#cholera pit

[xnorthstar3x]

What if I posted a series about Ghosts (cbs) would anyone read it?I do have an idea for a reader insert please vote on your favorites

Edit: maybe a Bridgerton type character

[the-mighty-toast-wizard]

Guess Venom snakes going to WoodStone B&B to hang out with Sam, Jay, and the Ghosts

[verdemoun]

Kieran Duffy's childhood headcanons:

kieran was a rainbow baby. mammy duffy gave birth alone in an empty house with no medical care expecting him to be another stillbirth. when that tiny pale thing with dark hair started crying she wailed as loudly as he did while cradling him close

pappy duffy worked in the mines, specifically working with the pit ponies. he was v admired by his fellow miners for his ability to get the most skittish horses to settle and drag terrifyingly massive wagon loads out of the colliery. kieran's love of horses is inherited (read: they both had autism and a shared hyperfixation)

mammy duffy was feral animal levels of protective with her baby and would not let his father hold him until he had scrubbed his arms red washing off soot and grime from work.

kieran was actually born in the homeland but the second pappy duffy realized he had a baby, a tiny little son at that, he started working triple-shifts to afford tickets to america so he could have a chance at a better life than they had

kieran's nickname as a child was mousey. he was extremely shy, nervous and quiet around anyone except his parents who were both very open about how much they adored him. he had a very severe stutter and oftentimes only his parents understood what he was trying to say

as a child he got into the habit of playing hide and seek without actually telling anyone they were meant to be seeking. mammy duffy wanted to sew bells into his clothes so she could hear when he was running off. pappy duffy was always much better at finding him.

mammy duffy was the very image of an irish catholic immigrant mother. pappy duffy was v religious when they originally got married but after seeing so much horror and death in the mines he became a lot more apathetic towards the idea of God. she still dragged them all to church every single week

none of them could read

pappy duffy caught kieran kissing another stableboy where they worked and had to talk kieran down from a panic attack. he said that the second he was born they loved him unconditionally (as long as the boy he fancied was irish (he was)) and then proceeded to entertain him with stories of the dozens of men who had fancied him back in his mining days. boasted his son inherited his looks (he did not, kieran thankfully looked much more like his mother) kieran didn't want his mammy to know and pappy reluctantly agreed, though reminded him if he ever did want to tell her he would stand by his son if she said anything untoward

mammy duffy never became less protective of her baby boy and on one occasion beat a child she found picking on her son with a broom. while an upstanding figure of 19th century womanhood, mammy duffy was readily capable of murder if needed to protect her family

kieran got cholera as well when his parents were sick. his parents pushed through their own illness trying to nurse him and still thought they'd failed in their final moments. kieran woke up in bed being held by his parents' corpses. he buried them himself. the stable he'd been working at before their death threw him out because he'd been sick too (they soon died of cholera anyway)

[rabbitcruiser]

World Toilet Day

World Toilet Day…at first glance, this seems like an unlikely candidate for a holiday and more like some sort of joke, but the day is nowhere as trivial or humorous as it may seem. All in all, it strives to draw attention to various sanitation issues around the world and work towards resolving them.

Despite access to proper sanitation being declared a basic human right, one in three people across the globe, so some 2.5 billion people in total, do not have regular access to a toilet. Additionally, even amongst those who do have such access, unclean and unsafe toilets pose problems of their own, including contributing towards the spread of diseases like cholera, typhoid and hepatitis—in some parts of Africa, diarrhea is one of the main child-killers.

Open defecation is also responsible for increasing the number of sexual assaults perpetrated on women and children. Furthermore, when young girls begin menstruating, the lack of privacy forces them to stay home from school, thus limiting their chances of getting a basic education and, what comes after that, a decent job in the future. World Toilet Day’s ultimate goal is to allow everyone on the planet to take care of their most basic needs without having to fear for their safety.

History of World Toilet Day

World Toilet Day was created by the World Toilet Organization in 2001. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations said: “We have a moral imperative to end open defecation and a duty to ensure women and girls are not at risk of assault and rape simply because they lack a sanitation facility.”

He went on to talk about how having to defecate openly infringes on human safety and dignity, and how women and girls risk rape and abuse as they wait until night falls to relieve themselves because they lack of access to a toilet that offers privacy. Another issue is that toilets generally remain inadequate for populations with special needs, such as the disabled and elderly.

Since its inception, World Toilet Day has played a vital role in challenging governments, businesses and other groups to make changes. It has also worked towards breaking various taboos surrounding the topic, in order to facilitate discussion and lead to the creation of better, safer solutions.

World Toilet Day Timeline

3000 BC Pipes carry waste

Even a few thousand years ago various people groups (in Scotland, India, Mesopotamia and more) would use pipe systems to carry waste out of their houses and into rivers or streams.

100-200 AD Group toilets for soldiers

Remains of Housesteads Roman Fort at Hadrian’s Wall in the UK reveals that perhaps 20 or more soldiers would all use a common ‘toilet’ (essentially these were long benches with holes in them) at the same time.

Middle Ages (500-1500 AD) Garderobes are used

Predating the toilet, “garderobes” were little rooms that hung over the sides of the castle. This little closet had a bench with a hole in it where the waste would drop into a moat or pit below.

During this time, many people would also use chamber pots, which would be kept in bedrooms or ‘chambers’ and then emptied (sometimes simply thrown out the window) when full. This function carried on for quite some time.

1596 Flushing toilet is invented

Although its widespread use did not arrive until a couple of centuries later, the first flushing toilet was described by Sir John Harington, an English courtier. This toilet was a pot that used gravity to feed water through it from a cistern that sat upstairs.

1775 First toilet patent issued

Scottish Inventor Alexander Cummings was the creator of the important pipe that ran in an S-shape below the bowl. This ingenious design used the water in the bowl to seal off the sewer gas from below and eventually led the way to mass production of the toilet.

1829 First toilets in a hotel

The Tremont Hotel in Boston, USA installed eight indoor water closets for its guests.

1866 World’s first bathroom showroom

Marlboro Works showroom is opened by English sanitary engineer Thomas Crapper (yes, that’s his real name). At a time when people didn’t speak much about their bodily functions, this public display of toilets was revolutionary.

1880s Thomas Crapper invents the ballcock

Toilets that have this invention, the “ballcock”, are less likely to overflow. Crapper created the floating valve as well as eight other patented improvements for plumbing and sewage. He also did a lot of plumbing for British royalty around this time. 

1910 Elevated water tank

A similar design to today’s toilets, the closed water tank and bowl moves into common use.

1986 Sensor flushes introduced

In Japan, the first toilets with sensors that would flush on their own were used.

2001 World Toilet Organization is created

The World Toilet Organization moves to educate people about the sanitation crisis.  Even in today’s modern times, more than 2 billion people across the world still do not have access to a toilet.

