Magazine for Europe, AI, digitalization & society

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Who actually is J. D. Vance? A portrait of his origins, career, contradictions and future

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Who is J. D. Vance?

International reporting on the United States is usually dominated by the big, loud figures. Names that polarize, that provoke, that generate headlines. For many European observers, politics in the USA is therefore often an interplay of escalation, conflict and clearly recognizable opposites. And then suddenly a name appears that doesn't fit into this picture at all: J. D. Vance.

Not a classic loudspeaker. Not a man of grand gestures. Not a politician who immediately attracts attention with pithy words. And yet he is suddenly there - in interviews, in analyses, in political debates. Not as a marginal figure, but as someone who obviously plays a role that is bigger than it appears at first glance. For many readers in Germany or Europe, this is precisely where the real question begins: who is this man anyway - and why has he suddenly become so important?

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Sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system and cortisol - how stress controls our body

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Cortisol, sympathetic nervous system and stress

Stress is part of life. Without stress, we would probably hardly get out of bed in the morning, avoid challenges and simply not get many things done. For thousands of years, the human body has been designed to be able to react quickly in certain situations: Recognize danger, mobilize energy, act. In such moments, the organism runs at full speed - heart rate, breathing, alertness and muscle tension increase. This state can even be life-saving.

However, stress becomes problematic when it no longer ends. Many people today live in a state that no longer feels like acute stress, but rather like a permanently elevated baseline level. Deadlines, conflicts, a flood of information, constant availability - the body often reacts as if it is constantly in a potentially dangerous situation. However, while our ancestors were able to calm down again after a short period of tension, this phase of real relaxation is often missing today.

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ChatGPT data export explained: How your AI chats become a personal knowledge system

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ChatGPT data export

If you regularly work with an AI, then you probably know this: one thought leads to the next. You ask a question, get an answer, reformulate, develop an idea further. A short question suddenly turns into a longer dialog. Sometimes it even leads to entire projects.

But most of these conversations disappear again. They lie somewhere in the chat list, slide down and are forgotten over time. This is precisely one of the great features of modern AI systems: While previous conversations with colleagues, friends or advisors only existed in our memories, AI dialogs are completely preserved.

This means something crucial: With every conversation, a digital archive of your thinking is created. This is the first part of a small series of articles that will allow you to export your chat history from ChatGPT and use it effectively as a personal treasure trove of knowledge with your local AI system.

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The Iran-Israel conflict: Why this escalation is the West's strategic nightmare

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Israel-Iran - Strategic nightmare

There are moments in the story when you sense that something is shifting. Not abruptly, not with a single decision, but like a line that slowly but inexorably runs through the dust of old certainties. The past few days have been such moments. I wondered for a long time whether I should really write this editorial - after all, I have already dealt with Iran in detail once before and made it clear that you can only understand this country and its power structures if you look at the decades-old lines. But it is precisely these lines that have now become visible again, more clearly than ever.

What makes me sit up and take notice is not just the hard facts: the nightly strikes, the overloading of Israeli missile defenses, the rhetoric of political leaders, the increasing shift of power in the background. It is the underlying pattern - the sense that here is a conflict entering a phase that will be a nightmare for any strategist. And that is precisely why I am writing this article: because many see the surface, but hardly anyone understands what is brewing underneath.

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From Commodore C16 to WordPress: A journey through the early years of the internet

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From modem to Internet and magazine

When you pick up a smartphone today, it contains more computing power than entire computer rooms used to. In the 1980s, things were completely different. Computers were rare, expensive and, for many people, a mysterious machine. Back then, if you had your own home computer, you belonged to a small group of tinkerers, inventors and curious people. The exciting thing was that you didn't just consume computers. You had to understand them. Many programs were not available to buy ready-made. Instead, computer magazines contained pages of listings with BASIC code that you had to type out line by line. Only then could you see whether the program worked at all.

That sounds tedious today, but it had one big advantage. You automatically learned how computers work. If you made a mistake, you immediately got an error message - and had to find out for yourself where the error was. In this way, many young computer fans developed a very natural approach to technology and programming.

It was at this time that I began my own journey into the world of computers.

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From the end of compulsory military service to school strikes: the new debate on the Bundeswehr and education

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School strikes on compulsory military service and the Bundeswehr at school

When I myself was conscripted into the Bundeswehr in the 1990s, it was still a fairly normal part of life for many young men in Germany. Anyone who had finished school did either civilian service or military service. It was simply part of life back then - just like training or studying. People talked about it, they knew roughly what to expect, and almost everyone had someone in their circle of acquaintances who was currently doing military service or had recently done so.

I myself also did my military service. There were no major ideological debates about it in my environment. Of course, there was criticism of the military or discussions about deployments abroad - but the Bundeswehr was basically a normal part of the state. It was there, but it didn't play a particularly dominant role in most people's everyday lives. Interestingly, this also applied to school.

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When I was on the phone with a robot - how AI is conquering the phone and how to recognize it

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Phone call with an AI robot

There are moments in everyday life that seem completely banal at first. You're sitting at your desk, working on an article, thinking about a new topic - and suddenly the phone rings. A number you don't recognize. In my case, it was an area code from the Ruhr region: 0233 something. As a self-employed person, you occasionally get calls like that. It's usually about advertising, services or advice that you don't actually need.

So I initially answered the call as normal. A friendly female voice answered on the other end. She introduced herself as an employee who works with Facebook and Instagram. Unsurprisingly, it was about advertising. About ads. About reach. Visibility for companies.

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Europe between freedom of expression and regulation: New US info portal raises questions

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EU censorship, hate speech and the new US portal

I recently stumbled across a piece of information that initially interested me rather casually - and then stuck with me. A report said that the US government was planning a new online portal. A portal that would make content accessible that is blocked in certain regions of the world. Countries such as Iran and China were mentioned. But then another term came up: Europe.

Europe.

The idea that American agencies are developing an information portal that is expressly intended for European citizens, because certain content is no longer accessible here, made me wonder. Not outraged or panicked, but wary. When Europe is suddenly mentioned in the same breath as traditional areas of censorship, it is worth taking a closer look.

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