The security researcher niels hofmans has demonstrated how vulnerabilities in apple’s t2 secure chip can be exploited in practice. First, he uses a well-known luck to attack the boot process. Then he bypasses an apple-integrated security routine, which actually acknowledges precooling attempts in the device firmware update mode (dfu) with a crash of the operating system (sepos) of the chip. He managed to get full root access including kernel execution rights.

That apple’s safe chip t2, which is in all current macs and, among other things, ensures ssd hardware shutters, with security, is already known. These are therefore problematic, therefore, because they do not simply migrate from the manufacturer by updating – the included os is poured into hardware. The processor is based on apple’s a10, which is already on duration jailbreaks.

Safe chip improves the user

Although hofmans could not directly crack this type apple filevault 2 cap. However, he succeeded in placing a keylogger directly in the t2 chip, as it is stated for the control of the keyboard for safety limits for the control of the keyboard. So it was possible to simply steal the password – even that of the firmware of the mac.

In addition, hofmans succeeded, according to their own statements, to remove various apple security functions with their exploit. This is what mobile device management (mdm), which use many companies, as well as the anti-theft function "find my mac". After all, the shady code is not persistent because it runs only in memory; sepos itself is read-only. Hofmans estimates that attackers were able to use a manipulated usb device to get access to the mac – the necessary hardware fits with a plug in a plug.

Not out of the distance

However, as is relevant to the attack in practice, however, remains controversial. As far as foreseeable, there is no possibility to exploit the leach from afar. An attacker requires physical access to the machine to be crunched, simply exploits to be used does not exist so far. In addition, several security swags are combined with each other, which complicates the imitation of the process. Data forums were allowed to pursue the methodology but certainly with gross attention.

Hofmans has already contacted apple, but so far nothing has been heard. Normal users remains to be recommended not to leave their mac unattended – and usb-c accessories are not easy to blind.

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The dismissal of a political editor of a local austrian newspaper continues to cause a stir. The dismissal was "the first political victim of a shift to the right in austria", said the head of the austrian journalists’ union on friday. Fear of an attempt to bring the media into line ran through austrian newsrooms. The controversy then took a bizarre turn with jorg haider’s appearance on the n-tv program "talk in berlin". There he said that he wanted to campaign for the reinstatement of the expert journalist gerhard marschall.

The german public was able to see for itself in this broadcast, which has since come to be seen as the "peak of embarrassment" the german public was able to get a picture of haider as a manipulator of public opinion. For in the exchange of blows with freimut duve – one of the few on the program who at least tried to stand up to him – the next turn immediately followed. The condition for haider’s commitment, haider said, was that the sdp media expert and osce representative would in return support the addition of nationwide terrestrial private television in austria. No wonder haider considered the talk show a success. "He was able to say what he wanted to say, he rejoiced" today according to spiegel online.

In the meantime, the announcement of the editor gerhard marschall drew further circles in austria. Publisher rudolf a. Cuturi and editor-in-chief hans koppl denied today in a statement in the oberosterreichische nachrichten that the dismissal was politically motivated. "The reason for this lies rather in the style of editor marschall’s contributions, which repeatedly, and increasingly in recent months, lack the non-partisanship, distance and objectivity that we, as an independent medium, expect from our staff", they wrote. Marshall’s style has been the cause of subscription cancellations by readers, the editor was quoted as saying in other contexts.

But even that is probably not an objective reason for termination in austria’s provinces. For as the salzburger nachrichten reported today:

"The protest of a few hundred subscribers against a certain critical journalist could also be organized by auben. In salzburg, too, we have already experienced that the understanding of democracy of some liberal functionaries is exhausted by the call for a boycott of an inconvenient newspaper."

The f party, however, denied any influence in connection with the announcement of the editor. The result of another editorial meeting today at oberosterreichische nachrichten is not to make any further statements pending the reaction of the person concerned, der standard reported.

