#census of the poor

[feyres-divorce-lawyer]

oh!

[bravo666]

john price who gets retired out, discharged when he gets some shrapnel in his knee, but he’s still a soldier at heart and needs to scratch some kind of itch. living out an idle retirement simply isn’t an option. with combat of any kind off the table, he picks up a random job as a census worker to occupy his time. government bureaucracy and paperwork, his old enemy—but better the devil you know, right?

it’s not a job he enjoys, as dull as it is, but if john price is anything, it’s not being a quitter. he’s thanking his stars that the season’s nearly done and wondering if he might be able to pitch in at the local carpentry shop when he’s sent to go meet a truant form-taker, some big house a bit of a ways out of town that hasn’t responded to the mail to fill out the census. big, old, and clearly falling apart with an overrun garden and a cracked drainpipe and a trampled, rotted fence.

he’s expecting a pensioner at the door given the state of the place, but when he knocks his big fist and the peeling door swings back, a pretty young thing is standing behind it. he explains why he’s there and the poor bird nearly bursts into tears with apologies. she’s so sorry for the display, she says, she’s just been very overwhelmed lately which is why she forgot to fill out the form and doesn’t mean to cry. the place used to be her gran’s, and apparently she’s in way over her head with the repairs and renovations.

john pokes his head in the door and takes a look at what he can see. bit of water and smoke damage on the walls, a bucket kicked under a leak, musty carpet, some stairs that could definitely use a good replacement on the planks. what he doesn’t already know how to fix, he knows how to figure out, and if push came to shove, he knows for sure he can handle wrangling a contractor better than the sweet woman before him; she’d probably get taken advantage of by some mean, leering electrician, and that just won’t do.

so he smiles at her, blue eyes crinkling up and mustache bristling against his cheeks as he leans back. tells her that they can do the paper census form now together and that he’ll keep her ‘out of trouble’ with the government in his books, and hell, afterwards he can show her how to fix that stubborn leak in the kitchen sink, and insists that the only repayment he needs is a cup of tea.

if he’s a bit hasty in checking off the ‘married’ box on the form when she’s busy fussing over the kettle and imagining the sound of tiny feet running up and down those stairs, well, that’s his business.

[eggtrolls]

Can you restore the ‘Hazbin Hotel’ Wikipedia page ‘That’s Entertainment (Hazbin Hotel)’ on Wikipedia? The same person keeps blanking it.

Hi, thank you for your question! I appreciate the request - I’m actually really flattered! - but I’m not going to do that at this moment. This is actually a very interesting microcosm of Wikipedia backdoor activities and we can use it as a learning opportunity.

Background: anon said the same person (not the same person) keeps “blanking” the page and that’s not entirely true. People have turned into it a redirection page or a redirect (let me know if the terminology is too technical). A redirect is one of the series of pipes that keeps Wikipedia moving smoothly; it would be a massive time waste and hassle to have to enter every article title perfectly to search for it. This is also helpful when you have multiple names for the same topic. Okay great now we all know what a redirect is.

Timeline: on 23 July 2023, someone made a redirect for the Hazbin Hotel pilot.

Then on 6 November 2024, as if I didn’t have enough problems, someone turns that redirection page into a standalone article and adds a massive increase in characters to go with it. This page is user Hazbin girl. Remember this one.

And we all sort of putter around improving that until 6 January 2024, when someone redirects the page, which is currently using the title Pilot (Hazbin Hotel) to That’s Entertainment (Hazbin Hotel).

They also do a kind of sloppy job (see the tag about having not left a redirect). People add meme categories to it a few times, they get removed, and the activity goes back and forth until one of the admins gets fed up and reverts it back to a redirect to Hazbin Hotel on 13 January 2025. And I see the logic behind this - there is very little that is stated in the episode article that isn’t already stated in the show’s article. Between production, development, the actual episode summary, and the references, having an article for every single episode would be a massive reduplication of efforts. Wikipedia is also not a fandom site - what’s notable to fans of the show is not notable per our general notability guidelines. Some episodes get that but at this point, I don’t think the pilot of HH cuts the mustard. So the redirect from 13 January stands.

Then on the same day, someone reverts the redirect to restore the standalone article. That person is Debopamsikder. Also remember this name.

It’s fine to have a difference of opinion as to what should be on Wikipedia. We can work that out with community census-building which is a beautiful thing.

Here’s what’s not fine: sockpuppetry.

Shortly after the redirect is undone, both Debopamsikder, whose account had been created on 13 January 2025, and our old friend Hazbin girl get suspected of being sock puppets and get blocked. More specifically, they are suspected of being sockpuppets for a user who was blocked back in 2017 for, get this, creating multiple accounts to argue for articles about their favourite franchises. You can check out the original sockpuppetry investigation here

Conclusion: I’m not sure if this is the same person behind TotalTruthTeller24, although that would be wild, but I think it’s extremely poor form to ask me to wade into something like this and haha yeah man can you just fix it there’s no larger issue happening ahhahaha nooooooo don’t use critical thinking skills ur so sexy, someone keeps blanking the page that’s it I prommy. That’s simply not true, and now I have spent over 40 minutes digging into this because you want more fandom cruft for your favourite show to repeat information that’s already present or would get immediately removed for being non-notable to anyone but a hardcore fan. No thank you. Go write something on the fandom wiki and be done with it.

