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2026-01-25 04:29:23

Taking a day off from posting my usual YouTube slop or gamer shit or photos of plants to remark that "Nuremberg style trials for ICE" is a moderate position.

Someone else was shot in Minneapolis today. A lot of people are going around saying to not watch the video, but I watched it, and I can tell you that it's a cryptic tangle of wrestling and punching bodies hunched over a guy you can barely make out. They hit him in the head several times with a pistol and then start shooting him a lot, but he's behind a car, and you can't even tell who is doing the shooting, or why. It's a non-sensical scene. This is what insanely evil crimes actually look like on video today - they're the kind of thing that makes you ask, "What's going on? Are they really going to-- what?? Huh????? How did that happen???"

I think a lot of people are waiting for some incredibly horrific gory imagery or some incredibly over the top insane testimony before they give themselves permission to realize what kind of country we've suddenly become. If you're holding your breath waiting for a moment like that, I think you need to reassess what you're waiting for. The evidence we'll be using to prosecute evil is possibly always going to be these cryptic, bizarre shots from odd angles, far away, behind a shop window, behind rows of cars, through a confusing tangle of human bodies, people and vehicles moving in ways you can't make sense of. There's no sense to make of it. The evil world we ended up with is the one where deranged, unforgivable human rights violations are filmed from sixty feet away, across a busy street.

If this second shooting doesn't teach people to understand what's going on here, I don't know what to say.

2026-01-24 21:13:00

Sometimes, I think about the fact that society at large could just stop caring about data protection and privacy, and there goes everything that I worked towards and am passionate about. Humbling.

These laws are young. Not that people didn’t want privacy before, it’s just that as more data was collected, recorded and then processed via the earliest information processing systems (card punch systems and early computers), more needed to be protected. The more is written down and stored, the more this need arises.

1890 saw the right to privacy emerge in the US. Later on, people were understandably more wary of governments collecting data on citizens after WW1+2. Still, the world’s oldest data protection law is from 1970. Important law work around the idea of protecting personal data happened from then onwards - Germany’s Volkszählungsurteil 1983, the US’ HIPAA 1996, the EU’s 1995 Data Protection Directive and 2002 ePrivacy Directive, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) being passed in 2016 and going into effect in 2018, just to name the big, well-known ones.

But governments, priorities and views change. This could be a blip in history.

You can already see a sort of resignation in many people (“They track us all anyway, what does it matter? I have nothing to hide.” etc.) and the selling of data is becoming a very established and acceptable practice.

The air around it is sort of like: “Oh well, we want to use these services and advertise on them, and they have a lot of costs associated with hosting billions of users and we want to target our ads better. If that’s the price we have to pay, so be it.”. I already wrote about data being the cookie jar, where even non-data-broker businesses now want your data to sell as an additional income stream.

Everyone nowadays has an incentive to collect as much data as possible, not just to sell it to AI companies for a good sum, but also to potentially train their own AI. Businesses feel pressured to implement AI into anything they can, which raises the risk of employees entering sensitive data into it and sending it straight to OpenAI et. al. for training - that is, if they aren't using unapproved, so-called "shadow AI" on shady websites or wrappers, unclear who receives the data.

Data protection officers and other privacy professionals feel coerced into going along with some dicey setups and risky processing activities because they can’t afford being seen as a Luddite who will advise against everything and “hinder progress”, aka cost saving via AI replacement. Even I was told that I should probably make a LinkedIn account so companies would get a signal that I am not the "activist type" and I have a higher chance of being hired!

Governments are also shifting more right and fascist in a lot of places, which goes hand-in-hand with less protections, deregulation, and increased surveillance and criminalization. These types of parties and leaders do not care about upholding privacy if it means they get to target groups more easily - just look at how ICE tracks people in the US.

I wrote about the EU’s Digital Omnibus a while ago, which threatens to severely weaken the GDPR. The parties backing this deregulation and even asking for more are far-right parties and fascist tech bros.

