Martijn Grooten

*through

Darn that lack of edit button. I cheated by taking planes to and from there. (But locally, I travelled by train, coach and taxi.)

Minaret and madrassa entrance in the evening, with yellow and red light shining at them

Road and bridge over mountain terrains

Lenin statue with a building and some trees in the background

Four grey blocks of flats, under construction

I needed a mental health trip so I spent two weeks travelling to four countries in Central Asia. I saw so much (and I only really visited cities). I learned so much. My energy levels got refueled so much.

It starts tasting sour after a while but if you take off the scum, it will continue to be alright for a few more months.

PS I seriously didn't know this

I mean, the 1953 coup suggests at the time the US wasn't on the side of the people of Iran...

Just noting here that the Supreme Leader of the United States of America and people in his inner circle are using genocidal language against the people of Iran.

Back in my maths days, I attended a seminar in Abelian varieties and I wouldn't have guessed in a thousand years that they would have real world applications.

They have been going on for a while, including some high value targets in Ukraine and other places.

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After some recalibration, introspection and traveling, I am ready for a new job, as a threat whisperer, of something like that. I've done a lot of things on digital threats of various kinds and the people and organizations affected by them.
A portfolio of sorts lapsedordinary.net

1700 Dutch police officers accessed one particular case file (of a rape-murder) without needing it for their job, and I think this matters for the discussion around police backdoors nos.nl/artikel/2604... (Dutch)

After some recalibration, introspection and traveling, I am ready for a new job, as a threat whisperer, of something like that. I've done a lot of things on digital threats of various kinds and the people and organizations affected by them.
A portfolio of sorts lapsedordinary.net

I have a whole file of these stories that I point to whenever someone responds to allegations of domestic abuse/violence with "If it was so serious, why didn't she call the cops?"

It is surprisingly common in professional cycling too!

It happened once that I was running so fast, a motorcycle was following me rather than the other way around. Or maybe that was because I was last in the race.

I was initially skeptical of a book on the subject by a white British guy, but his distance makes it a truly global history. And he points out time and time again the impact colonialism, from 'the West' but also from Russia, had and continues to have on Muslims. Did I say I loved the book?

Front cover of James McDougall's Worlds of Islam: a Global History

I read James McDougall's recently published book "Worlds of Islam". It is so good — and so incredibly relevant, especially today. It's about the history of Muslims, less about the history of the religion, though the two are obviously intertwined. www.penguin.co.uk/books/444923...

I feel obliged to add here: this is also true for the 7000 people or so who got killed in the recent crackdown of protests. Deaths aren't worse if our favourite adversary is behind it.

Those 100 or so children that were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Iran. They all had names. They had parents, siblings and perhaps pets. They had best friends. They had dreams, frustrations and anxieties. They had moments of utter happiness. And each of them was someone else's everything.

Yeah. The parties are the German ones.

I feel like that guy fact checking things to death, but where did you read the thing about the 60 votes?

You sure? Alternative für Deutschland doesn't sound like the kind of party that runs in Austrian local elections.

I'm touristing and was 'interviewed' by some local kids who were asking people questions in English, for school. One of them, instead of asking when I arrived in the city, asked "when did you invade our city" and actually, that is the right question to ask a white person.

I've trained at-risk users on passkeys and I agree.

(My advice there: if you have a solid authentication method, keep using that. If not, passkeys are for you and in fact you may be using passkeys without realizing it.)

The taxi I'm in at the moment plays a dance cover of the Cranberries' "Zombie" and that somehow seems appropriate.

Greek court sentences Predator spyware gang Greece’s “Predatorgate” scandal is one of Europe’s biggest political crises over the use of hacking software.

"A Greek court on Thursday sentenced four people, including two Israelis, to prison over a major wiretapping scandal involving the illegal use of spyware to target politicians, business leaders and journalists."

www.politico.eu/article/pred...

It was DNS.

I was somehow expecting a lot of athletes-turned-activist but almost all seemed either assholes or had tragic lives.

Chasing shadows with The Citizen Lab Podcast Episode · Click Here · February 20 · 21m

You are probably familiar with the work of @rondeibert.bsky.social and the @citizenlab.ca but in case you aren't, or would like to tell others about that work, this recent Click Here podcast is a great introduction podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c...

I just hope the US Supreme Court doesn't have nukes for if they do, this will get nasty

I jailbroke my F-35 so i can play candy crush on it.

Journalism under attack: Predator spyware in Angola  - Amnesty International Security Lab A new investigation by the Security Lab uncovers the first forensically confirmed case of the Predator spyware being used to target civil society in Angola. 

https://securitylab.amnesty.org/latest/2026/02/journalism-under-attack-predator-spyware-in-angola/

“I feel naked knowing that I was the target of this invasion of my privacy. I don’t know what they have in their possession about my life.” - Teixeira Cândido, journalist.

Collaboration with Friends of Angola and Front Line Defenders