#female founded startup

[solarpunkbusiness]

Ukrainian-born serial entrepreneur Karolina launched WeDoSolar in February 2022, just days before Russia invaded her homeland.

‘It was a super hard time because I also have family and a lot of friends in Ukraine. I was going to the borders, picking people up, developing my product, raising my round with investors, and it was just a completely crazy time.’

The company offers lightweight super-thin photovoltaic panels that tenants can clip onto balcony railings by themselves, without needing an electrician. A smart 5G inverter, also developed by WeDoSolar, converts the solar power into grid power by simply being plugged into a normal power socket, and the company’s specially designed battery system allows users to choose if they want directly to power their household devices, or save the energy to use when it is needed most.

‘Our products are all designed with a DIY aspect in mind in order for anyone to be able to simply hang it on the balcony, plug it into a power socket, and that’s it,’ says Karolina, adding: ‘In an average apartment, our solution, working at full production capacity, can reduce electricity bills by up to 25% and save up to 600 kilograms of CO2 per year.’

An app tracks how much solar power has been produced and also shows consumers their CO2 savings in real time.

‘The spark for WeDoSolar was ignited by a personal desire to use solar energy in my own apartment,’ Karolina recalls.

With soaring energy prices, the first balcony solar kits sold out instantly. The start-up had expected it might have 3 000 customers within the first year, but saw nearly as much demand in the first month alone. WeDoSolar now supplies to 24 EU countries.

[astrophileous]

A Well-Kept Secret

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female Reader

Synopsis: While working on a case in D.C., Spencer didn't expect to hear a familiar name being mentioned as the sole surviving witness. Or, in which the team discovers Spencer's well-kept secret.

Warning(s): established secret relationship, mentions and/or depictions of death/physical violence/gun violence/injury/attack, signs of trauma, survivor's guilt, curse words, hurt/comfort, nudity but it's not sexual, allusions to sexy times, mentions/implied alcohol consumption

Word Count: 5900-ish

Author's Note: hiya! I decided to write this lil piece after seeing the fic challenge posted by @imagining-in-the-margins abt the family/found family trope. I had a lotta fun writing this one and I think it's got potential to be something more. So pls comment or message me if you wanna see me exploring with this idea (either turning it into a series of connected one-shots or multi-parters). Don't forget to like/comment/reblog and give me a follow :) I hope you enjoy! 💞

Criminal Minds Masterlist

When Hotch had notified the team to haul their asses up and drove all the way to D.C., Spencer never expected that it would also entail him having to suffer through a mini heart attack.

The series of attacks around D.C. had been dominating the 6 PM news segments in the entire country. What was initially perceived as a suspected sequence of robberies gone wrong--since the first two targets to have been hit were a bank and a prestigious auction house--soon turned into a nationwide panic as people realized that there was a bigger game at play.

After the third attack was found to have occurred in the headquarters of one of the top, up-and-coming renewable energy startups in the states, the D.C. police finally started to entertain the idea that perhaps they hadn't been dealing with their usual petty robbers at all.

And naturally, that was when the BAU had been called in.

As soon as the team entered the Metropolitan PD bullpen, they were struck with the smell of panic and the sight of chaos.

"Agent Hotchner?" A middle-aged man in a gray shirt and blue tie appeared in front of them. "My name is Detective Mills, we spoke on the phone."

"Of course, Detective." Hotch shook the other man's hand. "This is my team. Agent Prentiss, Jareau, and Dr. Reid. I have two others already at the latest crime scene. What can you tell us so far?"

"As you can see--" Detective Mills gestured towards the frenzied scene behind him, "--the entire D.C. area is going haywire after news broke out about yesterday's attack. The public is demanding the city to be put on lockdown, and I'm getting pressure from above as well. We received information that nearly half the city has called in sick today."

"A classic response to mass paranoia," Spencer noted.

"Well, paranoia or not, I just want to start getting some answers." Detective Mills began to lead the team further into the bullpen. "I have every pair of hands I could spare in this. If they aren't out there chasing leads, they're here interviewing the victims, friends, and families."

"Any luck so far?" Emily asked.

"Nothing more than what you've probably seen in the files."

Detective Mills pushed open the door to an office in the corner, away from the havoc in the center of the station.

"Lieutenant Jeffreys retired a couple of weeks ago. The lucky bastard." Detective Mills scoffed jokingly. "It's the most decent space I can spare at the moment. Think you'll be fine in here?"

"It's more than enough, Detective. Thank you," Hotch replied.

"What about the witnesses from yesterday's attack? Have you had the chance to interview them?" JJ asked as the rest of the team started setting up.

"Some of my men are with them right now. But I doubt they'll have anything useful. Just like the other two cases, the attack happened while most of the office was out. The rest left behind were DOA at the latest scene."

"They're rapidly devolving," Spencer pondered out loud as he skimmed over the case files. "They went from killing a non-compliant security guard during the first attack to executing almost every witness in the last one."

JJ raised an eyebrow. "Almost?"

"It says here there is one survivor." Spencer showed the word he had underlined in the case overview to JJ.

"Yes, there is," Detective Mills confirmed. "I had one of my men talk to her. There's not much she could give us. Thing is, she wasn't even supposed to be there."

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"She didn't work in that office. She was a consultant who just happened to be visiting. Poor girl's pretty shaken up. She hid in a supply closet the entire time. She was the one who found the bodies and called 911."

"So, the perpetrators never checked the rooms while they were holding the victims hostage?" Hotch questioned.

"Not according to her statement, no. See, I thought it weird myself. Do you have any idea why?"

"Not sure." Hotch hummed, deep in thought. "Perhaps our UnSubs didn't think to check because they didn't know someone was in there. Detective, you said all of the victims were the only employees of the company who didn't attend the event downtown, correct?"

"Yeah, they were the only ones who weren't listed as attendees. Why? Do you think those people were specifically targeted?"

"Unfortunately, we can't rule out anything yet this early in the investigation," Hotch said. "We need to talk to the witnesses to know more. JJ?"

"On it." JJ nodded. "What can you tell us about yesterday's sole survivor, Detective?"

"Not much. I didn't interview her personally, one of my men did. She works at a consulting engineering firm in town," Detective Mills replied. "I believe her name is... what is it called?"

When Detective Mills mentioned the name, Spencer's heart instantly crashed inside of its cage.

"What?" His hand had stopped scribbling on the board. In a matter of miliseconds, Spencer had crossed the room towards the doorway where Detective Mills was standing. "What did you say her name was?"

Dumbfounded, the detective stared at a dread-stricken Spencer before spelling out the name once more.

"Why? What's wrong?" Detective Mills asked in confusion.

JJ touched Spencer's shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

But Spencer, either too alarmed or merely choosing not to acknowledge both questions, asked instead, "Where is she? I need to see her."

"In the waiting room by the pantry--"

Spencer didn't even wait for Detective Mills to form his complete thought before dashing out. JJ exchanged a glance with Emily following Spencer's sudden exit, perplexed by his odd turn of behavior.

"I'll go get him," JJ announced before leaving the room, chasing after a flurry of wavy hair and a wool-knitted purple vest sprinting across the bullpen.

The roaring commotion inside the station was almost loud enough to rival the intensity of your racing thoughts.

Almost.

At this point, you didn't think there was anything you could do anymore. The vivid images from yesterday's attack were playing continuously in your head. There was nothing you could do to stop them.

Rubbing your eyes from exhaustion, you mourned the loss of sleep that you failed to get the previous night. As if the waking nightmares weren't torment enough, the images had somehow translated even more cruelly into your subconscious. You could barely close your eyes for three seconds without feeling like you had been brought back to that place.

Cold, cramped, and alone. Fearing for your life in the tiny supply closet that smelled more like death than bleach.

At the sound of the door opening, you quickly turned around in your seat to hide your face away from prying eyes. The last thing you needed at that moment was having a complete stranger seeing you fall apart in the middle of a police station.

But when the voice came carrying the sound of your name, it wasn't the voice of a complete stranger you had heard. It was a voice you knew more than you probably knew your own. A voice you loved and a voice you had longed to hear for the past gruesome twenty-four hours.

"Spencer?" You turned back towards the door, seeing the face you adored most in the whole world staring back at you.

"Sweetheart."

At the speed of a lightning, Spencer dropped to his knees in front of you and gathered your broken little pieces into his arms.

Spencer's touch was everywhere. Your hair, your neck, your shoulders. As if he was checking whether you were real. That you were actually there inside his arms, and you were not a simple imagination that his mind had conjured up.

Surrounded by the safety of his embrace, you could feel the shattered pieces of yourself beginning to mend once more.

"Spencer," you uttered his name again as you pulled away, still in disbelief that he was physically there with you.

"I'm here," he promised you as he cupped your face gently.

"Spencer, what are you... How..."

"My team is working your case. We arrived half an hour ago," he explained simply. "Sunshine, why didn't you tell me? I thought you were still in Alaska?"

You had previously apprised Spencer that you would be hard to reach during your trip since you would be spending most of your time at the power plant site where cellphone receptions were scarce. So when an entire day went by without him ever hearing from you, Spencer didn't have any reason to be worried.

Never in a million years would he have ever predicted that you'd be caught in the middle of a hostage situation.

That thought alone caused Spencer to squeeze your hand a little tighter than usual.

"I'm sorry, Spence," you said sincerely. "My trip ended earlier than planned. I arrived back yesterday morning. I actually wanted to surprise you last night. After yesterday's... incident, I wanted to call you, but my phone was shot--"

"Wait, what? You were shot?"

"No! No, baby. Not me. Just my phone," you assured him. "But that's why I couldn't call. I did attempt you once using this station's phone, but it went straight to voicemail."

At the new piece of information, the colors immediately drained from Spencer's face.

"That was you? Fuck. I didn't--I didn't know. I rejected the call because I didn't know it was you."

"Hey." You stopped his guilty rambling with a hand to his cheek. "It's okay. I'm okay. I'm just glad you're here."

And then, because Spencer needed to make sure that you really were okay, he pulled you back into his arms and held you even tighter this time.

"Uh, Spence?"

The sound in the doorway snapped you both out of your mutual reverie. You looked up to see a blonde woman there, staring in an equal mixture of shock and confusion at the sight in front of her.

Spencer begrudgingly untangled himself from your arms before getting up to approach her.

"JJ, do you mind if I do the cognitive for this one?" Spencer asked.

The woman--JJ-- shifted her eyes a few times between you and Spencer. "Um, of course. I'll just go and inform Hotch. Tell us if you need anything."

After JJ's departure, Spencer closed the door again to award you both a much needed privacy.

He grabbed a wooden chair from the corner and dragged it before sitting down right in front of you.

"I need to start the interview now, sweetheart. Think you're up for it?"

Your whole body went rigid for a matter of seconds before you forced it to restart again. It was gone as soon as it came, but Spencer noticed it just the same.

"Look at me," Spencer ordered softly, using his delicate finger to nudge your face up until he was looking straight into your eyes. "I know it's scary. I don't want you to have to relive yesterday either, but it will help us catch whoever did this."

"I've told the police everything I knew yesterday. I was hiding the entire time." Like a coward. "I didn't see anything. I don't have anything else that could help you."

"I know that, sunshine. But as I've told you before, our method is slightly different. We won't be just focusing on what you saw, but also what you smelled, or maybe even heard." Spencer took your hands then, squeezing affectionately. "I'll be here with you the entire time."

The nod you gave him was hesitant, but it was a start nonetheless. You listened intently to Spencer's words and closed your eyes just as he had instructed.

"We'll start at the beginning," you heard him say. "Why don't you tell me why you went there yesterday?"

"I, uh, received a call from my friend, Nick, after my plane landed. We had been communicating back and forth since his company seeked my consultation for one of their upcoming projects," you began. "I wasn't even supposed to work because I had requested the day off. But Nick said it didn't have to be a formal meeting, so I agreed to meet him."

"Tell me what you remember after arriving at the office."

Your mind traveled back to that specific time one day prior. You remembered walking into the place and seeing its unusual state of vacancy even though there was still a good half an hour left before lunchtime.

"I just assumed everyone had gone to lunch earlier and shrugged it off," you recalled.

Spencer nodded his head. "Did anything else strike you as out of the ordinary?"

"No? I don't... I don't know. It was only my second time being there, I'm not sure what was normal and what wasn't."

"Okay. That's okay. You're doing good so far, sweetheart," Spencer quickly interjected, trying to get you to calm down before your distress could turn into a full-blown panic. "Now, what did you do next?"

"I followed Nick into his office."

Nick was keeping his promise true. It hadn't felt like a formal meeting, just two old college buddies reminiscing about the past and discussing possibilities of the future that, of course, included the company's upcoming project which you would be working on with him.

"I excused myself to the bathroom at some point," you added. "When I first heard the commotion, I thought nothing of it. It's like the idea that a group full of armed men had taken over the building didn't even cross my mind. I mean, why would it? I was on my way back to Nick's office when I saw them."

You recalled turning a corner after exiting the bathroom only to see those figures carrying machine guns and shouting at everyone to get on their knees or put their hands above their heads. You remembered sprinting the way you had come from and opening the first door you could reach that just happened to be the supply closet.

"Let's go back to the moment you saw them," Spencer urged gently. "How many people were there? Do you remember any conspicuous detail? Maybe one of them had tattoos or spoke with an accent. Anything that distinguished them."