Nothing has yet become known about concrete steps taken by jorg haider to democratically support a journalist who is critical of him. He focused today on the announcement of the intention to sue ex-chancellor kilma for political treason for inciting eu politicians to boycott austria. The charm offensive in the german speaking countries is obviously ahead.

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Around 90 percent of children and adolescents in germany are looking to a survey daily moving picture on television or internet. This is evident from a study presented by the arbeitsgemeinschaft agf video research on monday in frankfurt (main). The value refers to the 3- to 17-year-old. The agf has been measuring the tv quotas for local tv channels for decades, which are agf shareholders.

In the representative study, more than 5,000 children between 3 and 17 years or their parents were interviewed in february and marz. Comparative figures for early years are not available, the agf study is the first in this form. To the questions in the survey paid: "which shipments or videos do you like best?" and "you have already given much information about the offers you use. Is there for you in these offers or figures you think, maybe even role models?"

Ever old, the less tv

More results: the significant majority of children and adolescents consumes moving picture in a mix of both classic tv and platforms such as media library and portals like youtube. The age the children are, the lower the proportion of those who see the television program. For the 3- to 6-year-old, which is at least occasionally moving picture, this value was 8 percent, according to the survey, in the 14- to 17-year-olds it was only 3 percent.

Free video portals are the survey with increasing age more important. While 29 percent of 3- to 6-year-year-old benefits, there are already 37 percent of 14 to 17-year-old. If, on the other hand, there are paid portals, the values are almost equal (3-6 years: 26 percent, 14-17 years: 25 percent). In the age groups in between, the value drops to 19 percent. At the favorite app was consistently in the age groups "youtube" perennial.

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Niantic works on one "pikmin"-game with ar elements. The title should like "pokemon go" in collaboration with nintendo and is developed by the tokyo department of niantic. This tokyo studio was founded in 2018, pikmin is its first video game.

The envision of the "pikmin"-playing does not give many details price. Niantic writes only, the game should encourage the encouragement to run and contain game mechanics that should make this activity spabig. That sounds quite similar to the previous niantic games ""pokemon go" and "harry potter: wizards unite". The ar game in "pikmin"-universe is to come 2021 on the market.

Pokemon, harry potter, pikmin

"Pikmin" is compared to "pokemon" and "harry potter" a significantly smaller brand: it is about small plant resources who have to get ratsel loose and adversaries. The "pikmin"-title play as a mixture of strategy game, platformer and puzzle game and let the players mostly explore an open world. So far, there are only four main games in the "pikmin"-series, which were partially reied several times.

The youngest "pikmin"-title, "pikmin 3 deluxe", appeared 2020 for the nintendo switch. It is a remake of the third part, which was published in 2013 for nintendo’s game console wii u.

According to press release, nintendo and niantic go with the development of the "pikmin"-ar game a long-term partnership in which further ar titles should be created with topics from the nintendo universe. The partnership is given the massive success of "pokemon go" nearby: according to the analysts of sensortower, the ar game has meanwhile implemented four billion us dollars for mobile devices.

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To make a long story short: a "scribing" by lucia fabiani on the itaforum 2011

How voluntarism becomes a community of constraints

More than 80 percent of facebook users have given their real names. Mark zuckerberg knows why: they like to share their information. Almost a christian act, among brothers and sisters. They are not afraid of losing their privacy? Or do they even feel a pleasure in the personal exposure in the choir of the church? Most of them know the business model of facebook in general, but do not care in detail about the interconnections and bundles of data paths that run past them while they are feeding in. They know it, but they do it anyway. The veil of opacity of web2.0 filters their concerns. They say: we can’t do anything about it anyway.

