Dr. Çetiner’s Blogs (Dr. Beytullah Gültekin Çetiner)

Iron Silk Road
Turkey is very busy nowadays with the great engineering project Iron Silk Road which will connect London to China, Malaysia and other countries. One will be able to go to London or Istanbul, or any cities in Europe or Asia from any of the membering cities in the new silk route without getting off the train. The Marmaray project in Istanbul is the key to success of the new Iron Silk Road.

What is Silk Road?
An ancient trade route between China and the Mediterranean Sea extending some 6,440 km (4,000 mi) and linking China with the Roman Empire. Marco Polo followed the route on his journey to Cathay.

What is Iron Silk Road?
Iron Silk Road is the project to rebuild the old Silk Road or Silk Route in history by railway. It is a multinational project combining major European countries in Europe including England, Greece, and many others. It also includes Asian countries including China, India and Malaysia. If project is successfully finished you can go from Kuala Lumpur to London without getting off the train.

Istanbul, where giant tubes of steel are being submerged as part of an ambitious rail tunnel.

Giant tubes of steel, more than 130 metres long and weighing thousands of tonnes, are being submerged in the waters off Istanbul’s historic peninsula as part of an ambitious project to link the European side of the Turkish metropolis with its Asian part and open the way for an “Iron Silk Road” between Europe and Asia.

“You will be able to go from Europe to Asia without getting off the train,” said Serap Timur, a spokesman for Turkey’s General Directorate of Railways, Harbours and Airports Construction, or DLH. The DLH runs the ambitious Marmaray project that plans to connect Europe and Asia with a two-way rail system.

The project in the Sea of Marmara at the mouth of the Bosphorus took another step towards completion this month, when the seventh of eleven sets of double steel tubes was lowered to the sea bed. The Bosphorus, one of the world’s busiest water ways, was closed for traffic for the duration of the operation. The two pieces of steel tube separated by a dividing wall measured 135 metres in length and weighed 18,000 tonnes.

With this latest addition, the tunnel at the bottom of the sea has reached a length of 945 metres. Four more double tubes are to be put in place before the end of the year, giving the tunnel its final length of 1.4km. There will be an additional 12.2km of tunnel under land.

With the first trains planned to begin operation by 2011, Marmaray will cost an estimated US$2.6 billion (Dh9.5bn) and will be able to carry 75,000 passengers an hour between Europe and Asia when the link reaches its full capacity in 2015. The project has fallen behind schedule, however, because construction work for the tunnel and new railway stations has unearthed important archaeological finds from the Roman and Byzantine periods, including 32 ancient ships.

Marmaray is to ease inner-city traffic and make it easier for Istanbulites to get from the European shore of their city to the Asian side or vice versa, by offering them a quicker alternative to ferry boats and the two giant motorway bridges spanning the straits. According to the DLH, the 76km trip from the suburb of Gebze on the Asian side to Halkali on the western outskirts of Istanbul’s European part takes more than three hours today. Once Marmaray is in operation, travel time will drop to one hour and 45 minutes.

“But it will not only be a suburban train,” Ms Timur said. “The tunnel will also be open for freight and international passenger trains at certain times.” Rush-hour periods in the morning and the evening are likely to be reserved for inner-city trains, she said.

Turkey has big plans for its railway network that suffered from underfunding in the past. Test runs of a high-speed train link between Istanbul and the capital of Ankara have begun, while plans to connect other cities with modern train links are in the pipeline.

In addition, work is about to start on the Turkish section of a new rail link between Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Ankara has put aside roughly $300 million for work on its side of the border with Georgia, including the construction of a 76km long railway near the eastern city of Kars. When completed, the new rail link will provide an uninterrupted train connection from China to Turkey, a vision that has made Turkish politicians and media talk of an “Iron Silk Road” in the making.

Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement for the rail link last year. “This project will go through Kazakhstan to China and through Marmaray to London,” Abdullah Gul, Turkey’s president, said at the ground-breaking ceremony in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in November. He said the project would “change history” and revive “the historic Silk Road”.

Known since antiquity, the Silk Road, a bundle of trade routes between the Mediterranean and China, received its name because it was the route silk from China made its way to Europe. Its importance declined in the Middle Ages as explorers opened new sea routes for trade.

