James Bond, MA (Oxon)

English American. Older than my namesake's books. Not fond of fascists or ignorance. Enjoy humor, history, science. Cancer patient. Occasionally vent!

[James Bond, MA (Oxon) @JB326278]

@GeorgeTakei Those who wish to find out just how well written a book can be should try John Sweeney's Killer in the Kremlin!
I am half way through my copy - and oh my goodness!

[Prof Michael E. Mann @MichaelEMann]

Honestly, he's got some interesting policy ideas...

[Richard Woodruff 🇺🇦 @frontlinekit]

More large YouTubers MUST come to Ukraine, we need more people seeing the truth of russia's brutal and genocidal invasion, and then sharing that with the outside world.

Come to Ukraine.

Please 🙏🙏🙏

[Caolan @CaolanReports]

My world exclusive with the man responsible for the long range strikes has blasted to a million in just 3 days. I’m the first journalist to sit down with his incredible unit @414magyarbirds since the Crimea operation began. The power of independent journalism 🔥🇺🇦🫡

[Malcolm Nance @MalcolmNance]

US forces attacking the areas around the central port village of Massan on Qeshem Island and Larak Island feels like a shaping operation for an Amphibious Raid in the next 24-48 hours.

We can land on these islands but we can’t hold them.

General Kellogg has been advocating seizing multiple islands all week including Kharg.

If he gets his wish. Then our soldiers & Marines will really start dying.

[Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD DSc(hon) @PeterHotez]

Two of my favorite books from the late great @UTAustin physicist Nobel Laureate Steve Weinberg. In his autobiography I like reading about his move from Harvard to Texas and reflect on my family’s move to the @TXMedCenter similar observations. His Explain the World book is still one of my favorite history of science books, so simple yet elegant, straightforward. One of my intellectual heroes. Sad I never got to meet him…

[Archaeo - Histories @archeohistories]

She had no GPS. No cell phone. No one waiting for her on the other side of the ocean...

Just a motorcycle, a stack of paper maps, and a decision she'd made after a year that had knocked her flat.

In October 1982, Elspeth Beard was 23 years old, three years into an architecture degree, and freshly out of a relationship that hadn't ended well. She didn't know exactly what she wanted. But she knew what she didn't want — to stay still.

So she shipped her secondhand 1974 BMW R60/6 across the Atlantic to New York City, flew over to meet it, and got on.

She'd spent months before the trip tearing that bike apart and putting it back together, teaching herself its every bolt and cable from a Haynes manual. There would be no mechanic waiting for her in the Australian outback or the mountains of Nepal. If something broke, she was the one who'd fix it.

From New York, she rode west. Across the United States. Up into Canada. Down through Mexico. Each border a new set of unknowns, each night a new place to sleep.

Her bike crossed the ocean again, this time toward Australia. She arrived with almost nothing left in her pocket — she worked pub shifts by night and picked up architecture work by day, saving every bit she could for the next stretch of road.

Then came the outback.

On a remote stretch of dirt in Queensland, her bike caught a pothole and threw her. She woke up in a hospital bed with a serious concussion. Doctors wanted her to rest.

She fixed the bike instead, and kept going.

In Singapore, thieves took her documents and her gear. Six weeks of her life went into rebuilding what she'd lost from scratch — paperwork, supplies, momentum.

In Thailand, a dog ran into her path. She crashed into a tree. A local farming family found her, took her in, and cared for her for a week — feeding her, tending to her, communicating entirely through gesture, because neither side spoke the other's language.

She caught hepatitis. She caught dysentery. In India, she collided with a cow on the road. In Punjab, in the tense and dangerous days following Indira Gandhi's assassination, she had to talk and maneuver her way past checkpoints just to keep moving.

Nepal. Pakistan. Iran. Turkey. Long stretches where a breakdown could have meant real trouble, and no one was coming to help.

She handled it all herself, one repair, one border, one bad day at a time.

In November 1984 — just over two years and 35,000 miles after she'd left — Elspeth Beard rode back into England.

She became known as the first British woman to circle the globe on a motorcycle, solo.

