Friday, August 27, 2010

The strait of Samos




The strait of Samos (in greek: Stenó Sámou, or in turkish: Dar Bogaz). Where Greece with the island of Samos is at its closest distance to Turkey!



When driving on dusty dirt roads between Psili Ammos and Posidonio on the south-east coast of Samos it feels like looking down on a lake, with the high mountains of the turkish coast on the opposite side.




The western end of the strait of Samos. The small island (with a lighthouse) belongs to Turkey and is opposite of Psili Ammos beach.



Sunset trip on Friday evening, captain Jiannis from Pythagorio with his boat Agia Irini is on his way through the strait of Samos heading towards a nice night with lots of eating, drinking and dancing in a fish tavern in Posidonio.



Some videoclips I took this year in the south-east of Samos:







Well, how narrow is this channel between Europe (Greece) and Asia Minor (Turkey) at its closest distance?

I’ve done some searches in the internet and obtained differing data. A range from 1,2 kilometers to approx. 2 kilometers is offered for the closest distance!

meandertravel says:
The island Samos lies in the heart of Central Aegean, 1200 meters from the shore of Asia Minor.

Many people with german websites just copy the text from the german Wikipedia site, which states 1,3 km. The english version of Wikipedia interestingly allows 1,6 kilometers for the closest distance!

As does the EUROPÄISCHES SEGEL-INFORMATIONSSYSTEM which states 1,68 kilometer! (in german):
„Die Straße ist an der engsten Stelle 0,9 nm (=1,68km) breit und 2,99 nm (=5,64km) lang.“

The World Cruising Wiki says:
The Mycale channel, which is 1 nM wide, separates the two countries, ...

Partsafas K. Stillianos, head of the Samos port authority, is cited to have said:
“Samos is very close to Turkey. This is why we deal with so many illegal immigrants. At its closest point in the Samos Strait, Greece and Turkey have just 0.6 nautical miles between them,” ....

Samosin.gr site says:
„To the East of Samos is Turkey and Asia Minor, from which Samos is separated by the “Eptastadio” channel, (called Dar Bogaz in Turkish) whish is only 1650 meters wide at its narrowest point.“

I even found a statement saying this:
„In fact, Samos is only 2km from Turkey at its closest point, but to be honest, as far as I could see, Samos could be 2km of the coast of France for all the Turkish influence in evidence!“

Nowadays, Google helps us to find out ourselves what is the closest distance between Samos and the turkish coast.
And I remembered the sunset trip to Posidonio with captain Jiannis from Pythagorio where he always shows people in his boat this point on the south-east coast of Samos.

So, I marked two points on Google Earth in the area of the Samos strait which I think could represent the closest distance between the two countries Greece and Turkey.



The coordinates are:

For Samos:
37°42'17.15"N
27° 1'47.01"E

Decimal degrees notation: 37.704764 27.029725

For Turkey:
37°41'23.04"N
27° 1'51.98"E

Decimal degrees notation: 37.689733 27.031106

With these data I went to two different websites to calculate the distance.

rechneronline.de/geo-koordinaten
I obtained 1676 meters !

with geo-tools/distance-calculator
I obtained 1675 meters.

Well, that perfectly fits the data given on that sailing site (1,68 kilometers)!

I didn't check it, but maybe others regard the distance between those two small islands/rocks in the sea (the one in front of the turkish mainland, and the other one opposite to it in front of Psili Ammos beach on Samos) as the shortest distance between Greece and Turkey and use this distance.
I'm refering here to the closest distance between the mainland of Turkey and the shores of Samos.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Promoting Samos

I am pleased to let our readers know about a new cooperation i started with the Athens News Agency (ANA). I am photographing also for ANA now.
The past Weekend i covered the Hraia Festival which took place on Friday 20.August 2010 in Pythagorion. I send the photos forward to ANA and they distribute it to the greek Media.
Here are some Links to online publications, which i think, they are of a good promotion for Samos:

TA NEA online

IN.GR

PULSE.GR

STOXOS.GR

MAHITIKANEA.GR

So, if you are organizing a festival, a cultural event or other festivities at Samos and you think it is worth doing a reportage about it, you can contact me at info@art-of-focus.com .
Also for other news worthy topics, i am interested to here from you.

Photos of the HRAIA Festival in Pythagorion:

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Pythagorion, 5th August, the Feast of Honor of "The sea battle of Mikali"

Every year, on the 5th of August, Pythagorion celebrates the anniversary of the sea battle of Mykali.
This naval Battle took place in the straits of Mykali on 5th August 1824. During the Greek Revolution, the Greek fleet under the command of Georgios Sahtouris defeated the Ottoman fleet led by Hosref.
The 6th of August is a National Day for the Island of Samos.

