@mattpotter@c.im
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mattpotter

@mattpotter@c.im

#Journalist Washington Post/BBC/Time/Literary Review, #screenwriter, innovation/creative showpony @ Dentsu/ #author ‘We Are All Targets: How renegade hackers invented cyberwar & unleashed an age of global chaos’ (Hachette) & ‘Outlaws Inc’ (PanMacmillan). #London. He/Him, #ND. #language #science #creativity #history #tech #gothic #literature #astro #music #myth #subculture #palaeontology #weird #psychology #NAFO. Lover of ideas & shiny things. Bit bohemian, all magpie. mattpotter@protonmail.com

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mattpotter, to random
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Lovely Mastodon peeps! Do I know any virologists here?

(Or are there any who don’t know me yet, but would be up for chatting briefly? It’s background for a project, and I would be really grateful, and of course credit you.)

Thank you!

#

mattpotter,
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@freemo Hey, thanks Doc - I really appreciate it! It has to be someone with a virology footprint, though. Many thanks man!

mattpotter, to music
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A 639-year-long piece of music being played in a cathedral in Germany has just changed a chord for the first time in 2 years - after letting that previous single chord drone out day and night - as crowds gather in anticipation.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68209691

mattpotter, to Creativity
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The last time I had pneumonia, I decided to turn my lung X-rays & fever journal into art. So I fed them into the Midjourney generative AI platform as prompts.

They became deep-sea life, forests, constellations; turning asphyxiating shadow into beauty.

This is my account of the creative process, & how pneumonia became a doorway to creativity.

https://www.mattpotter.com/pneumonia-art-combining-my-own-lung-x-rays-and-delerium-diaries-with-midjourney-ai/

An X-ray of a pneumonia lung turned into a delicate, flower-like form on black
An X-ray of a pneumonia lung turned into a delicate, flower-like form on black
An X-ray of a pneumonia lung turned into a delicate, flower-like form on black

mattpotter, to Anthropology
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Holy shit I love this research paper

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/704080v1

Abstract The observation of individuals attaining remarkable ages, and their concentration into geographic sub- regions or 'blue zones', has generated considerable scientific interest. Proposed drivers of remarkable longevity include high vegetable intake, strong social connections, and genetic markers. Here, we reveal new predictors of remarkable longevity and 'supercentenarian' status. In the United States, supercentenarian status is predicted by the absence of vital registration. The state-specific introduction of birth certificates is associated with a 69-82% fall in the number of supercentenarian records. In Italy, which has more uniform vital registration, remarkable longevity is instead predicted by low per capita incomes and a short life expectancy. Finally, the designated 'blue zones' of Sardinia, Okinawa, and Ikaria corresponded to regions with low incomes, low literacy, high crime rate and short life expectancy relative to their national average. As such, relative poverty and short lifespan constitute unexpected predictors of centenarian and supercentenarian status, and support a primary role of fraud and error in generating remarkable human age records. Copyright The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv

mattpotter, to Typography
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Bare winter trees in half light, growing into Black Metal typography and logoforms. An experiment in treating forest photography using Midjourney AI.

Bare tree resembling a black metal typographic logotype
Bare tree resembling a black metal typographic logotype
Bare tree resembling a black metal typographic logotype

mattpotter,
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More skeletal trees as Black Metal typography. Photos treated using Midjourney AI. These begin to morph into symbolic shapes. The sense of ominous stillness, and languages not forged by humans, is at once very Weird Lit, and the distillation of the Black Metal vibe that band logotypes strive toward.

image/png
image/png
image/png

mattpotter,
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I’ve always been fascinated by these extreme/illegible logos. They leave the idea of logo behind, start to subvert their own purpose of identity, recognition & communication.

The project is to deliberately, ostentatiously, ritually, murder legibility.

To spurn public conventions of communication for something wilder, more authentic, less controlled, & ultimately wrapped up in a dance with entropy/disorder. Away from what’s known. Darkness visible.

mattpotter, to chess
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“Cheating using a communication device analogous to anal beads” is not a phrase I’d expected to see today.

Yet here, in this age of wonders, we are.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-67822137

mattpotter, to random
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If you’re trying not to drink alcohol this Christmas, but worried you’ll find it hard around friends and parties, don’t stress.

I don’t drink, haven’t for years. Good news? It’s lovely!

Here are 6 things you can do to make this week SO MUCH EASIER than you think…

  1. People will insist. They say, ‘Ah come on!’ Try to wear you down.

They are worried. If you aren’t drinking, will make you less ‘festive’ for THEM?

So turn it round for them…

mattpotter,
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The magic words here are, ‘Don’t you worry, you’ll find I’m good value & a bit like that naturally anyway!’

And then you deliver. You just have to reassure them that you are a) not on the outside of their bubble of festivity, and b) not judging them.

That can be tough! Especially after like, 9pm when everyone’s close-talking and repeating everything. Your friends are all suddenly less amusing than they think. People go ON and ON.