But the ancient tradition of the Silk Road can be revived and turned into a source of revenue, Turkey believes. Tourism and especially freight transport take centre stage.

“Our efforts to establish an uninterrupted rail link from Europe to Central Asia, which started in 2004, have entered their ultimate phase,” Binali Yildirim, the transport minister, said recently. “We will finish the project, which carries a big significance for Turkey strategically and economically, in three years.” A total of 30m tonnes of freight will be transported on the new link in the medium term, Turkish press reports have said.

Turkey has been trying to position itself as a rail link between Asia and Europe. Total rail freight transport between the two continents was worth $75bn a year, Suleyman Karaman, the head of Turkey’s state railway operator TCDD, said late last month. Press reports put the potential revenue Turkey could generate with the help of the international freight train connection at $7bn annually.

Russia and Iran have proposed different routes that would leave Turkey in the cold, Mr Karaman said. This is why the Marmaray project was of utmost importance for the country. “If the project is not finished [as soon as possible], we will be bypassed,” he said.

Video on Iron Silk Road
A 15 year old dream is finally coming true in Turkey as a groundbreaking ceremony for the turkish section of the Baku-Tiblis-Kars railroad was held today. Also known as the -Iron Silkroad- when complete the railway will link Europe to Asia…so that a train travelling from London can reach China without interuption. Construction is expected to last until 2011.

It was a historical day in the eastern province of Kars due to the foundation ceremony of the joint railroad project. The province hosted two neighboring presidents.

The joint railroad project or called “the Iron Silkroad” will revive the historic silkroad through railroads. The project which will joint the continents was launched by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili

A train which departs from China’s Shanghai will reach London via Turkish province of Kars when the project is complete in 2011.

The below is the map of Iron Silk Road.

Product and Production Relations in Computer Integrated Manufacturing
The following assignment for Computer Integrated Manufacturing involves Product and Production Relations. You should answer the following questions and bring in the next class.
Questions

1. A plant produces three product lines: A, B, and C. There are 6 models within product line A, 4 models within B, and 8 within C. Average annual production quantities of each A model is 500 units, 700 units for each B model, and 1100 units for each C model. Determine the values of
(a) P and
(b) Qf (total production quantity of all products made in the factory) for this plant.
2. The ABC Company is planning a new product line and will build a new plant to manufacture the parts for a new product line. The product line will include 50 different models. Annual production of each model is expected to be 1000 units. Each product will be assembled of 400 components. All processing of parts will be accomplished in one factory. There are an average of 6 processing steps required to produce each component, and each processing step takes 1.0 minute (includes an allowance for setup time and part handling). All processing operations are performed at workstations, each of which includes a production machine and a human worker. If each workstation requires a floor space of 250 ft2, and the factory operates one shift (2000 hr/yr), determine
(a) how many production operations,
(b) how much floorspace, and
(c) how many workers will be required in the plant. Note: Neglect the effect of assembly time.
3. The XYZ Company is planning to introduce a new product line and will build a new factory to produce the parts and assembly the final products for the product line. The new product line will include 100 different models. Annual production of each model is expected to be 1000 units. Each product will be assembled of 600 components. All processing of parts and assembly of products will be accomplished in one factory. There are an average of 10 processing steps required to produce each component, and each processing step takes 30 sec. (includes an allowance for setup time and part handling). Each final unit of product takes 3.0 hours to assemble. All processing operations are performed at work cells that each includes a production machine and a human worker. Products are assembled on single workstations consisting of two workers each. If each work cell and each workstation require 200 ft2, and the factory operates one shift (2000 hr/yr), determine: (a) how many production operations,
(b) how much floorspace, and
(c) how many workers will be required in the plant.
4. If the company in Question 3 were to operate three shifts (6000 hr/yr) instead of one shift, determine the answers to (a), (b), and (c).

Interesting Facts about Human-Being
Here are some interesting facts about human being that we might not even know.

* Blinking helps to wash tears over our eyeballs. That keeps them clean and moist. Also, if something is about to hit our eye, we will blink automatically.
* Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression than men in the United States.
* The human brain has about 100,000,000,000 (100 billion) neurons.

