felt smart, might delete later
LightNews LightNews
outeast.bsky.social
felt smart, might delete later
@outeast.bsky.social
170 followers 530 following 2.2K posts
Won't post much as I have no insight or expertise, but sometimes forget that when drunk with the power of a keyboard. Pronouns whatever. Writer, editor etc. of ESL materials in Prague. Interests here: Politics, climate, SFF, linguistics, i dunno
Posts Replies Media Videos
outeast.bsky.social
Weird: your post seems to have been labelled "rude". I've never seen that before.
Screenshot of the previous skeet with a label saying rude
February 12, 2026 at 11:53 AM
outeast.bsky.social
Dating myself here but
Scene from Kingpin, a 1996 comedy about bowling. A row of overweight bowlers are eating junk food and smoking. The caption - a line spoken by the main character - is "it's kind of intimidating to be in the presence of so many great athletes".
February 8, 2026 at 6:10 PM
outeast.bsky.social
White fronts #eggcorn

(Is the alternative yellow fronts, I wonder?)
Mandelson has had days and days to run around in his white fronts and destroy evidence one might also conclude.
February 7, 2026 at 12:45 PM
outeast.bsky.social
Comfortable #caturday.
A cat with its back half wedged into a vertical position between some boxes, a precise 90° bend in the middle and its head and chest - but not its front paws - stretched out horizontally. It looks like the most uncomfortable position not achieved by a student.
February 7, 2026 at 12:06 PM
outeast.bsky.social
There were a few confused-looking tourists still trying to watch the clock mixed in with the crowd
The protest crowd at the very top of the square in front of the astronomical clock.
February 1, 2026 at 8:44 PM
outeast.bsky.social
I was there for the demo on November 17th (Struggle for Freedom & Democracy Day) & thought it was busy then. Today I could barely get into the square 😁
A panoramic picture of Staromak / Old Town Square taken from just next to the old town hall. It's an unrelenting sea of people, with a stage and screen barely visible in a "Where's Wally" kind of way.
February 1, 2026 at 5:08 PM
outeast.bsky.social
Demonstration in support of the President! No not that one #PetrPavel #Prague #Praha
Panorama photo of a very full Old Town Square, Prague. Lots of Czech, EU and Ukrainian flags. Can't see much from this angle really.
February 1, 2026 at 2:31 PM
outeast.bsky.social
An old picture of the band Tangerine Dream
January 31, 2026 at 6:10 PM
outeast.bsky.social
I'm glad I read that before the thread or I'd have missed this burn
Skeet from the thread by Kreis. It reads, "Epstein should stick to epidemiology. He's better at it than English history."
January 29, 2026 at 6:28 AM
outeast.bsky.social
It's Pass Notes, which has been doing tongue-in-cheek reporting on ridiculous fake trends and buzzwords for well over 30 years. This particular one has been doing the rounds for at least a year.
Headline from "HR Magazine" from May 2025: "Polygamous working isn't just fraud, it's a wake-up call for smarter screening"
January 26, 2026 at 8:57 PM
outeast.bsky.social
There are a lot of comments (supportive and un-) that suggest people have only the vaguest idea of what this offence might entail. So here's the text (current version of the bill, relevant chapter only). Hope it helps.