Taking a deep breath, you tried replaying those crucial seconds slowly in your head.

"There were four of them. I couldn't see much. They were all wearing identical black clothes."

Suddenly, an unexpected piece of memory rushed to the front of your mind. You opened your eyes in shock, meeting Spencer's curious gaze that had been kept intently on you the entire time.

"I think at least one of them is a woman," you told him.

Spencer's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Are you sure?"

"One of the guys said something about... fucking this place up. And then she laughed. I heard her. It was definitely a female laugh."

"Good. That's good."

"Yeah? Do you think it'll help?"

Spencer nodded assuredly, bringing his hand to leave calming strokes on your head. "I know it will. You've done a great job, sweetheart. I'm proud of you."

The praise Spencer gave eased the tension in your shoulders. As if having been granted fresh air after decades of confinement, you were finally able to let yourself breathe again.

Spencer continued his loving strokes on your head. Little by little, the weight of his touch melted the resolve you had built into a pathetic puddle on the floor. Without its mental shield protecting you, your tears sped forward, gathering in your eyes until they spilled on the vast path down your cheeks.

"Hey, hey." Spencer's voice was laden with panic after seeing you start to cry. "Sunshine, what is it? What's wrong? Talk to me."

"I-I just... God." You struggled to get the words out in between sobs. "I'm a coward, Spencer."

"What?"

"All of those people... They died because I was a fucking coward."

Your admission tore into the air before stabbing Spencer right through his chest.

"Sweetheart, you know that's not true."

"But it is!" you cried out, pulling away from Spencer's grounding hold around your shaking body in favor of your own arms. "I was a coward. I ran and hid because I was too scared to die. Too scared to fight. If I had just tried a little harder, I could've called for help. That way, maybe all of those people wouldn't... And Nick wouldn't..."

A haunting image flashed behind your eyes. The image of Nick's limp and lifeless body on the floor, among those of the others. You remembered crying next to him, punching his chest, body, and arm despite having seen the gunshot wound on his forehead. It took you another five minutes before you eventually managed to gather yourself together, found a phone, and dialed 911.

Not that it made any difference. They were all already dead.

Spencer could hear his heart breaking at the sight of you curling into yourself, recoiling from his touch because you somehow believed you didn't deserve his affection at that moment. If Spencer could just transfer all of your pain towards him, he would. Seeing you beat yourself up that way over something that happened and was done to you was the worst kind of torture he ever had to endure in life.

And Spencer had been through more kinds of torture than the general population in the world.

Deciding that he had seen enough of your self-deprecating torment, he reclaimed your hands inside of his palms and urged you to look at him.

"Are you hearing yourself right now?" Spencer asked incredulously. "How can you even think that way? Sweetheart, what happened to those people, to Nick, it is not your fault."

"B-but, if I hadn't run away--"

"Then you would've died, too," he cut you off. "Sunshine, there were four of them with machine guns. No one stood a single chance against them. Those people were there to kill. There was nothing you could've done."

It was a hard pill to swallow, but Spencer needed you to hear it.

He needed you to know the truth no matter how unacceptable it was.

"If you hadn't hid from them, we would've found seven bodies there instead of six. And I--" Spencer took a shuddering breath, "--I would've lost you."

Your shoulders deflated at his revelation. "Spence--"

"So please--" he searched your eyes then, using his thumb to sweep away the remaining tears under your eyes, "--stop holding yourself accountable. I promise I will do everything I can to find those people and make them pay for what they did."

Spencer's vow triggered a new wave of tears that compelled you to sink into his awaiting arms. He let you stay there until you had cried your tears dry. It was something he also secretly needed for himself after suffering through the short-lived horror over the mention of your name in relation to the heinous case. He just needed to make sure that you were okay.

A few minutes passed by with you in his arms. Eventually, Spencer had to tear himself away to finish his job. He asked you to wait as he wrapped up the transcript of your cognitive interview, along with his professional report over it.

"I need to run somewhere real quick. I promise to be back in a couple of hours," he notified JJ as he handed her the interview report. "Tell Hotch for me? Thanks."

Without waiting for his friend's reply, Spencer rushed back to the waiting room before leading you out to take you home.

Back at your apartment, Spencer guided you towards the direction of your bathroom as soon as you had stepped into the threshold.

"Are you trying to get me naked, Spencer?" you remarked playfully after he refused to let you take your clothes off yourself.

"Yes." The gleaming mischief in your eyes caused him to flick your nose lightly. "Just to get you ready for your bath. Get your head straight, will you?"

You scoffed at his back as he turned around to check the water temperature in the tub.

Once you were submerged safely inside, Spencer left the bathroom to give you some privacy. Meanwhile, he began rummaging through your drawers to pull out a change of clothes, a towel, and a clean sheet for your bed.

By the time you exited, Spencer had changed your bedsheets and lit one of your favorite candles on the bedside table. He asked you to sit down on the bed as he kneeled before you, helping you put on the pajamas he had picked out with little prints of sunflowers on them.

None of Spencer's touches were sexual. They swept over your skin with the care of an artist handling their most precious work. When his eyes found yours, you swore you could almost cry from the intense adoration that seemed to shine so brightly out of them.

As he guided you to lie on the bed, you were surprised to see him following suit. He got under the covers with you, pulling you close to tangle every inch of your limbs with his.

"I love you, Spencer," you admitted to his chest, heart heavy with the deep appreciation and overwhelming affection for the man beside you.

Spencer looked down at your confession, finding his favorite pair of eyes already looking earnestly at him. Instinctively, he reached for your chin with his fingers, tugging your face upward until he could capture your lips with his.

The kiss was slow. Careful. Filled with silent promises and discreet reassurances. When you both parted, Spencer didn't pull himself away. Instead, he let his forehead touch yours while his eyes stayed closed.

"Will you be here when I wake up?" you asked quietly.

"Yes, sweetheart. Now go to sleep."

Although the two of you knew his answer was a lie, you both chose to pretend otherwise. You knew Spencer still had responsibilities to fulfill, along with a promise to you that he intended to keep. You knew that when you woke up later that evening, Spencer would already be long gone, and you would be forced to bask in the traces of himself that he had left behind.

But for now, Spencer was still there, in the comfort of your bedroom, lying on the bed next to you. And that knowledge alone was good enough for you to finally drift further into the land of sleep, surrounded by the warmth of Spencer's loving embrace.

"I'm telling you," JJ insisted, looking at her entire team minus Spencer and Hotch. "There was definitely something going on between them. Why else would he request to take over the cognitive for me?"

"Maybe he was feeling generous," Rossi deadpanned, earning an unimpressed glare from JJ.

It had been a full week since the BAU team had arrived in D.C. to investigate the series of gun attacks in the city. Just the day prior, they had successfully made their fourth arrest, bringing this case to yet another satisfying conclusion in the eye of justice.

If nothing else was amiss, they should have been on their way back to Quantico in less than an hour. In the meantime, though, JJ felt obliged to gather her team members in the middle of the bullpen to share her suspicion about a certain scene she had accidentally caught on their first day working the case.

"Pretty boy did seem more emotionally involved in this case than he usually does, though," Derek pointed out.

"Right? Right?" JJ replied almost too enthusiastically. "Come on, aren't you guys at least half as curious as I am about who this mystery girl might be? Don't you wanna try finding out who she is while we're still here?"

They all stared at each other in hesitation.

"Or, we could just ask Spencer directly and let him explain?" Emily suggested, receiving incredulous looks from the other three in response. "Yeah, you're right. What did you say her name was again?"

"I don't remember," JJ answered.

"It must be listed in the files somewhere, right?" Derek immediately sprung into action, reaching towards the scattered case files that might contain the name they were looking for.

"Just to be clear, I am not taking any part in this." Rossi sighed.

"Got it!" Derek waved the offending file in hand, giving it to JJ, who instantly began skimming over it.

"Alright. Says here that her name is..."

JJ read the name aloud when unexpectedly, an answering sound sprouted from behind them.

"Yes?"

Every single one of them turned in shock at your voice. You smiled at their wide-eyed expressions, waving your hand a little awkwardly in the air.

"You!" JJ exclaimed.

"Me?"

Emily nudged JJ in the ribs, making the blonde woman wince.

"Y-you're the witness from the startup case, right?" JJ said, trying to rectify the situation.

"That's me."

"What can we do for you, Miss?" Rossi asked, stepping forward and away from the rest of the group.

"I'm actually looking for Spencer. Do you know where he might be?"

"Spencer Reid? You know Reid?" Emily asked.

Before you had the chance to reply, the man in question came strolling into the bullpen, rambling animatedly to Hotch who was walking beside him. The moment Spencer caught sight of you, though, he immediately abandoned Hotch's side and rushed towards where you were standing.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, of course," you told him, fitting yourself easily into Spencer's side as his arm went around your waist. "Hi, Hotch."

The older man called your name in greeting. "I got your message. You wanted to talk to me?"

"I wanted to ask you--well, all of you, actually--" you glanced around at the other team members, "--if maybe you all would let me treat you to lunch? As a thank you for your hard work on the case."

Hotch nodded in response. "It's fine with me. We don't have to be back until tonight, anyway. Everyone?"

Instead of replying to your offer, Emily voiced aloud the question that was circling everyone's mind.

"You know her?" Emily looked at Hotch before dragging her eyes away towards you. "And you know him? You know each other? How?"

You gazed up at Spencer's eyes, seeing them shining with the same mirth as the one you felt dancing in your stomach.

"I guess this is supposed to be the part where I introduce myself, isn't it?" You chuckled.

Extending your palm, you shook each of their hands while telling them your name, them responding back with theirs even though you already knew who was who long before you had even met them.

"I still don't understand," JJ admitted after you finished shaking her hand. "How did you know Spencer and Hotch?"

Once again, you looked into Spencer's eyes, a question bouncing around in yours. Spencer's nod of affirmation was the only go-ahead you needed.

It's time.

"I'm Spencer's girlfriend."

"She's my wife."

You turned your head towards Spencer in shock.

In front of you, Spencer's teammates were causing an uproar.

"Wait, what?" Emily stared dumbfoundedly.

"You have a girlfriend?" Derek asked in disbelief.

"You're married?!" JJ shrieked.

"Hold on a second," Rossi interjected, holding his palms out as if to tell everyone to stand down and calm themselves. "So which one is it? Girlfriend or wife?"

And that was how you found yourself sitting in the private VIP room of your favorite restaurant in the city with some of Spencer's closest people on earth.

"That's the craziest story I've ever heard," Emily pondered in astonishment.

Rossi, Derek, and JJ were all wearing an identical look on each of their faces after hearing the story of how you and Spencer met: by drunkenly getting married in Vegas after only knowing each other for barely one night when you both weren't even twenty-two yet.

"If someone were to tell me yesterday that there's another member of this team who also went to get married while drunk in Vegas, I would have never even thought of mentioning Spencer's name," JJ mused.

At your curious expression, Spencer explained, "Rossi also got drunkenly married in Vegas to his third ex-wife,"

"Why didn't you two get a divorce?" Emily suddenly asked.

It was something that everyone who knew about your situation with Spencer had questioned at one point or another. The real answer was because you and Spencer had both been reluctant to go through the nasty and lengthy legal process of getting a divorce. Therefore, you decided to part ways without doing anything about it, vowing to only track each other down if one of you ever needed to end the bond because of another impending marriage or any other urgent matter.

But that reason alone was usually not enough to appease people's curiosity. And over the years, you and Spencer had poked fun over that particular fact by coming up with the most outrageous lie you could muster up.

"She wanted to get a divorce," Spencer fabricated smoothly. "I persuaded her otherwise because I had this inkling that someday we were gonna fall in love."

Usually, any other people would coo sweetly at Spencer's statememt.

But these weren't any other people. These people were Spencer's family in more ways except flesh and blood, and even without their profiling skills, you knew they could see right through Spencer's little deception.

"That sounds like bullshit to me. Doesn't that sound like bullshit to you?" Emily asked, turning to JJ for support.

"Yeah, that was bullshit, alright," JJ claimed vehemently, prompting an innocent-looking grin from Spencer and a series of chuckles from everyone else.

"When did you two start dating, then?" Rossi spoke up from one end of the table.

"About two years after Vegas, right?" you estimated, to which Spencer nodded in confirmation. "He strolled into my place of work while he was on a case, and then he asked me out."

Derek sat up on his seat after hearing the new information. "Wait, when was this? Why didn't I know about this?"

"The beginning of my second year in the BAU," Spencer offered. "Elle knew."

"Elle? Elle Greenway? You told Elle but not me?" Derek looked offended.

Spender shrugged nonchalantly. "Elle was assigned with me that day."

"Unbelievable." Derek slumped back down in his chair. "Penelope is gonna freak when she finds out what she missed today."

"Penelope? Oh, she already knows," you told him.

That revelation earned a collective disbelief look across the entire table.

"Yeah... I, uh," you cleared your throat, "I actually just went shopping with her two weeks ago."

"You've got to be kidding me," Emily muttered.

"You told Penelope but not me?" Derek sounded hurt as he pointed his accusatory stare at Spencer. "You even told Hotch!"

"I didn't tell Garcia. She dug through my history and found it out herself. Had to bribe her with candies and chocolates for a whole month to keep her quiet," Spencer grumbled. "And I had to tell Hotch. We needed to add her number to my emergency contact list."

Despite Spencer's concise explanation, Derek still seemed unsatisfied by the whole ordeal.

