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Max Leonard

@maxleonard.bsky.social
910 followers 197 following 265 posts

Writer. Mountain Style (Isola 2024), A Cold Spell (Bloomsbury 2023). Previous inc. Higher Calling, Bunker Research, Lanterne Rouge etc. I also run Isola Press. linktr.ee/m_xl

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Reposted by Max Leonard
Peter Flax @pflax1.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I am honestly humbled when I watch races like this, to see the kind of grit on display where these athletes seem destroyed and then keep going and get back in the mix. Most of us are so easily broken.
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Danny Fearns @dannyfearns.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I don't follow Formula One, but good on them for using subtitles for the hard of hearing… 
F1 track with numerous Zoom signs on the advertising billboards
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This is terrifying but also rather wonderful - “a paper that ate three cold hands and got more honest each time” www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
AI models chatting in ‘surreal’ dialect mixing poetic language and tech bro jargon
Experts air concern over AI lingo redolent of James Joyce’s prose that is creating headaches for monitoring and oversight
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
I held out a long time, but goodbye red, pre-Brexit passport 😭
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
To my surprise and satisfaction, in middle age I have become the kind of guy who buys two of the same garment at a time, in different colours.
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Jimmy Two Hands (summerjimbo era) @jimmytwohands.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
I know exactly why, poindexter. It’s because it looks cool as fuck
This 11,000-Year-Old Statue from Turkey Shows a Man Riding a Leopard.
Archaeologists Aren't Sure
Why
The strange sculpture reverses a recurring Stone Age motif of humans confronting dangerous predators.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Large gin and tonic time 😅
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Jonathan Coe @jonathancoe.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Full marks for the typo. Chef’s kiss for the reply.
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Ned Boulting @nedboulting.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Never. Never. Never buy books from Amazon. I mean, try not to buy anything from there, but never ever books. They are destroyers of the thing I hold dearest. futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
Amazon Caught Destroying Rare Books to Train AI
An investigation by 404 Media found that Amazon bought a shipment of rare books so it could scan and destroy them to train AI.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
This is central Paris. It’s an authorised bathing place. You can’t even swim in the sea much of the time near London. Fuck the water companies and the governments that let that happen.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
Typography fail / my new favourite brunch place.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
It’s moronic.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Who’d bet against him tomorrow? #tdf
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Christian Drury @cjdrury.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
This is a great selection of Frank Hurley's photographs from the Endurance expedition: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
theguardian.com
‘He’d lie down in front of the moving ship’: a fresh look at Ernest Shackleton’s Endurance expedition
Shipwrecks, ice football and igloos for dogs … the digitisation of Frank Hurley’s photographs shows the heroic trek more clearly – and unlocks some remarkable new details
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Paul Cohen @paulecohen.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
think what you will of the Amaury family, but the NYT's entirely negative portrait of their alleged greed & lucrative ownership of the Tour de France misses a crucial part of their business model while the Tour is the only cycling race around that generates 1/ www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/b...
nytimes.com
Is the Amaury Family, Owners of the Tour de France, Hurting Cycling?
The Amaurys of Paris own the race, but won’t share any of the $170 million in media revenue. Sponsors and riders say their resistance is dooming the sport.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
🐍
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
In French ‘runner up’ is ‘vice-champion’ 🤣 mdr
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maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I respect France's commitment to not working on a holiday.
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Dexerto @dexerto.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
A Norway fan has gone viral for not taking part in their Row celebration after matches and won't do it if they win the World Cup "It’s factually wrong; they didn’t row, they sailed over the Atlantic”
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Ash @ashtomouth.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Do you think if they let Pogi win Roubaix he will retire sooner and we can have nice things again? 😂
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
Race over for another year 🤷
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Pascal Jacquemain @jacquep.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Switzerland bolted 5,000 solar panels onto a dam wall 8,000 feet up in the freezing Alps where everyone said solar made no sense, and the plant now makes three times more winter power than any farm down in the valleys share.google/nw0ojKKXnID1...