* From all the oxygen that a human breathes, twenty percent goes to the brain.
* People who ride on roller coasters have a higher chance of having a blood clot in the brain.
* Once a human reaches the age of 35, he/she will start losing approximately 7,000 brain cells a day. The cells will never be replaced.
* It is not possible to tickle yourself. The cerebellum, a part of the brain, warns the rest of the brain that you are about to tickle yourself. Since your brain knows this, it ignores the resulting sensation.
* A women from Berlin Germany has had 3,110 gallstones taken out of her gall bladder.
* In America, the most common mental illness is Anxiety Disorders.
* Your brain is 80% water.
* Your brain is move active and thinks more at night than during the day.
* The shark cornea has been used in eye surgery, since its cornea is similar to a human cornea.
* The number one cause of blindness in adults in the United States is diabetes.
* The eye of a human can distinguish 500 shades of the gray.
* The cornea is the only living tissue in the human body that does not contain any blood vessels.
* People generally read 25% slower from a computer screen compared to paper.

Taken from Rumeysa Cetiner

Turkish First lady interviewed by The Times
Hayrunnisa Gul, the wife of President Abdullah Gul, underlined in an interview with an English newspaper that it is her head she covers with the Islamic headscarf — not her brain.
Hayrunnisa Gul, the wife of Turkish President Abdullah Gul, underlined in an interview with an English newspaper that it is her head she covers with the Islamic headscarf — not her brain.

The first lady, who was interviewed by Janice Turner of UK daily The Times, said she did not believe headscarves should be forced on women.

“To me, women should not be forced to wear headscarves. It would be hard to find anyone in İstanbul who would disagree with me, at least in public,” Mrs. Gul was quoted as saying.

Gul’s interview was published yesterday in Times2, The Times’ main supplement, which features various lifestyle columns.

The headscarf issue is a topic of fierce debate in Turkey, where wearing the Islamic headscarf is banned in the public sphere.

Its use at universities was prohibited in the late 1990s through an earlier ruling by the Constitutional Court on the grounds that it would violate the nation’s secular principles, as the headscarf was seen as a political and religious symbol.

It was stressed in the Times2 article that the headscarf, worn by a considerable portion of Turkish women, means more in Turkey than in any other country.

“It has become the most potent symbol of a battle for the soul of the country that will determine its place in Europe and the Islamic world,” the article stated.

The article also recalled a closure case filed against Turkey’s ruling party.

“Despite the solid parliamentary majority that enabled her husband [Abdullah Gul] to become president, the country’s Constitutional Court is determined to press ahead with a case intended to outlaw the ruling Justice and Development Party [AK Party] and ban its leading members from politics,” it said.

A top prosecutor requested in March that Turkey’s Constitutional Court close the governing AK Party and place a ban on political party involvement for 71 of its high-level officials, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Gul, who was an AK Party member before becoming president and severing political ties as required by the Constitution.

It was also expressed in the article that Western governments must see this case for what it is — an attempted judicial coup.

“It has scant legal basis. If successful it would derail Turkey’s already fraught EU accession and lead many AK Party supporters to despair of the ballot box,” the article read.

Quiz on Europe in Turkey
There has been a recent project with the title “Quiz on Europe in Turkish high schools”.
Quiz on Europe in Turkish high schools
The 2008 edition of the quiz on Europe, recently launched in Turkey, is going to be a success. The quiz involved more than 400 high schools.

The 2008 edition of the quiz on Europe, recently launched in Turkey, is going to be a success.

The quiz involved more than 400 high schools in Beyoglu (26), Umraniye (25), Pendik (23), Bahcelievler (23) and Kadikoy (22).

The students’ competition, which will last for two months, has the purpose to stimulate study and research on the issues which concern the European Union.

The finals will be held in Ankara in May.

“After the success of the 2007 edition, we have extended the contest to 15 cities, reaching also Van, with the support of the Education Ministry and the Info Network of the EU”, the director of the European information centre Aybige Tanriover said.

The schools of Istanbul started the preparation stage of the quiz at the beginning of March.

The European quiz is organised by the Education Ministry, delegation of the EU in Turkey, and the European information centres spread throughout the country including Adana, Antalya, Bursa, Denizli, Diyarbakir, Edirne, Gaziantep, Izmir, Kayseri, Mersin, Samsun and Van.

The winning class will go on a trip to Brussels and Berlin in June 2008.

AA