Ignacio Castro
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ignactro.eurosky.social
Ignacio Castro
@ignactro.eurosky.social
1K followers 410 following 510 posts
(Mostly) Internet data science.
Lecturer (aka Assistant Prof.) at QMUL and IRTF chair of RASP RG. My orthography is creative, no typos here.
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ignactro.eurosky.social
Ignacio Castro @ignactro.eurosky.social · Jan 19
More than 5xusers and well beyond 300K starter packs since April 2024. How did Bluesky looked before the stampede out of X?👇 [1/n]
garethtyson.bsky.social Gareth Tyson @garethtyson.bsky.social · Jan 19
If you're curious about the growth of @bsky.app, a few of us published a paper using April'24 data. Since, all stats have gone through the roof... arxiv.org/pdf/2408.12449
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
eliothiggins.bsky.social
Democracy isn’t restored by good intentions defeating bad ones. Historically it returns when new binding institutions emerge that can again convert truth into constraint and participation into legitimacy
January 24, 2026 at 10:35 AM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
nvondarza.bsky.social
Amazing chart with horrible acronyms - for the first time in my living memory, unemployment in Northern Europe and Southern Europe seems to have converged. Seemed unthinkable during the Eurozone crisis.
Chart from Economist on unemployment in Southern and Northern Europe since 2005 now converging.
January 23, 2026 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
coldwarsteve.bsky.social
January 23, 2026 at 9:10 AM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
newyorker.com
Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Matt Reuter. #NewYorkerCartoons
January 23, 2026 at 12:30 AM
ignactro.eurosky.social
Palantir. The reliable partner you trust when there are no alternatives.
January 22, 2026 at 5:53 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
bheanilla.bsky.social
From the most left wing government in the EU today. Unimaginable from the perspective of Irish politics.
Spain urges EU to create joint army amid Greenland dispute
Spain is urging the EU to move towards creating a joint army for the bloc as a deterrence measure, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said in comments to Reuters on Wednesday ahead of a day ...
www.reuters.com
January 22, 2026 at 12:12 PM
ignactro.eurosky.social
"there are 12,000 people across Minneapolis on the multi-neighborhood rapid responses. That’s 3.46 percent of the adult population of Minneapolis, and that’s people who can tolerate these giant Signal group chats with a thousand people—most can’t."
motherjones.com Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 20d
Neighborhood watch is taking on a new form in Minneapolis and other cities under occupation by federal immigration agents: ICE Watch.

These folks, who're tailing federal agents as they make arrests, are passionate, determined, and just about everywhere—and ICE is getting frustrated.
Meet the Minneapolis neighbors standing up to ICE by the thousands
Local resistance is "growing exponentially," says Defend the 612's Andrew Fahlstrom.
www.motherjones.com
January 21, 2026 at 11:18 PM
ignactro.eurosky.social
TACO 2026 count: 1
davidheniguk.bsky.social David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 20d
Not even the end of the day, and as I put at evens at the start of the week, Trump walks back.

Now back to the changes to the world order that aren't Trump.

bsky.app/profile/mijr...
mijrahman.bsky.social Mujtaba Rahman @mijrahman.bsky.social · 20d
‼️ Trump walks back tariff threat. That was fast
January 21, 2026 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
katjabego.bsky.social
Whenever you think Europe has finally understood the existential urgency of the current political moment…
politico.eu POLITICO Europe @politico.eu · 20d
🚨 BREAKING: In a vote that could delay the EU’s trade deal with Mercosur by up to two years, the European Parliament has sent the Latin American accord for a judicial review.

Read the story: politico.eu/article/eu-m...
January 21, 2026 at 12:46 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
teresaribera.ec.europa.eu
Great speech.
@mark-carney.bsky.social
“Risk management comes at a price, but that cost of strategic autonomy can also be shared. Collective investments in resilience are cheaper than everyone building their own fortresses. Shared standards reduce fragmentations”.

globalnews.ca/news/1162087...
Read the full transcript of Carney’s speech to World Economic Forum - National | Globalnews.ca
Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a forceful speech in Davos, Switzerland, on the 'new world order' and how middle powers like Canada can benefit by working together.
globalnews.ca
January 20, 2026 at 9:03 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
hetanshah.bsky.social
It’s part of this story exploring the impact of funding changes at @ukri.org. There are some big changes happening and the article is right that it’s a bit uncertain how it will all play out in practice. Important to flag that discovery research is maintained
www.thetimes.com/article/be92...
Taxpayer-funded research will prioritise economic growth
UK Research and Innovation will back university projects that fit the government’s modern industrial strategy and probably redirect funds from ‘soft’ subjects
www.thetimes.com
January 20, 2026 at 7:25 AM
ignactro.eurosky.social
How long will it take for euro-anger/pride to emerge and for euro-populists to ride on it?
January 20, 2026 at 12:02 PM
ignactro.eurosky.social
A-Changing times
alexselbyb.bsky.social Alex Selby-Boothroyd @alexselbyb.bsky.social · 22d
Some great charts in this fine piece by @lanegreene.bsky.social. Popular music is getting sadder and angstier

www.economist.com/graphic-deta...
Chart from The Economist showing a rise in songs expressing heartbreak, angst and despair since 2000 Chart from The Economist showing the change in songs expressing various emotions from 2000-05 to 2020-25 Chart from The Economist showing songs becoming more negative from 1975 to 2022
January 19, 2026 at 9:35 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
coldwarsteve.bsky.social
January 19, 2026 at 1:07 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
eldomador.bsky.social
Internet of Iran continues to experience temporary partial restorations of service before reverting back to a shutdown for everyone but a few privileged individuals.

