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puck-luck · 1 month ago

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Hi my love🤍 happy first birthday!

Can you do Caffe Latte with Caramel Syrup = christening luke’s room in the lake house?

a slightly longer one to make up for the fact that it's been a few days since i wrote a blurb:,) thank u for your request queen i really loved writing it!!

Three years later and the brothers have finally allowed Luke to join them in the lake house. At first, it was because he was still in college. Then, it was because he was a rookie. Then, it was because he wasn’t even 21 yet. Now, he’s able to legally drink, he finished up his second year with the Devils and outlasted both of his brothers this season, and even if he’d kept taking classes at UMich, he’d be graduated by now. The brothers have begrudgingly allowed him to move in this year, having run out of excuses and reasons. As much as the brothers love each other, Jack and Quinn have a history of ganging up against their youngest sibling, and you’re glad that they’re no longer able to exclude him from the home.

Luke invited you over to take a tour, which is silly but sweet because you’ve been to the lake house before in past years. His brothers are out doing brothers shit, you don’t know exactly what, but the point is that they’re gone. They’re gone, Luke’s showing you around the house with his fingertips at the small of your back, and he’s speaking in the soft tone that he reserves for you. You like seeing what the boys have done with the living room and kitchen since last year, but what you really want to see is Luke’s bedroom.

“Baby,” you murmur, turning around and wrapping your arms around Luke’s waist. “Take me upstairs.”

Luke smiles down at you and smooths your hair back with both hands, his hands practically engulfing and covering your face. “You wanna go upstairs,” he says. “What for?”

You look at him, unimpressed. “C’mon, Lu. You know what for.”

Luke plays dumb, leaning down to press a kiss to your forehead. He pecks the tip of your nose for good measure.

“Luke,” you drawl, extending his name. You push your hands down into his waistband, cold fingers coming into contact with his warm hips. “I wanna kiss you.”

“Then kiss me.”

You roll your head back in exasperation. Luke’s hands are still on your head, so you can’t move too far, and he laughs at your antics. He bends down to kiss you on the lips, satisfying your request, but you turn your head. “I wanna kiss you upstairs.”

“So specific,” Luke comments. “You want to see my bed, don’t’cha?”

You wiggle your eyebrows in response.

Luke’s smile splits even further. “Why didn’t you say so?”

Your mouth opens to retort, but you’re cut off by Luke bending at the knees and picking you up, throwing you over his shoulder playfully, and heading upstairs. He pushes his door open and returns his hand to your body after closing it, palm planted on your ass.

He tosses you onto the bed and comes down on top of you, caging you on the mattress between his arms and slotting himself in the space between your legs. “Great mattress, huh?” he questions after a deep kiss, his mouth still practically on top of yours. “Comfortable?”

“We haven’t properly tested it out yet,” you reply, tugging Luke back in for more.

He smiles against your mouth, teeth skimming your lower lip before he overtakes you.

You kiss him lazily, sliding your hands along his body before removing his shirt. You break the kiss momentarily to tug his shirt over his head, then break it again when he takes yours off. It’s late spring and you’re alone in your boyfriend’s house, so you’re not wearing a bra.

Luke kisses down your neck, sucking small marks as he makes his way down to your bare chest. He cups your boob, his thumb tracing your areola as his mouth moves back up your body and his tongue probes yours. He rolls his hips against your covered heat, your jean shorts riding up with his movements. His hand leaves your chest and goes to the button and zipper of your shorts, doing everything he can to remove your bottoms as quickly as possible.

He gets you naked and dips his fingers into your cunt the second it’s bared. “Wet,” Luke observes, voice muffled.

You swallow the words and pinch Luke’s side, nonverbally urging him to remove his own clothes. You can feel his bulge against your hip, his body shifted to make room for his hand between your thighs.

Luke giggles against you, his body shaking. He pulls his fingers from your pussy, both hands on his waistband and pushing it down. His cock springs free when he removes his underwear, bobbing and whacking your hip before it settles. His body always seems so much lengthier when he’s naked, all of his muscles and slimness on display. He’s a big boy, but he’s a stick, and his dick reflects that. You love it, almost as much as you love him. Almost.

He guides his tip through your folds, biting his lip. His eyes are a bit vacant as he does this, hypnotized by the way you part for him and leak slick on his member.

You reach up and touch the middle of his chest, which brings Luke back to your eyes. He smiles at you and captures your lips, sinking his cock into your pussy until he’s laying against you, fully sheathed. He stretches you out, but fills you perfectly. You moan into Luke’s mouth.

He flicks his tongue over yours, inviting you to play as he kisses you. He rolls his hips, bucking into you rhythmically. He holds you close, a hand on your hip and the other by your head, tracing your hair sweetly as he fucks you. “You gonna sleep over tonight?” Luke asks. “Put the bedroom to its real use?”

“If you fuck me again in the morning,” you incentivize.

Luke hums, interested in your offer. He pinches your nipple and tweaks it, then does the same to the other. “Mm, love you.”

You grin and cup his cheek, sliding your tongue into his mouth. He fucks into you with a slight stutter after that, but regains his hold shortly. With your eyes closed and Luke touching you so gently, you’d be happy staying in this moment forever.

#1 year of puck-luck!#andy writes anything🍄#luke hughes #luke hughes x reader #luke hughes fanfiction #luke hughes smut #luke hughes blurb #lh blurb #lh43

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mechanical-creature · 1 year ago

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Putting a headphone jack in a Fairphone 4

TLDR with this procedure you sacrifice the lower loudspeaker, but the upper one will still behave as normal. Calls and other audio seem to work just fine. There is some interference from internals that gets picked up by amplified speakers, I'm sure there's a way to filter it, this is mainly a proof of concept. This is not really a guide and I do not guarantee anything at all.

I really liked my Fairphone 4 except that it didn't have a 3.5mm jack like normal phones used to have. And my car has never heard of Bluetooth. So I started joking about drilling a hole in it.

I found this green TRS jack on a USB DAC and found it would fit inside. I took this photo with a DSi camera. Originally I thought I might be able to fit both the jack and the speaker, and I had this elaborate plan to make a cut in the mainboard and move the vibrating motor elsewhere,

but decided against it because I had no idea what losing that one contact would do. I did a test and found no major issues with removing the bottom loudspeaker. If I needed the phone to be loud, I'd hook something else up anyway. I bought a second loudspeaker and horrendously dissected it.

I used a knife. If you do this you should absolutely use a dremel tool and not a knife. Unless you don't have a dremel tool

The plan is, remove the speaker part. You do not have to completely de-laminate the two layers of plastic. Just this section of the bottom layer. The top layer has pretty colors and conductive tape and contacts for mysterious purposes. Maybe antenna.

Next, you must drill the hole. We're not quite sure what the case is made of, but it probably involves aluminum. I had a drill press and clamps, but I went to my friend's house. He doesn't have clamps or many drill bits, but he knows metal. The jack barrel was like 5.1mm in outer diameter, and after lamenting that all our bits were in imperial, we settled on a 7/32". We removed all components from the chassis including mainboard and screen before drilling.

Here, we went for a hole that was centered on the middle hole of the speaker grill. However, if you do this, you will need to also remove some more metal, because the jack will need to be kind of submerged in the floor. We also had to sand down one side of the jack paper thin to make it sit flat against the back of the screen module. In hindsight, I should have marked where the jack wanted to sit before drilling. This would have us drill at the edge of the case, but it would be closed off by the phone's back cover anyway so it wouldn't matter. Just plan out your hole instead of eyeballing it.

Unfortunately, we did not get any pictures of the fit after we were done. Probably for the best, so no one has to see the metal carnage.

Once it was in place, it was time to wire it. The speaker module presses a flat flex cable up against these two contacts on the board.

I originally managed to solder to the flat cable, but then made a mistake and tore the pads, so I ended up soldering directly to those spring pins on the mainboard. I used magnet wire for everything. I just connected both the L and R pins of the jack to this one speaker output because I didn't feel like probing out the top speaker connector and running wire up there just yet. Ideally I would have a switched jack that interrupts the top speaker, but that's for later. I might salvage something from an Apple device, their jacks tend to be compact.

Hot glued the thing in place, and this is the end result. It works just great with passive headphones. I'll upload a demo video when I get the chance, I've already used my 1 video. I wish I had taken better pictures, but it wasn't very convenient.

The caveats in the beginning apply. It's also way too loud because it's meant to drive a speaker, and it's balanced for that too. I might be able to put a resistor divider on there to reduce the output volume and let a louder signal drown out the interference a bit better?

I have no idea if this is a thing people do, putting audio jacks in their phones. But I would think that replacing the speaker like this would work on a lot of different phones. Maybe worth trying?

#creatura posts #fairphone #fairphone 4 #headphone jack #fp4 audio jack project

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mariacallous · 1 year ago

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In February 2022, a meeting was set up between New York City mayor Eric Adams’ team and an artificial intelligence gun-detection company called Evolv. An email thread from Evolv representatives included an accompanying brochure, which listed opportunities to partner together: in the Port Authority Bus Terminal, NYC schools, hospitals, and gathering places such as Times Square. One area conspicuously missing from the list, though, was the subway.

After an in-person meeting a few days later, Evolv cofounder Anil Chitkara made another attempt to sell the company’s technology—through name-dropping.

“As I mentioned, Linda Reid, VP Security for Walt Disney World (Florida) has known us since 2014 and deployed many of our systems at the Parks and Disney Springs,” Chitkara wrote in a February 7 email to the Mayor’s Office, obtained by WIRED. “They’ve had success screening for weapons with Evolv Express … There may be some interesting parallels to how you are thinking about everyone’s role in security."

The comparison of safety in NYC to that in Disney World apparently helped to persuade the Adams team. A couple of weeks later, Evolv’s technology was used to screen visitors in a city-run Bronx hospital, where a man had been shot inside the emergency room in January 2022. This wasn’t very successful—the scanners produced false positives 85 percent of the time during the seven-month pilot.

If Evolv’s accuracy in a hospital was low, its accuracy in NYC subway stations may be worse. In an investor call on March 15, 2024, Peter George, the company’s CEO, admitted that the technology was not geared toward subway stations. “Subways, in particular, are not a place that we think is a good use case for us,” George said, due to the “interference with the railways.”

Despite this, following the death of a man who was pushed onto the subway tracks in late March, Adams announced that Evolv’s gun-detection scanners would be tested in the city’s train stations. “This is a Sputnik moment,” Adams said on March 28. “When President Kennedy said we were going to put a man on the moon.”

Alexandra Smith Ozerkis, an Evolv representative, tells WIRED that when the company developed Evolv Express, its flagship product launched in 2019, they “did not do so with the NYC subway system in mind. That said, we are a mission-driven company, and when we are asked to test our technology in a new environment, we are happy to do so.”

