Matt Potter
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mattpotteruk.bsky.social
Matt Potter
@mattpotteruk.bsky.social
2.1K followers 470 following 1.2K posts
Journalist, author, magpie, scriptwriter, nerd. Washington Post, BBC, etc. Nonfic books incl WE ARE ALL TARGETS & OUTLAWS INC. Science, languages, virology, art, illicit networks, deviance, cyber, psychology, weird, prehistory, subculture. ND. He/Him
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mattpotteruk.bsky.social
Every age gets the scandals it deserves.

1950s, Cold War paranoia: McCarthy

1970s, polarisation/smashmouth campaigning: Watergate

1980s, greed: Iran/Contra

2025: The Hawk-Tuah Memecoin Melania Trump Clueless Populist Self-Incriminating Idiocy Industrial Complex

rudevulture.com/hawk-tuah-go...
The lawsuit further alleges that the wallets involved in the Hawk token scheme were connected to multiple other cryptocurrency scams, including tokens promoted by Argentine President Javier Milei and even tied to First Lady Melania Trump's memecoin. Blockchain forensics revealed identical timing patterns, funding flows, and extraction methods across these schemes.
December 1, 2025 at 6:44 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
The cover of a mock pulp shocker called Crabitalism! by Horx Myxlin, by Paperback Paradise. Tagline: ‘Humans go in… crabs become more powerful!’
November 25, 2025 at 7:47 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
I just heard that an old friend & colleague with whom I’d lost touch has died. There are lots of things to be said by people closer to them than I had become. But this person was kind, & classy, & creative. And by being all of that, they made the world, and so many other people’s lives, far better.
Screenshot of some words in memoriam.
November 21, 2025 at 7:59 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
“William Blake’s poem ‘Eternity’ was written in 1880, which was after his death in 1827.”

Great work, Google AI. The Zero-Click Impression is working out swimmingly. No notes.
Screenshot from Google AI’s summary of the poem ‘Eternity’ by William Blake. It says: “William Blake’s poem ‘Eternity’ was written in 1880, which was after his death in 1827.”
November 13, 2025 at 9:11 AM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
This is a damn good read. I was struck by how close this is to Bertolt Brecht’s rationale for his Alienation Techniques. Don’t let yourself get swept away by entertainment because that’s just begging to roll over for authority; retain your sense of critical distance and agency as an audience, etc.
Screenshot of the article on Wire, with the highlighted text about how they subverted the live show experience to make it less immersive and more analytical for the audience.
November 12, 2025 at 8:54 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
When your British TV interviewee says, "I'm just a kid from a council estate" but the transcription AI you're using is USA-coded, things can get apocalyptic pretty fucking quickly.
Screenshot of a transcription with the words, "I'm just a kid from a cancer state"
November 9, 2025 at 1:55 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
Today’s ’Reddit sleuths unmask wrongdoing’ story is a little bit less spectacular than we are used to.
Screenshot of a Reddit update. Text reads: Chive Lord, a r/KitchenConfidential user who claims to cut chives every day, is accused of fraud after two separate posts are revealed to be the same pile of chives; moderators get involved. UPDATE: Chivelord has just posted an apology with the following text: Hey everyone. I would just like to come out and apologize for post the same pile of chives twice, I was having car problems yesterday and was unable to get and cut chives, and rather than being upfront and honest with you guys I chose to repost chives. I didn't want to give you guys another chiveless day. I see now that it would have been better to just be honest and say no chives rather than try and lie, th to goes against the whole point of the , I would like to thank all of you for holding me
November 8, 2025 at 6:12 AM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
The legendary 1978 study: Rhesus monkeys had a choice of 2 buttons every 15 minutes.

One dispensed food, one cocaine.

The monkeys "chose cocaine almost exclusively, resulting in high cocaine intake, decreased food intake, weight loss, marked behavioral toxicity".

