#Diverse Interactive Learning

[earlyzakariya]

I will always thank my uty phase for rapidly improving my art in the span of a month

[fiona-fififi]

Please, please, please recognize that using incorrect pronouns is a common error made by English language learners—even for those who have achieved near fluency. It is not automatically intentional or malicious if someone uses an incorrectly gendered pronoun when talking about a character.

[spicyliumang]

Going back to replay IW for lore purposes is always an experience because each time I pick up something new 😭

[benhoffman]

Creating Transformative Experiences with cityHUNT

group of people completing a cityHUNT experience When I started cityHUNT over 20 years ago, I was obsessed with a question: How do we help people reconnect—with themselves, with each other, and with the world around them—through something as simple as play?

Inspired by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s work on flow theory, I wanted to bring the magic of immersive, joyful moments into corporate environments that too often forget the value of laughter and creativity.

My co-founder and I constantly tweaked the game mechanics around the principles of flow, trying to create experiences that would be meaningful and transformative.

What began as a simple idea has evolved into something that drives everything else I do—from nonprofit work to my upcoming book.

Table of Contents

Our Mission: Positively Impacting Companies

The Three Pillars: Playfulness, Connection, and FlowPlayfulness

Connection

Flow

Designing for All: Diversity as a Superpower

What Makes cityHUNT Different

The Evolution of cityHUNT

Lessons from the Early Days

Impact Beyond Participants

Conclusion

Our Mission: Positively Impacting Companies At its heart, cityHUNT is about positively impacting companies.

We aim to help organizations through our unique team-building experiences. The more people we can reach and introduce to cityHUNT, the further our mission spreads.

This isn’t just about business growth; it’s about creating more abundance that, in turn, helps us fund other events and projects aimed at making a positive difference.

The Three Pillars: Playfulness, Connection, and Flow

Playfulness As humans, we naturally play as children, just as animals do.

But we often forget how to play as we get older, even though it’s one of the best paths to joy and bliss.

At cityHUNT, we create space for adults to reconnect with that childlike playfulness.

Play doesn’t need an end result; the play itself is the point. This contrasts with the productivity-focused mindset many of us develop.

Ironically, when we make space for play, our ability to produce actually blossoms rather than narrows.

Connection Our second pillar is about fostering meaningful connections.

I’ve come to understand connection as a three-layered concept:

Connection with oneself

Connection with other people

Connection with nature and the world around us

These connections work like a pyramid. You need to build that inner work first so that you can truly connect with others without needing anything from them.

When you’re fulfilled within yourself, you can connect with others from a place of openness rather than manipulation or coercion.

At cityHUNT, we create opportunities for all these levels of connection, but especially focus on human-to-human interaction.

While you can have fun by yourself, playfulness is typically a shared experience that strengthens bonds between people.

Flow Flow occurs when people engage in activities that are challenging enough to be interesting but not so difficult that they become frustrating.

We design tasks to hit this sweet spot for different personality types.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research on flow states was foundational to how we developed cityHUNT.

We wanted to create experiences where time seems to disappear and people become fully present in the moment. That’s when true transformation can happen.

I’m grateful for thinkers like Catherine Price, who has spoken deeply about the science of play, and Jamie Wheal from the Flow Genome Project, who’s expanded how we understand peak experience.

Their work continues to influence how we design our experiences.

Designing for All: Diversity as a Superpower cityHUNT events are crafted to celebrate differences. Some people thrive in social challenges, others prefer mental puzzles.

We ask clients about their team dynamics upfront and design experiences that allow everyone—from the CEO to the quietest team member—to shine.

For extroverts, we include challenges like singing a song to a stranger or doing a TikTok dance.

For introverts who might enjoy solving puzzles, we include more cerebral challenges. This ensures everyone has their moment to shine.

I come from a theater background, so I think of our events almost like plays, where each person gets to be the star in their own way.

We create moments where different strengths are valued—a maintenance person might know something crucial that a CEO doesn’t, highlighting how everyone brings unique value.

Our teams are specifically designed to be four to six people.

It’s the magic number for team building—intimate enough to build real connections and big enough to harness diverse talents.

With fewer than four people, you lose the diversity of thought and skills needed to solve challenges effectively.

With more than six, some participants start to disengage or form smaller subgroups.

What Makes cityHUNT Different Our approach isn’t about high-tech gamification for its own sake. In fact, only one person per team uses a device.

The rest is face-to-face, voice-to-voice.

Our job is to remove friction and invite people to be present. If we’ve done our job, they forget it’s a team-building exercise—they’re just laughing, solving, and seeing each other.

One thing we’ve mastered over 25 years is how to create team-building experiences for very large groups.

