Martin D.B. Brown
@martindbbrown.bsky.social
Historian, parent, husband, occasional Bondologist
#BondianColdWar book
https://martindbrown.substack.com/
https://www.routledge.com/The-Bondian-Cold-War-The-Transnational-Legacy-of-a-Cultural-Icon/Brown-Granieri-Blaive/p/book/9780367569365
#BondianColdWar book
https://martindbrown.substack.com/
https://www.routledge.com/The-Bondian-Cold-War-The-Transnational-Legacy-of-a-Cultural-Icon/Brown-Granieri-Blaive/p/book/9780367569365
Pinned
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
The worst thing you will read today. I used to be a WaRrIoR until I had to wear a suit at the war college!
amgreatness.com/2026/02/16/m...
amgreatness.com/2026/02/16/m...
Making the War Colleges Great Again › American Greatness
As President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth work to restore the focus of America’s military on lethality and warfighting, one of their major tasks has been to reform the institutions…
amgreatness.com
February 16, 2026 at 5:01 PM
The worst thing you will read today. I used to be a WaRrIoR until I had to wear a suit at the war college!
amgreatness.com/2026/02/16/m...
amgreatness.com/2026/02/16/m...
Steve on the nose as usual
February 16, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Steve on the nose as usual
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
A conscientious journalism grad withdraw from a job when she learned the Cleveland Plain Dealer uses AI to write its stories.
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
February 16, 2026 at 12:16 PM
A conscientious journalism grad withdraw from a job when she learned the Cleveland Plain Dealer uses AI to write its stories.
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
Now the editor is castigating her and journalism professors for not being “prepared for the workforce.”
You can’t make this shit up.
www.cleveland.com/news/2026/02...
"It's a mess, ain't it, Sheriff?"
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones):
"If it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here".
No Country for Old Men (2007)
variety.com/2026/film/gl...
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones):
"If it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here".
No Country for Old Men (2007)
variety.com/2026/film/gl...
Berlinale Issues Statement Following Political Backlash at Festival, Says Artists Should Not Be ‘Expected to Speak on Every Political Issue’
Berlinale boss Tricia Tuttle has issued a statement following backlash, saying that artists should not Be 'expected to speak on every political issue
variety.com
February 16, 2026 at 7:12 PM
"It's a mess, ain't it, Sheriff?"
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones):
"If it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here".
No Country for Old Men (2007)
variety.com/2026/film/gl...
Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones):
"If it ain't, it'll do till the mess gets here".
No Country for Old Men (2007)
variety.com/2026/film/gl...
‘Babylon Berlin’s’ Fifth and Final Season Is Now Shooting variety.com/2025/tv/glob...
‘Babylon Berlin’s’ Fifth and Final Season Is Now Shooting
The final season of 'Babylon Berlin' is now shooting with original cast and crew returning.
variety.com
February 16, 2026 at 6:48 PM
‘Babylon Berlin’s’ Fifth and Final Season Is Now Shooting variety.com/2025/tv/glob...
Robert Duvall, Star of ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Great Santini,’ Dies at 95 variety.com/2026/film/ne...
Robert Duvall, Star of ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Great Santini,’ Dies at 95
Robert Duvall, who won an Oscar for "Tender Mercies" and was nominated for “The Godfather,” “Apocalypse Now,” and “The Great Santini,” has died.
variety.com
February 16, 2026 at 6:46 PM
Robert Duvall, Star of ‘The Godfather’ and ‘The Great Santini,’ Dies at 95 variety.com/2026/film/ne...
Humm...what could go wrong?
February 16, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Humm...what could go wrong?
Errr
Dude is quickly climbing the ranks of Most Dangerous Man Alive
February 16, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Errr
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
The Project 2025 architect who promised to put federal employees “in trauma” is spending $15 million of former USAID funding—money that would have gone toward fighting HIV, polio, malaria, and other diseases—to bankroll his security detail. trib.al/TSV3cmb
February 16, 2026 at 12:10 AM
The Project 2025 architect who promised to put federal employees “in trauma” is spending $15 million of former USAID funding—money that would have gone toward fighting HIV, polio, malaria, and other diseases—to bankroll his security detail. trib.al/TSV3cmb
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
"This instructional design reflects our commitment to inclusive pedagogy: All learning pathways are valid, whether students engage as manual human learners or outsource their consciousness to a chatbot."