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/96531/
1978 paper from the journal Science: Choice behavior in rhesus monkeys: cocaine versus food' by T G Aigner, R L Balster, Aug 11 1978: Abstract: "Rhesus monkeys were allowed to choose between intravenous injections of cocaine and food reinforcement for lever pressing. A choice trial was available every 15 minutes continuously for 8 days. The animals chose cocaine almost exclusively, which resulted in high cocaine intake, decreased food intake, weight loss, and marked behavioral toxicity. The study provides evidence of the reinforcing efficacy of cocaine."
November 5, 2025 at 11:24 AM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
I think I’ve maxed out on What Can Possibly Go Wrong, and i’m proceeding straight to Oh Fucking God.
Reddit post featuring the OP’s haul of wild mushrooms they have picked, and a caption about how they are letting ChatGPT identify the fungi for them.
October 28, 2025 at 5:53 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
See also: What could be more seasonal and spooky than A PERSIMMON aaaaaarrrrgh 👻

Let us carve it
Pack of ‘Halloween Persimmons’ from M&S (product of Spain, 3 per pack)
October 28, 2025 at 1:33 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
I mean I’m pretty jaded with marketing angles, but whoever at M&S decided to call Mac & Cheese “menacing” and market chipolata sausages as worms & severed fingers is basically my hero.
Packshot from M&S of ‘Menacing Mac & Cheese’ Pack of ‘Wriggling Worms’ (cocktail sausages) A breaded chicken ‘Box of bats’ ‘Zombie Bao Buns’ - bit of a stretch, this one
October 28, 2025 at 1:27 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
Few experiences are more stressful, spooky, uncanny & disruptive for the Neurodivergent than international travel.

Here's why it's the stuff of nightmares, & how the travel industry can change that. (& may be starting to.)

This felt good to write, at last.
www.businesstraveller.com/insights/fea...
A spread from Business Traveller magazine, featuring the opening of an article. The headline is says: Neurodiverse Navigation: Growing awareness of conditions like autism and ADHD is changing business travel as we know it. Words: Matt Potter. Illustration: Eoin Ryan. The image is an abstracted, blurred and red-toned background of an airport with outlines of a morass of red signs overlaid on each other, for planes, no entry, crowd control etc., and looking at it in the foreground, the blurred and lone outline of a human with a suitcase. The figure is hollow, with light hining through it. The overall vibe is Radiohead-disassociative and futurist-dystopian.
October 24, 2025 at 1:27 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
Oh no, not again.

Lawyer submits an argument to the court which is entirely hallucinated - including non-existent precedents & citations - by ChatGPT. Fallout ensues.

Please, for the love of Svarog, tell your friends & colleagues tonight that ChatGPT is not Google.

www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedd...
Screenshot of the intro to the linked Reddit post in which a lawyer gives his account of the opposition counsel submitting an argument that was entirely hallucinated (including non-existent sources in citation) by ChatGPT - and its dismissal amid the resulting fallout. Second page of a Screenshot of the intro to the linked Reddit post in which a lawyer gives his account of the opposition counsel submitting an argument that was entirely hallucinated (including non-existent sources in citation) by ChatGPT - and its dismissal amid the resulting fallout.
October 22, 2025 at 5:46 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
This Reddit thread started with a comedy riddle.

The thread quickly devolved into people asking Chat GPT and Gemini AI to answer it for them.

Which became more comedy.

www.reddit.com/r/comedyheav...
Chat GPT gets the riddle wrong claiming it is the letter ‘o’ of which there are, it says, two in the word ‘man’ and four in the word ‘king’. Chat GPT and Gemini AI get the riddle wrong, claiming it is ‘e’ - of which it says there are two in ‘man’. Chat GPT claims the answer is ‘e’ Chat GPT claims the answer is ‘parents’ because a man has two, a king 4, and a beggar none.
October 20, 2025 at 6:43 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
Birds lack capsaicin receptors & are immune to chilli's heat; most mammals have them & won't touch it.

It's a successful adaptation by chillis to ensure the berries are eaten & spread only by the farthest-ranging seed-dispersal agents. 🤯

From @newscientist.com www.newscientist.com/article/mg26...
Screenshot from the New Scientist article: "You might wonder why chilli plants would produce colourful, eye-catching fruit, packed with aroma compounds, only to lace them with this unpalatable molecule. Well, it’s because birds don’t have these receptors, so they are immune to capsaicin’s effects. Researchers believe chilli plants evolved the ability to produce capsaicin as a selective deterrent, discouraging mammals – which destroy chilli seeds during digestion – while having no effect on birds, which spread seeds intact. Capsaicin is so effective at this task that it has been added to birdseed to prevent it from being eaten by squirrels. It is also used to prevent rats and mice from eating poultry feed and has been effective in preventing rodents eating wildflower seeds and destroying nests of rare ground-nesting birds."
October 20, 2025 at 11:55 AM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
I’d rather be a hammer than a nail.