Once you get beyond 30–50 people, most team-building activities become unwieldy. But we’ve developed the expertise to run events for hundreds or even thousands of participants.

We’ve perfected the art of routing teams through geographical areas that are neither too small (where teams are on top of each other) nor too large (where it becomes physically exhausting).

We create an arc where everyone starts together as a large group, then breaks into small teams for intimate bonding experiences, and finally reunites to celebrate as a whole.

The Evolution of cityHUNT The company has evolved significantly over the years.

When we started in 2000, we could only provide 10 clues because we only had 10 Polaroid pictures!

As technology advanced to digital cameras and eventually smartphones, we were able to scale and enhance the experience.

We were paper-and-pen for longer than we’ve been digital, which is amazing to think about.

Technology has helped us scale while staying true to our mission.

Having immediate feedback is a crucial part of flow, and as technology evolved from Polaroid cameras to digital cameras to smartphones, we’ve been able to provide better, more immediate feedback while still keeping the focus on human interaction.

What’s interesting is that we’ve used technology to connect people instead of allowing it to separate them.

We’ve harnessed technology to scale our experiences to thousands of participants without losing the personal touch.

Lessons from the Early Days We didn’t get it right from day one. Early on, teams got lost, no one had cell phones, and we overcomplicated everything.

But the intention was always there: to make something beautiful happen when people come together to play.

Looking back, we made many mistakes.

We’d overthink everything—creating multiple variations of each clue (easy, medium, hard), adding complexities that didn’t enhance the user experience but just seemed “cool” to us as designers.

We had to learn through trial and error what actually worked.

Over time, I’ve spent considerable effort studying positive psychology, gamification, and mindfulness to refine our approach.

I started with gamification, then dove into positive psychology, and finally added mindfulness—realizing that participants could have moments of personal realization and self-reflection during our games, something I hadn’t initially thought possible.

Impact Beyond Participants Our mission is to positively impact over a million people, and the math works out.

First, the game itself requires participants to interact with strangers—helping someone, opening a door, singing a song.

Then, participants share their positive experiences with family and friends. And those strangers who were impacted during the game also share their experiences.

It’s like ripples in water or the Big Bang—an initial positive interaction spreads outward exponentially. With technology and social sharing, the impact multiplies quickly.

We even have YouTube videos with over 100,000 views. When you think about it this way, reaching a million people isn’t that difficult in our connected world.

Conclusion Everything I do—cityHUNT, my future book, the nonprofit work—rests on this foundation: abundance through connection.

cityHUNT is how we fund it all, but it’s also how we live our mission. We help people help themselves by creating spaces where joy and collaboration are possible.

In 2019, my perspective shifted significantly.

Before that, I spent most of my time working on external things and building material success.

But starting in 2019, I began focusing more on inner work and developing a new understanding of happiness and fulfillment.

I realized that all happiness comes from within. The external stuff is great, but when I lean into it too much, it causes suffering.

I also realized that no one can actually help me—they can only help me help myself. Similarly, I can’t directly help others—I can only help people help themselves.

This three-layered connection approach has transformed how I live and how I approach my business.

The inner work serves as the foundation, enabling me to better support my community and the larger world through cityHUNT and all my other endeavors.

Learn more about this philosophy and upcoming projects at benjaminpeacehoffman.com.

[talkorsomething]

Tbh i feel like if most of your kids dont have/never actually had a job/"steady" job thats more on you than on them

[jcmarchi]

A new way to determine whether a species will successfully invade an ecosystem

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/a-new-way-to-determine-whether-a-species-will-successfully-invade-an-ecosystem/

A new way to determine whether a species will successfully invade an ecosystem

When a new species is introduced into an ecosystem, it may succeed in establishing itself, or it may fail to gain a foothold and die out. Physicists at MIT have now devised a formula that can predict which of those outcomes is most likely.

The researchers created their formula based on analysis of hundreds of different scenarios that they modeled using populations of soil bacteria grown in their laboratory. They now plan to test their formula in larger-scale ecosystems, including forests. This approach could also be helpful in predicting whether probiotics or fecal microbiota treatments (FMT) would successfully combat infections of the human GI tract.

“People eat a lot of probiotics, but many of them can never invade our gut microbiome at all, because if you introduce it, it does not necessarily mean that it can grow and colonize and benefit your health,” says Jiliang Hu SM ’19, PhD ’24, the lead author of the study.

MIT professor of physics Jeff Gore is the senior author of the paper, which appears today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution. Matthieu Barbier, a researcher at the Plant Health Institute Montpellier, and Guy Bunin, a professor of physics at Technion, are also authors of the paper.

