Dozens injured after magnitude 7.5 quake strikes northern Japan
Dec. 9th, 2025 01:38 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
bbc_feedAuthorities have warned that a stronger tremor could occur in the coming days.
bbc_feedThe poverty li(n)e.
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alisxIn 2024, food-at-home is no longer 33% of household spending. For most families, it’s 5 to 7 percent.
Housing now consumes 35 to 45 percent. Healthcare takes 15 to 25 percent. Childcare, for families with young children, can eat 20 to 40 percent.
If you keep Orshansky’s logic—if you maintain her principle that poverty could be defined by the inverse of food’s budget share—but update the food share to reflect today’s reality, the multiplier is no longer three.
It becomes sixteen.
Which means if you measured income inadequacy today the way Orshansky measured it in 1963, the threshold for a family of four wouldn’t be $31,200.
It would be somewhere between $130,000 and $150,000.
Michael W. Green on the .
Anti-we
Dec. 9th, 2025 01:46 amlanguagelog_feed"Against We", by Alex Tabarrok, Marginal Revolution (11/28/25)
Quoting the author:
I propose a moratorium on the generalized first-person plural for all blog posts, social media comments, opinion writing, headline writers, for all of December. No “we, “us,” or “our,” unless the “we” is made explicit.
No more “we’re living in a golden age,” “we need to talk about,” “we can’t stop talking about,” “we need to wise up.” They’re endless. “We’ve never seen numbers like this.” “We are not likely to forget.” “We need not mourn for the past.” “What exactly are we trying to fix?” “How are we raising our children?” “I hate that these are our choices.”
…“We” is what linguists call a deictic word. It has no meaning without context. It is a pointer. If I say “here,” it means nothing unless you can see where I am standing. If I say “we,” it means nothing unless you know who is standing next to me.
…in a headline like “Do we need to ban phones in schools?” the “we” is slippery. The linguist Norman Fairclough called this way of speaking to a mass audience as if they were close friends synthetic personalization. The “we” creates fake intimacy and fake equality.
Nietzsche thought a lot about how language is psychology. He would look askance at the “we” in posts like “should we ban ugly buildings?” He might ask: who are you that you do not put yourself in the role of the doer or the doing? Are you a lion or a lamb?
Perhaps you are simply a coward hiding in the herd, Martin Heidegger might say, with das Man. Don’t be an LLM. Be like Carol!
Hannah Arendt would say you’re dodging the blame. “Where all are guilty, nobody is.” Did you have a hand in the policy you are now critiquing? Own up to your role.
Perhaps you are confusing your privileged perch with the broader human condition. Roland Barthes called this ex-nomination. You don’t really want to admit that you are in a distinct pundit class, so you see your views as universal laws.
Adorno would say you are selling a fake membership with your “jargon of authenticity,” offering the reader membership in your club. As E. Nelson Bridwell in the old Mad Magazine had it: What do you mean We?
…If you are speaking for a very specific we, then say so. As Mark Twain is said to have said, “only presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms ought to have the right to use we.”
I could go on. But you get the drift. The bottom line is that “we” is squishy. I is the brave pronoun. I is the hardier pronoun. I is the—dare I say it—manly pronoun.
I agree.
So much for the "royal we" among the Decembrists — the novel, not the band.
The Decembrists (Russian: Декабристы, Dekabristy) is an unfinished novel by Leo Tolstoy, who finished three chapters. Its hero was to have been a participant in the abortive Decembrist Uprising of 1825, released from Siberian exile after 1856. It was intended as a sequel to War and Peace, and the second part of a planned trilogy, whose third part would be set in 1856.
The band's name refers to the Decembrist revolt, an 1825 insurrection in Imperial Russia. Meloy has stated that the name is also meant to invoke the "drama and melancholy" of the month of December.
As I have stated elsewhere, my wife (Li-ching Chang) would do anything to avoid the use of the first-person singular pronoun ("I" / "Wǒ 我"). However, she was not averse to the second-person pronoun, whether singular or plural.
