Posted inCan We Talk About This Please? Politics & Opinion

Berlin, December 20, 2016

It is now 4:00 p.m. on December 20, 2016—almost exactly 20 hours after the horrific act in which the perpetrator (or perpetrators) drove a truck into the Christmas market at Breitscheidplatz in Berlin, killing at least 12 people and injuring 48 others, many of them seriously. Whatever the exact motives behind this act may have been, the deed itself is abhorrent and despicable. My thoughts are with the victims and their families. And yet, if this does turn out to be a terrorist attack—as it sadly appears—then we must all take a step back and resist the all-too-human reaction of anger…
Nerdy Wedding Part 2: Photo Booth
Posted inOnline & Digital

Nerdy Wedding Part 2: Photo Booth

Since my wedding is now two years behind us—and this blog post has been waiting for completion ever since—it was about time! Especially because I’ve been asked several times how we did it. The theme once again is “Nerdy Wedding.” In part one, I wrote about the wedding website we built for our guests and family. This part is about our photobooth. A photobooth, as you can imagine, basically consists of a camera on a tripod. In our case: a Canon EOS DSLR. We didn’t use an external flash, though depending on the location it might make sense. For us, the built-in flash…
Posted inCan We Talk About This Please? Science Matters The Homeopathy Myth

Why I Don’t Believe in Homeopathy

Inspired by a recent discussion, I once again dove into the world of homeopathy. I’ve read a fair bit about it over the years, but every time I revisit the subject, I come across new articles, studies, and examples that make me think. I’ll be honest: I wasn’t sure how to start this piece. So, I’ll simply throw you into the ocean (or maybe just the puddle) of my thoughts and doubts. “But it helped me…” One of the most common things I hear when talking about homeopathy is the statement: “But it helped me!” People often present this as an irrefutable…
Posted inCan We Talk About This Please? Politics & Opinion

Sigmar Gabriel and the Middle Finger

Last Friday, Sigmar Gabriel gave a group of far-right hecklers the middle finger. They had been disrupting his campaign rally with shouts and placards. My first reaction was: “That’s not the right way to respond. A politician of his standing shouldn’t stoop to that level.” But then I asked myself—is that really true? Is a gesture like that ever justified? After thinking about it, I came to a different conclusion: yes, it can be justified—even for the chairman of the SPD. Emotion Versus Argument Of course, flipping the middle finger is no way to engage in political debate. Critics deserve to be answered with…
Posted inGeneral Online & Digital

Step-by-Step Revolution Instead of Slow Evolution

In my expert commentary for Funkschau—both online and in the print edition—I explain why organizations should approach the transition from long-established, legacy communication systems to modern, cloud-based online tools as a stepwise revolution rather than a slow, drawn-out evolution. The point I make is simple: traditional communication infrastructures, often grown organically over decades, are deeply embedded in many companies. They can’t be ripped out overnight—but neither should they be left untouched until they collapse under their own complexity. A gradual, planned migration allows companies to modernize piece by piece, reducing risk while still reaping the advantages of flexibility, scalability, and collaboration that cloud services offer. This isn’t…
Nerdy Wedding, Part 1: The Wedding Website
Posted inOnline & Digital

Nerdy Wedding, Part 1: The Wedding Website

Every geek or nerd who gets married wonders how to weave their passions, hobbies, or quirks into the wedding in a useful way. One idea that has become quite common by now is to create a wedding website. In our case, this was especially helpful since we weren’t getting married in Germany and needed to provide travel instructions, hotel recommendations, and other useful information for our guests. This article shares my thoughts and experiences, so you can hopefully save yourself some trial and error. CMS and Design For the CMS, I used WordPress, as I do for all my sites. It’s easy…
Posted inScience Matters The Homeopathy Myth

Beer Meets Esotericism

I came across this clever and funny observation from German physicist and cabaret artist Vince Ebert, who often explains science with humor and simple everyday examples. “If I suspect, for example, ‘There might be beer in the fridge,’ and I go check, then I’m basically already practicing an early form of science.Big difference compared to theology: there, assumptions usually aren’t tested.So if I just claim, ‘There’s beer in the fridge,’ I’m a theologian.If I actually look, I’m a scientist.And if I look, find nothing, and still insist there’s beer inside—then I’m an esoteric!” — Vince Ebert
Posted inCan We Talk About This Please? In the News The Homeopathy Myth

Dear parents, you’re being lied to

As a geek without kids (so far), I sometimes stumble across the phenomenon in my circle of friends that some parents refuse to vaccinate their children. Honestly, I’ve never understood why—and to be fair, I never really looked deeply into it. To my surprise, it seems to be far more common than I thought. I grew up in a family and environment where getting vaccinated was simply normal. Not long ago, diseases like mumps, measles, or rubella would flare up into epidemics and claim hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. Only through vaccination were we able to bring them under…
Posted inCan We Talk About This Please? In the News Online & Digital Politics & Opinion

The BND Espionage Affair: When “Friends” Spy on Each Other

As if Edward Snowden’s revelations about large-scale NSA surveillance in Europe and Germany, and the tapping of Angela Merkel’s mobile phone, had not already been enough, the U.S. spying scandal has entered its next chapter—despite all denials from the NSA and CIA. To summarize what happened: last week a BND employee was arrested. He is accused of having sold 218 confidential BND documents over the past two years to the CIA for a total of about €25,000. The man worked in the department “Areas of Operation/Foreign Relations” and was apparently responsible for archiving documents. In that role, of course, he had access…