zombie westland
@tomwestland.bsky.social
it is a lovely morning in the village, and i am a horrible goose
economic history of africa + southeast asia, comparative development, markets and industrialisation
(he/him)
tomwestland.com
economic history of africa + southeast asia, comparative development, markets and industrialisation
(he/him)
tomwestland.com
Pinned
Uses and abuses of the Murdock Atlas in social science research
www.lse.ac.uk
CALL FOR PAPERS
A workshop at LSE next April on 'Uses and Abuses of the Murdock Atlas in Social Science Research'. We're looking for cross-disciplinary engagement to think critically about what this widely used source means, what it can & can't tell us. Submit by Nov 14
www.lse.ac.uk/economic-his...
A workshop at LSE next April on 'Uses and Abuses of the Murdock Atlas in Social Science Research'. We're looking for cross-disciplinary engagement to think critically about what this widely used source means, what it can & can't tell us. Submit by Nov 14
www.lse.ac.uk/economic-his...
A lot of people gushing over that FT piece on China trade could do with a cold shower and a little think about how plausible "China is going to have comparative advantage in everything" is
November 26, 2025 at 9:49 PM
A lot of people gushing over that FT piece on China trade could do with a cold shower and a little think about how plausible "China is going to have comparative advantage in everything" is
the catalogues for the Archives africaines in Brussels are so extra
November 26, 2025 at 7:16 PM
the catalogues for the Archives africaines in Brussels are so extra
Reposted by zombie westland
CDC website altered at Robert F. Kennedy's behest to reflect his belief that "all events depicted in the film Ghostbusters really happened."
November 26, 2025 at 6:10 PM
CDC website altered at Robert F. Kennedy's behest to reflect his belief that "all events depicted in the film Ghostbusters really happened."
Reposted by zombie westland
Reposted by zombie westland
Let’s start with your first clue: survivors rarely get smallpox again. But you don’t know why. The only technology available is variolation – infect your child with a controlled dose of smallpox, but risk a 1-in-50 chance they die from the procedure.
Imagine you lived in the 18th century.
Smallpox kills 1 in 3 cases. Yet you can’t culture pathogens, don’t know germ theory, and have no idea what a virus is. How would you invent a vaccine?
In a new episode of HARD DRUGS, we trace the history of vaccines!
Smallpox kills 1 in 3 cases. Yet you can’t culture pathogens, don’t know germ theory, and have no idea what a virus is. How would you invent a vaccine?
In a new episode of HARD DRUGS, we trace the history of vaccines!
The history of vaccines
open.spotify.com
November 26, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Let’s start with your first clue: survivors rarely get smallpox again. But you don’t know why. The only technology available is variolation – infect your child with a controlled dose of smallpox, but risk a 1-in-50 chance they die from the procedure.
Have you seen a series of governments more addicted to hastening national decline than in the UK
International student fee levy details confirmed in Budget document: flat fee charged on institutions "of £925 per student per year of study, starting in August 2028 academic year 2028-29".
No charge for first 220 students per year.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6926eb...
No charge for first 220 students per year.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6926eb...
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
November 26, 2025 at 2:04 PM
Have you seen a series of governments more addicted to hastening national decline than in the UK
Reposted by zombie westland
State building in pre-colonial Somalia: the Sultanate of Geledi (ca. 1750-1908)
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/state-buil...
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/state-buil...
November 26, 2025 at 12:43 PM
State building in pre-colonial Somalia: the Sultanate of Geledi (ca. 1750-1908)
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/state-buil...
www.africanhistoryextra.com/p/state-buil...
girl same
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates on.ft.com/4ij0yh8
OpenAI needs to raise at least $207bn by 2030 so it can continue to lose money, HSBC estimates
A burning platform
on.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:11 PM
girl same
Reposted by zombie westland
Possibly the stupidest idea I've heard in the last few months, which is saying something. Shows utter ignorance around practicalities regardless of the ethics/desirability.
Trevor Phillips proposes banning "remittances" (ie: imposing currency/exchange controls on international cash transfers by foreign nationals from Britain). He says this would disincentivise immigration, in a Times piece saying the Home Secretary needs to go [much] further
archive.ph/RlXPj
archive.ph/RlXPj
November 24, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Possibly the stupidest idea I've heard in the last few months, which is saying something. Shows utter ignorance around practicalities regardless of the ethics/desirability.
Reposted by zombie westland
If you are in Cambridge, MA on December 10, join us at a panel on Rebuilding State Capacity with Don Moynihan, Jen Pahlka, and Elizabeth Linos www.hks.harvard.edu/events/rebui...
Rebuilding State Capacity for Inclusive Economic Transformation
Join us for the fourth "Economics in Beyond" event, featuring experts Don Moynihan and Jennifer Pahlka in conversation with Elizabeth Linos. This year’s focus: how state capacity can help build an economy that works for everyone.
www.hks.harvard.edu
November 25, 2025 at 5:58 PM
If you are in Cambridge, MA on December 10, join us at a panel on Rebuilding State Capacity with Don Moynihan, Jen Pahlka, and Elizabeth Linos www.hks.harvard.edu/events/rebui...
petition to return the BOM website to its 1997 version. there was no reason for websites to get more complicated than this
November 24, 2025 at 11:09 PM
petition to return the BOM website to its 1997 version. there was no reason for websites to get more complicated than this
Reposted by zombie westland
it just didn't have the legs 😢
Turns out interest in Metaverse had about a ~9 month half life.
