Mar22

The Evil Eye

Posted on March 22, 2012 by documama

In the midst of exploring the magnificent architecture, history and culture of Istanbul,Turkey it was hard not to notice the tiny blue evil eye icons glinting at me throughout the city. It was on that first visit to Istanbul in 1997 that I learned the significance of the evil eye in the region. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica “Belief in the evil eye is ancient and ubiquitous: it occurred in ancient Greece and Rome; is found in Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu traditions and in folk cultures and preliterate societies; and has persisted throughout the world into modern times.” The symbol of the blue eye is meant to ward off the “evil eye” look given intentionally or unintentionally of ill will, usually due to dislike or envy. The charm serves as protection by deflecting bad luck back at the offender or absorbing it. Word is that if your talisman cracks or breaks you know it worked to protect you. Speculation is that long ago due to the rarity of blue eyes in that area of the world, the color came under suspicion as powerful in some way.

Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

By the time we returned home from that first visit we had acquired numerous evil eye souvenirs from our trip, items I looked at as beloved travel memorabilia and cultural artifacts. Two years later we went back to Istanbul with our infant daughter. Before we left for Turkey my husband’s sister gave us a tiny safety-pin with a plastic blue evil eye dangling from it. It was meant to be pinned to our baby’s clothes for safe travel. At night I would remove the tiny pin and place it on the dresser, but put it back on her each morning as we got dressed. The earthquake hit on our third night there, it registered as a 7.6 on the Richter Scale and when it was over our room was a jumble of toppled furniture and broken belongings. No one in our apartment had been injured, so we considered ourselves extremely fortunate. As we straightened up the mess in the room, atop the dresser sat the tiny plastic pin exactly in the spot I had set it the evening before. Nothing had fallen on it, in fact it had not moved at all, but it was cracked down the middle in a sharp jagged line. I gasped when I saw it, in my mind the superstition had been proven true. My baby had been protected by it. Sometimes a moment can alter your perception of something, consciously or not, when that internal shift takes place, the seed of that idea is planted. Rationally I remained skeptical, but spiritually I became a believer in the evil eye in that moment.

My father-in-law and husband tell the following story: For scientists, science and superstition are mutually inconsistent. A neighbor visiting Niels Bohr in his country home found the great Danish physicist (recipient of the 1922 Nobel Prize) nailing a horseshoe above the front door of his house. The friend laughed, “Professor Bohr, I cannot believe you believe the old superstition of horseshoes warding off bad luck!”

Bohr quipped, while continuing to fix the horseshoe in place, “I don’t, but this is just in case”

To this day I wear evil eye jewelry whenever I think of it, we have evil eye house wares throughout our home, and my car keys dangle from an evil eye key chain. Do I believe in the evil eye? I suppose I do, and I display it everywhere….just in case.

My key chain

Mar18

Earthquake in Istanbul (1999)

Posted on March 18, 2012 by documama

Earthquake in Istanbul (1999)

Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

It was around 3:00am in Istanbul when the earth shook beneath us. My 6-month old baby slept in her pack-n-play at the foot of our bed, and my husband and I woke to a thunderous roar. My first thought was of terrorists’ bombs going off. When we had told friends we were going to Turkey to introduce our baby to the Turkish side of my husband’s family, everyone mentioned the terrorists. Growing up on the East Coast of America, I knew nothing of bathtubs and doorjambs, and the deafening cacophony associated with an earthquake. Instinctively I grabbed our baby and clutched her to my chest – a pose I held as I watched the chandelier above our bed swing wildly. My body folded around hers as she slept on. Furniture tumbled, as I swear I felt undulating waves of movement beneath me in such a way that a bed or a floor of an apartment building just DO NOT move. When the roar was continuous,20 seconds, 30 seconds, I knew it could not be bombs hitting the building next door . The 40 seconds felt like an hour. MY BABY, MY BABY! Was the plea that circled through my mind. In the days following, and thinking back still, I can not get over the feeling of terror that washed through me, but that is not it.

Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

It is the knowledge that countless other mothers had sat clutching their children that night the same was as me, only to have their buildings crumble on top of them. The official death count is listed as 18,000, but Turkish authorities estimated it closer to 35,000 people who died that night in Turkey. Most of whom lived less than an hour outside of Istanbul in and around the city of Izmit, the epicenter of the earthquake. Corrupt builders there had not followed building codes, and had put too much sand in the cement, so when that night stuck buildings literally crumbled. The earthquake registered 7.6 on the Richter scale. With the hundreds of continual aftershocks that shook Istanbul a couple of Turkish scientists announced that everyone should sleep outside. In 1999 the city of Istanbul had a population of over 9 million people, and they formed a carpet of humanity filling parks and lining highways to sleep outside that following night. My father-in-law and my husband are both scientists and thought the suggestion was ridiculous. I am not a scientist, and as the mother of a six month old baby, demanded that if the rest of Istanbul was sleeping outside, so would we. My father-in-law called a close family friend, Ali, who had a yard, and asked if we could camp out there for the night.

Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

Ali, gracious as always, immediately agreed. So it was that we caravanned to Ali’s house with my husband’s aunt and uncle, his grandfather, his grandfather’s two body guards, their household staff of three, my father-in-Law, my husband, our infant and myself. Our entourage sprawled around Ali’s yard, and once we were settled, he left for Izmit with his grown son to try to help dig people out. It was a surreal trip, and a lesson in humility. To feel the earth move like that under me was a reminder of how tiny we each are in the scheme of things. How great and powerful the nature of the earth truly is over us all.

Have any of you experienced an earthquake? Did you know what was happening?

Photo by Elizabeth Atalay

Mar14

PI DAY (π-Day)

Posted on March 14, 2012 by documama

PI DAY (π-Day)

Ink Drawing by Bulent Atalay, inspired by a Yousuf Karsh photo of Einstein, hanging in the Physics Department at Princeton University

For Einstein’s birthday I asked my Father-In-Law, Bulent Atalay, a theoretical nuclear physicist to write a guest post for Documama.

PI DAY by Bulent Atalay

Among physics students, March 14 is known as “π-Day” (“Pi-Day”) the day that Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany in 1879. The venerable physicist is known for changing the very paradigm of physics, rejecting the three “fundamental undefinables” — length, mass and time — as invariants, and positing in their place the speed of light as the unique invariant. (Thus, measuring the speed of a light beam while traveling in the same direction as the beam, and measuring it while traveling in the opposite direction would yield precisely the same relative velocities; this in distinction to common sense, which would call for adding and subtracting the speed of light from the speed of the observer.) The ramifications of this shift in paradigm lead to fascinating effects at relativistic speeds — including, a contraction of length, an increase of mass, and the slowing down of time. Lying down in the direction of motion in a rocket ship traveling at 50% of the speed of light, a 6′ man would shrink to 5’3”; if his weight were 180 pounds normally, it would increase to 207 pounds. And if he traveled for one earth-year, he would age 47 days less than if he had stayed stationary. Launched on March 14, 2012, and brought back one year later, on March 14, 2013, it would be only January 25, 2013 for him. Einstein’s special theory of relativity was published his 1905, and the far more complex general theory of relativity in 1915. The former gives the equivalence of energy and mass, in the most famous equation in science, E=mc^2. The latter, based on the equivalent effects of gravitation and acceleration, leads to explanations of the large-scale universe — a violent universe that has its origins in a “Big Bang,” 13.7 billion years ago; of light bending around massive bodies such as stars and galaxies; of stars that collapse into black holes; of “worm holes” that connect different locations of space-time in the universe. Isaac Newton’s dynamics, formulated two centuries earlier in the Principiaare still valid, but at relativistic velocities they have to be modified. Einstein’s work has to be regarded as buttressing Newton’s physics and not in any way subverting it. A spaceship can still be sent to land on the moon with Newton’s physics, but Einstein’s corrections would make it a softer landing.

