Aaron Woolner

A rolling stone. I could be anywhere

[Aaron Woolner @aroaringboy]

Istanbul is The City of Cats : they are everywhere. Everyone chips in and leaves food out for the strays. I'm pretty certain this moggy has a home though

[Kevin A. Bryan @Afinetheorem]

Hidden deglobalization indicator: the days of visa-free travel are essentially over. Starting in Australia, now NZ, US, UK, Canada, S Korea and soon Japan and the EU require "visa-free" visitors to apply and pay for a "ETA" prior to boarding. That's an e-visa! A total shame. 1/2

[Peter Leonard @Peter__Leonard]

Tajikistan's president gazes disdainfully upon a table of sausages

[Herald Van Der Linde @HeraldLinde]

The world needs a bit of beauty. Saw this stunning Javanese Ganesha 🐘 at the British Museum's "Ancient India" exhibit 🏛️. Originating c. 1000-1200 CE (Kediri/Singasari?), it sits with feet together, evoking a childlike princess from the *Sumanasantaka* poem. A small skull adorns its head. A beauty.

[Tim Shipman @ShippersUnbound]

My favourite Freddie Forsyth story: when a reporter in Berlin he woke up one morning in his flat near the wall after a very heavy night. Reuters in those days had a bell alert system for attaching to stories based on their level of urgency. Seeing Russian tanks heading towards him Freddie sent off a snap story effectively warning that the Russians were about to invade West Berlin. This was accompanied by the maximum number of bells (5 or 7 I think). The phone went soon afterwards from his desk in London. They asked him how sure he was. Freddie said he was pretty sure. “It’s just that it’s May Day and it sounds like it may just be the May Day parade…”

A gutsy reporter in Biafra and elsewhere Freddie also wrote, in The Day of the Jackal and The Fourth Protocol, two of the greatest thrillers of the 20th Century. His research was so good that The Dogs of War was used as the template for the Wonga Coup. My security sources suggest both Fist of God and The Afghan were based on real life intell operations.

RIP

[The Byzantine Legacy @ByzantineLegacy]

Hagia Sophia, Hagia Eirene and the Marmara Sea Wall

[A.Benítez-Burraco @abenitezburraco]

An inverse correlation between linguistic and genetic diversity
https://t.co/UOzm4aeswp
- low genetic diversity results from isolation, and this promotes diversification in language
- high genetic diversity results from contact and migration, and this promotes homogenization

[Aaron Woolner @aroaringboy]

@anon_opin @JohnBrewin_ BT, BP, and there's not many advanced economies with a steel industry these days. Will that do?

[Aaron Woolner @aroaringboy]

@TimRussellPhoto 🤦‍♂️

[Ole Lehmann @itsolelehmann]

While the West crumbles, one Eastern European nation is quietly building a superpower:

• Outpacing US economy
• Strongest military in Europe
• Silicon Valley's new favorite $62.7B hub

The rise of Poland is the greatest story nobody's talking about 🧵:

[Roman History @romanhistory1]

Today 284AD Roman soldier Diocletian proclaimed Emperor by the army. He is perhaps best remembered for "The Diocletianic Persecution" (303–11), the empire's largest and bloodiest official persecution of Christianity

[Aaron Woolner @aroaringboy]

@AndyBTravels The only way to top that is to go to Pictcairn?

[ávárá @gsmattu]

Decorated underpass in Armenia that is full of ceramic reliefs by E.Beroyan from the late 70s. One of them being heavily damaged, luckily I found a photo of what it looked like from an old magazine. This would have led workers to one of the large factories at the time.

[Aaron Woolner @aroaringboy]

@OnTheRails @ThaiTrainGuide ah, gotcha. that's a shame, those trains are great but ice cold beer would definitely be a nice addition

[Aaron Woolner @aroaringboy]

@ThaiTrainGuide @OnTheRails why was booze banned in the first place?

[Aaron Woolner @aroaringboy]

@iloveidpol @Baddiel I shouldn't have used euphemism there - I meant to say, 'how awful it must be to be euthanised and when you don't understand why'

[S. I. Rubinstein @si_rubinstein]

Probably the best thing Britain has going for it is that we simply don’t have to listen to the farmers.

[bluesharp @bluezharp]

Happy heavenly birthday Hubert Sumlin who played guitar in Howlin' Wolf's🐺band for more than twenty-five years teaches 🎶'Smokestack Lightnin"

[Neil Hauer @NeilPHauer]

4k likes for this thread that leaves out 200 years of history and reduces the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict to 'Russia did it.' News flash: the Abkhaz are real people with real agency and grievances. Writing an article on the situation in Abkhazia this weekend for exactly this reason.