BUT that’s where tip 2 comes in handy…


mattpotter,
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  1. NEVER SAY GOODBYE!

Just ghost the party. Slip away, go to bed. It’s cool! Everyone’s been drinking and they won’t remember that you weren’t there till the bitter end!

If you say goodbye, they try and go, ‘Nahhhh stayyyy!’ Just vanish.

This will also stop you from being waylaid/presumed upon when all those close talkers start puking and having dramas because they say stupid things, and you’re delegated the role of mediator.

#partyseason #alcohol #drinking #booze #christmas2023 #teetotal

mattpotter,
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@CandaceRobbAuthor Yes! Earlier today I told a friend who’s trying it that you also get loads more hours in your day when you’re present like that! Without the after-work automatic drink, for example. The evening contains hours when you can do things, engage and learn and so on, not just slump. 👏

mattpotter,
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@Lizette603_23 Ha! It could also well mean that they know you’re to be respected and not messed with! 🤜🤛

mattpotter, to books
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OMG WAIT!

There’s still time to order ‘We Are All Targets’ & in time for Christmas!

In US/Canada, it’s on Amazon & all bookstores, or via Hachette Books’ site.

For UK/rest of world, Amazon, Waterstones & all good bookshops have you covered.

AND… if it’s a gift just let me know when you order it, and I’ll write your giftee a personalised dedication & send it to you to include.

We Are All Targets How Renegade Hackers Invented Cyber War and Unleashed an Age of Global Chaos Matt Potter

mattpotter, to octopus
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I have just seen this Octopus Blanket on Design Ideas Hub, and the whole conundrum about whether to do some massive cosplay party night or just hang around eating Pot Noodle and watching telly under a blanket at home just vaporised.

mattpotter, to EyeHealth
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I got my first call from someone on the Be My Eyes app that lets the sighted step up for blind & low-vision people today.

I’m a late adopter, having only heard about it this week. You register, & when time permits, you can answer video calls placed by blind app users asking for help seeing, reading, selecting things.

https://www.bemyeyes.com/language/english

mattpotter,
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… asking for your help. Which one of these ties goes with this shirt? Which of these cartons in the supermarket is the one to put in my basket? Or, as today, a chap asking what the info on his weighing scales said. (I told him, & he went, ‘Oh blimmin’ heck.’ - which, relatable.

No time when it rings? No problem - it will ring through to other volunteers. You might not even get a single call for weeks.

But today I did.

mattpotter,
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Thanks to the founder, a Danish visually impaired guy himself, for having the idea and going with it; & the people working there now.

It’s not often that a crowdsourcing app lives up to every hope the internet allowed us to cling to. Silicon Valley social media owners talk a lot about ‘bringing people closer together’.

But this - this is what that really means.

mattpotter, to Occult
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I’ve said this before, but we’re living in a conceptual golden age in music. One of my favourite bands of the moment is @greenlungband, and this is the package you get with their new album, ‘This Heathen Land: A Journey into Occult Albion’. A map, a workbook full of scribbles, a cover that pays tribute to mid-20th century books out on Penguin and its imprints, and a whole concept introduced in the first seconds…

mattpotter,
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… which comes in as the needle hits, with a crackly, old 1950s-BBC-documentary-style voiceover: “Beyond the cities and motorways of modern Britain, away from the influence of its Christian churches and cathedrals, lies another country. An older, stranger country. A country of lonely tors and desolate moors, of forgotten woods and mysterious standing stones. You are about to embark on a journey into occult Albion. Come. It’s time to explore this heathen land…” That’s fascinating, but…

mattpotter,
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… just as enthralling - and right now, culturally interesting - is how bands themselves are creating these worlds as part of building their own microcultures and accompanying design cottage industries. Bands like Green Lung, Goat, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and more are creating their own aesthetics, backstories, concepts - as a way to build fandom that enters that world on its own terms, and stays with them, and screw airplay. It’s a brilliant & pretty significant development…

mattpotter,
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…and one that’s an answer - maybe the only one - to platforms like Spotify and Amazon Music scooping up and depriving bands of what used to be sales royalties and airplay fees. The answer is physical sales, merch… and membership. Which in turn means that if you have a band, and you want it to gain traction, you have to create a corresponding cottage brand for it, that promotes the feeling outside of and beyond music. One that can survive because of a tight, direct connection. Truly indie. And…

mattpotter,
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@NatureMC Yeah, I’ve been wondering that myself. I think it’s changed. I used to get algorithmically served. But I realised that all the stuff that was best was coming through either Bandcamp (RIP) or the bands’ own emails and fandoms on Reddit, for instance. So someone there will post about something either aligned, or which isn’t aligned but appeals in a similar way, or has a similar aesthetic. I think most of them come that way. It’s funny, when you start looking at subreddits and so on what way, they become weirder, human-generated engines for recommendation! 😂

mattpotter,
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@JohnBloor Yeah, me too! Been playing it and nerding out on that packaging and thinking how it's going to sound in the dark nights!

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