#and if i was in charge of blocking it id put the actors around the table the same way they sat around the conference room table

[lesbiandarvey]

next year is sports nights 25 year anniversary what are the chances of us getting some kind of reunion .. id say our chances are slim but not zero

[brianandthemays]

Paper Rings (Ben Hardy x reader)

Hello!!! First of all: Thank you to @queen-irl-af for beta reading and helping me out!! Love ya! Second! I used the song Paper Rings by Taylor Swift as the main inspiration so give it a listen

Third: There will be a second part coming out soonish!!!!!

and as always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REBLOG, SEND AN ASK, COMMENT, AND LIKE! YOU’RE YOUR FEEDBACK MEANS EVERYTHING TO ME!!!!

Warnings: There is slight smut so 18+ only, please. If I find out you’re underage I will have to block you! Also fluff, angst, and fluff. It’s kinda cute

Word Count: 5.8K

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The house was foggy with smoke. When your friend invited you to this party you didn’t realize that people would basically just be smoking weed the whole time. Now you were stuck sitting in the corner with a drink in your hand, watching as your friend, and ride, climb high enough to cloud nine. You swiped out your phone and groaned when you realized it was dead. Taking the final sip of your drink you stood to pour yourself another one. You grabbed a drink and started to pour when you glanced outside. There was a guy out there, smoking what looked like a cigarette and just looking up at the sky. You grabbed your drink and walked towards him. When you opened the door, he glanced back at you nodding in acknowledgment. You shot him a smile and wrapped your arms around yourself, it was colder than you’d thought I’d be.

           “Cold in’nit,” he commented, bringing his cigarette to his mouth.

           “Yeah.” You shivered and glanced up at the sky. “Moon looks nice.”

He shrugged and blew out some smoke. You gave him a sideways glance before walking over to one of the patio chairs to sit down. The smoke from his cigarette was nauseating but not as bad as the pungent smell of the weed inside. You took a moment to take him in. Up close you could tell he was quite attractive. His eyes were a unique color of green and he had blonde hair with a few curls in it. You could tell he was fit under his clothes and you felt drawn to him.

           “Not your scene?” he asked, nodding inside. You glanced up at him, breaking out of your observation.

You shook your head. “Smoking anything usually makes me sick.”

           “Go home,” he suggested.

           “My ride is high as a kite right now,” you explained with a chuckle. “So, I guess I’m stuck here.” He put out his cigarette and threw it in the trashcan outside. “What about you?”

           “My vice is cigarettes. I’ll get high every now and then but not nearly as often,” he replied. “I’m Ben Jones by the way.”

You looked up at him; he was holding out his hand to you, so you took it. “(Y/N).”

His hand was slightly calloused and brushed your hand the right way, sending a shock down your arm. You swallowed thickly looked at his emerald eyes. He let go and cleared his throat.

           “I’m friends with Rog,” he explained. “My flatmate first year.”

           “Cheryl’s my friend,” you offered. “I think she’s got a thing for Rog.”

           “Is she the chick with blonde highlights?” he questioned looking through the glass door.

You furrowed your eyebrows standing up to stand next to him. There in Roger’s lap was Cheryl practically eating his face off. His hand was on her breast as they swallowed each other and you groaned, officially coming to terms with your fate.

           “That’s her,” you conceded, putting your face in your hands. He laughed and brought a hand to your shoulder in comfort. The shock was back, sending electricity down your back. You looked over at him, a smile on your lips and a lip between your teeth. He licked his lips and smirked at you. Boy, the smirk was really doing something to you. He turned towards you, shortening the distance between the two o fup. 

           “You live far?” he murmured, his breath fanning across your face.Your heart was pounding as you shook your head, staring up at him through your eyelashes and he continued. “Maybe I can take you home.”

You raised an eyebrow and he copied, as if challenging you to resist him. Of course, how could you say no to the magnetic pull that was taking force on you?

           “Please,” you answered, your own playful smirk on your face. “Take me home.”

His smirk turned into a smile and he reached won to grab your hand. You gasped and almost spilt your drink as he tugged you inside.

           “Slow down!” you shouted, trying not to laugh.

           “Shit, sorry,” he apologized, coming to a stop.

You gulped down the rest of your drink and threw your cup onto the counter. “Okay, let’s go.”

The two of you run out of the house to his car. The second you shut your door you reach over and grab his shirt bringing him to your lips. He brought his hand to the back of your head, roughly smashing you further into him.  You bit his bottom lip and pulled back slightly.

           “Take me home.”

The second you got to his house, he had you against the wall. His lips touching every inch of exposed skin. Every kiss left fire in it’s wake and you felt like you would burn down. He pulled back enough to pull your shirt over your head but then immediately latched his lips back to your throat. His hands reached behind your back and unclasped your bra, letting it fall down your arms to the floor.

           “God, you’re so beautiful,” He sighed, pulling back to look at you. You felt so adored under his gaze; the way he looked at you was so adoring it made your breath catch in your throat.

He brought his lips down to your chest, sucking one of your nipples into his mouth. You let a moan out of your mouth tangling your fingers in his hair. You found you hips bucking forward, looking for some kind of friction. Ben slotted a leg between yours allowing you to grind against his thigh as he suckled on your breast. He moved his lips right above your nipples and suck a mark into your skin, causing you to whimper. He pressed one more kiss to it before moving up to kiss your lips again.

           “Please just fuck me,” you groaned against his lips.

He smirked and pulled you away from the wall. “That can be arranged.”

The rest of the night was a blur of pleasure. But the whole time, it felt so different from your other hookups. He was so loving and delicate. Every step of the way making sure you were okay and comfortable. When it was done, he made sure to clean up and take care of you before collapsing next to you.  You laid awake starring at the ceiling, breathless. Who was this guy? Ben… Ben who? You needed to get up and charge your phone so you could get out of here.

You glanced over at the man next to you satisfied that he was truly asleep before getting up and wandering around the room. Next to his bed you found and out lit with a plug in it and plugged your phone in. He mumbled in his sleep on the bed but didn’t stir as you waited for your phone to turn back on. Eventually, it lit up in the dark and you glanced over at Ben to make sure he didn’t wake up. So far you were in the clear. Once your phone loaded up, you went to google maps to see how far your house was. It wasn’t far, the lyft wouldn’t be too much. 

The closest lyft was 10 minutes away, so you had some time. Now, who was this guy? He said his name was Ben… but Ben what? You looked over at him to make sure he was still passed out before crawling to look at his wallet. Broke, not that you were going to take his money. There was his ID. Ben Jones. Ben Jones was the name of the incredibly attractive man snoring loudly on the bed next to you.

Then your phone dinged, letting you know your lyft was close. You felt kinda bad, but you couldn’t stay there. Instead, you wrote a note. Grabbing a pen from his kitchen you scribbled a note on a piece of paper.

           Thanks for the great night, maybe see you around.

                          X (Y/N)

The next morning, you woke up with a headache. You groaned and looked over at the clock; it was noon. You furrowed your eyebrows and put a hand to your forehead. Then in through the door came Cheryl.

           “Where the fuck were you last night?” she screeched, glaring at you.

           “Shut up! Shut up!” you grumbled at her, your head pounding.

She came over to the side of the bed and sat down.

“You ditched me!” she continued loudly. You rolled over and put your pillow on your head to block her out. “Where did you go?”

Then it came back to you. Going outside, leaving with that guy, oh my god. Ben. Ben Jones. The amazingly attractive man you had sex with last night. You sat up and looked over at Cheryl.

           “What?”

           “What do you know about Ben Jones?” you asked hesitantly.

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped.

           “You didn’t…” she gasped. You buried your face in your hands and she squealed causing you to cringe again.  “Ben Jones? As in rugby playing actor Ben Jones?” You reached over and grabbed your phone, ow at 100%, you opened Instagram. “I almost got with Roger, but he forgot my name. Called me Charlotte or something.”

She kept talking but you tuned her out, looking up “Ben Jones” on Instagram. He popped up quickly, pictures of him playing rugby and ads for shows he was in littered his feed. He was, without a doubt, quite attractive. But there was also something childish in his eyes. A goofy look in his smile. You found yourself smiling to yourself.

           “Are you even listening to me?” Cheryl humphed. You mumbled an apology before throwing off the covers and getting out of bed. “Where are you going?”

           “We’re out of milk!” you called back to her. Really you just had to get out of the house. You had to get some fresh air and call Joe.

           “If you’re going to the store, can you get some cheese too? I need to make my quiche!”

You headed out into the London air. The first thing you did was call Joe. Joe had been your friend since you were little. Your best friend to be exact.

           “Joe!” you shouted when he answered.

           “Dear God, don’t shout into the phone,” he retorted. “What’s going on?”

You told him everything. The party and everything that happened after. The intimate moments with Ben that were delicate and careful. The way his touch sent flames down your spine. Finding out he was a rugby player and, most importantly, how his stupid goofy smile wouldn’t leave your mind.

           “Damn, you’ve been in London for one semester and you’re already fitting in!” he commented.

           “Shut up, totally not the right thing to be focusing on right now!” you hissed. “The problem is I left this morning and now I don’t have any way to find him.”

           “Did you—”

           “Yes, I stalked him on the internet,” you interrupted. “He’s a certified hottie.”

           “Well chica, maybe message him,” Joe suggested.

You cringed, walking into the supermarket. “Not exactly subtle, Joe.”

Joe scoffed over the phone and you made your way to the cheese aisle. Cheryl’s cheese choices were very specific and had to be a certain brand or she’d make you go back, and that was not your ideal day.

           “Are you going for subtly?” he asked. 

You grunted, grabbing the cheese you know she likes before heading to the dairy section. As you turned the corner, and froze, turning right back into the aisle.

           “Joe, omigod, he’s right there,” you growled into the phone. “what do I do?”

Joe laughed loudly and you frowned. “Okay, don’t worry, just don’t give him a cold shoulder, that’ll make your situation even worse. Maybe say something, did he see you?”

You peaked around the corner again and he was still looking at some bottles of wine. Lord, his eyes were almost as green as the wine bottles. You pulled back into the aisle, smiling at an elderly woman as she walked back.