[jamescanningauthor]

My Blood Meridian Headcanons Masterpost, order of appearance

Under the cut, see here for my collection of every physical description (or lack thereof) for each major character

The Kid

refuses to shave his shitty teenager mustache wispy silliness and is in denial about how unfinished it is (except for the one time he was kind of made to for a formal occasion)

never can really grow a proper beard, even in middle age, always patchy

bites his nails

light brown, mouse-colored hair

blue eyes

freckles

never had a proper haircut til Chihuahua due to childhood neglect

matted hair before and later after

5.1ft/1.55448m (childhood malnutrition)

Holden

abnormally unaffected by alcohol but consumes it anyway as a social thing

walking around naked was initially a result of him just being incalculably ancient (pre-clothes) and having no internalized sense of modesty due to this, but this soon became a power play similar to Lyndon Baines Johnson's behavior (look up LBJ Jumbo)

everyone's teeth are pretty disgusting, except for his, which are unusually pristine

he maintains his teeth with chewing-sticks and rinses with urine (both of these are ancient practices that are proven to be effective, albeit repulsive to modern sensibilities)

every item of clothing he wears is tailored (otherwise, how would anything fit him?), and his footwear is custom-made (meaning they have distinct lefts and rights to begin with, unlike many premade and military-issued footwear at the time, which had to be broken in and developed lefts and rights over time being worn)

files his nails meticulously and often, keeping them uniformly oval

has gone by the forenames Abernathy and William at times

knows classical Latin not just in the phrases he uses but to the extent of fluency, as well as classical Greek and Hebrew (common scholarly pursuits for men of means at the time)

red-pink eyes

Toadvine

surprisingly low alcohol tolerance

limited mobility in the areas of his face near where he was branded, the skin just doesn't stretch, resulting in limited expression

the sides of his head are not completely flat, he has lumpy bits of flesh and cartilage where his ears were unevenly cut and burn scars from when the wounds were cauterized

due to the burns from cauterizing, his hearing is slightly affected, but generally clear, and he makes up for it by being observant to the slightest sound

he only grew his hair long after his ears were docked, more to push it back and jumpscare people with his ear stumps than out of any insecurity (ego death long ago)

from Kentucky (the surname Toadvine is most common there, and he has canonically never seen the sea until the chapter where he visits California)

black-brown eyes

6.1ft/1.85928m

born 1821

Glanton

files his nails carelessly and somewhat square just so they don't get long and break

knee problems that he just tries to tough out, but he massages them at night when he thinks no one sees

Irish ancestry (his surname is most common in the US as well as Ireland, where it is rare and held only by Catholics, according to census data)

from Georgia (his surname is most common there)

long eyelashes

5.5ft/1.6764m

born 1804

White Jackson

Cajun, looks down on Creoles of color, valuing his culture higher and fearing being lumped in with Creoles of color (Cajuns in Louisiana are Creole, but not all Creoles are Cajun, Cajuns are a White, French-speaking ethnic group descended from settlers in Acadia, Canada from primarily West-Central France who were forced out of Canada by the British, many eventually resettling in Louisiana)

his name at birth was Jean (French variant of John), but others say it as John

his family was poor, and he was looked down on for being Cajun

his aggressive racism is a result of deep insecurity and a need to feel superior (NOT JUSTIFYING, JUST THEORIZING MOTIVATION)

from Louisiana (his surname was most frequent in the US there according to 1880 census data)

thick, dark brown hair

medium brown eyes

5.7ft/1.73736m

born 1824

Black Jackson

self-emancipated at a very young age by escaping to the West

he was given a stupid, humiliating literary name (common at the time) and was unimaginative, so he changed it for John

gave himself his surname too, ironically out of admiration for Andrew Jackson, who he knew little about but he had heard propaganda about him and did not know Jackson had a plantation, having heard of him as a rugged man of the people from the frontier and the scourge of Natives, nothing more

you just know he was ashy and unmoisturized and didn't know how to take care of his hair, so he just cut it short

resents Christianity (see: his drunken threat to shoot the ass off of Jesus Christ) due to it being used as justification of slavery, and the Bible being used to sell the idea that being Black was the mark of Cain or something

never talks about his past, as it would just be used as ammunition against him

illiterate (as per Southern law), too proud to admit it, let alone ask anyone to teach him

whip scars, though not as severe as some well-known images

5.8ft/1.76784m

born 1828

Bathcat

surprisingly low alcohol tolerance too

cuts the whites of his nails with a knife, which is careful and practiced, never bleeds from it

bi, see that one scene where he was asleep with his arm around one of the musicians

ear necklace made Toadvine flinch just slightly before he could catch himself when they first met

Bathcat, noticing Toadvine's lack of ears, torments him with it initially but gives up when Toadvine shows no reaction after the first

the offense he was sent to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania/Lutruwita) for was S/A or similar

his hand injury is from unsafe working conditions when performing unpaid prison labor

his eye injury is the result of violence from another inmate

realized he was into men too in prison and just saw it as a natural result of separation from women

tonedeaf (cannot distinguish musical notes by ear or repeat/carry a tune)

knows some Welsh from his childhood, mostly songs and expressions

naturally thin, blond hair

grey-blue eyes

5.7ft/1.73736m

born 1807

sent to Van Diemen's Land 1829

Tobin

raised as a charity case by the Church rather than by family at times

former choir boy, still sings and hums when he thinks no one can hear

quit seminary due to struggling with celibacy and certain moral things justified in the Bible that seem contradictory to restrictions for Priests, as well as the Bible being used as justification for slavery

closest thing Black Jackson has to a friend in the gang

bad back

after he disappeared from the narrative, he returned to ministry

he no longer believed after everything he had seen, but wanted to provide aid and comfort regardless

from Massachusetts (his name is most common there in the US)

greying, balding ginger hair

blue eyes

needs reading glasses

5.8ft/1.76784m

born 1803

David Brown

from what became Arkansas (canonically never saw an ocean before he went to California)

blond

hazel eyes

nearsighted (things that are further are less clear)