Population fluctuations

Gore’s lab specializes in using microbes to analyze interspecies interactions in a controlled way, in hopes of learning more about how natural ecosystems behave. In previous work, the team has used bacterial populations to demonstrate how changing the environment in which the microbes live affects the stability of the communities they form.

In this study, the researchers wanted to study what determines whether an invasion by a new species will succeed or fail. In natural communities, ecologists have hypothesized that the more diverse an ecosystem is, the more it will resist an invasion, because most of the ecological niches will already be occupied and few resources are left for an invader.

However, in both natural and experimental systems, scientists have observed that this is not consistently true: While some highly diverse populations are resistant to invasion, other highly diverse populations are more likely to be invaded.

To explore why both of those outcomes can occur, the researchers set up more than 400 communities of soil bacteria, which were all native to the soil around MIT. The researchers established communities of 12 to 20 species of bacteria, and six days later, they added one randomly chosen species as the invader. On the 12th day of the experiment, they sequenced the genomes of all the bacteria to determine if the invader had established itself in the ecosystem.

In each community, the researchers also varied the nutrient levels in the culture medium on which the bacteria were grown. When nutrient levels were high, the microbes displayed strong interactions, characterized by heightened competition for food and other resources, or mutual inhibition through mechanisms such as pH-mediated cross-toxin effects. Some of these populations formed stable states in which the fraction of each microbe did not vary much over time, while others formed communities in which most of the species fluctuated in number.

The researchers found that these fluctuations were the most important factor in the outcome of the invasion. Communities that had more fluctuations tended to be more diverse, but they were also more likely to be invaded successfully.

“The fluctuation is not driven by changes in the environment, but it is internal fluctuation driven by the species interaction. And what we found is that the fluctuating communities are more readily invaded and also more diverse than the stable ones,” Hu says.

In some of the populations where the invader established itself, the other species remained, but in smaller numbers. In other populations, some of the resident species were outcompeted and disappeared completely. This displacement tended to happen more often in ecosystems when there were stronger competitive interactions between species.

In ecosystems that had more stable, less diverse populations, with stronger interactions between species, invasions were more likely to fail.

Regardless of whether the community was stable or fluctuating, the researchers found that the fraction of the original species that survived in the community before invasion predicts the probability of invasion success. This “survival fraction” could be estimated in natural communities by taking the ratio of the diversity within a local community (measured by the number of species in that area) to the regional diversity (number of species found in the entire region).

“It would be exciting to study whether the local and regional diversity could be used to predict susceptibility to invasion in natural communities,” Gore says.

Predicting success

The researchers also found that under certain circumstances, the order in which species arrived in the ecosystem played a role in whether an invasion was successful. When the interactions between species were strong, the chances of a species becoming successfully incorporated went down when that species was introduced after other species have already become established.

When the interactions are weak, this “priority effect” disappears and the same stable equilibrium is reached no matter what order the microbes arrived in.

“Under a strong interaction regime, we found the invader has some disadvantage because it arrived later. This is of interest in ecology because people have always found that in some cases the order in which species arrived matters a lot, while in the other cases it doesn’t matter,” Hu says.

The researchers now plan to try to replicate their findings in ecosystems for which species diversity data is available, including the human gut microbiome. Their formula could allow them to predict the success of probiotic treatment, in which beneficial bacteria are consumed orally, or FMT, an experimental treatment for severe infections such as C. difficile, in which beneficial bacteria from a donor’s stool are transplanted into a patient’s colon.

“Invasions can be harmful or can be good depending on the context,” Hu says. “In some cases, like probiotics, or FMT to treat C. difficile infection, we want the healthy species to invade successfully. Also for soil protection, people introduce probiotics or beneficial species to the soil. In that case people also want the invaders to succeed.”

The research was funded by the Schmidt Polymath Award and the Sloan Foundation.

[rohitdigitalsblog]

Best Multimedia Iinstitute in Rohini 

[lesmana-enterprise-ltd]

Lesmana Arta International School, High School and Auditorium Lot (NO CC)

About Lesmana Arta International School

Lesmana Arta International School (LAIS) is a premier, corporate-backed institution dedicated to academic excellence and global education. Offering world-renowned curricula from SB to SGCE, LAIS provides students with a rigorous yet innovative learning environment. With state-of-the-art facilities, top-tier faculty, and a commitment to shaping future leaders, this elite school ensures that every student is equipped to thrive in an ever-evolving world.

Unrivaled Educational Facilities at LAIS

At LAIS, we are committed to providing an unparalleled learning environment equipped with world-class facilities to foster academic excellence and creativity. Our cutting-edge classrooms are designed for interactive and immersive learning, featuring the latest educational technology to enhance student engagement. The expansive library offers a vast collection of international resources, digital archives, and quiet study spaces, ensuring that students have access to knowledge at their fingertips.

