supported by Descartes. As hot water is evaporating at the same time, the mass which has to be frozen becomes less. Monwhea Jeng states “Evaporation is endothermic, meaning that the water mass is cooled by vapor carrying away the heat, but this alone probably does not account for the entirety of the effect”(Jeng). In addition, mineral effects in water at different temperatures should also be taken into consideration. We cannot be completely sure if it really has to do with bonding--it may also be an error. In 2012, the Royal Society of Chemistry held a competition calling for papers offering explanations to the Mpemba Effect (Mpemba). More than 22,000 people entered, and Erasto Mpemba himself announced Nikola Bregović as the winner, sug- BOSPHORUS BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE CHRONICLE Photo Courtesy of chargedmagazine.com gesting that convection and super- Works Cited: cooling were the reasons for the Meteorology I.12 348b31– effect (“Winner”). However, there Aristotle, 349a4 is still some doubt related to the proposed reasonings. A reviewer Auden, W.H. “Water Quotes.” of Physics World writes, “Even if BrainyQuote. Xplore, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. the Mpemba Effect is real — if hot 2015. water can sometimes freeze more Philip (April 2006). Does hot water quickly than cold water— it is Ball, freeze first?. Physics World, pp. 19-26. not clear whether the explanation would be trivial or illuminating” Descartes, Les Meteores (Ball). Water is essential to our lives, and contrary to what people think, its molecules are some of the most exceptional ones. There is still much research related to water molecules-the immense variety of effects, mysteries, and their connection to human behaviors and emotions. As W. H. Auden wrote, “Thousands have lived without love, not one without water” (Auden). Jeng, Monwhea (2006). “Hot water can freeze faster than cold?!?”. American Journal of Physics 74 (6): 514. Mpemba Competition. Royal Society of Chemistry. 2012. “Why Hot Water Freezes Faster Than Cold-Physicists Solve the Mpemba Effect.” Medium. N.p., 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. Winner of the Mpemba Competition. Royal Society of Chemistry. 2013. JUNE 2012Issue Issue May 2015 January January 2008 2008 Issue Issue BOSPHORUSCHRONICLEARTS&ENTERTAIMENT NEWSNEWSNEWSBOSPHORUSCHRONICLENEWS Diary of a Mad Performer Leyla Ok The play “Diary of a Madman” performed by Genco Erkal is an ongoing event in Turkey nowadays. It was a great opportunity for Robert College students that this important play visited our school on March 2nd. There were many students that came to see it but the parents benefited from this opportunity as well as their children. Nikolay Gogol was a Ukrainian novelist and playwright, who was born in 1809 in a small village to middle-class family. “Diary of a Mad Man” is a play written by Gogol in 1842. The main topic of the play is the hierarchy in society and how it made lower or working-class people feel servile and invisible. The main character Poprishchin, an ordinary public servant who is constantly mocked, is in love with the daughter of the senior official. She is a noble and beautiful woman and surely has no interest in Poprishchin. Through the play, we as the audience watch the main character’s journey to insanity caused by his situation in society. Knowing that the woman he loves will marry a nobleman and he will never be able to be at the top, he first starts to imagine love letters between dogs and then, that he is the Spanish king. He also goes on and on about how it is wrong to have a woman on the throne, so we see the perception of women from a lower-class man’s eyes in Russia in the 19th century. Eventually, he is taken into the asylum and is treated very badly, but he thinks that he is being coroneted to be the new king of Spain and the maltreatment is just a part of the Spanish palace culture. Genco Erkal is an RC graduate and a well-known theatre performer and director. He first performed “Diary of a Madman” fifty years ago. When he first performed it in 1965, he was studying psychology in İstanbul University so interpreted the play as a psychological case. Last year, when he first proposed the play to the ministry, he was rejected. About this, he says the following words: “This struggle is what keeps me Ticket of the Play (Photo Courtesy of robcol.k12.tr) alive. I feel the power again, each time. Again, with each strike. I can play any way, also in the street. Theatre is a life style for me. I can’t imagine a life without it. If anyone dares to touch it, I object.” (Radikal) Scenes from the Play (Photo Courtesy of robcol.k12.tr) Hidden Secrets of Izmir Rabia İdil Demirelli Summer is already around the corner- again! After another busy RC year, one mostly needs to relax and freshen up. The easiest way to accomplish this is to go on a relaxing holiday. Snugglivng inside the bed and not coming out for the next three months seems like a really nice idea, but there are also many things out there to do during the summer