The unfortunate reality is: What would have raised eyebrows just 10-20 years ago is shrugged at now. We got used to a level of data harvesting that used to be unacceptable. I wonder sometimes if, or rather when, we will reach a point at which privacy is no longer even valued on paper.

A point at which EU governments value total surveillance under the guise of digitalization, immigration control and protection of kids over heeding the EU Charta of Fundamental Rights, specifically Article 7 and 8, which guarantee the right to respect for private and family life and protect personal data.

A point at which the majority sees so much value in extreme data harvesting tech like social media, smartphones and AI that no cost is too great and they’d rather give up privacy than lose access or have a slightly worse tool.

People sometimes say to me that this field is so safe, as tech will increase and always be very integrated into our lives. I wouldn’t be so sure about the first part; it assumes that everyone will always see personal data as worth protecting, and I don’t think that’s a given.

Privacy and control over your own data is not a natural law, it's a social and political choice that only exists as long as people care enough to defend it.

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2026-01-24 14:52:00

First of all, this is not a post against immigrants and refugees. Their contribution to Thai economy and society cannot be understated. I'm talking about expats, digital nomads, and weirdos with their laptop at the beach. The type that doesn't contribute anything to the country they're staying in.

I see it every day on r/Thailand. Expats complaining about rising cost of living. Expats complaining about locals trying to scam them. Expats complaining. Their argument is that they pay taxes therefore they should be entitled to the same rights enjoyed by Thai citizens. Well, yesterday evening I had a dinner at a Korean restaurant and paid 7% in VAT. Everyone has to pay some amount of taxes. You aren't special.

Many expats stay in their own bubble. They don't interact with the country at large. They live in expat villages and go to expat clubs and send their kids to expat schools. They're only in Thailand physically that way, because Thailand outside of expat bubble is a whole different reality. Most Thai families live on smaller monthly budget than a single nomad does.

Expats come to Thailand expecting it to answer their questions. Why do bread and potato taste like dirt? Why do clubs close so early? Why are Thai people worshiping Hindu gods if they are Buddhists? Why are Ploys trying to dig my gold?

I ask you, why don't you find the answer yourself?

Expats don't even try. They wanted Thailand to bend to their will. And when they don't get what they want — because why would they — they blame it on Thailand being a strange and chaotic place with impenetrable culture. Thai culture isn't complicated. Just treat other people with respect and you'll be respected back. The bare minimum. So many expats see locals as mystical, inhuman creatures and they wonder why locals don't want to be their friends.

Every time I see an expat complain about how Thailand isn't as cheap as it used to be, or how Thai women only care about money, I want to tell them that nobody is forcing them to stay here. Most of the time the locals won't miss them if they're gone. But beyond that, every time I see an expat trying to philosophize Thailand and its culture, every time someone bring up kreng jai as a catch-all reason as to why Thailand is so weird, I want to reach into the screen and rip that expat's head off. Thailand is no stranger than any other country. We don't have more gold diggers or transsexual rights. You've just never tried to make sense of it. To say any otherwise is just orientalist nonsense.

Try, or get TF out of my country.

2026-01-24 12:47:59

Four years ago there was a postdoc in our lab, lost after recently completing his medical degree and clearly suffering from some mental issues due to past trauma. Nevertheless, conversation with him always offered something insightful, something not related to science or medicine. I appreciated that. He even had a blog that he shared with me.

He asked to hang out with him at the park. I felt kind of bad for him, like maybe he doesn't have friends willing to go on walks with him. So, I agreed.

It was fine. We went on the weekend after stopping by the lab. We had some interesting philosophical conversations and then went on our way.

He asked me to hang out again, so we walked together once more. More or less the same. I imagine he appreciated my company. Unfortunately, I was a little too right, and by the time I made it home he had asked me out. Via Slack. I then rejected him. Via Slack.

So, we stopped hanging out. I don't judge men whom I reject though. I don't recall much else happening after that.

Until he sent me another message as his last day in our lab approached. It's impossible to retrieve it now, but I recall how stiff and uncomfortable it made me feel. He sent me a quote from some book about, like, how sad it is for men to be deprived of sex in life. That's what I get for being nice, I guess.