For the creatively inclined, LAIS boasts specialized music rooms with professional-grade instruments, state-of-the-art art studios that encourage artistic expression, and fully-equipped science laboratories for hands-on exploration in STEM fields. From innovation hubs to collaborative study areas, every aspect of our campus is designed to inspire, challenge, and support students on their journey to academic and personal success.

Elite Sporting Facilities at LAIS

At LAIS, we believe that excellence in academics goes hand in hand with physical well-being. Our state-of-the-art sports facilities set the benchmark for athletic development, offering students access to a world-class indoor swimming pool, a professional-grade gymnasium, and a private tennis court, all designed to foster discipline, teamwork, and peak performance. Whether training for elite competitions or engaging in recreational activities, LAIS provides the perfect environment for students to push their limits, stay active, and excel beyond the classroom.

A Culinary Experience Like No Other at LAIS

At LAIS, dining is more than just a meal—it’s an experience. Our state-of-the-art cafeteria offers a premium breakfast and lunch buffet, meticulously crafted by Lesmana Resorts-grade chefs, ensuring that every dish meets the highest standards of quality, nutrition, and taste. Students enjoy a diverse selection of gourmet meals, featuring fresh, locally sourced ingredients and international cuisine tailored to various dietary needs.

From wholesome breakfasts to energize the day to balanced and delicious lunches that fuel academic and athletic performance, LAIS prioritizes student well-being through exceptional dining services. Whether it's a quick bite or a full-course meal, our culinary team is dedicated to providing a five-star dining experience that nourishes both the body and mind.

Adi Lesmana Hall: A Legacy of Excellence

Standing as a tribute to the visionary founder of Lesmana Enterprise, Adi Putro Lesmana (1915–1988), the Adi Lesmana Hall is the heart of grand occasions at Lesmana Arta International School (LAIS). This concert-grade auditorium is designed to host the school’s most prestigious events, from elegant proms and career expos to inspiring graduations and academic symposiums. Equipped with state-of-the-art acoustics, professional lighting, and a spacious seating arrangement, it offers an unparalleled venue for both formal ceremonies and artistic performances. More than just a hall, it is a space where milestones are celebrated, talents are showcased, and the legacy of excellence continues to inspire future generations.

Tuition Plans

Early Bird Discount

Enroll your kids today, and make them the leaders of the Sim world tomorrow.

Students enrolled until February 2025 intake is eligible for a semester discount, reducing 1st to 2nd Semester tuition from §115,000 to §110,000 per semester.

Lesmana Enterprise Privilege Plan

Parents who are currently employed in Lesmana Enterprise are eligible to apply for their children's 25%-50% tuition discount *Terms and conditions applies.

Download (SFS)

Lesmana Arta International School : Download Adi Lesmana Hall : Download Adi Lesmana Hall (Career Day) : Download Adi Lesmana Hall (Prom) : Download Adi Lesmana Hall (Graduation) : Download

Get Your LAIS Polo Uniform Here!

Stay in Our Dormitory, the LAIS House!

[8pxl]

BEGINNERS GUIDE TO BLUESKY

Hiya! Curious about joining bluesky but intimidated by all the features? Already on bluesky but want to learn more? Then welcome to my quick guide on getting started and navigating bluesky!~

What is Bluesky?

it’s a social media site that’s owned by no single person or company. it's aim is to bring back the early days of twitter before bots, elon musk or algorithms took over. Personally I find the site really cozy, wholesome, and engaging. my Bluesky account for example

What’s unique about Bluesky?

→ CUSTOMIZATION: ‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎your timeline is very easy to control. There’s tons of options, so be sure to go through each tab in your settings. some options include: turning off autoplay, changing the order in which threaded replies show, changing DM settings, content preferences and lots of visual app settings.

→ MODERATION LISTS: human made, mass blocklists. These are public lists of accounts that when you subscribe to you automatically block or mute everyone in that specific blocklist. A great way to avoid unwanted content, and interactions. ✦ Moderation lists I recommend will be below the cut

→ STARTER PACKS: recommendation lists on who to follow, made by users. You can even curate your own starter pack of recommendations! ✦ Starter pack recommendations will be below the cut

→ FEEDS: public timelines, basically. There are a lot of feeds you can join, or you can even create your own. I made a feed featuring just my pixel art so it doesn’t get cluttered with text posts or other photos in my media tab. ✦ I’ll post feeds I recommend below and link you to a tutorial on how to create your own feed

→ BLOCKING/MUTING: bluesky has a great blocking system. When you block someone they can no longer see, or interact with you. They also have a feature to make your blog inaccessible unless logged in. you can also mute specific people, delete post replies, and even detach your post from a reblog. You can also mute specific words, phrases, tags etc.

