Alix Mortimer
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alixmortimer.bsky.social
Alix Mortimer
@alixmortimer.bsky.social
1.3K followers 1.4K following 1.8K posts
I(i)mpact and engagement for my brilliant colleagues in politics, economics, social sciences @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social. Often I dream of islands.
🚢 ships
🏺archaeology
🏰 medieval history
🇭🇷 učim Hrvatski
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
stpguy3.bsky.social
Thanks for the support! and joining us on this important journey. bsky.app/profile/stpg...
stpguy3.bsky.social STP Guy @stpguy3.bsky.social · 2d
I've just reviewed my 51st Sticky Toffee Pudding. But what did it get out of 10?
February 12, 2026 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
middleeastmonitor.bsky.social
The British Museum has removed the word Palestine from displays about the ancient Middle East following “concerns” by a UK-based Israeli advocacy group.

Read: www.middleeastmonitor.com/20260215-bri...
February 15, 2026 at 4:23 PM
alixmortimer.bsky.social
Finally got round to finishing the Luke Kemp Goliath’s Curse doorstopper/synthesis. I wonder how he would word this bit now. It’s @aphclarkson.bsky.social I think who says US chaotic collapse as a trigger of global decline is underpriced, but of course that’s not quite what this book was envisaging.
<some text removed due to limit> <My highlight> The US may decline: a civil war could even break out, although this seems unlikely, given its large full-time, well-equipped police force, military, and intelligence agencies. Even if it were to happen, the Global Goliath might be shocked for a few years or even a decade, but it is difficult to imagine how it would trigger a global societal collapse. </my highlight> And the US staying as a stable, coherent society is also not an antidote to our global woes. Remember that it was during the 195os, 60s, and 7os, when elite competition was low and wealth equality higher, that the US built a nuclear stockpile that could destroy the world and had the largest acceleration in its environmental impact. Diminishing returns on extraction remains important and relevant. Yet there is now a new and more dangerous curse: global existential risk. The global system of extraction now creates threats and vulnerabilities which could destroy the whole world. EVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE The most likely fate of the Global Goliath is self-termination. The pressures that have been selected for over time - larger populations, more disease, greater military capacity, and economic exploitation (catego-rized earlier as babies, bombs, bacteria, and barbarism') - may have been evolutionarily advantageous for individual empires, but now underpin the catastrophic risk we face today. Bigger, more interconnected populations mean worse disease outbreaks; stronger militaries mean more damaging arms races; and barbarism is the economic backbone of the systems that produce carbon, weapons, and dangerous technology.
February 15, 2026 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
tessmachling.bsky.social
The other thing I've been thinking about that hoard - there was no opportunity, none at all, for the heritage community, the public to intervene to stop this. 1/4

#Archaeology #Detecting #Treasure

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Professor finds Iron Age coin hoard near Bury St Edmunds
Tom Licence says he feels a personal connection to the coins, which are to be auctioned.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 15, 2026 at 11:36 AM
alixmortimer.bsky.social
This is such a good thread (irrespective of actual films referenced), explains a perpetual sense of culturally consuming thin air.
gralefrit.bsky.social Joel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 11h
Wuthering Heights (2026) goes into the collection of recent films etc that have one big thematic thing that the creator has to absolutely *nail* to make everything make sense and then they decide not to, but apparently I’m not meant to care because aren’t we all having a marvellous pretty time?
February 15, 2026 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
thetnholler.bsky.social
“I’ve never protested before - but I just watched 4th & 5th grade kids run away from our own government.” 😕🇺🇸💔

(From @crindivisible.bsky.social )
February 15, 2026 at 12:45 AM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
alexvont.bsky.social
A reminder that if you live in England or Wales & were born between 1970-1990 – or even before 1970 – you can help protect your community by getting the MMR vaccine free from your NHS GP now. I did last year. www.nhs.uk/vaccinations...
Who should have the MMR vaccine The MMR vaccine is recommended for adults and children born on or before 31 December 2019 who did not have the MMR vaccine when they were younger. It's especially important to make sure you're vaccinated if: you're a child, teenager or young adult you could become pregnant you're travelling to, or living in, a country where there is a higher risk of getting measles, mumps or rubella you're a healthcare worker you were born between 1970 and 1990 (as you may not have been vaccinated against all 3 infections) Your GP surgery should be able to tell you which vaccinations you've already had. If you were born before 1970 and have not had measles, mumps or rubella (german measles) or the vaccines that protect against these diseases, you can ask your GP surgery for the MMR vaccine.
February 15, 2026 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
jamesrball.com
Hang on, what did the LSE do to be the only non-American university put on the at-risk list???
February 13, 2026 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
tpgroberts.bsky.social
Thames Water spend around 30% of your bill on interest covering the debt mountain that was accumulated when it was looted under MacQuarrie a decade ago. That's just the will of the market.
radiobeartime.com Mark O’Neill 🐻 @radiobeartime.com · 1d
Allowing for inflation the bill should be £539.44 but regulator and successive governments have allowed the water companies to loot consumers
The past 6 years of bills The utter corrosive uselessness of OFWAT
February 14, 2026 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
espiers.bsky.social
This is insane. theshamblog.com/an-ai-agent-...
An AI Agent Published a Hit Piece on Me
Summary: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code, attempting to damage my reputation and shame me into acceptin…
theshamblog.com
February 14, 2026 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
publicsectorlawyer.bsky.social
Palantir: too bad to be untrue.
bsky.app/profile/samf...
February 14, 2026 at 12:11 PM
alixmortimer.bsky.social
See this makes me come back round to thinking I should see it because that rather *is* true to the book
I wonder too what modern audiences will make of this pair of doomed lovers. Cathy is manipulative and Heathcliff is an abuser. Are we supposed to be hoping they get together? To pull
February 14, 2026 at 10:36 AM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
londonportauth.bsky.social
On 12 Feb, PLA Upper Harbour Service Launch crew, Mason Knowles (pictured) and Clemence Barbey rescued a dog named Murphy near Kew Bridge, after the owner called VTS for help🐾