"How long have you known?" he finally decided to ask Hotch.

"A while," the man answered from his seat at the opposite end of the table from Rossi. "They even babysat Jack a few times for me."

"I don't believe this," Derek scowled. "Pretty boy's got himself a girl for the last six years, and I never knew? Outrageous."

"Technically, we've been married even longer than that," Spencer responded, as if he was unaware of the imminent glower that Derek was sending his way. "Eight years since Vegas."

"That's longer than any of my marriage," Rossi remarked before sipping his drink.

The laugh that resonated upon Rossi's little comment elicited an affectionate smile on your lips.

"So, you live in D.C., then?" JJ asked, at last stirring the conversation away from the topic of your and Spencer's secret marriage-slash-relationship.

"I do, yeah. But most of the time, I live out of my suitcase," you answered. "My firm has clients all over the country. A few overseas, as well. I'm lucky if I even get to have an entire week to sleep uninterrupted in my own bed."

Even then, you truthfully quite enjoyed the work you had to do. You didn't mind having to travel some place new every other week. In fact, you somehow believed that your constant need to travel for your job, and Spencer for his, was one of the reasons why the two of you worked so well together.

Although people might think that two adults who had to travel for a living were a recipe for a disastrous relationship, you and Spencer had so far proven otherwise. Because of your respective schedules, you could sympathize more with the other anytime they had to go somewhere urgent for work. It only made you savor every single second you spent together because of how much precious each one of them became.

The rest of lunch unraveled with the same bucket of smiles, jokes, and laughter. It felt good to finally tell the few people who meant the world in Spencer's life the truth about your relationship. It was also a huge relief to see them opening their arms and welcoming you into the family without an ounce of hesitation.

"Hotch?" Spencer called out after everyone exited the restaurant. "Will it be okay if I stay in the city for one more night?"

"As long as you promise to be back for tomorrow's briefing," Hotch reminded sternly, but the meaningful look he passed over you before he entered his vehicle spoke of a thousand things left unsaid.

"It was so nice meeting you," JJ said as she took you in her arms. "And I'm sorry again about your friend."

"Thank you. And thanks for all of your hard work in catching those guys."

"Of course, it's what we do." JJ smiled as she pulled away. "Invite me and Emily the next time you and Penelope hang out, okay?"

"Will do," you promised.

You watched as every single one of them scrambled into the two black SUVs, waving your goodbye until the cars drove out of your sight.

"I think that went well," you commented before looking up at Spencer. "Do you?"

"I think it went as well as it could."

"So--" you began, circling your arms around Spencer's neck, "--we have more than twelve hours until you're expected back at Quantico. What do you wanna do?"

Spencer nudged your nose with his. "I can think of a few activities we can partake in."

"Really?"

"Really."

Just as he was a hairbreadth away from pressing his lips to yours, you suddenly tore yourself out of Spencer's arms.

"Like getting some frozen yogurts?" you asked giddily, smirking at the dumbfounded look that you managed to put on Spencer's face.

"Fine. Let's go get some frozen yogurts."

Spencer had to hide his amused grin at your elated squeals. He was more than content at that moment to let you produce those addictive sounds at the mere prospect of frozen yogurts.

But later that night, he had a whole different set of activities lined up to pull those same sounds out of you once more.

And it might or might not potentially involve an entirely different yet creative use of frozen yogurts as well.

Spencer simply just hadn't decided yet.

[mariacallous]

If anyone can rally up a base, it’s Taylor Swift.

When sexually explicit, likely AI-generated, fake images of Swift circulated on social media this week, it galvanized her fans. Swifties found phrases and hashtags related to the images and flooded them with videos and photos of Swift performing. “Protect Taylor Swift” went viral, trending as Swifties spoke out against not just the Swift deepfakes, but all nonconsensual, explicit images made of women.

Swift, arguably the most famous woman in the world right now, has become the high-profile victim of an all-too-frequent form of harassment. She has yet to comment on the photos publicly, but her status gives her power to wield in a situation where so many women have been left with little recourse. Deepfake porn is becoming more common as generative artificial intelligence gets better: 113,000 deepfake videos were uploaded to the most popular porn websites in the first nine months of 2023, a significant increase to the 73,000 videos uploaded throughout 2022. In 2019, research from a startup found that 96 percent of deepfakes on the internet were pornographic.

The content is easy to find on search engines and social media, and has affected other female celebrities and teenagers. Yet, many people don’t understand the full extent of the problem or its impact. Swift, and the media mania around her, has the potential to change that.

“It does feel like this could be one of those trigger events” that could lead to legal and societal changes around nonconsensual deepfakes, says Sam Gregory, executive director of Witness, a nonprofit organization focused on using images and videos for protecting human rights. But Gregory says people still don’t understand how common deepfake porn is, and how harmful and violating it can be to victims.

If anything, this deepfake disaster is reminiscent of the 2014 iCloud leak that led to nude photos of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton spreading online, prompting calls for greater protections on people's digital identities. Apple ultimately ramped up security features.

A handful of states have laws around nonconsensual deepfakes, and there are moves to ban it on the federal level, too. Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-New York) has introduced a bill in Congress that would make it illegal to create and share deepfake porn without a person’s consent. Another House bill from Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-New York) seeks to give legal recourse to victims of deepfake porn. Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-New Jersey), who in November introduced a bill that would require the labeling of AI content, used the viral Swift moment to draw attention to his efforts: “Whether the victim is Taylor Swift or any young person across our country—we need to establish safeguards to combat this alarming trend,” Kean said in a statement.

This isn’t the first time that Swift or Swifties have tried to hold platforms and people accountable. In 2017, Swift won a lawsuit she brought against a radio DJ who she claimed groped her during a meet-and-greet. She was awarded $1—the amount she sued for, and what her attorney Douglas Baldridge called a symbolic sum “the value of which is immeasurable to all women in this situation.”

Last fall, tens of thousands of people registered to vote after the superstar posted a link to Vote.org on Instagram. And in 2022, her fan base, so enraged after waiting hours to buy tickets to the Eras Tour only to be beaten out by bots, reignited conversation around antitrust issues with Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s mega-merger. A cringy Senate hearing followed, and an investigation into Live Nation’s agreements with venues and artists is ongoing.

Swift and her fans could advocate for legal changes at the federal level to pass. But their outrage could do something else: lead platforms to take notice. “When you have a really massive group of users saying this content is unacceptable in this very high-profile way, the power there is about what it says to the platform about what users will and won’t tolerate,” says Cailin O’Connor, a professor of philosophy at University of California, Irvine and coauthor of The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread. X did not respond to a request for comment on the images and its moderation efforts regarding deepfake porn. Elon Musk bought the site in 2022 and quickly gutted its moderation teams. Advertisers have also dropped off recently after Musk’s apparent endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory.

It’s not clear whether Swift will take on this issue. A representative for Swift did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Harassment of female celebrities is frequent and often brushed aside, but deepfakes are harming them and others without the same power. This could be a moment for Swift to use her powerful platform—or at least for her fans to push the issue before the public.

[weirdgenetic-fuckup]

your writing is incredible! do you mind writing something about dilf dave mustaine corrupting young female reader

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoy my writing!

A/n: I got, like, halfway through writing this and then had a better idea on how I could've answered this request but I didn't want to rewrite it because I still liked the story so I hope you still like it just as much :3

Warnings: Smut, unprotected pnv, oral(male receiving), fingering(reader receiving), if you think I missed anything please let me know otherwise enjoy :3

The sunset strip. Many things come to mind at the sound of that title. Band startups, drinking and drugging, all things surrounding rock, punk, metal and all sorts of other kinds of music. This was the scene, and you were finally here.

After high school you skipped out on the gap year and went straight to getting higher degrees. After those years of extra gruelling homework you took your break, taking a well deserved time off before heading into the workforce.

This being your year of true freedom, a kind you probably won’t get close to again, you went to the one place you’ve always wanted to be. The sunset strip.

Now, you weren’t much of a party person. When all your friends were out at someone’s house you were at home studying, reading, a few jobs on and off. The whole crowded place was not something you wanted. But the sunset strip was where you wanted to be all that time. Even though it was way out of your comfort zone.

You looked through some of the clothes in a store you found called ‘Retail Slut’. The clothes were of all kinds and you were quite happy to be digging in all of it, unique smells and all.

In the back there was a small stand of records which you thought were pretty cool. While you were going through them a tall man with ginger hair came up to the table and seemed to be pretending to look around at the albums. You caught him glancing at you a few times and he eventually spoke up.

“I haven’t seen you around here before,” he said, “new to town?” He had this friendly presence to him. His smile was warm and he had the cutest glasses on. He wore this cute brown coat and light blue jeans. Fall incarnate. A fallen leaf on a frosty day.

“Just visiting, I grew up watching everything happen here and I’d never been.” You explained. The man nodded in understanding. You picked up an album with a hammer in a red and black frame titled ‘Kill ‘em All’. The ginger haired fellow took it from you and put it under another stack of albums further down the table.

“I’ve listened to some of their shit, you wouldn’t like it.” He stated, glaring down at the assortment of other records.

“How would you know what I’d like?” You asked, crossing your arms around your chest. The man looked up at you. He eyed you from head to toe, biting his lip as he did so.

“There’s a band playing just around the corner at a bar I like.” He walked around the table to stand in front of you. “Care to join me?” He asked, holding a hand out for you to take. You hesitated for a moment. You’ve never done anything like this before, running off with a stranger to some bar. Right into a party? No one ever would’ve taken you for the type, least of all yourself.

But this was the strip, and you came here to be free. So you took his hand and he led you out of the thrift store.

You walked down the streets hand in hand. You kept scanning around at everything happening, all the laughing, smiling faces. Rock posters everywhere, record stores, guitar shops. Everything you’ve dreamed of.

“I’m Dave, by the way.” The man said. You’d been trying to work up the courage to ask but the words kept fizzling out before they came out of your mouth. “In case you were wondering what name to call out tonight.” You thought about it for a moment, trying to think of a scenario where you’d need to call for him when it clicked as to what he was referring to. Your cheeks heated up and your gaze fell to the ground as you entered a dark club.

Dave threw an arm over your shoulder, keeping you close in the crowded area. Being so close to him you could smell his cologne. The stench of the club nearly covered it but you managed to focus on it. It helped keep you calm in this unfamiliar scene.

The ginger walked you through the club and sat down at the bar. He ordered you both ginger ale. “Unless, the lady wants something else?” He offered. You shook your head and the bartender walked off to make your drinks. “Not a drinker?” He asked, half leaning on the counter.

“I’m not even a partier.” You replied, almost exasperated. The bartender returned a few moments later with your drinks. You thanked them and reached for your purse. Dave gently pushed your hand away and handed the worker some cash.

“Pretty girls don’t buy drinks, doll.” He told you, taking a sip of his drink.

The two of you got to talking, having a few more non-alcoholic drinks and just chatting your time away. This was much more pleasant than the stories of parties you’ve heard all your life. This was nothing compared to the scene you’d come here expecting, but it was a much appreciated one.

Dave’s hand found its way to your knee, slowly moving higher and higher. You decided on a leather skirt and fishnets to go along with your red tube-top and thrifted leather jacket. His fingers were dipping under your skirt, just enough to have your stomach fluttering.

Finally, after hours of teasing you with his touch that was barely considered innocent, Dave leaned in to whisper in your ear. “Why don’t you come with me for a minute?” He held his hand out for you to take, and you did.

The ginger led you through the crowd and to the bathrooms. He tried to pull you into the mens room but you stopped. “I-I can’t go in there.” You said, glancing around to see if anyone was looking at you. They weren’t, all of them too preoccupied with the show on before them, all wasted and having their own fun.

“Come on.” Dave groaned with a smile. “It’ll be fun, I promise.” He urged, gently pulling you into the bathroom.

He got you on the counter, your legs wrapped around his waist, his hands on your hips. Your lips crashing against one anothers, tongues dancing together and exploring each other's mouths. Dave was pushing your skirt up, bunching it around your hips. You could feel him hardening as he would grind against you, short and harsh rotations of his hips.

Dave’s hands began to wander. He��d run the tips of his fingers over the inside of your thighs, sending shivers up your spine and knotting your gut. “Fuck, you’re so hot.” He mumbled against your lips when his thumb finally pushed against your panties. He pushed the thin piece of fabric to the side and slid a finger through your folds. That alone had your back arching in anticipation. “Fuck me, you’re so fucking wet.” He mused, starting to kiss down your neck. Nipping and sucking the tender flesh and leaving love bites. You screwed your eyes shut and your mouth fell open in soft sounds as Dave slid a finger into you.

He curled his finger against your gummy walls, pressing against that special spot inside you. Your eyes rolled back and you gripped his shoulders. “Such a sweet thing, huh? Never felt this before, have you?” He hummed as he pumped his long, thick fingers in and out of you. He started slow, letting you get used to this new sensation before he picked up the pace. The sound of skin slapping against wet skin rang through the small, tiled room along with your whimpers.

“Oh, fuck, please! Please, fuck, I c- I can’t.” You whined, tears threatening to spill down your cheeks. Dave then pulled his finger out of you, taking away any pleasure you had just been feeling. You stared at him with wide sad eyes and a pout. “Why would you do that..?” You asked, your voice shaky and weak. Dave looked at you with an apologetic, pitying look.