November 24, 2025 at 9:55 AM
it just didn't have the legs 😢
Reposted by zombie westland
mini thread on why it is that the centre left now hates universities for some godforsaken reason
Yeah, I think they all hate universities, though perhaps for different reasons. From a neoliberal centrism perspective, "further/tertiary" education may be good but only insofar as it makes better professionals. They'll look at universities and see people having fun and studying like art history &
November 24, 2025 at 11:54 AM
mini thread on why it is that the centre left now hates universities for some godforsaken reason
One of the things that always hits me between the eyes whenever I teach it, no matter how often I've done it, is how many women died in childbirth and it's so sad how many people are sucked in by this horrible stuff
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world
A year-long investigation reveals how mothers lost children after being radicalised by uplifting podcast tales of births without midwives or doctors
As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. “You are a queen,” murmured one of three friends in the room.
Only Esau’s mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. “Can you help [him] out?” she asked, as Esau crowned. “Baby is coming,” the friend replied. Four minutes later, Lopez asked again, “Can you grab [him]?” Another friend murmured, “Baby is safe.” Six minutes passed. Again, Lopez asked, “Can you grab [him]?” Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 1:48 PM
One of the things that always hits me between the eyes whenever I teach it, no matter how often I've done it, is how many women died in childbirth and it's so sad how many people are sucked in by this horrible stuff
Reposted by zombie westland
All white top, all white belt
And all white jeans, body looking like milk
And all white jeans, body looking like milk
November 23, 2025 at 1:32 PM
All white top, all white belt
And all white jeans, body looking like milk
And all white jeans, body looking like milk
Reposted by zombie westland
it's so interesting to me that the Indonesian revolution found so many allies and supporters in Australians serving in Borneo because they were so repulsed by the Dutch capitulating to imperial Japan
November 22, 2025 at 11:01 PM
it's so interesting to me that the Indonesian revolution found so many allies and supporters in Australians serving in Borneo because they were so repulsed by the Dutch capitulating to imperial Japan
"Zinger burger"
November 22, 2025 at 10:09 PM
"Zinger burger"
Reposted by zombie westland
I appreciate the WSJ following up on this story, which is already in danger of being one of many forgotten scandals in elite academia.
“There is no world where this makes any sense,” said David Autor, one of the MIT professors who had previously championed his student’s research. www.wsj.com/economy/aida...
An MIT Student Awed Top Economists With His AI Study—Then It All Fell Apart
Aidan Toner-Rodgers shot to academic fame in a field hungry for new insights and revelatory research. But a computer scientist thought something seemed off.
www.wsj.com
November 22, 2025 at 4:29 AM
I appreciate the WSJ following up on this story, which is already in danger of being one of many forgotten scandals in elite academia.
Reposted by zombie westland
How epidemic disease offers new perspectives on economic history—and vice versa. Honoured to blog for @camunicampop.bsky.social about my new book “Controlling Contagion”: www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/11... @oxford-esh.bsky.social @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social @PrincetonUPress
November 20, 2025 at 11:27 AM
How epidemic disease offers new perspectives on economic history—and vice versa. Honoured to blog for @camunicampop.bsky.social about my new book “Controlling Contagion”: www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/blog/2025/11... @oxford-esh.bsky.social @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social @PrincetonUPress
Reposted by zombie westland
Today is Primidi the 1st of Frimaire in the year 234.
Frimaire is the month of frost.
Today we celebrate rampion.#JacobinDay
More information on rampion
Frimaire is the month of frost.
Today we celebrate rampion.#JacobinDay
More information on rampion
November 20, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Today is Primidi the 1st of Frimaire in the year 234.
Frimaire is the month of frost.
Today we celebrate rampion.#JacobinDay
More information on rampion
Frimaire is the month of frost.
Today we celebrate rampion.#JacobinDay
More information on rampion
Reposted by zombie westland
i had some absolutely phenomenal chinese food in dakar this year (arrived during ramadan like an idiot and lack the ability to get through a day in the archives without food).
I love this profile of a thriving Chinatown in Bamako by @rchason.bsky.social. The presence of ordinary Chinese entrepreneurs across Africa is always so much more grassroots and diverse than people might think if they only read 'Belt & Road' coverage
Inside a thriving Chinatown neighborhood in the heart of West Africa
Chinese migrants have created a lively community in the Malian capital of Bamako but the advance of Islamist militants has them questioning their futures.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:28 PM
i had some absolutely phenomenal chinese food in dakar this year (arrived during ramadan like an idiot and lack the ability to get through a day in the archives without food).
Reposted by zombie westland
I love this profile of a thriving Chinatown in Bamako by @rchason.bsky.social. The presence of ordinary Chinese entrepreneurs across Africa is always so much more grassroots and diverse than people might think if they only read 'Belt & Road' coverage
Inside a thriving Chinatown neighborhood in the heart of West Africa
Chinese migrants have created a lively community in the Malian capital of Bamako but the advance of Islamist militants has them questioning their futures.
www.washingtonpost.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:05 PM
I love this profile of a thriving Chinatown in Bamako by @rchason.bsky.social. The presence of ordinary Chinese entrepreneurs across Africa is always so much more grassroots and diverse than people might think if they only read 'Belt & Road' coverage
american century of humiliation continues apace www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
Measles outbreak in Arizona and Utah could spell the end for U.S. elimination status
With holiday travel and gatherings approaching, doctors worry that transmission could escalate further.
www.nbcnews.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:50 PM
american century of humiliation continues apace www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
Reposted by zombie westland
Update your syllabus and stay on the frontier - it will increase your students’ wages. Epic work by my colleagues @barbarabiasi.com and @profsongma.bsky.social #linkoftheday
www.barbarabiasi.com/uploads/1/0/...
www.barbarabiasi.com/uploads/1/0/...
November 15, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Update your syllabus and stay on the frontier - it will increase your students’ wages. Epic work by my colleagues @barbarabiasi.com and @profsongma.bsky.social #linkoftheday
www.barbarabiasi.com/uploads/1/0/...
www.barbarabiasi.com/uploads/1/0/...