If I could.

If I could, I
A London Underground sign for the leafy suburban station of Chorleywood
October 16, 2025 at 4:06 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
Yesterday I went to the station just for this. There it was. 7 minutes. I stood & took photos as time ticked by & it stayed on 7. Proof!

Nope. The figures on dot matrix displays like this do not show up in photos. (WHAT?!) They were all scrambled & illegible

Now I feel like I’m going properly mad.
A scrambled dotmatrix display, which should say 7 minutes
October 16, 2025 at 12:23 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
In 1590, Marlowe wrote his tragedy The Jew Of Malta. In it (among much else) he nailed the bigotry & hypocrisy of Maltese Christian leaders who sought to scapegoat their own evils on the Jews there.

One key couplet comes as the Governor is extorting the main character. He justifies it like this:
A screenshot of the script of Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, with the following couplet (spoken by Ferneze, governor of Malta, to the Jewish merchant of the title while he is extorting the Jew, outlined: “Excess of wealth is cause of covetousness; And covetousness, O, 'tis a monstrous sin!
October 15, 2025 at 7:14 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
Driving through the Midlands. Not sure how close I am to my rendezvous point. If only there were a sign…
A street sign in a new build housing estate in the Midlands. The street is a ‘close’, and it is called Ultra Close.
October 14, 2025 at 7:34 AM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
These weird creepy-as-fuck online advertisements and webstores for supposed ‘Zuck Gear’ and ‘Elon Vibes’ fashion brands are all over Reddit.

“Show off your admiration for one of the world’s greatest visionaries” is either an exquisite troll, some kid dicking about, or we’re all doomed.
Weird creepy advert for Mark Zuckerberg inspired fashion Weird creepy Reddit advert for ‘Elon Musk inspired fashion shop’ The front page of ‘ZuckGear’ The banner page of the ‘Zuck Gear’ shop online
October 13, 2025 at 9:27 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
I mean… maybe? Could potentially be, if you like. Or not. Who’s to say?
Screenshot of an email from Academia.edu that asks “Are you the Matt Potter who wrote "Hedging - Use of Cautious Language TASKS”?
September 29, 2025 at 10:15 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
Today's orange dawn sky over the silhouetted spires, chimneys and rooftops of Edinburgh's old town. No filter needed.
Orange dawn sky over the silhouetted spires, chimneys and rooftops of Edinburgh's old town
September 29, 2025 at 6:17 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
It would just feel dirty continuing.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Disney Plus screen acknowledging my subscription has been cancelled and thanking me for my feedback as to why I cancelled it.
September 19, 2025 at 9:17 PM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
15 years ago, while the subcontractor racket was still at its height in Afghanistan, I wrote 'Outlaws Inc' about how 'free market aid services' make arms smugglers, mafias etc inevitable.

Linda Polman, Mark Galeotti & many others have been saying the same for longer.

Yet here we are again. FML.
A screenshot of a page from 'Outlaws Inc' by Matt Potter (Pan Macmillan/Bloomsbury USA, 2011): "Part of the difficulty is just how complex the web of private subcontractors and subsubcontractors, all vying for lucrative co ali tion military and UN contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan, has become. And when everyone’s outsourcing, the guy at the top of the chain rarely has any oversight of the agents employed further down. This is the explanation given in retrospect by the Pentagon for its contracts for outfi ts operated by Viktor Bout, and presumably holds for their dealings with Tomislav Damnjanovic, too. But really, by announcing that business rules apply in a military occupation scenario, just what did we expect? In War Games, a masterful account of what happens when aid and military campaigns coexist too closely, Linda Polman describes the result as a new shadow state. She calls it Afghaniscam— the huge, aid- driven free-for-all that prevails in countries where military, humanitarian aid, and “local partners” combine, supposedly to achieve reconstruction and the efficient distribution of aid — in practice, to rip off as much as they possibly can in the melée."
September 10, 2025 at 11:26 AM
mattpotteruk.bsky.social
Pretty sure that 99% of the world’s current problems come from us overestimating how smart algorithms actually are.

Today, Google’s top prediction as I began to type, “Do insects and arachnids share a common ancestor” is: “Do insects and arachnids share a Coke.”
Screenshot of my phone’s Google search bar as I typed “Do insects and arachnids share a common ancestor” and instead of ‘common ancestor’ it predicted that I wanted to know if they share a Coke.
September 5, 2025 at 7:58 PM