#BAU flow chart

[snailsandpuppy-dogtails]

I like making dumb things

[hoe4hotchner]

hi! could I request singer reader dating Aaron and the BAU doesn't KNOW but founds out after she drops her album/song about him (I'm thinking juno, bed chem by Sabrina etc).

Valkyrie | [A.H]

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x singer fem!reader | WC: 0.9k | CW: No use of Y/N, but reader's stage name is Valkyrie in this, Fluff, relationship

The team had scattered across the bullpen, taking a rare break between interviews and paperwork. Penelope, however, was anything but quiet. She was vibrating with excitement as she stormed into the room, tablet in hand and an undeniable spark in her eyes.

“Okay, stop everything you’re doing,” she announced dramatically, catching everyone’s attention. “Have you heard this new album?”

Emily, sitting at her desk, glanced up with a smirk. “What album?”

She held up her tablet like it was a piece of holy scripture. “Valkyrie’s new album just dropped. I’m telling you, it is life-changing, soul-touching, cry-your-eyes-out amazing.”

You were Valkyrie - the pop sensation who had taken the world by storm over the last couple of months. Known for your breathtaking voice, and your way of writing lyrics that felt personal even to the audience, like you were pulling the words straight from your soul. What the team didn’t know was that Valkyrie, the woman with chart-topping hits, was Hotch’s girlfriend - and the subject of your latest songs? Well, that was him.

"Valkyrie? Isn’t she that singer you’ve been obsessed over lately?" Derek asked, teasing.

“First of all, it’s not an obsession; it’s an appreciation of an amazing artist. And second,” Garcia held her finger up for dramatic effect, “her new album, Into You, is… well, I’m not saying it’s about someone in her life, but these lyrics, guys… they’re personal.”

Spencer, ever the analyst, raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think it’s about someone specific?”

“Oh, Spence,” Garcia sighed dramatically, tapping her tablet to pull up the lyrics. “Just listen to this - ‘Your steady presence holds me still when the world spins too fast. In your arms, I finally find my way home.’ Does that not sound like she’s writing about someone she loves?”

JJ tilted her head, intrigued. “It does sound pretty intimate.”

Derek grinned. “Sounds like someone’s in love.”

Emily leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. “I wonder who it’s about.”

Meanwhile, Hotch had been quietly observing the conversation from his office, a small, secretive smile playing on his lips. The lyrics they were quoting were all too familiar to him. He’d heard them months ago when Valkyrie - well, you - had played the demo for him late one night, curled up together in his living room. You’d been nervous, watching him for a reaction as your voice filled the room. But there had been nothing but pride in his chest, knowing how deeply you felt for him.

"Hotch!" Derek’s voice called as he stepped out of his office. “You ever listen to this stuff?”

Hotch looked up, his calm mask firmly in place. “Occasionally.”

“Occasionally?” Garcia gasped, horrified at his indifference. “Aaron Hotchner, how can you be so nonchalant about THE Valkyrie?”

He merely raised an eyebrow, his expression neutral. “I’m aware of her work.”

Spencer, still analyzing, added, “There’s been a lot of speculation about who her songs are about. She’s private, so no one really knows who she’s dating.”

Derek chuckled. “She’s probably dating some regular guy, someone outside the spotlight.”

At that, Hotch couldn’t help but suppress a grin. He supposed, in a way, he was that regular guy - well, as regular as the head of the BAU could be.

Just then, Garcia pressed play on the song, and your voice flowed through the speakers, soft and intimate. It was the song you’d written just for him, though no one else knew that. The one that talked about finding calm in the chaos, about love that was steady and unwavering.

JJ’s brow furrowed as she listened closely, some of the lyrics sounding a little too familiar, her eyes drifting toward Hotch, catching the subtle change in his expression. “Wait… Hotch, you wouldn’t happen to know something about this, would you?”

The team went quiet as all eyes turned to him. Hotch met JJ’s gaze, his lips twitching into the faintest smile. He debated for a moment how much he should reveal. You had both agreed to keep things quiet after all, your lives were public enough without everyone knowing about your relationship. But as he looked at his team, he realized it was time.

“I do,” Hotch finally said, his voice steady.