CHAPTER 3 MISLEADING THE PUBLIC 11 Offence of misleading the public (1) A public authority or public official commits an offence if, in their capacity as such an authority or official- (a) they act with the intention of misleading the public or are reckless as to whether their act will do so, and (b) they know, or ought to know, that their act is seriously improper. (2) For the purposes of this section an act is seriously improper only if- (a) it meets the condition in subsection (3), and (b) a reasonable person would consider it to be seriously improper, taking account of all the circumstances of the case. (3) The condition mentioned in subsection (2)(a) is that the act- (a) involved dishonesty that was significant or repeated (whether by means of falsehood, concealment, obfuscation or otherwise) in respect of matters of significant concern to the public, (b) caused, or contributed to causing, harm to one or more other persons, or had the potential to do so, and (c) departed significantly from what is to be expected in the proper exercise of the person's functions as a public authority or public official. (4) Nothing in this section applies to an act done- (a) by a person in the exercise, or purported exercise, of functions relating to Scottish devolved matters, Welsh devolved matters or Northern Ireland devolved matters; (b) for the purposes of journalism by - (i) a recognised news publisher, within the meaning of Part 3 of the Online Safety Act 2023 (see section 56 of that Act), or (ii) a person in the course of working for such a publisher. (5) A person who commits an offence under this section is liable- (a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding the general limit in a magistrates' court or a fine (or both); (b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or a fine (or both). (6) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section- (a) to prove that the act constituting the offence was necessary for the proper exercise of any function of- (i) an intelligence service, or (ii) the armed forces when engaged on active service, or (b) to show that they otherwise had a reasonable excuse for their act. (7) A person erson is taken to have shown the fact mentioned in subsection (6)(b) if- (a) sufficient evidence of the fact is adduced to raise an issue with respect to it, and (b) the contrary is not proved beyond reasonable doubt. (8) In this section- "active service" means service in- (a) an action or operation against an enemy, (b) an operation outside the British Islands for the protection of life or property, or (c) the military occupation of a foreign country or territory; "armed forces" means His Majesty's forces, within the meaning of the Armed Forces Act 2006; "harm" includes physical harm, psychological harm (including distress) and economic loss; "the public" means the public in the United Kingdom and includes a section of the public; "public authority" and "public official" have the meanings given by Part 2 of Schedule 2. (9) For further provision in relati…
January 24, 2026 at 8:01 AM
outeast.bsky.social
I've read this one
The cover of Service Model, showing an articulated robotic hand holding a tiny teacup carefully by the handle, other fingers held delicately aloft. The cup is cracked, old and bloodstained. A futuristic hellscape stretches out behind.
January 23, 2026 at 8:05 AM
outeast.bsky.social
QOTD: What car do you want most, but know would be an absolutely miserable experience to own?*

*I don't think it would be a "miserable experience" to own but it wouldn't be especially practical. Or safe.
Velorex Oskar microcar. It's a tiny, utterly charming three-wheeler - that's two wheels in front one behind. The body of the car is made of metal tubes covered in fabric. It would come out the loser in a collision with a milk carton and is about the same size. It has a removable roof so is perfect for those sunny days but might blow away in a strong wind. It's gorgeous.
January 14, 2026 at 9:01 PM
outeast.bsky.social
Took the kids to an iconic home on Lanzarote designed by the island's most famous artist. After the guided tour I asked what they thought and they looked embarrassed and mumbled "Well it's interesting but it's basically just designed for sex isn't it".
A room in Cesar Manrique's underground volcano home. A circular bench surrounds a tree in the centre while wide, red, leather-covered couches line the walls. It is undoubtedly designed with sex in mind.
January 10, 2026 at 10:05 PM
outeast.bsky.social
It's been a while since we've had a proper freeze & snow like this in Prague. There were people taking to the cross-country skis in the woods, and the parks were busy today with toboggans and ice-skaters.
A snowy park in a city. Beyond a bank of rushes is a large frozen, snow-covered pond with groups of people walking. Some areas have been shovelled clear of snow so people can skate, and there's a hockey game going on on the right. Behind the pond are trees and lots of concrete tower blocks, some painted in bright colours. The sky is grey with a light that tells of early evening. It looks a little like a Lowry painting.
January 10, 2026 at 9:22 PM
outeast.bsky.social
Colin's musings reposted with alt text. (I hope you don't mind my doing this in your replies, Colin. I appreciate that alt-text policing is annoying but it's a sticking point for a lot of Bluesky users. I'll delete if you ask.)
One of the things we will be thinking about in the coming year - and indeed already have been, a lot - is how generative and LLM-based Al affects us at Free Movement. I feel we're in a pretty good place, unusually. Our core business does not really depend on page views. We like to provide high quality information to as wide a range of people as possible; that's why I started Free Movement back when it was an occasional free blog. But appearance in search engine results and a high page view count is only one way of measuring success against that mission. If people get accurate information from an Al summary that rips us off, I think I would be fine with that if the Al company was paying us. Which they're not. There's a clear danger of the Al snake eating its own tale; if those who produce original new content are driven out of business, from where will Al source the content on which it relies? As a small specialist publisher I'm not sure what to do about that, but one answer might be to stop Al companies accessing our work in the meantime. We may need to change the way our paywall works, for example. In a similar vein, the cost of creating immigration law content by solicitors or others looking to boost their search engine visibility is now virtually zero. The proviso is that content produced by generative Al is bland in style, anodyne in its analysis and, by its nature, unoriginal, even assuming it is correct. Because such content is trivial to produce, the benefits of bothering to produce it will, soon, be virtually zero. How is publishing that sort of content actually going to help the publisher be seen or found when everyone else can do the same thing? It cannot help with Google search rankings, for example, when so many other people are producing essentially identical stuff. To put it another way, how can one rise to the surface of a sea of slop? Not by producing more slop, that's for sure. This is why many publishers are turning to membership models, email lists, live events and similar. We're already there. We certainly will not be using generative Al to write articles for us.
