Liz Bourke
@hawkwinglb.bsky.social
Ph.D Classics. Reviews @ Reactor Magazine (ex. Tor.com) and Locus Magazine.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hawkwing_lb
Wordpress: https://lizbourke.wordpress.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@hawkwing_lb
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/hawkwing_lb
Wordpress: https://lizbourke.wordpress.com
Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@hawkwing_lb
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Liz Bourke
@hawkwinglb.bsky.social
· Nov 9
κῆπος τῶν βιβλιοθηκῶν | a garden from the libraries
Liz Bourke: books, history, writing, and culture.
lizbourke.wordpress.com
Hello, new followers! I write reviews of science fiction and fantasy novels for @locusmag.bsky.social and for @reactorsff.bsky.social. On my blog lizbourke.wordpress.com/news-and-upd..., I write about the nonfiction I've been reading lately, and the occasional deeper dive on some aspect of SFF.
Considering that Gondor looks like a medieval polity, structurally - maybe 10th- or 11th-century France would be a reasonable comparison - Aragorn doesn't have the state capacity to have a very granular tax policy. Very likely he would have to have decentralised tax collection - i.e., tax farming.
has anyone tried to write a piece actually speculating on what aragorn's tax policy would have been like
February 18, 2026 at 2:43 PM
Considering that Gondor looks like a medieval polity, structurally - maybe 10th- or 11th-century France would be a reasonable comparison - Aragorn doesn't have the state capacity to have a very granular tax policy. Very likely he would have to have decentralised tax collection - i.e., tax farming.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
I’m constantly astounded at the sheer level of artistic production coming out of Iceland. Novels, movies, music. Amazing.
February 18, 2026 at 2:23 PM
I regularly see people wondering how it's possible that there are so many musicians and writers and film makers and artists from a tiny nation like Iceland.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
And the answer is really simple: State funding for art education and artists. I literally get a salary from the government to write books.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
I totally get the sense of betrayal and resentment among university teachers about the lawsuit demanding compensation for ‘inadequate’ education during COVID. But there are better targets for our anger than the students involved…
thesphinxblog.com/2026/02/18/c...
thesphinxblog.com/2026/02/18/c...
Country Feedback
A basic fact of student feedback, certainly in any class bigger than ten or so, is that there will always be at least one gratuitously negative and basically unfair response. Sometimes that student…
thesphinxblog.com
February 18, 2026 at 12:10 PM
I totally get the sense of betrayal and resentment among university teachers about the lawsuit demanding compensation for ‘inadequate’ education during COVID. But there are better targets for our anger than the students involved…
thesphinxblog.com/2026/02/18/c...
thesphinxblog.com/2026/02/18/c...
Reposted by Liz Bourke
London is a short flight way. There's already been warnings about measles risk at the Winter Olympics. m.independent.ie/irish-news/h...
Here's the HSE advice on getting vaccinated against measles.
www2.hse.ie/conditions/m... #SpéirGorm
Here's the HSE advice on getting vaccinated against measles.
www2.hse.ie/conditions/m... #SpéirGorm
February 18, 2026 at 11:46 AM
London is a short flight way. There's already been warnings about measles risk at the Winter Olympics. m.independent.ie/irish-news/h...
Here's the HSE advice on getting vaccinated against measles.
www2.hse.ie/conditions/m... #SpéirGorm
Here's the HSE advice on getting vaccinated against measles.
www2.hse.ie/conditions/m... #SpéirGorm
Reposted by Liz Bourke
If you want to write anything good, you cannot afford to be afraid of your reader.
February 17, 2026 at 8:06 PM
If you want to write anything good, you cannot afford to be afraid of your reader.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Almost every complaint about what academics in the humanities study could be solved by quantities of money that are - in the scheme of these sorts of things - very small.
In that context, what is telling is that the right, aware that the humanities were for sale, opted to destroy them instead.
In that context, what is telling is that the right, aware that the humanities were for sale, opted to destroy them instead.
February 15, 2026 at 3:17 PM
Almost every complaint about what academics in the humanities study could be solved by quantities of money that are - in the scheme of these sorts of things - very small.
In that context, what is telling is that the right, aware that the humanities were for sale, opted to destroy them instead.
In that context, what is telling is that the right, aware that the humanities were for sale, opted to destroy them instead.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Re-reading a bit of McDonnell's Roman Manliness: Virtus and the Roman Republic and I'm struck by how, uh, unconvincing, I find his section on virtus and women.
His argument is that women sat outside of virtus (as implied by its etymology) but then concedes a bunch of examples where they have it!
His argument is that women sat outside of virtus (as implied by its etymology) but then concedes a bunch of examples where they have it!