→ NSFW: bluesky allows NSFW content, including artwork, porn, lewds etc. They also have a great moderation page to avoid the content completely, censor the content, or show it if you’d wish. ✦ just go to settings > moderation > toggle on NSFW settings and it’ll let you heavily moderate.

→ LABELS: this is a really cool feature on the site, you can subscribe to certain pages that enable a lot of fun/useful labels that help you in different ways! (like pronoun tags, artist tags etc) ✦ Labels to browse will be posted below

→ COMMUNITIES: the vastly diverse communities really feel like the best parts of tumblr. since you can so heavily curate your experience, it can really feel like a calming oasis. Mine is mostly artists, and other creatives.

there’s also a large community of professional artists, art directors, authors, celebrities, and even the best shitposters from twitter. the app really is what you make of it but it’s thriving right now.

RECOMMENDATIONS & LINKS BELOW ⬎

→ MODERATION LISTS:

HATE SPEECH: NAZIS | MAGA | MAGAv2 | MAGAv3 | TRANSPHOBES & HOMOPHOBES | FAR RIGHT | FAR RIGHTv2 | FAR RIGHTv3 | ELON MUSK FANBOYS | ANTI-BLACK | ANTI-VAX

NFT/AI/CRYPTO: MASTERLIST | AI/NFT | AI/NFTv2 | AI FANBOYS | CRYPTO | NFTs

SPAM/SCAMMERS: SPAMBOTS | BOTS | CONTENT SCRAPERS | CONTENT FARMING

✦ to block or mute everyone in the blocklist at once, click subscribe in the top right corner:

→ STARTER PACKS:

ART: PIXEL ART | PIXEL ARTv2 | WOMEN OF PIXEL ART | BADASS DIGITAL ARTISTS | MAGIC THE GATHERING ARTIST | PAINTERS OF BLUESKY | INDIE COMIC CREATORS | LGBTQIA+ COMIC CREATORS | WEBCOMICS ULTIMATE COLLECTION

GENERAL: WOMEN OF BSKY | AUTHORS | LGBTQ NEWS

SHITPOSTERS: JUNIPER | JUNIPERv2 | MASTERLIST | SCIENCE SHITPOSTERS

✦ for more niche starter packs, use the search function. search your specific interest and ‘starter pack’ and you’ll find some!

→ FEEDS:

DISCOVER | WHATS TRENDING | MENTIONS | ART | TRENDING ART

THE GRAM: a timeline for exclusively image posts from those you follow. no textposts etc. ONLYPOST: similar to the gram, it shows a timeline of only those you follow. no reposts, just original posts. 📌: a way to bookmark posts. just reply with the pin emoji.

✦ there’s tons of others feeds as well! just use the feed tab and you can browse feeds or search for specific ones.

✦ TUTORIAL ON HOW TO CREATE A CUSTOM FEED FOR YOUR ART/POSTS

→ LABELS:

SKYWATCH: most popular label. Lots of useful labels!

AI Labels: identifies AI users, can also enable hiding the posters.

Pronouns: self explanatory but useful. can add a badge with your pronouns!

✦ you can search for additional label bots on bluesky!

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS:

✦ EXPIRIENCE ENHANCING TOOLS RECS ✦ CLEARSKY: TRACK BLOCKS AND BLOCKLISTS ✦ SKYFEED: CREATE CUSTOM FEEDS EASILY ✦ use the block function often. do not entertain trolls or hate speech. ✦ as well as starter packs, there’s also lists! lists can be used in the same way to create curated lists of accounts. it’s a good way to keep track of specific genres of posters you’re interested in, and finding new ones! ✦ hashtags: use them! they’re beneficial in boosting your post. you can even link hashtags in your bio making you easier to find. another method of making you more visible is if you post an ‘interest’ post! basically just type things you’re interested in and it’ll help people find you / vice versa ! ✦ update your profile first thing, like bio avi etc. make a small post so people know you're real. interact and engage! the communities there are so welcoming!

I think that covers abt everything i wanted to cover! Hope this was helpful and thanks for reading lol

[dratefahmed1]

Nurse Nelly's Night Shift by Dr #bedtimeroutine #calmingfears #healthyhabits #childrenshealth #illu

#nursenellysnight #childrensbooks #kidlit #picturebooks #bedtimestories #preschoolactivities #earlylearning #diversitybooks #emotionallearning #giftideasforkids #readtoyourchild #illustration #colorful #childrensart #creativity #storytimewithkids #nursenelly #nursesofinstagram #nursesoftiktok #nursestories #healthcareheroes #hospital #nightingale #caring #kindness #compassion #futurenurses…

[renthony]

There are a lot--like, holy shit, a lot--of people in my notes asking questions about intersex 101 after my recent posts, and as much as I love that y'all want to learn, I don't have the time to sit and respond to every single one of you right now. I'm genuinely not irritated that you have questions, but please understand that I am not an expert on every intersex topic, I'm just some random intersex person, and I'm also super busy & stressed about a million other things today, too.