I never told my advisor that I was harassed by him. Via Slack. He was moving across the country, so what use was it anyway?

Most of my friends are cis men. And they happen to all be my closest friends, right behind my true best friend whom I consider a sister. Nearly all of them have never asked me out before. While that doesn't mean none of them are interested, I also don't assume that someone is romantically interested in me unless they say so.

I do find myself wondering, however, if I'm too nice to men. Do I invite things that I don't necessarily want?

I started reflecting on this as well as the above short but bitter experience only very recently because of a recent conflict with a guy who revealed he's been obsessed with me for years as described in a recent post.

I felt like I had to hang out with him a second time since he begged me to give him a chance. I saw no romantic potential and also am not in a position to entertain a romantic relationship at the moment. But he begged. So, I agreed to hang out with him platonically, and he swore that he would appreciate even platonic contact. In the worst case, we could return to our previous professional relationship that was already good.

Unfortunately, I believed him. He also gradually shared his political views with me, calling the US's capture of Nicolás Maduro the greatest display of power in the 21st century and admitting that he is not necessarily pro-MAGA but appreciates the new directions Trump has taken especially regarding AI. He said his biggest priorities are the economy and the military. He was shocked to learn that I care about digital privacy even after I refused multiple times to ask AI something on his phone and to accept a free Claude subscription from him. I became afraid. I don't want to even be friends with this type of person.

Still, I continued to help him with some projects that supposedly required my knowledge. I knew I had to reject him sooner rather than later.

Last Thursday we went to my beloved microscope to get some nice images that I thought he needed for his project. Much of the data for my PhD were collected here. I knew it very well. The conversation during the hours we spent there revolved mostly around the science, though he did throw in a joke about Russians that would have been funny and not offensive only if my best friend had said it to me. I fake laughed.

Eventually he asked about hanging out again. My worst fear. This wasn't the time or place for this. Suddenly the room that was almost comforting to me turned into more of, well, a space. We were in an isolated in the basement of a building that houses neither of our labs, sitting inches away from each other in pitch darkness with only one entrance (or exit, as I would have much rather preferred).

I had to stop this though. Before I would almost inevitably hear him talk about how much he hates abortions (I know, I said I don't like to make assumptions about others). He noticed my hesitation. I said that I don't think we are romantically compatible.

I thought our last date went really well.

He was crushed. I had to remind him that we were never dating; I had agreed to hang out with him only platonically.

Was it something I did? Was it something I said? Is it the way I look?

I assured him that he did nothing wrong. I then just repeated what I said, that we are not romantically compatible.

He apologized. I totally misread the situation.

But then he started begging. Please, I would do anything.

It became awkward to say the least. I heard him sniffling. He then urged me to stop the ongoing scan even though I reminded him I said I would continue to help him professionally, which was why I was there spending hours at the microscope. I couldn't convince him otherwise, so we called it there and headed back to our building.

After he told me to throw away the samples I prepared for him, which entailed coming to the lab on both days the prior weekend, I insisted that I hold onto the samples to see what his advisor says about the images and how to move forward. He finally agreed.

His advisor responded to an email that included me later that day. Essentially, I found out that he didn't actually need my help. He just gave me more work to do so that I would spend more time with him. All that just for him to then want to discard everything I prepared for him.

The next day I encountered him leaving the building while I entered. He very obviously glared at me and looked away. Okay. Later he sported a fuck-women-because-they're-good-for-nothing aesthetic that young conservatives know best, a backwards baseball cap the centerpiece of it.

It was admittedly kind of funny.

I stopped laughing when I woke up on Monday morning to a seemingly AI-generated email he sent around 3 AM. It seemed related to a project among several others that he was trying to reel me into for whatever reason despite me explaining that I made absolutely zero contributions.

It was different though. There was no biological application to it, just some weird advanced informatics sprinkled into some metaphorical bullshit that was addressed to three other people in some nonsensical way but somehow seemed to be a jab at me if I read just a little bit in between the lines.