How does this traumatized attitude come about?? Surely not just by zuckerberg, the boy next door, saying: "they trust me, these idiots." why do you make a mistake on the web, only to make a mistake again as soon as you have repented (of the time)?? The social philosopher adorno has already for the 20th century. Century defined communication negatively: everybody talks, but not with each other. An indifferent noise. In the compression to a ubiquitous space-time, which makes us placeless, loneliness is only to be endured by non-stop talking, the old fear consciousness. Is there who? It is the self-arance, if not the self-absorption of narcis, who in the mirror of the water and in the echo of his words does not recognize that his counterpart is himself.

On the net we can do everything ourselves: we edit our texts and photographs, form ourselves into riots and overthrow regimes. We are allowed to empower ourselves. But just as the ancient narcissist lacked companionship, social media are replacing something that has long been "talking to each other" is embossed: the family. Psychoanalysis calls this process ego ideal substitution. Old impotences are exchanged for stronger ones. Everyone is allowed to participate in everything in the unleashed horde of brothers and sisters. We live in a free web country. We. This is the corporate sound.

It’s like in kafka’s "kafka’s castle". The desire to be part of it, demands horror. One desires entrance by a click and is already recognized as a repeat offender, now also by photo. And is there any better marketing than the recommendation by our friends, who are the "like-my"-view button?1 who are our friends? According to a study, for every 130 facebook friends, there are 6.6 real friends. But who is our best friend? We ourselves, see above. We are in the forecourt of advertising, where, as vance packard2 found out decades ago, the questions are answered in a roundabout, amusing and seemingly value-free way: who am i? Who do i want to be? How do i want to be loved? By whom? What can i do?

At a conference on iuk technologies organized by the ministry of research, karin frick suggested that instead of calling the gross data collectors "big brother" it would be better to speak of "big mother" to speak. We get advice on the net when we are sick and when we want to shop. We are cared for and nurtured. Frick added that the subliminal theme of careful care and gifting is the most important gateway of advertising, which appeals to us in a general human way. But: "you are not the customer in this (social web) network, the customer is the advertising industry. You yourself are the product."3

It is often said that "human interface" spoken. The real interface, however, as opposed to that of the transition from reality to virtuality, is the transformation of social relations into things that become manageable. Be it that we are connected to the network of things in the ubiquitous city, be it that our thinking becomes the circuit function of the collective world memory. What do neuronal researchers actually look for in the human brain?? You should search above. Konrad zuse already suspected: "the danger that the computer will become like man is not as great as the danger that man will become like the computer.

How it all began: the first computer built by konrad zuse (1938). Underneath the hardware: vacuum cleaner motors and foliage work. Image: private archive horst zuse

Does it help to identify ourselves as participants in the "gated web community" by adopting a fake identity?? Data protection officer marit hansen points out that such users, lulling themselves into a sense of security, become all the more careless when surfing the web. They are manipulated simply by believing that they cannot be manipulated. Restrictions of facebook’s functions to smaller communication spaces in order to maintain privacy must first be worked out by the user in the jungle of regulations, because they are not in the spirit of the inventor.

But this kind of freedom of choice is at the same time a useful argument for facebook. When privacy advocates object to the transfer of data to third parties, facebook counters that it was, after all, the users themselves who uploaded the data and provided them with the relevant disclosure clauses. The burden of proof is reversed: "it’s your own fault!" the global (web) players slip through the cracks between overtaxed data protection experts and a shirt-sleeved interior minister. There is circumstantial evidence for the shirtlessness. The minister does not seem to be unhappy about the practices of commercial data collection and dissemination, because the security authorities are "behind it". This is the next dilemma: is the state the adequate guarantor of a data protection that it itself is inclined to violate when it comes to its own surveillance purposes?? "State trojan" – the word is as apart as the code is long.

From cough to tsunami

The "big dater" attach themselves – with the help of cookies – to the traces of our web journeys, and the accumulation of data gradually builds up into a personal dossier. This also involves non-members of facebook, but the effectiveness of the method lies in targeting user groups whose emotional surfing motive is a hybrid of self-absorption and sickness. However, who can claim to be completely free of this?? Accordingly, it would be the potential majority, which in turn voluntarily contributes to the creation of their respective social and psychological profiles. What others spread about one on the net gradually overlays what one makes known about oneself, until one has unconsciously adopted the image of others. To be is to be perceived. The online image dominates the offline image. The image swallows up reality.

