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Matt Potter

@mattpotteruk.bsky.social
2.3K followers 519 following 1.4K 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

PostsRepliesMedia
Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Sitcom idea: A rag-tag team of hapless AI salespeople go industry to industry flogging untested ‘solutions’ to comically gullible people in insanely inappropriate fields, causing absolute fucking chaos on a global scale. Hilarity ensues. Wait no, that’s a news report. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
Rogue Anthropic AI agent gave police fake tip in unsolved murder case
Philadelphia police said the tip was "flagged as spam", but criticised the tech company for taking more than two months to detect and report the breach.
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Soraya Nadia McDonald @soraya.press · 10/10/2026
The machine did not "go rogue." The machine belongs to and is the responsibility of the people who own it. Hold those people accountable for their goddamn machine.
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Gina Anne Tam @dgtam86.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
In another example of how student journalists are doing excellent work, here are my wonderful Trinity students clearly articulating the value of a humanistic liberal arts education and critiquing its erosion by the use of AI (by professors, in this case) trinitonian.com/2026/10/08/t...
trinitonian.com
Trinity students seek AI regulation for professors - Trinitonian
Multiple students alleged that Jonathan King, professor of biology, used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to generate exam questions for his Cells and Cell Systems class. Many students reported seeing Kin...
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Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 09/10/2026
Hard to overstate how much Hegseth's execution stream mirrors the U.S. military's traditional description of ISIS propaganda: broadcast killings designed to send a message, strike fear and create a social media spectacle. Will almost certainly be repurposed by online terror cells
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
The Trump-Putin era needs a redux of the ‘Two Tribes’ video by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, but they’re both doddering bewildered around the boxing ring punching themselves in the face, and everyone the audience is shitting themselves.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
It’s like when an unhealthily, impossibly thin celebrity points to an almost-as-impossibly-thin celebrity and applauds how “they’re so confident being curvy, I’m all for body positivity, good for them.” It DOES NOT HELP the rest of us, which is fine. But for goodness’ sake, stop pretending it does.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The thing is, people can 100% say, ‘Oh it’s nice that she’s showing a moderately mussed-up living room! She’s a celeb! It’s good not to be perfect!’ But the way she presented it does NOT help. Because no way does that nice, lived-in living room represent shame. For most of us, that’s a *good* day.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
I’ve just seen that pop singer’s post about “being vulnerable & revealing who I really am today”. A piano ballad soars. We are asked, “please be kind”, as she reveals the terrible secret behind her public face. … cut to her normal living room with some clutter. This is the bad timeline, isn’t it?
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Colin Harker @lordsteerpike.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
That’s just insane!
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Right?! It’s a lovely late summer evening, people are drinking and eating in the sun on the terrace, and apparently “‘tis the season’?! Like, that is the one thing we know it is not. The season.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Holy crap, September 24th, Christmas baubles, fairy lights and “‘Tis The Season” decor has been deployed. This is not a drill.
Christmas decorations in a pub on Sept 24th
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I of course think he should be dealt with by the law... just wish there was a way to stop these people monetising it
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Otto English @ottoenglish.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Trouble is he'll now monetise this and make a whole heap of cash off it enabling him to do it bigger next time
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Oh bloody hell I now feel very old indeed. (‘90-‘93). Went to Harvey Court earlier in the year for an open day, in fact! Mad to have that jolt back in time.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Congrats! Also, I didn’t know that you were Caius too! What years?
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Alt Boo-reau of Lake-Monster Spook-tistics @domesticshoggoth.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
the fetish these people have for "intelligence" is based entirely on Sherlock and anime protagonist monologues with little to no grounding in a theory of what intelligence is or what its limits might be
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Getting commissions for books can be wild. These guys came to me came from Outlaws Inc. the PanMacmillan nonfic book I did tracking arms smugglers in planes, & “wondered if I want to turn it into a kids’ book”. I was like, ‘What, arms dealing? NO!’ They said, ‘Er, no, planes.’ So that was nice.
