tom westland

Can this be a solution?

what function is the biggest jumpscare to you. i'll go first, clear choice for me at least it's obviously the gamma function.

“The British Economy” (colour photograph, digital, 2026)

Gave a presentation on the Sokoto Caliphate to the Cambo global economic history seminar and somehow managed to get Murray Last to come!!!!!

Useful thread! COVID-19 led to the largest decline in life expectancy since WWII. Recovery is incomplete altho countries differ a lot. US had the largest life expectancy deficit of any studied. Deficits in countries that delayed widespread infection ( eg Norway Japan) had lower cumulative mortality

Muslims traumatised after right-wing attack on community dinner A Muslim community in Ballarat is left traumatised after a man barged into a community dinner allegedly throwing punches and yelling abuse.

A man stormed an Iftar event screaming slurs and had to be restrained by people and got a "take a walk mate" from the cops?!?! www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03...

far too rich to supply a substitute for butter

Data Visualization A Practical Introduction

Here’s a full draft of the upcoming second edition of my “Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction”: socviz.co

Bit late to be asking that question!

Podcast with Rian Thum, author of “Islamic China: An Asian History” Can someone be Chinese and Muslim? For some academics, this has been a surprisingly fraught question, with some asserting that Chinese Muslims are not really Chinese, or not really Muslim.

Drops today: this week's ARB @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast features Rian Thum, author of “Islamic China: An Asian History” @harvardpress.bsky.social asianreviewofbooks.com/podcast-with...

Whatever happens now, the whole region will be a river of blood for the next fifteen years. I fucking hate this so much and my heart is so broken.

lmk if you wanna use my airspace

just deeply misogynistic stuff (you can't play with girls!)

Imagine guilting parents into treating your kid this way

If you want to look at a gender clinic guy who really did try, quite abusively, to coerce children out of gender non-confirming behaviour, look no further than "gender critical" hero Kenneth Zucker, who repeatedly described his methods in print!

A lot of gross things about this but one that sticks out to me is that the person most responsible for ensuring that diagnostic guidelines blurred gender non-conformity with gender identity is Kenneth Zucker, whom anti-trans activists think is some kind of hero

'The announcement of the student visa ban adds to a string of betrayals by the British government, which cut aid after the 2021 military coup in Burma despite a growing humanitarian crisis, and has not brought in any new sanctions against the Burmese military since 2024.'

UK to invoke ‘emergency brake’ to ban student visa applications from four countries Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan will be affected by the move

If you know your British including British colonial history, you might be a bit appalled.

my new politics adjacent thing is getting really pissed off when people give a human name to a Rat

My favorite paper of 2019 has just been conditionally accepted at AER (lmao)

The Voting Rights Act rapidly increased Black wages in the South via public employment & redistribution

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"Richard! Stop hiding under a cache-misère of your own mythology! We have guests!"

I heard there was a secret code
That purged effects of survey mode
But you don’t really care for bias, do ya

why isn't there a train from Paris to Amsterdam and vice versa every ten minutes

I think there are genuinely people who think that if a child goes to a doctor and gets diagnosed with gender dysphoria then they get transitioned whether they want it or not.

It’s actually FEWER Misérables

When rising food prices fuel state violence Rising crop prices usually quiet conflict, as labourers choose farming over fighting. In Myanmar, rising rice prices instead fuelled state-led violence against civilians. Our findings challenge narratives that frame such atrocities as a reaction to insurgencies, showing how economic incentives can systematically shape persecution when power is heavily skewed toward the state.

🆕 When rising food prices fuel state violence

Today on VoxDev, C. Austin Davis (American University School of International Service), Paula López-Peña (Queen’s University), Mushfiq Mobarak (Yale University) & Jaya Wen (Harvard Business School) outline research on Myanmar: https://ow.ly/3zaM50YosZt

ok I'll bite who are Kyle and Jackie O

all previous endless wars have been based off lies with no official off ramp or plan i think the iran war under trump is more notable because they’re admitting theres no plan less than 2 days in

If I were a world leader, I would simply govern in defiance of the Gods, safe in the knowledge they could never punish me for my hubris.

Kidnapping of foreigners soars in Africa's lawless Sahel region Growing insecurity in the Sahel made 2025 one of the worst years on record for the abduction of foreigners in Africa.

Kidnapping of foreigners in Africa’s Sahel region reached record highs in 2025. Driven by JNIM (al-Qaeda), abductions have shifted from simple ransom to "economic warfare" against mining & energy sectors. 40% of victims were Chinese, 15% Indian.