2013 World Toilet Day made official by the UN

In an effort to raise awareness and support for places where people don’t have proper access to sanitation, the first UN World Toilet Day is celebrated on November 19, 2013.

How to celebrate World Toilet Day

I think by now it’s been made abundantly clear that World Toilet Day is far from being a joke, dealing instead with the protection of one of humanity’s most basic rights. So how can you help? There are a number of things you could do. For starters, why not visit the World Toilet Day website, Facebook page or Twitter account and share the message across social media platforms?

This may seem like a tiny, unimportant gesture, but raising awareness about serious problems is one of the things social media does best, aside from bombarding you with pictures of babies and kittens. The more people know about a problem, the more money can be raised to fight it, as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge so perfectly demonstrated. So don’t think your clicking “share” means anything. It doesn’t.

Another thing you could do as a way of observing World Toilet Day Would be of course to make a donation, so if you have the means, know that every dollar helps.

Source

[fireladybuckley]

Who you boopin’?

[rinusagitora]

I've turned like sour milk.

Fandom: Bleach Characters; Karin Kurosaki, Toushirou Hitsugaya, Momo Hinamori, Shunsui Kyouraku, Shinji Hirako, Lisa Yadomaru, Roujuurou Outoribashi, Rangiku Matsumoto, Izuru Kira, Shuuhei Hisagi, Renji Abarai Pairings: HitsuKarin-centric, mentions of RenShuuKiraHina, Rannao, ShinRose, & ShunUki Words: 4.2k Summary: Karin's dead now like she's always wanted. She's lucky enough to be housed by Momo and her spouses, but her troubles are far from over. Warnings: References of suicide & self-injury AO3: works/54973525 A/N: Written for HitsuKarin Week 2024.

Karin left the World of the Living wearing shorts and a tank top, barefoot having left her shoes on the bridge. Now she wears a white kimono, folded over like she's a corpse. She can't stop fiddling with the sleeves. She isn't used to their bell-shape. She isn't used to the fabric.

They trek through Ichibantai. The division is, more or less, what Karin expected it to be: antiquated. The floorboards squeal while Momo and Toushirou guide her towards the soutaichou's office. The building is a labyrinth, almost dreamlike. Evergreens cast shadows on the walls no matter where they are or how deep they venture. It's unnerving.

She knows this plane is but a graveyard. The overwhelming majority of the people here have died and carry that horror with them and it shows. Toushirou is now a century old. He still remembers the Russo-Japanese War and cholera. He got misty-eyed when she cracked a joke that he died on the can, and she's never felt as much of an awful person since, even after they made up. Naturally, the plane in which these people reside reflects the dawning of mortality, especially at night when the veil is thinnest. The knowledge of this doesn't keep the most primal parts of her from bristling.

They pause in front of a massive, carved door. Momo repacks her tobacco pipe, lights it with a spark from her snapping fingers. She takes a deep breath and knocks.

Shunsui is not what Karin expected. He opens the door, fixing a lively kimono over his shoulders.

"Hello. Thank you for meeting me at this time," he says. She smells sake on his breath. Her heart pounds. There's an odd emittance from him. Everyone has an aura. Toushirou's aura provokes the image of a dragon coiled around a snow-capped mountain. An icy exterior with a longing for stability found in authority. Momo's is a balefire in a meadow, or pushing around chicken in search of divination. Shunsui's aura is harder to peg. It's like a jack-in-the-box, if the puppet on the spring was a live snake. He is not the facade he dons.

"Soutaichou," Momo says. The three bow in unison. "Thank you for your accommodations. I understand it's after hours, but I presume you understand why I'd like to get this finished sooner rather than later."

Shunsui steps aside and they enter the office. The rice paper doors are open to a manicured stone garden. It's warm, despite it being late spring now, and she sees a kotatsu and a fire going in the pit. 

They take a seat around the kotatsu. Karin's legs ache the second she assumes seiza. The way Shunsui lounges makes her think they're being too formal, or that he loves seeing others prostrate.

"I'm sure you all understand these are most unusual circumstances," Shunsui says.

Momo smiles. "Is anything to do with the Kurosaki usual?"

Shunsui hums. He pours four glasses of sake. "Neither of you were present for Kuchiki's execution, but Kurosaki gave us the opportunity to save her from the execution and bring light to Sousuke's crimes. I can appreciate disruption."

He slides sake glasses over to them. Karin gingerly takes her cup and sips. It burns. This is far from her first taste of liquor, but it's strong shit. She's fuzzy the second it hits her belly. 

"Kurosaki-chan," Shunsui says. His cup touches his lips. "What were the circumstances of your death?"

Toushirou chimes, "She--"

Shunsui's hand lifts to stop him. "I want to hear it from her."

She's staring into the eyes of a nasty spirit while they drink. Her throat will be slit if her gaze averts. 

There's a dozen reasons why she drowned herself, each worse than the last, and increasingly private. She's never been good at politics. Even with the Gotei's multiple life debts to Ichigo, she's certain whatever she says will be held against her.

Karin gnaws on her lip and says, "This is all I've wanted."

"To die?" Shunsui says.

"No. To become a shinigami."

He chuckles. "But a short eighty years, and I'm sure you would've accomplished it."

"Eighty years of bumping into things isn't a life," she argues. "I'm sure you've seen my work, Soutaichou. It's all I want."

"Being a shinigami isn't all about exorcism," he says.

"I know. Toushi-- Hitsugaya-taichou is secretive, but he tells me there's a lot of paperwork no matter where you go."

"You've wanted this for a short... what? Five? Six years?" You understand we live forever unless we're killed or starve, right? Eons of fighting. Of dreary paperwork. Of the world ending. Over and over again."

Karin's heart pounds. She wishes it was dread. Instead, it's the thrill of a roller coaster. Of a promise. Of fresh love.

"May I ask a question, Soutaichou?" Karin says. He waves as permission. "In your years as a shinigami, have you been unfulfilled?" Shunsui is quiet. "My issue isn't as simple as disliking school. Even when my grades were okay, I'd look around what I could do with those skills, and all of it just seemed like a chore. Nursing was fulfilling, but I never had the bedside manner for it. The times I've battled hollows, and the times I've worked with your officers, have been the only times my skin has fit right.

Karin slides her cup onto the tabletop. "You ask why I killed myself. I couldn't go on, day after day, in skin that fit wrong."

"You're so much like your brother." Shunsui sips. "You've always done what's right for you."

Karin frowns. "Is that--"

Toushirou interrupts with, "That isn't an inherently bad quality, Soutaichou. Ichigo Kurosaki and his companions took out over half of our biggest threats for the Winter War during their excursion to Hueco Mundo. I'm confident our losses would've significantly increased if we faced the full force of Aizen's Court." He sips. "She has just as much to offer, and without Kurosaki's shortcomings."

Shunsui's gaze drinks her in. "Then what are your shortcomings, dear?"

