Alex Selby-Boothroyd
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alexselbyb.bsky.social
Alex Selby-Boothroyd
@alexselbyb.bsky.social
14K followers 1.4K following 2.1K posts
Head of data journalism at The Economist
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alexselbyb.bsky.social
Hoping these will last another three years
A 1 and a 6 balloon
November 10, 2025 at 10:27 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
The kid turned 16 today, which seems unconscionable
The kid as a kid The kid as a kid with Victorian vibes The kid as a cold kid The kid as a cool kid
November 10, 2025 at 9:33 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
The piece mentions the three attempts on Adolphe Sax's life by rival instrument makers, but not the frankly absurd number of times he almost died as a child
Sax faced many brushes with death. As a child, he once fell from a height of three floors, hit his head on a stone and was believed dead. At the age of three, he drank a bowl full of acidic water, mistaking it for milk, and later swallowed a pin. He received serious burns from a gunpowder explosion and once fell onto a hot cast-iron frying pan, burning his side. Several times he avoided accidental poisoning and asphyxiation from sleeping in a room where varnished furniture was drying. Another time young Sax was struck on the head by a cobblestone and fell into a river, almost dying.
November 10, 2025 at 2:22 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
I worked it out
November 9, 2025 at 5:45 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Which one of these was Robertson guilty of?
November 9, 2025 at 5:31 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Thousands of these lil guys have sprung up in my garden. Pretty soon there won't be... a lot of space for anything else (please admire my pun restraint)
Mushrooms More mushrooms
November 9, 2025 at 3:55 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Page 17 of The Mirror v page 18. Spot the deference
Story in The Mirror about Omaze winners Story in The Mirror about cruise goers
November 8, 2025 at 8:29 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
These Tureen tests are getting crazy
A serving set mocked up as a Turing test. Don't ask why.
November 8, 2025 at 5:58 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Big decision for my mum in the newsagents today
Photographs of some excellent Economist journalists (and me) in the back of this week's issue An exuberant cover price of £10.99
November 8, 2025 at 1:02 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
The other winner of Celebrity Traitors
Google Trends chart showing a big surge in search interest for Neuroblastoma UK, the charity chosen by Celebrity Traitors winner Alan Carr
November 8, 2025 at 12:58 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
I set today's cryptic crossword for The Economist. Glad to get 2d out into the ether (that's a clue)
www.economist.com/interactive/...
Weekend cryptic crossword by The Economist. The highlighted clue reads: Opiate or 0, Pi, 8 (6) ACROSS Overheard talk of force (6) Film debut of Perkins scared young critic. Hitchcock's overjoyed! (6) Mix and turn up the heat with this (6) Giant space for decapitated rodent to get tail removed (8) Take off face covering (don't ask) (4) Party in Pennsylvania Avenue is concerning landlord (10) Choose Rhode Island town for power source (11) You need five feet to solve this clue. So stressed! (10) Outstanding spoken verse (4) Lego firm remade cinematic feature (8) Identify internal briefing error (6) Introduction of writing instrument replacing five in six balls (6) Sounds like what's left after cooking part of pigs (6) DOWN Fit a thousand on return flight (5,3) Opiate or 0, Pi, 8 (6) Anti-scurvy tips to aid sailors: consume oranges regularly but ignore cigars (8) Extort detective leading to fishy end (6) Cook okra, it feeds three (6) Funny, Jack's missing an eye, or something like it (6) Anger returns thanks to midge causing heat (11) Taverner, for example, scores in bars (8) Thrashed, whirled round, etc (8) Setter's team has company south of the border (6) Admire night rider (6) Lumber around, be trim (6) They're for massively restricting change (6) ACROSS Overheard talk of force (6) Film debut of Perkins scared young critic. Hitchcock's overjoyed! (6) Mix and turn up the heat with this (6) Giant space for decapitated rodent to get tail removed (8) Take off face covering (don't ask) (4) Party in Pennsylvania Avenue is concerning landlord (10) Choose Rhode Island town for power source (11) You need five feet to solve this clue. So stressed! (10) Outstanding spoken verse (4) Lego firm remade cinematic feature (8) Identify internal briefing error (6) Introduction of writing instrument replacing five in six balls (6) Sounds like what's left after cooking part of pigs (6) DOWN Fit a thousand on return flight (5,3) Opiate or 0, Pi, 8 (6) Anti-scurvy tips to aid sailors: consume oranges regularly but ignore cigars (8) Extort detective leading to fishy end (6) Cook okra, it feeds three (6) Funny, Jack's missing an eye, or something like it (6) Anger returns thanks to midge causing heat (11) Taverner, for example, scores in bars (8) Thrashed, whirled round, etc (8) Setter's team has company south of the border (6) Admire night rider (6) Lumber around, be trim (6) They're for massively restricting change (6)
November 8, 2025 at 11:03 AM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
November 8, 2025 at 1:03 AM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
November 7, 2025 at 8:41 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Bubble bubble charts

www.economist.com/interactive/...
How much wealth would be destroyed by an AI stockmarket crash? Our visual guide to how a bust that rivals the dotcom era could wipe out 8% of Americans’ household wealth Nov 5th 2025 About $42trn, or 20% of Americans’ total wealth is in American stocks—an increase of four percentage points since the dotcom era. By comparison, foreign investors hold $18trn-worth of American shares. A drop in nominal values on the same scale as the dotcom bust would wipe out $16trn, or 8%, of American household wealth. Foreign investors would lose $7trn. These totals do not include indirect holdings—such as investments via pension funds and life-insurance companies—of which American households have some $20trn.
November 5, 2025 at 8:46 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
New "land doesn't vote" just dropped
www.economist.com/united-state...
Map from The Economist showing Virginia Governor election results. Despite being mostly red, the blue team won
November 5, 2025 at 1:03 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
This is quite the correction on the Guardian's takedown of the new John Lewis advert
www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...
The correction reads: "This article was amended on 4 November 2025 to remove a suggestion that print journalism is “obsolete”. Newspapers and magazines are still available."
November 4, 2025 at 1:48 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Malta has a hard limit of 17.5m cars
The numberplate format (XXX 000): 26x26x26x10x10x10=17,576,000
November 3, 2025 at 9:43 AM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Taggart voice: There's been a murrder
A murder of Crow(e)s
November 2, 2025 at 11:47 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
This, if you know your International Phonetic Alphabet, is very distressing
Apparently the G in Gerrymandering is hard. I feel sick.
November 2, 2025 at 10:32 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Last day in colourful Malta 😮‍💨
Colourful balconies in Valetta Colourful doors in Marsaxlokk Colourful cabins in Valetta Uncolourful fountain in Valetta
November 2, 2025 at 3:15 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
I actually want to go here more than I want to go to Aqua
A club called Haunted House #ITYSL
November 2, 2025 at 2:16 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
When you can't decide between a bar chart and a map
A world map made up of horizontal bars Same again
November 2, 2025 at 1:28 PM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
If at first you don't succeed in spelling "biscuit", try, try again
A surprisingly creative number of ways of mispelling "biscuit"
November 2, 2025 at 10:18 AM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
Taking up smoking again, for democracy
A cigarette-butt receptacle that invites smokers to choose their favourite pet 🐈🐕
November 1, 2025 at 9:47 AM
alexselbyb.bsky.social
A bit of Vivaldi, Malta-style
October 31, 2025 at 8:22 PM