break. There are various summer schools, CIPs, and pre-college programs that are great options, but these need to be scheduled in advance. If you haven’t considered your summer plans yet, or if you would like to enrich them nonetheless, the hidden secrets of Izmir await you. Turkey has so must-see beauties; they can never be summarized in one article. One of these beauties, Izmir, is a unique part of Turkey, home to many cultural and historical places. In Izmir, history and leisure come together; one can wander around the historical streets at Konak, go swimming at Çeşme and be amazed by Bergama. Here are some great places to see in Izmir: JUNE 2012Issue Issue May 2015 Çeşme Çeşme is in the western part of Izmir. It boasts many different hotels suitable for different budgets. The sea in Çeşme is hotter than the other coasts of Izmir, but it must be noted that it is still colder than in other parts of Turkey. But don’t worry, the chilly water in hot summer weather happens to be the best combination. Izmir is also the optimal place to take part in sports like wind-surfing. When in Çeşme, don’t forget to visit the Erythrai Archeological Site if you would also like to see some historical sights. Ephesus Ephesus is the ancient Greek city near Selçuk, İzmir. It was built in the 10th century BC and it still welcomes curious tourists. The most famous part of the city is the Temple of Artemis. The age of the temple is a controversial issue--some claim that it might have been renovated or rebuilt later during the history of Ephesus. Ephesus is not very close to the center of Izmir, so it takes a lot of time to get there. Also, the city itself is huge and it takes a long time to see all of it, so the wisest thing to do would be to save two days to see the city. Pergamon Archeological Site Izmir’s other famous archeological site is the Pergamon at Bergamaalso a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Pergamon has a long history, and it even was briefly the capital of the Roman province of Asia before it was transferred to Ephesus (“Pergamon”). The Ottoman Sultan, Murat III, transported two large alabaster urns from Pergamon to Istanbul and placed them on the two sides of the nave in the Hagia Sophia. Unfortunately, most of the historical ruins had been moved to Germany, including the Great Altar of Pergamon. For tourists wanting to visit the city, a bus from the center of Izmir departs for Bergama every half hour. Eski Foça/Yeni Foça Foça is one of the places that is perfect for enjoying the sea--it is home Photo Courtesy of Tatilrehberiniz.com to many small beaches. Foça is separated into two parts, Eski Foça and Yeni Foça. Ironically, both of them are really old. Both cities have long marina areas with fish that are incredibly delicious. Clock Tower The Clock Tower is the most famous symbol of Izmir and it is located at Konak. Designed by French architects, it was a gift to the Ottoman Empire from German Emperor Wilhelm II. The clock only stopped once, during the 1974 İzmir earthquake. After the earthquake, it was renovated. Kadifekale Kadifekale is the best place to see all BOSPHORUS BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE CHRONICLE the Aegean regions at the same time. It was built by the order of Alexander the Great. From the top of Kadifekale, you can see all of the Aegean Sea and Izmir. The best way to go up to the castle is by taxi or car. There are large picnic areas inside Kadifekale and also playgrounds for children. Since 2007 Kadifekale has been under renovation and due to that some parts of the castle may be closed from time to time. Works Cited: “Ephesus.” Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. “Pergamon.” Wikipedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. 17 STATEOFSOUNDBOSPHORUSCHRONICLESTATEOFSOUND Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell Cem Töre Gökçam Carrie & Lowell is the seventh studio album by indie/folk/electronica artist Sufjan Stevens. The album is named after his mother and stepfather, which is relevant because the album was released only a few years after his mother Carrie’s death from stomach cancer in 2012. Unlike his past work where he mainly based his songwriting around Biblical references (Seven Swans) and concept albums taking place in U.S. states (Illinois and Michigan), Carrie and Lowell is an introspective collection of songs in a very un-Sufjan way. The extremely personal feel of the album is complemented by minimalist instrumentation, a different approach compared to the glorious horns and the beautiful melodies of Illinois or the electronic background harmonies of Age of Adz. The entire production is extremely lo-fi; the only thing accompanying Sufjan and his acoustic guitar is the occa- sional ambient electronic melody on tracks like “Should Have Known Better.” The lyrics are beautiful--so personal that the listening experience almost feels like hearing from an old friend -- but he also has lots of stories to tell, and the stories he’s telling are dark. The album’s main narrative stems from the death of his mother, but