It’s then too late for a facebook exit under one’s own steam. 80 years ago, the sociologist alfred schutz outlined a social behavior pattern of the individual that anticipated the web age: i present myself in the way i think others see me. But, had to be connected, in the result there is the one and the other no more. All are "generalized others" become. All speak the same world language, the jargon of the "generalized other". Already on the occasion of the first transatlantic telegraph cables, which love to bring the old world together with the new world by accelerating the transmission to the global village, h.D. Thoreau: "perhaps, however, the first news that trickles into the coarse american lop ear is: princess adelheid has the whooping cough."4 has the whole world the cough today?

The big brother award, the oscar for data octopuses, went to facebook in 2011 in the communications category; another to apple. Bild: thorsten moller / foebud

"Facebook against any injustice" banners of the "facebook-revolution" in the arab countries. The social web provided the democratic platform. But not the political content, but "the medium is the message", according to marshall mcluhan. The digital tsunamis that drove the masses to action on the streets are no different in form from campaigns in the age of the "mass customization", ernuchterung on "day after" included. Product campaigns are best run when they are underfed and managed with people-to-people campaigns. At this point conspiracy theories emerged. Is the cia behind it?? Hardly, but conspiracy theories confirm themselves in each case. They are the supposed revelation of a cloak. But the revelation, in turn, succumbs to the aura of seduction: the unmasked "altbose enemy" (with luther the devil) remains mystical and powerful, all the more threatening.

And what if the cia itself had spread the rumor of its involvement, so that it would be denied?? The informational offerings of the web are sucked into an inextricable spiral fog of exposure and disinformation. It is like the race between hare and hedgehog. The exchange is faster. The originators or sources of news become unrecognizable as claims are made from somewhere and confirmed by repetition or imitation. This scheme is well known from prejudice research. The sword of the arab protest was finally directed against the mass movement itself. Every facebook demonstrator was allowed to feel part of the whole, but the whole turned out to be one thing: the state with its organs of surveillance and repression, which traced the digital footprints of the mass movement to the "to the masterminds" to the masterminds. In verhor their friends were already known to the interrogators. The friends-find game.

The world’s first nerd? Horst zuse, now a computer science professor, plays on his father’s z4 calculator in 1949. Image: horst zuse private archive

Finally, social networks offer three achievements that go beyond civil society and formal democracy:

1. Overcoming shame and embarrassment. In the chat room, the user has the feeling of not getting into embarrassing situations so quickly. Nobody needs to be embarrassed. Unabashed voyeurism also launched zuckerberg’s career (facemash). The consequences are unforeseeable, since norbert elias has identified shame, embarrassment and the intimacy of personal space as the very characteristics of the emergence of our civilization.
2. The general availability. Knowledge, including knowledge about others, is immediately at hand and serves self-affirmation through control over the actions of community members. The technology inspires the imagination until it seems to be omnipotent. It is a fantasy of immortality. Even if all falls in old age are reported to the central office by sensors, the real process of increasing loneliness, called dying, will not be made easier by the virtualization of life. The aging of the facebook generation is becoming a trauma, the virtuality is suddenly taking hold.
3. The mach mit society. The offers of participation are mostly structured in such a way that what is desired by the provider comes out, and the user also playfully gives his data to the best. A high point of the interacting loves itself a rough meatball roaster: "build your burger and become famous." as bertolt brecht wrote? "Only the most stupid calves build their own burger." or something like that.

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Baystents, 17. May 2010 – with 344,2 km / h in a mtm rs6 avant stop the tuner already the world record for serial combo. Now the rs6 should reach a peak of 350 km / h in a "club sports variant".