February 15, 2026 at 6:35 PM
Re-reading a bit of McDonnell's Roman Manliness: Virtus and the Roman Republic and I'm struck by how, uh, unconvincing, I find his section on virtus and women.
His argument is that women sat outside of virtus (as implied by its etymology) but then concedes a bunch of examples where they have it!
His argument is that women sat outside of virtus (as implied by its etymology) but then concedes a bunch of examples where they have it!
Thought provoking and useful thread.
Thinking about the impact of LLMs on the way I earn a living - writing - and I wonder what the long-term impact will be.
On the one hand, LLMs do not seem capable of producing *good* writing, in the sense of original, engaging writing (they can manage clarity, though). But they can do *quantity.*
On the one hand, LLMs do not seem capable of producing *good* writing, in the sense of original, engaging writing (they can manage clarity, though). But they can do *quantity.*
February 18, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Thought provoking and useful thread.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
this is a really good thread, and something we were discussing at dinner. my bet is that we’re going to need to see the rise of personal recommendations, networks where someone’s taste / curation directs people to certain higher quality writing
Thinking about the impact of LLMs on the way I earn a living - writing - and I wonder what the long-term impact will be.
On the one hand, LLMs do not seem capable of producing *good* writing, in the sense of original, engaging writing (they can manage clarity, though). But they can do *quantity.*
On the one hand, LLMs do not seem capable of producing *good* writing, in the sense of original, engaging writing (they can manage clarity, though). But they can do *quantity.*
February 18, 2026 at 6:15 AM
this is a really good thread, and something we were discussing at dinner. my bet is that we’re going to need to see the rise of personal recommendations, networks where someone’s taste / curation directs people to certain higher quality writing
Reposted by Liz Bourke
It's quite possible that the days of the online marketplace as we've known it -- where ~anyone can put their book/design/whatever up for sale -- are numbered and some kind of closed/curated system will replace it. OTOH maybe better search (possibly AI search!) will save us.
February 18, 2026 at 6:11 AM
It's quite possible that the days of the online marketplace as we've known it -- where ~anyone can put their book/design/whatever up for sale -- are numbered and some kind of closed/curated system will replace it. OTOH maybe better search (possibly AI search!) will save us.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Of course even if LLMs never manage to produce profitably excellent writing, the 'sloptide' impact on discoverability could still reduce our ability to surface new writing talent, a situation where LLMs make writing worse while providing zero offsetting value. Pure negative externality.
Neat.
Neat.
February 18, 2026 at 5:43 AM
Of course even if LLMs never manage to produce profitably excellent writing, the 'sloptide' impact on discoverability could still reduce our ability to surface new writing talent, a situation where LLMs make writing worse while providing zero offsetting value. Pure negative externality.
Neat.
Neat.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
My dudes. My billionaire pals. The wealth tax is for YOUR well-being, not ours.
Read this sentence slowly:
“Gov. Gavin Newsom, crypto executives and business leaders are ramping up efforts this week to stop the proposed wealth tax...”
gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...
“Gov. Gavin Newsom, crypto executives and business leaders are ramping up efforts this week to stop the proposed wealth tax...”
gift link:
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/17/u...
As Bernie Sanders Comes to California, Wealth Tax Opponents Intensify Efforts
www.nytimes.com
February 18, 2026 at 3:22 AM
My dudes. My billionaire pals. The wealth tax is for YOUR well-being, not ours.
Me too.
I would love this so much.
Not saying I think about the structural problems with A Song of Ice and Fire too much, but the other day I had a dream that 'The Winds of Winter' came out, and that it had an entirely new set of POV characters: historians trying to piece together how the war *really* ended a thousand years later.
February 18, 2026 at 12:37 PM
Me too.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
*Mercia intensifies*
Where do the North and South of England begin?
Based on the answers of 46,000 English people about where they live, the southern border of “the North” is a line roughly from Shrewsbury to Grimsby, while the northern border of “the South” is a line roughly from the Severn to Great Yarmouth
Based on the answers of 46,000 English people about where they live, the southern border of “the North” is a line roughly from Shrewsbury to Grimsby, while the northern border of “the South” is a line roughly from the Severn to Great Yarmouth
February 18, 2026 at 11:45 AM
*Mercia intensifies*
Reposted by Liz Bourke
22% of the electricity we generate goes to power server farms. By 2030 it's projected to lrise to 30%.
30% of our electricity comes from oil and gas.
Feels like there's an obvious step we could take here...
30% of our electricity comes from oil and gas.
Feels like there's an obvious step we could take here...
Ireland No. 1 in Europe - yet again. GHGs rose faster (+3.2%) in Ireland in Q3 2025 than ANYWHERE else in Europe.