All photographs are copyright by Michael Anhaeuser. If you wish to use any of the photographs for publications, please contact me at info@art-of-focus.com to get a price quote and the permission.
















Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Kako Perato

Samos_DSC8861-a

Well, the dense green with many trees in this view to the south-east might be gone now for many years!

The remote area of Kako Perato, a beautiful part of Samos between Kastanea, Kosmadei and the eastern slopes of the Kerkis mountain range, suffered extremely from the devastating fire this week.

View to the north:

Samos_DSC8852-a1

As I heard from friends, not much is left of the former beautiful green over there.
Fortunately, the outlet of the canyon towards the sea, the area of the beautiful Megalo Seitani beach, and the villages threatened by the fire, Marathokampos, Kastanea, Kosmadei and Votsalakia, were not hurt by the fire.

For those who haven't been to the area of Kako Perato, in my gallery "Along the abyss to the cave in Kako Perato canyon" are some photos I took in 2007 on my way along the footpath leading to this cave.

In addition, I highly recommend to pay a visit to the well presented website of Rainer Kastl, samos-wandern (hiking on Samos) to accompany him on his tour 24 through this area.

The following photos I took in June of the year 2005:

Hiking, starting from the monument on this saddle in the mountains above Marathokampos, in the direction of Kerkis mountain:

IMG_2829-a_20050610_Samos

IMG_2773-a_20050610_Samos

IMG_2787-a_20050610_Samos

IMG_2806-a_20050610_Samos

In the light of the setting sun on the dirt road leading through the Kako Perato area towards Kosmadei:

IMG_2847-a_20050610_Samos

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Brazen case of copyright infringement and content theft by user n2010k (Nikos Deja Vu) on YouTube

Ορειχάλκινο περίπτωση παραβίασης δικαιωμάτων πνευματικής ιδιοκτησίας και το περιεχόμενο της κλοπής από n2010k χρήστη (Νίκος Deja Vu) στο YouTube



Two weeks after I uploaded the video with the song "Cloud of Unknowing" by Ad Vanderveen to Youtube on July 16th, I was surprised to find it posted again today on the YouTube platform by greek YouTube user "n2010k" aka "Nikos Deja Vu".

After downloading my video (length 6:49 min), this guy cut off the end of my original video containing the copyright notice, added his own logo (Nikos Deja Vu) over the whole time span of the video and uploaded it again to YouTube under his user name n2010k (length 6:27 min).
A case of pretty bold content theft and copyright infringement.
With regards to copyright laws and violation, this guy seems to have spent most of his time in the "Cloud of Unknowing".

Δύο εβδομάδες μετά έχω φορτώσει το βίντεο με το τραγούδι "Cloud of Unknowing» του Ad Vanderveen στο Youtube στις 16 Ιουλίου, ήμουν έκπληκτος να βρώ αυτό δημοσιεύτηκε πάλι σήμερα στην πλατφόρμα της YouTube από την ελληνική YouTube χρήστη "n2010k".

Μετά τη λήψη βίντεο μου (μήκος 6:49 λεπτά), αυτός ο τύπος διακόπτει το τέλος του αρχικού βίντεο μου που περιέχει το δικαίωμα πνευματικής ιδιοκτησίας, πρόσθεσε το δικό της λογότυπο (Νίκος Deja Vu) σε ολόκληρη την περίοδο της βίντεο και το ανέβασα πάλι στο YouTube υπό n2010k όνομα χρήστη του (μήκος 6:27 λεπτά).
Μια περίπτωση αρκετά τολμηρές κλοπή περιεχομένου και παραβίαση πνευματικών δικαιωμάτων.





The "new" ending as manipulated by "Nikos Deja Vu" aka YouTUbe user n2010k:
Η "νέα" τελειώνει ως χειραγωγείται από τις λέξεις "Νίκος Deja Vu" aka n2010k χρηστών YouTube:



As it seems, this person applied the same "procedure" to a lot of other videos on YouTube too.
The same guy is active too on the vimeo video platform as user: "Nikos Deja Vu"

What excellence in mediocrity!
Bravo, you stupid greek guy in Thessaloniki!

Όπως φαίνεται, το πρόσωπο αυτό εφάρμοσε την ίδια «διαδικασία» σε πολλά άλλα βίντεο στο YouTube και εγώ.
Το ίδιο ο τύπος είναι πολύ ενεργός στο vimeo πλατφόρμα βίντεο ως χρήστης: «Νίκος Deja Vu"

Τι αριστείας στη μετριότητα!
Μπράβο, ηλίθιε τύπος ελληνικά στη Θεσσαλονίκη!