Here are a couple resources for y'all to check out and get started with on your own. :)

Medicalizing Sex: The Erasure of Sexual Diversity, authored by tumblr's own @dabwax. Check out the works cited page, too.

InterACT's "What is Intersex?" FAQ

InterACT's "Intersex, Gender, and LGBTQIA+" FAQ

InterACT's Intersex Resource Topics page

InterACT's Guide for Allies

Intersex Awareness Day

Human Rights Campaign: "Understanding the Intersex Community"

Bogi Takács' database of intersex #ownvoices books

Bogi Takács' database of books by Black intersex authors

[drdemonprince]

I worry that today’s generation of kids on the internet have never gotten to develop much digital agency or form safe, empowering relationships with older people. More broadly, I think our current culture of isolating children from all unrelated adults, supposedly in the name of their “protection” only causes them to become more ignorant, lonesome, and vulnerable to exploitation.

There are many ways in which restricting youth access to information technology and training adults to avoid all contact with children makes kids even more powerless and dependent.

If a child cannot post their sexual health questions on Ask Alice or go searching around online, then they have to believe whatever they hear from their parent or priest. If a young person longs to taste the freedoms of adulthood but aren’t given any room to explore, then the grown-up in their DMs telling them that they are so mature becomes a hell of a lot more seductive.

And if a kid never gets to search for sexual content online, learn about adult sexual experiences, or touch themselves and find pleasure in the privacy of their own minds, they may never fully learn that their body is them, for them to enjoy and express themselves however they see fit.

For queer youth, the dangers of isolation are amplified. A study published in the journal Child Protection and Practice in April of last year found that LGBTQI+ children face an elevated risk of grooming and sexual abuse because they are discriminated against by peers, preached against within their religious communities, and mistreated or kicked out of the house by their families — and also, because an adult with no respect for boundaries might be the only person offering to talk with them about queerness or sex.

It’s very difficult to know the difference between a healthy relationship and exploitation when a predatory adult is the first queer person a kid ever knows. If a relationship with an abuser is the only way that a teen ever gets to live out their queerness or explore their budding sexuality, then it becomes immensely difficult for them to walk away — leaving the groomer is like tearing off a crucial part of themselves that never gets expressed otherwise, or even seen.

This is also true of children who have the early rumblings of kinky sexualities, too — when you long to be controlled or tied up, you need a safe outlet to learn and fantasize about doing such things consensually one day. If you do not know that such options exist, you’ll settle instead for abuse. The more options that a child has to learn about sexual practices, to meet other queer people of ages, and to form appropriate relationships with unrelated adults, the harder they become to manipulate, and the more power they have to walk away.

...

Being a minor is a position created by legal oppression, but most people consider a minor’s lack of freedom to be so natural and morally correct they don’t even recognize it as oppression. Instead, they see it as protection, a healthy separation between the world of the human and the not-quite-human yet. Though they would never admit it, a minor is not the same thing as a person to them, for a minor can be thrown out of public spaces, locked away, silenced, disregarded, and left to rot in the ways full persons are not.

I believe that we queer adults are failing our younger siblings by refusing to play a part in raising and looking after them. We have chosen to privilege our individual safety from accusations of ‘inappropriate’ conduct over the need for queer youth to see their own sexualities and identities normalized, envision a diversity of possible futures for themselves, and seek aid and understanding when they are mistreated.

For those of us who’ve had the liberty to escape our ignorant hometowns, get on HRT, have joyous gay sex in dark rooms, or even just dance tenderly with a sexy androgynous stranger’s cheek pressed against our own, we have a responsibility to pour from our filled cups, and to remember what it was like to have no such access. As terrified as we are of losing our documentation, our access to medicine, and our legal rights, we must remember those queer people who presently have none of those things, and do all that we can to extend our aid to them.

I wrote about the troubling culture of the "MINORS DNI" bio, and how it contributes to the mass isolation of young queer people. You can read the full piece or have it narrated to you by the substack app for free here.

[clockwayswrites]

Like a damn bird of paradise Part 40

masterpost (pls no editing or concrit, I'm full of steroids)

“Well, you’re not my drafting paper,” Danny said with a little smile as he learned against the door frame of his apartment. The collar of his well worn sweater slipped down his shoulder, making him look wonderfully relaxed.