January 10, 2026 at 1:00 PM
outeast.bsky.social
This is why GenAI should be toxic on a business level. Anyone can use AI, so if AI can generate product for you, you have nothing worth paying for. And if your product *looks like* AI (eg good work redrafted by an LLM), it *looks* worthless. It's the opposite of added value.
How is publishing that sort of content actually going to help the publisher be seen or found when everyone else can do the same thing?
January 10, 2026 at 12:51 PM
outeast.bsky.social
I assume it's a bizarre coincidence, but there's a crystalline structure known as shish-kebab, which means there are *tons* of research papers on melting points and behaviours for kebab. Apparently, "under high temperature ... all kebabs [may] melt and new kebabs [be] formed by shish..."
Screenshot of the title of a randomly selected paper on this topic in the European Polymer Journal entitled "Improving the mechanical and thermal properties of shish-kebab via partial melting and re-crystallization". The beginning of one key takeaway from the research - pun absolutely and unapologetically intended - is just visible: "Annealing shish-kebab at 165 °C can melt weak kebab..."
January 8, 2026 at 2:12 PM
outeast.bsky.social
Picking on this specific RT more-or-less at random but: I haven't seen a single mention on Bluesky of this response from the EU and think it ought to be heard. www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...
Screenshot from an article in Le Monde; it's also been covered in other sources, including MSN. The extract reads: The European Commission said Monday it is "very seriously looking" into complaints that Elon Musk's AI tool Grok is being used to generate and disseminate sexually explicit childlike images. "Grok is now offering a 'spicy mode' showing explicit sexual content with some output generated with childlike images. This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling," European Union (EU) digital affairs spokesman Thomas Regnier told reporters. "This has no place in Europe."
January 5, 2026 at 9:50 PM
outeast.bsky.social
You're a year behind the times. These data are from November and the numbers have continued to worsen. This is US of course. I don't know what the numbers are in Venezuela - or how they'll change after US aggression. But the "Latinos for Trump mindset" is definitely not "prevalent" any more.
A graph of Latino attitudes to Trump from a couple of months ago. It's too detailed to transcribe all the numbers - sorry - but net negative is 70% Vs net positive 27%.
January 3, 2026 at 8:52 PM
outeast.bsky.social
I'd never come across it before but it's wonderful
Four panels of a comic strip. In the first, a man stares out from under the brin of a hat, cigarette smoke drifting across a black background. He says, I KEEP TWO MAGNUMS IN MY DESK. ONE'S A GUN, AND I KEEP IT LOADED. THE OTHER'S A BOTTLE AND IT KEEPS ME LOADED. I'M TRACER BULLET. I'M A PROFESSIONAL SNOOP. The next panel shows the detective at a desk. The scene is shot from above, the snoop's face hidden by the hat. Cards, a shot glass, a bottle or bourbon and an old-fashioned telephone are lit by a small window. The text says, IT'S A TOUGH JOB, BUT THEN, I'M A TOUGH GUY. SOME PEOPLE Don't LIKE AN AUDIENCE WHEN THEY WORK. ENOUGH OF THEM HAVE TOLD ME SO WITH BLUNT INSTRUMENTS THAT I'M A PHRENOLOGIST'S DREAM COME TRUE. In the third panel, it's the same scene but now we see the hard-bitten detective in profile, silhouetted against the window. He's pouring out a shot. The test says, SNOOPING PAYS THE BILLS, THOUGH. ESPECIALLY BILL, MY BOOKIE, AND BILL, MY PROBATION OFFICER. In the final Panel, the text says, SO WHEN A TALL BRUNETTE OPENED MY DOOR WITΗ Α CASE FOR ME, MY HEART DID A FEW CALISTHENICS AND I TOOK THE JOB. The scene is Calvin's mom throwing the door open and looking very angry as Calvin jumps out of his skin, hair standing on end and eyes popping.