However, the company that Adams wants to trust with the safety of New Yorkers has left a trail of controversies across the country—and critics wonder whether its technology works effectively. Its software, which uses “electromagnetic fields and advanced sensors” to detect weapons such as guns and knives, has missed them multiple times, particularly in schools. Yet neither this nor the recent disclosure that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has initiated a fact-finding investigation of Evolv (which follows a 2023 probe by the Federal Trade Commission over the company's marketing practices) has deterred the Adams administration, which has connections to the company’s employees who previously worked for the New York Police Department—something the company was keen to stress in its pitch.

Mixed Company

Back in 2022, Adams tasked New York’s deputy mayor, Philip Banks III, with finding a gun-detection solution. Before joining the administration, he served as NYPD’s chief of department, but resigned in 2014 amid a federal bribery and corruption investigation in which he was later named as an unindicted coconspirator. (Banks was never charged.)

While Adams said in May 2022 that he found Evolv online, Ozerkis from Evolv tells WIRED that the NYPD had contacted Evolv “to explore and test the possibility of using our screening solution around the city as part of their multi-pronged plan to curb violent crime.”

There was a lot of overlap with former members of the NYPD. Adams and Banks came up together as police officers—as did a then-account-executive of Evolv, also name-dropped by Chitkara in the email to the mayor’s staff. Dominick D’Orazio, who had been Evolv’s sales manager in the northeast US before being promoted to regional manager in April, was a commander in Brooklyn South whose reporting line included Banks—who was, at the time, deputy chief of patrol for Borough Brooklyn South. (Banks has denied meeting D’Orazio in his capacity as an Evolv employee.)

Evolv’s connection to the NYPD is something George, Evolv’s CEO, has used to market the company’s technology. “About a third of our salespeople were former police officers,” George said at a conference in June 2022. “The one here in New York was an NYPD cop, and he’s a really good sales guy because he understands who we’re selling to. He has the secret handshake.”

David Cohen, former NYPD deputy commissioner of intelligence, also sits on Evolv’s Security Advisory Board.

The Mayor’s Office has been keen to stress that it is not set on Evolv being a permanent fixture. “To be clear, we have NOT said we are putting Evolv technology in the subway stations,” Kayla Mamelak, deputy press secretary of the Mayor’s Office, tells WIRED in an email. “We said that we are opening a 90-day period to explore using technology, such as Evolv, in our subway stations.”

Civil rights and technology experts have argued that utilizing Evolv’s scanners in subway stations is likely to be futile. “This is Mickey Mouse public safety,” says Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a privacy advocacy organization. “This is not a serious solution for the largest transit system in the country.”

Moreover, deploying the company’s technology might not just be ineffective—it’s also likely to add more police officers to the daily rhythms of New Yorkers’ lives, heightening Adams’ pro-cop agenda. The NYC subway has 472 stations. “That is roughly 1,000 subway station entrances,” explains Sarah Kaufman, director of the New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation. “That means that Evolv would have to be at every single entrance in order to be effective, and that of course would require monitoring.”

According to the draft policy posted by the NYPD, the process surrounding weapons-detection technology in the subway is extremely vague, and still relies heavily on police officers. “The checkpoint supervisor will determine the frequency of passengers subject to inspection (for example, every fifth passenger or every tenth passenger),” the document reads. It will also be based on “available police personnel on hand to perform inspections.”

The NYC subway has an estimated 3.6 million daily riders. Stopping every 10th passenger would mean 360,000 searches a day.

“It’s going to mean that people are routinely going to have to go through invasive and inconvenient searches,” says Cahn. “What’s really emblematic here is that the city keeps trying to go for security measures that are highly visible, even when they’re highly ineffective.”

School Supplies

In the email thread to the NYC officials who attended the meeting, Chitkara touted Evolv’s successful deployment in schools. But there, too, the scanners have failed to detect weapons and guns on multiple occasions. While the Adams administration was being persuaded to pilot the technology, internal emails obtained from a large school district that uses Evolv’s technology illustrate how everyday objects were being mistaken by the scanners.

“I know the simple solution is to tell kids not to use binders but rather regular notebooks,” Jacqueline Barone, principal of Piedmont Middle School, part of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, wrote at the end of 2022. “But it hurts my soul to have to tell kids or teachers that certain supplies can’t be used because the scanners mistake them for weapons.”

In mid-April, the school district’s chief operating officer announced at a conference panel with an Evolv executive in Las Vegas that they were “eliminating” metal three-ring binders.

“As we transition into the next school year, teachers will utilize other alternatives for classroom supplies,” Jessica Saunders, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spokesperson, tells WIRED in an email. She also says student laptops most often alert the weapons detection system.

Meanwhile, the company is currently being sued by a high school student in upstate New York who alleges that Evolv misrepresented its technology and is responsible for failing to detect the large knife that was used to stab him.

A class action was also recently filed by Evolv’s shareholders who claim that the company made misleading statements in violation of securities law that led to huge financial losses, while also claiming that the technology “does not reliably detect knives or guns.”

“Evolv Express systems are designed to configure various levels of a security profile with different sensitivity settings, which are selected by the customer, based on their specific needs and events,” Ozerkis tells WIRED. “That doesn’t mean our technology doesn’t work; it means the security professionals in charge of keeping that environment safe made the decision that they need to screen for different—or a wider variety—of threats.”

“Getting the Word Out”

For now, as part of NYC’s pilot program, there is that mandatory waiting period. This is likely to begin in late June and will last 90 days. According to the Mayor’s Office, the city will also explore the use of other technologies and companies.

“We are conducting outreach to several tech companies and the mayor even said that the point of the presser was to get the word out,” Mamelak from the Mayor’s Office says.

ZeroEyes, a competitor of Evolv, is one company possibly being considered. Like Evolv, the company has been represented by lobbyist Mike Klein, who lobbied the Mayor’s Office on ZeroEyes’ behalf in 2022 and 2023, according to disclosure documents. (Klein tells WIRED he no longer represents the company.)

So far, ZeroEyes hasn’t been wholly successful in the transport space: The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority quietly ended its pilot program with the company in December. A representative from ZeroEyes tells WIRED they could not confirm whether their technology would be piloted in New York.

Once the waiting period begins, the public will have 45 days to submit comments on the use of the technology before they are considered by the Mayor’s Office—although the Adams administration has no obligation to alter the policy.

Public safety advocates aren’t particularly hopeful that their concerns will be heard. “It’s obviously a pattern that we see repeated,” says Daniel Schwarz, privacy and technology strategist at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “They are rolling out more surveillance technologies and pouring more money into policing and surveillance infrastructure instead of the actual services that New Yorkers need.”

At the press conference in Fulton Station, standing next to Deputy Mayor Banks and an Evolv scanner, Adams seemed intent that the technology would be successful.

“Let’s bring on the scanners,” Adams said, adding: “We are taking a huge step toward public safety.”

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qocsuing · 3 months ago

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How Pogo Pin Connectors Are Revolutionizing the Electronics Industry

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teachingwithsnd · 6 months ago

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spacenutspod · 2 years ago

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In 2024, NASA will launch the Europa Clipper, the long-awaited orbiter mission that will fly to Jupiter (arriving in 2030) to explore its icy moon Europa. Through a series of flybys, the Clipper will survey Europa’s surface and plume activity in the hopes of spotting organic molecules and other potential indications of life (“biosignatures”). If all goes well, NASA plans to send a follow-up mission to land on the surface and examine Europa’s icy sheet and plumes more closely. This proposed mission is aptly named the Europa Lander. While no date has been set, and the mission is still in the research phase, some significant steps have been taken to get the Europa Lander to the development phase. This past August, engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California tested a prototype of this proposed landing system in a simulated environment. This system combines hardware used by previous NASA lander missions and some new elements that will enable a mission to Europa. It also could be adapted to facilitate missions to more “Ocean Worlds” and other celestial bodies in our Solar System. Since the 1970s, when NASA’s Voyager 1 and 2 probes flew past Jupiter and its system of moons, scientists have been eager to get a closer look at Europa. Several missions have visited Jupiter since, including the NASA-ESA Ulysses probe, which flew past the system in 1992 and 2004. This was followed by the Cassini–Huygens probe that made a flyby in 2000 on its way to Saturn and the New Horizons mission that buzzed the system on its way to the Trans-Neptunian region. However, only two missions have traveled to the system and remained there to study Jupiter and its satellites: the Galileo (1995-2003) and Juno space probes (2016-present). Thanks to data obtained by the Voyager probes, scientists began to speculate that a liquid ocean might exist beneath Europa’s icy shell. Using planetary models, they further theorized that Europa (and the other Galilean Moons) experienced tidal flexing in its interior resulting from interactions with Jupiter’s powerful gravity. This, they speculated, could lead to hydrothermal activity at the moon’s core-mantle boundary, providing the necessary heat and chemical energy for life. Subsequent missions have only reinforced this suspicion by detecting plume activity, carbon dioxide, and mineral salts on the moon’s surface. Creating a Europa Lander that can navigate the challenging terrain requires an advanced approach, which NASA engineers are addressing by adapting elements that have worked in the past. This includes the architecture used for the “sky crane” landing system used by NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, which relied on parachutes and retro rockets to slow their descent and a pulley system to lower them onto the surface. This system was tested in a simulated environment at NASA’s JPL at Caltech on August 17th and 18th, the highlight of which can be seen in the video above. The JPL engineers created a simulated propulsive descent stage for their prototype that kept the Europa Lander steady as four bridles lowered it. The Lander has four legs, each of which has a four-bar linkage mechanism that controls the leg’s pose before and during landing. Each leg is preloaded downward with a constant force spring to help them rearrange and compress the surface they encounter as they slowly touch down on the surface. This allows the legs to conform passively to whatever terrain they encounter while providing extra traction and stability during and after the landing event. The underside of the Lander has a belly pan (similar to a skid plate on an automobile) that resists sheer motion and protects the Lander from potentially harmful terrain. Once the belly pan contacts the surface, sensors trigger a mechanism that locks the legs’ rotary joints. At this point, the legs become responsible for maintaining stability and keeping the lander level as the bridles are unloaded. If the belly pan does not encounter terrain during touchdown, sensors in each leg can also declare touchdown. In this case, the belly pan will be suspended above the terrain, and the Lander will be supported only by its four legs. Artist’s concept of a proposed Europa lander spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech What was not filmed is the phase after the bridles are offloaded, which consists of the bridles being cut and the hovering propulsive stage flying away. Although this landing architecture was developed with Europa in mind, it can be adapted for use on other moons and celestial bodies with challenging terrain. This will come in handy as NASA and other space agencies contemplate sending missions to other “Ocean Worlds” in the Solar System that also have oceans beneath their icy crusts (and might harbor life within). In the meantime, scientists eagerly anticipate the arrival of the ESA’s JUpiter ICy moon Explorer (JUICE) mission, launched from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guyana on April 14th, 2023. When it arrives at Jupiter in July 2031, it will spend the next three and a half years of its primary mission studying Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa, the three Galilean Moons thought to have oceans in their interior. The Europa Clipper is scheduled to launch on October 10th, 2024, and will arrive in the Jupiter system in April 2030, ahead of JUICE. The data provided by these orbiter missions will pave the way for the Europa Lander mission, which will include surface analysis, monitoring plume activity, and the selection of landing sites and potential science objectives. Further Reading: NASA Photojournal The post NASA Tests a Prototype Europa Lander appeared first on Universe Today.