           “I don’t think so,” you told him.

           “Okay here’s what you’re gonna do,” Joe started. “You’re gonna walk up to him and casually tell him that you want him to wreck you every night for the rest of your life.”

           “JOE!” you whisper shouted.

           “Am I wrong?” he defended. “Now go and call me back later.”

Then he hung up and you cursed under your breath. Then you sucked a large breath and walk out of the aisle. You approached him and he looked up. His eyes flashed with recognition, and a smirk started to come over his lips. Flashes of the night before hitting you hard. His lips on your chest, on your stomach, on your thighs, on your... oh lord. And you panicked. And instead of walking towards him, you walked right past him, feeling his eyes follow you past him. You mentally slapped your forehead and turned around, but he was gone.

           “Fuck.”

You didn’t see him again for a few weeks, maybe a month when Cheryl invited you to another party. You were hesitant to go, not wanting a repeat of last time but she wore you down. And again you found yourself standing by yourself in a corner. You took out your phone and you swore it was déjà vu. Your damn phone was almost dead, again.

           “You need a charger?” a deep voice behind offered. You turned and saw him, and those deep eyes. You nodded, suddenly finding your voice gone. “Ah, so you do remember me.”

You scrunched your mouth into a smile. “Ben… right.”

           “That’s right, (Y/N),” he chuckled. The way he said your name sent a shiver down your back. “Thought you might’ve been too drunk to remember.”

You frowned, that was rude. “I had only had one drink,” You defended.

           “Oh, was that rude?” He raised his eyebrows, a playful look in his eyes. “I was confused because I saw you in the supermarket, the next day. And you gave me a cold shoulder.”

Fuck. He had you on a line and you took the bait. He held out a charger to you and you took it, deliberately brushing your fingers against his, trying not to show the effect he was having on you. You turned from him and started searching for a plug.

           “Nothing to say to that?” he prompted, hoping to reel you in.

           “What can I say?” you returned over your shoulder. “Sorry I hurt your feelings.”

He let out a huff of air, smiling at you. Two could play at this game. The only question was who would cave first. But who knew if he’d been thinking about you like you’d been thinking about him? All you could do was hope and pray you didn’t make a fool out of yourself again. You finally found a plug and got your phone charging before turning back to Ben, who had been following you around.

           “What brings you back out to the party?” he asks, leaning against the wall.

You smiled coyly at him. “Something in air, I guess. And you?”

           “Call it intuition,” he replied, a smirk pasted on his face.

God you wanted him. You wanted to feel the same passion you had last time. You wanted to feel his hands roam your body, sending flames spiraling around your body. That couldn’t have been the same feeling you had every time you hooked up with someone. But you couldn’t let it be that easy no matter how much you wanted it. And you could feel his want too, it was practically radiating off of him. But the longer you made him wait, the better it would feel.

           “Wow, great minds… huh,” you quipped.

           “Suppose so,” he answered.

There was silence between you. An eye game. His eyes were darting between your eyes and your lips and your body. Yours stayed put on his eyes, watching him as he looked you over. God you wanted him. His lips were so perfect and you wanted to feel them all over your body.

           “So, do you want to…” He motioned with his hand towards the door. You had him right where you wanted him, and you knew what you had to do, no matter how much your body was telling you to do the opposite.

           “Actually, no… I don’t think so,” you replied simply.

His eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “Oh?”

           “Yeah, I promised Cheryl that I wouldn’t leave this time,” you explained, the smirk not leaving your face.

           “I see… I see…” He raised his hands in submission. And though you could tell he was trying to act nonchalant, there was a hint of disappointment behind his eyes. That made you hesitant but you couldn’t go back now.  “Well, I guess I’ll head out then, see you around?”

           “Maybe,” you lipped, smiling at him.

           “I like maybe…” His green eyes flickered with playfulness, the disappointment leaving slightly. “But let me tell you, I will see you again.”

And with that he was gone, and the second he was, you took a breath for the first time in, what felt like, an hour. It took everything you had not to let him have you again, but you made it. You hoped that he would keep up on his promise and you would see him soon, but you didn’t see him for another month.

You were studying for winter finals at the library. It had been a frustrating study session. You’d been in there all afternoon and still couldn’t wrap your head around the subject. Across from you the chair pulled out and someone sat down. At first you didn’t pay much attention to them but then they slide a muffin and a steamy drink across the table to you. You looked up and it was Ben. Your eyes widened and he smirked.

           “Hi,” you greeted, giving him a small wave.

           “Hey, love, how are you?” he asked, looking down at your book then up at you.

You frowned, pushing the book away. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

He gave you a sympathetic smile before leaning back in his chair. You were more than surprised to see him there. It realized you went to the same school as him, but you’d never run into him before. And he’d spent his money on you.  You pulled the drink and muffin towards yourself.

           “It’s hot chocolate and a chocolate chip muffin,” he told you. “Chocolate always helps me relax so I thought—”

           “No, Ben it’s great, thank you so much,” you replied genuinely.

           “I also heard orgasms help with stress.”

You almost spit out your sip of hot chocolate, getting some drops of your drinks on your notes. You sputtered, trying to think of a reply, desperately cleaning your notes up. But when you looked back up at him he was laughing heartily at you.

           “I’m joking, love,” he chuckled. “Mainly… unless you want to…”

           “Not at the moment,” you growled, a hint of amusement making its way into your voice. “But ask me tomorrow.”

He smiled, his stupid dorky smile when he got something he wanted. He leaned on his forearms, bringing himself closer to you. You continued to look at him as you brought the hot chocolate back to your mouth. You slowly bring your book back to yourself trying to subtly go back to studying.

           “Oh, don’t mind me, I’ll just be here,” he told you, motioning for you to continue studying.

You narrowed your eyes at him, slightly confused as to why he would just want to sit there and watch you study but he looked perfectly happy. So, you continued studying; picking at your muffin and flipping through the pages. Suddenly, things were starting to make sense and you realized, Ben’s presence was calming. He just sat there scrolling on his phone, looking up at you every now and then. But still, he was like a white noise, keeping you focused. Eventually, you felt content with your studying and closed your book.

           “So, what can I do to pay you back for the sustenance?” you asked, grabbing you back to pull out your purse.

“Be my date.” He answered almost immediately. “To Roger’s party this weekend I mean.” Your mouth dropped and you found yourself at a loss for words. “I mean, please? I feel like we always end up together anyway.”

You found yourself in a staring contest with him. You couldn’t deny the want you felt whenever you were around him. It felt like a magnet pulling you towards him and you wanted to be on his arm the whole night. Laughing with him, drinking with him, falling asleep on his arm. So, what was the harm? He was asking you.

           “Okay.”

The day of the party came a lot quicker than you expected. Your finals were over, your bags were packed and all you had left was this party. Not that you weren’t excited to go, you always loved a party and now you had Ben as your so-called ‘date’, so what could go wrong. You just wore some jeans and a nice sweater you had. Ben was at your apartment at 7 ready to take you to Roger’s house.

           “Wow, you look great,” he complimented you. You felt your cheeks heat up and you turned around to avoid letting him see. “Will Cheryl be there?”

           “No, she’s already headed home for the winter. Left last night,” you informed him. This left the house empty in the case that something may happen with you and Ben. You planned this, and Cheryl was ecstatic.

           “Oh, so house is empty?” he asked.

           “Yup.”

           “Ah.”

Silence. Then he held out his hand to you and you took it. He held you close as you walked through the London night. It was freezing. Snow covered the ground from an earlier flurry and the roads were barren save for ice. Ben was bundled up nicely while you found your sweater failing you, causing you to shiver in the cold.

           “Oh, love,” he chuckled, pulling his jacket off his shoulders to drape over your shoulders. You thanked him softly, pulling the jacket closer around yourself. It smelt good. Like warmth with an undertone of cigarettes. It smelt like him.

Not much later you arrived at Roger’s house. Ben dragged you inside, waving and high fiving people along the way, but keeping his hand in yours the whole time. Eventually, you found your way to a free couch where Ben dropped you off.

           “You want a drink?” he asked, standing in front of you.

           “Sure,” you replied. He smiled at you and walked off to find you a drink. You felt happy. It was weird to think that a guy you hooked up with once a few months ago was now playing a game of cat and mouse with you. But you were ready to be done playing. And maybe tonight you’d be lucky.

A few other kids from school came and sat around you, smiling politely. You returned the smile and shifting to find a comfortable position.

           “So, you’re here with Ben?” one of them asked. It was one of the boys. You just nodded. “He’s dope.”

           “What’s your name?” a girl to your left asked.

           “(Y/N),” you told her. She seemed nice enough, but you still wished Ben were nearby.

           “Oh, you’re Cheryl’s roommate, right?” she exclaimed

You nodded again. “Yeah!”

Then Ben returned, carrying two drinks. He hoped over the couch, sliding his arm around you as he sat down.

           “Hey Rach! How are you,” he asked politely, handing you your drink. You moved into his side more and you didn’t see it, but that made him smile.

           “I’m good! Stephen and I were just introducing yourself to your date.” She gave you a look, moving her shoulder in a cheeky fashion. 

           “Is Kelvin here?” Ben asked.

She shook her head no, letting Stephen answer. “He still has a final tomorrow morning.”

           “Sucks to suck I guess,” Ben joked, causing them to laugh. You smiled, watching their interaction. He was so natural with other people. Everyone felt at ease around him and you could understand why. Rachel and Stephen took their leave of you, leaving you and Ben sitting on the couch together. He looked down at you as you looked around the party.

           “You look lost, love,” he told you.  

           “Sorry, I’ve just never been in the thick of a party before,” you admitted. “I’m usually with Cheryl and she usually abandons me, and I end up—”

           “In the backyard with a stranger?” he finished; his eyes playful.

           “Exactly,” you answered.

He laughed, reverberating in his chest and you could feel it. You let a blush come over your face as he took a sip of his drink. He hummed, letting you know he had something he wanted to say.

           “What do you do?” he asked.

           “Huh?”         

           “Like, other than come to parties, study and go to the supermarket, I don’t really know anything about you,” he pointed out.