Selected readings
- "Me, myself, and I" (4/5/22)
- "Why We?", by Jeremy Gordon, Pacific Standard (11/7/13)
[h.t. Leslie Katz]
But the soft and lovely silvers are now falling on my shoulder
Dec. 8th, 2025 07:29 pmsovayIt feels like cheating for the air to taste so much like the sharp tin tacks of snow when the sky is so clear that even through the white noise of the streetlights Cassiopeia comes in like pointillism and Polaris as bright as a planet. I saw none of the Phi Cassiopeids, but the Geminids peak at the end of the week, with any luck on a night that cloudlessly doesn't make my teeth feel about to explode in my mouth. On that front, may I commend the attention of people in frozen boat fandom to this early twentieth century hand-painted stained glass window depicting Shackleton's Endurance? I spent my afternoon on the phone making sure of our health insurance in the bankrupt year to come: the customer service representative was a very nice science fiction person who agreed that it was time to reset this worldline on account of stupidity and for whom I apparently made a pleasant change from all the screaming and breaking down in tears, even more so than usual this year that never need have happened. I've been sent photographs of some really neat letters. Two cards arrived in the mail. My digital camera is showing further signs of deterioration, but a few evenings ago I caught one of those scratch-fired sunsets it's hard to wreck. I am aware of the collapses in the world, but I don't know what else to love.
The Papers: 'A critical moment' for Ukraine and 'Southport families' courage'
Dec. 9th, 2025 01:30 ambbc_feedThe aftermath of Zelensky's meeting at Downing Street and the "unbreakable bond" between Southport victims' families lead Tuesday's papers.
Australia's social media ban for children has left big tech scrambling
Dec. 8th, 2025 10:28 pmbbc_feedThe policy is the culmination of years of pressure on firms over online safety.
Hungry mothers on dirty wards, finds ongoing maternity review
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:38 ambbc_feedPoor care is ingrained on England's maternity wards, says chair of national investigation.
Sudan air force bombing of towns, markets and schools has killed hundreds, report says
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:21 ambbc_feedA detailed study highlights the military's aerial campaign and how civilians have been its victims.
'Living off grid is not a dream, it's a nightmare'
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:11 ambbc_feedOff-grid households say they would love a mains connection, but the price is just too high.
Are Man Utd turning the tide or is a 'bad result just around corner'?
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:04 ambbc_feedManchester United moved into the Premier League top six with their biggest win of the season - but they still have to prove the doubters wrong.
Israel to review reports that troops killed three-year-old in Gaza
Dec. 8th, 2025 08:53 pmbbc_feedIsrael says it is unaware of a strike, but is investigating the reported death of the child in southern Gaza.
Buses and jams
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:54 amloganberrybunnyPublic
311/365: Mural, Cripplegate Park, Worcester
Click for a larger, sharper image
I spent a good deal of time on buses today, which was always my intention. What wasn't my intention was spending quite so long on them! The bus from Redditch to Kidderminster was a bit of a nightmare, ending up over 45 minutes late thanks to a combination of roadworks and the apparent need for some teenagers to be given a lift half a mile home after school... Before that I had at least had fun, finally managing to do the 149 bus (Worcester-Redditch via Inkberrow) which I'd wanted to try for a while. It's a country route but one which uses double-deckers, and I managed to get a seat at the very front of the top deck, which is always fun. We did smack into quite a few smaller branches along the way, but that's part of the deal with these routes
My final bus back to Bewdley was electric. Amid the ongoing Ashes embarrassment, I couldn't help being secretly mildly amused that the bus was made by Custom Denning, an Australian company, and really didn't put in a brilliant performance. The highlight – or maybe lowlight – was it coming to a complete halt on the edge of a small road on the edge of town, and everything going dark (it was about 5pm by then). The previous bus had been a conventional diesel one built by Alexander Dennis, but they're Scottish so I can't claim them in cricketing terms!