“Oh... Is my baby needy?” He brought his hand up to cup your cheek, gently caressing it. “All sad and pouty because she doesn’t get to cum yet?” He ran his fingers through your hair and gave you a kiss on the forehead. “Don’t worry, daddy’ll take care of you.” He pulled you off the counter, your knees buckled and you fell to your knees on the cold tile in front of him. You stared up at him with that same wide-eyed stare. “You just have to do something for me first, sweetheart.” Dave said as he unbuckled his belt.

His pants fell to the ground, leaving him in his boxers which had a prominent bulge from his cock. “Go on, doll, make daddy happy.” You were hesitant at first, gaze flickering between him and his eyes. You brought your hands up and dipped your fingers under the waistband of his boxer, gently tugging them down until they fell to his ankles with his pants.

Dave’s hard member hit you in the face after being brought out from its confines, traces of pre already sticking to your cheek. “I-I’ve never...” You trailed off, not sure whether it was because you were distracted by his dick or that you just didn’t want to finish the sentence.

Dave’s hand went to your face again, holding you by the chin to tilt your head up so you’d look him in the eye, though your gaze flickered to his lips a few times as well. “Don’t worry, I’ll guide you.” He mused, wiping the liquid from your cheek. You gave a weak nod and opened your mouth for him.

The ginger slowly guided his cock over your tongue, letting the weight lay on the muscle for a moment before he went further. His hand was still on your head, holding you in place for him. He was only about halfway in when he stopped, letting you get used to just that. “Watch your teeth now, doll, but give it a suck, would you?” He said in that same soft voice he’d been using with you all afternoon and now into the night.

You did as he told you to, your tongue traced the veins on the underside as you hollowed your cheeks for him. You pulled your head back a bit to pay more attention to his tip and he let you, for a moment. Before you knew it he was slamming his hips to meet your face, fucking deep into the back of your throat at a brutal pace. You gagged on him and the tears that had been pricking your eyes fell in streams down your red cheeks.

Your knees and throat hurt but Dave didn’t stay like this for long. He didn’t finish but he pulled himself out of your mouth and pulled you up off the floor. He pushed you up against the counter with your back facing him so you’d be looking into the mirror. The ginger stared down at your exposed ass, hands firmly planted on your hips as he spread you apart. His thumb pushed the fishnet and your panties aside so he could feel just how wet you were, all for him.

“Fucking gorgeous.” He hummed. “All pretty and mine.” He said, and with a quick tug he ripped your fishnets, then your thin underwear. He lined himself up with you and pushed in, bottoming out without giving you time to prepare yourself.

You stared at yourself in the mirror, drool slipping out of your puffy and bruised lips, tears rolling down your hot cheeks. You didn’t care, anything besides Dave’s cock stuffed deep inside you was beyond your comprehension right now. You loved the feeling of him, the way he hit every spot that had you seeing stars, the way he held you so close to his chest.

After letting you adjust to him for a moment or two he wasted no time in setting a fast rhythm, thrusting into you without a care in the world. He groped your chest and bit your neck, leaving red and purple spots in his wake as his hips slammed against yours. You weren’t processing any sounds you were making but based on the expression you saw staring back at you you could imagine they were pretty loud, all lustful moans as Dave slid in and out of you, his head pressing right up against your cervix.

The knot came back full force when Dave started circling your clit and quickly burst. You screamed out for him, creaming around him. Your juices dripped down his cock, your ass and thighs getting coated as well while the liquids made their way to the floor which was already covered in a layer of other fun times. However, Dave didn’t stop. His thrusts were relentless as he kept bucking his cock into you.

“Fuck-fuck, so pretty, so pretty just for me, so tight around daddy’s cock.” Dave praised, landing a harsh smack on your ass, then another and then a third, each one drawing a yelp from you. Dave took your hair in his hand, bunching it into a makeshift ponytail so he could pull your head back to force you to look into the mirror. “Look at that, look at my little slut, all fucked out on daddy’s dick.” Your eyes were fluttering, you felt like you were on the verge of passing out but you managed to keep your standing.

Dave began losing his rhythm and just sloppily fucking into you, doing anything to reach his own high. The coil in your gut returned, this time you got to see how that looked on the outside. Dave behind you with his long, ginger hair sticking to his face and your shoulders from sweat. You watched the way your ass shook every time he rammed into you, you saw the small bulge in your stomach. Dave saw it at the same time and smiled a wicked grin.

“Look at that, all ready to have my babies, are you?” He teased. You let out a loud, sultry whine and Dave’s eyes rolled back as your walls squeezed him. “Oh, fuck~ Do that a few more times and you just might, dollface.” You continued to watch the bulge appear and disappear only to reappear right after over and over, bringing you over the edge once more.

Your body shook and your knees buckled. You clenched around Dave bringing him to his own release. Thick, white liquid shot into you and the ginger bent you over the counter, pressing down onto you as he kept bucking up into you.

He kept going a few more seconds before pulling away. He pulled out of you and watched his cum seep out of your hole. You looked back at him, then to the floor where the liquid fell. Dave saw the pout on your face, the one you hadn’t even realised was there, and pulled you into a hug. “Don’t worry, doll, I’ll get you good and pregnant next time.” He smiled, kissing your forehead. “I can bring you back home right now, would you like that, dollface?” You smiled back up at him and nodded, your eyes closing as you melted into his warm embrace.

[acidxinxwonderland]

Resurgence

Chapter one: Renewal

18 plus!

Pairing: Glamrock Freddy x F!Reader

Summary: You live a stressful life to say the least, working two jobs and going to college is no easy task. You find it hard maintaining many things, such as friendships, your home and most importantly yourself. Yet after finding boxes full of parts for an animatronic near a dumpster, you do everything in your power to restore him. Little did you know that he was going to change your life for the better.

Tags: Female Reader, No use of y/n, Size Difference, Size Kink, Robot/Human Relationships, Dominant Glamrock Freddy, Submissive Reader, Touch-Starved, Reader is a hot mess, nicotine addiction, Eventual Smut, Slow Burn-ish, Build a penis, Readers parents have passed away

Word Count: 4.1k

A/N:  Excited to post the first chapter for this! I've been putting some effort in this one so I really hope you enjoy it! <333

AO3 link

Chapter 2

Six months.

To you it feels like it was just yesterday when you found him. Six months ago you were heading out to the bar with your friends when you stumbled upon boxes full of parts, parts that belonged to a Freddy Fazbear animatronic from the Mega Pizzaplex that tragically collapsed not too long ago.

As soon as you found those boxes that night you forgot all about the bar, instead making your friends carry it all the way back to your house where you would immediately get to work. It was safe to say your small group of friends were very displeased with you.

Six months of rewiring, welding, programming, repainting, you name it. You can’t even count the all-nighters while juggling two jobs and taking college classes in the mornings. All of this to work on a single animatronic, an animatronic that failed to work countless of times.

Yet tonight you had a good feeling. You've convinced yourself this was it, that all the work you did would finally come together. This was the night you turned something from scrap into a proper working model.

You can see it now, you’d be the talk of the class, you’ll probably make the news for doing this! All the frustration, all the tears, it was worth it. Especially with the fact that you were able to recover most of his highly advanced AI, something the Mega Pizzaplex was well known for.

You sit at your desk in the middle of the night, the large animatronic bear laid upon a metal table in your garage, wires hooked up to your computer as you type commands with quick fingers on your keyboard, a cigarette dangling loosely from your lips.

You glance over at Freddy, admiring your handiwork with an anxious gaze. Adorned in a glossy metal casing with intricate vibrant blue designs you hand painted yourself, he looks exactly like his old self.

You take in a slow breath as you switch your gaze over to your computer, you fixate on the startup command, rereading it over and over to make sure you spelled everything right.

“Here goes nothing.” You murmur as you press the enter key on your keyboard.

You roll your chair back, turning it towards Freddy with bated breath as everything slowly begins to power on, this seems promising, considering the fact the entire house hasn’t lost power yet.

You hear the sounds of machinery humming to life as the seconds passed, smoke beginning to plume from his open mouth. You sit up in your chair, snubbing the cigarette in the ashtray beside you while you avidly wait to see what happens.

Freddy’s eyelids were the first to slide open, a vibrant blue glow pouring out of his optics. Then with the sound of motorized joints snapping to life Freddy abruptly sits up on the metal table, he appears panicked as he looks around in frantic motions. You are too shocked to say anything as he looks down at himself, letting out a disgruntled groan before ripping the wires out from his ports which causes sparks to fly.

He gets off the table and you are thoroughly reminded just how big he is. His eyes finally locked onto yours, his gaze was full of bewilderment and something else that makes you want to run away.

“Where am I? This is not the Mega Pizzaplex.” He held a strong, thunderous voice that reverberated throughout the garage.

Your eyes widen at the question, not expecting for him to be almost hostile right off the bat. Your heart begins to pound in your chest, reaching your ears as you stare up at him in both pride and a twinge of fear.

It takes you a moment but you finally find your voice, uttering out your words. “You’re um, you’re in my house! I just repaired you, you are safe from any harm.”

Freddy looks tense, well, as tense as one could look for being a robot. His expression softened yet the confusion remains palpable. “Repaired me… I was offline?”

You slowly nod your head. “Yes, I found you near a dumpster not too long ago and I took you back home with me.”

“I see.” He looks back down at you with sorrow in his voice. “I do not remember getting shut down… Have they replaced me with a new model?”

“Do you… Not remember anything?” You ask your question carefully and he shakes his head. Damn, you were really looking forward to knowing what happened to the Pizzaplex.

“Well, the Mega Pizzaplex collapsed around seven months ago. I found you a month later sitting near a dumpster, took you home and…” You gesture to the area around you. “Here you are now.”

Freddy was silent, you can see the literal gears turning in his head as he processed the information you just gave him.

“This can’t be. There is something wrong, it feels as though something is missing in my memory storage.” He places a paw-like hand on his head, looking down at the floor.

“Yeah, your memory was pretty corrupt when I started my repairs on you. I got most of it recovered but I had to give up on some of it. I still plan on trying to fix it but I focused more on getting you back in working order first.”

His hands fall to his sides, giving a nod of his head. “I understand, the fact you were able to recover most of it is fantastic.” He takes a step closer to you, speaking in a more tentative tone. “I apologize, I have been rather rude haven’t I? I’d like to thank you for bringing me back online. I am very grateful.”

You wave your hand. “Don’t worry about it, I get it. I would be pretty freaked out too.” Yet that was because you are human, never in a million years did you expect such a reaction coming from him.

“Yes, ‘freaked out’ is the perfect description isn’t it?” His ears droop down, a mix of melancholy and gratitude evident on his features.  “The Pizzaplex… it is gone. What is to become of me? What purpose do I have now?” A hint of uncertainty colored his words, seemingly hoping to get some guidance from you.

Your face softened, it was clear he was uneasy with this entire situation. The Mega Pizzaplex was once a beacon of joy and entertainment has met its demise. Now here he is, standing in your garage, given a chance at a new life.

Finally, you answer him, offering him a smile of kindness and understanding. “Sometimes you don’t really need a purpose, or a duty to fulfill.” You lean back in your chair, shrugging your shoulders. “I mean, you’re pretty much free now. I’m sure you’ve never seen the outside world once in your entire ‘life’. That makes it not sound too bad, right?”

His eyes flicker with apprehension while mulling over your words. It was clear the concept of freedom was completely foreign to him, which of course, was understandable.

“You’re right, that doesn’t sound too bad at all. The thought of experiencing new things… It is rather intriguing. And having you by my side,” He comes in closer, a soft look on his face. “Well, that would make it all the more exciting.”

As soon as Freddy got a bit too close for comfort you rolled your chair back. You feel nervous but you're also astonished, you can't believe you actually pulled this off, he was really here.

"Well, I'll be here every step of the way." You force a tight smile. He takes notice of your discomfort, taking a step back and making you realize you have been holding your breath this entire time.

“That sounds like a plan! We’re going to be a great team, you and I.” Freddy now seems more relaxed as he looks around your messy garage full of parts and trash. “Is this all to your home?”

You let out a laugh from his question, standing up from your chair. “No, no this is just my garage.”

“Oh! Yes, I see. A garage, a building for housing motor vehicles! But… I do not see a motor vehicle here.”

“It’s outside in the driveway. I use this as an office, robotics, school work, all that jazz.”

“An interesting place to choose as your workplace! I see that it is quite… cluttered.”

“Wait till you see the rest of the house bud.” You let out a chuckle. “Follow me.” You lead him to the door that leads outside, opening it up and taking a step out.

“That sounds a little concerning.” He murmurs cautiously while following after you.

As soon as he walks out of your garage he stops in place once he sees the blanket of twinkling stars above him. “Oh… Wow.” He holds a soft tone full of genuine wonderment as his eyes widen.

You watch his reaction, feeling a flutter in your chest as you see a machine experience a true night sky for the first time. You still can’t believe you really did it, he was here and he appears so life-like- almost as if he has real emotions.

Yet… That wasn't possible.

Just as you started to really think about it all you were immediately captivated by glowing blue optics looking down at you.

“This is incredible.” He remarks. “A glimpse into something absolutely extraordinary. All thanks to you, superstar.”

Your heart skips a beat. Superstar… It sounds comforting coming from him with his honeyed voice.

After a few moments pass you realize the two of you have just been staring at each other in silence. You clear your throat, offering him a smile.