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Jerry Chen @jcsalterego.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
me: no worries (galadriel voice) but they were all of them deceived, for another worry was made
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Cheers Will! It was weird, the commission came to me because they’d read Outlaws Inc. the Pan Mac nonfic book I did tracking arms smugglers in planes, & wondered if I wanted to turn that knowledge into a kids’ book. I was like, ‘What, arms dealing? NO!’ They said, ‘Er, no, planes.’ So that was nice.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The book is available to preorder at its own website camdencrate.com, or wherever you get your books. And if I know you, and you want your copy with a special message for you or your little one, just let me know and we’ll work something out.
camdencrate.com
Camden Crate’s Adventures | Camden Crate by Sam Macadam & Matt Potter
Sam Macadam & Matt Potter’s The Adventures of Camden Crate: Camden’s Big Adventure, a children’s story of aviation, friendship and travel. Order the paperback.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
It tells the story of a little crate, from the first time he leaves the Big Warehouse & heads out into the skies on missions unknown. While the little crate might not always know what’s inside him or where he’s bound, those who see what’s in him, know he’s destined for some very special journeys.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
A bit of personal news. My debut children’s book is out next month. Co-written with Sam Macadam & brought to joyful life by illustrators Juanbjuan Oliver & Elmira Eskandari, ‘The Adventures of Camden Crate: Camden’s Big Adventure’ is a fun, inspiring & uplifting tale for ages 4-8 & their co-readers.
Cover of The Adventures of Camden Crate: Camden’s Big Adventure, out October 18th
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Thank goodness for that. It’s a small thing, but it’s been bothering me for years. Feels like having a psychic cyst lanced.
The BBC Football website’s alphabetically ordered ‘All Teams’ grid last season, in which ‘AFC Bournemouth’ comes before ‘Arsenal’, despite ‘AFC’ just meaning ‘Association Football Club’. Madness.The 2026-2927 season’s BBC Football website’s alphabetised ‘All Teams’ grid, in which ‘AFC Bournemouth’ is renamed ‘Bournemouth’ and therefore now comes after ‘Arsenal’ alphabetically, as it should. Not madness.
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Hassinator @hassinator.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
a great letter in the times today. perhaps worth sharing in these troubled times. #RNLI #heroes
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
I remember that! 😁
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Lucy Abbotts @lucyabbotts.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
A colleague once said that Hardy’s novels are the Casualty of their time. One moment everyone is merrily at the town fair/skipping around Wessex/milking cows, but you already know everything is heading south. @mattpotteruk.bsky.social this was you, just so you know!
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This is not an over-egged claim. www.wsj.com/world/crypto...
wsj.com
How Rogue Nations Are Using Cryptocurrencies to Evade Sanctions
Blacklisted entities handled $100 billion in crypto in 2025, financing terrorism and weapons.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
80% of Reform’s funding comes from just 2 Crypto billionaires. Cryptocurrency is the key means for Russia & others to channel money in secret to bodies in countries sanctioning them. Our democracy is literally being hacked & turned against itself. democracyforsale.substack.com/p/breaking-8...
democracyforsale.substack.com
BREAKING: 80% of Reform’s funding comes from two crypto billionaires
“If that isn't a massive corruption risk I don't know what is.”
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Dragonflies getting it on in the morning sun. I am sorry-not-sorry for invading your sexy moment, and now I am uploading it to the internet.
Close-up of dragonflies locked in a mating embrace. Taken 12 September in the UKTop elevation of mating dragonflies in the sunThird view of mating dragonflies
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Two days later this has been bugging me. I need to explain that my choice of spelling of ‘forth’ there was a hybrid of ‘force’ and ‘fourth’, not an attempt to create a new thing around ‘forward’. This explanation post may be unnecessarily nerdy. As opposed to the necessary nerdiness of the first.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
If you ever think you’ve wasted a chance, remember that someone, somewhere failed to schedule the release of Dune, Dune 2 and Dune 3 on June 1, June 2 and June 3, thus denying them a May The Forth style Dune-viewing-party date literally forever.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Bodø Glimt sounds like a one-scene character in Star Wars
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"Democracy is predicated on having a public that is sufficiently informed... But a decades-long decline in Americans’ trust in the press threatens to undermine the role the media plays in cultivating an informed populace" How far is this decline driven by political messaging? Really good piece.