#space #astronomy #news #science

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yandere-daydreams · 3 years ago

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How about yandere earth?

tw - implied nonc*n, imprisonment, mentions of force-feeding, mentions of isolation, obsessive behavior.

I don't know about earth, but,,, I do have certain feelings about a yandere!planet.

A small one, in another galaxy, barely the size of your moon but at just the right distance from the sun to allow for the growth of vegetation, the formation of an atmosphere, light concentrated enough to provide warmth but not so intense as to cause blindness or radiation poisoning. Your mission is, similarly, a small one, meant for reconnaissance, not cultivation or colonization, with a crew of only you and a handful of others - all mechanics and scientists, no soldiers, no linguists. You shouldn't need any. This planet's been under surveillance for decades, and there's never been any evidence of sentient life. Aside from standard malfunctions and research-related papercuts, you don't have anything to worry about.

That is, before you make your first descent and braided vines as thick as chains wrap around the module as soon as it makes contact with the planet's surface. Before trees with curling, twisting branches bend their trunks and make a game out of seeing what can be pried open and what can be broken through, which latch can be unlocked through patience and careful persistence and which panel requires a more aggressive approach. Before you're running blindly through a landscape that you don't know, one of your crewmates dead and another missing, the soil clinging to your boots and greenery snaking up your legs and what you thought was water seeping under your suit, prying off your helmet, leaving you exposed to flowers that smell like sleep and creeping stalks leaking sap that taste like acid. When you wake up, you're lying on the shore of a spring that hadn't been on any of the charts and maps you'd studied, your clothes gone, your body entangled with strange, twisting tendrils - no longer masquerading as any plant you might've known. Probing, pushing into your skin, squeezing and rubbing and invading. It's experimenting, testing barriers, seeing what makes you thrash and what makes you squirm, what leaks and what bites, not that anything you break or bat away can't be replaced. Not that there's anything you can really do to keep it away.

It whispers to you, on the wind, in the rustle of leaves and the way it clings to you so tightly, how it forced strange fruit and sweetened nectars down your throat whenever you hesitate to eat or drink. It tells you how long it's been alone, how many centuries have passed since its last visitor left, how agonizing it is to have nothing to hold onto but yourself. It promises to take care of you, to give you everything you'll ever need to be happy and healthy and safe, and it's kind enough not to respond at all when you tell it to leave you alone, to let you go, not to touch you. It has time, endless time, and it's not like there's anything you can do to run from the ground under your feet, or hide from the air in your lungs.

You'll never get away, and it'll never have to be alone again.

#yandere #yandere x reader #yandere imagines #yandere prompts #yandere theory #general

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hirocimacruiser · 2 years ago

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Daiichikan RX-7

'93

Dengeki Tuned!

HKS FD3S RS

Shocking speed! 1 minute 2 seconds 67

Rival Group A!!: The fastest tuned HKS FD3S RS in history!

At the end of 92nd year, HKS made an emergency call to this magazine!

On December 11, 1992, the editorial department received a phone call from HKS. The content was that HKS would be testing the FD3S RX-7 at the Tsukuba circuit, which was created by fully utilizing the technology that HKS had cultivated so far, so he wanted me to be there.

Since he contacted me like this, he must have a lot of confidence. The best lap of the Tuned RX-7 so far at Tsukuba is the Night Sports RX-7 on August 25th last year with a time of 1 minute 6.1 seconds. Can it be shortened? The editorial department immediately headed to the Tsukuba circuit with a cameraman.

At 7:00 am on December 16th, Hagiwara, who was behind the steering wheel of the Group A HKS GT-R, got into the RX-7 named "FD3S RS" and the test started. The RX-7 laps smoothly, with the high-pitched exhaust note that is unique to the rotary. And the time that was beaten out was 1 minute 2.67 seconds! Fastest done in HA in the past.

Even looking at the time attack, it was a good time to beat the fastest production car based on the N1 specification Falken GT-R (1 minute 2.85 seconds). I was very clear about this. Furthermore, as a result of changing to slick tires as a reference, the time was reduced to 1:01:30!

Showing such amazing speed As for the tuning specs, the 13B engine body remains normal, but HKS specializes in turbo tuning + suspension and dynamic system enhancements centering on the TA45S turbine. With this specification, the maximum boost is 1.2kg/cm at 460ps.. The boost pressure during the test was 1.0 to 1.1kg/cm and Mr. Hagiwara said, "If the settings are adjusted more, the time should be shortened."

This FD3S RS HKS was developed with the aim of being a fast and fun sports car that can be used from the street to the circuit. Can't wait for the release!

PIC CAPTIONS

The test was conducted with Advan A029R tyres on AVS wheels. Changing to slick tires improved the time by 1.37 seconds.

Commemorative photo of HKS staff after the test. I really can't wait for the release of FD3S RS

The RS starts up the first hairpin and accelerates. The rotary exhaust note was also very impressive.

engine: Equipped with a turbo-tuned TA45S full turbine kit from HKS, the output is slightly over 400ps. It's amazing that the engine body remains normal now.

SPEC BOX

TUNING MEMO

engine relation

TA45S full turbine (including stainless steel exhaust manifold racing wastegate), racing intercooler, power flow, 75→60mm original muffler, EVC + SBC, F control + GCCI, AIC, additional injection 300cc x 4, twin power (CIS type x 2, closed magnetic coil type x 1), super racing plug 50RE, 55RE, large capacity radiator, large capacity twin oil cooler + water-cooled oil cooler, Aeroquip fitting, Chilton twin plate clutch kit, lightweight flywheel

Suspension Damper with sub-tank + reinforced spring, pillow arm, stabilizer resin brake pad, brake fluid DOT5, Chilton probe valve (brake balancer 7-stage adjustment), tire ADVAN A029 R (225/50-16), wheel AVS (8J× 16in)

#rx7 fd3s #FD3S #hks #hks fd3s #rx7

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hereforhalstead · 4 years ago

Text

Ambo 61

*Gif not mine, credits to the owner*

• Pairing: Jay Halstead x Reader

• Requested: “I’ve missed being like this with you”

• Warnings: mention of fire/fatality/needles

• Summary: You’re instructed to contact Jay to assist with a fire you’ve been called to and he’s there to support you after dealing with your first faitality.

• Words: 3978

• A/N : Thanks so much for this request! I’m not over struck with it and it’s quite short but wanted to get it posted - hope you enjoy xx

***

Tonight was your third night shift in a row at the firehouse, starting to take its toll as you slumped around looking for any excuse to take the weight off your feet just for a few moments.

You were grateful Severide had got you the job as paramedic alongside Brett but you were now feeling like you’d been hit by a truck with all of these night shifts.

The firehouse was a close unit, everyone had each other’s back and looked out for one another. This always helped with your down days but everyone hits their breaking points and sometimes the adrenaline rush was the only thing keeping you going.

What made it worse was seeing everyone else seeming to be having the time of their lives, throwing a ball around by the trucks but you slouched in Severide’s chair with your feet kicked up on the table in front of you.

Eyes just about coming to a close as you hear that dreaded alarm which sends everyone running ‘Truck 51. Squad 3. Ambo 61 fire reported on the corner of 8th street” no matter how drained you were it was always able to put that spring in your step and you were in the ambo and out the door in seconds.

You could hear the sirens following closely behind you, scanning your wing mirror to see the parade of flashing lights that tailed down the street and towards the fire.

“You good?” Sylvie asks, snapping you out of your thoughts “night shifts taking their toll, nothing unusual” you joked but she still mirrored the look of concern on her face with her furrowed brows and occasional glare at you as she drove.

“Really I’m fine. Just looking forward to being in my own bed” you gazed out in front of you as you continued on towards the scene “Not long girl, only a few hours to go” she gives you her doting smile as she slams her foot down on the peddle to speed through an intersection

“everything alright with you and Jay?” She asks and you shrug “only see him for a few hours these days and even then it’s mostly when he’s asleep and I’m sat on the sofa wide awake” you admit, letting the words fall out of your mouth before you can even think about it.

“He’s so proud of you though” her cheery voice changes the tone of conversation “I always hear him brag about you in Molly’s, you’ve got yourself a good’un there Y/N” you feel the heat rise to your cheeks and smile creep on your face “i just miss him” you huff and reach for the energy drink that was by your side.

“I thought Jay told you to not drink those anymore” she utters as the truck comes to a stop, making her way to your side after grabbing the medic bag from the back.

“He’s not here right now” you remind her “What he doesn’t know, won’t hurt him” you add, causing her to cock her eyebrow at you and chuckle “You’re brave”.

You put Sylvies comment to the back of your mind as you head over to the scene in front of you, Casey already with his team positioning the engine by the fire hydrant across the street whist Severide and the squad were storming over to the building that was currently ablaze.

You had barely stepped over the threshold as a girl no older than 5 came sprinting towards you, wrapping herself round your legs as she clung to you with all of her might. Whilst your mind was now on the young girl, a woman who was presumably the mother quickly followed in running out of the building and towards you.

She gripped at your shoulder as Sylvie eased her off of you, stood in shock as you barely had a chance to familiarise and asses the situation before being presented with two victims.

After several rounds of tests, being confident that neither of the victims required rushing to med for urgent treatment you helped them wrap up and had the oxygen masks placed round their necks just in case they felt the need.

Whilst securing the young girls blanket you thought back to you sat in the chair an hour ago, nearly asleep and wishing to not hear that alarm but here you were.

Back with your head on the job and dedicating yourself to the people who needed you, proving to yourself that you were good enough and deserved your spot with the great team you had surrounding you.

You looked up to see the fire dwindling out and Casey rounding up his team, Severide was retracting the ladders back onto the truck as the rest of the squad shuffled out of the fragile building that barely stood in front of you.

You were awaiting the go ahead from the Chief that you could leave, taking a swig from your energy drink and placing it back into the front of the ambo where you were earlier sat. Making your way round to the back of the truck to sit with the mother and daughter, still understandably shaken but doing well considering how bad things could have been.

“How long have you lived here?” You questioned, making small talk to pass the time and attempt to keep their minds preoccupied “Nearly 4 years, we moved in when I was pregnant and haven’t looked back since” the mother opens up, the young girl under her arm beside her.