5.6ft/1.70688m

born 1818

James Robert Bell

severe Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, his older brother has a more mild form which is visible in subtle features but not significantly disabling, their mother's alcoholism worsened by the time she had James

his mother died as a complication of alcoholism

his consumption of fecal matter is a result of having been starved in the past (see: Blanche Monnier)

his brother trimmed his nails for him so he wouldn't hurt himself or others

Holden did not, but watched Bell at all times for entertainment, as Holden did not sleep, and would physically prevent severe harm (to prolong his entertainment)

muscular atrophy due to being kept in a cage, resulting in posture and movement difficulties, as well as exhaustion (see: the "Genie" child neglect case)

his being drawn to the river and to fire was not mere curiosity but a desire for death

thin, dark brown hair

born 1830

[certified-yapper-guy]

"if you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything"

the poverty line is set so low that many people living in difficult conditions are actually not considered 'poor' by the government?

Rs 1,632 per month for rural areas

Rs 1,944 per month for urban areas

This means if someone earns Rs. 55 per day, they are not considered poor!

the finance ministry is blind to how much indians actually earn and how much is needed to actually survive- remember, we haven't had the census yet, so no data available.

this govt is lying blatantly at this point and people are cheering for it.

[yzegem]

Sketch of common people from the Twisted Islands. Left to right: llama herder, guild apprentice, fisherman, guild militia man.

The archipellago is mostly made up of rocky atolls, coral reefs and small islands mostly inhabited by shrubs, migratory birds, seals and rodents. (Also llamas introduced by humans).

These poor ecosystems are not suited for large human population yet many people are attracted to the islands because of it's high portal activity (you can read about the magic system here, but I will later do another post about the "mages" of the islands). People from the islands come from many regions of the eastern seaway but mainly belong to the Iliryi seafaring etnithity, and most people speak their language and practice their religion centered around the sea and the portals.

For a long time the islands were not united but each ruled by a "monastic guild" wich investigated portals and lead rituals, divination and offers using them. Certain branches of the guilds opperated as beaurocrats, port tax collecters and managers, defence of the islands and barbers.

The importance of haircuts in the islands stems from their obsession with physical and spiritual cleanliness. People in the islands live in comunal spaces and often travelled between them, so they were very prone to epidemics. Most islands enforce quarantines, daily ritual bathing and frequent body inspections and shaving done by guild officials. This prevents lice from spreading but quickly became a sort of weekly census. Non guild people such as fishermen, divers, some sailors or shepperds shave their hair completely while guild members leave certain locks of hair wich they braid according to their guild branch and status within it.

After the unification of the islands, guilds were standardized into a single secretive entity. Their biggest secret is their use of portals for trade (wich requires years of training and deep knowledge of geometry) and their firearms. While people in the western continent are starting to use iron or bamboo handcannons and bronze mortars, the island's militia have precise matchlocks and powerful breech loading swivel cannons.

Most islands have rocky shores and only one suitable well defended port, so deploying large armies on the islands is basically imposible. These fortified atolls can hold a siege for years while reciving food and suplies from other islands vía portals and even keep making profits by trading.

For an object to be transported between to portals, the portal needs to be opened/primed on the two sides, so many small trading outpost have been set in foreign lands, sometimes willingly by local population and other times by force, wich creates tension with the twisted island's diasphora in other nations.

[womenaremypriority]

This is so horrific.

———————

I have been following Siro’s story for 30 years, ever since I went to interview her and four other rural midwives in India’s Bihar state in 1996.

They had been identified by a non-governmental organisation as being behind the murder of baby girls in the district of Katihar where, under pressure from the newborns’ parents, they were killing them by feeding them chemicals or simply wringing their necks.

Hakiya Devi, the eldest of the midwives I interviewed, told me at the time she had killed 12 or 13 babies. Another midwife, Dharmi Devi, admitted to killing more - at least 15-20.

It is impossible to ascertain the exact number of babies they may have killed, given the way the data was gathered.

But they featured in a report published in 1995 by an NGO, based on interviews with them and 30 other midwives. If the report’s estimates are accurate, more than 1,000 baby girls were being murdered every year in one district, by just 35 midwives. According to the report, Bihar at the time had more than half a million midwives. And infanticide was not limited to Bihar.

Refusing orders, Hakiya said, was almost never an option for a midwife.

���The family would lock the room and stand behind us with sticks,” says Hakiya Devi. “They’d say: ‘We already have four-five daughters. This will wipe out our wealth. Once we give dowry for our girls, we will starve to death. Now, another girl has been born. Kill her.’

“Who could we complain to? We were scared. If we went to the police, we’d get into trouble. If we spoke up, people would threaten us."

The role of a midwife in rural India is rooted in tradition, and burdened by the harsh realities of poverty and caste. The midwives I interviewed belonged to the lower castes in India’s caste hierarchy. Midwifery was a profession passed on to them by mothers and grandmothers. They lived in a world where refusing orders of powerful, upper-caste families was unthinkable.

The midwife could be promised a sari, a sack of grain or a small amount of money for killing a baby. Sometimes even that was not paid. The birth of a boy earned them about 1,000 rupees. The birth of a girl earned them half.

The reason for this imbalance was steeped in India’s custom of giving a dowry, they explained. Though the custom was outlawed in 1961, it still held strong in the 90s - and indeed continues into the present day.

A dowry can be anything - cash, jewellery, utensils. But for many families, rich or poor, it is the condition of a wedding. And this is what, for many, still makes the birth of a son a celebration and the birth of a daughter a financial burden.

Siro Devi, the only midwife of those I interviewed who is still alive, used a vivid physical image to explain this disparity in status.

