Ian Watt's Avatar

Ian Watt

@watty62.bsky.social

Open Data advocate. Wikimedia Board Member. Data scientist. Tinkerer with Python, LLMs etc. Enthusiastic reader. Wikimedia UK trainer. #Jazz lover. Drawer, painter, photographer. Whisky afficionado. #FRSA #FIoL Burgess of Guild of #Aberdeen, OSS Taisho.

808 Followers  |  1,272 Following  |  287 Posts  |  Joined: 03.12.2024
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Posts by Ian Watt (@watty62.bsky.social)

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🎯🎯

06.03.2026 16:04 β€” πŸ‘ 25769    πŸ” 9302    πŸ’¬ 849    πŸ“Œ 373
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Spoiling a lot of takes but begging a large number of other questions... "Worsening graduate fortunes, it turns out, are a particularly British problem"

www.ft.com/content/649d...

20.02.2026 07:56 β€” πŸ‘ 320    πŸ” 146    πŸ’¬ 29    πŸ“Œ 26
Private Eye cover: ANDY'S FRIEND RESCUES FERGIE!
Epstein is prepared to give you Β£15,000
Is that for Eugenie or for both of them?

Private Eye cover: ANDY'S FRIEND RESCUES FERGIE! Epstein is prepared to give you Β£15,000 Is that for Eugenie or for both of them?

2011.

13.02.2026 08:56 β€” πŸ‘ 303    πŸ” 103    πŸ’¬ 15    πŸ“Œ 5
Screenshot showing 1500 completed wordles with a breakdown of results, and 1494 correct - despite the "100% win" which is a rounding error!

Screenshot showing 1500 completed wordles with a breakdown of results, and 1494 correct - despite the "100% win" which is a rounding error!

A mild brag. Having completed 1500 #Wordle puzzles, and got 1494 correct. #smug

11.02.2026 08:00 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Vetting: some actual facts. This is a genuinely cracking read about how we filter – and fail to filter – those with access to our state secrets. If you're new to this, prepare to be somewhat surprised

10.02.2026 13:41 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Microcosmic God - Wikipedia

No. But it reminds me of Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon. A great story.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microco...?

10.02.2026 12:38 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Something magnificent about Kemi Badenoch's self-confidence, and her claim that the Mandelson affair is entirely down to her asking questions at PMQs. Like a toddler who thinks their plastic steering wheel is controlling the car.

09.02.2026 08:07 β€” πŸ‘ 2743    πŸ” 541    πŸ’¬ 76    πŸ“Œ 19
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Just beyond parody at this point

08.02.2026 19:52 β€” πŸ‘ 2830    πŸ” 877    πŸ’¬ 85    πŸ“Œ 31

If you're a business owner who fires someone you have assigned to an overseas job and you don't buy them a plane ticket home you should actually go to prison

08.02.2026 13:44 β€” πŸ‘ 4493    πŸ” 1203    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 27
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Google Workers Demand End to Cloud Services for Immigration Agencies

ICYMI:

950+ Google workers signed a petition demanding that executives "disclose all contracts and collaboration with DHS, CBP, and ICE, and to divest from these partnerships."
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/b...

06.02.2026 23:37 β€” πŸ‘ 586    πŸ” 164    πŸ’¬ 12    πŸ“Œ 2
Video thumbnail

The shots from it are really cool!

07.02.2026 18:19 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 2
Three linocut prints of a black cat with a wonky ear, having stomach drying clips

Three linocut prints of a black cat with a wonky ear, having stomach drying clips

Having been gifted a printing press for Christmas, and tried using it for intaglio prints, I'm back to #linocut printing to test it. This is Buddy our rescue with a wonky ear.

Just a quick bit of carving, but happy with the results.

#reliefprinting #reliefprints, #linocutprinting

05.02.2026 14:48 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

INBOX: Robert McCartney, who worked for 39 years at The Washington Post, including as a Metro columnist and editor, before retiring in 2021, claims on X that he has heard the Post has laid off *all* its photojournalists.

04.02.2026 21:05 β€” πŸ‘ 837    πŸ” 332    πŸ’¬ 38    πŸ“Œ 76
John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana and Etta James - Tell Mama | Live at Fillmore Auditorium 1986
YouTube video by Live Legends John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana and Etta James - Tell Mama | Live at Fillmore Auditorium 1986

Etta James, John Lee Hooker and Carlos Santana team up for a live version of the classic James tune "Tell Mama" live in San Francisco in 1986. The driving title tune of Etta's 1968 Chess album. m.youtube.com/watch?v=b34y...

