If you can provide $3k checks for the entire middle class of America by taxing 900 people a little more, not only should you do it, but you should take it as a signal that your monetary system is broken
04.03.2026 19:32 —
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S-WoPEc: Living standards in south Swedish towns, c. 1570-1865
Abstract: This paper analyses the evolution of material living standards in three Swedish, before 1658 Danish, towns (Malmö, Ystad and Falkenberg) of varying size from the late 1500s to the advent of industrialization in the 1860s. We use population registers and church books, but above all a new dataset of 1381 probate inventories for the time periods 1570–1599, 1670–1720, the 1780s, and the 1860s. Based on the probate inventories, we document the prevalence of an array of goods crucial for one’s material living standards and degree of affluence: gold and silver, porcelain and items related to tea and coffee, books, and furniture. The results give a relatively optimistic view of the material living standard in these small towns. The frequency with which households held goods such as porcelain, tea and coffee was markedly lower than the Low Countries, one of Europe’s leading economic regions, but comparable to Venice and English smaller towns. The development over time was, except for the first hundred years of Swedish rule when Malmö citizens’ wealth declined, positive. The results support a view of Swedish towns as small but well-connected to the European economy.
New working paper published on the material living standards of south Swedish towns between 1570 och 1865, co-written with @bengtssonz.bsky.social and @massius.bsky.social. Despite poor and peripheral, these towns compare pretty favourably with other parts of Europe.
swopec.hhs.se/luekhi/abs/l...
02.03.2026 15:21 —
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Reform win a seat: The true Volk have spoken and we all must listen.
Greens win a seat: Early reports that Muslims may have ‘voted’ (an ancient Islamic practice designed to steal elections). How severely should the franchise be limited in response?
02.03.2026 07:57 —
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A view of King Alfred's Tower from the north side. The bricks are sooooo tiny and yesterday when I stood next to it, it boggled my mind to try to estimate how many there are. Despite my banker-mocking caption, and my near certainty that Henry Hoare was a total fuckpig, I have to confess I am massively glad it exists and do hope it's true that it really does stand on the site where King Alfred won The Battle Of Edington in 878. It was closed yesterday but I climbed to the top in autumn 2018, drunk on my adventures as a new Somerset resident, on a similarly clear day when I was researching my book Ring The Hill and the three county view was spectacular: Dorset to the south, Wiltshire to the east, and Somerset to the north and west.
Aren't rich people amazing? I can imagine one of the labourers who risked their life in the construction of the 49 metre King Alfred's Tower in the 1770s for the banker Henry Hoare asking him "But what is it for?" & Hoare answering "What is it FOR? What it's FOR, my good man, is for me to SHOW OFF."
01.03.2026 09:06 —
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Contact
Write to us! Subscribe to our newsletter, recommend a reading, submit a review, ask us anything! caranteswg.fakestuff@superproton.me Or contact us on BlueSky
The @carantes.bsky.social online anti-fascist Celtic Studies reading group is back back back March 20th at 4-6pm Welsh time
This time we are doing a series on GENDER, starting with freely accessible work by @hjosephinegiles.bsky.social and @finnlongman.com
Join us here: carantes.org/contact/
23.02.2026 10:58 —
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Prometheus says “hot take” and Greek gods respond “no give that back.”
22.02.2026 07:47 —
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Johannes Klenell: "Gustav Fridolin sade till mig att han kunde se flera motioner, förslag och propåer som var direkt skrivna av IES från olika borgerliga politiker. Hur visste du det?, frågade jag. Jag hade ju fått samma PM från paret Bergström, svarade han."
23.02.2026 10:59 —
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Close-up of a 16th-century printed book page with dense blackletter text. A round burn hole interrupts the page near the top right, revealing a modern photo behind it of a smiling person giving two thumbs up.
Sixteenth-century book with a perfectly placed burn hole. Proof that early modern readers lived dangerously (hello, candles).
📚🔥 #RareBooks #BookHistory #MaterialCulture #LibrarianLife
18.02.2026 07:27 —
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Naan
22.02.2026 18:16 —
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Surdeg
22.02.2026 17:45 —
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22.02.2026 17:29 —
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All The Things We Should've Said
You should absolutely do yourself a favour and listen to this album by The Lion & The River that was released today. Absolute banger, such a good album.
open.spotify.com/album/6up3IE...
22.02.2026 17:42 —
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The giant king of all the east might have defeated Charlemange in battle and taken all the barons of France captured, but his pride will be his downfall because he failed to consider the plucky englishman and his magic lance that just makes you win.
- Orlando Innamorato, book I canto vii, 23-57
15.06.2025 16:52 —
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Two days late in reposting this, but still ^.^
21.02.2026 09:14 —
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Otrolig artikel om den danska överklassens konsumtion och filosofi som speglad i magasinet Børsen Pleasure—den danska motsvarigheten till Financial Times ”How to spend it”-bilaga
www.weekendavisen.dk/kultur/reser...
21.02.2026 08:27 —
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Thicc
19.02.2026 09:08 —
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At Beckett conferences, the keynote never arrives!
16.02.2026 08:37 —
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The big lad from the Horniman Museum
16.02.2026 11:56 —
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CFP: Race, Law and Empire
16.02.2026 11:10 —
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Finishing the lecture slides the morning before the lecture is a time-honoured tradition... right?
15.02.2026 23:23 —
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Honestly, just as intuitive and useful as anything else. Biggest issue with it is that the high numbers for daily use makes it very unwieldly
15.02.2026 23:06 —
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A percentile scale for how hot or cold it feels mean absolutely nothing to me when -4°C, humid, and with a fickle wind feels roughly ten times colder than -17°C on a clear and sunny day.
Of course the same can be said about Celsius, but at least it doesn't pretend to be able to count that.
15.02.2026 22:55 —
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Just as people argue that Celsius is unintuitive because we are not water and the difference between 18°C and 24°C is hard to conceptualise, how the hell am I suppose to know what Farenheit considered "Cold" and "Hot"?
15.02.2026 22:50 —
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Counterpount: unless you grew up with it, Farenheit is just as worthless at communicating everyday temperature as Celsius is.
This discussion is, and always will be, pointless.
15.02.2026 22:34 —
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American culture of the 1840’s would have been *very fucking surprised* to see the Irish considered as co-founders.
Elon’s an ahistorical dipshit, but its always worth saying some stuff out loud: if you‘re a fellow Irish-American and you aren’t 100% pro-immigrant, you’re a fucking embarassment.
15.02.2026 17:44 —
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James Van der Beek riding a horse on the beach without pants on.
Never forget the Sexiest Man Alive bareback horse photoshoot which remains one of the funniest things a man has ever done.
11.02.2026 19:49 —
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Call for (post-PhD) historians and cultural scholars for the pod! We have a specific wishlist of scholarship we’re looking to add to the lineup:
- ancient & medieval history
and/or
- histories of anywhere other than the US and UK, preferably outside Europe
Pitches to: podcast@thisguysucked.com
🤗🤗🤗
03.11.2025 14:09 —
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Yet another crucial point: the vast majority of the world’s historical archives have not been digitized and are thus totally invisible to LLMs/AI.
bsky.app/profile/jcte...
11.02.2026 20:40 —
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