311/365: Mural, Cripplegate Park, Worcester
Click for a larger, sharper image
I spent a good deal of time on buses today, which was always my intention. What wasn't my intention was spending quite so long on them! The bus from Redditch to Kidderminster was a bit of a nightmare, ending up over 45 minutes late thanks to a combination of roadworks and the apparent need for some teenagers to be given a lift half a mile home after school... Before that I had at least had fun, finally managing to do the 149 bus (Worcester-Redditch via Inkberrow) which I'd wanted to try for a while. It's a country route but one which uses double-deckers, and I managed to get a seat at the very front of the top deck, which is always fun. We did smack into quite a few smaller branches along the way, but that's part of the deal with these routes
My final bus back to Bewdley was electric. Amid the ongoing Ashes embarrassment, I couldn't help being secretly mildly amused that the bus was made by Custom Denning, an Australian company, and really didn't put in a brilliant performance. The highlight – or maybe lowlight – was it coming to a complete halt on the edge of a small road on the edge of town, and everything going dark (it was about 5pm by then). The previous bus had been a conventional diesel one built by Alexander Dennis, but they're Scottish so I can't claim them in cricketing terms!
The photo shows a mural in Cripplegate Park, Worcester. Unfortunately I don't know its title or artist.
Daily Hacker News for 2025-12-08
Dec. 9th, 2025 12:00 amhacker_news_daily_feedThe 10 highest-rated articles on Hacker News on December 08, 2025 which have not appeared on any previous Hacker News Daily are:
-
Turtletoy
(comments) -
I wasted years of my life in crypto
(comments) -
Dollar-stores overcharge customers while promising low prices
(comments) -
I failed to recreate the 1996 Space Jam website with Claude
(comments) -
The C++ standard for the F-35 Fighter Jet [video]
(comments) -
Bag of words, have mercy on us
(comments) -
GitHub Actions has a package manager, and it might be the worst
(comments) -
The fuck off contact page
(comments) -
IBM to acquire Confluent
(comments) -
Microsoft has a problem: lack of demand for its AI products
(comments)
FIAB fics!
Dec. 8th, 2025 04:42 pmsnickfic![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ficinabox reveals have happened, and after being a post-deadline pinch hit (and then a post-post-deadline pinch hit...) and being a little nervous about it, I got some great things. :3 More recs to come once I get a chance to explore the rest of the collection.i said farewell (i meant don't go), Red Sonja (2025), Sonja/Petra, 7k. Petra survives the arena, goes traveling with Sonja after the end of the movie, and absolute does not pine or have any feelings about it (and then gets abducted by an eldritch cult, oh no). Jaded traumatized warrior women/young earnest warrior woman, what an excellent ship. :') The writing here is gorgeous, and the fic hits that good tropey goodness in a way that can be hard to find in femslash.
Probably readable canon-blind? If this sounds like your jam at all, I definitely recommend. This fandom is SO SMALL that the tag is unwrangled on AO3, and I worry that no one but me is going to find this fic and read it.
The Lonely Ones, Kyle Murchison Booth stories, Booth/Alexis Rigby pre-slash, 5k. One misterable stormy night, Alexis appears on Booth's doorstep, to their mutual surprise. This is the first fic for this ship longer than a drabble, and I am so delighted it exists. The writing is really delicate and lovely, and very careful, as it needs to be when writing Booth making new personal connections (whether he wants or not).
Reflections, Kyle Murchison Booth stories, Booth/Ratcliffe, 3k. Despite his best intentions, Ratcliffe loses touch with Booth and then starts to form some suspicions about why that might be. I love this premise of Booth being a kind of liminal being as well, which fits right in with some of the ways Monette treats time and setting in canon. A nice shippy little ghost(?) story.
(no subject)
Dec. 8th, 2025 07:29 pmflemmingsFingers crossed, my freezer seems to have stopped leaking into the fridge area.
Only now I've lost my new Ontario ID card. It was supposed to be on the kitchen table and it isn't. No, actually, it was supposed to have been in my wallet, which will learn me to put things back where they belong the minute I finish gazing at my strange unnatural beauty. Am not up to doing the Lost please replace routine, and certainly not in December. Of course I cut up my old one and threw it out. Let's hope there are no elections in the near future.
