Author Archives: Andrea

Landtagswahlen

Normalerweise halte ich mich ja mit meiner politischen Meinung hier zurück, aber heute mache ich mal eine Ausnahme. Ich schließe mich Sascha Lobo an, der eine Kolumne für Spiegel online geschrieben hat.

Denkanstoß: Bitte wählen Sie nicht AfD. Eine Kolumne von Sascha Lobo.

Die AfD verspricht Lösungen und Auswege, Veränderung und Aufbruch. Irgendwohin. Wenn man aber genau hinsieht, stellt man fest, dass sie nur ein Ziel hat: komfortable Pöstchen zu erreichen, mit welchen Mitteln auch immer.

Die Landtagswahlen in Baden-Württemberg, in Rheinland-Pfalz und in Sachsen-Anhalt stehen bevor, deshalb will ich Ihnen von meinen Erkenntnissen erzählen, die ich in den letzten Monaten über die AfD gewonnen habe. Sie resultieren in einer Bitte:

Bitte wählen Sie nicht die AfD.

Wie immer sollte man lieber darauf verzichten, die Kommentare darunter zu lesen.

Denjenigen, die sich Gedanken um die Flüchtlingskrise machen, lege ich noch das folgende Video von Nico Semsrott ans Herz: Flüchtlinge. Oder: Wie sollen wir das nur schaffen?

Scientists

Nautil.us on March 3, 2016: My Family, My Science. “One girl’s scientific coming of age.” By Hope Jahren.

“My laboratory is a place where the lights are always on. My laboratory has no windows, but it needs none. It is self-contained. It is its own world. My lab is both private and familiar, populated by a small number of people who know one another well. My lab is the place where I put my brain out on my fingers and I do things. My lab is a place where I move. I stand, walk, sit, fetch, carry, climb, and crawl. My lab is a place where it’s just as well that I can’t sleep, because there are so many things to do in the world besides that.”

Ransomware

The first ransomware for Mac OS X has been found.

MetaFilter: OS X Ransomware. “First OS X ransomware detected in the wild, will maliciously encrypt hard drives on infected Macs.”

9to5Mac: First OS X ransomware detected in the wild, will maliciously encrypt hard drives on infected Macs [Update: How to fix].

“OS X users have today been hit with the first known case of Mac ‘ransomware’ malware, found in the Transmission BitTorrent client released last week. Infected versions of the app include ‘KeyRanger’ malware that will maliciously encrypt the user’s hard drive after three days of being installed. The malware then asks for payment to allow the user to decrypt the disk and access their data — the ‘ransom’.”

Ransomware has been around for several years in one form or another, but seems to have become much more popular in the past few months. One of my favorite podcasts reported on this problem back in the fall:

Radiolab on September 21, 2016: Darkode.

“It would seem that hackers today can do just about anything they want – from turning on the cellphone in your pocket to holding your life’s work hostage. Cyber criminals today have more sophisticated tools, have learned to work collaboratively around the world and have found innovative ways to remain deep undercover in the internet’s shadows. This episode, we shine a light into those shadows to see the world from the perspectives of both cybercrime victims and perpetrators.”

You can listen to, stream or download the episode for free.

Deutsche Welle on February 25, 2016: Hackers hold German hospital data hostage.

“Several hospitals in Germany have come under attack by ransomware, a type of virus that locks files and demands cash to free data it maliciously encrypted. It will take weeks until all systems are up and running again.”

Die Zeit: Wir haben Eure Daten! “Eine neue Form der Erpressung hat sich etabliert. Cyberkriminelle legen Computer lahm und verlangen Lösegeld. Was passiert, wenn es ein Krankenhaus trifft – eine Rekonstruktion.” Von Karen Grass.

Space Flight

Victoria University of Wellington: Alexander Gerst – Why We Fly To Space. (YouTube, 1:18:15)

“Victoria University of Wellington alum, geophysicist, and astronaut Dr Alexander Gerst speaks about his six-month mission as part of the International Space Station crew from May to November 2014, and why we go to space.”

The movie Zero Gravity – Mission in Space (YouTube channel with trailers in English and German, behind-the-scenes) about “[t]he space adventure of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman” was released on March 3.

Bonus-Link: Alexander Gerst lässt Papierflieger und Propeller in der ISS fliegen.