           “Oh, uh… I mean I’m a Journalism major with a minor in Film and Art,” you told him. “I’m from the States… New York actually. That’s where my friend Joe lives…” He nodded for you to continue. “Um… I grew up in Albany, which is the capital of New York. But my family moved to the city after my brother moved out?

           “How old is your brother?” he asked.

           “25 now. He’s an Engineer. Runs some engineering firm in Philadelphia,” you explained. “He’s very smart. Smarter than I am.”

           “Hey, don’t say that,” Ben interrupted.

           “It’s just the truth.” You shrugged. “It’s fine. But I had to get away from my parents. Who have no trouble telling me how much better he is than me.” You blushed again. “Sorry, that was too much info.”

           “No, it wasn’t, you can keep telling me everything,” Ben encouraged.

You looked at him, no hint of insincerity. And you did want to tell him everything. But just as you were, Roger rushed into the room.

           “EVERYONE IN THE POOL!” he shouted before racing outside.

           “He’s joking, right? Its freezing outside,” you cried. But as you were talking, Ben pulled you up and started dragging you outside. “No! BEN NO!

He laughed and let go walking back towards the pool. “Let go, love. Let’s live a little tonight!”

And with that, he slipped off his sweater, and you struggled not to let your eyes bug out. He tucked his feet into a cannonball landing with a splash. You watched with wide eyes as he reemerged, shouting at the cold, but motioned for you to join him. You turned away, closing your eyes, silently battling yourself. But then you turned back around and saw him again. Him and his silly smile and his green eyes. And you couldn’t help yourself. Off you ran. And with a great jump, you splashed in after him. As soon as you hit the cold, you felt your whole body freeze up. Your clothes clung to your body and you felt the warmth leaving you.

           You breached the surface, gasping for breath. “Oh my God!” You shouted, looking for something to grab onto; to provide warmth.

           “Love, love, calm down, c’mere.” Ben’s voice washed over you and you found yourself grabbing onto him. He wrapped you up in his arms, pulling you into his chest. His chest wasn’t much warmer, but you still felt yourself heating up. More people came crashing into the pool, but you found yourself unable to see them. Just Ben and his eyes. He put his chin on top of your head, holding you tightly, rubbing his hands up and down your arms.

           “This isn’t safe,” you chattered, your teeth shaking. Ben just laughed and reached down to grab your legs, carrying you to the side of the pool. He sat you down on the top step resting his hands on either side of your hips.

           “I’ll let you borrow my sweater,” he told you. You kept your arms wrapped around his neck, keeping him close to you. You shivered, your whole body shaking. “Oh, love, you’re turning blue.”

You glared at him, moving to rest your head on his chest.  His heartbeat was strong and steady, allowing you to focus on something other than the cold. He pulled you back slightly and grabbed your hand, starting to leave the pool.

           “Let’s get you warmed up, yeah?” he murmured, pulling you up and out of the water. He picked up his sweater and found you a towel, pulling it around your arms.

Once you were dried off, you found yourself in Ben’s white sweater sitting in a hallway across from Ben. He still had a towel around his bare body, his sweater currently being used by yourself.

           “Thank you, Ben,” you said, smiling. “Tonight, has been surprisingly fun.”

           “Oh, the fun is just beginning,” he teased, poking your toe with his. The music in the main room was dully playing in the background. You blushed, looking down into your lap. “What’s wrong, love?”

You looked up at him, his green eyes shining with concern. And you really couldn’t take it anymore. You crawled towards him on all fours, his eyes widening with surprise, you settled yourself on his thighs, straddling his waist. He hands came to rest on your hips, cocking his head. It was a question and he wanted you to answer first. To let him know this was okay. So, you leaned in and pressed your lips to his. This kiss was different from the frantic, horny kiss that you had in the car the first time you met him. This was slower, more languid than before. His lips moved slowly against yours, one of his hands coming up to push back some of your hair.

You slide your hands up his chest, leaning into him more. You moaned when he started to move his lips down your jaw, sucking a mark into the space right behind your ear. You brought your hands up to tangle in his hair, tugging slightly, eliciting a moan from him. You felt your breathing start to pick up and Ben moved his hands under your sweater. You moved your hands down to pull them up to your bra, giving him the permission he needed. But he still pulled back and looked at you.

           “Are you sure this is okay?” he assured. His eyes were blown open and his lips were swollen. But he was still checking on you.

           “Yes.”

And he went back in, this time the lust returned. It was heated and full of passion. He pulled your breasts out of your bra, massaging them slowly. You threw your head back, whimpering and panting heavily. Ben latched his lips to your collar, now exposed to him. The feeling of his thumbs brushing over your tits and his fingers digging into the flesh, along with his lips suck and nipping at the most sensitive areas on your neck left you weak. You let yourself go all but limp in his arms, letting him do what he wanted, letting the amazing feelings wash over you.

Soon, you found yourself in the same place you were two months ago. Laying in bed, now your bed, next to Ben. But this time you weren’t hurried to leave. Ben was lying next to you, one hand behind his head the other holding his phone. You were on your side, watching him, eyes furrowed in thought.

           “What?” Ben asked, not looking over at you.

           “Huh?”

           “You’re looking at me.”

           “Oh, I um…”

           “(Y/N).” He put down his phone a looked over at you.

You looked down, tracing your finger in your sheets. “You didn’t…” You sighed, feeling stupid. “You didn’t just ask me to Roger’s party cause you wanted to have sex with me, right?”

He furrowed his eyebrows and turned on his side. “I mean, that was part of it.” And with that you felt your heart breaking a little. Fuck. He didn’t actually like you. He just wanted to fuck you. “But not all of it. Actually, most of it is because I couldn’t get you out of my mind.” Your mouth parted slightly. “Your face, your voice, your laugh, for some reason, you were stuck. And then I saw you the next day and you… ya know.”

You let out an exasperated sigh, covering your face with your hand. 

“I’m an idiot, I hope you know that,” you told him, peaking through one of your fingers. “I saw you and wanted to talk to you but I panicked!”

He chuckled and shook his head. “It’s okay, I wasn’t going to let you get away.” He continued. “But I knew I wanted to see you again. And I saw you at that other party. Then I kinda was just looking for sex… but I was hoping you’d stay that time, and I’d make you breakfast and get to know you.” He blushed. “But you had Cheryl, so I knew I had to get you to come with me. As my date, somewhere. “So when Rog told me about this party, I knew I had to take you and the rest is history.” He wrapped an arm around you, pulling you to lay down on his chest. 

You snuggled into his side, looping your leg with his. “Well, maybe we can make breakfast together tomorrow morning.”

“You won’t leave me again?” he asked, looking down at you. 

You crawled up to him and connected your lips in a soft, heartfelt kiss. When you pulled back, Ben kept his eyes closed, a smile gracing his features. 

“Never.”

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Tagging people I think would enjoy/people I’d like to read: @redspecialty @sweet-ladyy @strangeandwonderfulconcepts @leah-halliwell92 @angiefangirlworld-2

[warnadudenexttime]

What if Patton wasn’t the one in charge?

Now maybe this is only a personal headcannon of mine or a well accepted fan theory, I’m not sure honestly idk what is happening 99% of the time but I believe Patton to be Thomas’ main influence, the big dude in charge, the personality trait Thomas listens to the most, etc.

Also, we get to see how much the sides influence Thomas, well slightly, with accepting anxiety and Virgil’s ducking ( quack whack ). To quote, “an aloof moron with no filter.” He was much more giddy, not exactly fearless just more likely to not think alot before he acted carelessly on actions that could harm him. Because of that power balance being lost between the two ( semi ) grounded sides, that stay ( somewhat ) in reality and the ones who are in the clouds, fantasy is preferred, and positivity all around. So this does prove all of the sides have a lot of influence in Thomas personality, well of course they’re the main four traits but I wanted to restate that.

Now, to get back to the point I was talking about with Patton. Character Thomas and Patton are very similar. Not in a just, he’s a single trait of my personality way, more like he’s a lot of what Thomas atleast mostly shows to his friends or on camera. Both very bubbly, cheery, positive, hides emotions when they feel the need to, loves dogs, loves puns, both have acted as comic reliefs for episodes ( like in Why do we get out of bed in the morning due to Patton not being there character Thomas was heavily relied on for comedy ), and lots more.

I’ve stated in the past my desire to see how Thomas would act if you took away a certain side, and I still stand by that as that’s such an interesting concept to me. Like if you take Roman away does Thomas feel absolutely no desire to create, if we had this episode wouldn’t it be likely a side would have to start the filming because of that art block, he doesn’t speak with that passion he normally has. If Thomas was without Logan would he act exactly like he did in accepting anxiety or would he act “more stupid” or the way he presents himself change? Many factors could take a play in this like him not knowing what day it is, his living room is unorganized with a flood of Roman’s unchecked ideas, etc. But, you guys get the point.

That’s not what I want to talk about today, well I already kinda did but that’s not the point of this post. The point is what would happen if we switched around who the main influence was in Thomas’ personality.

If Logan was the main guy would Thomas be instead working as a chemical engineer right now? Or Thomas did consider videos would they be all educational ( instead of mostly all his videos ending in a “moral” message. ) Would Thomas now prefer that professional look wearing a polo himself, maybe a suit and tie?

If Virgil was the main guy would Thomas have even started a yt channel in the first place? Too scared of the ridicule and judgement put upon him by strangers. Would he be more closed off or if he had videos would they instead be more about mental health and his struggles? Or would it just be Thomas still on MySpace even though it’s 2019, and he’s emo.

If Roman was the main guy Thomas could prehaps be an actor whether tv show, movie or broadway performer? Roman wants Thomas to make everyday of his life interesting and make his dreams come true. ( I’m not too sure on big changes since Patton and Roman’s ideals seem to be similar and we don’t know yet if they clash as they haven’t had a versus episode yet, just to clarify. )

There’s other factors too, how would this change the sides. If Roman was in charge would he have been so pushed into accepting anxiety, would virgil be too scared to share his opinions. Would Logan be more listened to as Roman has stated he respects his opinion very much? Patton would maybe stay the same? Roman loves praise and Patton loves to praise. I’d say maybe Patton would be more sad or disappointed in Roman if he refused to accept anxiety though.