they did not have a healthy relationship in the past; Carrie was a schizophrenic drug addict who repeatedly left Sufjan as a child: “When I was three, three maybe four/She left us at that video store,” (from “Should Have Known Better”). What Carrie’s death has done for Sufjan, however, is break the balance he maintained between the optimism stemming from his Anglo-Catholic faith and the depressing realities of his past. In the most powerful lines from the album, Stevens sings: “Now I’m drunk and afraid, wishing the world would go away/What’s the point of singing songs if they’ll never hear you?” (from “Eugene”). Behind Sufjan’s soft voice and calming guitar lies a depressing narrative, and Sufjan’s intensity here makes the album as a medium so transparent. “Hauntingly beautiful” is the best way to describe this record, and even that falls short of where Carrie and Lowell stands in Stevens’ discography. While Sufjan Stevens’ songwriting has always been his strong suit, Carrie and Lowell lacks the brilliant and layered music that accompanied these lyrics in classic albums like Illinois and Michigan -- and this is not a bad thing at all. The minimalist approach emphasizes the heartfelt lyrics and enhances the mystical aura around the record. Carrie and Lowell might be a little too dull or uneventful for listeners who aren’t familiar with Sufjan’s past work, or who simply don’t feel the same way as I do about his lyrics; however, in my opinion this album stands in the same place as an album like Roman Candle does with Elliott Smith’s discography. The downplay of instrumentation coincides with the intensity of the songwriting, and sometimes that songwriting resonates with some people more than it does with others. Roman Candle is one of my favorite albums of all time, and I love everything about Album Artwork of Carrie & Lowell (Photo Courtesy of Pitchfork.com) this Sufjan Stevens record, too. As one of the few “undoubtedly great” artists of the new millenium so far, Stevens has crafted something special with this LP, making this an essential listen for 2015. Score: 9/10 Favorite Tracks: “Eugene,” |Fourth of July,” “ Should Have Known Better,” “ No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross” Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress Tuvana Kankallı AFerhat Karademir Godspeed You! Black Emperor, previously titled Godspeed You Black Emperor! and commonly known as GY!BE is one of the leading bands of the post-rock genre, and along with Constellation Records, a great supporter of this type of music. Though on hiatus for seven years, the band released ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend! in 2012. GY!BE’s latest album, Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress is the second album the group has released after their ten-year long break. The band has been working on this album since late 2013 and claims it is “arguably the most focused and bestsounding recording of the band’s career.”The album was originally an edited version of the live piece, “Behemoth,” and is said to have been diluted for the album version. The band, like many postrock bands, is again creative with the titles of their songs: “Peasantry or ‘Light! Inside of Light!’,” “Lambs’ Breath,” “Asunder, Sweet,” and “Piss Crowns Are Trebled.” The splitting of the original live piece and the editing has, in fact, created the polished “final” version of the song which has evolved into an album, though many would argue 18 the band’s live performances and the spontaneous additions make the songs better. However, a diluted version of the piece with an almost perfect sound overthrows these accusations. The beginning is surprisingly fast, for usually a post-rock song takes a long time to build up, especially opening tracks. This time, “Peasantry or ‘Light! Inside of Light!’” strikes the ears at full-throttle 18 seconds into the album. The violins create an almost violent tone, later supported by Efrim Menuck’s electric guitar. The strings, at times, create almost oriental melodies. It’s often thought, as a post-rock song, to be depressing and to create a dark environment, yet “Peasantry or ‘Light! Inside of Light!’” depicts tiny glimpses of hope and happiness. The album cover refers to the second song’s name, “Lambs’ Breath,” which is a drone piece. Like the cover, the drone piece creates an almost static, black scale image in the listener’s mind. The use of drone pieces on this album is quite different from the band’s previous work. The drone pieces were usually shorter and merged into other pieces. Yet in “Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress” we hear two rather long drone pieces connecting the two parts of the album, successfully creating a desolate image, the post title of the music, and the loneliness and the emotional statelessness. Not the musical peak but the emotional peak comes in the third track, “Asunder, Sweet,” another drone piece heavily supported with strings and drums to create the entrance of the last and the best part of the album, the heavy hail to destroy all: “Piss Crowns Are Trebled.” Almost with a rush, the attack of the violins, drums and the guitar makes the first seven minutes of the piece the most depressing chapter of the band’s history, even overthrowing “The Dead Flag Blues.” The album, like the previous “Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!”, relies not on field records or interviews but only on the instruments. Creat- ing the theme without any words, the album describes a time of neither the future nor the past, yet both future and the past. Until the last two minutes, distorted guitar riffs resonate with each other, building up the pace as the music shouts away and finally fades into whispers. GY!BE’s latest album is a work that has tried to capture the sense of emotions with instruments. This modernized-classical music has moved away from its own genre, and can now be considered as a piece of post-music, a tale that is from the times beyond music. Works Cited: “GY!BE - ‘Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress’ | Constellation Records.” RSS. Constellation Records, n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2015. Left: The album artwork of Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia.com) Right: Efrim Menuck, the Guitarist of the Band (Photo Courtesy of Lotsaconcerts.com) BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE May 2015 Issue January 2008 Issue STATEOFSOUNDBOSPHORUSCHRONICLESTATEOFSOUND Wilder Mind, Wilder Band: Mumford and Sons’ New Album Ekin Vardar On May 4th, the folk rock and alternative band Mumford and Sons released their third album, Wilder Mind. The band had stated that they would take a break from music in 2013. Ben Lovett, a member of the band had said, “There won’t be any Mumford & Sons activities for the foreseeable future.” However, in March 2015, the band announced their new album. Because their second album Babel won a Grammy for Album of the Year in 2013, the fans, listeners and music enthusiasts had high expectations for the third album. The second track, “Believe,” was re- leased a month before the album and the YouTube video has already reached 8 million views. The fans were surprised to hear that Mumford and Sons ditched their signature banjo solos, biblical references, kick drums and accordions, meaning that there is no longer “Serve God, love me and mend” or any other such lyric included in the new tracks. And fans were shocked to learn that they would no longer be able to listen to a brand new Mumford and Sons song with a banjo solo lasting half of the song. Mumford and Sons ditched the banjo solos and instead they replaced these with electronic guitar solos. The new album barely contains any element that made Mumford and Sons famous, and it cannot surpass the average level of a popular alternative album. The songs from the album Babel were much memorable. Even if one listened to the album only once, one would remember how Marcus sang the lyric “I will wait, I will wait for you,” or the banjo solo in “Hopeless Wanderer.” However, most of the songs in Wilder Mind are just vague. None of them has the impact that a Mumford and Sons song once had. Some partitions of the songs feel like they were supposed to be originally played with banjo and accordion in the background, but at the last minute were just switched to electric guitar. “Broad-Shouldered Beasts” is that kind of song. The chorus is basically begging to be sung with a classic banjo solo. “We felt that doing the same thing, or the same instrumentation again, just wasn’t for us,” said Marcus Mumford, but it feels like the band is still wilder, making that transition from folk rock. If the band had worked a little bit more on this new concept before releasing the album, we could have heard progressive and high quality Mumford and Sons songs. But instead we have an experimental but average, immature album. Album Artwork of Wilder Mind (Photo Courtesy of Rollingstones.com) Waiting For Jenny: The Story of a Year-Long Social Experiment Cem Töre Gökçam Death Grips is an experimental industrial/punk hip-hop outfit from Sacramento that brought an extremely unique sound into today’s music since its inception a few years ago, influencing artists ranging from Björk to Kanye West to Kasabian and gaining a cult following that has rapidly expanded every year. Their first release, a mixtape called Exmilitary in 2011, was followed by the heavily acclaimed debut LP The Money Store in 2012 released under the Epic Records label, but because of disputes with Epic, later releases were all available for free on their official website. The more electronically backed No Love Deep Web came out in 2012, and Government Plates in 2013. The theme of putting out an album every year continued in June 2014 when the band released the first half of a supposed double-album called The Powers That B. The eight-track long effort felt more like an extension of the same concept, as all songs were hidden behind a heavy layer of noise and drone-like Björk samples. With an expected second half and a new direction, most critics were intrigued by what