Karin swallows. She isn't sure what else to do other than tell the truth. "I'm not always good at listening to authority. I have a temper as well," she replies.

"A temper?" Shunsui reiterates.

Momo scoffs. A cloud of tobacco billows around her face, and she says, while ashing her pipe into a ceramic tray, "All due respect, Soutaichou, our own have far more dangerous tempers. Is it not Mayuri Kurotsuchi-taichou who beat his lieutenant and daughter up until her demise during the Wandenreich invasion?"

"Kurotsuchi-taichou's usefulness is undisputed."

"That's exactly what I mean. Whatever shortcomings Karin has are a fraction of what we have in our uppermost echelon presently. You yourself acknowledge that acting against authority isn't inherently bad. Was it not you and the late Ukitake-taichou who rebelled against Central Forty-Six and your predecessor's orders for Rukia's execution? Do our present captains not have destructive tempers? Were we not founded on slaughter?"

Shunsui taps his cup with his finger. "I see now why you are so special to Nanao."

"I was given lucidity once Sousuke's influence was erased. She values that."

Shunsui leans back on his palm. "My niece has lived a thousand years and accrued wisdom of the ages for it. You have been the only one to share that, and at an infinitesimal age. Your input is one of the few I can take at face value."

There's a wave of indignity from Toushirou that Karin chooses to ignore for now. He's always butthurt when people aren't falling over his prodigal skills.

Shunsui stands and they stand with him. He circles the kotatsu and meets Karin. "It would be an honor to have you as our own, Kurosaki-chan. Once the exams open, you'll take an aptitude test, and your education at Shin'oureijutsuin will begin.

Karin smiles and bows. She can't believe this shit worked. "Karin is fine, Soutaichou. Thank you."

Shunsui bows, and they bow afterward. "Best of luck to you all. Good night."

Karin follows Momo and Toushirou into the night. He grabs her hand. She's fuzzy from booze, but optimistic.

"Well, that went spectacularly," Momo sighs. She takes a moment to puff from her pipe. "Now that that's done, let's go make merriment. Supper should be ready, don't you think?"

Toushirou sighs. "I'm just glad Muguruma's cooking skills are rubbing off on Hisagi."

"He's always been a good cook, you're just spoiled by Obaa-san's cooking."

"Yeah, yeah..."

Karin's heard a fair amount of Momo's husbands from Toushirou. He doesn't seem to get along with them, but tells her their relationship was more strained a few years ago, before the wedding. She's having trouble recalling any of their names, but knows one of them is a close friend of both Ichigo and Rukia, which is bad news for Karin. Ichigo's friends always seem to take his side. They always seem content squashing her under his heel.

Where else can she go, though? She isn't ready to move in with Toushirou so soon. As much as she loves him, she's filled with foulness. She isn't sure he can survive much more of her insanity. Of her self-destruction. God knows killing herself isn't the end of it. Wounds still fester within her.

Momo and her husbands reside in a classical double-decker with a garden and a spacious engawa. She hears ducks nearby and there are potent, joyous waves from within, wafting over her with the sound of laughter. It makes her chest ache.

Momo opens the door to a long entryway where their sandals are shed. "Toushirou, go ahead and meet the party. I'm going to get Karin out of those clothes."

"Alright. See you in a minute," Toushirou says to Momo. He turns to Karin and kisses her cheek. Karin smiles while fiddling with her sleeves. "You too."

Momo takes her past a remarkably open and modern living area, up a set of stairs, through a hallway lit by magical lights, and into a bedroom. She opens a closet brimming with bedding and boxes, and pries one from the neat pile, briefly opening it, and frowns. "Ugh, I might have to loan you something of Shuuhei's. You're much... flesh-ier than I am."

That's one way of putting it. Karin isn't tall. Taller than Momo, but it isn't terribly uncommon for anyone to be taller than Momo. The issue is she's as endowed as an hourglass. Her breasts are large, her hips are wide, and her arms and legs are as thick as the haunches of a horse. This has been a deliberate effort, of course. Karin loves nothing more than to be the image of power. But it does spell difficulty when she needs to borrow clothes from others. When Jinta and Ururu would take her home, each of them covered in the blood of hollows, the only one she could dream of fitting into was Tessai's drawstring pajamas while her clothes were in the wash.

Momo does find a suitable kimono. It's sleeveless and slate blue. Momo removes it from the box in search of an obi, and scoffs when she doesn't find one. "Ugh, I'm sorry. My husband wears... unique accessories at home. Let me grab an obi from my uniform to affix it, dear."

Karin pulls apart the obi holding the kyoukatabira she wears, sheds the rest she wears, and dresses in a loin cloth and the yukata. Momo finds a belt to shut it. It's clear these clothes were made for someone with a much flatter chest than her own. In order to keep the hem even, Karin keeps the collar open. She wishes she had tape to prevent a wardrobe malfunction. But ultimately it is workable.

Momo smooths the fabric over Karin's shoulders. "We'll get you some clothes soon, dear. This will have to do tonight, though," Momo says. "Are you okay to go downstairs now?"

"Better now than never."

They descend the stairs and Karin is taken to a large dining area brimming with jovial atmosphere. She hears laughter and smells hot food. The rice doors are open to a garden with a pond and something like four ducks. There are so many people here. At least a dozen. Karin recognizes Rangiku, and there's a redhead built like a brickhouse that Karin is certain she's seen around Karakura. He's likely Ichigo's friend.

Upon seeing Momo and Karin, the attendees lift their glasses and shout, "Banzai!"

Momo smiles and they take their seats. "This is a spectacular turnout for a last minute gathering," Momo says. Karin crosses her legs on the floor. "Thank you all for coming. You're our dearest friends, and I hope that our ward will find friendship among you all."

Karin bows from her seated position. "Thank you all for having me."

Rangiku laughs and waves her hand dismissively. "Oh, you're too formal! This is a party, isn't it?" 

Toushirou reaches over with a cigarette. She takes one in her lips and takes a drag once he lights it. A scrawny blond man, simply swimming in a shinigami uniform, shovels various dishes and two drumsticks from a fat turkey onto her plate. Karin thanks him, noting the gold wedding band against his gray skin. His reiatsu is a weird piecemeal of misery and something like four others. It's weird. Karin is curious, but doesn't have the opportunity to ask about it when Rangiku asks, 

"Well, Karin-chan, how are you feeling? Death treating you well?"

Karin isn't sure whether or not Rangiku knows that Karin committed suicide. She chooses not to broach the subject. "In truth, it's a lot to take in all at once. I'm fortunate to have Toushirou and Momo as guides."

"That you are," another blond man chimes. He walks over, shooing Toushirou to sit behind her, and sticks his hand out. "Shinji Hirako, captain of gobantai. Pleasure to meet you."

Karin delicately shakes his hand. "Likewise."