If it was Virgil I could see Logan either being listened to more or less. It depends on if Thomas learns to control his anxiety. If he does, Virgil would probably ask more of Logan simply to make sure everything was safe, etc. Or if he didn’t, Logan wouldn’t be listened too because Virgil just doesn’t or can’t believe him. Now with Roman it’s hard to say simply because it depends on whether or not you believe their rivalry was one sided or not, was it mostly Roman he hated Virgil or did they both. Etc but I think they’d fight more for sure at the very least. I believe Patton roughly stays the same here as well, their friendship could either get closer or worse if you look at it. Closer If Virgil was more scared and anxious or worse If Virgil snaps from all the overly comfort Patton gives.

I think the biggest change would probably be if Logan was in charge. Since Thomas is such an emotional person, 3 of his main personality traits are emotionally driven after all. I think patton would be less respected and listened to, same for Roman perhaps? But it’s hard to say. Would Logan’s friendship with Virgil be as balanced? Now having the ability to just shut his ideas down as ridiculous very quickly instead of learning how to compromise and how he has to be kind and slow with Virgil.

It’s hard to say how this would affect all the relationships and the characters as I can’t predict what would happen as something I didn’t factor happens. Also I didn’t factor deceit into this as he isn’t in the main four but I’m sure he’d be shut down more if Logan was in charge, not listened too at all with Virgil/ or even listened too more too calm Virgil’s worries idk, listened too more if Roman was as Roman loves praise.

But I believe this to be a really cool concept that If someone wrote for or drew or edited or whatever, id die for. So yeah there’s my analysis/rant/thing.

[schoe1995]

My Travel Accessories

When it comes to traveling; I don’t play any games to be comfortable. So I decided to share my must have accessories when I’m traveling:

CASES

I’m one of the few people in the world that really doesn’t drop my phone. However, accidents can happen and when you don’t have equipment protection...you are playing a huge gamble. To protect from physical damage, I got the full package: screen protector, case, and equipment protection. My iPhone 11 Pro 256gb is well over $1000...soooo yeah. However if you don’t have equipment protection here are some cases you can get.

I technically have five cases but one wasn’t categorized here for a reason. But let me give you a breakdown:

Upper left corner is my Lifeproof Frē. Turns the phone into complete waterproof, dust proof, snow proof, dirt proof, etc. it’s super handy when I take underwater photos, go on water rides, or accidentally forget to take it out of my pocket. The case is sealed air tight, so if you need to take it off, use like a quarter and pop from the side

Gear 4 case upper right: this is my everyday case. I usually have it for like at home, errands, getting on the plane, etc. The case is super easy to take off.

Bottom left is my LuMee case: everybody needs good lighting and LuMee’s case does that on point. The duo case has lighting on the front and back and you can control how bright the light is.

Bottom right is my Shift cam case: perfect for high quality photos and trying out different lenses. I have this case when I go to concerts.

Headphones

When traveling sometimes you really don’t need all that extra background noise. And since I’m a huge music addict, I’d rather hear my playlist...not some child screaming or an adult who doesn’t know how to shut up. Enter headphones.

I got a few selections so I’ll break it down once again.

Powerbeats 3: super lightweight and compatible. They have I believe a 12 hour battery off one charge. There are probably my go-to just because of size, I really can’t lose them, and again how easy it is to travel with them.

The blue Samsung Level: lol so I got these after I saw them in one of Kpop’s group EXO’s music video Call Me Baby. Btw it’s a bop🤣 they are Bluetooth/ wireless and lasted me a couple of days. Then again I wasn’t really using them a whole lot. But they are really high quality, voice activation, slide up, down, left, right to control volume, skip songs, or repeat, and best part...NOISE CANCELLATION! When I took the train to Chicago and flipped the switch, my world was changed.

AirPods: I was one of those people who really didn’t feel like this was one purchase I needed. But you know that phrase, “don’t knock it till you try it?” Yeah...that was me with AirPods. If you are an iPhone user I recommend getting them. They are lightweight, alternate compatible (meaning you can use left, right, or both), and Siri is actually more useful. All I say is “Hey Siri” and boom. She takes care of it.

Regular cord: these are my everyday headphones. And the most expendable. I try not to lose any items...but things happen. If I lose them, these can be easily replaced. But I carry these around so my other expensive ones are my backup.

Portable Battery Packs

If you are like me, I’m always on my phone. Either checking on my social media, playing games, watching videos, blasting music, calling, texting, etc. your phone can get drained a lot. I was at a concert once in St. Louis when my phone almost went dead. Good thing my Dad and I had spot to meet afterwards. From that point on I decided to always carry around a portable charger. And let’s be real, nobody wants to be in a situation where you need help but your phone is dead.

I have like 5 portable chargers. But these are my go to travel ones I take with me. You can say extra, but hey; better to be prepared than sorry.

Starting from the left: I found this neat solar powered portable battery pack on amazon. The directions say if you want it fully charged; plug it into an outlet. This was super helpful when I was in Disneyland because of the sun. I just attached it using the clip to my bag.

Middle: this is your standard portable battery park. I got this when I saw Instagram model/ actor Matthew Noszka post about this charger. It’s super slick and fashionable. But with a charge of 10,000mH it’s super fast and helpful. Oh! Always look for portable batteries that are 10,000 and higher. The higher the charge, faster and longer lasting it will be. If your going to be out of your hotel all day with no time to sit and plug in your phone, get you a portable pack.

On the right: This is Apple’s smart battery case. This is probably my favorite one out of all three. When you put your iPhone in the case it starts charging. Once the case fully uses all the battery, your phone battery kicks in. What’s neat is that if you have the case on and need to charge your phone, the case also charges. I had to charge up the case twice while I was at Disneyland. But worth the investment.

Bags & Backpacks

When I was younger; talking about like elementary school to middle school my mom always told me carry around a bag. Whenever she went to Six Flags she always had a bag full of snacks, drinks, and if I got soaked on a water ride extra clothes. Now that I’m older and doing a lot of solo traveling I’ve been carrying around a backpack a lot. Especially if I’m going to concerts.

I always have two bags with me now.

See through bag: when I travel, it’s 95% of the time for concerts and amusement parks. I do occasionally do sight seeing stuff as well. However security can be a hassle if they have to check your stuff. So I have a see through pvc type bag that security can easily see all the items I’m bringing into the park or venue. Plus it’s a lot easier for both parties.

Boujee Bag: I always think it’s important to have what I call my Boujee Bag, aka Travel Bag. This is where I have like my iPad, MacBook, chargers, important documents like passport, tickets, etc. I love my Coach Backpack. It has so many different compartment that it makes traveling with tons of times a lot easier.

Water Bottle: Traveling without having a good water bottle is a receipe for disaster. I spent so much money on overpriced water at like sight seeing attractions and grab and go places🤦‍♂️ so to help cut down costs, I have this nice Lokai water bottle. It keeps cold drinks cold for 24 hours and hot drinks hot for 12. But you can always find cheaper water bottles at Walmart.

Wallets!

Like cases I have a variety of wallets that I travel with. I hardly carry around cash so this is where like my ID, cards, everything is in.

On top is my everyday Fossil Wallet that I take everywhere. Including traveling as well. I love how it’s RFID protected. While I was working at Fossil, I learned from my assistant manager that criminals are adapting on how they steal credit card information. They can walk past you and use their phone to scan card information. If a wallet that has RFID protection, it blocks the scan. With safety in mind, that is a wallet I recommend. Don’t worry ladies, Fossil also has a beautiful line of collections as well.

Bottom: That is my Coach Men’s Long Zip Wallet. I got it on sale the day o purchased my backpack. I switch into this wallet when I go out to restaurants, bars, and clubs. It has a wristlet so I can hold onto and keep check. I can hold multiple cards in as well, and my phone in there. Sometimes it’s best to keep track when everything is in one place.

That pretty much is all my travel accessories. Remember not everyone is the same, so customize on what your travel neccessities are. I always recommend before any trip, plan on bringing what you need vs the wants. Once you figure that out, it makes life so much easier.

[shirlleycoyle]

Private Intel Firm Buys Location Data to Track People to their ‘Doorstep’

A threat intelligence firm called HYAS, a private company that tries to prevent or investigates hacks against its clients, is buying location data harvested from ordinary apps installed on peoples' phones around the world, and using it to unmask hackers. The company is a business, not a law enforcement agency, and claims to be able to track people to their "doorstep."

The news highlights the complex supply chain and sale of location data, traveling from apps whose users are in some cases unaware that the software is selling their location, through to data brokers, and finally to end clients who use the data itself. The news also shows that while some location firms repeatedly reassure the public that their data is focused on the high level, aggregated, pseudonymous tracking of groups of people, some companies do buy and use location data from a largely unregulated market explicitly for the purpose of identifying specific individuals.

HYAS' location data comes from X-Mode, a company that started with an app named "Drunk Mode," designed to prevent college students from making drunk phone calls and has since pivoted to selling user data from a wide swath of apps. Apps that mention X-Mode in their privacy policies include Perfect365, a beauty app, and other innocuous looking apps such as an MP3 file converter.

"As a TI [threat intelligence] tool it's incredible, but ethically it stinks," a source in the threat intelligence industry who received a demo of HYAS' product told Motherboard. Motherboard granted the source anonymity as they weren't authorized by their company to speak to the press.

Do you work at a location SDK company? Did you used to? Do you know anything else about the sale of location data? We'd love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.

HYAS puts a particular emphasis on identifying the people behind attacks, or "attributing" them, although the actual effectiveness of its products is unclear and may be exaggerated by the firm in marketing material.

"We track threat actors and other bad guys down to their physical doorstep for customers and clients," the LinkedIn profile for HYAS CEO David Ratner reads. HYAS' "Insight" product provides clients with a Google Maps-style interface to interact with the company's datasets, according to HYAS' website. Insight provides access to the firm's "exclusive data sources" and "non-traditional collection mechanisms," the website reads.

A wide range of industries often buy location data to track the movements of crowds of people. Retailers can source the data to see how much foot traffic their store, or maybe one of their competitors, is getting. Real estate companies could use the information to see if a piece of land has the potential to be popular. Marketing firms use location data to identify and target groups with specific commercial or political adverts.