The Next Innovation in Higher Education: Vibe-Teaching™
As the associate vice provost for the Office of Asynchronous Online Courses for Student-Centered High-Impact Learning (OAOCSCHIL, an office we crea...
buff.ly
February 16, 2026 at 2:01 PM
"This instructional design reflects our commitment to inclusive pedagogy: All learning pathways are valid, whether students engage as manual human learners or outsource their consciousness to a chatbot."
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
In this episode, I talked with Carolyn Dean about witnessing the Holocaust and empathy. We had a wide-ranging conversaion about the appropriate use of images and also about bystanding and the challenge of indifference.
A LOT to think about!
thhp.buzzsprout.com/2291653/epis...
A LOT to think about!
thhp.buzzsprout.com/2291653/epis...
Ep. 72- Empathy, Witnessing, and the Challenge of the Holocaust with Carolyn Dean - The Holocaust History Podcast
How do we approach witnessing the Holocaust? Are there appropriate or inappropriate ways to do this? Does witnessing make us more empathetic or more indifferent? These are just some of the quest...
thhp.buzzsprout.com
February 16, 2026 at 11:45 AM
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
"I urge the judiciary to listen harder to what trans people say about what their lives have become" - @goodlawproject.org
www.wearequeeraf.com/grim-decisio...
www.wearequeeraf.com/grim-decisio...
"Grim decision": High Court rejects challenge to EHRC interim guidance on single-sex spaces
The long awaited judgement on the EHRC has ruled that Trans+ bathroom bans are lawful in the workplace, but not in other service provisions
www.wearequeeraf.com
February 15, 2026 at 9:12 AM
"I urge the judiciary to listen harder to what trans people say about what their lives have become" - @goodlawproject.org
www.wearequeeraf.com/grim-decisio...
www.wearequeeraf.com/grim-decisio...
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
Great piece from @dsquareddigest.bsky.social, which touches on one of the big theories for why English-speaking countries do especially badly at housebuilding:
Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere.
samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...
Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere.
samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...
February 16, 2026 at 12:14 PM
Great piece from @dsquareddigest.bsky.social, which touches on one of the big theories for why English-speaking countries do especially badly at housebuilding:
Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere.
samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...
Adversarial and litigious common law systems (Anglo) vs judge-led civil law systems elsewhere.
samf.substack.com/p/build-the-...
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
February 16, 2026 at 10:41 AM
I fear this sums up much of the coming week
February 16, 2026 at 10:34 AM
I fear this sums up much of the coming week
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
And it's not just FCO and the World Service.
The BBC more generally is having to make vast cuts as are the National Gallery, British Library, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company...
The list goes on.
The UK is destroying its own cultural identity as well as its soft power.
The BBC more generally is having to make vast cuts as are the National Gallery, British Library, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company...
The list goes on.
The UK is destroying its own cultural identity as well as its soft power.
Exactly. This is not a lot of money. And once destroyed you don’t get to rebuild it.
The entire UK diplomatic budget is about £1.4 billion a year. That’s pretty much precisely 0.1% of government spending.
BBC World Service is about £0.25 billion (it should be higher), or 0.02%.
These are rounding errors on rounding errors. Double each and public expenditure wouldn’t twitch.
Mad.
BBC World Service is about £0.25 billion (it should be higher), or 0.02%.
These are rounding errors on rounding errors. Double each and public expenditure wouldn’t twitch.
Mad.
February 16, 2026 at 7:47 AM
And it's not just FCO and the World Service.
The BBC more generally is having to make vast cuts as are the National Gallery, British Library, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company...
The list goes on.
The UK is destroying its own cultural identity as well as its soft power.
The BBC more generally is having to make vast cuts as are the National Gallery, British Library, National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company...
The list goes on.
The UK is destroying its own cultural identity as well as its soft power.
