iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 16/10/2025

Just before sunset, Wivenhoe.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 03/10/2025

Back, for now. Here’s my lovely cats all curled up together.

Two cats on a patterned duvet cover. Both black and white. They’re both making an ellipse shape. One is larger than another but bother are difficult to distinguish accurately.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 13/09/2025

I don’t think they used it for either (source: Guardian / PA)

Police are not using live facial recognition in its policing of the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ demonstration which is beginning on London’s south bank, reports the PA news agency.

It said:

We’re using a mobile CCTV van to help monitor the build up of crowds. Officers have been asked if it’s using ‘live facial recognition’ – we can confirm it is not.
The live facial recognition technology – which captures people’s faces in real-time CCTV cameras – was used in the policing operation at the Notting Hill carnival.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 12/09/2025

Reading the obituary of Lord Lambton after falling down a bit of a Wikipedia hole and very much enjoyed his excuse of how his sex scandal came about because the futility of his job as a junior minister led him to debauchery and gardening.

The scandal which triggered his downfall in May 1973 arose from a photograph of Lambton in bed with two prostitutes while smoking marijuana. When interviewed afterwards by Robin Day, he claimed he had often used "whores for sex" because "people sometimes like variety. It's as simple as that." Documents released 30 years after the scandal revealed that he told an MI5 official he had turned to debauchery - and gardening - because of the futility of his job.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 09/09/2025

Ah yes, remember when David Cameron's career was ruined after these revelations by him being made a Lord and becoming Foreign Secretary? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The revelations have echoes of the Greensill Capital lobbying scandal that embroiled one of Johnson’s predecessors, David Cameron. They may also spark questions about the taxpayer-funded allowance that former prime ministers get to run their private offices.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 04/09/2025

1. First: Oasis 1994 2. Last: Chase & Status 3. Worst: Kula Shaker? 4. Loudest: LCD Soundsystem 5. Best: David Bowie 6. Most: The National (not a dad but often sad) 7. Most surprising: Pet Shop Boys 8. Happy I got to see: David Bowie 9. Wish I could have seen: Fleetwood Mac 10. Next: none right now.

Image purely has a list of the following
1. FIRST CONCERT:
2. LAST CONCERT:
3. WORST CONCERT:
4. LOUDEST CONCERT
5. BEST CONCERT:
6. SEEN THE MOST:
7. MOST SURPRISING:
8. HAPPY I GOT TO SEE:
9. WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN:
10. NEXT CONCERT:

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 31/08/2025

New rule for this year’s The Hundred - last over is bowled with a larger ball.

A cricket pitch. Two men are rolling a huge gold ball that’s bigger than they are.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 31/08/2025

At Lords for every cricket fan’s favourite format, The Hundred.

A view of a cricket pitch from the stands.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 27/08/2025

I mean, it does seem a little implausible that someone with a double-barrelled name wrote this piece in The Guardian - feels a little too on the nose.

"What has Britain come to when we're fobbed off with yoghurt as the main item in a meal deal?" by Imogen West-Knights.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 26/08/2025

Colours-wise, I presume the flag of Nottinghamshire?

The flag of Nottinghamshire. Green background, red cross with white outline and picture of an archer on a shield in the middle of the cross.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 23/08/2025

I thought that was one of my cats for a moment.

Black and white cats with big ears and extensive whiskers looks off to the right with a mildly dubious look on her face.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 16/08/2025

Overmono and Joy Orbison were also great.

Large stage, crowd in foreground, there is a dog on the rear screen.

Another stage, there are pretty, patchy clouds above it and the word “Joy” is written on the screen on the stage.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 16/08/2025

Had lots of fun dodging the fireballs and pretending to be young at Chase & Status tonight.

A large festival stage. Jets of orange flame are firing on and above the stage and there is a crowd of people with their arms in the air in the foreground.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 14/08/2025

Some LinkedIn slop. From pretty much everything I've read about Elon Musk, none of those things are even vaguely true and really all you're supposed to do is "agree with an addled Elon Musk regardless of what he says".