#Climate action, my eye.
#Climate action, my eye.
February 18, 2026 at 10:42 AM
22% of the electricity we generate goes to power server farms. By 2030 it's projected to lrise to 30%.
30% of our electricity comes from oil and gas.
Feels like there's an obvious step we could take here...
30% of our electricity comes from oil and gas.
Feels like there's an obvious step we could take here...
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Ramadan Mubarak 🌙
Wishing a peaceful month to our Muslim students, colleagues and Readers.
Ramadan and pilgrimage in our collections:
🕌 Sultanahmet Mosque (Bodl. Or. 430, fol 57r)
📖 Sūrat al-Baqarah, Tīpū’s Qurʾān (Bodl. Or. 793, fols 24a–24b)
🧳 Pilgrims to Mecca (Bodl. Or. 430, fols 145r & 148r)
Wishing a peaceful month to our Muslim students, colleagues and Readers.
Ramadan and pilgrimage in our collections:
🕌 Sultanahmet Mosque (Bodl. Or. 430, fol 57r)
📖 Sūrat al-Baqarah, Tīpū’s Qurʾān (Bodl. Or. 793, fols 24a–24b)
🧳 Pilgrims to Mecca (Bodl. Or. 430, fols 145r & 148r)
February 18, 2026 at 11:13 AM
Ramadan Mubarak 🌙
Wishing a peaceful month to our Muslim students, colleagues and Readers.
Ramadan and pilgrimage in our collections:
🕌 Sultanahmet Mosque (Bodl. Or. 430, fol 57r)
📖 Sūrat al-Baqarah, Tīpū’s Qurʾān (Bodl. Or. 793, fols 24a–24b)
🧳 Pilgrims to Mecca (Bodl. Or. 430, fols 145r & 148r)
Wishing a peaceful month to our Muslim students, colleagues and Readers.
Ramadan and pilgrimage in our collections:
🕌 Sultanahmet Mosque (Bodl. Or. 430, fol 57r)
📖 Sūrat al-Baqarah, Tīpū’s Qurʾān (Bodl. Or. 793, fols 24a–24b)
🧳 Pilgrims to Mecca (Bodl. Or. 430, fols 145r & 148r)
Reposted by Liz Bourke
The AI bubble RAM crisis is caused for non-existent problems by non-existent money for a non-existent infrastructure to meet non-existent demand to make non-existent business and will utterly destroy real business based on real demand and real infrastructure built with real money for real problems.
I understand framing the AI bubble RAM supply crisis in terms of stuff like video game consoles because nerds can conceptualize that but the framing does really undersell the sheer magnitude of how it's going to fuck up everything that even touches a computer.
February 16, 2026 at 9:54 PM
The AI bubble RAM crisis is caused for non-existent problems by non-existent money for a non-existent infrastructure to meet non-existent demand to make non-existent business and will utterly destroy real business based on real demand and real infrastructure built with real money for real problems.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
PSA. If you come to Iceland as a tourist and rent a car, do not attempt to drive across the empty highlands by yourself in winter.
You’ll just get your car stuck in snow where there is no cell service and have to walk 10 km to call for help in -18, like these German tourists did yesterday.
You’ll just get your car stuck in snow where there is no cell service and have to walk 10 km to call for help in -18, like these German tourists did yesterday.
Gengu tíu kílómetra til að kalla eftir aðstoð - RÚV.is
Björgunarsveitir komu fjórum Þjóðverjum til hjálpar sem festu bíl sinn í miklum snjó í Mælifellsdal. Svo virðist sem fólkið hafi ætlað yfir Kjöl á leiðinni suður.
www.ruv.is
February 18, 2026 at 9:57 AM
PSA. If you come to Iceland as a tourist and rent a car, do not attempt to drive across the empty highlands by yourself in winter.
You’ll just get your car stuck in snow where there is no cell service and have to walk 10 km to call for help in -18, like these German tourists did yesterday.
You’ll just get your car stuck in snow where there is no cell service and have to walk 10 km to call for help in -18, like these German tourists did yesterday.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Where is the push for greater use of ASBOs coming from? There's a bill moving through the Oireachtas to loosen which rank of Garda can apply to the courts for “anti-social behaviour orders” – also known as ASBOs.
Where is the push for greater use of ASBOs coming from?