Yet again just hear the spiel "Europe relied on US military for security and wasted money on welfare", which is not only not accurate, but non-sensical as welfare from 1940s-2000s was about security too, and neatly ignore that US defense spending was often as insane as Soviet spending
February 16, 2026 at 9:56 AM
Yet again just hear the spiel "Europe relied on US military for security and wasted money on welfare", which is not only not accurate, but non-sensical as welfare from 1940s-2000s was about security too, and neatly ignore that US defense spending was often as insane as Soviet spending
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
Yay all of Matt Goodwin's weird posts on his substack are coming back to bite him, because saying insane reactionary shit for your subscribers is red meat (and easy journalism) for the papers
Reform by-election candidate said it was ‘insane’ to jail man who said ‘burn asylum hotels’
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...
Reform candidate called it ‘insane’ to jail man who said ‘burn asylum hotels’
Exclusive: It comes after The Independent revealed that Matt Goodwin called for ‘young girls’ to be given ‘biological reality’ check
www.independent.co.uk
February 16, 2026 at 9:50 AM
Yay all of Matt Goodwin's weird posts on his substack are coming back to bite him, because saying insane reactionary shit for your subscribers is red meat (and easy journalism) for the papers
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
BBC's Arabic radio service in Lebanon closed after 85 years as part of a £28.5m savings drive. 'Just months later, in October 2023, the Russian state-owned Sputnik news agency took over the frequency. Its news bulletin opened with “This is Moscow”, replacing the previous “This is London” intro.' 🙄
BBC warns Russia is taking over World Service radio frequencies
Russian propaganda is filling the void where the BBC has closed World Service radio services due to cuts
inews.co.uk
June 10, 2025 at 6:03 AM
BBC's Arabic radio service in Lebanon closed after 85 years as part of a £28.5m savings drive. 'Just months later, in October 2023, the Russian state-owned Sputnik news agency took over the frequency. Its news bulletin opened with “This is Moscow”, replacing the previous “This is London” intro.' 🙄
Hummm...still more to come
Cabinet Secretary front runner Antonia Romeo previously spoken to about management style
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Cabinet Secretary front runner Antonia Romeo previously spoken to about management style
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Cabinet Secretary front runner Antonia Romeo previously spoken to about management style
Dame Antonia Romeo was found to have no case to answer over one complaint nine years ago.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 16, 2026 at 8:07 AM
Hummm...still more to come
Cabinet Secretary front runner Antonia Romeo previously spoken to about management style
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Cabinet Secretary front runner Antonia Romeo previously spoken to about management style
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Berlin film festival defends Wim Wenders after Arundhati Roy attacked ‘jaw-dropping’ comments www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...
Berlin film festival defends Wim Wenders after Arundhati Roy attacked ‘jaw-dropping’ comments
Berlinale head says artists should not be pushed into soundbites after author quit over president’s remarks that film-makers should ‘stay out of politics’
www.theguardian.com
February 16, 2026 at 8:05 AM
Berlin film festival defends Wim Wenders after Arundhati Roy attacked ‘jaw-dropping’ comments www.theguardian.com/film/2026/fe...
Is this the world’s most eye-popping restaurant? The architectural marvel – in a Leipzig industrial estate www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Is this the world’s most eye-popping restaurant? The architectural marvel – in a Leipzig industrial estate
This extraordinary diner is the final wonder of the great Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, who dreamt it up at the age of 103. And it’s a great place for a sunset kombucha and gin
www.theguardian.com
February 16, 2026 at 8:03 AM
Is this the world’s most eye-popping restaurant? The architectural marvel – in a Leipzig industrial estate www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Reposted by Martin D.B. Brown
'The majority of the UK’s publicly-funded research is carried out in universities, who now spend over £15bn annually delivering research.
Universities are the UK’s single best collective asset for economic and social prosperity'. 1/3
Universities are the UK’s single best collective asset for economic and social prosperity'. 1/3
Introducing the commission on research for better economic growth
James Coe and Sarah Chaytor launch the brand new commission on research for better economic growth
wonkhe.com
February 16, 2026 at 7:45 AM
'The majority of the UK’s publicly-funded research is carried out in universities, who now spend over £15bn annually delivering research.
Universities are the UK’s single best collective asset for economic and social prosperity'. 1/3
Universities are the UK’s single best collective asset for economic and social prosperity'. 1/3