Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 5h

*Cracks whip* “And your safe word is?”

*Dry mouth* “Off-peak day return?*

“Off-peak day return WHAT.”

“Off-peak day return… railcard special saver.”

“Good boy.”

*Punches ticket, proceeds down the carriage*

[Seriously think we are inventing a revolutionary business model here!]

Reposted by Matt Potter

Aliya Zaidi @aliyazaidi.bsky.social · 7h

substack.com/home/post/p-...

We must learn to have peaceful, grown-up conversations with people who have a different experience from us and who we may not agree with, leaving our inherited biases behind. Compassion is the only route to peace.

Israel and Palestine Conversation Quicksand

The quest to be right in conversations is like quicksand. We lose sight of the real purpose of dialogue: to build understanding, not win an argument.

substack.com

1

Reposted by Matt Potter

Tony Yates @t0nyyates.bsky.social · 7h

500, ten thousand per cent, a million per cent

Phillips OBrien @phillipspobrien.bsky.social · 14h

So when a new story breaks, as it has today, that Trump is going to use US taxpayer money, paid with 500% tariffs on Chinese goods, to set up a victory fund for Ukraine, people need to first and foremost say it is most likely BS. united24media.com/latest-news/...

Trump Proposes New Ukraine Military Support Fund Financed by 500% Tariff on China

Donald Trump plans a “Ukraine Victory Fund” funded by new tariffs on Chinese imports to bolster Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion.

united24media.com

4 6 8

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 7h

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

2

Reposted by Matt Potter

L @banalplay.bsky.social · 7h

david attenborough: [mumbling] skip. i don't like this animal. skip it.

6 42 420

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 8h

Rail travel enters a new and unexpected golden age

Lina Bee @linabee.bsky.social · 10h

You are not the only one lol 😅 I also read "dominatrix display" and thought
"Well, that's novel..."

1 1

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 8h

You only get that in First Class

ejrfoto @ejrfoto.bsky.social · 9h

This is on me, but I read "dominatrix display"...and dear reader, I was stumped on the why but accepted that somewhere it could happen. 🤷‍♂️

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

Weird thing happened.

My local train station has a dotmatrix display to tell us when the next train is due.

But this one always says the next train is 7 minutes away.

Every train. Always. Never any other number of minutes away. 7.

Until the train is coming in, when it flicks from 7 to, ‘1 min.’

3

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

Ha! It also reminded me of a thing by (it’s either Bulgakov or Erofeev) talking about Soviet trains, where the scheduled train never arrives on the platform, so he goes to the ticket desk to ask about it, only to be told it must have, look on the timetable, it says a train departs at that time.

1 1

Reposted by Matt Potter

David M Rubin @six18sfoundry.bsky.social · 11h

George Orwell loves this post! Gotta check the quality of the data coming from Animal Farm HQ

1 1 1

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

I think you only get that in 1st class now?

1 3

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

Ah the golden days of British Rail 🔥

Ian Hughes @ilhughes.bsky.social · 11h

Please. Dot matrix. Two words. I read that as “dominatrix” and wondered what kind of town you’ve moved to 🤣

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

He shook my hand, like I had made it through to the final level of an online game, and congratulated me for noticing. I half expected a certificate or for a special door to open and reveal a studio audience applauding.

But honestly?

I am so relieved. But nobody else knows.

Except now they do.

4

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

And he explained. Long story short (too late): There is a sort of trip switch at a station 7 minutes up the track. When the train leaves that platform, it is 7 mins away. But that is the last contact it has with control, until it comes to my station platform - a minute before it departs.

1 2

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

So today I’d had enough. I went to the station & knocked on the Staff Only door. A man answered. I said, I’m sorry, you’ll think I am a nutter. But please. This board.

And he smiled. ‘Yes?’

Am I going mad or does it keep telling me everything is 7 minutes away?

He nodded. ‘Ah. You noticed too.’

1 1

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

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

1 2

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

I tell people about this info board - people who live near me and use the same station. They all reacted like I was going mad.

It was nonsense: They were sure *they* had seen it count down. They must have. That’s what it is there for. I had just not looked, by some fluke, except when it said 7.

1 1

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

This has bothered me passively for ages. I kept thinking it was absurd and I was just not paying attention at all the other minutes.

It MUST say 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 - I was only seeing the 7 because that was when I had happened to look. And I can’t have been checking back as often as I thought.

Right?

1 1

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 11h

Weird thing happened.

My local train station has a dotmatrix display to tell us when the next train is due.

But this one always says the next train is 7 minutes away.

Every train. Always. Never any other number of minutes away. 7.

Until the train is coming in, when it flicks from 7 to, ‘1 min.’

5 2 13

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 12h

There is no cooler camaraderie than when a thing happens and you look at someone and go, ‘That was weird right?’

And they say, ‘Yup. That was SO weird.’

Aliya Zaidi @aliyazaidi.bsky.social · 17h

Just to add another insane thought to this thread this morning - when you're an insightful, thoughtful person, there is also absolute joy in sharing the analysis of pure loathing - that in itself is a super fun experience 😀 🫠

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 2d

I have just been to the most toe-curlingly mediocre and electrifyingly trite exhibition I have seen in decades.

It was at a London gallery. The artist was there. He held forth in terms that if I repeated them, you would think I was quoting David Brent.

The reviews have been glowing.

VERY weird.

2

Reposted by Matt Potter

Dr Mand @mandapen.bsky.social · 1d

For those who don’t read French - the cat burglar (literally) has stolen 7 pairs of swimming goggles. Mon dieu!!!!

Romenzo Mallas @rommallet.bsky.social · 1d

EXPLOSION DE LA CRIMINOULITÉ EN FRANCE

6 7 27

Reposted by Matt Potter

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 5d

in 2011, the president of antifa hired me to give fashion consultancy to the organization. i recommended everyone wear navy suits with tan shoes, dress sneakers, and golf polos with slim chinos. if you arrested everyone today wearing these things, you'd destroy antifa

280 2.5K 18K

Reposted by Matt Potter

Owen Barcala @obarcala.bsky.social · 1d

The "don't call us Nazis" crowd sure has a lot of swastikas

Santiago Mayer @santiagomayer.com · 1d

Holy shit. This is Angelo Elia, a legislative correspondent for Congressman Dave Taylor.

According to @rooster.info, during a Zoom meeting today, he had an American nazi flag displayed in the background.

28 350 1.4K

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 1d

Fast forward to 2025, and the leaders of Essex Council arguing in court that a hotel that shelters asylum seekers is a “feeding ground for unrest'” among racist members of the local population… and the hotel should therefore be shut down.

How far we have come.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Epping asylum hotel is a 'feeding ground for unrest' - court

Lawyers for a council are trying to stop The Bell Hotel in Epping from housing asylum seekers.

www.bbc.co.uk

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 1d

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!

1

Matt Potter @mattpotteruk.bsky.social · 1d

Some experiences will live on forever - for all the wrong reasons. 😬

1