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Alex von Tunzelmann @alexvont.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
If you feel like donating to the RNLI, here’s a link. I just have. Their minimum donation is £2: I think it might be nice for them to receive a lot of donations this week, even if they’re mostly very modest. Just so they know a lot of people out here appreciate their work. rnli.org/support-us/g...
rnli.org
Donate to the RNLI and help save lives at sea
Your donations really make a difference. We depend on your generosity to educate people to stay safe and prevent tragedies on and offshore. Donate here.
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Ellin Stein @ellinst.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The worst of us attacking the best of us.
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Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 10/09/2026
My worry isn't "rogue AI" - my worry is careless governance in the rush to release ever more effective frontier models, and then that crapness trickling down into businesses/governments not doing the work to make sure their AI projects are genuinely valuable and well managed.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Palaeontology is not just digging things up or analysing, but about empathy, and recognising shared realities. This kind of evidence tells us a LOT; not just about what our ancestors did, but WHY. Soothing, depression, bonding, shits & giggles? This is all stuff we could connect with them over.
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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Targeted online by whom? People with legitimate concerns?
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Earliest evidence of habitual drug use found in 25,000-year-old human remains in Indonesia. I LOVE research like this. There's so much lazy "Ug ug" assumption about prehistoric humans. This implies a rich psyche. Altered states mean a complex life of the mind. www.newscientist.com/article/2588...
newscientist.com
Earliest evidence of habitual drug use found in teeth in Indonesia | New Scientist
Strange, rounded grooves in prehistoric teeth are thought to have been made by regularly sucking whole betel nuts to extract a pain-relieving compound. This marks the earliest known example of probabl...
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
New, hand-painted Tom Waits Converse arrived. This might not be the best photo I’ve ever taken, but let me repeat: Tom Waits Converse!
A pair of Converse Chuck Taylors hand painted with (left shoe) Tom Waits in late period, weird, Mule Variations pose, and (right shoe) the sketch of Tom from the cover of The Heart Of Saturday Night.
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Snowy. @snowy.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
But he’s not orange, so there’s that.
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Tanja @tanjainthegreen.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Why is the US CIA chief visiting Moscow?
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Paul Noth @paulnoth.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Mine in today’s @newyorker.com
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Gulf of Mexico. “Gulf of America!” Lake Ontario. “Lake America!” Strait of Hormuz: America! Greenland: “Americaland!” Filing cabinet: “America cabinet!” Hatstand: “Americastand!” Yogurt: “America!” Tuesdays: “Americas!” Wednesdays? “Americas!” Airport: “America!” Global laughing stock:
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Neuroskeptic @neuroskeptic.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
What dashboard-based research means for author responsibility and accountability retractionwatch.com/2026/08/25/g... A great piece on the emerging problem of researchers not having full access to the data they work with.
retractionwatch.com
Guest post: The uncomfortable truth an explosion of papers reveals about authors’ access to data
wildpixel/iStock The involvement of independent academic researchers in examining data and conducting analyses is central to producing trustworthy research. Because of this, many journals require a…
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Elia Kabanov @kabanov.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I once spent half an hour watching Niyazov read aloud from his own book on live television, in front of a giant portrait of himself, with a Niyazov-shaped logo in the corner. Mesmerising!
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
If it was a Saturday, then it was also Ruhnama-day, which he renamed after his own book! At some point, it goes from personal branding to some weird occult experiment to create an infinity mirror.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I have no idea why, but today I feel mysteriously compelled to share the story of Turkmenbashi, the vain & ridiculous dictator of Turkmenistan who went round renaming things after himself & his personal buzzwords, on mad series of tantrum-driven whims. www.utterlyinteresting.com/post/saparmu...
utterlyinteresting.com
Saparmurat Niyazov: The Eccentric Despot Who Turned Turkmenistan into His Personal Playground
Saparmurat Niyazov, affectionately self-styled as Türkmenbaşy—or "Head of the Turkmen" if you're feeling formal—was the leader of Turkmenistan from 1985 until his rather sudden departure from the stag...
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This one is an example, surfacing on Reddit.
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Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Anyone getting ‘urgent’ emails regarding cancelling already-offered university places today (Saturday) - it’s a phishing scam. The scammers are relying on you not being able to phone/verify today. Please check the emails, and other signs that these are not legit. www.reddit.com/r/UniUK/s/T4...
Example of a phishing email around UCAS offers. This one is doing the rounds on the weekend of 14th/15th August 2026, and is surfacing on Reddit.
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