HYAS differs in that it provides a concrete example of a company deliberately sourcing mobile phone location data with the intention of identifying and pinpointing particular people and providing that service to its own clients. Independently of Motherboard, the office of Senator Ron Wyden, which has been investigating the location data market, also discovered HYAS was using mobile location data. A Wyden aide said they had spoken with HYAS about the use of the data. HYAS said the mobile location data is used to unmask people who may be using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to hide their identity, according to the Wyden aide.

In a webinar uploaded to HYAS' website, Todd Thiemann, VP of marketing at the company, describes how HYAS used location data to track a suspected hacker.

"We found out it was the city of Abuja, and on a city block in an apartment building that you can see down there below," he says during the webinar. "We found the command and control domain used for the compromised employees, and used this threat actor's login into the registrar, along with our geolocation granular mobile data to confirm right down to his house. We also got his first and last name, and verified his cellphone with a Nigerian mobile operator."

A screenshot of a webinar given by HYAS, in which the company explains how it has used mobile application location data.

On its website, HYAS claims to have some Fortune 25 companies, large tech firms, as well as law enforcement and intelligence agencies as clients.

Threat intelligence firms generally gather data from a wide range of sources, including hacker forums, private chat rooms, and internet infrastructure such as where websites are hosted, and sell products based on that data and their own analysis to clients. Customers can include banks who want to get a heads-up on whether a freshly dumped cache of stolen credit card data belongs to them; a retailer trying to protect themselves from hackers; or a business checking if any of their employees' login details are being traded by cybercriminals.

Some threat intelligence companies also sell services to government agencies, including the FBI, DHS, and Secret Service. The Department of Justice oftens acknowledges the work of particular threat intelligence companies in the department's announcement of charges or indictments against hackers and other types of criminals.

But some other members of the threat intelligence industry criticized HYAS' use of mobile app location data. The CEO of another threat intelligence firm told Motherboard that their company does not use the same sort of information that HYAS does.

The threat intelligence source who originally alerted Motherboard to HYAS recalled "being super shook at how they collected it," referring to the location data.

A senior employee of a third threat intelligence firm said that location data is not hard to buy.

"As a TI [threat intelligence] tool it's incredible, but ethically it stinks."

A blog post on HYAS' website said that "HYAS Insight 1.1 provides telemetry gleaned from advertising and mobile application location data."

When Motherboard emailed HYAS, it removed the mention of advertising and mobile application location data from its blog post. The blog post added that the Insight product also lets customers determine what other devices or wireless networks are near a device. The post now reads that HYAS "provides precise geolocation telemetry."

"HYAS is in the business of supporting our clients in cyber-criminal investigations. Our business is focused on helping our clients detect and prevent cyber crime," Ratner told Motherboard in an email. The company did not reply when asked why it removed the mention of mobile application location data from its website.

Motherboard found several location data companies that list HYAS in their privacy policies. One of those is X-Mode, a company that plants its own code into ordinary smartphone apps to then harvest location information. An X-Mode spokesperson told Motherboard in an email that the company's data collecting code, or software development kit (SDK), is in over 400 apps and gathers information on 60 million global monthly users on average. X-Mode also develops some of its own apps which use location data, including parental monitoring app PlanC and fitness tracker Burn App.

"Whatever your need, the XDK Visualizer is here to show you that our signature SDK is too legit to quit (literally, it’s always on)," the description for another of X-Code's own apps, which visualizes the company's data collection to attract clients, reads.

"They’re like many location trackers but seem more aggressive to be honest," Will Strafach, founder of the app Guardian, which alerts users to other apps accessing their location data, told Motherboard in an online chat. In January, X-Mode acquired the assets of Location Sciences, another location firm, expanding X-Mode's dataset.

"My bet is that they bet on folks clicking through things without reading the text," Strafach said of app users not necessarily being aware of X-Mode collecting their location data.

A screenshot of the Drunk Mode app available on the Apple App Store.

Motherboard then identified a number of apps whose own privacy policies mention X-Mode. They included Perfect365, a beauty-focused app that people can use to virtually try on different types of makeup with their device's camera.

"I don’t know if my information was used anywhere," Marta, one Perfect365 user, told Motherboard. Marta provided a screenshot of her app settings, showing Perfect365 could access her device’s location.

Gianna, another user, said "[It] bothers me the fact that it asks me for my current location!," she added.

Perfect365's CEO Sean Mao did not respond to a request for comment.

Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity at activist group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told Motherboard that even if a user is presented with some form of consent notice, they may not tangibly understand or know what is happening to their data.

"And that's assuming people even read privacy notices, which they normally don't," she said.

An X-Mode spokesperson told Motherboard in an email that "app users must provide informed consent before their location is tracked," and that the company follows guidelines from the GDPR, CCPA, and other data protection regulation. Users can also opt-out of collection via the company's own app, the email added.

The X-Mode spokesperson added that "Our clients use this data to observe groups of individuals in the aggregate and pseudonymously. X-Mode actively uses two data anonymization techniques—pseudonymization and generalization. We obfuscate any user IDs we collect from all devices and we aggregate devices using generalization. Our clients use these techniques and others to identify trends that are difficult to observe at the individual level, such as trends in mobility."

This stands in stark contrast to what HYAS says it is actually trying to do with that data, however. When pressed on HYAS' deployment of mobile location data to find specific people, X-Mode said "We take our obligations of confidentiality with our clients seriously, and we can't discuss the details of specific clients. I am sure you are aware however that companies such as the one you mentioned use multiple data sources. As we stated, and to reiterate, we contractually prohibit misuses of X-Mode data such as using X-Mode data solely to re-identify individuals."

"The data we obtain is used for these purposes in compliance with all applicable law," Ratner, HYAS' CEO, added.

"Shady data brokers are scooping up databases of private information to create dossiers on individual Americans, without our consent or knowledge," Senator Ron Wyden told Motherboard in a statement. "These databases create enormous risks to our personal safety, privacy and U.S. national security if they fall into the wrong hands. I wrote the Mind Your Own Business Act to crack down on these unsavory practices and put Americans back in control of their own personal information."

Various government agencies have bought access to location data from other companies. Last month, Motherboard found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) paid $476,000 to a firm that sells phone location data. CBP has used the data to scan parts of the U.S. border, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tried to use the same data to track criminal suspects but was unsuccessful.

The first threat intelligence source added, describing HYAS' use of mobile location data, "It's shady as fuck."

Private Intel Firm Buys Location Data to Track People to their ‘Doorstep’ syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[scarecrowandmrking]