“A boy is above the ground - higher. A daughter is below - lower. Whether a son feeds or takes care of his parents or not, they all want a boy.”

The preference for sons can be seen in India’s national-level data. Its most recent census, in 2011, recorded a ratio of 943 women to every 1,000 men. This is nevertheless an improvement on the 1990s - in the 1991 census, the ratio was 927/1,000.

By the time I finished filming the midwives’ testimonies in 1996, a small, silent change had begun. The midwives who once carried out these orders had started to resist. 

This change was instigated by Anila Kumari, a social worker who supported women in the villages around Katihar, and was dedicated to addressing the root causes of these killings.

Anila’s approach was simple. She asked the midwives, “Would you do this to your own daughter?”

Her question apparently pierced years of rationalisation and denial. The midwives got some financial help via community groups and gradually the cycle of violence was interrupted.

Siro, speaking to me in 2007, explained the change.

“Now, whoever asks me to kill, I tell them: ‘Look, give me the child, and I’ll take her to Anila Madam.’”

The midwives rescued at least five newborn girls from families who wanted them killed or had already abandoned them.

One child died, but Anila arranged for the other four to be sent to Bihar’s capital, Patna, to an NGO which organised their adoption.

The story could have ended there. But I wanted to know what had become of those girls who were adopted, and where life had taken them.

Anila’s records were meticulous but they had few details about post-adoption.

Working with a BBC World Service team, I got in touch with a woman called Medha Shekar who, back in the 90s, was researching infanticide in Bihar when the babies rescued by Anila and the midwives began arriving at her NGO. Remarkably, Medha was still in touch with a young woman who, she believed, was one of these rescued babies.

Anila told me that she had given all the girls saved by the midwives the prefix “Kosi” before their name, a homage to the Kosi river in Bihar. Medha remembered that Monica had been named with this “Kosi” prefix before her adoption.

The adoption agency would not let us look at Monica’s records, so we can never be sure. But her origins in Patna, her approximate date of birth and the prefix “Kosi” all point to the same conclusion: Monica is, in all probability, one of the five babies rescued by Anila and the midwives.

When I went to meet her at her parents’ home some 2,000km (1,242 miles) away in Pune, she said she felt lucky to have been adopted by a loving family.

“This is my definition of a normal happy life and I am living it,” she said.

Monica knew that she had been adopted from Bihar. But we were able to give her more details about the circumstances of her adoption.

Earlier this year, Monica travelled to Bihar to meet Anila and Siro. 

Monica saw herself as the culmination of years of hard work by Anila and the midwives.

“Someone prepares a lot to do well in an exam. I feel like that. They did the hard work and now they’re so curious to meet the result… So definitely, I would like to meet them.”

Anila wept tears of joy when she met Monica. But Siro’s response felt different.

She sobbed hard, holding Monica close and combing through her hair.

“I took you [to the orphanage] to save your life… My soul is at peace now,” she told her.

But when, a couple of days later, I attempted to press Siro about her reaction, she resisted further scrutiny.

“What happened in the past is in the past,” she said.

But what is not in the past is the prejudice some still hold against baby girls.

Reports of infanticide are now relatively rare, but sex-selective abortion remains common, despite being illegal since 1994.

If one listens to the traditional folk songs sung during childbirth, known as Sohar, in parts of north India, joy is reserved for the birth of a male child. Even in 2024, it is an effort to get local singers to change the lyrics so that the song celebrates the birth of a girl.

While we were filming our documentary, two baby girls were discovered abandoned in Katihar - one in bushes, another at the roadside, just a few hours old. One later died. The other was put up for adoption.

Before Monica left Bihar, she visited this baby in the Special Adoption Centre in Katihar.

She says she was haunted by the realisation that though female infanticide may have been reduced, abandoning baby girls continues.

“This is a cycle… I can see myself there a few years ago, and now again there’s some girl similar to me.”

But there were to be happier similarities too.

The baby has now been adopted by a couple in the north-eastern state of Assam. They have named her Edha, which means happiness.

“We saw her photo, and we were clear - a baby once abandoned cannot be abandoned twice,” says her adoptive father Gaurav, an officer in the Indian air force.

Every few weeks Gaurav sends me a video of Edha's latest antics. I sometimes share them with Monica.

Looking back, the 30 years spent on this story were never just about the past. It was about confronting uncomfortable truths. The past cannot be undone, but it can be transformed.

And in that transformation, there is hope.

[itellmyselfsecrets]

Some call women's segregation into low-paid work a choice. But it's a funny kind of choice when there is no realistic option other than the children not being cared for and the housework not getting done. In any case, fifty year's worth of US census data has proven that when women join an industry in high numbers, that industry attracts lower pay and loses 'prestige’, suggesting that low-paid work chooses women rather than the other way around. This choice-that-isn't-a-choice is making women poor…Women earn between 31% and 75% less than men over their lifetimes.

This all leaves women facing extreme poverty in their old age, in part because they simply can't afford to save for it. - Caroline Criado Perez (Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men)

[beardedmrbean]

Argentina's poverty rate fell sharply in the second half of 2024, according to official data released this week, marking a major milestone for President Javier Milei's sweeping economic reforms.

According to the country's official statistics agency, the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC), the poverty rate fell to 38.1 percent between July 2024 and December 2024—down nearly 15 percentage points from the first half of the year. Household poverty also declined by 13.9 percentage points, hitting 28.6 percent. And extreme poverty was cut by more than half, falling from 18.1 percent to 8.2 percent.

It's a major turnaround from the beginning of Milei's presidency. When he took office in December 2023, he inherited a poverty rate of 41.7 percent, which quickly surged to 53 percent as his administration launched a "shock therapy" program to end Argentina's economic misery.