January 2, 2026 at 11:22 PM
outeast.bsky.social
"I've been very busy"
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson
January 2, 2026 at 9:02 PM
outeast.bsky.social
My favourite point of comparison with "six-seven" is the Victorian "fat bacon" as referenced by Canadian writer Robertson Davies in "World of Wonders". Such meaningless catchphrases were common (as @greengodictionary.bsky.social will affirm) but I love how literally no one gets it. Sooooo Gen V.
There were people who sucked in their breath when I thumbed my nose while walking the tightrope; they thought I was Sir John, you see, and they couldn't imagine a knight committing such an unspeakable rudery in the presence of an Earl. But Milady told me the Earl was away behind the times; he didn't know what it meant in Canadian terms, and thought it still meant something called 'fat bacon,' which I suppose was Victorian. He guffawed and thumbed his nose and muttered, 'Fat bacon, what?' at the supper party afterward, at which Mr Mackenzie King was a guest.
December 19, 2025 at 9:21 PM
outeast.bsky.social
Picked this up as a curiosity when I was a teen because of the explicit lyrics warning. It blew my mind. Another compilation I still listen to, though the CD was damaged before I ripped it so I'm missing several tracks. They're probably on YouTube these days, of course.
CD cover, Empty Bed Blues - Best of the Good Time Mommas featuring Bessie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Memphis Minnie etc.
December 17, 2025 at 2:28 PM
outeast.bsky.social
The Golden Afrique series (HIGHLIGHTS AND RARITIES FROM THE GOLDEN ERA OF AFRICAN POP MUSIC, 1971-1983) was a revelation. So was its sister series, Desert Blues. I own albums by quite a few of these artists now but still listen to the compilations.
The cover of Golden Afrique vol 1. A plack-and-white photo of a man in a suit dancing and grinning. HIGHLIGHTS AND RARITIES FROM THE GOLDEN ERA OF AFRICAN POP MUSIC (1971-1983): MALI, SENEGAL, THE GAMBIA, IVORY COAST, GUINEA, GUINEA-BISSAU, CHAD, TOGO CD 1 1. MAITRE GAZONGA: LES JALOUX SABOTEURS 8:27 2. BÉBÉ MANGA: AMIE 7:05 3. AMADOU BALAKÉ: TAXIMEN 7:41 4. ERNESTO DJÉDJE: ZIBOTÉ 5:47 5. DE MI AMOR: LONLON NYEKU 5:51 6. SORY BAMBA DU MALI: DIS-MOI LA VÉRITÉ 6:09 7. OUSMANE KOUYATE: BENI HAMINANKO 8:48 8. AMBASSADEURS DU MOTEL: BOLOLA SANOU 4:55 9. RAIL BAND: RAIL BAND 6:28 10. AMBASSADEURS INTERNATIONAL: N'TOMAN 8:30 TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 70:00 CD 2 1. SUPER MAMA DJOMBO: DISSAN NA M'BERA 5:12 2. NO.1 DE DAKAR: YAYE BOYE 5:12 3. ÉTOILE DE DAKAR: MANE KOUMA XOL 4:49 4. ÉTOILE DE DAKAR: THIELY 4:07 5. ORCHESTRA BAOBAB: AUTORAIL 6:58 6. IDY DIOP: YAYE BOYE 4.55 7. GUELEWAR BAND OF BANJUL: WARTEEF JIGGEEN 6:49 8. SUPER EAGLES: ALIOU GORI-MAMI 2:36 9. SUPER EAGLES: GAMBIA/ZAMBIA 3:28 10. BALLA ET SES BALLADINS: PAULETTE 7:39 11. MIRIAM MAKEBA: MALOUYAME 3:35 12. ORCHESTRE DE LA PAILLOTTE: KADIA BLUES 4:43 13. AMAZONES DE GUINEE: SAMBA 4:53 14. BEMBEYA JAZZ NATIONAL: TENTEMBA 8:49
December 17, 2025 at 2:11 PM