You shifted your focus onto the girl, sat staring at the ground with her head hung low to lean on her elbows “How you doing sweetie?” You asked but didn’t get a response. The mother looked down on her daughter, you moved yourself so you could be in front of her and reach her eye level.

“You tell the lady if something hurts or you don’t feel well Claudia?” Still no response, you gently reach your hand to place on her shoulder but she flinches “It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you” you whisper, leaning towards her for empathy “Will my daddy be okay?” Her voice cracks and you look to the mother who looks just as puzzled as you.

“Daddy’s at work, honey?” She asks with the same panic and confusion laced in her tone “I saw him come through the back door just before the fire started” she confesses “He was with another man who told him he was in trouble” she continues and you scan around to see if they pulled anyone else out of the fire but you had no such luck.

“And you’re sure your daddy was in the house before the fire?” You yet again ask to try and get the facts before you go off and panic to one of the others “I’m positive!” She raises her voice but you try to keep her calm.

“is he going to be okay?” She probes towards her Mother but you excuse yourself to go and talk to Severide who stood on the other side of the truck with Casey.

“You guys pull anyone else out of there?” You question but can tell by the looks on their faces and the happiness in their banter they thought it was a successful save with two victims being relatively unharmed, their faces fall as they realise what you’re asking

“Just the two” Severide answers before Casey nods in agreement “Only the mother and daughter, rest of the place was clear” he adds, sounding confident in his answer. “You mind going inside to do one more double check? She seems certain her dad was inside when the place went up but the mother doesn’t seem to have a clue” you quietly recount to the two lieutenants who waste no time in rounding up a few of their team and heading back inside.

You decide to wait by the rig to avoid more questions from the victims as you really had no answers and didn’t feel right speaking to them before you knew more.

Minutes go by and your eyes are pinned to the door that the men walked through just moments before, nervously biting on your fingernails and feeling your heart pounding in your chest. Silently hoping it was from the energy drink and not the nauseous feeling you had in the pit of your stomach that you knew something wasn’t going right.

Casey appears at the door and nods his head for you to go over, you follow his command and find yourself bounding over “you might wanna call your boy toy” he murmurs, aware of the close proximity of the mother and daughter that sat close by “Jay?” You question to which he nods “We got a body.”

You do as you’re told and call Jay who you can hear immediately gathers up the available Intelligence members and leaves the district. You head back to the ambo, trying to hurry yourself but also attempting to not raise suspicion as you’re being intently watched by both the mother and daughter who sat before you “what’s going on?”

The mother stands and makes her way over to you and the front of the truck “I’m just gonna need you to stay with your daughter ma’am” you try and be as aversive as possible whilst already knowing that wasn’t going to be enough for the distressed lady “Was my husband in there?” She asks, dread and fear laced through her voice as she stands with her arms crossed over her chest trying to hold herself together.

Before you have a chance to speak, you’re interrupted by the sound of sirens coming from down the street, you turn to see several trucks speeding down towards you. Jay and Voight in the first vehicle that screeches to a stop, closely followed by Adam, Hailey and Kevin who are soon to follow suit and begin to push back nosey neighbours.

“What’s going on?” Jay heads over to you with Voight hot on his heels “Hailey” you call out to catch her attention and of course she is quick to leave the bystanders to Kevin and Adam as she joins you with Voight and Jay.

“Can you just stay with the mother? Sylvie is keeping an eye on the daughter but I need you to keep her calm” you plead and she nods and turns to introduce herself to the mother “Why don’t we take a seat?” She suggests as she geustures towards the back of the ambo where Claudia is sat.

Surprisingly she obliges and follows her guide, stopping to do the occasional double take but soon being out of sight and back with her daughter.

“You gonna tell us what’s going on?” Voight wastes not time to question as you take them over to Casey who is still in the doorway waiting for them “she said she saw her dad in the house before the fire but the mother had no idea as she thought he was at work.

They went back into investigate and” you’re cut off by a body bag passing you, the vile smell hitting you as it goes by. You quickly turn your head to try and avoid it but it was inescapable.

Jay places his hand to the top of your back as he furrows his brows in concern “you good?” He probes, concentration now more on you as Voight speaks to Casey “Good” you reassure, smile flashing on your face but he remains stern as you feel his eyes bore into you as you turn your attention back onto Voight and Casey .

“We didn’t spot it at first, he was crouched in this room that we didn’t know existed behind one of the cabinets” Casey ushers the three of you into the building, still feeling the warmth coming from the torn apart walls and the smell of ash clogging your every thought.

“Any ID?” Voight let’s himself into the room Casey had just mentioned, Jay allows you to step in first before following. The room was tiny, shocked it could fit a grown man at all, looking more like a pantry that was never used or something they intended on expanding but never did as it laid empty for all these years.

“What am I gonna tell her?” You mumble, feeling the lump in your throat and the thought of explaining the situation to the already shaken up pair sat outside “we’ll do it” Jay is quick to answer, you’re relieved to see Voight nod in agreement and not rip into Jay for speaking before thinking.

A less than helpful tendency he had when it came to you but in this case he was right as it was up to them to break the news to the family and not on you. You still wanted to be there as they relaid the heartbreaking information to the mother, being a familiar face made all the difference in these situations and whether you liked it or not you had to put that to one side and be there for support.

You watched as Jay respectfully informed the mother, watching the blood drain from her face and the strength leave her body as she began to fall to the ground.

You and Jay both instinctively lunged forward to catch her, pulling her up to now being held in Jay’s arms as she sobbed into his chest “I can’t tell Claudia, they were so close” she uttered through your tears and your heart broke, you were fortunate enough to be on the job long enough to have your fair share of threatening injuries but so far no fatalities.

You were soon learning on the job what it was like to deal with it first hand. You scan over to Hailey and Sylvie who were now both with the young girl, oblivious to her mother’s sobs as she faces away in deep distraction “why don’t we get you both to med and we can go from there?” You suggest, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder to which she nods, still buried in Jay’s chest and clutching at his arms.

You do your best to slowly unwrap her tight grasp from Jay and pull her towards you, her tear stained face was now bright red and body temperature rocketing in stress.

“Go with Y/N and we will be in touch when we have some more news” Jay consoles, still with a quiet and calming voice to try and not add to the intense situation. You had never seen him like this at work, he’d been called to a number of your jobs but only to help with rough crowds or to arrest a suspect who was injured.

He helped you through this process whether he knew it or not, if it wasn’t for him staying so calm who knows how you would’ve handled it..

Sylvie peers her head round the side of the ambo and calls out to the mother “we’ve got a little girl back here who wants her mother” she tilts her heads towards the girl before noticing the state she was in.

You give a subtle shake of your head which she thankfully spots “on second thought, why don’t you ride in the back with me and my partner will take care of your mother” she speaks to young girl in an excited tone to try and deflect away from where you were stood with Jay and the devestated woman.

“Yeah!” Claudia exclaims before climbing into the back of the ambo and settling on the seat “I can do it, I need to be with her” you hear the timid voice from beside you crack with every word. She takes a deep inhale and wipes away the tears that had stained her cheeks.

“If you need anything, give me a call no matter what hour” Jay hands her his card with a comforting smile. He flicks his eyes over you as you guide the woman towards the back of the ambo “keep me updated” he points at you to which you nod before he heads back over to join Voight who was still in the house with the rest of the team.

A few hours go by and you’re on your way from med, truly drained and ready to crash in your bed at the station. What started as luckily, a less than intense fire soon took a turn and had you put through your paces when you were least expecting it.

You and Sylvie both sat in silence, finishing the last of your energy drink as you toss the empty can by your feet “you still drinking that? It’s like 10pm” Sylvie chuckles as you keep your eyes staring out of the window at the darkness, her hands clinging to the steering wheel as you sat back in your seat and huffed.

“you remember the first time you see a dead body?” You question, avoiding her comments about the energy drink as you really weren’t in the mood.

“Yep. Turned up to a house call, man said his wife had been quiet and had locked herself in the bedroom, we got in and there she was laid on the floor with a needle sticking out of her arm” she woefully speaks, eyes still firmly on the road

“as much as I try and forget it, it will never leave me” she adds but you remain silent “Did you see him?” She asks to break the silence that had fallen in the ambo, the only noise being the humming of the engine and equipment clanging in the back.

“Not even, just a body bag” you admit “that shook me up enough, who knows what I’m gonna be like with an actual body” you slump further into your chair, crossing your legs in the footwell.

“maybe I’m not cut out for this” you confess and feel her eyes snap to you “are you crazy? You’ve just experienced your first fatality and you still managed to keep calm and I most importantly keep the others calm” slight strain in her voice as she continues to speak

“If you’re not doubting your job after a rough call, you didn’t do it right”.

Her words play in your mind for the rest of the journey, resting your head on the window as you pull into the station. You open the door to jump out when she tugs on your hand to stop you.

“You did good Y/N. Don’t let anyone tell you different” you give her a half hearted smile before stepping down out of the vehicle. Slamming the door behind you with a deep exhale “oh, her day has just got a whole lot better” you hear her chime, your head hanging low as you make your way over to the other side to join her.

You turn the corner to see Jay stood besides Severide, signature mischievous grin and arms outstretched towards you “you really think I wouldn’t be here waiting for you?” He questions as you stroll over to him, wanting to bound into his arms but knowing how you’d never hear the end of it from the surrounding team which now all had their eyes on you.

“come on” Sylvie grabs at Kelly’s arm “let’s give them a moment” she ushers him away from the pair of you as you stand engulfed in Jay’s arms.

“You still working?” You question, leaning into Jay’s chest as he runs his fingertips up and down your back “Finished hours ago, been waiting here for you” he mumbles into the top of your head as he places a kiss to your temple.

“Thought I could stay here tonight? Can’t sleep alone in that bed for another night, I’ll go insane” you pull back to see his toothy grin beaming down onto you as you feel your heart pull

“you’re gonna stay here? With me?” You question, still latched onto his chest as he gently pushes your hair back from your face “that alright?”.

You nod into him but still want to stay wrapped up in his presence as you feel everything wash away and all of the stress dissolve in your body when he holds you. “Come on, let’s get you to your bed” he gently taps at your lower back, signalling for you to unattach yourself from him.

You resist your urges and escape his grasp but he soon slings his arm round your shoulders to pull you back into him as you walk towards the station bunks.

“I haven’t heard great things about these from you so if I get a bad back we know why” he chuckles into your hair as he places a kiss to the side of your head as you continue to walk.

“That isn’t an energy drink I smell is it?” He pulls you under his arm and closer into him. You clear your throat as he does his best to remain stern “uh, no. Just fumes” you try to slightly pull away to reduce the smell but he had you in his hold and you both knew you weren’t getting out “ah those classic fumes, always forget about those”.

You and Jay laid in silence on your station bed, luckily in the corner to stay away from prying eyes which you know your nosey team would have.