Garcia’s eyes went wide, her tablet nearly slipping from her hands. “WAIT… WHAT?”

Derek blinked in disbelief. “No way.”

“You and Valkyrie?” Emily asked her tone somewhere between astonishment and amusement.

Hotch’s small smile grew a little. “We’ve been together for a while now.”

The bullpen exploded into noise - questions, laughter, disbelief. Garcia was beside herself. “YOU’VE BEEN DATING VALKYRIE AND DIDN’T TELL US?”

Hotch shrugged slightly. “It wasn’t relevant to the job.”

Emily shook her head, grinning. “I can’t believe you kept this a secret.”

“Believe it,” Hotch replied, his tone light but still full of pride.

Penelope, still in shock, glanced at the tablet, then back at Hotch. “That song - this whole album - it’s about you, isn’t it?”

Hotch didn’t need to answer, but the look in his eyes was enough confirmation. Spencer, still processing, muttered, “Well, that certainly explains the lyrics.”

As the team bombarded him with questions, Hotch’s mind wandered back to you. Despite the craziness of your life in the public eye and his demanding career, you had found something rare and beautiful together. And now, it seemed, the secret was out - but somehow, he didn’t mind.

[outworkstechblogs]

Challenges faced in the Insurance Industry and Implementation of RPA in Insurance

The insurance industry faced many challenges. Some of the challenges are-

Operational Roadblocks

Operations in the insurance sector get operated by non-automatic, time-consuming, and repetitious processes. While manual risk appraisal in underwriting is time-consuming and dependent on destined criteria, unautomated data processing from unshaped sources in claims administration is slow and prone to mistakes.

A Large quantity of Data.

Present hyperconnected world, essential data is constantly flowing into the insurance industry. But insurers lack applicable technology and an over-reliance on manual data running.

Poor client Experience

It’s worth noting that the Above industry issues stem primarily from insurance cover-reliance on non-automated processes. Visitors are left with seriously unsatisfying experiences as a result of these problems.

Implementation of RPA in Insurance

Implementing Robotic Process Automation technology in the insurance sector can be complex, and the impact is multifaceted. Thus, it needs a well-organized plan and knowledge about the effect of multiple departments in a company. Below given is many ways necessary to apply RPA successfully.

Find the ethical process.

It’s essential to perform a top-down analysis of end-to-end processes to have the most applicable opportunities for RPA. At this stage, queries regarding the procedure need to get addressed before automation.

Define vision and strategy

Set up a perfect strategy or route chart for measuring RPA deployment. The main checkpoints for defining a strategy include three ways:

Explaining the inflow of the process in tactics and stages.

Deciding on tasks or tools that grease dynamic delivery.

Creating the plan for automation by planning each step of the process.

Set up governance and authority

An automation program run by a C- suite member helps secure timely checkpoints. Also, to keep business as usual( BAU), collaboration must be there between the IT and the operations department.

When it comes to the insurance sector, insurers keep facing challenges because of the rapid development of client demand and high competition. As the insurance industry increased backed by the efficacity of back-office processes, insurers began to borrow Robotic Process Automation to automate automated activities, transactions, and routines, to rebuild the capability and capital for further intricate and strategic tasks.

Other than the ease of using RPA bots, it can also help insurers to attain advanced gains, better compliance, long-term growth in the company, and best client service while reducing costs and barring dropouts of customers. Considering the advantages and scalability offered by RPA technology, it’s hoped that the insurance sector will increase the perpetration of RPA to an advanced rate. Robotic Process Automation is used to promote long-term success prospects and product requests.

Some of the use cases of RPA implemented in insurance are:

· Underwriting

· Process and Business and Analytics

· Regulatory Compliance

· Policy Cancellation

· Claim Registration and Processing

Outworks solutions provide the best in class RPA solutions. They aim at delivering on-time solutions without any hassles. For more information, contact us today.

[skiller0dani]

Old Prison Blues | Spencer Reid

M A S T E R L I S T Criminal Minds Masterlist

smut | dom!spencer x bau!reader requests info w.c | 7.2k summary | when your husband Spencer gets released from Prison, he's much different then you remember.