Now I was really scared. I decided I would no longer come to the lab on weekends when no one would be there, as I feared a confrontation with him. He clearly wasn't over it. He seemed unstable. Would he retaliate? If so, physically or professionally? Maybe both?

It took a lot of mental gymnastics (and some consulting my male friends, who, according to my best friend who thought I could wait it out, maybe like to overcompensate for all the shitty men in the world) to work up the courage and explain the situation to my advisor, who also happens to currently be on medical leave. I felt embarrassed and burdensome.

Thankfully, she was glad I told her. She was so apologetic and hated that I navigated this by myself. According to her, this is textbook harassment. I wasn't sure if I agreed, maybe just the email. But it made me feel better. She said she also faced a strange emotional reaction from him last month. We decided to not stir things up further for now, but I agreed to let her to get in touch with his advisor and see if she thinks it's worth formally escalating.

Not even an hour later she broke the news to me that he already told his advisor this week that he asked me out and that I declined. Supposedly he said he understood. The three of us women are all on the same page and 100% support me not supporting his work anymore. My advisor thinks he told her out of fear that I would report him.

Again, I don't know if I was harassed per se. The email was and still is freaky, but I still agreed to hang out with him even when I should have declined much sooner. So, while I don't feel like I led him on (I explicitly said our time spent together would be platonic), I don't think being so nice to him worked in my favor. Am I just bad at rejecting men? Are my social skills inept?

While my advisor was thankful to know the situation, I feel like I made something out of nothing. At least he's (probably?) off my back. I don't want to be pursued like that ever again. And given that I've now had two creepy experiences with men at the workplace, I find myself reevaluating how I interact with men (and honestly just people in general).

2026-01-24 03:23:00

A week ago, I wrote a post which got the usual amount of attention (i.e. not a lot). A day later, it unexpectedly shot onto the Trending page, reached the top and stayed there. As I type this, it's (finally) disappeared onto the second page.

It wasn't the best post I've ever written and certainly not my favourite. I was curious as to why it got so much attention, but never discovered what sent it soaring. Edit: Apparently it was posted on HackerNews

I've received a lot of traffic from it (over 1100 views), but ONLY to that specific post. Hardly anyone reading it looked around the rest of the blog.

Perhaps it wasn't as interesting when they clicked through? Maybe I'd titled it poorly and it wasn't what people expected? It did receive a fair few upvotes while it sat on Trending, but that's all the engagement it seemed to generate - I received a grand total of ZERO guestbook comments or emails about it.

If I didn't have any kind of visitor statistics, I would never have known anything different was happening on my blog. And while it's nice to get upvotes, I found it left me feeling a bit empty. I wanted to know how readers actually felt after reading it.

This only serves to reinforce something that other Bear bloggers have been writing about lately. Communication is what some of us really crave, a meaningful discussion and connection with others. Someone hitting a like button doesn't satisfy that desire.

Don't strive for Trending, it will never give you genuine, long-term satisfaction. By all means enjoy it when it does happen, but don't make it your goal. Build up a regular readership and maybe you'll connect with a few people along the way.

There will be a certain irony if this post makes Trending, but if it does don't be shy - say hi! 👋🏻

2026-01-23 21:19:00

It’s no surprise that both tourists and Thai people here in Chiang Mai do it. But when you see the monks doing it as well, you kinda start questioning what the world has come to.

On the other hand, why shouldn’t monks be allowed to do it? It’s 2026, and this is how society works, monk or not.

Still, I can’t help feeling a bit baffled every time I see it. The Thai don’t seem to mind, though. They just go about their day as usual.

As a tourist from a totally different culture and part of the world, maybe I have a romanticized idea of what it means to be a monk.

“Monks eat, sleep, and meditate. But doing that, no way.”

I will probably get used to it, but I still like my romanticized view. The world would feel a little bit better if it were true.

But it’s just a dream. I have to wake up and face reality:

Even monks walk around staring at their phone.