Almost nobody noticed. No press lined up for her. Friends struggled to grasp what she'd actually done. She packed her journals and photographs into a cardboard box, put it in a cupboard, and didn't open it again for more than twenty years.

But the story didn't stay buried.

Today, Elspeth Beard is an award-winning architect. She still has that same BMW. She lives in a Victorian water tower she spent years rebuilding with her own two hands — the same instinct that got her through the outback and across three continents.

When people ask what the trip taught her, her answer doesn't need dressing up... She learned there wasn't much she couldn't handle, if she was willing to start before she felt ready.

#archaeohistories

[John Jackson @hissgoescobra]

Follow Brett, very scrupulous analysis on key issues that are hidden within the Trump economic policies towards Iran.

[Science Magazine @ScienceMagazine]

The remarkable diversity of mammalian carnivores may be built on a surprisingly limited set of dental solutions—teeth that are good at slicing meat cannot also excel at crushing hard foods, and vice versa.

According to a new Science study, this inherent tradeoff between cutting and crushing performance has repeatedly steered the evolution of carnassial teeth toward two recurring forms, helping explain how predators evolved to exploit different diets.

Learn more: https://t.co/HV5CkOmD9p

[Science Magazine @ScienceMagazine]

A new analysis in Science of more than 116,000 bird songs has revealed that the astonishing variety of passerine birdsong is built from just eight basic acoustic motifs, like trills, whistles, and harmonic notes.

The findings also reveal that local environments greatly shape how birds communicate around the world. Learn more: https://t.co/3oaQ0sKQfJ

[mary beard @wmarybeard]

Odyssey- the pedants revolt! This time we look at the film from a classicist’s point of view. Not micro archaeology but the big picture! https://t.co/MTcG5ViUlC

[Robert A. Pape @ProfessorPape]

President Trump’s threat to destroy civilian infrastructure—like bridges and power plants—is a textbook example of failed coercion

History shows this failed in Vietnam

It will not force Iran into submission

Escalation becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy

[Caolan @CaolanReports]

Anyone who has accused me of making Ireland look bad for the refinery scandal should read this. This is a sitting minister yawning at questions about russian links. It’s Irish politicians who are destroying the reputation of Ireland, not me 🤷

[ChrisO_wiki @ChrisO_wiki]

Nobody gives the Mensheviks a second thought these days

[Robert A. Pape @ProfessorPape]

Trump threatening attack to deter more Houthi strikes on tankers in Red Sea — now shutting down ANOTHER 5% world oil

US bombed Houthis May 2025 and failed

More failure — and world economic crisis— coming

See Escalation Trap Substack to stay ahead of risks

[Dan Donato @DanDonatoV]

Visuals of the Ancients is a fantastic account, many posts of artifacts I’ve never heard of or seen before. Strongly recommend a follow.

[Richard Woodruff 🇺🇦 @frontlinekit]

Not even I can find this post on my profile, I searched Alumina, I scrolled through every "post and reply" but clearly Irish Alumina is being suppressed, the only way I found my own tweet is because I forwarded it to @CaolanReports

This is crazy supression from @X

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

The President is very disappointed in the lack of professionalism among the Houthis.

I cannot make this up.

PS: Oil just hit 100 bucks a barrel again

[Shaun Pinner @ShaunPinnerUA]

Jake 🇺🇸 has raised an incredible amount of money for Ukraine 🇺🇦 over the years.

He also unexpectedly gave Voices from the Front the boost it needed in those early days. Thank you, @RealJakeBroe. 🙏

Today, we’re a community of more than 250,000 followers and subscribers. We’re travelling the world, telling Ukraine’s story, amplifying voices from the front, and taking the Russian state to court in both Europe and the UK.

None of it would have been possible without the support of people like Jake. 🇺🇦

[Boze Herrington, Library Owl 😴🧙‍♀️ @SketchesbyBoze]

Homer’s Odyssey, very famously, begins in the middle of the story and then portrays past events via numerous flashbacks.

[James Bond, MA (Oxon) @JB326278]

@London_W4 Thank you! My childhood next-door neighbour, Griff Griffin, ran this in the 50s and 60s. The place has changed a little from when it was one of London's rougher places!