An image of various leaders and their meeting strategies. Elon Musk's reads "Be super prepared. Strategy: Ensure thorough preparation for meetings. Details: Be ready to answer any follow-up questions. Benefit: Maintains high standards and efficiency"

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 06/08/2025

What AI can do is a pretty serviceable version of one of Boris Johnson’s columns though.

Blow the trumpets, ring the bells, and fetch the nearest algorithm — for help, dear reader, is at hand! For too long, our beloved social care system has found itself stuck in a Sisyphean struggle: chronically underfunded, overburdened, and desperately short of the very people who make it tick — the carers, the angels in cardigans. But fear not. Just as Archimedes cried “Eureka!” in his bath and Newton’s noodle was bopped by a humble apple, we now face a moment of innovation so mighty it might just hoist us out of the mire. I speak, of course, of artificial intelligence — that wondrous digital brainbox, that silicon saviour — poised to revolutionise recruitment in social care and restore some vim and vigour to one of the noblest professions in Blighty.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 30/07/2025

I can't believe I've had this small Kaaba on my desk this whole time! How deep does this go??

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 27/07/2025

The world’s a terrible place but here’s a snail having a shower. (Found on Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatis...)

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 08/07/2025

Yeah, not unreasonable. www.idrlabs.com/jock-nerd-pr...

You are 32.7% Goth, 69.1% Nerd, placing you in the True Nerd category.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 03/07/2025

Wes Streeting here, looking like he's about to murder Keir Starmer with his laser eyes.

A photo of (l-r) Rachel Reeves, Wes Streeting and Keir Starmer in some sort of health establishment. Reeves is smiling, Starmer is facing away from both of them. Streeting is staring as though he's about to murder Starmer with laser eyes.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 29/06/2025

It’s not a mystery, it was broadcast live. With a warning. Thankfully, Glastonbury don’t make all their acts go through everything they’re going to say on stage and the BBC just broadcasts it. Worth noting that the Glastonbury festival leans heavily Labour.

“I thought it’s appalling, to be honest, and I think the BBC and Glastonbury have got questions to answer about how we saw such a spectacle on our screens,” he told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips on Sky News.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 28/06/2025

Also: gotta love Sir Michael Eavis. (Rod Stewart tho).

Sir Michael added that "people that don't agree with the politics of the event can go somewhere else", in an interview with Glastonbury's on-site newspaper.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 23/06/2025

I'm sure this new "anyone who enters a women's toilet can be photographed and have their image distributed on the internet" policy won't have any downsides.

JK Rowlings tweet about trying to police toilets

Quite easily, really. Decent men will stay out, as they always have, so we can assume all who don't are a threat, given their disregard for women's and girls' safety, privacy and dignity.
Photographing, reporting and disseminating such men's images online will be a piece of cake.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 11/06/2025

To be fair, I do have this Playmobil Night Watch set from the Rijksmuseum and it's pretty cool.

Playmobil box with two figures based on Rembrandt's The Night Watch from the Rijksmuseum

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 11/06/2025

This hyper-militarised set has a guy with night vision goggles, armour, a rifle, an armoured van and a firing grappling hook that can't really be used for anything other than hurting people.

Another black playmobil van, a man with a bandanna firing a grappling hook sits on the top, clinging to the side is another figure in full armour, with helmet, night vision goggles and a rifle.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 11/06/2025

This set comes with a police officer not only with a riot helmet on, but also a rifle AND side arm, as well as a camera for invading your privacy.

Another black Playmobil van. The figure inside the van has a beret the one hanging on to the outside has a rifle, holstered pistol, and a camera and walkie talkie on a case behind him.

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Thom Beckett @thombeckett.com · 11/06/2025

Also, because I can't let this lie, if you really want to be laying into authoritarian toys, take a look at Playmobil. They make an actual police riot van with riot shields and an assault rifle.