Bruce cleared his throat and help up the takeout bag. “Just a lunch offer, I’m afraid.”

“Lucky for you I’m starving, both for food and company,” Danny said. He stepped back and let Bruce enter. “I didn’t realize how much I would miss being in my office. There are dozens of little interactions I have every day that I don’t get while I’m locked away here like Rapunzel in her tower.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think you have the hair for Rapunzel,” Bruce pointed out as he made his way to the table to set down the food.

Danny laughed and ran a hand through his hair, messing up the locks. “No? Not here to be my prince in well tailored armor then?”

Bruce stepped forward to straight them back out. His hand drifted down to Danny’s cheek and he ran his thumb across the faint scattering of freckles. “If it’s a rescue you want, you only have to say the word. Or even just a vacation. My kids are always trying to get me to take one. I could ensure complete discretion somewhere private.”

“I just got home a few days ago,” Danny pointed out.

“That’s not a no,” Bruce replied.

“It’s not a no,” Danny said with a small, amused smile. He leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to Bruce’s lips and then too quickly pulled away. “What did you bring for lunch?”

“There’s an good Algerian place near enough to work, I stopped there on the way,” Bruce said as he made himself break apart and move over to the bag of food. “I got a selection of things.”

“Oh, I’ve never had Algerian before, I don’t think, that sounds great,” Danny said. He went to his kitchen, which was small but felt bigger due to the open layout. “What would you like to drink? I’ve got ice tea, ginger ale, and milk. I’ve also teas and coffee I could make up quick enough.”

“Ice tea is fine if it’s not too sweet, otherwise a ginger ale,” Bruce answered as he methodically set out the take out containers.

“I’m not southern enough for sweet tea,” Danny said with a soft chuckle.

“Where are you from originally?” Bruce asked. He had gamely resisted looking Danny up. He was trying to do this the right way. Besides, anything concerning Lucius would have found before even starting to consider introducing Danny to the Bats as an engineer.

“Ohio. I was in Chicago for undergrad, SoCal for grad, and MIT for my doctorate, and Austin for my first job, so I’ve made the rounds,” Danny said. He set two glasses of tea down on the table, followed by two plates, some napkins, and silverware.

“And now Gotham, of all places,” Bruce said as he pulled out a chair for Danny.

Danny gave another soft laugh, but took the offered chair and let Bruce push it in for him. “Not of all places, WE was always my end game. Well, my end game as soon as I got myself back on track. High school was rough with the accident and it took me awhile to get things back together. I had to start at a community college.”

“Hardly anything wrong with that,” Bruce assured Danny. “You’ve gotten far further with your education than I ever did.”

“Do you ever regret it?” Danny asked as he poked curiously at one of the dishes.

“Sometimes,” Bruce said honestly. “But I think being a doctor would have been horrible for my mental health. I’ve never been good at accepting that I can save everyone. I still can’t, but at least leading WE I can help a lot more people at once, even if that is hugely thanks to the efforts of everyone else.”

“The mastermind rather than the master,” Danny said with a little nod, as if he really got it. He chewed on a potato, humming happily at the flavor, before he said. “That’s actually why WE was my end game. You’ve set up a really good environment there with diversity and pay equality and living wages. Also, if I could get high enough, which I have, I knew I’d be able to work on independent projects. It gives me a chance to do some real good too.”

“Your water filters are going to save lives,” Bruce agreed. “I’m not sure if Lucius has spoken to you about it, but we’re looking to make sure that every household in Gotham that wants one can get one. Not only will they be vital if a Rogue gets something in the water supply again, but until the reform of the water system is finished it will help the lower income areas that still have old pipe systems.”

“Really?” Danny asked, scoop of couscous forgotten halfway to his plate.

“Really. I’ve already started laying the seeds with the board. If nothing else, I’ll have them with how much good PR it will bring in for us.”

“You are a fiend,” Danny said with a little shake of his head. “A very benevolent fiend, but a fiend.”

“I just know how to work a board,” Bruce said, perhaps just a little smugly. “I might as well use growing up rich to do some good.”

“I think you’re just good at working people, that’s your mastery,” Danny said.

Bruce laughed, he couldn’t help it. “My children would strongly refute that. The more I care for someone, the worse I am at it. Things with logic or helping others, that’s easy for me to rally behind. Making sure that a loved one understands that the what and the why I’m doing something is because I care for them? Miserable. I’ve always struggled with showing those deeper connections, maybe because it’s always been so easy to act in public.”

Danny reached over and squeezed Bruce’s hand. “For what it’s worth, the fact that you’ve learned that and are trying to fix it? That means so much. I’m sure it does to your family too.”

