From a 2003 edition of the Turkish Daily News, Turkey’s only daily English newspaper:

In full, the sentence reads:

Protestors hold portraits of Abdul Abbas, a leader of the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) also known as Mohammed Abbas, the leader of PLF, who killed an American on the hijacked cruise liner Achille Lauro in 1985 and US Special Forces captured him Monday 14 April, 2003 in Baghdad, during a protest to demand the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, along the streets of Gaza city, on Monday.

In 2001, the Turkish Daily News cost 300,000 TL. The last time I checked, customers have to pay 1.5 million TL to put up with the above poor standard. As the monopoly English newspaper in Turkey, the Turkish Daily News can do whatever it wants and foreigners will still buy it. I used to buy the paper on a semi-regular basis. Now I hardly ever buy the newspaper.

A few years ago there was a second, livelier newspaper, the Turkish News, however this paper did not last long. Since the demise of the Turkish News, the Turkish Daily News has price-gouged its captive audience. The price may have increased 500% but the content has remained thin and dry.

In contrast to Turkey, Iran has at least 3 daily English newspapers.

Some readers may argue, like the Turkish Daily News, Joe’s Ramblings’ grammar is poor and content thin and dry, but I don’t charge 1.5 million (more than USD $1) for you to read it! 🙂

Joao Leitao was kind enough to leave an entry on my GuestMap (see link on right hand side). Joao is a photographer who specialises in photos of people from around the world. The photos on his website are fantastic and the subjects really shine. Visit, you won’t be disappointed!

A thought-provoking and well written Turkish current affairs blog (link removed as blog no longer exists) by Ugur Akinci, a Washington, D.C.-based Turk.

Via the BBC. A few days ago I downloaded a screensaver called “Make Love Not Spam“. When the screensaver is activated the websites of goods and services mentioned in spam emails are endlessly sent data requests with the hope of slowing the websites down and increasing the spammer’s hosting bills. Let’s hope it works.

UPDATE: Apparently, the screensaver was too successful.

A Futher UPDATE: The campaign was stopped.

In 2004 the importance of blogs and blogging has grown enormously, enough for Merriam-Webster to choose ‘blog’ for its word of the year.

No doubt, blogs will only become more widespread in 2005 and following years. In the next 5 years I wouldn’t be surprised if a blog becomes an expected part of a person’s fabric. A few years ago I expected everyone would have a website within 10 years. I did not know the website would be in the form of a blog.

UPDATE: 2 years too late like usual, Microsoft joins the ranks of blog providers.

Orhan has kindly uploaded Victor’s photos from Saturday night and Gozne on Sunday.

Some of the photos do look dodgy. For the dodgiest photo/comparison of the lot, click here. You were warned!

Findings from a University of Mersin report show: Erectile dysfunction affects women too.

“What The Bubble Got Right,” an interesting article all about the changes the Internet bubble helped implement.