"So, we got a Kurosaki here permanently. What plans do you have?" Shinji asks.

"I imagine similar goals you had as a cadet. I'm here to become a shinigami."

"Yes, but why? What are you looking to get out of this?"

"Mah, Shinji, leave the poor thing alone," a bespectacled woman says. "It's her first night here. At least let her eat."

Karin picks up a drumstick as Momo giggles. Shinji sticks out his tongue at her. "Ever an ally, Yadomaru-taichou."

"You live with him long enough and learn to to equip some balls." The woman slides over. "I'm Lisa Yadomaru, captain of hachibantai... ignore Shinji's curiosity, he's always looking to get something."

Karin hums while she chews chicken. It's practically melting in her mouth. "It's a reasonable question. Soutaichou wanted to know the same."

"A reasonable question with more appropriate timing," Lisa says. Karin sees Toushirou and Shinji wrestling for the seat next to Karin in her peripheral. "Why don't you tell us about yourself first?"

She shrugs. "There isn't much to know about me. I hunt hollows. I used to play soccer. Toushirou and I have been dating awhile." The rest of it is too painful to talk about right now. Later. If ever.

Lisa chuckles. "Yeah, there's nothing quite like the field. It's a pity I must spend most of my time behind a desk."

"Oh, I understand my time will likely be spent the same way."

"Well, thankfully, this place is... a bit of a behavioral sink. There's a lot of us, there isn't always a lot to do, and so you'll have plenty of debauchery to engage in." Lisa sips sake. "Are you queer, Karin?"

Karin blinks. "That's quite a segueway."

"I promise it's related," Lisa says while Momo giggles.

"Well... yes. I'm a woman. I'm not particularly picky about my partners, so long as, um... well, so long as I'm topping if that makes sense." Karin smiles bashfully. She hasn't really talked about her sexuality with anyone but Jinta, Toushirou, and Ururu. It feels different. "I like more effeminate people, though."

Lisa says, "Ugh, yeah, those femmes have me by the belt at all times. Anyway: conservatism is prominent here, but most of us here are queer in some facet."

Toushirou finally wins back his seat. "Yeah, I've noticed the same. I mean, wasn't it Hirako and Outoribashi who married first of... er, for lack of a better word, the group?"

"Yes. Point being, you'll have your fill of whatever your poison may be. And if you get into my division, there's plenty to go around," Lisa says, winking.

Rangiku chuckles. "Oh, stop trying to play matchmaker for Yayahara-chan. She does just fine on her own," Momo says.

"None of you guys are any fun," Lisa whines.

Karin asks, "Who else is here?"

"Oh, dear, there's many," Momo says. "Here we go. You've met Rangiku-san, Shinji Hirako-taichou, and Lisa Yadomaru-taichou--"

"Yadomaru-san is fine," Lisa says. Karin nods.

"My spouses are Renji, Shuuhei, and Izuru," Momo says, pointing each of them out. Renji and Izuru, Izuru being the one who served her food earlier and Renji being the redhead she recognizes, are sitting with a carafe and another very large man that Karin is fairly cerain is either yakuza or bousouzoku judging by his cartoonishly large pompadour. Shuuhei is fitting over a pork bun with a lithe, green-haired woman. "The man with Renji and Izuru is Tetsuzaemon Iba-taichou. He's a dear friend of ours." Rangiku snorts and Momo glares at her. Karin's eyebrow cocks but she doesn't have further time to inquire. "Shuuhei is sitting with his co-lieutenant Mashiro Kuna. Their captain is the short, white-haired man sitting next to them, Kensei Muguruma-taichou. At the end of the table are Roujuurou Outoribashi-taichou, Izuru's captain, and Nanao Ise, my longtime friend, Rangiku's wife, and the Soutaichou's lieutenant."

The sheer amount of people here is a little overwhelming, and it's worse feeling what all of them feel. The longer she stays here, drinking in the infectious jubilation, the more she wishes she was alone. She only just suffered the grief of a couple dozen people; the ire of Ichigo and Yuzu, the confliction of her best friends. One would expect this feast would be a welcome departure from the last couple of days but it's all too much. Karin would rather have some time to process and to wallow.

The likelihood of her retreat is a different issue. Momo and her spouses were kind enough to offer their home as lodging. It would be incredibly rude to snub their efforts with her escape.

Roujuurou makes his way over, sitting behind Karin. She scoots herself around and bows to him.

"Hello and welcome to the Seireitei, Kurosaki-san," he says.

"Karin is fine," she replies. Roujuurou smiles.

"Your brother was our ally, and we, the Vizard, owe him. We owe you by extension," Roujuurou explains. Karin tries to brush off her brother's mention. "I am captain of sanbantai. Anything you need, I'll do what I can to provide. I know the same can be said for my husband Shinji."

Karin wants to say she doesn't want her brother's debts. Instead, she asks, "Vizard?"

He hums. Lisa says, "We're kind of like a hybrid of shinigami and hollow. We're not arrancar. Arrancar are... um... sourced from hollows. We were, and are, shinigami with hollows inside of us. Your brother is the same way."

"Well, it's more complicated than that according to Urahara, but yes," Roujuurou says.

"You know Urahara and Tsukabishi?" Karin asks.

"We were exiled with them after Aizen's experiment on us failed," Lisa explains.

"Well, yes, but it's more accurate to say they sacrificed their comfort to save us," Roujuurou says. "We would've been executed, or worse, if they hadn't ran with us."

Karin hums. "They are especially popular."

"More like infamous," Toushirou quips.

Roujuurou stands. "It was good meeting you, Karin. Take care. Again, my offer is indefinite. Whatever you made need."

Karin bows as he leaves. Toushirou squeezes her thigh, and she shoos him off. He leaks hurt.

"I'm going to fetch my husbands so they can introduce themselves as well," Momo says, standing. "Toushirou, could you fetch more sake?"

"Um, yeah, sure," he says.

Karin swigs a drink in her moment of privacy before standing to meet Momo's spouses Izuru, Renji, and Shuuhei. They're all much taller than she, even Izuru, who is simply swimming in his uniform.

"Karin, these are Izuru, Renji, and Shuuhei," Momo says. Renji nods to her.

"Hi," Karin says. She bow politely. "Thank you for having me."

"Welcome, Kurosaki," Renji says. He claps her on the arm and she winces. His slap doesn't sting as much as the name.

"Karin is fine," she says.

"Y'know, I didn't recognize you at first," Renji says, "you've grown up a lot."

"Yeah," she agrees.

"More importantly, what was it like living with Ichigo Kurosaki?" Shuuhei asks.

Momo says, "Let's leave those questions for a later time." Momo rubs Karin's back. "Do you have any questions for them, Karin-chan?"