Performance weight: 2.65 kg / hp

The mtm rs6 clubsport got more power, on the other he became easier. The result: 730 hp, around 860 nm and weight just under 2 tons. In 3.6 s, the funfliter-biturbo-v10 in combination with a six-speed tiptronic should speed up the limousine to tempo 100. The 200 km / h brand should be achieved after eleven seconds.

Variable lowering

In order to achieve the 730 hp, the tuner has modified, among other things, the control unit. There are also an mtm stainless steel exhaust system with four tailpipes and flap control and changing the gear switch points. With a high adjustable mtm springs set, the rs6 club sports can be lowered between 10 to 45 mm. Alloy wheels are offered in 20 or 21 inches.

Closed

In the body modifications, the tuner with a carbon diffuser and a subtle carbon front spoiler lip. Who open the driver’s company, but sees that sportiness in the interior has replaced other serial comfort. Particularly striking: the catige for body reinforcement and the lack of resist seat. There are reca-peel seats and six-point straps.

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Tesla shows the latest assessment of its own supercomputer, which is responsible for the training of the autopilot of all tesla vehicles. 720 nodes are used, each with eight a100 gpu accelerators from nvidia in the version with 80 gb hbm2e batch stores, ie 5760 gpus in total.

If you use all integrated tensor cores for ki calculation, there is a fp16 computing power of around 1.8 exaflops. The shader cores create just under 56 fp64 petaflops. Dear tesla include the own supercomputer in the top500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers, he currently came under the first ten systems. Private company systems have not been found there, but not.

Three clusters

Teslas head of the ki team andrej karpathy has revealed the details of the supercomputer on the conference on computer vision and pattern recognition (cvpr) 2021 (youtube recording with timestamp). The described system is the latest three clusters – which is available for total crime performance.

Pci express ssds with a capacity of 10 pbyte accompany the a100 gpu accelerator. The interconnect for composite all nodes processed 640 terabits per second. A gross part of the training model fits in the a total of almost 461 tb at particularly fast hbm2e-ram on the a100 cards.

Details of the built-in processors did not betray karpathy. Amd’s epyc cpus or amperes altra-arm models were obvious, as both with pci express 4.0 can be done, as well as the a100 cards. For intel’s ice-lake-sp processors, it was allowed to become scarce.

1.5 petabytes training data

Tesla uses around 1.5 petabyte of data for the training of the autopilot for data derived from tesla vehicles in real use. Each car records eight video streams with a resolution of 1280 × 960 pixels and 36 images per second. The videos of one million vehicles with a long 10 seconds each form the training base.

The neuronal network is trained in the so-called shadow model: the underested ki runs with real test drives, but controls the car actively. Errors are evaluated and tensed afterwards.

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Sebastian vettel is said to leave the formula 1 team ferrari according to conforming media reports at the end of 2020. That reports among other things car, motor and sport in the night of tuesday (12. May 2020). Accordingly, the 32-year-olds from heppenheim will not demand his contract with scuderia and leave the italians six years after six years. Both sides could therefore not agree on a new contract, the step could be made public on tuesday. First, there was no confirmation for this purpose.

Leclerc is the future

So far, vettel hunted in vain to his dream after becoming a world champion with ferrari. In the 2019 season, he took the fold place in the driver’s world cup and had to give himself again the mercedes. Also his teammate charles leclec landed in front of him. The 22-year-old monegash signed a until the end of 2024 in 2019 before christmas 2019. Leclerc is the gross hope of the team for the future, which vettel supposedly last only one contract for another year should have been offered.

Vettel had been told in a videoconference that there is no time deadline for a deflection. "Whatever the deal will look like, the team and i will have to be comfortable," the german, who since his arrival at ferrari for the 2015 season was not able to open the successes with red bull, said. He had brought his four world cup titles between 2010 and 2013 with red bull rennstall.

Test before the 2015 season in jerez: team and driver were full of hope for a very successful cooperation. Siege there were some, for a title did not serve.