Death Grips was going to do next; however, one month later they announced their break-up with a note written on a napkin. The note started with the sentence, “We are now at our best, and so Death Grips is over,” and ended with two words, “Stay legend.” They announced that all tour dates were cancelled, including their tour with Nine Inch Nails that was going on at the time of the breakup, but the second half of The Powers That B was still going to be may 2015 ıssue released. There was a problem, however, as they never mentioned when the second half, titled Jenny Death, would be released. Here’s a quick summary of what has happened since then, a story featuring so many plot twists and cryptic messages that it felt more like the ninth episode of a Game of Thrones season. October 10th, 2014: There is activity for the first time on the Death Grips Facebook account three months after the breakup, as the band announces that the album is complete and the release date is coming in a few days. (Spoiler: It’s not.) October 31st, 2014: The release date is not announced yet, but the cult following mentioned earlier starts finding supposed cryptic clues that point to this day. Nothing happens. December 9th, 2014: A video appears on the band’s YouTube channel for the track “Inanimate Sensation.” It’s the first single from Jenny Death, and this release is pretty much what creates the whole excitement around the album release -- it is possibly their best work in a long time, and in my opinion the best song of 2014. The sound is bordering power electronics, and the esoteric lyricism paired with the booming chorus brings a fresh, aggressive dimension to their music that is definitely needed. popular as fans get tired of asking about the release date and the question of when the album is coming out is shortened, becoming a motto of the wait for an album that might not exist after all. December 31st, 2014: Another false release date. January 4th, 2015: With absolutely no warning Death Grips releases 14 new songs on their official website. This is not Jenny Death. however; it’s an instrumental album called Fashion Week (Soundtracks). The first track is called “Runway J,” the second is called “Runway E,” and in typical Death Grips fashion the fourteen tracks listed in order read JENNY DEATH WHEN. The album’s name is an obvious reference to New York Fashion Week, starting February 10th. The new release date is finally here, after 6 months of cryptic messages and abundant speculation. February 10th, 2015: Or so we think. February 10th comes and goes with absolute silence from the band. Around this time I seriously start considering writing a piece for State of Sound about “the mythical Death Grips album”. December 21st, 2014: Same routine of fans finding clues, this time because the band started on December 21st, 2010. This isn’t the release date either. Around this time, the phrase “Jenny Death When” has become extremely Waiting for Jenny February 14th, 2015: Another video is posted on the band’s YouTube channel, one that features the band rehearsing three unheard songs and “Inanimate Sensation.” This is the biggest sign there is so far that Death Grips might not be over. March 6th, 2015: A Twitter account named @bbpoltergeist tweets that Jenny Death is being released on March 31st, and a tour will be announced on March 24th. People quickly discover that the account has been posting visual concepts from the “Inanimate Sensation” music video before its release, and has posted a few photos of the band never seen before. March 10th, 2015: A preorder link for the album appears, linking to a Dutch website where 30 second snippets from each track can be heard. March 12th, 2015: The second single, “On GP,” appears on the band’s YouTube account; again, no announcement whatsoever. March 19th, 2015: Nine months of plot twists and cryptic messages lead to March 19th. Jenny Death is fully leaked on the internet, official release coming soon with the tour announcement. And here we are. After tens of listens, the only thing I’m certain about is that listing this album under a genre is absurd. The album opens with “I Break Mirrors,” pretty much a hardcore punk song, followed by the initial single “Inanimate Sensation,” a noise music/ hip-hop blend. There are traces of genres like punk rock, trap, nu- BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE metal, harsh noise, IDM and so much more here, and while that itself is impressive, this fluidity of styles works perfectly at times, although sometimes it does not. While the album is usually stellar, when it wants to bring more aggressiveness, the unusual guitardriven sound the band is using here sometimes fails, like on tracks “Turned Off” and “Beyond Alive,” where the music feels like a lazy attempt to make “heavy music... but experimental.” Behind tons of reverb, odd techniques that include robotic voices, airhorns and distorted guitar riffs and MC Ride’s incomprehensible rapping, the ideas sometimes simply don’t work. Jenny Death feels like a compilation of all the insane ideas one of the