Karin glances between them, opening and closing her mouth like a fish. She wants to ask why Izuru is comprised of something like four different reiatsu, ask how well Renji knows Ichigo, why Shuuhei is interested in her brother, but it all locks up in her throat. It embarrasses her. Normally, Karin is assertive and fearless, but she's tired now. Everything feels like a damn landmine.

"Naw," she says, "I think we'll get to know each other along the way."

Karin sits through another two hours of questions she doesn't have answers to, conversational topics of varying interest, and exorbitant alcohol consumption. By the point in which party-goers are peetering out, she's seeing triple and wobbling.

At least she's numb.

She does have the wherewithal to help with cleanup.

She wrings out a rag in the sink. Momo squawks, "It's your special night! It's like your birthday. Birthday girls don't do the cleaning!"

Izuru snorts. "You're always cleaning up after your birthday," he says. Momo's glare could very well have cut him, judging by how quickly he escapes the kitchen.

Karin unrolls the rag. "I's fine," she slurs, "leas' I shoul'do."

Momo sighs. "Karin-chan, I'm grateful for your help, but you need to lay down."

"Naw," she insists, brushing past Momo and tripping on her foot. She catches herself in the doorframe. Thankfully, she doesn't have the means for shame just yet. She'll leave it for the morning.

Momo sighs. "I'll have Toushirou take you to your room. Shuuhei had it made earlier today."

Karin hums. She looks at her hand and the rag's gone. Momo has it flung over her shoulder and it occurs to her just how sloshed she is. 

"Yeah, okay," Karin replies.

Momo whistles and Toushirou makes his way down the hall with an armful of dishes. Momo takes them, kisses his head, and Toushirou wraps Karin in a hug. He kisses her. It twists a knife in her chest she's only now aware of.

It's a chore getting upstairs. He has to drag her up because her feet aren't working, and it brings tears to Karin's eyes. Embarrassment, namely. 

She doesn't know if she can do this with him anymore. This isn't any different than the times he's held her in the shower while rinsing off the blood from her wrists.

She's laid on her futon, hugs his shoulders, and kisses him. His thumb pets her cheek.

Karin sniffs. "Toushirou, I know you can't... I know you can't feel others the way I do, but I'm in a lot of pain now." She wipes her tears away. "I don't know that I can do this now."

Dread washes over him. It's almost enough to make Karin hurl. "What?"

"I think a big piece of me broke when I jumped. All I feel is pain and resentment and... and I think to every time you rushed to my side when I couldn't take it anymore, when I'd gore myself, and I'd feel your pain."

"I don't know what you're trying to say." His voice is shaking.

Karin squeezes her eyes shut. Her tears roll off her temple and into her hair. "I can't do this to you anymore."

He licks his lips. "Are you breaking up with me?"

Karin sobs. She holds him and lays their heads together. "Can you wait for me?"

He sobs. "I don't understand what I did to... to prompt this."

"You're not listening," she says, "I broke, Toushirou, and you've mopped up after me for so long. I can feel when you're in pain. I can't do that to you over and over again when this is supposed to fix me."

He sits back on his legs and runs his hands down his face. Karin props herself on her elbows. There's four of him, coalescing into an image of confusion and hurt, before separating into six spinning, blurry iterations, blurry in her watery eyes. 

Toushirou sighs and says, "You've... you've been everything to me for years."

"This is supposed to fix me." She's still in pieces now.

His chest heaves while he licks his lips and pushes his fingers through his hair. "You're drunk." He stands. "Good night, Karin."

He leaves and rips her heart out with him, connective tissue and arteries and all.

Karin muffles herself as she sobs. Rolling onto the bedroll, snot blows onto her hand while she screams into her skin.

She knows better than most that shit gets worse before it gets better. The anguish of it isn't anything she'll get used to.

[quadrantadvisor]

Watched the first episode of Ghosts, American edition, and I legitimately cannot stop thinking about how bad it was.

To start with its a bad concept to try to adapt to an American setting, given that our buildings are not all that old. This leads to some choices that feel a bit out of place.

There's a viking? I don't know why they have a viking. I'm pretty sure they shouldn't have a viking.

There's the hippie, whose gimmick I find deeply unfunny. Of course, I was never fond of Kitty or Thomas's gimmicks go begin with, but their acting and chemistry with the cast make the characters charming regardless. Unfortunately, the American version is severely lacking in chemistry and charm.

There's no caveman character, instead there's a native American character who got very little to do in the episode. Also his accent sounded modern to me so I'm not actually sure if he's supposed to be the oldest ghost or not? Anyways it's the most obvious adaptational choice to make, so obvious that it honestly feels kinda uncomfortable, and I do NOT think that they care much about handling it delicately. The white protagonist of the series burns sage in the house to "ward off evil spirits", the native American character is standing right there, and the cultural appropriation just. Doesn't even come up. They don't even MENTION where that practice comes from, like you get the impression that the writers didn't even know.

Instead of the horde of plague pit ghosts in the basement, they had like, 5, which makes the show feel cheaper and less funny if you know the source material, and also I just had to look up what they were supposed to have died from because?????? We ain't got no plague. Wiki says they had cholera. Yeah, sure.

Their pantsless corrupt politician is a young guy, so maybe they were trying to avoid making him a Donald Trump type? But I don't know why because leaning into it would be funnier. Also the wiki tells me he's "of Jewish descent", which is just excellent, thanks for making your Jewish character a corrupt politician, that doesn't come off as problematic at all.

It lacks any of the restraint of the BBC show. Pat's arrow is obviously kinda a joke way to die, its visual story telling, but it's treated with a certain amount of gravitas. Importantly, he never knocks it against anything. The American version (whose arrow prop looks noticably shittier, they didn't even break off one end) has somebody flick the arrow and send it jiggling in Episode One. The politician lifts his arms so they can joke about everybody seeing his dick, which. YEAH. THAT'S THE JOKE. But if you beat us over the head with it, IN EPSIDOE ONE, then it's not funny any more!!!!!

Same thing with their gay military officer. The way the Captain works is that they use acting and cinematography to create sexual tension, and that feeling of actual desire both sells the joke and helps you sympathize with him. The American version can't afford acting or cinematography, so they have him say a couple of "men are hot, no homo" lines and call that good. It means nothing to me.

So yeah. It was real bad. I probably am gonna watch more at some point tho because as an adaptation it's a fascinating trainwreck.

[quotesfrommyreading]

There are many mechanisms by which zoonotic pathogens can acquire the ability to spread directly between people, severing the cord that binds them to their reservoir animals. Vibrio cholerae did it by acquiring the ability to produce a toxin.

The toxin was the vibrio's pièce de résistance. Normally, the human digestive system sends food, gastric and pancreatic juice, bile, and various intestinal secretions to the intestines, where cells lining the gut extract nutrients and fluid, leaving behind a solid mass of excreta to expel. The vibrio's toxin altered the biochemistry of the human intestines such that the organ's normal function reversed. Instead of extracting fluids to nourish the body's tissues, the vibrio-colonized gut sucked water and electrolytes out of the body's tissues and flushed them away with the waste.