Laying content as you find your natural position with your head on him and his arm wrapped around you, hand splayed on your hip as the other absentmindedly fiddles with your fingers resting on chest.

The silence isn’t uncomfortable and awkward, feeling the need to start small talk in efforts to make some form of conversation. Instead it’s a comfortable silence, filled with happiness and content with being back where you belong.

Jay let’s out a deep exhale as he rubs light circles into your skin but keeps his eyes on the ceiling above “you know you can always talk to me” he whispers, aware of other people in the room behind asleep.

You angle your head to look up at him, catching his attention as he glances down at you “I’ll get over it, just another day at the office” you try and make light of the situation but he wasn’t having it.

“I’m serious” he scowls but not out of anger, more of concern “I don’t want you bottling this up” he runs his thumb over your temple in a comforting motion “I won’t, I promise” you return your head back to his chest as he intertwines your fingers with his.

“I’ve missed being like this with you” he confesses, seemingly out of the blue as you return to your comfortable silence. You place a kiss to the exposed skin through the neckline of his T-shirt and nuzzle further into the crook of his neck “I missed you too”.

He lets out a content hum as he tightens his grip on your side and closing the near enough already nonexsistant gap between the pair of you “my life isn’t the same without you in it” he whispers but by this point you’ve closed your eyes and we’re dozing in and out of sleep, soothed by the soft rhythm within his chest “sleep tight baby”.

***

Inbox and requests always open🥰

#jay halstead x reader #one chicago #chicago pd #chicago pd imagine #jay halstead drabble #jay halstead imagine #jay halstead #jay halstead smut #one chicago x reader #jay halstead x you

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cheri-translates · 5 years ago

Text

[CN] Gavin’s Mark Date (Eng Translation)

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for a call which has not been released in English servers! 🍒

The date begins on a winter day, with MC receiving a call from Teacher Zheng

Teacher Zheng used to be MC’s music teacher in Loveland High, and her mentor in the school orchestra. They continued keeping in touch even after MC graduated

Teacher Zheng informs MC that the renovations for the Teaching Building have been completed, so she invites MC back to school to have a look

She also asks her to bring Gavin along :>

MC recalls what happened back in summer, when she and Gavin had returned to Loveland High

In summer, Teacher Zheng found an old scrapbook while clearing the rooms in preparation for the upcoming renovation, and invited everyone from the orchestra to return

[Note] Everything from here onwards takes place in a flashback:

I sneak a peek at Gavin, who is standing beside me. He’s wearing a simple, casual t-shirt. In his eyes, there’s a flash of nostalgia and... nervousness?

MC: Gavin, don’t be nervous. I’ve already talked to Teacher Zheng. She’s welcomes you to participate in our gathering. Also, it’s been such a long time since everyone last met, so it’s a certainty that there’ll be some people who have changed completely. They might even think that you were their ex-classmate haha~

Gavin looks at me and nods lightly, a faint smile appearing on his lips.

Gavin: Mm, I know that you’ve arranged everything.

Gavin: If we’re talking about being nervous... as compared to that time, it’s still pretty all right today.

MC: That time?

Gavin: That time in spring.

[Note] Blushy Boy is referring to the New Year Date T^T

While he says this, sunlight happens to fall onto Gavin’s eyes. There is light undulating in his amber eyes, and it tugs at my heart beat.

I recall the moments from back then. Feeling my face heat up from the sun, I hurriedly change the topic.

MC: Let’s go in, it’s almost time!

Gavin: Mm, let’s go.

As they enter the school, MC wonders if the renovation work would render Loveland High different from the Loveland High in her memories

While she ponders on this, they enter the music room

Apart from a few instruments, only a few empty cupboards and chairs are left in the room

Teacher Zheng is sitting by the piano, and MC is greeted by both familiar and unfamiliar faces

Although we didn't arrive late, I pull Gavin along and we walk forward hastily.

MC: Sorry, I didn't expect everyone to arrive so early... I’m MC.

Female ex-student: Of course we know who you are! Weren’t you the one who contacted everyone just a few days ago? Leader MC is still so dazed~

Teacher Zheng laughs while shaking her head, and the surrounding ex-students also laugh along with her. Abashed, I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear.

In contrast to everyone’s laughter, Gavin doesn’t really know what’s going on. He turns, looking at me in confusion.

Gavin: Leader?

I’m a little embarrassed to explain, since this was something that happened many years ago. I didn’t expect this matter to be brought up right now.

Male ex-student: MC was the leader of the school orchestra. Did you forget? Eh, come to think of it... you weren’t from the orchestra, were you? Leader, why didn’t you tell us earlier that we could bring our family members?

Laughter resounds again. At a loss for words, I can only pull Gavin over and introduce him to them.

MC: Stop laughing already! This is everybody’s senior!

Gavin: ... [coughs]. My name is Gavin.

In a split second, the noise ceases abruptly. After a moment of silence, whispers surface in the crowd.

Vaguely, I can catch a few phrases.

“Bad.”

“Fighting.”

“Misfit.”

...

I was so focused on getting Teacher Zheng’s approval that I forgot about the many rumours among students in his grade.

Feeling as though my heart has been violently grabbed by someone, I subconsciously clasp Gavin’s hand very tightly. Yet, I don’t dare to look at his expression.

MC: Senior... Gavin is a very good person. What happened in the past didn’t happen like what you all heard! Also... also, he’s very good at playing the guitar and bass!

Perhaps I was too emotional and couldn’t control my volume. My voice was not only loud, but also trembling slightly.

The music room turns quiet, and all the soft discussions stop.

Only now do I regain my senses and realise what I had just done. Facing everyone’s gaping and shocked expressions, I hem and haw awkwardly.

MC: I-I mean...

Suddenly, I feel a warm hand on the top of my head.

In contrast to my flustered state, Gavin looks incredibly calm. He doesn’t seem to care about everyone’s comments at all.

He tousles my hair, and his gaze softens.

Gavin: You’re exaggerating. I only know how to play them, that’s all.

Teacher Zheng: Student Gavin knows how to play musical instruments, so that’s something we can all talk about.

Teacher Zheng helps to smooth things over. A few students cough lightly, and make sounds of agreement. The tension in the air finally eases.

I release a breath. Just as I’m about to apologise to Gavin for my lack of thorough preparation, he suddenly lowers his head and draws close to my ear.

Gavin: Thank you.

Although these words of thanks are so soft that only the both of us can hear them, they crash heavily onto my heart, messing up its rhythm.

After that incident, everyone starts getting nostalgic about the past. Eventually, some ex-students prepare to leave because they have other things to do

MC takes out her Polaroid camera and requests for a group photo before they leave

Gavin: I’ll help you take the photo.

MC: Hm... you could help us take a photo first, then join us for the next one? I’ll hold the camera.

Gavin is slightly stunned. While he hesitates, Teacher Zheng makes a decision for him.

Teacher Zheng: That’s a good idea. Since you’re already here, you should take a photograph as a memento.

I nod my head at the side, like a chick pecking rice grains on the ground. Gavin looks at me, then laughs softly.

Gavin: Got it.

Very quickly, we take our group photos, and a number of students leave. They leave one by one after saying goodbye to Teacher Zheng. In the end, only Gavin and I are left.

Teacher Zheng: Aren’t you two leaving?

MC: I will... We will accompany you for a while longer.

Teacher Zheng: Not rushing off for a date?

Date! I feel as though my entire face is just about to flush red. Before I can retort, Gavin has already answered her question naturally.

Gavin: It’s all right, the date has been shifted to next week.

MC: ...Gavin!

Seeing Teacher Zheng suppressing a grin, I feel even more shy. Gavin, on the other hand, tilts his head towards me, a perplexed look in his eyes.

Gavin: What’s wrong?

I have no choice but to let the heat on my cheeks continue to rise, and frantically think of how to divert the topic.

MC: Nothing... oh yes Teacher Zheng, you mentioned that you found a scrapbook from back them. Could I have a look?

Teacher Zheng gives me a knowing glance, but she simply blinks and responds.

Teacher Zheng: The things here have been tidied up and brought to the greenhouse. The two of you can go there afterwards. It’s in a box labelled “Music Room”.

While she speaks, she takes out a set of keys from her pocket. When I reach out for them, the key suddenly spins and is held firmly in Teacher Zheng’s hand.

Teacher Zheng: Before I let you two go there, I have a request.

MC: Eh?

Gavin: Please continue.

I react by subconsciously nodding my head along with Gavin. From my memory, Teacher Zheng has always been a gentle and soft person, so I have no idea what request she has.

Teacher Zheng: Just now, MC mentioned that you play the guitar and bass incredibly. Could you let me hear it? It’d be best if the two of you could play together. I haven’t heard my Orchestra Leader play the piano in a very long time.

To be honest, this is not a “request” at all. If Teacher Zheng wants to hear it, I’ll definitely be willing to play for her. But Gavin...

I cast Gavin a probing glance, wondering if there’s a need to persuade him. To my surprise, he nods.

Gavin: I could, but I’m really not as skilled as she says.

Teacher Zheng: Haha that’s all right. I just want you to use your heart when performing. What’s important isn’t how good it sounds, but the heart.

Gavin: Could I borrow the guitar over there?

Teacher Zheng: Of course.

With her answer, Gavin walks to the guitar case leaning against the wall, and retrieves the guitar to test the sound.

Baffled, I look towards him, then at Teacher Zheng. I can’t fathom how they reached a common understanding so quickly, so I just plop myself in front of the piano.

MC: What should we play?

Before I finish speaking, Gavin’s fingers sweep over the strings.

After a few notes, I recognise the song.

It’s “Falling Slowly” - a song I’d often play in high school, and a song I like very much.

[Note] I’m assuming the song is “Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova because the lyrics suit them very aptly -clutches heart-

Gavin: Is this song all right?

MC: Ah... mm.

As far as I remember, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this song to Gavin. Why would he suggest this song? Could it be a mere coincidence?

Even though I’m confused, I quickly focus on the music and follow the guitar’s melody, my fingers dancing across the black and white keys.

In my peripheral vision, I see Gavin with his head lowered slightly.

The wind tousles his hair. Maybe it’s just my misperception, or the sunlight just happened to fall onto his eyes, but I keep feeling as though his eyes are even brighter than usual. It’s as though they are flashing with light.

This is a slightly melancholic song, but the moving light and wind seem to make it refreshing and clear.

Before realising it, I’ve already completely immersed myself into the music. I close my eyes, and the notes and melody drift in the air.

Finally, the tune ends. The sound of applause at my ear brings me back to my senses.

Teacher Zheng: That was an amazing ensemble.

MC and Gavin: That’s an overpraise.

We respond in unison. Teacher Zheng lets out a smile in response to this, then takes out the set of keys again.

Teacher Zheng: As I promised earlier, here.

MC: Thank you!

I hurriedly take the keys, then dangle them in Gavin’s direction with a satisfied smile.