This year, it was not on the track for vettel. Due to the coronavirus pandemic all planned races have been either moved or canceled. Currently the start of the formula 1 season for the 5. July in austria. Where and whether vettel from the season 2021 drive is currently uncertain. It is only clear that the "driver carousel" was unusual breakfast in rotation. Vettel’s departure from ferrari was able to move a lot in motion, especially since the treaty of lewis hamilton runs out at the end of the year.

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The british fashion online trade asos superspire the british fashion brands topshop, topman, miss selfridge and hiit for 265 million pounds (around 300 million euros) from the former retail giant arcadia. This also shows in the uk’s change to coarse online platforms in fashion trade.

Asos have already played an important role in the growth of online sales of these brands, explained the company in a message on monday. Since the new coronavirus sars cov-2 spread worldwide, they stepped up as a partner on asos root platform. This business wants to further expand this.

Without reducing the shop

Around 300 employees of companies should be supposed to be supposed and particularly integrated in the field of design, purchasing and retail partnerships. On the other hand, asos does not plan to take the shops of the brands, the dpa is called. The deal should be completed over the week.

The british department store empire arcadia has been hit hard by the corona pandemic with its retail chains and had to sign up for bankruptcy. The farms of arcadia were also exposed to some turbulence in the years before. Asos had continued to do good businesses thanks to closed shops, especially in the retail area.

Zalando and the inner town

A similar development showed 2020 in germany based on zalando. While the coarse department stores and smaller fashion retailers were heavily affected in the inner states of lockdown mails, the german online fashion hands celebrated good businesses. Zalando also relies on the cooperation with retailers or partners and also wants to further expand trade with secondhand fashion.

For the inner states, a much faster structural change is distinguished due to the coronavirus pandemic than predicted before the pandemic. Sales flakes could soon be reduced greatly because they are no longer worthwhile. Among other things, according to the treasures of the study "fashion 2030" the management consultancy kpmg could be bought in ten years the half of the fashion already bought online.

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The fact that a geopolitically motivated proxy war is also taking place in syria is evident not only in the more or less open support for the armed parties, but also in the militarization of the surrounding regions. While nato is deploying patriot air defense systems in southwestern anatolia this week, the russian navy is conducting what officials say is the largest manover since the end of the soviet union not far from syria’s coast.

Us patriot system. Image: nato

The sabel rattling is getting louder on all sides. Nevertheless, representatives of the bundeswehr and the german government emphasize that participation in the nato mission is purely defensive in nature. The press and information center of the armed forces base, however, is clearly using the initially low-risk mission for pr purposes. But an escalation of the situation in syria, which regional experts have been warning about for months, could quickly drive nato contingents from germany, the netherlands and the u.S. Into a federal raid.

The first german soldiers left eindhoven in the netherlands for the nato airbase at incirlik near adana at the beginning of the second week of january. Now 240 more soldiers followed. In december, the bundestag approved the deployment of up to 400 soldiers with a government majority and the support of the spd and grunen parties. Germany is contributing two patriot batteries, with two more coming from the netherlands and the usa respectively.

The goal of the mission with around 1.200 nato militaries is, according to the official account, to protect against attacks or cross-attacks from syria. The accusation of an offensive military policy with the nato mission "active fence turkey" is to be countered by the location of the station: kahramanmaras is a good 100 kilometers from the turkish-syrian border. The patriot missile deployed in turkey, however, only reaches 70 kilometers away. Nevertheless, the deployment, which cost around 25 million euros, brings german troops dangerously close to the new theater of war in the middle east.

Moscow and tehran fear hidden interests

Largely unnoticed by the media, representatives of the peace movement and the left party in particular are warning against an escalation. A "stupid policy of militarization" criticized sevim dagdelen, a member of the bundestag for the left party. The german-turkish parliamentarian called on the german government to do more to find a political solution to the conflict within syria.