“Of course big guy.” You place your hands in your pocket to keep them warm from the cool night air, looking back up at the sky with him. “Welcome to the real world.”

The two of you stand there in silence, the ethereal beauty of the stars capturing your attention and filling you both with a sense of tranquility. The sounds of the crickets and frogs, the branches of the large trees surrounding your small home moving with the light breeze.

Although it was all starting to feel a bit strange, you have someone-or something-by your side now. As a person who usually lives on your own, you finally realize that this was going to take some getting used too. He was a lot more lively then you thought he’d be.

Freddy is the first to break his trance, his voice pulling you out of your thoughts. “How about we head inside now? I am eager to see your home.”

You snort, walking away from the garage and towards the front porch. “There’s nothing to be eager about but… It’s home.” As you go up the steps and to the front door you begin to feel a bit nervous, you never thought you’d be embarrassed to show your living space to a robot.

“It can’t be that bad.” He speaks in a cheerful tone as you open the door, taking a step inside with him. “Oh… Oh my.”

You feel your face heat up as the two of you look around your home. It was cluttered as cluttered could be, the kitchen and living room merged seamlessly creating an open area of utter chaos. An array of dirty dishes and utensils stacked up together from countless culinary endeavors, the smell of forgotten meals and cigarettes intermingling in the air.

Your living room was no better. Scattered papers, cigarette butts and empty bottles of beer haphazardly placed about on the floor and coffee table. The nicest thing there was the sofa, mostly because you got it not too long ago on a good sale.

There was a long silence that passed between the two of you. He was the first one to break it.

“This isn’t like the Pizzaplex at all.” He looks over at you and you give him an apologetic smile. “But… It has some charm to it.”

You let out a surprised, short laugh, raising a brow. “Yeah? How so?”

“Well, the one thing I know is that a home is a reflection of oneself.”

“What does mine say about me?”

He inspects his surroundings more before giving you his answer. “It appears that you lead a very busy lifestyle, or that you greatly struggle with caring for yourself.” Freddy’s tone was analytical, tilting his head to the side. “Is that right?”

“Yup, spot on for both.” You make your way to the couch, falling down onto it and stretching your arms up into the air. “Two jobs, school, it’s not really easy maintaining a home.. Or myself.”

“That does sound like quite a lot on your plate.” He takes his place near the couch, his hands behind his back as he continues to observe your home. “Perhaps I could be of assistance to you.”

“Of assistance to me…?” You repeat his words slowly. He gives a short nod of his head.

“Yes. You have brought me back online, the least I can do is help you around the house. Cooking, cleaning, helping with school work. Whatever you need.”

You’re a bit taken aback by this offer, you had no idea you have quite literally built your own assistant. It sounds like a sweet deal, you’ve never had anyone willing to help you like this but at the same time you feel a tug at your heart.

“Um… Well, that sounds nice and all but you don’t owe me anything, really. I just wanted to see if I could do it, show off to my professor and…” You trail off, realizing how much you didn’t think about what happens after you built him.

“I insist. I want to do this, eager even. It will be a great help for me when it comes to adjusting to this new life, at the Mega Pizzaplex I always had something to do. Knowing that I no longer have that,” He casts his gaze to the side before continuing. “It feels as though there is something wrong within my coding.”

You run a hand through your hair as you process what he was saying, searching his face. You let out a long sigh, finally giving your answer.

“Yeah, alright. If you’re cool with it, I would really like that.”

Freddy clasps his hands together, taking on a cheerful demeanor. “It is very cool with me, superstar! This is the start to something wonderful, I just know it. Let’s get started now, tell me, when was the last time you’ve eaten today?”

“Um… Never o’clock?” You answer with a sheepish smile.

He looks confused at first, squinting his eyes before they widen once the realization sets in. “Are you meaning to tell me that you have eaten nothing today?”

“That is not good, do you not know how important it is to have proper meals throughout the day?” Freddy shakes his head as he reprimands you, turning around and going to the kitchen to begin to find you something to eat.

“Well yeah, it was my last day off and I wanted to finish working on you. It kinda slipped my mind.”

“Well yeah, of course I do. Like I said, I just didn’t really think about it.” You get up from the couch to follow after him, taking a seat at the table full of old letters and trash.

“I see that my work is cut out for me, hm?” His tone was playful as he opened the fridge.

You feel your face heat up from his teasing, grumbling underneath your breath as you take your cigarette pack from your pocket to have a quick smoke.

“You do not have much to eat…” He murmurs as he closes the fridge to go open a cupboard. “Hm… Well, it is not the most nutritious of meals, but I could make you macaroni and cheese.”

Your eyes light up from his words, recently it’s all been instant ramen noodles, mac and cheese sounds perfect right now. “Yeah! That sounds good.” You light the end of your cigarette, leaning back in your seat as you watch Freddy get to work.

Your brows furrow as you blow smoke out from your mouth. “Actually wait… You do know how to cook, right?”

“Of course I do! Back at the Mega Pizzaplex it was a common activity to bake or cook with children, I have plenty of recipes and have the capability to learn more. It was one of my favorite things to do, although it was not too often. Chica was the one to always be the leader of those little ‘classes’.”

“Wow, that’s pretty cool honestly.” You watch as he goes to the sink, taking one of the least dirtiest pots and beginning to wash it out. It was interesting to see an animatronic bear doing such a mundane chore.

You let out a small hum before drawing on the end of your cigarette. “So… Do you really not remember anything of what happened before? Like… How the Plex collapsed and what not?”

Freddy stills for a moment, trying his best to remember what happened but he mimics the sound of a sigh and continues his task.

“Unfortunately, my memory prior to being decommissioned is fragmented at best. I recollect my performances and entertaining children but as for the details of its closure, it remains a mystery to me. I apologize.”

A guilty frown tugs at the corners of your lips as he finishes washing the pot and filling it up, moving to the stove to boil it.

“There’s no need to be sorry. I wasn’t expecting you would, I guess what you lost was the night of you getting.. Destroyed. I’ll figure it out in due time, it would be nice to know what actually happened.” You stub your cigarette out on the ashtray, leaning your head on your hand as you continue to watch him work away.

“What do you mean by that? Does no one know what has caused the Mega Pizzaplex to collapse?” He turns his body towards you with a curious glint in his eyes.

You shake your head. “Nope. They tried saying it was from an earthquake but no one believes it, considering the fact no one living near the Pizzaplex felt one big enough to mess up an entire building.”

“I… See, that is quite strange. Well, if there is any chance of recovering those lost memories and shed some light on what truly transpired, I am very eager to explore it alongside you.” His gaze was filled with unwavering dedication.

You feel a small amount of excitement from his words, you were pretty eager too if you were being honest with yourself. “Yes, we’ll figure it out. Maybe. If we don't, oh well, y’know? You’re here now, that’s all that matters.”

You lean back in your chair, looking the bear up and down as excitement bubbles up once again. “I’m more than happy with the progress I’ve made today. You’re working, talking! After all these months you’re finally here.”

Freddy lets out a soft chuckle as he goes back to the stove to put the pasta in the water. “I am continuously impressed by your talent. You have proven yourself to be quite the extraordinary individual.” He looks back at you as he speaks. “You bringing me back is very impressive, you should be proud of yourself for doing such a hard task.”

Your eyes widen as you are showered with praise, feeling your breath hitch in your throat. You aren’t very used to such compliments.

You clear your throat, beginning to play with the sleeves of your hoodie. “Well, um, thank you Freddy.” Your eyes fall onto his hand while he stirs the cooking pasta. “That’s… That’s really sweet of you. I’m glad you think that way.”

He picks up on your timid behavior, looking back at what he was doing while he replies to you in a mellow tone. “You deserve every word of praise.”

The two of you fall into a comfortable silence afterwards, you can’t help but feel a little overwhelmed by it all once again. Two years of living completely alone and now you have a roommate, who was a giant animatronic bear that you just met and he is already cooking for you. This was insane.

After some time there was a bowl of mac and cheese set in front of you. You watch the steam emit from it as you feel your stomach growl, you didn’t realize how hungry you were until now.

“Thank you so much.” You murmur out appreciatively, picking up the spoon and popping it in your mouth. Your eyes widen, looking up at the bear who has a satisfied look on his features. This didn’t even taste like box mac and cheese… How does one make boxed mac and cheese taste so good?!

You swallow your food before praising him. “God Freddy, what did you do while I looked away? This is great!”

He lets out a mechanized chuckle, pulling out the chair and sitting down. It creaks underneath him, making you feel a bit sorry for his seat.

“Nothing special, just some seasonings with extra cheese. I’m glad you like it, although I implore you to go grocery shopping soon for more nutritious meals, you are worth more than macaroni and cheese and ramen.” His tone becomes serious at the end and you feel your cheeks heat up.

“I see you found my ramen stash.” You chuckle before taking another bite.

“I did. You have a tremendous amount… It’s insane.”

You snorted from his words, he wasn’t wrong, ramen is what you thrive off of.

“It’s quick and easy! Pop in the microwave, badda bing badda boom a 50 cent five course meal.”

“That… That is not a five course meal!” He sounds almost offended, a surprised look in his eyes. “And in the microwave? You do not cook it on the stove?”

“Nope.” You draw the word out slowly, a small smile on your lips as you gauge his shocked reaction. It takes him a few moments but he finally regains his composure.

“I see, well, that’s alright. It is just something we will have to work on together. I will write you a list and when you have the time I really encourage you to get these items, it will help me cook even better meals than this one. Does that sound good to you?” His tone was much softer now, comforting and unjudging.

“Yeah, that sounds good to me, I’ll go out shopping after class tomorrow.”

“Oh, you have class tomorrow? At what time?”

“Five am.” You say casually while taking another bite of your mac and cheese.

“Five am…? Superstar, it’s 2 in the morning.” He seems genuinely concerned for your well being now more than ever, having him here with you is really reminding you how much you don’t take care of yourself and you just finished repairing him.

“I know, I know.” You sigh out, eating the last of your mac and cheese. “I’ll go lay down right after I bring your charger inside.”

Freddy takes the bowl in front of you, getting up and putting it in the sink. “It is best if you go to bed right now. Just tell me what to do and I will set the charger up myself.”

“Um… Are you sure?” You quirk a brow. “It might be easier if you let me do it so you know what to do next time.”

“Nonsense, I can handle it, I am Freddy Fazbear!”

A small chuckle falls past your lips. “Well, if you say so. There is a large, modified battery sitting near my work bench, set up on the couch and plug the cord into the port on your arm. Then all you gotta do is flip the switch and you’ll begin to charge.”

“I see… Sounds easy enough, if I need assistance I will ask you. Please go rest now, I will see you in the morning.” There was a kindness in his optics, bringing you a sense of comfort.

“I hear you.” You huff, getting up from your seat turning around to head to the stairs. “Goodnight Freddy, see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight, superstar.”

With that you leave to go up to your disarrayed room, kicking off your pants and climbing into your large comfortable bed. Although as soon as your head hits the pillow and your eyes fall closed the only thing you could think about was your new roommate.

[eretzyisrael]

Good News From Israel

In the 24th Mar 24 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:

An Israeli Arab policeman saved hundreds of Jews on Oct 7.

Israeli scientists are testing new innovative treatments for Alzheimer’s and AMD.

Israelis are the fifth happiest people in the world.

An Israeli device that can detect infected food.

Thousands of foreign workers are reviving Israel’s construction industry.

An Israeli cycling team won the Tour de Taiwan.

Archeologists have found where Jews prepared to fight the Romans.

Read More: Good News From Israel

Jews around the world have just heard how Queen Esther saved the Jewish people from annihilation over 2,000 years ago. This week, the positive Israeli news is full of the achievements of Israeli women.   They include the discoverer of a treatment for a common eye disease.  Three women who developed a test for newborns at risk of disabilities.  The Oct 7 survivor who is back on her feet thanks to Israeli technology.  Technion’s first female dean of aerospace engineering. The winner of the “Nobel Prize” for Electrical Engineering. And the founder of an NGO that has brought water & electricity to 1,100 African villages.   Read also about an Israeli startup that uses AI to increase fertility, and how the Technion is encouraging young mothers to join the ranks of future entrepreneurs.   The photo (TY Sharon) is of Jerusalem’s Bible Lands Museum – one of the venues for the Jerusalem Biennale which is featuring the works of Jewish and Israeli women artists.

[unhelpfulfemme]

Halt and Catch Fire is the best show ever and you should watch it if you haven't.

It has amazingly deep and three-dimensional and tender characterizations and a plot that's structured kind of like a spiral, in that you observe the characters over the course of ten years where they keep ending up in similar situations and you can see how much they have or haven't grown since the last time they had to face a similar thing.

It gives you a new appreciation for the wild west days of IT of the 1980s and 1990s, which is something I keep seeing people mention but have actually never experienced on my own unless you count searching for pictures of the W.i.t.c.h. on dial-up and playing some kind of pop the bubble game in 1999.

It has amazing female characters that aren't perfect but also don't have flaws that are sexist stereotypes. The two female leads are an angry punk girl and a hyperfeminine Southern girl and they are both presented as equally competent and given equal importance, even though the hyperfeminine girl gets underestimated a lot in-universe (she has a STEM degree and is as good with computers as the other one, but gets relegated into a "team mum" role a lot).