There is a bill moving through the Oireachtas to loosen which rank of Garda can apply to the courts for “anti-social behaviour orders” – also known as ASBOs.
www.dublininquirer.com
February 18, 2026 at 10:27 AM
Where is the push for greater use of ASBOs coming from? There's a bill moving through the Oireachtas to loosen which rank of Garda can apply to the courts for “anti-social behaviour orders” – also known as ASBOs.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
I read The Samurai and the Prisoner by Honobu Yonezawa
Review by kjcharles - The Samurai and the Prisoner
A really remarkable history/mystery novel. I say it like that because it's in no way a histori...
app.thestorygraph.com
February 18, 2026 at 9:18 AM
I read The Samurai and the Prisoner by Honobu Yonezawa
Reposted by Liz Bourke
"you could put like, a year’s worth of active travel reports in and ask it to work out what progress has been made, or what questions you should be asking in advance of the next report" - @social-democrats.bsky.social Cat O’Driscoll
Very disappointed in the SocDems about this
#spéirghorm
Very disappointed in the SocDems about this
#spéirghorm
As their workload gets heavier, some councillors are eyeing up AI assistants. “You could get 500 emails, and I do recall my friend saying ‘God, why don’t you get Copilot?’”
As workload gets heavier, councillors eye up AI assistants
“You could get 500 emails, and I do recall my friend saying ‘God, why don’t you get Copilot?’”
www.dublininquirer.com
February 18, 2026 at 8:46 AM
"you could put like, a year’s worth of active travel reports in and ask it to work out what progress has been made, or what questions you should be asking in advance of the next report" - @social-democrats.bsky.social Cat O’Driscoll
Very disappointed in the SocDems about this
#spéirghorm
Very disappointed in the SocDems about this
#spéirghorm
Reposted by Liz Bourke
Of course it did, that was the point.
That's always the point when they attack people in poverty, people that need community care, people that don't "get up early in the morning to work", etc.
To quote Emmit Kirwan, it wasn't blokes in tracksuits that ruined the country, it was blokes in suits.
That's always the point when they attack people in poverty, people that need community care, people that don't "get up early in the morning to work", etc.
To quote Emmit Kirwan, it wasn't blokes in tracksuits that ruined the country, it was blokes in suits.
The 'welfare cheats’ government campaign temporarily weakened belief in Ireland that social benefits help prevent poverty, according to the State’s think tank.
jrnl.ie/6960170
jrnl.ie/6960170
‘Welfare cheats’ campaign weakened belief in social benefits, says ESRI
The controversial 2017 campaign encouraged the public to identify “potential cheats” committing welfare fraud.
jrnl.ie
February 18, 2026 at 10:01 AM
Of course it did, that was the point.
That's always the point when they attack people in poverty, people that need community care, people that don't "get up early in the morning to work", etc.
To quote Emmit Kirwan, it wasn't blokes in tracksuits that ruined the country, it was blokes in suits.
That's always the point when they attack people in poverty, people that need community care, people that don't "get up early in the morning to work", etc.
To quote Emmit Kirwan, it wasn't blokes in tracksuits that ruined the country, it was blokes in suits.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of editors suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly unconscious.
Coffee-growing countries becoming too hot to cultivate beans, analysis finds
Coffee-growing countries becoming too hot to cultivate beans, analysis finds
Five countries responsible for 75% of world’s coffee supply record average of 57 extra days of coffee-harming heat a year
In Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, more than 4m households rely on coffee as their primary source of income. It contributes almost a third of the country’s export earnings, but for how much longer is uncertain.
“Coffee farmers in Ethiopia are already seeing the impact of extreme heat,” said Dejene Dadi, the general manager of Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperatives Union (OCFCU), a smallholder cooperative. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
February 18, 2026 at 10:44 AM
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of editors suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly unconscious.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
People always ask, "What would you do if you were born in another time period?"
With my health the answer is almost always, "Die before kindergarten."
Medical progress is the real deal, buddies.
With my health the answer is almost always, "Die before kindergarten."
Medical progress is the real deal, buddies.
before antibiotics did people just die all the time from everything?
February 17, 2026 at 9:17 PM
People always ask, "What would you do if you were born in another time period?"
With my health the answer is almost always, "Die before kindergarten."
Medical progress is the real deal, buddies.
With my health the answer is almost always, "Die before kindergarten."
Medical progress is the real deal, buddies.
Reposted by Liz Bourke
I've transcribed dozens of interviews. With rare exceptions, everyone speaks with those um/uh tics, little restarts, hesitations, and most of us speak in sentence fragments with emphases, tones, pauses that create coherence not replicable in print. Spoken and written are distinct. Translate fairly.
February 16, 2026 at 8:52 PM
I've transcribed dozens of interviews. With rare exceptions, everyone speaks with those um/uh tics, little restarts, hesitations, and most of us speak in sentence fragments with emphases, tones, pauses that create coherence not replicable in print. Spoken and written are distinct. Translate fairly.