most creative current bands could put together; when the ideas click they make absolutely brilliant songs, when they don’t, it feels like a failed studio experiment. Jenny Death works with the rest of The Powers That B so well when they sound nothing alike; because of this, the first half is variations on a single idea, while the second half is many ideas trying to coexist. While the execution could have been significantly better, the originality and the brilliance of the album when the experiment works is so impressive that it still deserves a high score. Score: 6.5/10 Favorite Tracks: “Centuries of Damn,” “Inanimate Sensation,” “On GP,” “I Break Mirrors with my Face in the United States.” This article also appears as an April 2015 post on Cem Tore Gokcam’s blog: lnssfg.blogspot.com.tr 19 Bosphorus Chronıcle Lise Live XXXI Berk Eroğlu There are various activities at the school throughout the year: plays, balls, concerts, mangal nights, musical evenings, seminars, and sports tournaments. However, one of them stands out with the efforts of many types of students and the eagerness of an excited audience: Lise Live XXXI. Lise Live took place on April 2nd, and because there were so many groups that applied to be on stage, for the first time, the music department considered organizing two separate Lise Live’s. But in the end only one Lise Live took place. To give most of the applicants a chance to perform on stage, the number of performances for each student or group was reduced from 3 to 2. There were many interesting moments in the spotlight on the performance day. During the first half, there were some excellent performances. One of them was from the group ‘Ay-İn’, starring Aybüke Otluçimen (RC’16) at vocal and İnci Serdar (RC’16) at the piano and back vocal. It was a great performance because İnci’s and Aybüke’s voices harmonized well. Also the group ‘Is- landust’ played the song ‘Clocks’ by Coldplay, which is a popular band and listened to frequently by RC students. The group also had math teacher Berna Adatoz at the piano. The first half finished with the memorable performance of ‘RC’15 Band Banned’ playing ‘Hoşçakal’ by Şebnem Ferah. It was a “farewell” since the group includes seniors that performed at Lise Live a lot in the past years and will graduate at the end of this year. The second half started with the group ‘Kafa Atan Yürek Yakan’. This performance was appealing to the audience because of the Mexican hats that the group members wore, the dances of Can Akdere (RC’16), the unique rhythmic skills of Serdar Yalvac(RC’16) at the guitar, and good accompaniment by Kaan Deniz Volkan(RC’16). The show continued afterwards with the performance of ‘Instant Decision’, which is a group formed by preps and played pretty well. The group played the song ‘Instant Crush’ by Daft Punk and sung by Julian Casablancas; it was interesting listening to it from a female vocalist at this performance. Another noteworthy performance was from ‘Köprüaltı Tribute’.They performed ‘Hocus Pocus’ by ‘Focus’,and even though by most people it is remembered as ‘the song in which Fuat Cem Özyazıcı (RC’16) made weird sounds’, it should be considered that making Lise Live XXXI (Photo Courtesy of robcol.k12.tr) these vocals was really challenging, but Fuat did a terrific job. With him, the song was also instrumentally good, so overall the audience was entertained by this performance. The group ‘Steven Korayler’ performed ‘Dream On’ by Aerosmith. The name of the group was Steven Korayler because the group combined the names of ‘Steven Tyler’, who is Aerosmith’s vocalist’s name, and ‘Koray Demirkapı’, who is a music teacher at RC, and also the bass guitar player of the group. This performance will also be remembered by many because its arrangement, which is done by Efe Ofluoglu (RC’16), was inspired from the ar- rangement of Yngwie Malmsteen, a famous guitar player, for the same song. The final group of Lise Live was ‘Yara Band-ı’, who became a tradition at Lise Live. Nearly all Lise Lives end with metal songs, which are in English. Yara Band-ı changed this tradition by finishing the show with the songs ‘Yanıbaşımdan’ by Duman and ‘Şeytan Bunun Neresinde’ by Pentagram. They reflected the enthusiasm of Lise Live during their performances. It was noticed that the bass player of the group, Emre Türkölmez (RC’16), sat on a chair during the performance, but the truth is that Emre was extremely ill during the performance but didn’t leave his group. All the members of the group portrayed the emotion of the songs individually and together, it was really pleasurable to listen to them. The fans were sad at the end of the performance because the drummer of the group Tuna Gönen (RC’15) and one of the guitarists Ozan Diken (RC’15) are going to graduate this year, so it seemed to them like the ‘Yara Band-ı’ tradition is over. However, Fuat Cem Özyazıcı mentioned that they will do their best to make Tuna and Ozan able to play at the next Lise Live. So perhaps ‘Yara Band-ı’ is not over yet. Robert College Class of 2015 20 BOSPHORUS CHRONICLE May 2015 Issue