Murphy was pulled from the water onto the deck by the crew... (1/3)
A person kneels on the deck of a small boat, holding a wet, medium‑sized dog with curly white and black fur wearing a red harness. The boat is on a river near a bridge, with buildings visible along the opposite bank. A red bucket sits on the deck beside them.
February 14, 2026 at 9:42 AM
alixmortimer.bsky.social
Well I guess that answers that question *sideways look to camera*
February 14, 2026 at 8:58 AM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
a-b-evans.bsky.social
Rare to get an actual vox pop with a pothole
February 13, 2026 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
dreadships.bsky.social
You may laugh, but the Macbeths are a much better role model for a marriage than Romeo and Juliet. They discuss their problems (killing the king of Scotland), share their hobbies (killing the king of Scotland), and resolve their conflicts (by killing the king of Scotland).
February 13, 2026 at 5:09 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
gabyhinsliff.bsky.social
I read three student newspapers in the course of writing this & on the off chance any student journalists at York, Exeter or Cambridge are reading this; God you’re all so much better than student journalism was in my day www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
If you want to know what Reform would be like in power, look at how it threatened Bangor University | Gaby Hinsliff
A debating society didn’t want to invite two figures connected to the party to speak. Cue an authoritarian response, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff
www.theguardian.com
February 13, 2026 at 4:27 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
in-otter-news.bsky.social
BREAKING NEWS: Small Otter does important small otter stuff.
February 13, 2026 at 4:15 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
njbbari3.bsky.social
So at the beginning of the pandemic I said it would take about 5-7 years for people to figure stuff out using heuristic learning methods.

I am a crystal ball.
The BMJ v @bmj_latest X.com Covid-19 is not just a respiratory infection. Cardiovascular symptoms are seen in acute and long covid. Katharine Lang reports on what we've learnt since the onset of the pandemic Why covid-19 is "a vascular disease masquerading as a r...
February 13, 2026 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
eddavey.libdems.org.uk
This ruling shows that proscribing Palestine Action was a grave misuse of terrorism laws.

Labour must accept its mistake, drop its appeal and stop wasting taxpayers' money suppressing civil liberties.

Degrading counter-terror powers is a genuine threat to national security.
February 13, 2026 at 2:31 PM
alixmortimer.bsky.social
So we get an update on how [he thinks] it’s going yes?
rodger.bsky.social Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 2d
GUESS WHO JUST WON BRONZE AGAIN
February 13, 2026 at 2:19 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
mercoglianos.bsky.social
Another idle Chinese shipyard springs back to life as capacity nears 2010’s peak

▶️China Merchants to restart Wuhan Qingshan Shipyard in 2026 after eight-year hiatus
▶️Revival part of broader wave of reactivations pushing Chinese capacity near early-2010’s peak
Another idle Chinese shipyard springs back to life as capacity nears 2010’s peak
Strong demand and full berths at leading yards fuel wave of shipyard reactivations across China
https://www.lloydslist.com/articles/2026/02/12/another-idle-chinese-shipyard-springs-back-to-life-as-capacity-nears-2010’s-peak
February 13, 2026 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
bkleinteeselink.bsky.social
🚨 New research: AI, Automation, and Expertise🚨

We analyze hundreds of millions of job ads across 39 countries to understand how AI is changing labor markets around the world.
January 26, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Reposted by Alix Mortimer
bkleinteeselink.bsky.social
📢 Call for papers!

We are organizing the 6th Early Career Workshop in Quantitative Political Economy on 14-15 May 2026 at King’s College London!

Keynote: Shanker Satyanath (NYU)

No fee, travel grants might become available!

Submit at: tinyurl.com/qpe2026
February 13, 2026 at 12:42 PM