    Although I was pretty excited when I found out the writers had made a part for me on End Of Days, I kinda expected my arrival on the TV show wouldn't exactly be welcome.  My father produced the show and people were crying nepotism over it and saying that the character and story surrounding her were rushed and only created to appease my dad. And it hurt. I'd been in lots of films, including Michael Bay, Peter Jackson and James Cameron epics. I’d done Broadway and had trained in ballet at the world renowned  Paris Marais School. And still everything I ever achieved always, always, came back to my father. But I was determined to make the best of it. To prove to everyone that this demon character I was playing wasn't some bone thrown to me, it was my character. It was all me.       I was kind of surprised when Mark Pellegrino, who played the main protagonist on the show, invited me to one of his workshops at Playhouse West. Though I played a demon minion of his character in End Of Days, we seldom ever hung out or anything. I was close to all the other actors on the show, but not really to Mark. The man was at times an intimidating presence on set, depending on if he was in character or not. In fact, the first time I had met the tall, blond haired actor, I had walked up to him while he was  in full demonic make up and he had stared up at me as if he wanted to rip my face off. I didn't speak to him for a good two months after that. And, though I knew he had quite the fangirl following from the show, I found him to be too imposing and intense for my liking.      Mark had been dating the lead actress and writer on the show for a while now. Though from what I understood they had broken it off yet again. Now there was a new thing going on where the writers were having my character getting closer to Mark's, apparently because his ex wanted some space or some shit. When I first found out about it I must admit I ground my teeth a little. The fans already thought my being around was nepotism, now they were frothing at the mouth about my character breaking up the main couple on the show. Fucking perfect.      When I sat down in Marks class at Playhouse West I wasn't sure what to expect. Certainly not for Mark to come walking up to the front of the class in a black blazer and jeans. And sporting a pair of black horn rimmed glasses. I hadn't really seen that side of him before. That was new. Everyone in class seemed to love him. Many of the girls, and a few of the guys I noticed, staring at him like little lost puppy dogs. Id picked a spot at the back of the class, hoping not to be noticed by the Pellegrino loving horde. I wasn't really a big hit with the Pelli fans at the moment.      Today Mark was going over the nuances of playing villainous characters. I stifled a chuckle. This was something he would no a hell of a lot about, since the only cuddly character I had ever seen him play was Gavin off The Closer.  Mark stood in front of the class, his arms crossed, his eyes looking at each students face in turn. When he got to me, his gaze lingered a second longer than the others and I found myself nervously looking away. Fuck, his stare could melt titanium or something.      "First off, I know nothing about acting the story from the writers point of view. For me, the antagonist kind of is the story in the sense that he is the one, or she, pursuing and end passionately to the point of even death. And they force the other characters in the story to either rise up and meet them with contrary values or physical force. The antagonist is the one who brings out the heroic nature in the hero."      Mark moved around the class handing out scripts to the students. "These are scenes from shows and movies highlighting the different aspects of what it means to be a villein. And no, there aren't any Lucifer scenes in here."      The class erupted into laughter at the Supernatural reference as the actor moved to the front of the room.      "Everybody is going to divide up into pairs and come up here. We'll go through the nuances of the scene, first from the protagonists point of view. Then the antagonists. And we'll discuss how the scene can be improved by understanding what the characters want and how that affects the scenes dynamic."      As the students gathered into pairs Mark came over and plopped a script down in front of me on the desk. I looked down, my face turning a bright shade of red as I read the name upon it. Mark had chosen a scene from Creed: Legacy, a Joss Whedon series I had made a few years back. I'd starred as an apprentice witch assassin who's mother had been part of a society that hunted dark witches and demons. This scene had been a sexually charged exchange between my character and the leader of a witch hunting organization, a group of humans devoted to the genocide of the supernatural. Critics and fandom alike had hated the pairing, mostly because the actor and I had no chemistry. Though, to be fair, it hadn't been much of an issue back then. We'd both had even gotten a good laugh off of it.  I had never really considered it an insult to my acting ability. And thinking Mark had chosen this scene for me because he might think it did pissed me off royally.     "Want to go first?" he asked me, giving that famous little wink of his I recognized from having studied his work.    "Who's going to be my partner, you?"     Mark looked around. All the students were already standing around in their self made pairs. "Looks like you and I are the only ones left. Don't worry, I've had a little experience at this. I promise not to make you look bad."  I gritted my teeth and shook my head. "Why did you give me this? This scene was done just the way it was suppose to be. It was executed perfectly. Why are you trying to teach me things I already know?"    Mark's face became suddenly serious, and his eyes took on a coldly intelligent gleam that made me lean away from him a little. "The scene lacked authenticity. You went through the motions, adding nothing personal to the story. What was Amelia feeling about falling in love with a murderer of her kind? About the man who was directly responsible for her mothers death? Was she afraid, ashamed, angry at herself? You played the scene as it was written on the page. But I don't want to see what the writers wrote on the page. I want to see you."      He gave me another wink before returning to the front of the class. He had the paired off students go through their scenes, stopping here and there to explain to the class what was going on the scene and how they could improve their performances. I was actually quite impressed with him. He had a beautiful way with words and was never harsh or unnecessarily cruel in his critiques, giving praise where it was do and only using gentle prodding when students failed to grasp what they needed to learn. I found myself slowly starting to have a kind of begrudging respect for the man. He obviously cared about teaching. And I found his soothing voice and charismatic ways endearing, as much as I hated to feel anything of the sort for a guy who often made me want to hide under a rock.     When the class was over I felt a pang of sadness that I wouldn't be seeing more of Mark taking the students through their paces. This hadn't gone as badly as Id thought it would. I gathered up my stuff and prepared to hand the script back to Mark where he stood at the door.     "Hey, where are you flying off to?" He closes the door to block any hopes of my escape.     I tilted my head, giving him my best expression that would convey my wish that he leap out of the nearest window. "Come on, Mark, I've got better things to do than this."      He gave me puppy dog eyes, a sight that melted my resilience so fast I found myself both loving and hating the man in equal measure. "Oh, come on. Humor me. And if you do I'll never ask you for anything again. We're going to be having a lot of scenes together soon. Aren't you curious to see how that's going to work?"      "Ok," I replied, finally relenting under the onslaught of his continued rueful gaze. "But its gonna be cut down. No kissing. No touching. Disney stuff."     "Disney. I promise," Mark said, grabbing the script away from me and tossing it across the room.    "Hey!"    Mark motioned for me to follow him to the center of the room. "So, lets start off where my henchman brings you in. You stand right here and ill be right here. Now I want you to keep in mind what I said. Think about Amelia, not as a character, but as a real live person. With thoughts and feelings. She wants to be loved, but her life has always been about the fear of losing someone like how she lost her mother. My character is someone who threatens everything she believes about herself. A threat not only to her life but to her very being."     I fought hard not to roll my eyes. "I know the character, Mark. Played for her for seven years. How long have you played-"      "Did anybody tell you why I'm doing this or is it just because I'm evil?"      My head snapped up when I heard the words. Mark had already started the scene without me. His whole demeanor had been altered,  though it wasn't really something easily put into words. His stance, his voice, even his presence in the room had changed. His glasses were also nowhere to be seen, I noticed. I had seen actors switch into character before, obviously, but never this fast and never to quite this degree.     "Actually, I don't care," I told him, slowly stepping towards him. My hand clenched the imaginary dagger my character had snuck into the room. We eyed each other, circling one another and looking for any sign of weakness. "You think I don't know guys like you? I've dealt with guys like you all my life. You talk a big game, you act like you don't give a shit, but deep down you're all torn up because mommy didn't love you enough or some girl didn't go with you to prom."     Mark lunged out towards me, his speed and agility much faster than the original actor's had been. David had made the gesture almost playful, like a lover pulling me into his arms after a row. This was a predatory move, filled with the promise of greater violence and filled with malice. I gasped, struggling against his chest as he held me against him, the imaginary dagger falling to the floor as the real one had done in the original scene.     "I've studied your kind for years. Think your mother was a saint? Think she didn't slaughter innocents in her time? You don't know anything about me. I've never killed anybody who didn't deserve it. Never stripped anybody of their powers who didn't deserve it. How many of your kind can say the same?"      I stared up at Mark, this was the point in the scene where my character decides to seduce him in order to escape. In the original scene I had smiled at the actor playing him and playfully stroked his cheek. But that felt wrong in this scene with Mark. I decided to do what my training had taught me to do, go with my instincts.     Fuck it.     I grabbed Mark by the head and pulled him down so I could crush his lips to mine. He did something I didn't expect, he pulled away from me, staring down into my eyes. I read so many things in his deep blue eyes. Fear. Loss. Pain. I felt in that moment that I truly understood his character more than I ever had before. That he was a man on a mission to destroy what he believed to be the most dangerous abominations on earth. And that he both wanted to make love to me and kill me. And he hated himself for wanting either. And both.      "I hate you, You ruined my life" I whispered, but I reached up to stroke his face, the gesture betraying my words.      Mark kissed my forehead. "I know. Sometimes I don't like myself much, either."      He kissed me and I moaned into his mouth, leaning against him. He felt so good against me. And I found my hands wandering over his tall, powerful body. I bit and sucked his lower lip, enjoying the little jolt that went through his body. The scene we were doing became mixed with the reality of me and Mark in my mind. One minute I was the End Of Days actress looking for mentoring and the next I was a young witch being kissed and stroked by a hunter of my kind. And it felt breathtaking and wonderful. I couldn't get enough of his mouth on mine, his hands running up and down my back. His voice whispering my name.     "You think any of this is easy for me?" Mark asked, still staying in character as he pushed me towards the front of the desk. "I could have killed you so many times. I could put a bullet in you right now and nobody would bat an eye."      He threw me on top of the desk. I reached out and pulled off his tie, gazing up at him defiantly. "Yeah, well why don't you?"      Mark spread my legs and leaned against me, grabbing me by the back of the head and nipping teasingly at my lips. "Keep pushing me and you'll find out."     "Maybe I like pushing you," I told him, rubbing him through his jeans before unzipping him and stroking his hard cock. "And maybe you like it to."  Mark shuddered, kissing and nibbling my neck as I jacked him. He thrusted against me  few times before taking my hand away and leaning me further back across the desk. His eyes never left mine as he rubbed his cock over my wet pussy. I cried out his name and begged him to fuck me. He stopped for a moment, taking time to enjoy the sight of me wiggling in impatience beneath him, an affectionate, indulgent sort of smile on his face, before pushing his cock into me in one brutal thrust. I groaned as I took him in. Fuck, he was a big man, and his cock was proportionate to the rest of him.      "Take all the time you need," he tells me, pausing to lick and suck on my tits. "You're so beautiful. Wanted you for so long. Since the first time we met."     "Fuck me," I begged him, trying to move up and down on his cock myself.      "Fuck me."     He set a hard and fast pace in and our of my dripping wet pussy. I wrapped my legs around him, encouraging him with mouth, hands and impassioned pleas. No lover had ever fucked this damn well and he was actually getting me close to orgasm, which I'd never had through regular fucking. I wanted to come so fucking bad. The rise and fall of my pussy trying to come on his cock was driving me insane, and I found myself clawing at his back and shoulders. My wet pussy kept clenching around his cock, telling him that I needed it, that I needed him.     "Come for me," he says in my ear. His arms wrap around me and his thrusts become faster, more frantic. "I'm so close to coming for you."      I leaned my head back as my orgasm reached its peak, Mark groaning as he made two last deep thrusts to come when I did. The feeling of his hot spurts inside of me spurned my climax to go higher, deeper. And I heard his answering moan of pleasure as my pussy contracted, gently milking him of the rest of his cum.      When it was over we held each other, Mark planting kisses on every naked inch of skin he could find.  "I think I might have learned a few things," I told him, lovingly stroking his blond head.    "I'll give you a B for effort," he tells me.     I pull away, pretending to be offended. "What? That sounds kinda unfair to me."    Mark gives me the cutest little grin, one that melted my heart instantly. And I knew in that moment that i was falling for him. That I had been falling for him for a long time. "Well, if you're interested I could give you some extra credit."    "What kind of extra credit, sir?"     Mark takes my face in his hands and covers his mouth with mine.

[biofunmy]

Medicare gene test fraud that peddled cheek swabs cracked by feds

Federal agents took down an alleged Medicare scam Friday that exploited seniors’ curiosity about genetic medicine by enticing them to get their cheeks swabbed for unneeded DNA tests. Medicare was billed $2.1 billion.

Dubbed “Operation Double Helix,” the crackdown targeted telemedicine companies, doctors and labs, in a joint effort by the Justice Department , the FBI, U.S. attorneys’ offices, and the Health and Human Services inspector general. Thirty-five people were charged around the country.

The alleged fraud flourished at a time when many people are getting DNA tests to trace back their family heritage.

Fraudsters preyed on people’s fears of harboring genetic markers for cancer. However, genetic testing is not routinely used to screen for cancer.

“A decade ago, it would have given Medicare beneficiaries pause if someone wanted to get a swab from their cheek of their saliva,” said Shimon Richmond, who heads the inspector general’s investigative division . “Today people know and recognize what (genetic testing) is, and they think ‘I can get that done, and I can get it done for free and find out if I have health issues that I need to address.'”

It’s a bad decision, said Richmond. Not only does it put the patient’s Medicare ID in the hands of fraudsters who can then keep reselling it for illicit purposes, but it can potentially compromise unique details of an individual’s make-up.

Another downside: Medicare might deny future coverage for genetic testing when it’s really needed, since the patient’s record would show such an analysis was already done. Patients should only have genetic testing if their own doctor orders it, officials said.