Albert Einstein

Late in 1999, the editors of Time Magazine, used to selecting the “Individual of the Year,” found themselves with a much more difficult task — selecting the individual of the century. After what must have called for considerable deliberation, they made their announcement. It would not be a spiritual leader, such as Pope John Paul II, Gandhi or Mother Teresa. And it would not be a world leader, such as FDR, Stalin or Churchill, in a century that had seen two World Wars. The editors’ choice for the “Individual of the Century” would be Albert Einstein. They explained the reasoning in their selection: the 20th century had been the ‘Century of Science’ and Albert Einstein was its greatest practitioner, and the very symbol of science.

POSTSCRIPT. π, is the irrational number corresponding to the circumference of a circle divided by the diameter. To seven places after the decimal, its value is 3.141 592 7 As an irrational number π cannot be expressed exactly by the ratio of two numbers, however, elementary school students are often taught 22/7, as a crude approximation. It yields 3.142 857, good to two places after the decimal. A much better approximation is 355/113, a ratio that equals 3.141 592 9, good to six places. A better approximation still comes from the mnemonic, “How I need a drink, alcoholic of course, after the heavy lectures involving quantum mechanics,” 3.141 592 653 589 79…, i.e. by counting the letters. (Rather than “alcoholic”, for the adolescents substitute “pepsicola”.)

For more about Bulent Atalay and his work visit his website: www.bulentatalay.com or

read more of his blog posts at http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/author/drbatalay/

Mar12

D.I.Y. Skateboard Rack

Posted on March 12, 2012 by documama

D.I.Y. Skateboard Rack

the assembly is screwed into the wall at a stud.

After nearly breaking our necks several times tripping over, or stepping on our son’s skateboards, we decided we needed to put them in a rack. I found a skateboard rack in a catalog, but balked at the price tag. It was not even a great design. My husband is extremely handy, so I knew he could come up with something better. I only had to show him the picture, and he figured out what we both thought was an even more streamlined plan.

Total cost was around $35.00. What you need is your Mitre saw for angled cuts, one 6′ 2×6 plank of pine or other wood cut in half. In the plumbing department find three 1/2″ galvanized steel “floor” flanges, one 1/2″ steel ” T ” connector pipe and three 1/2″ x 4″ straight pipes (called “nipples” at the store ) as well as 8 Screws and 2 lag bolts. A little paint to spice things up and there you have your D.I.Y. Skateboard Rack! (or in my case, your HYHDI (Have Your Husband Do It ) Skateboard Rack.

Mar10

My Cupcake Tour of NYC

Posted on March 10, 2012 by documama

My Cupcake Tour of NYC

My cupcake tour of New York City is a fantasy tour that I have plotted out but not yet executed. I know, I’m aware that the height of the cupcake trend is over. While cake pops have taken center stage, I still love cupcakes, and have no desire to eat mine on a stick. A few weeks ago as we drove to NYC for a family vacation I let out a sudden gasp. My husband swerved the car and looked over at me all exasperated. (He seems to really dislike when I gasp like that when he’s driving) I explained to him that I just realized I had forgotten to bring my cupcake tour along with me for the trip! He clearly did not get it. I knew without the list I had torn out of a newspaper years ago, and updated since, my tour was not going to happen. Clearly by the look he gave me when I told him my plan, it was not destined for this visit anyway. Alas, I’ll have to wait for another opportunity. Meanwhile, I am hoping one of you can check it out for me! We can eventually take a poll, and pick favorites! Please also add any stops along the way I might have missed. This is very important to get proper scientific results you know. I plotted the cupcake tour along neighborhoods, working my way from downtown to uptown. Looking at the list, this quest may best be conquered over the period of a couple of days. Up to you!

Babycakes NYC