04.02.2026 04:15 β€” πŸ‘ 22    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

@developers.google.com @newsfromgoogle.bsky.social where has Google books gone?

03.02.2026 18:17 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
William Noble (BBC Founder) - Wikipedia

I just finished this new #Wikipedia article on Sir William Noble who discovered last week.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...?

Another remarkable native of #Fraserburgh, he was a key figure in the early history of the #BBC.

03.02.2026 19:37 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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URGENT: DOJ Deletes Epstein Files Again β€” And They Directly Implicate Trump For the second time in just three days, the U.S.

WHAT THE F--K!!!

The DOJ has JUST DELETED these Epstein Files again, after a NYT's article from 2016 was shown to corroborate much of it!

Share Everywhere: We Screen-Grabbed what they just deleted:

krassencast.com/p/urgent-doj...

02.02.2026 16:35 β€” πŸ‘ 1463    πŸ” 974    πŸ’¬ 101    πŸ“Œ 47
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Private equity owns lion’s share of children’s foster ser... Three London firms are now the biggest players in the provision of foster carers in England

Private equity owns lion’s share of children’s foster services in England, β€˜bleeding the sector of money’.

Profits margins of 19%. Money extracted in interest payments, intragroup charges. Children suffer.

Ban profit-taking entities from foster services.

02.02.2026 08:05 β€” πŸ‘ 503    πŸ” 279    πŸ’¬ 27    πŸ“Œ 22

Wouldn't work so well now with Thames Water etc....

02.02.2026 09:38 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Translation I & II. Linocut print, 115cm-82cm, Diptych. 2024.

#linocutprint #print #adeadesina #linocut #printmaking

01.02.2026 20:01 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

This thread! πŸ€¦β€β™‚οΈπŸ€¦β€β™‚οΈπŸ€¦β€β™‚οΈ

29.01.2026 08:35 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

28.01.2026 17:02 β€” πŸ‘ 97507    πŸ” 40892    πŸ’¬ 4301    πŸ“Œ 5365
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House sparrow - Wikipedia

Looks like a house sparrow.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_s...?

27.01.2026 13:18 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Just 45 more Tory MPs joining Reform and Ed Davey becomes leader of the opposition

26.01.2026 12:54 β€” πŸ‘ 82    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Table showing gendered ratios of English-language Wikipedia pages and pages for Classicists

Table showing gendered ratios of English-language Wikipedia pages and pages for Classicists

In 2016 7% of biographies on #Wikipedia about classicists were about women. Now @richardnevell.bsky.social's wonderful analysis shows that 10 years later, that number is now almost 20%. That's a huge achievement! #WCCWiki

23.01.2026 11:22 β€” πŸ‘ 24    πŸ” 11    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/737660

Yeah it’s 50k now. Have you signed yet? Even Nigel Farage agrees.

Petition: By-elections to be called automatically when MPs defect to another party

t.co/GhzzDCOB3T

21.01.2026 12:39 β€” πŸ‘ 310    πŸ” 140    πŸ’¬ 22    πŸ“Œ 8
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The government is living in an alternate reality. During WW2, Michael Foot and others wrote Guilty Men about the disastrous failure of the British elite’s appeasement policy: their inability to grasp the world they were living in. He’d have a field day with this lot.

21.01.2026 11:51 β€” πŸ‘ 1097    πŸ” 412    πŸ’¬ 110    πŸ“Œ 24
Post image 21.01.2026 16:57 β€” πŸ‘ 662    πŸ” 181    πŸ’¬ 14    πŸ“Œ 7

NEW: NEW: Standards commissioner finds Nigel Farage committed seventeen breaches of MPs code of conduct.

He failed to declare Β£333,000 in outside interests (more than 3x MPs annual salary)…

21.01.2026 08:48 β€” πŸ‘ 4382    πŸ” 2080    πŸ’¬ 401    πŸ“Œ 354
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πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦PM Carney just schooled our cowardly European leaders at #Davos. This speech was clearly aimed at them:

"We must actively take on the world as it is, not wait around for a world we wish to be."

"What does it mean for middle powers to live the truth? First it means naming reality..." (🧡1/6)

20.01.2026 19:00 β€” πŸ‘ 7928    πŸ” 1848    πŸ’¬ 246    πŸ“Œ 135