One of the biggest drivers behind the poverty decline is the sharp drop in inflation. Annual inflation, which reached 276.2 percent a year ago—one of the highest in the world—dropped to 66.9 percent last month. Monthly inflation has also dropped, from 25.5 percent in December to just 2.4 percent in March.

"These figures reflect the failure of past policies, which plunged millions of Argentines into precarious conditions while promoting the idea of helping the poor, even as poverty continued to increase," Milei's office said in a statement following the release of the INDEC report. "The current administration has shown that the path of economic freedom and fiscal responsibility is the way to reduce poverty in the long term."

In other words, Milei's bet on free market reforms is starting to pay off. 

It's worth remembering the situation he walked into. "Milei inherited a country suffering from more than 200% inflation in 2023, 40% poverty, a fiscal and quasi-fiscal deficit of 15% of GDP, a huge and growing public debt, a bankrupt central bank, and a shrinking economy," writes Ian Vásquez of the Cato Institute.

In response, Milei promised a radical shift in Argentina's economic model. His government slashed government spending, eliminated price controls, devalued the peso, cut subsidies, suspended public works, and laid off thousands of government workers. The changes weren't popular, but they were necessary. And now, the numbers are catching up.

The economy is growing again. Gross domestic product grew in the last two quarters. The gap between the black-market dollar and the official rate has narrowed. Rents have fallen and the housing supply has increased since rent control laws were scrapped. Meanwhile, investor interest in Argentina is beginning to return, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is in talks with Milei's government over a new program. The IMF projects a 5 percent growth for Argentina in 2025. 

Still, challenges remain. Despite the improvement, over 11 million Argentines are still living in poverty, with 2.5 million facing extreme poverty. And more than half of all children ages 14 and under in Argentina are poor. 

Milei has consistently said that his adjustment plan would have a "negative impact on the level of activity, employment, real wages, and the number of poor and indigent people," before it started to work. Things are finally starting to get better and at the right time. 

With midterm elections coming in October, Milei's party, La Libertad Avanza, has an opportunity to expand its influence. Right now, the party holds only a small share of congressional seats. But with half of the lower house and a third of the Senate up for grabs, the growing economic momentum could give Milei the support he needs to deepen and accelerate his reforms.

[probablyasocialecologist]

America isn’t suffering from a housing shortage. Housing production has lagged behind household growth since 2010, but this doesn’t account for the massive overhang of housing produced in the previous decade. Fueled by the housing bubble of 2000-07, 160 homes were added to the stock for every 100 households formed during the aughts, our analysis of Census Bureau data shows. This level of production created a huge surplus of housing, which has yet to be fully absorbed. Put differently, from 2000-21, the nation grew by 18.5 million households. To maintain an adequate inventory of vacant housing, which historically would be 9.3% of the total, the housing stock needed to expand by 20.2 million units. Instead, it grew by 23.7 million housing units, producing a surplus of 3.5 million units.

[...]

It’s conceivable that a huge increase in supply would eventually lead to lower prices. But that would require a major intervention in the market, and the case for it is weak. U.S. housing policy should focus less on adding to the already ample stock of housing and more on raising the incomes of low-income households and giving them access to good-quality housing in safe neighborhoods. We know how to do this. Raising minimum wages to the living-wage level will help the working poor afford housing. Zoning reform can encourage the production of multifamily housing, accessory apartments, and other less-expensive housing formats. Subsidized construction should be targeted for supportive housing and for affordable rental housing in places with actual housing shortages. The most effective housing assistance for low-income households is not found in building more units but in helping low-income households afford the units that already exist through housing vouchers for renter households and down-payment assistance for home buyers. The U.S. cannot build itself out of its housing crisis.

[whencyclopedia]

Social Change in the British Industrial Revolution

The British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) witnessed a great number of technical innovations, such as steam-powered machines, which resulted in new working practices, which in turn brought many social changes. More women and children worked than ever before, for the first time more people lived in towns and cities than in the countryside, people married younger and had more children, and people's diet improved. The workforce become much less skilled than previously, and many workplaces became unhealthy and dangerous. Cities suffered from pollution, poor sanitation, and crime. The urban middle class expanded, but there was still a wide and unbridgeable gap between the poor, the majority of whom were now unskilled labourers, and the rich, who were no longer measured by the land they owned but by their capital and possessions.

Urbanisation

The population of Britain rose dramatically in the 18th century, so much so that a nationwide census was conducted for the first time in 1801. The census was repeated every decade thereafter and showed interesting results. Between 1750 and 1851, Britain's population rose from 6 million to 21 million. London's population grew from 959,000 in 1801 to 3,254,000 in 1871. The population of Manchester in 1801 was 75,000 but 351,000 in 1871. Other cities witnessed similar growth. The 1851 census revealed that, for the first time, more people were living in towns and cities than in the countryside.

More young people meeting each other in a more confined urban setting meant marriages happened earlier, and the birth rate went up compared to societies in rural areas (which did rise, too, but to a lesser degree). For example, "In urban Lancashire in 1800, 40 per cent of 17-30-year-olds were married, compared to 19 per cent in rural Lancashire. In rural Britain, the average age of marriage was 27, in most industrial areas 24, and in mining areas about 20" (Shelley, 98).

Urbanisation did not mean there was no community spirit in towns and cities. Very often people living in the same street pulled together in a time of crisis. Communities around mines and textile mills were particularly close-knit with everyone being involved in the same profession and with a community spirit and pride fostered by such activities as a colliery or mill band. Workers also got together to form clubs to save up for an annual outing, usually to the seaside.