There is A LOT of focus on friendships and business partnerships and found family - it gives these relationships equal focus to the romances, and they are all realistic and grounded in the characterizations of the leads. In fact, the last episode focuses on the two girls' partnership, not their respective romantic lives. But the romances are amazing too, I have never been invested in a pair so hard the way I currently am in Joe and Cameron, if I weren't bi already they'd be my bisexual awakening. They seem like total opposites but have so, so, many parallels between them, and they have realistically sad backstories that aren't the stock "I was beaten by my mean dad" type. And they have amazing chemistry. And I love how the show is aware of the fact that they need to go outside of their relationship to grow and address their shortcomings because they kind of have the same flaws too, and even though they're still kind of pining after each other they only come back to each other when they're capable of having a stable relationship. This is especially good beacuse the girl is in her early 20s at the beginning and it was so so good to see the show let her grow into her own, on her own, rather than leaving her stuck in an endless back-and-forth with a messed up guy who's her boss and 10 years older than her, but then also respecting the connection they have.

All the characters are realistically flawed, and their flaws come back to bite them in their asses in the end, and the setups for this are strewn across several seasons. And it all makes sense for the character as a whole - for example, the punk girl is rebelling against pretty controlling parenting, but she obviously never learned how to handle relationships except in terms of the dominant person and the one who obeys, so she'd rather live in anarchy and never form any kind of power ladder in the first place. However, when she is forced to do so in order to handle the people who work for her punk IT startup she becomes very autocratic and controlling, and when people try to give her ideas she replies with, "Well, I'm the boss so we'll do what I say."

Why does she do that? Because she obviously doesn't know how to argue constructively. She knows how to a) aggressively overwhelm you, b) get up and leave (as she did to her family) and c) submit (unacceptable).

She does b) to her smarmy yuppie "it's complicated" man who is also one of the main leads - he does something to break her trust, she just abandons him and that's it. But then she gets into a fight with her next boyfriend, and she just assumes that that's it, and he says, "Woah, we're not breaking up, we're just arguing, have you never done that before in your life?"

At the same time, she forms a partnership with the girly girl and the girly girl starts just going around her whenever she hears the "I'm the boss so we'll do as I say" thing because she's frustrated that she has no say in things. This leads to several fallouts because spiral plot structure, and they're all mostly over one of two things: Cameron (punk girl) is being autocratic or Donna (girly girl) is being manipulative. Eventually they run the company into the ground because they can't listen to each other, and the plot always varies which one of them is right and never paints one of them as the 100% villain because they're both being kind of assholes but also deeply sympathetic.. But over the course of all this Cameron kind of learns how to be more functional in her partnerships, which then helps her with both her love interests AND her career. And then other things happen to address and highlight other flaws of hers, and this happens to all of the characters - three marriages fall apart in the course of this show, several companies with really good ideas are run into the ground and a guy commits crimes and then commits suicide because he bought into a Steve Jobs-type bulshitter's cool aid too much.

It has what I'd call great queer rep because one of the leads being a bisexual man is treated very casually and yet the rare instances where homophobia is touched on fit into the rest of his character and backstory so well (he insults a homophobic business partner at some point, and he also has an AIDS scare, and he recalls being bullied at school and how it affected him, and he makes friends with a queer teen because he notices she's like him and that's it). Like, there's an episode where his ex boyfriend comes into the picture and the plot doesn't revolve around them both being men - the plot revolves around his current girlfriend feeling insecure about the guy still having feelings for his ex and coming off as flaky and untrustworthy. The genders of the characters are incidental.

Like seriously this is the best show ever and I don't know why people don't talk about it more, current stuff like The Bear and Succession can only wish to be this nuanced.

[simplysedusa]

My Take on: Sedusa

(Well, this isn't a take, it's more of a backstory that we have been deprived of; an idea of mine as to how Sedusa came to be.)

So, as I've said, I believe Sedusa's real name to be Annalise. (I want her to be a WOC but I haven't settled on specifics just yet, I'm thinking Indian but IDK.) She came from your regular, every day, family of five; she's the youngest and the only girl, which excited her mother. Her mother was the root of Annalise's love for beauty products and makeup, who taught her everything she knows. Growing up, Annalise was a very bright young girl, with beauty to boot. She wasn't particularly a conceited or vain person, but she was still rather proud of her appearance. Her looks caused many to underestimate her intelligence, but Annalise tried her best to not let it get to her. Her extracurricular activities included gymnastics, dance, and karate (the crime rate in Townsville was atrocious back then and her father wanted her to be safe). She graduated high-school with an A/B honor roll, placed in the same advanced, college level classes alongside Professor Utonium, Sara Bellum, and Ms. Keane (though I don't think she's quite on their level, she makes up for it in cunning and cleverness). She then graduated again with a double major in Business Administration and Cosmetic Science from Townsville University, and a major in Cosmetology at a local community college to go into business for herself. For a small startup business in a big city, "Seduce" was relatively successful. From a makeup stand in the mall, to a small corner store with workers to manage and scheduled appointments, she was rather proud of herself.

Annalise wanted more.

She decided to take door-to-door runs to better advertise her product. Eventually, she'd walk into a laboratory. Part of her regretted doing so, considering the female demographic was a bit lower than her usual stops, but many of these scientists could've been married. Money was money.

Annalise tried her product out on one of the few female workers. One of the male scientists were too busy oogling her, instead of paying attention to the experimental Chemical X concoction in their test tube. He tries to chat her up, but she politely declines. However, he's a bit pushy and she tries to slightly push him backwards, causing him to slip. The already bubbling glass test tube combined with Annalise's makeup created a chemical explosion. She was never the same again.

Her skin was much paler, her warm brown eyes were now icy green, and most importantly, her hair had...a life of its own? Annalise attempted to continue on with her life as if nothing happened but given her altered look, not many were willing to give Seduce a chance, knowing what happened to her. She then attempted to hide her new form, but her nervousness only caused her hair to panic and scare off potential customers.

Annalise attempted to file a lawsuit against the research company, only to surprisingly lose.

Despite these changes, one thing never changed: her desirability to mostly men. Annalise somehow found herself with more suitors. Had her pheromones been effected as well? A sudden idea popped into her head, not only to conduct an experiment but in attempt to gain money to save her business from drowning.

She would become a sugar baby.

And the results were conclusive, she had men at her fingertips. Granted, this effect on them wasn't permanent nor completely indestructible, stronger willed men and emotions could break them out of her trance, but Annalise wasn't using this for ill intended purposes. She just needed to get by.

At first, everything seemed to going fine. Her confidence was returning, causing her hair to calm and not potentially harm anyone. Seduce was booming once again, and she even managed to find love. He was almost 20 years older than she was, a former A-list actor who retired in Townsville looking for companionship, but managed to find something more. And he would be her downfall.

Unbeknownst to Annalise, he was married. A supposedly very happy marriage, at that. The wife managed to come home to find her lying on the couch waiting for him in his robe. The husband lied and claimed she was some crazed stalker who broke into the house. The police came, as called, and had her detained for a day.

When she was released, she'd find her face plastered on every newspaper, broadcast on every television, and discussed on every daytime television talk show. This caused bad press to her business, causing her to go bankrupt and for Annalise to be homeless. Former sugar daddies didn't even want to be seen in public with her. She was running out of options.

The only thing left for her to do was to get back at the man who lied on her. So, she robbed him (and left him and his wife tied up). And she became: Sedusa.

Later on, after the Powerpuffs became involved in crime fighting and after the events of "Something A Ms.", from living with the Puffs and the Professor, she'd learn that the same chemical that altered her body is the very same that was used to create the girls. She'd put her cosmetic science degree to use and experiment with strands of her hair to create a hair gel that'd immobilize the girls.

[distantlaughter]

‘I want to do something significant’: ex-F1 champion Nico Rosberg on his sustainable entrepreneurship

originally published by Joanna Partridge for The Guardian 13 June 2023 (x)

The former elite driver has changed lanes from fossil-fuel-guzzling track cars to green investing and environmentally friendly racing.

In a parallel world, former Formula One world champion Nico Rosberg could be sitting at home in Monaco with his feet up, having set himself up for life, all before the tender age of 32.

After clinching the world championship in 2016, beating his rival Lewis Hamilton in the process, Rosberg shocked the world of motor sport by promptly quitting the pursuit that had been his life since starting competitive racing at the age of six.

Like many sports stars who retire relatively early, he has moved into punditry, commentating for Sky, but unusually he also appears to have effortlessly switched lanes from professional sportsman to entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist.

Sipping sparkling water in a hotel overlooking Hyde Park, the German-Finnish former champion has “got used” to talking about his retirement, despite being just 37. “I am so incredibly lucky,” he admits. “Thanks to the racing, I have financial freedom and I can do whatever I want.”

Despite sporting a tan, relaxed expression and understated navy clothing, Rosberg reveals a glimpse of a sportsman’s inner drive when he explains his motivation: “I want to do something significant, I want to contribute and I want to grow.

“I was always inspired by people who took that entrepreneurial path, investing to support or create something.” He rules out a return to racing, stressing he wants to use “the legacy of that, for my new endeavours”.

Rosberg now employs 15 people to work on his business and investment affairs, and his new endeavours include brand ambassador roles for German energy company EnBW – where he is the face of its electric charging network – and logistics provider Jungheinrich, but he describes himself on professional networking site LinkedIn as a “sustainability entrepreneur and angel investor”.

Rosberg has previously spoken about how he only gained a broader perspective on life after stepping off the international Formula One merry-go-round. Perhaps surprisingly, given his background in a fossil-fuel-guzzling sport, Rosberg now speaks with the zeal of a convert about sustainability and the importance of drawing attention to the climate crisis, something he admits he gave little thought to during his racing career.

This passion led him to found the Greentech festival, along with engineers and entrepreneurs Marco Voigt and Sven Krüger, in 2019. This year’s conference starts on Wednesday in Berlin, and the event is described by the organisers as a “global platform for pioneering and sustainable ideas”.

Rosberg says his wealth has afforded him the luxury to focus on these new interests, including investing in sustainability-focused startups, while also creating an endowment for his “grandchildren” (he and his wife’s two children are seven and five).

Indeed, one reason for this trip to London was a meeting with charitable foundation the Wellcome Trust, one of the UK’s largest philanthropic investors, known for its track record of impressive financial returns.

Forbes puts Rosberg’s net worth at just over $20m (£16m), although this seems a conservative estimate, given the earning power of the world’s elite racing drivers. He admits to having “software” that provides him with an exact figure, but will not be drawn on what that is, other than adding: “The top F1 driver earns $40m a year.”

Another of his ventures presumably comes with the need for deep pockets: He owns Rosberg X Racing, a team in the new environmentally conscious motor sport Extreme E. Now in its third season, the series sees electric off-road SUVs race in different locations around the globe that have been affected by the climate crisis.

The teams, each comprising a male and a female driver, are racing this season across five locations, from Saudi Arabia to Scotland, and Italy to the Americas. In an effort to limit their environmental impact, the series’ vehicles, logistics equipment and infrastructure are shipped, rather than flown, around the world aboard the St Helena, a former Royal Mail ship. The races are televised, but take place without spectators.

Rosberg’s team, now third in the standings, is sponsored by IG Prime, a division of financial brokerage IG, among others, and is considered an evolution of Team Rosberg, the motor sport outfit founded in the 1990s by his father, Keke. Other Extreme E team founders include Hamilton and former British Formula One driver Jenson Button.

The series claimed a global audience of 135 million in 2022, more than 30% up on viewership during its inaugural season. However, this pales into insignificance compared with Formula One, riding high and growing its fanbase, especially in the US.

Rosberg hopes Extreme E entertains viewers, while getting them to “do their part, and contribute, and think about their own lives” amid the climate crisis.

Rosberg says his own car is an all-electric Audi e-tron, extolling the virtues of the charging network in mainland Europe – and says he does not “like it any more” if he is collected by a fossil fuel-powered car when travelling abroad. He also says he takes the train in Germany, but skirts over whether he flies by private jet.

His focus on sustainability extends to his investment portfolio, which does not contain any oil, tobacco or defence companies. However, he is at something of a loss to explain the involvement in Extreme E of Saudi Arabia, which hosted the first race of the season, but is also the world’s biggest producer of fossil fuels, and home to the world’s biggest oil company, Saudi Aramco, which is 95% government-owned. “I would understand that there are some people, where it doesn’t sit too well with them,” Rosberg says. “All our partners in Extreme E are allowing us to do a lot of good, which we are very grateful for.

“Sometimes you need to go out there a little bit to do a lot of good.”

After the regimented existence of his early years, where his job determined his timetable, Rosberg clearly relishes being his own boss. He vociferously rules out a future return to Formula One, whether as a driver or running a team: “Never, ever, ever, because I value my freedom,” he says. “It was very intense.”

Rosberg still watches all the Formula One races but confesses the experience is not relaxing: “When the lights go off, I imagine I’m there.”

Few would imagine that investing could produce the same high, but he insists he has other ways to get his adrenaline fix: “In business, and on the tennis court.”

CV

Age: 37

Family: Married, with two young children

Education: International School of Monaco

Pay: Undisclosed. “My income comes from representing brands, I am the face of the biggest electric [vehicle] charging infrastructure in Germany from EnBW, and Jungheinrich, the logistics mobility provider. That is one important source of income for me.” He says his income comes from representing brands, his investments in startups yet to deliver significant returns.

