It is official! Forsa now confirms, the FDP is dying.
Continue reading ‘It is official! Germany’s FDP is Dying!’ »
Ali Reza Pahlavi Dies From Depression
On January 4th 2011, Prince Ali Reza Pahlavi, the younger son of the late Shah of Iran and Farah Pahlavi died of a gunshot wound in his home in Boston, MA. According to his older brother Reza, Alireza suffered from depression and committed suicide. He leaves behind a bereaved family, sympathetic Iranians, both inside and outside Persia, and many non-Iranians all around the globe saddened, mourning, and also wondering what really happened.
Cablegate: WikiLeaks Releases Too Many Secrets
So, the cat is finally out of the bag. Whistle blower platform WikiLeaks started the release of confidential and secret diplomatic cables from US Embassies all around the world to the State Department on cablegate.wikileaks.org (Update 2010/12/14: mirror). As I’m writing this, 598 cables out of 251,287 are available online with more to come every day.
Continue reading ‘Cablegate: WikiLeaks Releases Too Many Secrets’ »
NATO endorses Missile Defense, invites Russia
After nearly a decade of preparations, deliberations, and extensive tests, NATO members have finally endorsed the common Missile Defense System program on November 19th, 2010 at the Lisbon Summit. Furthermore, NATO invited Russia to participate in this program, and it seems that Russia is indeed warming up to this proposal, after initial skepticism. This is excellent news, both politically, and technically.
Continue reading ‘NATO endorses Missile Defense, invites Russia’ »
Thilo Sarrazin to be fired by the Bundesbank
German Bundesbank fires Dr. Thilo Sarrazin after racist remarks against Turks, Arabs and Jews.
A huge discussion on immigration and eugenics is sweeping all over Germany right now, since Dr. Thilo Sarrazin, executive board member of the German central bank Bundesbank and member of the social democratic party SPD published his inflammatory and highly controversial book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (Germany eliminates itself). On Monday, the Bundesbank distanced itself from Sarrazin’s absurd ideas, and today, the board members decided unanimously to ask the Federal President to fire him. The following posting tries to explain the background of this sordid affair.
Continue reading ‘Thilo Sarrazin to be fired by the Bundesbank’ »
Kunduz, Georg Klein, and the Fog of War
This is a followup to my previous posting on the infamous Kunduz air strike, where Oberst Georg Klein, a German ISAF colonel, ordered an air strike against Taliban terrorists who stole two fuel tankers, nearly a year ago. This air strike killed around 142 people who were surrounding the tankers at night, siphoning fuel. Among the casualties were 70 to 80 innocent civilian bystanders, including 24 children under the age of 18.
Continue reading ‘Kunduz, Georg Klein, and the Fog of War’ »
The Pirate Bay Leaks User Data Like A Sieve
EPIC FAIL at The Pirate Bay. Journalist Brian Krebs has just reported that Argentinian security researcher Ch. Russo was able to exploit multiple SQL injection vulnerabilities to log in TPB’s admin interface and to expose registered user data, including E-Mail and IP addresses.
Continue reading ‘The Pirate Bay Leaks User Data Like A Sieve’ »
FireGPG is Dead
With the latest update of Firefox’s extension FireGPG to 0.8, Maximilien Cuony announced that he dropped GMail support, and that he discontinued this project altogether.
That’s sad news for all eMail privacy advocates. Fortunately, all is not lost: most regular MUAs (eMail clients) support OpenPGP compliant applications like GnuPG, either directly or through an extension. GMail account holders can use those PGP-enabled clients via Google Mail’s IMAP interface.
World War II Bomb Explodes In Göttingen, Kills Three
You thought World War II was ancient history and definitely a thing of the past? You may want to reconsider: two days ago, an old 500 kg (1,000 pound) WW2 bomb exploded in the German city of Göttingen, killing 3 specialists of a bomb disposal squad who tried to defuse it.
Continue reading ‘World War II Bomb Explodes In Göttingen, Kills Three’ »
Düsseldorf Japan-Day 2010
A week ago, the biggest Japanese community outside of Japan organized for the 9th time the traditional Japan Day (Japan Tag) in the German city of Düsseldorf.