Sunlight falls onto the corners of Gavin’s shirt, and the leaves rustle. He smiles as well.

Gavin and I walk out of the music room. As compared to noon, the sunlight is less intense now, and the path towards the greenhouse, shaded by shadows cast by the trees, is cooling.

MC: Gavin, I remember you mentioning that you don’t like playing the guitar in front of others... why did you agree to the ensemble?

Gavin: Because I felt that you really wanted to look at that scrapbook. Besides, I wanted to see what “Leader MC” looked like.

MC: Oo... let’s agree that if you see any strange photos, you’re not allowed to laugh at me...

I recollect several “dark histories” I used to have, and involuntarily break out in sweat. Gavin laughs.

Gavin: Of course I wouldn’t. Actually... I agreed to the ensemble for another important reason.

MC: What is it?

Gavin: I said that I wanted to play this song with you before.

Gavin’s words are akin to a droplet of water, causing waves to ripple across my memory. It makes me recall that phone call he once made a very long time ago, and the music from those dusty years.

[Note] Yes, she's referring to this cancelled CN call T^T

MC: Back then... you learnt the guitar because I played “Falling Slowly”?

Gavin: Mm. After we talked that day, I realised I didn’t know the name of the song. Now, I do.

Gavin’s smile morphs from resignation to relief. Light from his amber eyes reflect into mine, and I seem to enter a trance.

It’s as though I’ve gone back to the past, and am walking along the shaded path after school. Just that this time, there’s one more person by my side.

A person who has walked from the past to the present with me.

They reach the greenhouse, but they see tons of boxes stacked atop each other

They split up to look for the “Music Room” box

Finally, MC spots the box at the corner, but has to bring down boxes in order to reach it

While she tries to grab the box on her tiptoes, it topples towards her:

Not having enough time to dodge, I lift my hands in front of me, hoping to buffer the collision!

However, the pain I anticipated doesn’t arrive. Instead, a warm gust of wind encases me.

I put down my hands slowly, only to see Gavin, who has suddenly appeared. His arms are lifted as he holds onto the box, and his other hand is on my shoulder, bringing with It continuous warmth.

Gavin: Are you all right?

MC: I’m fine... oh yes! I found the music room box. It’s over there, the one in the middle!

Gavin: I see it. Move over there a little. I’ll get it.

Knowing full well that I’d cause trouble even by standing at the side, I listen to him and shirk to a corner, watching as Gavin brings the boxes down.

Sunlight pours in through the glass. When I finally see that he’s almost able to reach for the box we need, I turn to Gavin excitedly, but discover a sheen of sweat on his neck.

Even so, Gavin continues to carry a box steadily in his hands, the lines on his arm muscles defined.

I want to go forward to help him wipe off the sweat, but I don’t dare to move around recklessly, and decide to change tactics on how I can help.

MC: Is it a little hot? I can buy a bottle of water for you. The mini mart should still be open.

Gavin: No need. Just two more and I’ll be able to get it.

MC: Oo... I’ll still get water. Anyway, there are other items I want to buy too.

While saying this, I leave no chance for Gavin to retort. I turn around and run to the mini mart.

By the time I return to the greenhouse, Gavin has just set down the final box.

My heat stirs. I take out the ice-cold bottle, wanting to give him a fright. But Gavin suddenly turns around--

His eyes are wide open, and they shift between the bottle I’ve lifted in the air, and my awkward expression.

MC: Erm... water for you.

Probably guessing that I was up to something, a smile appears on Gavin’s lips, but he doesn’t expose me.

He takes the bottle and easily twists the cap open. He hands it back to me, then takes another bottle for himself.

Gavin: What else did you buy... stationery?

Apart from two bottles of ice water, the plastic bag from the supermarket also contains two pens, a few post-it notes, and a stick of glue.

Looking at Gavin’s confused expression, I deliberately place a finger on my lips secretively.

MC: You’ll know what they’re for later~

The cold water slides down my throat, and the heat dissipates instantly. After Gavin and I take a short break, it’s finally time to open the box!

The cardboard box releases a “cha” sound, as though opening the doors to memories as well.

A rather old yet well-maintained scrapbook is resting atop a wad of music scores. I gently lift it up.

MC: Look, we drew the picture on the cover ourselves.

Gavin: The drawing looks very nice. Is this the orchestra’s symbol?

I nod, and start telling Gavin about the picture we drew, photos from various activities, and even the teacher’s message...

Occasionally, Gavin would ask me one or two questions, but most of the time, he listens to me quietly, his gaze focused.

Eventually, as the remaining pages become less and less, I finally flip to the last few pages, which feature messages.

MC: Now that we’re done, let’s commence the next step!

From the plastic bag, I retrieve the stationery. After handing one pen to Gavin, I point towards an empty space in the scrapbook.

MC: Write something?

Gavin: Hm?

MC: For example, your memories from high school? Basically, those messages everyone writes in a scrapbook.

Hearing my explanation, Gavin seems increasingly confused. His brows knit together slightly.

Gavin: I know. But I’m not part of the school orchestra, and this book...

MC: You are from now onwards!

I take out the group photo we took in the music room, then retrieve the glue stick, carefully pasting it in the scrapbook. Then, I clear my throat pretentiously.

MC: Cough cough, in the capacity of orchestra’s leader, I hereby announce that from this day onwards, Student Gavin is one of our members. Everyone, please give him a warm welcome!

After saying this, I start clapping, and even pull Gavin to clap together with me.

MC: Now, you can write! Next time, if anyone speaks nonsense, we can show them the scrapbook, and no one will be allowed to call you a misfit, hmph.

When I bring this up, I can’t help but feel angry. Gavin laughs softly.

Gavin: [laughs a gentle, beautiful laugh that can make flowers grow] So you were thinking about that.

Watching him laugh at me, I feel slightly petty. I hem and haw and think of how to explain myself.

MC: I wasn’t. I just... didn’t like it when they looked at you that way.

Gavin: I know.

It’s almost evening. Golden light falls onto Gavin’s cheeks, outlining his hair - glittering and slightly unkempt.

Gavin lowers his head, and the light follows his movement, descending onto the scrapbook, illuminating every word he writes.

“I’m very happy to have met you in the past.”

Very near to these words is the group photo we took together. In it, Gavin is standing beside me, looking a little cramped, but there is a smile on his face.

The soft chirping of cicadas mixes with the sound of wind, evoking a sense of tenderness. The sun is no longer as blazing as it was before.

I can’t bear to shatter the tranquility, so I just smile, my heart responding softly with this sentence:

I’m also very happy... that you’re willing to leave a new mark on my past.

#mlqc #mlqc cn #mlqc spoilers #mlqc gavin #I hope you're ready for mind-numbing fluff because I was NOT #this is a pretty old CN date which should be coming this December #but I'm weak for school reunions

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equiptest · 4 months ago

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w1986 · 4 years ago

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Harassment by Russian security services

I got into trouble with the Russian security services.

This happened approximately in 2015, 2016. The original motivation for the Russians initial approach to try and coerce/intimidate me is not known for sure, but it's most likely related to a political blog I was writing here in Finland from 2013 to 2016 approximately. The other equally plausible candidate reason, has to do with my brother, who I think is almost certainly working to benefit the Russians. He is a fairly big chief in the banking business, responsible for a dozen or so banks in the Southern Finland.

What was it like at first getting into trouble with the Russians?

Preparatory phase I believe there was a groundwork phase in this which involved collecting so called "Kompromat" or material to be used in extortion later. This kind of extortion doesn't work on me, due to my personality. But of course they couldn't know that in advance. Anyway, I think I got under surveillance by the Russians somewhere around 2014, but I did not suspect anything at this point, and there was no cue whatsoever that would've aroused my suspicions at the time.

Soft initial approaches or probes The first concrete interactions with the Russians occurred somewhere around late 2015 and early 2016. This involved fairly subtle things like people contacting me on social media and saying weird stuff, but I didn't really suspect this had something to do with the Russians, I only came to realize this later. Additionally in the spring of 2016 there was some in person approaches which were fairly distant, but they were kind of like testing how I would respond to certain things I'll skip explaining this time.

Actual recruitment/whatever effort When I went to this construction school which lasted 2 years it was also attended by an Estonian-Russian person named Andrei. He was first of all a really big guy, somewhere between 190-200 cm, and probably well over 100 kg. He wasn't a jerk or anything, though, but his behavior was a bit strange. Anyway I believe the plan for the Russians was to recruit me, and that it was this Andrei persons task to get it done during this 2 year education. And this involved subtle harassment and intimidation, like veiled threats and such, and they were pretty tricky, like bystanders wouldn't detect it very easily. This was achieved by using material collected elsewhere to substantiate the intimidation, basically hacking my computer and monitoring my online activities, and that sort of thing, provided material to use for the intimidation effort.

This I think didn't go so well, because first of all i suspected something was going on, but I didn't know what. But my initial attitude was that I tried to reject these approaches. Like when this Andrei person would ask me to do something with him, or something like that, I basically politely declined.

Escalation of matters So basically I started thinking that this person is probably related to the Russians and their security services, and later I came to realize the things that had happened earlier, were probably related to the same problem. First of all I started talking to people saying that this person is probably related to the Russian intelligence, like the KGB/GRU type of people. I didn't really know much about the entire topic at the time, but I think the Russians tried to misdirect me and kind of lead me to think that it's about something else. Well this kind of backfired too, coz I started talking about how they're trying to misdirect me, or basically something like that. And I wasn't 100% sure yet, that this was really the correct explanation for what was going on and as I developed alternative theories, like maybe I was just targeted online by some hacker, and the rest is just some weird coincidence.. Well the Russians tried to reinforce that, by trying to mess with me online making it look it was just some random hacker. Except, it didn't look like it was a random hacker, but instead, more like someone was trying to make it seem like that. So that didn't work so well.

This whole thing also caused me some anxiety so I tried to seek some help regarding that. Luckily though, or unluckily, depends how you look at this, I was already rather well-read on psychology and such matters, like I had watched/listened to hundreds of hours of lectures, read several books, and could name various disorders and understood a lot of stuff related to that. I wasn't exactly an expert in that I didn't have a formal degree, but for a random person, I was fairly knowledgeable.

Discrediting strategy So basically when I sought help for this anxiety problem, the Russians picked up another approach, they decided to try and make it look like maybe I was just imagining it, and instead incorporated these aspects into the harassment, which kind of sounded like if you'd try to tell someone about it, they might think.. well is that really what's going on? Or is that just what this person thinks is going on?

So that became their number one approach. Regardless of what I would believe about the case, they wanted to make sure, no one else would believe me. Or at least they'd be suspicious and think there are some alternative explanations to what's going on.