Last holiday: Ibiza, where his family has a holiday home and owns an ice-cream parlour. “It’s our favourite place to go.”

Best advice he’s been given: “My father said: ‘You always meet twice in life.’”

Biggest career mistake: “Investing into a great idea, but where the founders were not 100% convincing.”

Word he overuses: “Big bang,” according to his assistant Lena. He adds: “We talk about building reputation … I like to think in ‘big bang’ stories, such as winning the Extreme E championship.”

How he relaxes: Playing tennis; “I am average good.”

[blood-darkened-moon]

Alfred, Alexia, and the Dragonfly

The infamous video of Alfred and Alexia torturing a dragonfly and feeding it to the ants can be found twice on Rockfort Island. The first time, you see it in the room with the Lugers and then again in Alfred’s office as the startup of his PC. Of course, it has a deeply person meaning to Alfred. We know about his obsession with his sister, and Alexia is in there as well. Maybe the video is the only one with her or the last one that was taken before her cryogenic sleep. It makes sense that Alfred would hold dear something like this. But is it just about Alexia, or is there more to it? After all, we even have to watch it twice.

The twins do not talk the entire time and barely interact during the video. The only noteworthy interaction happens during the last scene, in which Alfred and Alexia share a knowing gaze. The way they look at each other makes it clear that there is more to the whole scene than what meets the eye. It had a deeper meaning, which only they could understand. A secret they share with each other. Words are not necessary.

When I first played Code Veronica X, I assumed the video mainly existed to show the cruel and twisted nature of the twins, while it also foreshadowed what Alfred would become. But after replaying the game last year, I changed my opinion. The video isn’t about Alfred and Alexia’s general cruelty or torturing of defenseless creatures. The content represents something more personal to them - their revenge on Alexander.

It was never said when the video was recorded, but the twins aren’t small children anymore. Based only on their appearance, I would estimate them to be between 10 and 12 years old. Now, considering the content of the video, I think it was recorded after Alfred discovered the truth about their origin and after they came up with a revenge plan as the earliest possible date. However, it is more likely that they had already executed their plan some time before.

Let’s take a closer look. First of all, the visual language. The ants symbolize Alfred and Alexia. Alexia sees herself as an ant queen and refers to Alfred as a soldier ant. The dragonfly is Alexander. It is more obvious for Alexia’s third form, but Alexander’s mutated form resembles a dragonfly too. He has three appendages on his back, similarly arranged like three of four wings of a dragonfly. Additionally, these appendages are long and thin, like insect legs. In Darkside Chronicles, he even uses them to move around. Also, Alexander’s real legs are bound together with the rug, which makes his lower body look vaguely like the elongated abdomen of the insect. The belts even give it a segmented appearance.

The last similarity isn’t related to the real animal but to an item. To activate the self-destruct system, you have to assemble a dragonfly key. On the underside of this key is a prominent red jewel in the middle of its thorax, similar to Alexander’s exposed heart.

The dragonfly in the video is rather large. It has a blue abdomen with black markings and a yellow thorax. I tried to find out what dragonfly species we see there and found three possible candidates. One is the green hawker (Aeshna viridis), another is the southern migrant hawker (Aeshna affinis), and the last one is the emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator). (I’m not a dragonfly expert, though. Maybe there are other ones that fit better.)

The abdomens of the green hawker and southern migrant hawker are also blue, the thorax is yellowish-green, and they have black markings on their bodies. The emperor dragonfly has an apple-green thorax rather than a yellow one, but it would fit the other criteria. Other dragonfly species with a similar color palette have either more black markings, differently colored spots on the abdomen, a different body shape, or are too small. In all three cases, only the males have this coloration. The females are green or yellowish green instead of blue. Selecting a male dragonfly specifically could be another reference to Alexander. As for the emperor dragonfly and the southern migrant hawker, contrary to the green hawker, they also inhabit Great Britain, which delivers another connection to Alexander. And while Alexander is, of course, only an earl, not an emperor, an emperor dragonfly could still refer in a wider sense to his peer status.

From left to right: green hawker (male), southern migrant hawker (male), emperor dragonfly (male).

The general events of the video reflect what happened to Alexander. Only Alfred interacts with the dragonfly. He was also the one who initiated the revenge plot after discovering the truth about himself and Alexia, as well as the one who suffered subjectively more under his father. Alexia stays passive the whole time and only watches her brother, while in real life, she is the one who has carried out the experiments, not Alfred. However, even if she does not join her brother here, Alexia still contributes by providing an instrument to execute the allegorical revenge - her ants (and the virus in reality).

Instead of simply killing the insect, Alfred rips out its wings, making it incapable of flying away. Like the dragonfly, Alexander was still alive when he met his fate. The twins tranquilized their father before Alexia injected him with the virus, which caused his transformation. Afterward, Alexander’s confinement continued, and he was chained for years in agony, probably awaiting his death if he was still capable of having coherent thoughts.

The dragonfly’s death is not in vain. Feeding the insect to the ants serves a purpose. The ants can feast on it, and the colony can grow. Alexander’s life wasn’t wasted either. Alexia directed Alfred’s revenge plans from simply killing their father to using him for research purposes. Their “useless father” could contribute for once to Alexia’s research and the Ashford family. Even though the experiment was a failure, Alexia was still able to use the data she required from it for her benefit.

Why all the effort with the cryptic symbolism? Alexander was a terrible father. Probably not intentional, but this isn’t an excuse. He took the childhood of the twins for the sake of his own ambitions. He used Alexia to fulfill what he could not achieve and disregarded Alfred for not being as intelligent as his sister. Finding out that they were the result of a genetic experiment was the final straw, especially for Alfred. Their father then got what he deserved, according to them. Alfred hated Alexander with a passion. It must have been a great feeling to get rid of him, and to celebrate it, he (maybe Alexia too) wanted a keepsake. Direct photos or videos of their father were out of the question. Alfred even wrote in his diary that they have to be careful so that Harman (their butler) doesn’t discover what has happened to Alexander. The dragonfly video works well. It is cryptic enough that no one could understand its meaning without more background knowledge. People who see it randomly would assume it is a disturbing and slightly eerie home video. Alfred and Alexia, on the other hand, know exactly what it is about. It’s so important to Alfred because it does not only show Alexia but also their victory over Alexander. The insects are nothing more than involuntary actors. The real dragonfly and what is happening to it is secondary. The symbolic meaning behind the dragonfly’s death struggle holds significance.

Some notes as a closure that didn’t fit in the rest of the text: What makes the video so creepy, except for the circumstances you find it in, is the twins’ acting. Without them and out of context, the dragonfly video wouldn’t even be that unsettling if you consider some facts. The video was recorded in the Antarctic base. Dragonflies do not inhabit Antarctica. This means the dragonfly was bred there. The twins did not randomly catch it for the purpose of torture. What’s the purpose of breeding dragonflies? I assume it’s for (virus) research. We know that Umbrella performed experiments on other invertebrates. So, if dragonflies are bred in the lab anyway, why not use some as a protein source for the ants as well? More common insects for feeding ants would be mealworms and meal beetles, house crickets, flies and fly larvae, roaches, and plant lice, though. Also, dragonflies are predators and attack everything they can overpower, including other dragonflies. And unlike ants, they can fly. It makes sense to remove the wings first to prevent it from flying away or attacking the ants. Sure, ripping out its wings and not killing it first is still cruel, but at least the ants will take care of this soon.

[evanthenerd83]

“Holly And The Demon Play House”

CONTENT WARNING: The following story contains harsh language and graphic violence.

1

“Man… this is hard,” Holly said while she shoveled.

The demon glared at her, pupils supernova hot. It growled.

It sounded like a dog. No. More like a hellhound that had just spotted the soul of some unfortunate sinner.

Holly giggled. She reached over, rustling Its black hair.

“Aw, good doggie.”

A claw swiped. She yelped, drawing back.

Her pale flesh had been slit open. The cut stretched across her hand, barely missing the knuckles and wrist.

A bead of crimson was forming.

Crimson.

“B-bad d-d-doggie.”

The demon rolled Its eyes. “Just keep digging.”

They were standing in what was supposed to be a park. A very small, plastic park.

Fake trees. Fake grass. Fake dirt. Everything within this park had been manufactured by the newest geo-capitalist startup company.

Engineered to look natural, but not offend humanity’s delicate selfishness.

Holly hated it. Almost as much as nature. Being outside, being around animals, wasn’t something she found… let’s say… mentally relaxing.

Nor did it strike a particular chord. There was no chord to be struck.

Animals only made things difficult. Snapping twigs ruined months and months of stalking, observing.

It didn’t help that animals felt the same way. Dogs would bark whenever she’d walk past, nearly choking themselves with their own collars and chains.

Cats hissed. Bugs scuttled away from her traps.

Birds shat themselves.

And yet… Holly found this park disgusting. Whoever had designed it ignored the way the world worked.

The natural order.

She believed in the natural order. It was her guide to living, her so-called “moral code”.

The weak would be eaten.

The strong would eat.

The strongest would prevail.

And to Holly, she was the strongest. Humanity could go suck death’s boney, dry dick for all she cared. Which wasn’t much.

Or even a little.

“Do you think… we should leave her… wallet?”

The demon shot another glare. “What?”

Holly kept on digging, blonde curls plastered to her forehead. Sweat glistened beneath a full moon.

The hem of her skirt was covered with dirt and grime. Her uniform clung.

“We need… money… for like… some extra clothes and stuff… and maybe even food… you said so yourself…”

She stabbed her shovel into the ground. Another heap of dirt.

It quickly joined its brethren. There was so much of it, the demon could hardly see the girl anymore.

A memory flashed.

An awful, vivid memory. Graphic and gratuitous.

The demon screwed Its eyes shut. No such luck.

The image had been burned into Its head. The girl, rearing back; hands half-raised as if to stop—

Holly, turning around; face dead as she aims—

The pistol, barrel flashing; bullet—

The red, spewing out; chunks of brain and shattered skull—

The demon gagged.

It scrambled away from the hole, hooves casting dirt. It disappeared into a nearby bush.

Holly simply rolled her eyes. “Drama queen.”

Ding-a-ring-a-long

Sing-a-song-a-dong

She froze, blade mid-stab. Her ears twitched.

A faint diddy. It wasn’t that complex, just a few repetitive notes played on a keyboard. The vocals were heavily synthesized.

The singer could’ve been a male or a female. It was difficult to tell.

What was easier to ascertain, though, was the source.

Holly stared at the impromptu grave.

“#$@& me.”

She dropped her shovel.

The ringtone suddenly ended. Silence fell upon the park.

Aside from the demon’s breakdown, of course. It was still puking Its guts out. As well as crying.

She kneeled.

Pain. And not the good, pleasurable kind.

The kind reserved for physical activity. A deep, hollow ache.

Holly could feel it in her bones. Each muscle burned. Overuse coupled with stress, making a bastard child.

Burying a body proved to be difficult work.

Unlike in movies, the ground refused to yield. It grew harder the deeper one went. The soil became stone.

They had started working hours ago. It took them several just digging the hole.

Holly despised labor. Exercise would leave her feeling used. Both of her armpits were swamps, and an unpleasant scent clung to her skin.

And exhaustion…

She ignored it. Her hands thrust themselves into the mound.

Cold engulfed them. Squishy dirt gave way. Excess rainwater added to the overall sensation.

Holly smiled.

Like exploring a victim’s body.

She searched.

…

“What are you doing,” the demon groaned.

Holly didn’t respond. She was sitting on the ground, legs crossed.

She seemed to be looking at something. The demon ran a single claw across Its face, knocking globs of leftover vomit from both cheeks.

It stumbled forward.

It felt like crap.

Utter crap.

Its throat was burning. Ribs were being beaten up by Its rogue heart, and something sent shockwaves through Its nerves. Shock.

Shock?

Yes.

Shock. Trauma. It couldn’t have been sick. Its immune system acted as a hellfirewall against invaders.

Nothing got through. Lowly creatures, viruses and bacteria, would find themselves in a world of hurt.

Or worse. Absorbed.

It coughed, peering over Holly’s shoulder.

She had both hands in her lap. They were wrapped around something small.

The demon squinted.

It was incredibly dark. Branches formed a canopy that prevented moonlight from reaching them. Whoever had designed the park deserved eternity in such darkness.

“Uh, Holly?”

“…”

“H-Holly,” It whispered. “What is tha—“

Ding-a-ring-a-long

Sing-a-song-a-dong

A song.

Light.

Bright. Blinding. It cut the dark like a butcher knife.

The demon yelped, falling backwards. It crawled away from the source of this light. On all fours.

It quickly scrambled to Its hooves. “H-Holly—“

A slender finger rose.

An angered hiss broke free. It froze in place, mouth snapping closed.

It stared at Holly with wide eyes.

She simply answered the cell phone. “Y’ello?”

The demon winced.

This wouldn’t work. This couldn’t work.

Holly was a lot of things. A mass murderer. A spree killer. An arsonist. A monster. A sexual deviant.

A sniper. A torturer. A perfect singer.

“Uh huh.”

A fugitive. An excellent cook. A sadist.

“I’m sorry, but she can’t. My… Uh, my sister has fallen ill.”

A survivalist. A master planner. An awful writer.

“No. No. No need! You enjoy your night, Ms. Woodhouse! I’ll…”

Holly eyed the demon, face going blank.

It felt her gaze on Its back. It stopped pacing.