The alleged scheme worked like this: Officials said a telemarketing or in-person “recruiter” would convince a Medicare enrollee to take a genetic test, assuring them that the program would pay the full cost. The patient would provide their Medicare information. A doctor in league with the fraudsters would approve the test, and collect a kickback from the recruiter company. A lab participating in the scheme would run the test, bill Medicare, and share payments collected from the government with the recruiter.

Bills to Medicare connected with the scam typically ranged from $7,000 to $12,000, Richmond said, with some much higher. In many cases the patient never got a report back, or the results provided were incomprehensible. Medicare paid out hundreds of millions of dollars before authorities detected the fraud and moved in.

There was no single organization behind the fraud. Friday’s operation targeted defendants in Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, the Justice Department said. Nine doctors were among those charged. Others included owners of telemedicine companies and testing labs.

Medicare enrollee Linda Morris of Parker City, Indiana, said she was roped in at a conference on aging well. The retired high school math and journalism teacher got her cheek swabbed by one of the many health vendors at the event.

“Their ploy was, ‘Get a mouth swab and we can analyze how well your system synthesizes the drugs you are taking,'” she said. “It never crossed my mind there was anything wrong with this.”

Then her Medicare statements started coming in, showing charges as high as $33,000. The program paid almost $10,000.

Morris said she was never billed, and was never sent results. When she looked up the address for the test vendor it was “a house on a back road.”

“I feel stupid, and in the meantime, I’m furious,” Morris said. Health fairs, church events, and senior centers are like magnets for the fraudsters, officials said.

Dennie Krivokapich of Farmington, New Mexico, said he almost sent in his cheek swab following a telemarketing pitch. The retired accountant is a three-time cancer survivor and concerned about his future risk. The company sent him a kit, but the paperwork that came with it made him suspicious.

“The physician who requested it was not my physician,” said Krivokapich. The marketing company kept calling him, until he blocked the number.

Government-backed anti-fraud organizations known as the Senior Medicare Patrol have been trying to spread the word about genetic testing scams. Retired federal investigator Jennifer Trussell, a consultant to the groups, said fear of cancer is the scam artists’ most effective tool. “These are bad actors trying to take advantage of good medicine,” she said.

Fraud against government health care programs is a pervasive problem that costs taxpayers tens of billions of dollars a year. The true extent is unknown.

Experts say part of the problem is that Medicare is required to pay medical bills promptly, which means money often goes out before potential frauds get flagged. Investigators call that “pay and chase.”

In recent years, Medicare has tried to adapt techniques used by credit card companies to head off fraud. Law enforcement coordination has grown, with strike forces of federal prosecutors and agents, along with state counterparts, specializing in health care investigations.

Sahred From Source link Health

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[brandbaskets]

New Post has been published on https://brandbaskets.in/bandicoot-genrobotics-robot-that-scoops-out-filth-from-sewers/

Bandicoot: Genrobotics' robot that scoops out filth from sewers

The warren of passages leading to the Genrobotics office in a building on the Technopark campus, on the northern fringes of Thiruvananthapuram, doesn’t even remotely resemble the dream lab of Tony Stark, the billionaire genius inventor portrayed by actor Robert Downey Jr in the movie franchise Iron Man.

There aren’t any Artificial Intelligence-enabled assistants strolling around, nor do any 3D holographic images hang mid-air; just a Transformer toy is seen sharing shelf space with a trophy, if you must identify a leitmotif. But beyond the mustard yellow walls and a slumping bean bag at the reception is a hub of activity where, inspired by the superhero, four 20-somethings are furiously racking their robotics savvy to take on a social scourge no less nefarious than any villain in the Marvel universe.

Just about a year old, Genrobotics scripted its headline act with Bandicoot, a 50-kg, pneumatic-powered, remote-controlled robot that goes down into a manhole, spreads its expandable limbs like a spider and scoops out the solid and liquid filth that block urban sewers. It has a robotic arm that, in a 360-degree motion, can sweep the floor of the manhole to collect the debris in a bucket, cleaning manholes in 20 minutes as opposed to over 2 hours that at least three workers would take to do it manually. Through its magnetic mechanism, it also lifts the heavy manhole cover on its own, a job earlier performed by multiple workers. Bandicoot ran its first successful trial in February, at the government medical college in Thiruvananthapuram, and later across the city before it was introduced to the state later that month by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

By replicating all the human actions required to clean sewage, Bandicoot has provided a viable option to end the barbaric practice of manual scavenging in which sewage workers, mostly Dalits, are dipped into mucky manholes that often emit toxic gases and overflow with liquid sewage.

Despite being outlawed by the government—through the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrines (Prohibition) Act, 1993, and Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013—manual scavenging continues rampantly across the country due to lack of alternatives and casteism. According to IndiaSpend, a data journalism initiative, 102 workers reportedly died in 2017 while cleaning sewer lines manually. That’s an average of over eight deaths a month.

***

Arun George, 25, Nikhil NP, 25, Rashid K, 24, and Vimal Govind MK, 25, launched Genrobotics as a student startup in 2015, during their college days in MES College of Engineering, Kuttippuram, in Malappuram district, a nine-hour drive north of Thiruvananthapuram.

Working as part of the IEDC (the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Cell, about 400 of which have been set up by the Kerala Startup Mission, or KSM, to connect students with the ecosystem), they put together a first-generation (G1) powered exoskeleton, a wearable mobile machine, to help soldiers lift heavy weapons and military supplies in remote locations where automation wasn’t possible. While that created a buzz in the local media and was christened the Iron Man suit after their favourite superhero, the team fine-tuned the model next year and developed the G2 medical exoskeleton designed to help physically-challenged persons, like assisting amputees to walk. A paper on it won the best concept award at the International Conference on Mechatronics and Manufacturing held in Singapore in 2016.

But once they passed out of college, Genrobotics was chucked on to the backburner. There weren’t enough funds for their experiments and the quartet took up jobs with IT services companies, “just as any engineering graduate would do”, says Arun, now the chief administrative officer (CAO).

In times away from their day jobs, they would hop from one event to another to keep abreast of the latest innovations and opportunities in the field of robotics. In one such event organised in 2016 by KSM, the government’s nodal agency for startups, they met M Sivasankar, the IT secretary. “It was he who alerted us to the problem of manual scavenging and told us that the state was looking to mechanise the job,” says Arun.

Once the four staked out the extent of the problem, they figured it wasn’t a part-time job. Against the advice of their families and friends, they quit their well-paying corporate positions and, with a few lakhs of their savings, brought Genrobotics back on track. In June 2017, the company was formally registered and they approached KSM for funds. The KSM vetted their project and gave them a grant of ₹10 lakh, with which they roped in five of their classmates. The nine lived and worked out of a single room, barely slept and saved just about enough to pay for rent and food, channelling the rest towards R&D and production.

It was also around this time that the founding members met with A Shainamol, the then MD of the Kerala Water Authority (KWA), which is in charge of sewage cleaning in the state, to get details about the exact nature of the job. “They had earlier come up with the Iron Man suit so I knew they had ability. They spent hours with our engineers and even the sewer workers to ferret out details about the sizes of the manhole, the nature of the filth, etc,” says Shainamol. Accordingly, they made adaptations to accommodate the unique proportions of each manhole. For instance, controlled expansion of the leg to fit each space.

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Shainamol also encouraged them to apply for an innovation grant given by the KWA. In January, Genrobotics was selected as the first Startup Innovator by the KWA and awarded ₹14 lakh with which they produced the beta version in just over a month.

At a time they were pinching pennies and reusing components from the Iron Man suit to refashion their cardboard prototype into a working product—it took anything between ₹10 lakh and ₹12 lakh to produce a Bandicoot—Anil Joshi, a managing partner with Unicorn India Ventures, caught the buzz around Genrobotics. He was introduced to their work during one of his visits to the state. Says Joshi, “Technology-wise, they have intelligently combined all details of mechanical, electro-mechanical, electronics, etc. Second, they have managed to build a world-class product without much intervention. In Genrobotics, we saw a promising team with a potential to take the company global.” Earlier this year, Unicorn swooped in with a close-to-$200,000 investment.

The single unit of the finished product is now with the Kerala Water Authority, which has ordered 50 more units in the next six months. In early June, Genrobotics will deliver its first order outside the state, to Tamil Nadu. It has received inquiries from the Cochin International Airport, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, the PMO and even from Sharjah.

Bandicoot’s ability to solve a large-scale India-first problem with a global solution has also drawn marquee investors towards it. Among them is Google India managing director and angel investor Rajan Anandan. “What they’ve done is technically very difficult. These robots have to be flexible, mimicking human behaviour. That’s got some serious tech stuff like computer vision which is hard. Also, you have to make it user-friendly. It has to be simpler than a smartphone. Imagine building something that is really really complex but its usability needs to be easier than a smartphone,” says Anandan.

Now that the orders are starting to come in, Genrobotics is gearing up for its next challenge: Setting up a manufacturing unit. At present, it is producing the components at various places, outsourcing some work, and assembling them at Kinfra (Kerala Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation). But the team is scouting for an ideal location and sufficient capital to scale up production. Once that’s done, they expect the cost of production to come down considerably.

Anandan’s roadmap for the company over the next 6-12 months? Get product-market fit right based on the learnings from the robots deployed on the field, raise some capital, build a plant, crank out another couple of dozen units, and then get into large-scale business development, “because this is the kind of thing that you should sell to every municipality in the world”. “This can become a very large business, but it is very hard work,” he says.

Bandicoot is a 50-kg, pneumatic-powered, remote-controlled robot. Genrobotics has received enquiries from different states Image: Vivek R Nair for Forbes India

  Genrobotics is also looking to create a social impact, rehabilitating sewer workers who would have lost their jobs to automation. For this, it is training them in the use of Bandicoot and developing a simple user interface to help them navigate the controls smoothly. “We had to ensure this machine wouldn’t take away livelihoods,” says Arun.

Says Saji Gopinath, the CEO of the Kerala Startup Mission, “Conventionally, there was a belief that startups involved in hardware have a long gestation period before they can become successful, that the chances of success are low, that you require to burn a lot of money and a lot of resources to start with. These notions have been dispelled by the success story of Genrobotics.”