Only now I've lost my new Ontario ID card. It was supposed to be on the kitchen table and it isn't. No, actually, it was supposed to have been in my wallet, which will learn me to put things back where they belong the minute I finish gazing at my strange unnatural beauty. Am not up to doing the Lost please replace routine, and certainly not in December. Of course I cut up my old one and threw it out. Let's hope there are no elections in the near future.
THE 16TH ANNUAL JAMES GARFIELD CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!
Dec. 8th, 2025 11:38 pmthebloggess_feedHello and welcome to the SIXTEENTH ANNUAL James Garfield Miracle! (HOW??) “What is the James Garfield Miracle?” you may be asking. You must be new here. HELLO AND WELCOME. 16 years ago I walked into an estate sale and fell in love with an ancient taxidermied boars head that seemed so damn happy to see me. I didContinue reading "THE 16TH ANNUAL JAMES GARFIELD CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!"
Fanfic, Rockman | Mega Man Classic (video games), Bubble Man, Exploring a flooded mine
Dec. 8th, 2025 04:17 pmbluerosekatie posting in smallfandomfestTitle: Bubble Mine Exploration
Author: bluerosekatie
Fandom: Rockman | Mega Man Classic (video games)
Pairing/Characters: Bubble Man
Rating/Category: Gen
Prompt: Rockman | Mega Man Classic, Bubble Man, Exploring a flooded mine
Spoilers: N/A
Summary: Bubble Man goes on an adventure to use his skills, now that he's no longer working for Dr. Wily.
Notes/Warnings: Fic is archive-locked to avoid AI scraping.
Read it on Ao3 here!
Author: bluerosekatie
Fandom: Rockman | Mega Man Classic (video games)
Pairing/Characters: Bubble Man
Rating/Category: Gen
Prompt: Rockman | Mega Man Classic, Bubble Man, Exploring a flooded mine
Spoilers: N/A
Summary: Bubble Man goes on an adventure to use his skills, now that he's no longer working for Dr. Wily.
Notes/Warnings: Fic is archive-locked to avoid AI scraping.
Read it on Ao3 here!
(no subject)
Dec. 8th, 2025 06:23 pmshadarasokay, some updates while I'm thinking about it at all:
1.
I never did say that I did get my ears repierced, did I xD But I did! It's been like a month! The piercer was like "so, let's just re-open those old holes, I bet they're still fine, just maybe a little finicky", and she was correct. A lot easier to heal from something that's just expanding old scar tissue than making a new hole in the body, obviously, which is good because tbh I wasn't excited about tending to a new wound.
So I can wear ear shinies now! I need to acquire more of them, especially more interesting studs that I can wear during work/aikido. xD Dangly earrings are pretty but inconvenient when doing very physical stuff.
she was ALSO like "you have skinny earlobes!" and I was like "uh?" and she was cheerfully like "this means that even the tiniest studs I have are going to be a little loose on you and the average stud will be noticeably loose" (true, btw) and then "do your ears get cold particularly easily?" (no, actually, they don't?). It was all very "this is not a body part I think about the variance in very often but yeah someone who does body mods/piercings sure would have thoughts about this!". xD
2.
The heater in our dojo, which has been dying for years, has finally given up the ghost. Considering that our dojo barely breaks even most of the time, uh, not good to need to replace that in the middle of winter. We shall see how paying for that ends up working, considering that it only broke like last Friday and we only got someone to look at it today, and they haven't provided a specific estimate yet (just a rough ballpark upon identifying the failed part). Fun times!
3.
It is WINTER and COLD now.
...yeah that's about it.
This does mean my cat will paw at the blanket I keep on my couch and then curl up in expectation that I shall Tuck Her In, which is absolutely adorable of her. <3
4.
I finished my Yuletide draft and made eyes at a friend who also knows the canon to beta-read it, so I don't need to worry about that until they get back to me. I had a lot of fun doing canon review for this one! One of those canons where I didn't have any particular ideas but did think it'd be fun to write for someone who had some prompts/thoughts about it, and: I was right!
5.