Life became cramped in the cities that had grown up around factories and coalfields. Many families were obliged to share the same cheaply-built home. "In Liverpool in the 1840s, 40,000 people were living in cellars, with an average of six people per cellar" (Armstrong, 188). Pollution became a serious problem in many places. Poor sanitation – few streets had running water or drains, and non-flushing toilets were often shared between households – led to the spread of diseases. In 1837, 1839, and 1847, there were typhus epidemics. In 1831 and 1849, there were cholera epidemics. Life expectancy rose because of better diet and new vaccinations, but infant mortality could be high in some periods, sometimes over 50% for the under-fives. Not until the 1848 Public Health Act did governments even begin to assume responsibility for improving sanitation, and even then local health boards were slow to form in reality. Another effect of urbanisation was the rise in petty crime. Criminals were now more confident of escaping detection in the ever-increasing anonymity of life in the cities.

Cities became concentrations of the poor, surviving off the charity of those more fortunate. Children roamed the streets begging. Children without homes or a job, if they were boys, were often trained to become a Shoe Black, that is someone who shined shoes in the street. These paupers were given this opportunity by charitable organisations so that they would not have to go to the infamous workhouse. The workhouse was brought into existence in 1834 with the Poor Law Amendment Act. The workhouse was deliberately intended to be such an awful place that it did little more than keep its male, female, and child inhabitants alive, in the belief that any more charity than that would simply encourage the poor not to bother looking for paid work. The workhouse involved what its name suggests – work, but it was tedious work indeed, typically unpleasant and repetitive tasks like crushing bones to make glue or cleaning the workhouse itself. Despite all the problems, urbanisation continued so that by 1880 only 20% of Britain's population lived in rural areas.

Continue reading...

[marzipanandminutiae]

you know, the Horrible Histories "Victorian names were WEIRD!!!!" skit leaves out some important info on some of the names (assisted by Ancestry.com searches):

Lettice Berger: "Lettice" was an anglicization of the Roman name "Leticia." Berger is just a normal German surname. Yes, they had the word "lettuce," and I'm sure the similarities occurred to them. But nobody named their child "lettuce" like the vegetable.

O.K. Johnson: Probably just the kid's initials. "O.K." as a slang term was invented in 1830s Boston, but without any evidence of when little O.K. lived (they don't cite any sourced for these names, how convenient), it's impossible to tell whether it would have crossed the pond by the time he was born.

Never [they pronounce the surname Rookrook]: I found a LOT of Nevers in the UK with Indian surnames. So uh. There's that. And a lot of census records online seem to have notes written by the census-taker mislabeled as names- "never opens door" was one I noticed. Just saying. I also found multiple "NEVA Rook" census entries- which probably would have been pronounced "NEE-vah" but sounds like "Never" with a British accent if you tilt your head and squint.

Toilet: Surprisingly common modern misreading of "Violet" on 19th-century censuses with bad handwriting.

Baboon: Found one census where it's a misreading of "Barbara;" others were non-Anglo names like Baban, Babyon, Babboni, etc.

Susan Semolina-Thrower: That's just two unfortuate surnames, I'm guessing? I can't find their sources, again, but I do find a lot of records of "Semolina" as a surname in the UK during the 19th century. The poor parents had no control over that, did they?

Happy: ...yeah, it's a virtue name. And? How is that weirder than Faith, Hope, Grace, Patience, Prudence, etc?

Evil: Another census misreading- usually "Evie."

Minty Badger: "Minty" is short for Araminta/Aminta/Arminta. Still sounds like a Discworld character, but nothing would sound normal with "Badger" as a surname. Araminta Badger at least makes more sense to modern ears, though.

Freezer Breezer: Breezer was a real surname, and parents can be cruel. I don't doubt that- my dad went to school with an "Emily Memily." that being said...I did find a "Fred R. Breezer" born in 1873 in England; see above re: census misreadings. Just throwing that out there. I found it as a corruption/misspelling of "Fraser/Frasier" too.

Scary Looker: I actually found this one. It was a misreading of "Jeany" on a census- the girl's name was Jane Looker, born 1841 in Lancashire to John and Elizabeth Looker. Nice research there, team.

Farting Clack: Fasting Clack or Clark, born 1863 in London. Another lovely misreading from the census. True "Fasting Clark" is not NOT a weird name, but it's a lot less horrible than "Farting Clack" and it makes sense under the Hyper-Christian Parents category.

Princess Cheese was real, not a nickname, and not a misreading or misspelling. Princess May Cheese was born in 1896 in West Bromwich. She married one John T. Brookes in 1914- possibly eager to no longer be a Cheese?

Multiple people really have been christened Bovril, most notably one Bovril Simpson, married in West Ham in 1911.

Incredibly, Raspberry/Rasberry/Roseberry is a real given name, and Lemon a real surname. Most people named Raspberry seem to have been men.

So that's only three of their Wacky Victorian Names that are actually 100% real. Nice job, there, team. I love Ghosts, but get your collective act together!

(They did once have a skit insisting that Victorians called trousers "the southern necessity" when that's actually a phrase from the writings of famously terrible 19th-century author Amanda McKittrick Ros, whose work her contemporaries loved poking fun at. So I shouldn't be surprised)

[bluesfreakingart]

what would actually happen if one were to go into jervis' cell and hug him? would he like... snap your neck? im confused as to why we are being dissuaded from hugging the cuddle boy

WELL, Jerv wouldn't just snap someones neck for no reason! that's a waste of resources and people he could use or make connections with, if he did manage to make one with staff or something.