“… you know what? We’ll be there! In about… what’s your address?”

The realization hit.

It instantly paled. Horror liquified Its face, and beads of sweat cascaded down Its cheeks.

Holly smiled as It started to shake Its head. She looked away.

“Perfect! That’s not far at all!”

It darted forward, claws outstretched.

Holly simply raised her pistol, and It froze.

“Hm? Oh. Just my brother.”

A pause. Her smile fell, replaced once again by the emptiness. She blinked a few times.

And then—

She threw her head back.

“Ha! Ha! Hahahahahaha! Of course not, Ms. Woodhouse! That’d be inappropriate!”

The demon cringed. Holly was inappropriate.

Her laughter simmered down. Yet another sneer appeared.

“And don’t worry. You can just pay me, and we—my brother and I—will split the money!”

It glanced at the mound. It gulped when It saw the glazed eye staring back.

“Yes ma’am! Just five more minutes! We’ll be there! Thank you! Thank you! Goodbye!”

Holly hung up.

She allowed the cell phone to fall. It landed in the dirt, face down.

“Um…” the demon backed away. “H-H—“

It cringed. The sound of shattering glass and snapping plastic echoed, joined by crunching leaves. She lifted her shoes.

Debris. Wasted technology.

She looked up, then started walking.

“Holly,” It whimpered. “What—“

She grabbed Its collar, pulling It behind her. It didn’t dare to resist. Resistance was futile.

It had seen enough to understand.

[bloopington-indiana]

[mariacallous]

De-extinction startup Colossal Biosciences wants to bring back the woolly mammoth. Well, not the woolly mammoth exactly, but an Asian elephant gene-edited to give it the fuzzy hair and layer of blubber that allowed its close relative to thrive in sub-zero environments.

To get to these so-called “functional mammoths,” Colossal’s scientists need to solve a whole bunch of challenges: making the right genetic tweaks, growing edited cells into fully formed baby functional mammoths, and finding a space where these animals can thrive. It’s a long, uncertain road, but the startup has just announced a small breakthrough that should ease some of the way forward.

Scientists at Colossal have managed to reprogram Asian elephant cells into an embryonic-like state that can give rise to every other cell type. This opens up a path to creating elephant sperm and eggs in the lab and being able to test gene edits without having to frequently take tissue samples from living elephants. The research, which hasn’t yet been released in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, will be published on the preprint server Biorxiv.

There are only around 30,000 to 50,000 Asian elephants in the wild, so access to these animals—and particularly their sperm and eggs—is extremely limited. Yet Colossal needs these cells if they’re going to figure out how to bring their functional mammoths to life. “With so few fertile female elephants, we really don’t want to interfere with their reproduction at all. We want to do it independently,” says George Church, a Harvard geneticist and Colossal cofounder.

The cells that Colossal created are called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and they behave a lot like the stems cells found in an embryo. Embryonic stem cells have the ability to give rise to all kinds of different cell types that make up organisms—a quality that scientists call pluripotency. Most cells, however, lose this ability as the organism develops. Human skin, for instance, can’t spontaneously turn into muscle or cells that line the inside of the intestine.

In 2006, the Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka showed it was possible to take mature cells and turn them back into a pluripotent state. Yamanaka’s research was in mice cells, but later scientists followed up by deriving iPSCs for lots of different species, including humans, horses, pigs, cattle, monkeys, and the northern white rhino—a functionally extinct subspecies with only two individuals, both females, remaining in the wild.

Reprogramming Asian elephant cells into iPSCs proved trickier than with other species, says Eriona Hysolli, head of biological sciences at Colossal. As with other species, the scientists reprogrammed the elephant cells by exposing them to a series of different chemicals and then adding proteins called transcription factors that turn on particular genes to change how the cells functions. The whole process took two months, which is much longer than the 5 to 10 days it takes to create mouse iPSCs or the three weeks for human iPSCs.

This difficulty might have to do with the unique biology of elephants, says Vincent Lynch, a developmental biologist at the University at Buffalo in New York who wasn’t involved in the Colossal study. Elephants are the classic example of Peto’s paradox—the idea that very large animals have unusually low rates of cancer given their size. Since cancer can be caused by genetic mutations that accumulate as cells divide, you’d expect that animals with 100 times more cells than humans would have a much higher risk of cancer.

But elephants have cancer rates even lower than humans—a surprising fact given their vast size. One hypothesis for elephants’ cancer-defying biology is that they carry lots of copies of a tumor-suppressing gene called P53. Humans, on the other hand, only have one copy of this gene.

P53 is good for elephant health, but it could be the reason that up until now scientists have struggled to create iPSCs from elephant cells, Lynch says. One way the gene seems to work is by stopping cells from entering a state where they can duplicate indefinitely, which is one of the key features of iPSCs.

Hysolli says that she’d like to reduce the time it takes to create elephant iPSCs, and refine the process so the Colossal team can produce them at a greater scale. The iPSCs will be particularly useful if Colossal’s scientists can turn them into sperm and egg cells, something that Hysolli’s team is already working on. Since there is a relatively limited supply of elephant eggs and sperm, one problem facing the de-extinction project is getting enough genetic diversity to support a population of functional mammoths—develop them from too few individuals, and you risk the negative effects of inbreeding. Being able to create sperm and egg cells in the lab should help with that, Church says.

These cells could also be useful for conservation work, Hysolli says. Colossal has partnered with researchers working on elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus (EEHV), a leading cause of death for young Asian elephants. The iPSCs could be a good way to figure out how the virus infects different cell types. The cells will also be useful for testing whether Colossal’s edits to produce mammoth-like fur and fat layers are working as scientists hope.

“I have no doubt that given enough time and money they will overcome the technical challenges of making a woolly-mammoth-looking elephant,” says Lynch. But he’s less convinced of the ecological benefits of de-extinction. The startup intends to introduce the elephant-mammoth hybrids into the wild to re-create the role once played by the mammoth in the Arctic ecosystem, grazing the land and trampling snow cover, potentially decelerating the melting of permafrost.

“How many hairy Asian elephants do you need to make that work?” Lynch asks. Whether there really is a niche for edited elephants in the Arctic 4,000 years after mammoths last roamed the area is a question that conservationists are still grappling with. Sure, scientists might be able to create mammoth-like Asian elephants, but whether we should is open to much debate.

Colossal’s scientists will be glad if they get to that point. Although they have elephant iPSCs, much of the work of creating elephant-mammoth hybrids is ahead of them. They must figure out how to create elephant sperm and egg cells, master the right edits to tweak their elephants, and take their creation through the 22-month Asian elephant gestation period. And then they have to do it enough times to build a population that can actually deliver on some of their ecological aims.

“It feels very significant,” Church says of the iPSC breakthrough. “This is a very big deal.” If Colossal is going to deliver on its de-extinction mission, then there will be many other moments like this ahead.

[awfullydxpeched2]

Something I did this week:

I listened to Ride on Time by Tatsuro Yamashita, a city pop album, a 1980s musical genre for album club. I didn't really enjoy this album, surprisingly to me, since it contains elements of 1980s new wave and synth pop which are some of my favorite musical genres, but the album did not speak to me. I was the odd one out this week since I was the only one who did not like it.

2. Productivity strategy:

I have found this week that listening to instrumental music when working has helped me stay on task when doing school or work. Typically I listen to music with lyrics but sometimes can be a little distracted, instrumental music gives me the background noise I need when working, while not being distracted and helping me keep on task and focused on what I am doing. 

3. Response to a non assigned reading: Opinion: Why venture capitalist believes Elizabeth Holmes should be freed

I've always found the case of Elizabeth Holmes interesting, and researched it last year after seeing the Hulu tv show about her. I do think she should be punished for what she did. I don't necessarily have much of an opinion on what she did, I do think it's ethically wrong, but not as much of an issue as the fact that now it will be more difficult for female STEM startups/CEOS to be trusted after what she did, when there could be a incredible idea that could be lifechanging for many people, but that now could be not possible because people are hesitant about female startups or CEO's after Holmes actions.

4. Links to five or more discovered resources (including articles, podcasts, books, websites)

5. Update on professionalism as a writer:

I have been practicing some opinion pieces and small feature articles in my free time to improve this style of writing. It's a style of writing I enjoy, but can have difficulties with on occasion, so I've been writing small, a couple paragraph pieces to improve at this writing style.

6. Two or more quotations or aphorisms:

Remote Work Is Leading To More Gender And Racial Harassment, Say Tech Workers:

"Tech workers say they have experienced more harassment based on gender, age and race or ethnicity while working remotely during the pandemic, according to a survey from a nonprofit group that advocates for diversity in Silicon Valley.

The increases were highest among women, transgender and nonbinary people, and Asian, Black, Latinx and Indigenous people."

"Women of color were the most likely to report increased race-based hostility, including 45% of women who identified as African, African American or Black and 30% of women who described themselves as Asian or Asian American. Also, 14% of the respondents reported increased age-based harassment.

Pao said the survey responses suggested that some of the increase in harassment and hostility may be the result of people working longer hours, the blurring of boundaries between work and home life, and more conversations where other office mates aren't present as witnesses."

7. An anecdote about something you did this week:

I had a conversation with a friend about gender fluidity and nonbinaryness. They told me they are non binary gender fluid, and use they/them pronouns. I was familiar with the concept of non binary, as well as many other gender/LGBTQIA+ terms, since it's important to me to be educated on it as well as being an advocate for that community, but gender fluid was a term I was unfamiliar with. I asked them if they would be okay with opening up about what the term means to them, and how they would describe their gender identity, and ended up having an enlightening conversation that left me feeling better informed as an advocate.

8. Responses to assigned readings (assigned for our class or for another class)

Nooney et al.'s article From Programming to Products: Softalk Magazine and the rise of the Personal Computer User discusses the rise of the personal computer. Starting with describing if a computer was owned, it was a hobby, and the common computer owner were individuals who could work with the hardware of who were hackers. Most who owned computers were passionate about electronics. A few types of computers were released in the later 1970s, but the average individual was hesitant to own one as they were expensive and seemed difficult to operate. Magazines for computer enthusiasts were created, one being Softalk, providing those passionate about computers a community. Softalk focused largely on Apple computers and was popular with users of Apple computers. I enjoyed this reading a lot, the focus on the Apple computers was interesting to me. I grew up using Apple products, getting the iPod in 2008 as a kid, then a MacBook that same year, then the iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, and much more later in my life. They've been a large part of my daily life, and have enjoyed learning about the company's start and rise to semi-popularity in the 1980s, then with widespread popularity with the first iPhone in 2007, and enjoyed reading about the view of computer enthusiasts in relation to Apple in this article. 

[notwiselybuttoowell]

It's called Fleather, and it's a new material being developed as a sustainable alternative to animal leather. It is delicate and smooth to touch, like soft lamb skin leather, and its journey begins in an unexpected place – flowers.

Fleather, made by a Kanpur-based startup called Phool, is part of an emerging trend of companies producing plant- and fungi-based leather alternatives which aim to disrupt the traditional leather industry and capitalise on growing interest in "vegan" fashion.

Producing leather from animals poses several environmental hazards. It is energy- and water-intensive and the process of tanning and treating animal skin with chemicals to make leather releases toxic heavy metals that can poison water bodies. Cattle rearing to source animal skin, meanwhile, produces greenhouse gases and contributes to deforestation. Animal rights activists also condemn leather, citing inhumane conditions in slaughter houses.

Fleather, on the other hand, is made by repurposing floral waste generated in temples across India, and it is Phool's moonshot.

The startup's journey began on a cold winter morning in 2015, when Ankit Agarwal and his friend made their way to the bustling bank of the Ganges in Agarwal's hometown Kanpur for some sightseeing.

The Ganges is believed by Hindus to be the most sacred of all rivers. But the sight that greeted the duo belied this faith. Rubbish was floating on the grey, visibly-polluted water. Among the muck were tonnes of flowers – marigolds, roses and chrysanthemums – discarded by temples and worshippers. These flowers are used in Hindu rituals and are considered sacred, meaning they can't be disposed of along with other waste.

But depositing them in a river is sometimes part of the ritual and as a result flowers are dumped in water bodies daily where they leach out harmful chemicals from pesticides, and eventually decay into mulch that contaminates the water. Undeterred by the obvious pollution, devotees take ceremonial dips in the Ganges and cup their palms to take holy sips.

The sight disturbed Agarwal, and set him on a quest to find a solution to the uniquely Indian problem of temple flower waste, which he calls "the lowest hanging fruit" among pollutants. In 2017, he zeroed in on an idea to upcycle the flowers into incense sticks, and founded Phool ("flower" in Hindi).

The company is backed by the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur and counts Bollywood star Alia Bhatt among its investors. Every morning Phool trucks travelled around Kanpur's temples collecting the flower waste before it was dumped into the river. At the Phool factory, workers plucked the petals and set them to dry. The dried petals were then powdered and made into a dough with essential oils which female workers then rolled into incense sticks.

But it turned out that there was a far more impactful and surprising use for the flowers, as the company was soon to discover.

[champstorymedia]

Leading Ladies: Celebrating the Achievements of Women in Business

Women have made remarkable strides in the business world, breaking barriers and shattering glass ceilings along the way. From founding successful startups to leading multinational corporations, female entrepreneurs and business leaders continue to make their mark in various industries. This article will delve into the inspiring journeys of leading ladies in business and celebrate their remarkable…