This sort of worked, except, it didn't, because I never really started to question these entirely logical and empirical observations, but it worked in the sense that if I would go through these events only superficially or not to a great enough detail, then people wouldn't understand why it is that I even thought it is the Russians. Like I would literally have to explain details about what this Andrei person said, and what some other person did, and what happened online at the same time, etc.

Literal death threats So the most concrete of all the threats and intimidations I've received, was during a time when this Andrei person said literally the following phrase - although it was in Finnish - "We are going to kill you". So, you might think maybe there was some other reason for him to say that, or isn't that just kind of odd approach for intelligence to begin with? Like they wouldn't be that foolish, would they? But it was complacency from the Russians part, they had this context set up that would kind of work as a cover story, but regardless it wasn't a very smart thing to do. Whatever their approach is, the fact to the matters is, that there's a person I think is probably related to the Russian security services, who I think has tried to intimidate me, who is Russian speaking and ethnically Russian, and who literally told me they're going to kill me. Whatever explanation you're trying to cook up for this, well.. it would be kind of strange that this had nothing to do with the Russians, yet at the same time, this event took place.

There were some other threats but it was more like a psychological game, in which the Russians tried to balance the threat so that, it wasn't exactly clear if they really wanted to threaten me, or was it more like they just wanted to make a subtle enough threat that I could interpret it that way, but when I would try and explain it to someone else, they might be like.. well maybe that wasn't an actual threat, like maybe it was just a coincidence? And so, I didn't think it was with intent, it was more intimidation, without truly meaning the threat aspect.

Contacting the authorities Anyway this whole problem developed several years and there are all kinds of things that happened, which of most I'm just skipping, but basically I contacted the police and the counter-intelligence for the first time in February 2020. So that's already over a year ago, but considering how early this issue actually started, it's quite late.

This is mostly because I didn't want to contact the police. I figured that if I'm dealing with the Russians, my problems might just get worse if I start to make a really big fuss out of it. Additionally I wanted to create an incentive for the Russians to leave me alone, and sort of allow this thing to de-escalate. However, that wasn't what the Russians wanted, and so the things eventually escalated anyway. And I went to contact the police, regardless of thinking that rationally, it's probably not the correct decision.

However, when I went into the police station, the Russians had arranged for a couple of people to wait outside the office and subtly try and discourage me from making my report. Well, I ignored them. The police officer was dismissive and their attitude was that I should probably just leave, until I mentioned that well there was also this literal death threat, which kind of impelled them to have to try and take it more seriously. But anyway, they just gave me like an email address, and I figured that if the police can't handle this case, I mean they clearly had zero structure or policy in place, which would allow them to be capable of dealing with something like Russian intelligence. So I basically just gave up on trying to deal with the regular police. Although I did call the police later, and explained generally what was going on, but they said they can't do anything, because of the nature of the case. Like there's too many people involved, the part played by each individual is too small, they can't really investigate a single person, and they don't know where to start. I mean they just couldn't do anything.

However, I also contacted the counter-intelligence. And well, my first impression was that the Finnish counter-intelligence is pretty amateurish and hasn't even taken into consideration really basic stuff, like how do you actually submit information about a case like this, and they hadn't made it possible, to give information, in a way that was secure. Like basically they said that okay tell us about your case and send us an email. So, like isn't there a small chance there would be a motivation for revenge, from the Russians, if I just start emailing details about their activities to the counter-intelligence?

Also how do I even know that the emails reach their destination? And that the contents are correct? I mean I've had some cyber harassment in the process, which involved my computer being clearly hacked. It seems like this could be an issue.

But anyway, they didn't have a solution for that, and didn't even seem to understand this is a problem. So I guess our Finnish civilian counter-intelligence, just kind of sucks, unfortunately.

But regardless of me being severely disappointed in our society, and in our authorities, I did eventually supply them with some details about the case, and they told me I should supply them more details, which I've considered doing, and for various reasons have sent some emails and such.

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gstqaobc · 5 years ago

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CBC NEWS The Royal Fascinator Feb. 7, 2020 Hello, royal watchers and all those intrigued by what’s going on inside the House of Windsor. This is your biweekly dose of royal news and analysis. Reading this online? Sign up here to get this delivered to your inbox. Janet Davison Janet Davison Royal Expert

Who will step up for Meghan and Harry?

(Lefteris Pitarakis/The Associated Press)

It was a striking image that day in June of 2012 — just six people on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, sending a signal widely interpreted to foreshadow a slimmed-down future for the House of Windsor.

It was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee marking her 60 years as monarch, and joining her on the balcony were her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles; his wife, Camilla; Charles’s two sons, Princes William and Harry; and William’s wife, Kate. (The Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, was in hospital at the time and it would be four years before Harry met his wife, Meghan.)

Charles has long been thought to favour a core group of senior family members to carry the House of Windsor forward in the next reign.

But Harry and Meghan’s departure from the upper echelons of the family leaves a big hole in that plan.

"I think [Charles] envisaged having Harry as part of that,” Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, said via email.

Seward said that along with William and Kate, Charles saw his sister, Princess Anne, and his brother, Prince Edward, as part of the plan.

Harry’s departure “really blows a hole into Charles’s well-thought-out plan for a slimmed-down monarchy based on the core family,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith

told Vanity Fair

Even though Harry is now down to sixth in the line of succession, he would still have been expected to carry out more senior duties for several years because numbers three, four and five in the succession (William and Kate’s young children, George, Charlotte and Louis) are up to two decades away from being active royals.

“So Charles and William have been counting on Harry to be, in effect, third in line to the throne and that’s all out the window, too,” said Bedell Smith.

Harry and Meghan have been staying out of sight for the past couple of weeks and are thought to be on Vancouver Island, where they were over Christmas before making their seismic departure announcement.

In the meantime in the U.K., it’s been royal business as usual for everyone from the Queen on down. Elizabeth was out and about twice this week —

and reminisced about her father and his corgis

— as her regular winter stay at her Sandringham estate, north of London, draws to a close.

Charles and Camilla were at a reception for the British Asian Trust and other engagements. William, who has a new role as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Kate were at the British version of the Oscars and did a day trip to Wales.

Observers have been trying to figure out whether there’s any evidence of Harry and Meghan’s departure affecting what other senior members of the family are doing.

But in many ways, that seems to be a stretch — at least for now.

“As official engagements are usually fixed some months in advance and Harry and Meghan’s official departure is not until the spring, I don’t think we have yet seen much direct evidence,” Seward said.

“The crux will come on family occasions and none are scheduled in the immediate future. The future of Harry’s military appointments is obviously under consideration and will be announced as soon as it is decided.”

Still, it all leaves many open questions about how other members of the family may step up their roles. One person seen by many as likely to gain more prominence is Edward’s wife, Sophie, the Countess of Wessex.

“I think Sophie will take on a lot more royal duties and patronages,” said Seward.

And then there are Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, daughters of Prince Andrew, who has stepped down from public duties in the wake of fallout from his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a disastrous BBC interview related to that.

“I am not sure about Beatrice and Eugenie,” Seward said. “Before all this happened, I know Andrew was keen for them both to have royal roles, but Charles was not.”

Another spring wedding

One thing that is sure for Beatrice — she has a confirmed wedding date and venue. Buckingham Palace said this morning she and fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi will marry May 29 at the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace in central London. The Queen will host a reception just up the road, in the gardens behind Buckingham Palace. After a flurry of royal weddings in Windsor over the past couple of years, this promises to be a lower-profile, smaller and more intimate affair — perhaps not surprising given the controversy surrounding Beatrice’s father, Andrew. St. James’s Palace does, however, have a rich royal history. Other weddings that have taken place there include that of Queen Victoria in 1840. It’s also been the scene of several christenings, including Beatrice herself in December 1988, and more recently Prince George in 2013 and Prince Louis in 2018. Andrew and the FBI — what's going on? Prince Andrew was the focus of more attention recently after the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York told a news conference held outside Epstein’s former mansion that Andrew had given “zero co-operation” to the inquiry into the convicted sex offender.Immediately after that, sources close to Andrew were reported as saying he was angry and “bewildered” by the claims he had been unco-operative, and that he hadn’t received any request to speak to the FBI.A lawyer for a victim of Epstein also urged Andrew to co-operate with the FBI.Seward said until an approach is made by the FBI through official channels, “nothing will happen.”“This doesn’t lessen the potential wrong, but he can’t answer anything until his lawyers are contacted, and then they don’t have to answer straight away,” Seward said. “I think he will help the investigation, but has probably been advised to wait until such time as all the necessary evidence as to where he was and what he was doing has been gathered.”Andrew has said he did not see or suspect any sex crimes during the time he spent with Epstein. He has also denied any inappropriate relations with a woman who has said she was forced to have sex with him three times between 1999 and 2002. Andrew has said he has no recollection of meeting her..

Royal angst — beyond the House of WindsorOther royal families have also seen their share of controversy and high-profile headlines in the last little while.The public prosecutor in Luxembourg has launched a probe after reports of physical violence toward staff who work for the tiny European country’s royal family.It was only the latest headline there, coming about a week after Grand Duke Henri issued a statement to defend his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, against allegations of a “hostile working environment” at the palace.“Why attack a woman? A woman who speaks up for other women? A woman who is not even being given the right to defend herself?” Henri said in his statement.Next door, in Belgium, former King Albert II admitted he fathered a child during an extramarital affair half a century ago.The acknowledgement came after a court-ordered DNA test found that the 85-year-old, who abdicated in 2013, is Delphine Boël’s biological father.Boël had been engaged in a longstanding court fight to prove that she is his biological daughter.

Royally quotable

"Yet in 2020, and not for the first time in the last few years, we find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to ensure diversity in the sector and in the awards process – [a lack of diversity] simply cannot be right in this day and age."

— Prince William

speaks during the British Academy Film Awards

Fans of the Netflix drama The Crown will have to content themselves with just five seasons, rather than the six everyone had been expecting. Creator Peter Morgan had said he’d planned on six seasons of the show focusing on Queen Elizabeth’s reign, but the other day he nixed that idea and said five seems like the “perfect time and place to stop.” The way the series is going, that should take viewers up to around the year 2000. Given some of the higher-profile royal controversies of late, perhaps it’s understandable why Morgan is content to stop at that point. “I think there’s concerns the closer you get to the present day, in terms of how much dramatic licence can you ethically take about events that are unfolding,” said Toronto-based royal historian and author Carolyn Harris. “And also, the show would become more controversial if it was speaking about events that are in many ways still unfolding at this time, and imagining conversations behind palace doors.” Season 5 will see another actor take on the role of Elizabeth. Imelda Staunton, who’d long been rumoured for the part, will follow Claire Foy (seasons 1 and 2) and Olivia Colman (seasons 3 and 4).