“I hope so. I nearly lost some of them when I was younger and stupider, and I could never stand to again. Losing Jason for a time… he ran off because we had a fight. I was trying to protect him, make sure he didn’t make mistakes he would regret forever… I didn’t explain myself at the time and if I had…” Bruce shook his head and put on a smile. “Ah, I’m sorry, I’m making things dark. The important bit of this is that we will see your filters through out Gotham, I promise.”

Danny surprised Bruce by leaning in and giving him a soft peck on the cheek. “I don’t mind your shadows, Bruce. I’m well aware that we all have them.”

Bruce cleared his throat and squeezed Danny’s hand. His smile dropped into something smaller, but all the more real. “Thank you.”

Danny squeezed his hand back. “Now, tell me about these vacation options you’re concocting? As Lucius will tell you, it’s been too long since I’ve taken one that wasn’t for health or to see family.”

“Ah, a man after my own heart then,” Bruce said as he mentally ran through options for them. “To start with, sand or no sand?”

“With feathers? I’d be cleaning the sand out of my wings for hours,” Danny said. It was good to hear him mention his wings with more ease.

“Come now, half a hour tops, I’d gladly helped.”

“Why Mr. Wayne, I’m starting to suspect that you are fond of my wings.”

Bruce just shrugged. “When did I ever say that I wasn’t? They’re a lovely part of a lovely man.”

“Ancients,” Danny near whispered and hid his flushed face in his hands. “Okay, okay, I’m officially out flirted. Eat. Eat and convince me of this vacation.”

“If that’s what you want,” Bruce said, unable to help be proud of the reaction from Danny. He had to wonder if they did go on vacation, just how much he could make Danny blush like that.

He expected quite a bit.

[raineofthedragons]

Making a list of things Iskall did in the video that feel manipulative. Quotes won’t be exact because I’m not watching that for a second time.

1. Opening with his own mental health struggles. Talking about mental health is important but being suicidal is a known excuse for people, especially influencers, to get out of facing accountability. Opening his first video in months with his own struggles is a diversion. Regardless of his mental health, he still needs to be held accountable.

2. Minimizing the allegations. The literal first thing he does in that video is reduce allegations of sexual harassment to “consensually talking with an adult woman.” This wasn’t an issue of flirting, this was an issue of sending explicit messages to his own employees & taking advantage of the power imbalance inherent to that. He talks about how, legally, he did nothing wrong. There’s lots of things that aren’t illegal but are still bad. Most workplaces will still fire you for sexual harassment, even if it’s not illegal.

3. Emphasizing his own virtues. Half of the video is him talking about what a great person he is, what he’s done for the community, how much of his own money he spent making Vault Hunters, things like that. I shouldn’t have to say that good people can still do bad things and bad people can still do good things.

4. “Guilty until proven innocent” and the whole pitchforks and witch hunts metaphor. We have the screenshots. We know what he did. These aren’t baseless accusations with no proof. Things like that tend to get proven false very quickly.

5. Emphasizing everyone else’s wrongdoing. He makes his (alleged) victims out to be these evil conspirators plotting to ruin his life. He talks about how HermitCraft only gave him an hour and a half to defend himself. To be fair, that is far too short a time window, but it’s interesting that he can’t actually defend himself, he just discredits everyone else.

6. Distracting from the allegations. Near the end, he talks about how HermitCraft is actually bad and secretly doing terrible things, without actually saying what they are. Regardless of if this is true, it has no bearing on the topic of the video— the sexual harassment allegations against him, which he has done nothing to actually refute.

7. Making the community response seem irrational. He emphasizes the worst people in the community, the ones sending him harassment and death threats (to be clear, this is not okay. We do not send people death threats) as a way to discredit everyone who cancelled him. He talks about how it’s his private business and therefore not important for the public to know. It’s fine for him to have that opinion, but if someone learns about things you’re doing in your private life and decides they don’t want to interact with you anymore, that is their right. This applies even more so to the members of the HermitCraft server. These allegations could have impacted both the reputation and safety of other people on the server, damaging the trust their viewers place in them, and harming their financial well-being.

8. Completely avoids any accountability. Every apology needs accountability, regardless of if the person did anything wrong. Iskall could have easily included an apology for the damaged trust that comes along with allegations like these, talked about how being silent for several months increased that affect, the betrayal and uncertainty felt by the community. Instead he deflects and places blame on everyone but himself. Even if he’s innocent, it’s really not a good look.

That’s everything I can think of right now. Might add some more later. I don’t trust a single thing he said in this video, especially the vague stuff about HermitCraft being actually problematic and censoring him.