Killing is messy and causes a lot of conflict with other parties if it happens to be he somehow snuffed out a semi important person. For the most part he only does that when as stated he has no choice/it's a bigger hassle to let someone live....ooooor you pressed a big huge red button that said "I'm going to hurt someone he is fixated on/loves."

like say for example some poor sods trying to attack the trio of rogues and manage to hurt either Ed or Jon, even worse, both? that's when he'd be like a semi truck sprinting in your direction at full force to straight up take you off the census,regardless of his own status physical or otherwise.

Tipping the emotional teapot over will get an anger that could rival the red queen.

he's just a gamble, less so than the other two but still...

[eretzyisrael]

by Simon Sebag Montefiore

There is a myth that the last antisemitic pogrom in the British Isles was in medieval York. It was far more recent than that: The long-forgotten Limerick pogrom happened in 1904. It began with a sermon given by a priest and gathered momentum because it was backed by Arthur Griffith, the founder of the original Sinn Féin and friend of Michael Collins.

The story of the Limerick pogrom (or “boycott,” as it is also known) has a special resonance for me because my grandfather and his family, the Jaffes, lived in Limerick then—though they never mentioned it. Indeed, Irish Jewry, including its most famous son, Chaim Herzog, late president of Israel, had protested that Ireland was the most tolerant land in Europe. Now it appears that they protested too much. The strangest thing of all is that the Jews of today’s Ireland are still frightened of telling this story. When I made a television film about the pogrom, most Irish Jews were too scared of “making trouble, attracting attention” to take part in it.

I had always been proud of my Irish roots. My late grandfather, Henry Jaffe, who lost his Irish accent but kept his debonair Irish charm, used to say that he had seen mermaids at Ballybunion, and Aunt Rose used to reminisce in an Irish brogue about the Limerick Races. While talking to a distinguished Irish political writer, I mentioned that I was descended from Limerick Jews. He told me the story that became the basis of my film about the origins of Sinn Féin.

Virtually the whole Jewish community in Limerick, numbering about 170, were from the village of Akmenė in the Tsar’s Baltic territories, which are now Lithuania—part of the Pale of Settlement, the only area where Jews were allowed to live. When in the 1880s Nicholas II stepped up his anti-Jewish legislation, my great-great-grandfather Benjamin Jaffe and most of Akmenė decided to leave before the Cossacks returned. Benjamin bought a ticket for New York, but when he arrived at the picturesque imperial British port of Queenstown in southern Ireland (now called Cobh, whence the Titanic departed on its final voyage), he was told that he had arrived in the New World. “But that doesn’t look like New York,” the Jews protested as they disembarked. “New York’s the next parish,” they were told. When they discovered this was not the case, they settled in Limerick.

They lived together in considerable poverty on Colooney Street, which soon became known as Little Jerusalem. In the 1901 census, four years before the pogrom, my maternal family were registered as peddlers. The patriarch, Benjamin, a magnificent man with a long white beard, was a peddler, though really he was the chazan (singer) and mohel (circumciser) of the little community. He lived at 64 Colooney Street and his son Max, aged 26, lived at Number 31 with his own family, which included my grandfather Henry, aged 3, and my great-aunt Rose, aged 1.

The family has always been proud that Max was a dentist, but I soon discovered that he was not technically qualified; the census called him, alarmingly, “dental mechanic.” It comments dryly that the family could read and write. They must have been the most erudite peddlers who ever existed, for they were as scholarly as they were poor. My grandfather’s bar mitzvah speech is written in both English and in fluent ancient Hebrew, and filled with biblical references.

However hard it was to do business in Limerick, it seemed a safer sanctuary than Russia. But three years after the census, when my grandfather was 6, hatred of this tiny Jewish community reached fever pitch among the very poor Irish to whom they sold their wares. They often sold on credit, and this caused savage resentment. Sometimes when a Jew went to the surrounding countryside to collect a debt, peasant women would pull out their breasts, shout “Rape!,” and then the men would beat up the Jew. An ostentatious Jewish wedding apparently caused jealousy. The pogrom was the result of the increasingly vicious agitation of the spiritual director of Limerick’s Redemptorist Order, Father John Creagh, whose church overshadowed Little Jerusalem. The climax came when Creagh, “a speaker of fervid eloquence,” gave his sermon entitled “How the Israelites trade,” on Monday, January 11, 1904. It reads like a grotesque parody of antisemitism:

The Jews rejected Jesus, they crucified Him and called down the curse of His precious blood on their own heads. . . they did not hesitate to shed Christian blood. Nowadays they dare not kidnap and slay Christian children, but they will not hesitate to expose them to a longer and more cruel martyrdom by taking the clothes off their backs and the bit out of their mouths.

Then Creagh came to the Jews of Limerick:

Twenty years ago and less, Jews were known only by name and evil repute in Limerick. They were sucking the blood of other nations, but those nations turned them out. And they come to our land to fasten themselves like leeches. Their rags have been exchanged for silk. They have wormed themselves into every business. . . the furniture trade, the milk trade, the drapery trade—and they have even traded under Irish names. . . . The victims of the Jews are mostly women. . . .The Jew has a sweet tongue when he wishes. . . . If you want an example, look to France. What is at present going on in that land?

The reference to the Dreyfus scandal is significant.

The injustice of it was little consolation to the Jews of Colooney Street when the thousand or so worshippers of Creagh’s church poured out, as they were to do daily for a month. A huge drunken mob gathered, wielding burning torches. They worked their way down Colooney Street smashing windows and front doors, and forcing their way into the houses which they then looted. For more than a month the Jews of Limerick waited, terrified in their own homes, almost starving, for Creagh had urged the people not to pay their debts. No one would do business with them. If they walked in the streets, they were beaten. The only miracle was that no one lost his life, but for the Jews who had just escaped the Cossacks, it was terrifying.