Talked to my dad yesterday about family and life and books, and it's very funny how at once I got so much of my taste in books from him and how much more willing he is to read moderately shitty epic fantasy than I am. Admittedly, this may just be a factor of age and that he grew up reading more stuff in that genre (by which I mean: Male Gaze Power Fantasy) than I did, and so has way more tolerance for it than I do. He's perfectly happy to read whatever else I place in front of him! And he enjoys it! He just also reads these. xD
6.
god, idk, did I have other things to say
work is work. it's fine. I would like more sleep. whatever.
7.
I'm still somehow keeping up with Critical Role: Araman? I zone out of combat (normal) but this mostly just means that I'm willing to listen to that while doing other things even moreso than the more story-centric content that I'll listen to while driving or doing dishes etc. I think the part I enjoy most is that they're doing multiple tables and focusing on one table at a time, but the opening scene for each episode is from one of the other groups, a teaser of what they're getting up to/going to be doing when the focus switches to them.
1.
I never did say that I did get my ears repierced, did I xD But I did! It's been like a month! The piercer was like "so, let's just re-open those old holes, I bet they're still fine, just maybe a little finicky", and she was correct. A lot easier to heal from something that's just expanding old scar tissue than making a new hole in the body, obviously, which is good because tbh I wasn't excited about tending to a new wound.
So I can wear ear shinies now! I need to acquire more of them, especially more interesting studs that I can wear during work/aikido. xD Dangly earrings are pretty but inconvenient when doing very physical stuff.
she was ALSO like "you have skinny earlobes!" and I was like "uh?" and she was cheerfully like "this means that even the tiniest studs I have are going to be a little loose on you and the average stud will be noticeably loose" (true, btw) and then "do your ears get cold particularly easily?" (no, actually, they don't?). It was all very "this is not a body part I think about the variance in very often but yeah someone who does body mods/piercings sure would have thoughts about this!". xD
2.
The heater in our dojo, which has been dying for years, has finally given up the ghost. Considering that our dojo barely breaks even most of the time, uh, not good to need to replace that in the middle of winter. We shall see how paying for that ends up working, considering that it only broke like last Friday and we only got someone to look at it today, and they haven't provided a specific estimate yet (just a rough ballpark upon identifying the failed part). Fun times!
3.
It is WINTER and COLD now.
...yeah that's about it.
This does mean my cat will paw at the blanket I keep on my couch and then curl up in expectation that I shall Tuck Her In, which is absolutely adorable of her. <3
4.
I finished my Yuletide draft and made eyes at a friend who also knows the canon to beta-read it, so I don't need to worry about that until they get back to me. I had a lot of fun doing canon review for this one! One of those canons where I didn't have any particular ideas but did think it'd be fun to write for someone who had some prompts/thoughts about it, and: I was right!
5.
Talked to my dad yesterday about family and life and books, and it's very funny how at once I got so much of my taste in books from him and how much more willing he is to read moderately shitty epic fantasy than I am. Admittedly, this may just be a factor of age and that he grew up reading more stuff in that genre (by which I mean: Male Gaze Power Fantasy) than I did, and so has way more tolerance for it than I do. He's perfectly happy to read whatever else I place in front of him! And he enjoys it! He just also reads these. xD
6.
god, idk, did I have other things to say
work is work. it's fine. I would like more sleep. whatever.
7.
I'm still somehow keeping up with Critical Role: Araman? I zone out of combat (normal) but this mostly just means that I'm willing to listen to that while doing other things even moreso than the more story-centric content that I'll listen to while driving or doing dishes etc. I think the part I enjoy most is that they're doing multiple tables and focusing on one table at a time, but the opening scene for each episode is from one of the other groups, a teaser of what they're getting up to/going to be doing when the focus switches to them.
Branding and logo for Great British Railways unveiled
Dec. 8th, 2025 10:58 pmbbc_feedThe new red, white and blue branding mirrors the colours of the Union Flag, and will start to appear from next year.
Man Utd score four as winless Wolves booed
Dec. 8th, 2025 10:56 pmbbc_feedWatch highlights as Wolves lose 4-1 to Manchester United, suffering their eighth-straight loss in the Premier League.