Criticism also came from part of the green party and the spd. "I am worried that the deployment of patriot missiles and german soldiers, despite their defensive nature, will result in a further escalation of the conflict in the region", spd member of the bundestag hilde mattheis wrote. "I fear that with such a stationing the federal republic of germany itself will become an actor in the syrian conflict", so mattheis further. In rostock, a peace alliance had earlier called on dockworkers to refuse to load war goods.

Criticism of the nato mission in germany is also guided by the realization that there is much more at stake in syria than the future of just that country. In the arab world, iran and russia at least, western involvement against the assad leadership is seen as part of a hegemonic strategy. The leftist member of the turkish parliament, levent tuzel, also sees the patriot deployment as part of a medium- and long-term strategy against iranian influence. Nato’s air defense systems could also be used to defend against an iranian retaliation after a possible – and repeatedly threatened – israeli attack on tehran’s nuclear facilities, said the non-partisan tuzel during a recent visit to berlin.

Moscow was also allowed to share this assessment. In addition, the russian navy maintains a small base in the syrian port city of tartus. In the event of a violent regime change in syria, more than just this naval base was likely to be lost.

Defensive measures, offensive planning

It is the small interjections that point to the immense danger of the conflict. Iranian general hassan firouzabadi, faced with nato missiles in turkey, warned back in december of a "new cuban missile crisis". Tehran is watching the militarization of the region with increasing nervousness, especially since a north atlantic treaty organization radar facility was already put into operation in kurecik, turkey, in 2011. Even with a defensive character of radar and missile defense, nato’s new installations are seen as part of a master plan. After all, german systems from turkey will be able to monitor a large part of northern syrian airspace from this week onwards.

The fact that an active military strategy could follow was recently made clear by great britain’s defense minister william hague. Hague told parliamentarians that he was keeping open the possibility of changing the eu sanctions against syria in order to support the rebels with weapons if necessary. So far, the government in london has invested 9.4 million pounds sterling (nearly 11.2 million euros) in non-lethal "nonlethal equipment" for the assad opponents.

In turkey, however, protests are forming against the militarization. Nationalist groups, the left, and religious organizations are agitating against the nato presence – and gaining widespread support among the country’s population. In an interview with the tagsspiegel, turkish pollster adil gur confirmed that a majority across political camps oppose a conflict with syria. The iranian leadership is appealing to this attitude these days. The presence of nato is to the detriment of turkey, the semi-state news agency insa recently quoted tehran’s defense minister, brigadier general ahmad vahidi: "presence of foreign forces in islamic states has always created problems and differences between islamic countries."

Humanitarian disaster and public relation

Amidst the geopolitical planning, the humanitarian catastrophe in syria is increasingly being lost from view. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled as a result of the increasing military conflicts between security forces and the rebel groups, which are massively supported from abroad. According to the united nations, around 2.5 million people are underserved. The world food program, based in geneva, switzerland, is currently able to feed about 1.5 million people. Another million could not be reached, however, while the regional branches of the red crescent were also stretched to their limits, it was reported. In december, un officials had already asked for $1.5 billion in additional funds. In reception camps in the jordanian desert it came meanwhile to uprisings of the war refugees.

In germany, one hardly notices these developments at the moment. The russian and iranian positions are hardly mentioned, while the multiple anti-nato demonstrations in turkey have so far received only a few correspondent reports. Instead, the press and information center of the armed forces base is obviously using the mission for pr purposes. In the past few weeks, an increasing number of largely uncritical interviews with bundeswehr soldiers participating in the mission have appeared. From the point of view of the bundeswehr’s public relations work, this is understandable, because unlike the current afghanistan mission, no casualties are to be expected in turkey. In an interview with german radio reporters, a resident of kahramanmaras recommended that the german soldiers visit the town and try the local specialty: ice cream made from goat’s milk. It promises to be a quiet deployment. Unless geopolitical realities catch up with nato soldiers.

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