Mark Thompson

Eclectic & libertarianish. Sinner, dependent upon a righteousness not my own. Likes are often bookmarks. East coast of Ulster. I don’t reply to anon accounts.

[Mark Thompson @MarkThompStuff]

"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it." - Billings Learned Hand, 1952, https://t.co/OzbfzbcFfl

[Mark Thompson @MarkThompStuff]

"Ulster Greets" – 1919 Great War memorial publication. The (Ulster-) Scots word for cry or weep is "greet".

An accidentally appropriate linguistic ambiguity for that era.

https://t.co/FKBzAjxoxf

[Mark Thompson @MarkThompStuff]

Recommended https://t.co/kfOIIgcgch

[Mark Thompson @MarkThompStuff]

Norman Whiteside higher than Laudrup and Gullit

[The League Magazine @Theleaguemag]

Ballon D’Or voting 1983

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

Please remember: decline can always be reversed.

2007 vs 2026 (Wroclaw, Poland)

[Lumen @lumenxbt]

Ten million people have watched a comedian accidentally destroy the entire TED talk industry.

He filmed the talk once at TEDxNewYork in 2014 and openly admitted he had nothing to say.

Speaking coaches charge $5,000 to teach the exact tricks he used in 6 minutes to say nothing at all.

His name is Will Stephen. He is a comedian from Late Night with Seth Meyers who was invited to give a real TED talk and used it to prove the format is a costume anyone can wear.

Every TED speaker opens with a question, tells a personal story, cites a scientist, and shows a chart. Stephen did all four in six minutes with zero content.

His entire formula fits on a napkin.

Gesture with both hands. Ask the audience a question anyone can answer. Tell a mildly embarrassing story so they say aww. Point to a stranger on a slide and call them important. Flash a chart of random numbers. Wear glasses with no lenses. The audience will think you are brilliant.

That last trick alone has probably cost the public speaking coaching industry a hundred million dollars in sessions clients should have skipped.

"If you watched me on YouTube with the sound off, you would think I was a genius."

That is Will Stephen on the TED stage, three minutes into the talk he was paid to give. He wasn't lying.

Executives pay $15,000 for a keynote coach and still open with a joke the room never laughs at. Founders rehearse their pitch for weeks and still sound like Stephen at minute four, saying "wagga wah, gabba gabba" with authority.

The talk is free on YouTube. The method is written across every TED speaker's playbook for ten years.

Stephen still writes for Seth Meyers. Almost none of the ten million viewers have stopped nodding at empty slides since.

The formula is free. The willingness to actually say something before your next keynote, pitch, or townhall is the entire edge.

[Northern Ireland Historical Photographical Society @ireland_society]

Tom Lennox stops on his bike for a chat with George Best who was on a visit home. East Belfast. 1990. (Mirrorpix)
https://t.co/b4L8ML17ZN

[Ards Football Club @ArdsFC1900]

🟥🟦 Ards FC X Ash 🎸

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut album #1977, we've teamed up with the band and https://t.co/3o3mn4TtjD to create a limited edition jersey!

Get yours NOW at https://t.co/lr1Uzes4EW and at home matches!

#RABA

[Mark Thompson @MarkThompStuff]

National Geographic on Dumfries & Galloway - https://t.co/C2XYDii8Gp

[Daniel Priestley @DanielPriestley]

I heard a fascinating story about human behaviour today.

A tour guide at a historic castle was getting very high ratings from tourists.

They went to see what he was doing differently.

On several of the rooms he had used the red velvet ropes to block the doors.

These were normally used when the rooms were being repaired or cleaned. He had put them up at the beginning of each day.

During g the tour he would look around and say to the group “would you like to have a quick look in here?” And they would say yes in hushed tones.

He would ceremoniously unclip the rope and let them through into the room. A room that was always a normal part of every tour.

This simple little bit of theatre made people love the tour that much more.

Humans love what we can’t have.

[Ciaran Crilly @ciaran_crilly]

Scotland international shirts for British Home Championship games vs Ireland in 1920 & 1924. White ‘change’ shirts as Ireland wore St Patrick’s blue in these matches. Both games played @ Celtic Park, Glasgow.

[Mark Thompson @MarkThompStuff]

"The quality of your thoughts is determined by the quality of your reading”

- James Clear

[Fair Faa Ye @fairfaaye]

Moss (noun): a peat-bog. A road leading to a bog is defined as a ‘moss rodden’ in Fenton’s Hamely Tongue, and the Concise Ulster-Dictionary records the Scots/Irish hybrid ‘moss cash’ or ‘moss kesh’, moss (Scots) + ceis (Gaeilge) meaning ‘a wickerwork causeway' #Scots #UlsterScots

[Dr Peter Caddick-Adams #StandwithUkraine @militaryhistori]

The autumn sees deer snails beginning their slow trek in search of winter hibernation quarters

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

C. S. Lewis on why you NEED to read old books. This has never been more vital than it is today

[Mark Thompson @MarkThompStuff]

A Plymouth lesson - even revered historical moments can soon be flushed away

[Mark Thompson @MarkThompStuff]

"We just have poor Minecraft constructs"

[The Irish News @irish_news]

"Almost no intriguing pocket parks exist, widely heralded across vibrant greening cities; certainly, no spectacular green buildings like Milan’s Bosco Verticale, that continue to attract international plaudits.

"We just have poor Minecraft constructs. Hopefully, in fifty years, these buildings will meet the same fate as the contentious Wood Quay Civic Offices built in Dublin in the 1970s – demolition."

Read David Gavaghan: https://t.co/kV8cG6INVM

[Form Films @form_films]

Meet Calendar Jockeys, an animated workplace comedy about two creatives trying to do good work while clients schedule meetings about it.

Any resemblance to persons currently on your calendar is entirely intentional.

A Form Films series
Special thanks to @invideoOfficial

Tell us about your meetings: https://t.co/Kau45yltQA

[Mark Thompson @MarkThompStuff]

UK canned ‘mackerel’ now contains no mackerel https://t.co/SbHMDlUr0g via @ft

[Mark Thompson @MarkThompStuff]

John Locke, Wrington, rural Somerset