Ian Watt's Avatar

Ian Watt

@watty62

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.

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Latest posts by Ian Watt @watty62

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🎯🎯

06.03.2026 16:04 πŸ‘ 25848 πŸ” 9334 πŸ’¬ 850 πŸ“Œ 376
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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 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 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 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 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 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 πŸ‘ 2742 πŸ” 541 πŸ’¬ 76 πŸ“Œ 19
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Just beyond parody at this point

08.02.2026 19:52 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 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 πŸ‘ 586 πŸ” 164 πŸ’¬ 12 πŸ“Œ 2
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The shots from it are really cool!

07.02.2026 18:19 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 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 πŸ‘ 837 πŸ” 332 πŸ’¬ 38 πŸ“Œ 76
John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana and Etta James - Tell Mama | Live at Fillmore Auditorium 1986
John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana and Etta James - Tell Mama | Live at Fillmore Auditorium 1986 YouTube video by Live Legends

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 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 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 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 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 πŸ‘ 503 πŸ” 279 πŸ’¬ 27 πŸ“Œ 22

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

02.02.2026 09:38 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 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 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)
Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio) YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

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 πŸ‘ 97502 πŸ” 40885 πŸ’¬ 4302 πŸ“Œ 5362
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House sparrow - Wikipedia

Looks like a house sparrow.

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

27.01.2026 13:18 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 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 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 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 πŸ‘ 1097 πŸ” 412 πŸ’¬ 110 πŸ“Œ 24
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21.01.2026 16:57 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 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 πŸ‘ 7928 πŸ” 1848 πŸ’¬ 246 πŸ“Œ 135