Royal reads

1. A century before Harry and Meghan, an Italian noble family

sought refuge in B.C. — and stayed

. [CBC]

2. The RCMP and U.K. security officials are

discussing how best to protect Harry and Meghan

while they are in Canada, and who will ultimately pay for their security. [CBC]

3. Harry

lost a press complaint

he filed against a newspaper over a story it published about photos of African wildlife he has posted on Instagram. [BBC]

4. To mark the 200th anniversary of King George III’s death, his

massive collection of military maps

has been made available online, offering insight into global conflicts from the 16th to 18th centuries. Also going back in time,

a vest worn by Charles I at his execution

is going on display. [The Guardian, BBC]

Cheers!

I’m always happy to hear from you. Send your ideas, comments, feedback and notes to

[email protected]

. Problems with the newsletter? Please let me know about any typos, errors or glitches.

GOOD MORNING ALL, I THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE THE MOST RECENT NEWSLETTER. I HAVENT HAD A CHANCE TO READ IT YET BECAUSE I WANTED TO GETBIT OUT TO THOSE WHO DONT HAVE IT OR KNOW ABOUT IT. GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿 💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

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go-redgirl · 5 years ago

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California subpoenas Amazon over worker safety in pandemic

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is asking a judge to order Amazon to comply with subpoenas issued nearly four months ago as part of an investigation into how the company protects workers from the coronavirusCalifornia subpoenas Amazon over worker safety in pandemicThe Associated Press

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday asked a judge to order Amazon to comply with subpoenas his office issued nearly four months ago as part of an investigation into how the company protects workers from the coronavirus.

Becerra said the online sales giant hasn’t provided enough information on its safety steps and the status of infections and deaths at its shipping facilities across California. The attorney general is President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department; he’d be the first Latino in the post.

“We’re investigating because we got reports, information, complaints about conditions, incidents,” Becerra said. “We believe that it merits looking into Amazon’s protocols, practices, based on information that we have received.”

The court filing from Becerra lists media reports about three Amazon workers’ deaths but said the company mentioned none of them in its responses. It says he learned more about the company’s infection rate from its blog posts than from its subpoena responses.

The company did not respond to a request for comment left through an email provided for reporters. Amazon said in a statement to The Sacramento Bee that it is “a leader in providing COVID-19 safety measures for our employees — we’ve invested billions of dollars in equipment and technology, including building on-site testing for employees and providing personal protective equipment. We encourage anyone to compare our speed and actions in this area to any other major employer.”

Becerra wants a Sacramento County Superior Court judge to find that the company hasn’t given specific details on its coronavirus prevention efforts in response to subpoenas issued Aug. 19, including its sick leave policies and cleaning procedures. He also wants access to the company’s raw data on the number of infections and deaths at its facilities in California.

“We urgently need to know about complaints made by Amazon associates to the company about working conditions, potential retaliation taken against employees who raise these workplace safety concerns,” he said. “We don’t have time to drag our feet … our state finds itself in the thick of this pandemic.”

His office wants to know which facilities have the highest infection rates, how the company defines which employees have been diagnosed with the virus, any contacts it has had with health officials, and documents related to any lawsuits or investigations by individuals or other agencies.

Becerra routinely declines to comment on ongoing investigations but called a virtual news conference to criticize Amazon for making billions of dollars during the pandemic as consumers increasingly turn to online purchases over brick-and-mortar stores — profits that he said are built on the labor of employees who put themselves at risk.

The company projects sales will top $100 billion in the final quarter of 2020, and in the third quarter, “its revenues soared while its profits tripled compared to 2019,” Becerra said.

“While Amazon continues to operate profitably, it has been less than forthcoming about its operations and its practices to protect its workers,” he said.

The attorney general said the subpoenas followed months of informal communications with the company over its health and safety policies.

The company has missed several chances to comply, Becerra said, but he has made no decision on whether its practices are adequate — in part because he has not received enough information from the company.

The probe began last spring, his office said in seeking the court order, and officials first sent Amazon a letter in May seeking information.

Cal-OSHA, more formally known as the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, and the San Francisco Department of Public Health also have launched investigations. Officials in other states also are investigating Amazon workers’ complaints.

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sciencespies · 5 years ago

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Scientists make most sensitive measurements to date of silicon's conductivity

https://sciencespies.com/physics/scientists-make-most-sensitive-measurements-to-date-of-silicons-conductivity/

Scientists make most sensitive measurements to date of silicon's conductivity

To create electric charges in silicon, researchers shine pulsed laser light onto a sample. One-photon tests using visible light only penetrate a tiny way into a silicon sample — on the order of micrometers (millionths of a meter) or smaller. But the new two-photon tests using near infrared light penetrate much, much deeper into silicon, on the order of millimeters (thousandths of a meter) or longer. The one-photon tests create a lot of electric charge (shown here as pluses and minuses) in a relatively small volume. By contrast, the two-photon test creates far fewer electric charges in a much larger volume. Credit: S. Kelley/NIST

Silicon, the best-known semiconductor, is ubiquitous in electronic devices including cellphones, laptops and the electronics in cars. Now, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made the most sensitive measurements to date of how quickly electric charge moves in silicon, a gauge of its performance as a semiconductor. Using a novel method, they have discovered how silicon performs under circumstances beyond anything scientists could test before—specifically, at ultralow levels of electric charge. The new results may suggest ways to further improve semiconductor materials and their applications, including solar cells and next-generation high-speed cellular networks. The NIST scientists report their results today in Optics Express.

Unlike previous techniques, the new method does not require physical contact with the silicon sample and allows researchers to easily test relatively thick specimens, which enable the most accurate measurements of semiconductor properties.

The NIST researchers had previously done a proof-of-principle test of this method using other semiconductors. But this latest study is the first time researchers have pitted the new light-based technique against the conventional contact-based method for silicon.

It’s too soon to say exactly how this work might be used someday by industry. But the new findings could be a foundation for future work focused on making better semiconducting materials for a variety of applications, including potentially improving efficiency in solar cells, single-photon light detectors, LEDs and more. For example, the NIST team’s ultrafast measurements are well-suited to tests of high-speed nanoscale electronics such as those used in fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology, the newest digital cellular networks. In addition, the low-intensity pulsed light used in this study simulates the kind of low-intensity light a solar cell would receive from the Sun.

“The light we use in this experiment is similar to the intensity of light that a solar cell might absorb on a sunny spring day,” said NIST’s Tim Magnanelli. “So the work could potentially find applications someday in improving solar-cell efficiency.”

The new technique is also arguably the best way to get a fundamental understanding of how the movement of charge in silicon is affected by doping, a process common in light sensor cells that involves adulterating the material with another substance (called a “dopant”) that increases conductivity.

Digging Deep

When researchers want to determine how well a material will perform as a semiconductor, they assess its conductivity. One way to gauge conductivity is by measuring its “charge carrier mobility,” the term for how quickly electric charges move around within a material. Negative charge carriers are electrons; positive carriers are referred to as “holes” and are places where an electron is missing.

The conventional technique for testing charge carrier mobility is called the Hall method. This involves soldering contacts onto the sample and passing electricity through those contacts in a magnetic field. But this contact-based method has drawbacks: The results can be skewed by surface impurities or defects, or even problems with the contacts themselves.

To get around these challenges, NIST researchers have been experimenting with a method that uses terahertz (THz) radiation.

NIST’s THz measurement method is a rapid, noncontact way to measure conductivity that relies on two kinds of light. First, ultrashort pulses of visible light create freely moving electrons and holes within a sample—a process called “photodoping” the silicon. Then, THz pulses, with wavelengths much longer than the human eye can see, in the far infrared to microwave range, shine on the sample.

Unlike visible light, THz light can penetrate even opaque materials such as silicon semiconductor samples. How much of that light penetrates or is absorbed by the sample depends on how many charge carriers are freely moving. The more freely moving charge carriers, the higher the material’s conductivity.

“No contacts are needed for this measurement,” said NIST chemist Ted Heilweil. “Everything we do is just with light.”

Finding the Sweet Spot

In the past, researchers performed the photodoping process using single photons of visible or ultraviolet light.

The problem with using only one photon for doping, though, is that it typically penetrates only a small way through the sample. And since the THz light completely penetrates the sample, researchers can effectively use this method to study only very skinny silicon samples—on the order of 10 to 100 billionths of a meter thick (10 to 100 nanometers), about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair.

However, if the sample is that thin, researchers are stuck with some of the same issues as with the conventional Hall technique—namely, surface defects can skew the results. The thinner the sample, the bigger the impact of surface defects.

The researchers were torn between two objectives: Increase the thickness of the silicon samples, or increase the sensitivity they get from using single photons of light.

The solution? Illuminate the sample with two photons at once instead of one at a time.

By shining two near-infrared photons on the silicon, scientists are still only using a small amount of light. But it’s enough to get through much thicker samples while still creating the fewest possible electrons and holes per cubic centimeter.

“With two photons being absorbed at once, we can get deeper into the material and we can see a lot fewer electrons and holes generated,” Magnanelli said.

Using a two-photon measurement means the researchers can keep the power levels as low as possible, but still fully penetrate the sample. A conventional measurement can resolve no fewer than one hundred trillion carriers per cubic centimeter. Using its new method, the NIST team resolved a mere 10 trillion, at least 10 times more sensitivity—a lower threshold for measurement.

The samples studied so far are thicker than some other samples—about half a millimeter thick. That’s thick enough to avoid surface defect issues.

And in lowering the threshold for measuring free holes and electrons, the NIST researchers found a couple of surprising results:

Other methods had shown that as researchers create fewer and fewer electrons and holes, their instruments measure higher and higher carrier mobility in the sample—but only up to a point, after which the carrier density gets so low that the mobility plateaus. By using their noncontact method, NIST researchers found that the plateau occurs at a lower carrier density than previously thought, and that the mobilities are 50% higher than measured before.

“An unexpected result like this shows us things we didn’t know about silicon before,” Heilweil said. “And though this is fundamental science, learning more about how silicon works could help device makers use it more effectively. For example, some semiconductors may work better at lower doping levels than currently used.”

The researchers also used this technique on gallium arsenide (GaAs), another popular light-sensitive semiconductor, to demonstrate that their results are not unique to silicon. In GaAs, they found that the carrier mobility continues to increase with lower charge carrier density, about 100 times lower than the conventionally accepted limit.

Future NIST work might focus on applying different photodoping techniques to samples, as well as varying the samples’ temperature. Experimenting with thicker samples may provide even more surprising results in semiconductors. “When we use the two-photon method on thicker samples we may produce even lower carrier densities that we can then probe with the THz pulses,” Heilweil said.

Explore further

Testing the performance of semiconductors—with light

More information: Timothy J. Magnanelli et al, Carrier mobility of silicon by sub-bandgap time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy, Optics Express (2020). DOI: 10.1364/OE.382840

Provided by National Institute of Standards and Technology

Citation: Scientists make most sensitive measurements to date of silicon’s conductivity (2020, February 26) retrieved 26 February 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-02-scientists-sensitive-date-silicon.html

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