The toxin allowed the vibrio to accomplish two things essential to its success as a human pathogen. First, it helped the vibrio get rid of its competitors: the massive torrents of fluids sloughed off all the other bacteria in the gut, so that the vibrio (clinging to the gut in its tough micro-colonies) could colonize the organ undisturbed. Second, it assured the vibrio's passage from one victim to another. Even tiny drops of that excreta, on unwashed hands or contaminated food or water, couldcarry the vibrio to new victims. Now, so long as the vibrio could get into a single person and cause disease, it could spread to others, whether or not they exposed themselves to copepods or ingested the vibrio-rich waters of the Sundarbans.

The first pandemic caused by the new pathogens began in the Sundarbans town of Jessore in August 1817 after a heavy rainfall. Brackish water from the sea flooded the area, allowing salty copepod-rich waters to seep into people's farms and homes and wells. V. cholerae slipped into the locals' bodies and colonized their guts. Thanks to the toxin, Vibrio cholerae's basic reproductive number, according to modern mathematicians, ranged from 2 to 6. A single infected person could infect as many as half a dozen others. Within hours, cholera's first victims were being drained alive, each expelling more than fifteen quarts of milky-white liquid stool a day, filling the Sundarbans' streams and waste pits with excreta. It leaked into farmers' wells. Droplets clung to people's hands and clothes. And in each drop, vibrio bacteria swarmed, ready to infect a new host.

The Bengalis called the new disease ola, for “the purge”. It killed people faster than any other disease known to humankind. Ten thousand perished. Within a matter of months, the new plague held nearly two hundred thousand square miles of Bengal in its grip.

Cholera had made its debut.

  —  Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond (Sonia Shah)

[jordanr770-blog]

Oooh! I like most of the ones above that are mentioned although to be fair I have yet to read A Little Price, A Raisin in the Sun, and To Kill a Mockingbird and yes, I know that last one is considered to be THE BEST book of all time.

Some of my favorites not mentioned;

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Basically everything by the three Bronte sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne) were great reads to me.

Everything Jane Austen wrote.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. I know a lot of people either love or dislike Hardy and that is completely valid. He has a lot of novels but this one has to be my favorite that I've read by him so far.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. I just read that last year and couldn't put it down. Really looking forward to reading Love in the Time of Cholera by him very soon.

Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo 

The War of the Worlds by HG Wells

The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper

Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. A lot of Gaskell's books are good.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Probably not the best Dickens book to start out with (if you first start reading Dickens I'd say Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, or The Pickwick Papers are your best bet) but it is my favorite. Bleak House was also good.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Granted, I doubt many schools would ever assign this one because it's such a lengthy novel, but despite it's thousand or so pages it is well worth reading and truly isn't as intimidating as you would imagine it to be.

*The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. Not sure if it's considered a classic but it is spooky season so it has to be mentioned! If you are into spooky books then I recommend this, most of Edgar Allan Poe's works (The Pit and the Pendulum being my personal fave, but I think everyone has a favorite Poe story =P) The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu.

Honorable mention; Greek plays. A lot of them are absolutely insane. And when I was in high school I know a lot of the students really loved reading Beowulf.

Hey so like many of you, I saw that article about how people are going into college having read no classic books. And believe it or not, I've been pissed about this for years. Like the article revealed, a good chunk of American Schools don't require students to actually read books, rather they just give them an excerpt and tell them how to feel about it. Which is bullshit.

So like. As a positivity post, let's use this time to recommend actually good classic books that you've actually enjoyed reading! I know that Dracula Daily and Epic the Musical have wonderfully tricked y'all into reading Dracula and The Odyssey, and I've seen a resurgence of Picture of Dorian Gray readership out of spite for N-tflix, so let's keep the ball rolling!

My absolute favorite books of all time are The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Classic psychological horror books about unhinged women.

I adore The Bad Seed by William March. It's widely considered to be the first "creepy child" book in American literature, so reading it now you're like "wow that's kinda cliche- oh my god this is what started it. This was ground zero."

I remember the feelings of validation I got when people realized Dracula wasn't actually a love story. For further feelings of validation, please read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. There's a lot the more popular adaptations missed out on.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is an absolute gem of a book. It's a slow-build psychological study so it may not be for everyone, but damn do the plot twists hit. It's a really good book to go into blind, but I will say that its handling of abuse victims is actually insanely good for the time period it was written in.

Moving on from horror, you know people who say "I loved this book so much I couldn't put it down"? That was me as a kid reading A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Picked it up while bored at the library and was glued to it until I finished it.

Peter Pan and Wendy by JM Barrie was also a childhood favorite of mine. Next time someone bitches about Woke Casting, tell them that the original 1911 Peter Pan novel had canon nonbinary fairies.

Watership Down by Richard Adams is my sister Cori's favorite book period. If you were a Warrior Cats, Guardians of Ga'Hoole or Wings of Fire kid, you owe a metric fuckton to Watership Down and its "little animals on a big adventure" setup.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry was a play and not a book first, but damn if it isn't a good fucking read. It was also named after a Langston Hughes poem, who's also an absolutely incredible author.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a book I absolutely adore and will defend until the day I die. It's so friggin good, y'all, I love it more than anything. You like people breaking out of fascist brainwashing? You like reading and value knowledge? You wanna see a guy basically predict the future of television back in 1953? Read Fahrenheit.

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee are considered required reading for a reason: they're both really good books about young white children unlearning the racial biases of their time. Huck Finn specifically has the main character being told that he will go to hell if he frees a slave, and deciding eternal damnation would be worth it.

As a sidenote, another Mark Twain book I was obsessed with as a kid was A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Exactly what it says on the tin, incredibly insane read.

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin is a heartbreaking but powerful book and a look at the racism of the time while still centering the love the two black protagonists feel for each other. Giovanni's Room by the same author is one that focuses on a MLM man struggling with his sexuality, and it's really important to see from the perspective of a queer man living in the 50s– as well as Baldwin's autobiographical novel, Go Tell it on the Mountain.

Agatha Christie mysteries are all still absolutely iconic, but Murder on the Orient Express is such a good read whether or not you know the end twist.

Maybe-controversial-maybe-not take: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is a good book if you have reading comprehension. No, you're not supposed to like the main character. He pretty much spells that out for you at the end ffs.

Animal Farm by George Orwell was another favorite of mine; it was written as an obvious metaphor for the rise of fascism in Russia at the time and boy does it hit even now.

And finally, please read Shakespeare plays. As soon as you get used to their way of talking, they're not as hard to understand as people will lead you to believe. My absolute favorite is Twelfth Night- crossdressing, bisexual love triangles, yellow stockings... it's all a joy.

and those are just the ones i thought of off the top of my head! What're your guys' favorite classic books? Let's make everyone a reading list!