But, for Arun, the highest point in Genrobotics’s fledgling life lies somewhere else. The whole conversation around ending manual scavenging in the state, he says, began in 2016 when a vernacular daily published a telling image of a sewage worker dunked neck-deep in filth. It reached the CMO and chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan shot off a letter to the KWA and the IT secretary to find a solution on a war-footing. That set the ball rolling for a chain of events that culminated in late-February this year where Vijayan formally launched the Bandicoot. “That day, the robot was operated by the man whose picture had appeared in the newspaper. To see him transform from a sewer worker to an operator is our happiest moment yet,” says Arun.

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[itsnelkabelka]

Speech: 'Technology has enabled young people to grasp the global world'

Good morning and Namaskar from me as well.

I was just listening very carefully – when you sit on a platform it’s always good to know what you have in common. Yes we have in common by the fact that we are all on the same platform. But with certain speakers, with one I share a similar country of origin, which is India – the country of my parents, which of course I share with Minister Ravi Prasad. I share the same continent with another speaker. And indeed in the announcements I’m sure you’ve heard, I share the same first name with another – and that was put there just to confuse people.

But I hope through our dialogue this morning and during the course of the next two days, not only are we hear to listen but we are here to learn from each other. I was listening very carefully to what Minister Prasad was saying and before that Prime Minister Modi. And it’s perhaps entirely appropriate that we find ourselves here, as we’ve heard already the largest democracy in the world, India.

But it also gives me particular pride to represent the oldest democracy in the world, the United Kingdom. And when we look back at the history of this conference, again it’s a recent history, but back in 2011 this conference took its roots, its origin, in London.

But here in India it is entirely appropriate that we meet. Why? To take up those four mantra that the minister talked about:

aspiration

delivery

accountability

engagement

This morning I’m sure as we saw the prizes being given out by the Prime Minister, we’ve aspired I know, I turned around to a fellow Minister, the minister from South Korea, and I whispered to him ‘My God, they’re getting younger every time they go up on the stage’. And that reflects what technology does. It is an enabler of the most incredible kind.

And right here when we see the bold ambitions of ‘Digital India’ – we see economic growth, we see financial inclusion. And of course the world breaking uptake of Jan Dhan bank accounts, which over time will help formalise a huge swathe of its economy. India – I’m sure we all not just acknowledge, but celebrate – has kick-started a digital and societal revolution through its ID, personal finance and technology infrastructure.

And as I said already, as we come here today and tomorrow this conference is about sharing ideas. It’s about how we stimulate global economies with new technologies and how we share the lessons that we have all learned. And in this regard I want to talk briefly about what we are doing in the United Kingdom.

The task of growing and protecting our digital economy and our digital infrastructure is something that we in the UK have made a priority. Indeed we are already seeing the fruits of that decision.

In the UK our own Silicon Valley has blossomed, around typically in a London way, a traffic interchange in London.

Tech City, as it is known affectionately – and with true British understatement - as Silicon Roundabout, is the heart of the technology start-up revolution that has spread right across the country.

London remains the tech start-up capital of Europe. It is attracting more investment in the first half of this year than any other European city.

The sector encompasses pioneering start-ups with a global profile, and small online businesses set up on dining room tables right across the country.

And as we’ve heard already, that is the incredible nature of cyberspace, of technology. Gone are the days of bricks and mortar – gone are the days when people needed to be in industry, in a particular sector for many years. Technology as an enabler has enabled young people to grasp the global world and the global opportunities it presents. Taken together, it is transforming everything we do: from the way we eat, to the way we shop, to the way we bank. Indeed the way we educate our children.

As a father of three myself, it’s incredible when I see my three year old pick up an iPad and negotiate his way – and somewhat embarrassingly I have to admit – at times he does it more efficiently and effectively than I can do so myself. But that just shows how technology is an enabler in the field of education. And altogether when you look at the UK economy, they represent seven percent of our economy, with the tech sector growing nearly three times faster than the rest of the economy in 2015.

Let’s look to the retail market. Four in five people in the UK bought something online last year. That’s more than any other country in the world – and technology has helped to create three and a half million new jobs in the UK over the past 15 years.

Earlier this year, we launched a Digital Strategy which aims to make the UK the best place to start and grow a digital business. It also aims to ensure that our digital economy works for everyone.

That strategy, ladies and gentlemen, addresses all the factors that could stimulate or constrain our digital economy. There are opportunities but there are also challenges which lie ahead for all of us.

A successful digital economy needs the right digital infrastructure. It needs people with the right skills and know-how.

And in the UK we are accelerating the development and uptake of full fibre broadband and now, as we know, 5G. We are creating digital skills partnerships between tech companies, businesses, and - importantly - voluntary organisations as well, to make sure people have the skills to participate and succeed in the digital economy. We are investing in a private-sector led productivity council that will help traditional businesses also embrace technology.

Yes, I acknowledge here we are in India, and as compared to India we in the UK may not have numbers to achieve the scale of the aadhaar system. But we do want the UK to be a world leader in digital government to make public services more effective - raising standards and lowering costs for taxpayers as we do so.

This is why we are sharing the source code and implementation techniques of our own government platforms internationally to help other governments launch their own digital programmes with less risk.

However, with those opportunities are the challenges. Perhaps the challenges as a speaker, beyond the loud air-conditioning systems that we sometimes have to deal with as we are this morning. The advantages of doing both public and private sector business online will not be fully realised if our digital assets are vulnerable to hackers, vulnerable to criminals, vulnerable to hostile governments.

Securing the infrastructure, devices and software - the working tools of a vibrant digital economy - is critical. If users and businesses cannot trust the online world, they will not fully embrace its potential. And the biggest losers will be our growth figures and the livelihoods of our people.

On one level, this means ensuring that online services that we use are safe and secure. People and their data need to be properly protected so that they can communicate privately, spend money online with confidence, and know their intellectual property is safe.

This, ladies and gentlemen, places an onus on all of us to build economies able to withstand the sort of crude attacks that have become a daily occurrence. Whether it is protecting ourselves from online fraud or identity theft, the role of governments is to foster an environment where businesses and citizens have the tools and the knowledge to provide secure online services, and make secure online choices.

As governments we must also, importantly, lead by example in protecting the critical assets that could be the subject of attack, and by working within international frameworks to deter and pursue those who threaten us online.

What we have learnt about cyber attacks in the UK, whether from organised criminals, sophisticated state actors, or indeed teenage hackers, is that the vast majority of successful attacks were entirely preventable through basic protective measures. Including this year’s global WannaCry ransomware attack, which affected, yes, the United Kingdom, but it affected India, indeed it affected nearly every country represented at this conference in this room here this morning.

And that is why the UK is investing nearly £2 billion over five years to transform cybersecurity and make the UK the safest place in the world to live and do business online.

We are looking at how to ensure internet-connected consumer products are ‘secure by default’, so that devices are developed with security built-in from the start.

We are also investing more money into training and addressing the systemic challenges of developing the next generation of cybersecurity specialists.

And we also hope that many will end up working at our flagship centre, the National Cyber Security Centre in London. As the UK’s National Technical Authority, it not only manages all our national cybersecurity incidents, but it also carries out real-time threat analysis, and gives expert advice to businesses.

We must also be realistic about how much individuals and companies can do to protect themselves from online attacks. We should expect them to get the basics in place, and that is why much of our guidance focuses on exactly that; but government is in a unique position to do more. One common complaint is that governments tell industry they are not doing enough on cyber security without understanding costs.

We have responded to this charge by working directly with industry to reduce costs – an example being using technology to detect and filter out more of those crude high volume attacks that hit the UK.

One example of this is piloting DMARC - an email authentication system that in its first year has blocked over 300 million fraudulent emails falsely claiming to be from government.

Now, instead of having to warn the public not to open dodgy emails, we are preventing those emails from arriving in the first place.

And also, it is important to create a trusted digital environment that drives growth and is more than just about technical security. Disregarding privacy and freedoms will not win the consent and support of our citizens.

Their trust can only be won, and must be won, with transparency and respect for freedoms and fundamental rights - such as the right to freedom of expression that we are all committed to internationally. These rights must be protected online as they are offline.

At the first of these conferences, as I said, in 2011, our then Foreign Secretary, now Lord William Hague, set out seven principles to encourage effective cooperation between governments, businesses and organisations.

These included the need for users to show tolerance and respect for diversity of language, culture and ideas – perhaps no more poignant than right here in India – and also the need to keep cyberspace open to the free flow of information and expression. These principles are every bit as relevant today as they were then in 2011.

And to this end, the UK is working on developing a Digital Charter, with the aim of agreeing how our people and businesses should behave online in order to create an environment for societies and economies to flourish.

I think we all recognise the potential of the internet to transform opportunities for people right across the globe. We saw that in this hall this morning. Secure digital technologies can revolutionise the lives of the poor as we heard from Minister Prasad, unlock development and prosperity, and accelerate progress towards the global goals for sustainable development.

And that is why the UK is investing millions in capacity building projects worldwide that combine inclusive internet access with cyber security policy and skills.

And to date the UK has funded projects in over fifty countries - from helping develop national cyber security strategies in Sri Lanka and providing tailored training on cyber crime investigations in Nigeria.

We have been working with many of you in this room, not least through the global forum for cyber expertise. And I have been pleased and impressed to see the incredible energy and ideas that have gone into forging a new global agenda for cyber security capacity building.

To conclude, if I may, ladies and gentlemen, one clear lesson I have learned from our work at home and abroad is that everyone has a role to play. Everyone has a role to play in sustaining a free, open, peaceful and secure cyberspace. And also that governments cannot do this alone – and nor should anyone want us to.

This is about partnership. It is about collaborative working. And we can all help to roll the pitch, but as we all know, the game will only be won through teamwork - involving businesses, civil society, and citizens. Only through that partnership can we create the right level of ambition, creativity and potential.

Your security, our collective security: it is our security. Your prosperity, our collective prosperity: it is our prosperity. Let us all work together to harness technology and build a future that works for everyone.

I am reminded in closing of the famous words of Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi, who said we must become the change we wish to see. Let’s become that change in cyberspace.

Thank you.

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