share.google
Switzerland bolted 5,000 solar panels onto a dam wall 8,000 feet up in the freezing Alps where everyone said solar made no sense, and the plant now makes three times more winter power than any farm do...
High in the Swiss Alps, on a concrete dam wall more than 8,000 feet above the sea, someone bolted thousands of solar panels to a place almost no one thought
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Mexico City is at 2,200m. Good for hour records, not so much for running around…
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Paul Kelly @pjthinker.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Tenth anniversary of Cameron announcing his resignation - possibly the worst UK PM - Johnson for all his venality and Truss for ideological idiocy don’t come close to the long term damage that resulted from Cameron’s Brexit referendum gamble for party management reasons. Truly terrible judgement…
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John Rentoul @rentouljohn.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
From the archive, 7 years ago. “Woke up, watched Grandstand. Wrote ‘Candle in the Wind’. Went to London, bought Rolls-Royce. Ringo Starr came for dinner.” #Top10 Diary Entries www.independent.co.uk/voices/top-1...
independent.co.uk
Top 10 diary entries
A collection of the finest journal-ism
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
WHAT
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Always find it bananas that I can be doing this and 50km away it’s 29C and people are swimming in the Med. 🍌🍌🍌
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
🧐
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Just beat a whole lot of French people at pétanque 💅🏼
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
First Magnum of the year.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Forza Alberto!
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Packing for a weekend of mountaineering training. Sunny weather forecast in the Lakes, so it’s a question of can I find clothing combos that won’t cause temporary blindness from the clashing colours.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 17/05/2026
70km to lunch with a change of clothes and a bottle on an unexpectedly nice day 👌🏼
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
#bunkerresearch
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New Scientist @newscientist.com · 14/05/2026
Seismic surveys and sediment cores suggest that dozens of deep pockmarks on the sea floor were created when Arctic methane stores were disrupted by climate change after the last glacial maximum – and scientists warn it could happen again
newscientist.com
Melting of Greenland ice sheet could release methane 'fire ice'
Seismic surveys and sediment cores suggest that dozens of deep pockmarks on the sea floor were created when Arctic methane stores were disrupted by climate change after the last glacial maximum – and scientists warn it could happen again
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
So interesting, proper research!
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
This 1952 memo from the Pentagon UFO files is superb There is no point preparing for aliens ‘because no one of consequence is going to take this rubbish seriously unless it happens. At that point, our policy will be determined in the traditional manner of grand panic.’ 🤣 www.war.gov/medialink/uf...
There likely is nothing to be done at the moment to prepare for these possibilities (the only body of writing on the subject available in an emergency is science fiction), because no one of consequence is going to take this rubbish seriously unless it happens. At that point, our policy will be determined in the traditional manner of grand panic.

Maxwell W. Hunter, II
Member, Professional Staff
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Tell all your Spanish friends! :)
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
First French WT stage race winner since Christophe Moreau in 2007 ⚡️
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
La Reine with an egg.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Well this was helpful #aark
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Michael Hutchinson @doctorhutch.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
The potential to solve the 'Pogacar problem', but only at the cost of a potentially even bigger problem.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Still loving 'Bone Games'…
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House of Reggae @houseofreggae.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
3/12 With judicious use of echo, reverb and a high pass filter, the wildest dubs in 1975 were created at King Tubby's. This one dismantles Cornell Campbell's Natty Dread In A Greenwich Town into a dub masterpiece... youtu.be/4PTRkKdtYho?... #reggae #reggaesky #vinylsky #vinyl #musicsky #dub
7" of King Tubby's & The Aggrovators - This Ya Version Ya Red on Justice label. Released in 1975. Produced by Bunny Lee.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
In other news have started stamping my books with date finished. Should I also stamp with date acquired, or date started? Or both?
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
My kinda footnote.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Kids these days.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
I don’t even know what GBL is.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
Discovery of the day: the hyrax. A rodent-like African mammal that is actually most closely related to elephants and manatees.
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Max Leonard @maxleonard.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Fair.
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