[allthenewzworld]

At first, the suggestion to try farming maggots spooked Mari Choumumba and other farmers in Nyangambe, a region in southeastern Zimbabwe where drought wiped out the staple crop of corn.

After multiple cholera outbreaks in the southern African nation resulting from extreme weather and poor sanitation, flies were largely seen as something to exterminate, not breed.

"We were alarmed," Choumumba said, recalling a community meeting where experts from the government and the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, broached the idea.

People had flocked to the gathering in hope of news about food aid. But many stepped back when told it was about training on farming maggots for animal feed and garden manure.

"People were like, 'What? These are flies, flies bring cholera'," Choumumba said.

A year later, the 54-year-old walks with a smile to a smelly cement pit covered by wire mesh where she feeds rotting waste to maggots her new meal ticket.

Read more about maggot farming at the link in our bio.

[lboogie1906]

As a six-year-old boy named Quetto, Michele Amatore (1826 - June 7, 1893) witnessed his village of Commi in the Nuba Mountains of southern Sudan decimated by Egyptian soldiers and their leaders who profited from the slave trade. The oldest of four children, his father was a village chief named Bolingia; his mother was named Siliando.

The survivors of the savage raid experienced a nightmarish journey to the slave market in Khartoum, then on to Cairo where the boy was very fortunate to land in the home of an Italian, Luigi Castagnone—primary physician to the Khedive of Egypt and Sudan—who treated him well and gave him the rudiments of an education. At age nine, the boy traveled with Castagnone’s friend Maurizio Bussa, a physician, to live in his new residence in Piedmont, northern Italy. He converted to Catholicism and was baptized by the Bishop. He shed his Muslim name (Sulayman al-Nubi) and adopted the Christian name Michele Amatore.

He returned to Africa and participated in the commerce that flowed from Cairo to Khartoum. While there he hoped to exact revenge on the enslavers of his people and he searched for family members scattered by the slave trade, a task that proved fruitless.

He enlisted in the military as a sharpshooter to fight in the First Italian War of Independence which pitted the Kingdom of Sardinia against the Austrian Empire. He taught himself mathematics and French and improved his penmanship. He was bestowed the French Order of Merit. He had risen to the rank of captain. He was made a Knight of the Crown of Italy and a Knight of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus. He helped suppress banditry and rioters in southern Italy and assisted in the effort to fight cholera in Sicily, for which he received a bronze medal of merit.

A saber slash to the face that left a visible scar caused blindness in the left eye and forced him to retire from military service in 1880. He married Rosetta Brambilla (1879) and settled in the picturesque green hills of Rosignano Monferrato east of Turin where he died. Both he and his wife are buried in Turin where a street bears his name. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[dick-kick-em]

I wanna play in the Cholera Burial Ground bone pits

Ok

[orgrevolution]

Waste Not, Want Not: The Critical Role of Fecal Sludge Management in Public Health

In the global pursuit of public health, one of the most overlooked yet essential components is fecal sludge management (FSM). Despite its unassuming nature, the safe and effective management of fecal sludge plays a pivotal role in safeguarding public health, mitigating disease transmission, and ensuring the well-being of communities worldwide. In this discourse, we delve into the critical role of fecal sludge management in public health and explore the urgent need for comprehensive strategies to address this pressing issue.

Understanding the Health Implications of Inadequate FSM

Fecal sludge, the residue from onsite sanitation facilities like pit latrines and septic tanks, contains a cocktail of pathogens and contaminants that pose significant health risks if not managed properly. In communities where sanitation infrastructure is lacking or inadequate, untreated fecal sludge can contaminate water sources, soil, and food, leading to the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, and diarrhea. Furthermore, poor sanitation conditions contribute to the transmission of parasitic infections, viral illnesses, and other communicable diseases, exacerbating public health challenges and undermining efforts to achieve global health objectives.

The Nexus Between FSM and Disease Prevention

Effective fecal sludge management is integral to disease prevention and control, particularly in low-resource settings and densely populated urban areas. By safely containing, collecting, transporting, treating, and disposing of fecal sludge, communities can break the cycle of fecal-oral contamination and reduce the burden of waterborne diseases. Furthermore, proper FSM practices contribute to improved environmental hygiene, reduced pollution, and enhanced overall well-being. Investing in FSM infrastructure and capacity-building initiatives is not only a matter of public health but also a fundamental human right, ensuring that all individuals have access to safe and dignified sanitation services.

Comprehensive Strategies for Sustainable FSM

Addressing the challenges of fecal sludge management requires a multifaceted approach that integrates technical, social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Key components of comprehensive FSM strategies include:

Infrastructure Development: Building and maintaining robust sanitation infrastructure, including onsite sanitation facilities, sewerage systems, treatment plants, and disposal sites, to ensure the safe management of fecal sludge.

Capacity Building: Providing training, education, and resources to sanitation workers, community members, and local authorities to enhance their knowledge and skills in fecal sludge management practices.

Policy and Regulation: Developing and enforcing regulatory frameworks, standards, and guidelines for FSM to promote compliance, accountability, and good governance.

Community Engagement: Engaging with communities to raise awareness, promote behavior change, and foster a culture of sanitation and hygiene at the grassroots level.

Innovation and Research: Investing in research, innovation, and technology transfer to develop sustainable and cost-effective solutions for fecal sludge management, including resource recovery, decentralized treatment options, and smart sanitation technologies.

Conclusion: Prioritizing Public Health Through Effective FSM

In conclusion, fecal sludge management is a cornerstone of public health, with far-reaching implications for disease prevention, environmental sustainability, and social equity. By prioritizing effective FSM strategies and investing in sanitation infrastructure, capacity building, and community engagement, we can protect the health and well-being of current and future generations. Waste not, want not – let us recognize the critical role of fecal sludge management in safeguarding public health and work together to ensure that no one is left behind in the quest for sanitation for all.

[rabbitcruiser]

World Toilet Day

World Toilet Day…at first glance, this seems like an unlikely candidate for a holiday and more like some sort of joke, but the day is nowhere as trivial or humorous as it may seem. All in all, it strives to draw attention to various sanitation issues around the world and work towards resolving them.

Despite access to proper sanitation being declared a basic human right, one in three people across the globe, so some 2.5 billion people in total, do not have regular access to a toilet. Additionally, even amongst those who do have such access, unclean and unsafe toilets pose problems of their own, including contributing towards the spread of diseases like cholera, typhoid and hepatitis—in some parts of Africa, diarrhea is one of the main child-killers.

Open defecation is also responsible for increasing the number of sexual assaults perpetrated on women and children. Furthermore, when young girls begin menstruating, the lack of privacy forces them to stay home from school, thus limiting their chances of getting a basic education and, what comes after that, a decent job in the future. World Toilet Day’s ultimate goal is to allow everyone on the planet to take care of their most basic needs without having to fear for their safety.