#DigitalBlackoutlran #IranRevolution2026
January 18, 2026 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
chriso-wiki.bsky.social
1/ Donald Trump's aggressive tactics over Greenland are causing consternation among his far-right allies in Europe. With European publics overwhelmingly against surrendering Greenland, leading European far-rightists have come out in opposition to Trump's plans. ⬇️
January 17, 2026 at 6:10 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
atproto.london
We're *so* back

smokesignal.events/did:plc:k4on...
January ATProto London
After a brief hiatus, we're back at Newspeak House from 7 to 10 pm on 28 January! ATProto.London is open to anyone with an interest in this technology or decentralised social media more generally. .....
smokesignal.events
December 24, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
robin.berjon.com
We're having an AT Proto gathering at FOSDEM, on the Friday right before, at 17h00. Come! It'll be nice and fun.
luma.com/jj7nths0
@proto @fosdem · Luma
The AT Protocol is an open, decentralized network for building social applications. https://atproto.com/ Start your FOSDEM with a convivial evening of casual…
luma.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:16 PM
ignactro.eurosky.social
"Argentine regime willingly exploited these career concerns and placed the most pressured agents in the most repressive unit within the secret police (...) career boosting effects were most pronounced for agents with the lowest early career performance"
andrew.heiss.phd Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 27d
Perennial reminder of this excellent paper about how secret police forces are swamped with underachievers

“We don’t want clever people. We want mediocrities.”

(Ungated summary here ajps.org/2019/10/08/w...)
Why Underachievers Dominate Secret Police Organizations: Evidence from Autocratic Argentina Adam Scharpf Christian Gläßel Abstract: Autocrats depend on a capable secret police. Anecdotal evidence, however, often characterizes agents as surprisingly mediocre in skill and intellect. To explain this puzzle, this article focuses on the career incentives underachieving individuals face in the regular security apparatus. Low-performing officials in hierarchical organizations have little chance of being promoted or filling lucrative positions. To salvage their careers, these officials are willing to undertake burdensome secret police work. Using data on all 4,287 officers who served in autocratic Argentina (1975-83), we study biographic differences between secret police agents and the entire recruitment pool. We find that low-achieving officers were stuck within the regime hierarchy, threatened with discharge, and thus more likely to join the secret police for future benefits. The study demonstrates how state bureaucracies breed mundane career concerns that produce willing enforcers and cement violent regimes. This has implications for the understanding of autocratic consolidation and democratic breakdown.
January 14, 2026 at 7:22 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
eldomador.bsky.social
Internet shutdown in Iran has now surpassed 140 hours making it one of the most severe internet shutdowns in history. #IranianRevolution2026 #DigitalBlockoutIran

Egypt shutdown (Jan 2011) lasted 129 hours and didn't disconnect phone lines like is happening in Iran.
January 14, 2026 at 6:00 PM
ignactro.eurosky.social
"...contractors, who had lobbied for the railway, were embedded as project managers (...).
That left too much power in the hands of contractors and government officials without technical expertise."

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
January 13, 2026 at 12:32 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
jay.bsky.team
We’re hiring hungry ghost wranglers — I mean Machine Learning Engineers.

As well as Typescript, React Native, and Go devs.
January 12, 2026 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
ivansigal.eurosky.social
A bunch of us are working on the practical questions of how to decentralize ATProto and create other strong nodes that complement Bluesky. And Bluesky itself wants this. Coming soon: a European identity for ATProto, 1st step toward Euro infra: www.eurosky.social/register @eurosky.social
Register for a eurosky.social account - one web identity, dozens of apps — eurosky
www.eurosky.social
January 12, 2026 at 9:41 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
eldomador.bsky.social
🚨Internet (and other comms) has been down in Iran for 96 hours and counting...🚨

Iran is now implementing a whitelist to allow access to approved internet sites — a sign that the govt is preparing continue the shutdown indefinitely.

#IranProtests #DigitalBlackoutlran
January 12, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by Ignacio Castro
hetanshah.bsky.social
Interesting discussion between @jburnmurdoch.ft.com and & @sarahoconnorft.ft.com on what developments in AI like Claude Code might mean for social science, including the risk it will lead to an increase in low quality work
www.ft.com/content/9183...
always clear that this is true. As economics professor Joshua Gans muses, when you reduce the cost of doing something, people will do more of it, but this tends to mean a reduction in the quality of the marginal activity that gets done. In social science this could mean more low-quality research: writing up second-rate ideas that wouldn't have been acted upon if it required more effort. This is consistent with what we've seen in job applications, and is supported by a paper published last month (before the new agentic tools) finding that researchers who use LLMs publish many more papers, but much of the additional work is relatively low quality, and Al dilutes the signals previously used to spot valuable work.
January 12, 2026 at 7:55 AM