[unhingedwomandiaries]

It's fuck-off o'clock in the morning and I've just spent four hours reading about the 4B Movement and Project 2025 because apparently, I hate myself and the concept of sleep. Here I am, 35, married, and still up reading political manifestos like some caffeinated uni student, except this time it's 922 pages of pure dystopian wank that makes any murder plots look positively wholesome.

Let's chat about Kamala Harris, because Christ on a bike, the internet's lost its bloody mind over this one. Apparently, if you think she was a shit candidate, you must hate women - which is about as logical as saying if you don't like Marmite, you must be plotting to destroy British cuisine. Yeah, being a woman fucked her over. Being not-white didn't help either. But let's be real - she couldn't give a straight answer about trans rights, going all "let's follow the law" which is politician speak for "I'm too chickenshit to have an actual opinion." Plus, she locked up people for smoking weed after admitting she did it herself. Bit rich, that. While she was trying to actually govern (mental concept, I know), Trump was out there building his cult like some bargain basement Charles Manson, and everyone's shocked she lost the popularity contest? Fucking hell.

Then there's this 4B Movement bollocks. Started in South Korea and now we've got women demanding to see voting receipts before dating. Like, actual proof of voting. What do they think we do, keep our voting slips in a special wank bank next to our collection of celebrity crushes? My Jewish granddad married a Catholic who ended up an atheist, and somehow they managed without checking each other's political CVs. I've got family from all over - Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Peru, Lebanon - and somehow we've all managed not to murder each other without demanding to see everyone's voting history. Mental.

But the thing that's proper doing my head in is Project 2025. I read all 922 fucking pages because apparently, I'm a masochist. It's like someone took every dystopian novel ever and thought "bit tame, these - let's make them government policy." They want to make tens of thousands of federal workers political puppets, bin off the Department of Education, gut Medicare and Medicaid, make porn illegal, fuck over anyone who's not straight, and use the military as domestic police. They're actually trying to change "pursuit of happiness" to "pursuit of blessedness" like we're living in some medieval morality play. The Constitution apparently doesn't let us do what we want, only what we "ought to." Who decides what we ought to do? Three guesses, and the first two don't count.

The education stuff is proper mental. They want to kill the Department of Education, move special education somewhere else, cut funding for poor kids, and end free school meals. Because nothing says "make America great" like starving children, right? Bunch of twats.

And get this - they want to bring back the citizenship question on the census even though the Supreme Court told them to fuck off. They're suggesting merging banking regulators while casually hinting that maybe deposit insurance isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's like they're playing Jenga with people's lives, except instead of wooden blocks it's actual humans.

Their president, Kevin Roberts (what a bellend), actually wrote that we need to fight against "children suffering the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries." I grew up with a Muslim roommate who wore her hijab when she felt like it, parents who couldn't agree on God but agreed on not being dicks about it, and somehow I turned out fine without the government deciding what makes a "good life."

I should probably sleep, but I can't stop thinking about how a country that was meant to keep church and state separate is seriously considering a plan that's basically Jesus's manifesto with a side of fascism. Trump's lot are now going "Project what now?" even though the document mentions him more times than Dexter has murdered people (and that's saying something).

Maybe what's keeping me up isn't just the policies, but the fact that we're not just deciding what kind of country we want to be - we're deciding if we want to keep being a country that gets to decide things at all.

P.S. Remember when we thought the biggest threat to democracy was people not voting? Fucking amateur hour, that was.

[anonymous-dentist]

Absolutely obsessed with Spiderbit's record books because:

Cellbit's official residence isn't his castle. It's Quesadilla Island's Federation Headquarters, aka the offices you get to via the train station

They actually have his blood type on record!

Also, does this mean that his employee number could be 435? Which is interesting because his coworkers and all the other Federation employees refer to him as "Mr. Cellbit", which is kinda like the Census Bureau because Cellbit more or less works under Cucurucho directly. And, as we know now, Cucurucho isn't actually a Federation employee, so maybe Cellbit isn't officially an employee, either.

Roier's home, again, is not listed as Cellbit's castle, which is where he's been living basically since his marriage. Everybody knows that he doesn't live in Bobby's Castle or Bobby's City because that's all just an extension of Bobby's Tomb, and Roier hasn't been in his house more than ten times since Bobby's death six months ago.

And then there are the kills:

(Cellbit, left. Roier, right.)

I've been sitting here for a WHILE trying to think of who they've killed-killed, and I think I've figured it out?

Cellbit, I believe the day before his wedding, murdered Maximus because Maxo was talking about politics, and that was Not Allowed. Outside of that time, he has made a point of not killing any players because of his Trauma- the only players he's ever properly attacked outside of that kill have been Forever (day of the wedding, Roier asked him to) and then Maxo again during the Gordinho Gostosinho interview (Maxo triggered him by bringing up his past, and he got revived by Richarlyson iirc.)

Outside of players, Cellbit has killed Abueloier once. He tried to kill him for good, but it somehow didn't stick. Abueloier doesn't count as a player because he isn't part of the experiment (aka he's played by cc!Roier as an NPC.)

Roier, meanwhile, has made a point out of not attacking literally anybody first because he doesn't like resorting to violence. He just doesn't Do That, hence why Etoiles was so happy when Roier started going apeshit and murdering people during Purgatory. He never even attacked his mortal enemies, Quackity and Spreen, after their betrayal (but tbh what he was gonna do to Spreen is worse than death.)

So who did Roier kill?

Well, a while ago he was running around playing with explosives, and he foreshadowed the hell out of the Purgatory ending when he blew up Maximus on a tiny little island, killing him and erasing little baby Trump(et)'s last sign.

Poor Maxo?

Anyway idk what any of this means, I just think it's super interesting