History of World Toilet Day

World Toilet Day was created by the World Toilet Organization in 2001. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations said: “We have a moral imperative to end open defecation and a duty to ensure women and girls are not at risk of assault and rape simply because they lack a sanitation facility.”

He went on to talk about how having to defecate openly infringes on human safety and dignity, and how women and girls risk rape and abuse as they wait until night falls to relieve themselves because they lack of access to a toilet that offers privacy. Another issue is that toilets generally remain inadequate for populations with special needs, such as the disabled and elderly.

Since its inception, World Toilet Day has played a vital role in challenging governments, businesses and other groups to make changes. It has also worked towards breaking various taboos surrounding the topic, in order to facilitate discussion and lead to the creation of better, safer solutions.

World Toilet Day Timeline

3000 BC Pipes carry waste

Even a few thousand years ago various people groups (in Scotland, India, Mesopotamia and more) would use pipe systems to carry waste out of their houses and into rivers or streams.

100-200 AD Group toilets for soldiers

Remains of Housesteads Roman Fort at Hadrian’s Wall in the UK reveals that perhaps 20 or more soldiers would all use a common ‘toilet’ (essentially these were long benches with holes in them) at the same time.

Middle Ages (500-1500 AD) Garderobes are used

Predating the toilet, “garderobes” were little rooms that hung over the sides of the castle. This little closet had a bench with a hole in it where the waste would drop into a moat or pit below.

During this time, many people would also use chamber pots, which would be kept in bedrooms or ‘chambers’ and then emptied (sometimes simply thrown out the window) when full. This function carried on for quite some time.

1596 Flushing toilet is invented

Although its widespread use did not arrive until a couple of centuries later, the first flushing toilet was described by Sir John Harington, an English courtier. This toilet was a pot that used gravity to feed water through it from a cistern that sat upstairs.

1775 First toilet patent issued

Scottish Inventor Alexander Cummings was the creator of the important pipe that ran in an S-shape below the bowl. This ingenious design used the water in the bowl to seal off the sewer gas from below and eventually led the way to mass production of the toilet.

1829 First toilets in a hotel

The Tremont Hotel in Boston, USA installed eight indoor water closets for its guests.

1866 World’s first bathroom showroom

Marlboro Works showroom is opened by English sanitary engineer Thomas Crapper (yes, that’s his real name). At a time when people didn’t speak much about their bodily functions, this public display of toilets was revolutionary.

1880s Thomas Crapper invents the ballcock

Toilets that have this invention, the “ballcock”, are less likely to overflow. Crapper created the floating valve as well as eight other patented improvements for plumbing and sewage. He also did a lot of plumbing for British royalty around this time. 

1910 Elevated water tank

A similar design to today’s toilets, the closed water tank and bowl moves into common use.

1986 Sensor flushes introduced

In Japan, the first toilets with sensors that would flush on their own were used.

2001 World Toilet Organization is created

The World Toilet Organization moves to educate people about the sanitation crisis.  Even in today’s modern times, more than 2 billion people across the world still do not have access to a toilet.

2013 World Toilet Day made official by the UN

In an effort to raise awareness and support for places where people don’t have proper access to sanitation, the first UN World Toilet Day is celebrated on November 19, 2013.

How to celebrate World Toilet Day

I think by now it’s been made abundantly clear that World Toilet Day is far from being a joke, dealing instead with the protection of one of humanity’s most basic rights. So how can you help? There are a number of things you could do. For starters, why not visit the World Toilet Day website, Facebook page or Twitter account and share the message across social media platforms?

This may seem like a tiny, unimportant gesture, but raising awareness about serious problems is one of the things social media does best, aside from bombarding you with pictures of babies and kittens. The more people know about a problem, the more money can be raised to fight it, as the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge so perfectly demonstrated. So don’t think your clicking “share” means anything. It doesn’t.

Another thing you could do as a way of observing World Toilet Day Would be of course to make a donation, so if you have the means, know that every dollar helps.

Source

[deadstonemasonssociety]

Cholera Monument ,Eyemouth, Scotland

IN THE MID-1800S, THE SEAPORT fishing village of Eyemouth experienced a calamity.

With so many bodies to be buried over such a short period, the devastated community thought it would be prudent to have the infected corpses placed into a communal pit. To achieve this, existing headstones would have to be removed to make room.

Rather than discarding the gravestones of beloved ones, they were reincorporated into a building known as a watch-house.

These were meant to act as a deterrent for “resurrectionists,” professional body snatchers who would dig up the recently deceased and sell their corpses to medical schools, where they would be used in anatomy lessons.

[that-fema-corps-blog]

Day 271

April 30, 2023

We set out at 7:00 again. We saw some pronghorn on the outskirts of the town. These antelope-like animals’ closest surviving relatives are the giraffe and okapi.

We stopped at the University of Wyoming to visit Matthew Shepard’s memorial. He was murdered in 1998 for being gay. The defendants (unsuccessfully) tried using the gay panic defense, and the two perpetrators were convicted of murder. The memorial itself is a simple outdoor bench. Visitors had left flowers, stuffed animals, and other items.

The landscape gradually became more mountainous, with great swaths of plains visible for miles in all directions:

We made a pit stop partway through Wyoming and met gas station cashier worker, who greeted everyone who passed by yelling at them. I have no idea what he said. Other teammates informed us that he was friendly and was capable of speaking in a less painful volume when getting then checked out. But he still yelled at everyone entering/exiting the store. Hm.

We made another short stop by Point of Rocks. There we spotted some prairie dogs (too far away to photograph).

The terrain became snowier as we approached Utah:

I saw a person parachuting or hang-gliding as we approached Salt Lake City. We stopped for lunch in the city, then visited Great Salt Lake Park. There were hundreds of dead eared grebes and some gulls washed ashore. Turns out this is normal for the area?

He said so far this winter, they’ve counted 15,000 to 20,000 dead wild birds. “These are actually birds that died probably in September,” Luft said. The salty waters keep them from decomposing. Luft said that’s typical. What sets this year apart “is actually the first time that I’ve seen Eared Grebes die from avian influenza. We typically got them succumbing to avian cholera.”

We drove across the salt flats, then checked into our hotel and got dinner. We headed back to the salt flats to watch the sunset, took the van off-roading, and got stuck… We spent an hour or two trying to get it out to no avail.

We called for help, and the other nearby FEMA Corps team came to try and get us out. We tried wedging an old sofa cushion under the wheel, jacking up the van, pouring oatmeal around to absorb the water, and pushing the van together. Nothing worked. We asked campers for help. No one had anything. Visited the gas station. Still nothing. We eventually gave up, transferred our stuff over to another AmeriCorps van, and called a tow truck at around 22:00. 45 minutes and $400 later, and it was free!