I have it so bad for this man, enjoy! Also guys this piece made butterflies squirm in my belly lmao this one is so HOT it made me blush. Guys, it made me B L U S H. I need to go dunk myself in holy water to atone for this SIN. (just kidding lmao I'm agnostic).

you can see his bulge in this gif and I can't stop admiring looking at it.

When you were in college you'd been an undergraduate in Criminal Justice, so you were familiar with the effects Prison has on the psyche. In other words, you knew Spencer would come back different. No person could pass through Prison unscathed and frankly you'd be more concerned if he came back and nothing had changed at all. At home, he seemed to be relatively okay, and those 6 mandatory weeks of break had allowed him the rest he deserved. Nothing exciting had happened during those weeks, the only thing you did was curl up on the couch next to him and watch movies. You'd made up for all those weeks in Prison during the evenings when you would cling to him and cry out his name in ecstasy.

Spencer really did seem to be fine, until you returned to work. That's when you started to see all the ways Prison had hardened him.

At first, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. If you were someone who knew Spencer well then you knew that he wasn't a man who was confident in his looks. When you and Spencer first got married he was insecure, and would be discouraged when you hung out with other guys. You wouldn't say he was jealous because jealously in itself requires a certain amount of anger. But when Spencer saw you around other men he wasn't angry, he was sad. Absolutely convinced you were going to leave him any second, despite you telling him you married him because you love him. Deep down, he always thought somebody would steal you from him even though you consistently reminded him how much you love him. That's just the kind of guy Spencer is.

Or, was.

The darkness that brews in Prison, the violent hatred, the anger seems to have followed Spencer to freedom. It has made a home in his chest, and while you're not worried about Spencer flying off the deep end and shooting an innocent, the anger reveals itself in much more subtle ways. It's in the way he clenches his jaw when he can't figure something out, or the blanching of his knuckles as he grips the steering wheel with a crushing force, it's the agitation in his eyes when he watches Alvez's knuckles brush against your lower back for the 3rd time since you two had arrived at the office this morning. The anger has adapted to civilian life like Spencer has, it's learned. It's subtle. Unfortunately you know Spencer almost better then he knows himself, you can tell when something is bothering him.

You slide your hands over his shoulders, and much to your surprise you feel him tense.

"You okay?" You know it's a stupid question, but you have to ask.

"Yeah, fine." Spencer's tone is clipped, shoulders rigid, back straight. Something is definitely bothering him. You squeeze his shoulders and begin to work at the tightened muscles, slowly easing them to relax. The tension flows out of him as he relaxes back in his desk chair, the frustration ebbing away slightly when his eyes catch your wedding ring. The object that binds you to him.

"Don't shut me out." You whisper, a soft plea in your voice. Spencer's heart wretches when he hears the fear in your tone, and one of his hands comes up to catch yours. He presses a chaste kiss to one of your knuckles before swiveling around to face you. You always find a way to soothe the violent, raging beast inside of him. Spencer's hands find your hips as he turns his gaze up to look at you.

"You're right I'm sorry. Just tense today." He says softly, and while there is a little lie to his words, his statement remains mostly the truth. He just leaves out the part where he pictures enacting varying forms of violence on Luke Alvez. The man who keeps unnecessarily touching his wife. You lean down to press a kiss to his forehead, your head snapping up when Garcia calls from the conference room.

"Got a case folks, and it's an ugly one." Her nose scrunches up into a frown before she turns into the room. You pull away from Spencer, yanking him to his feet by his hand. Luke sends you a playful wink as he trots up the stairs, and while you don't necessarily react to it, it still puts Spencer on edge. Deep down Spencer always knew you were way out of his league, but that never became clearer then when you came to visit him in Prison.

┈ ✁✃✁✃✁✃✁✃✁ ┈

You were trembling as you lowered yourself into the chair. Dried tears were on your cheeks, and you haven't even seen Spencer yet. The last time you saw him was a few weeks prior after he first got back from Mexico. Seeing his wrists bound in those metal handcuffs had broken your heart in a way you never anticipated. You wrung your hands together, luckily when Penelope had made the visitation Chart she scheduled you as the first person to come see him. The plastic chair was uncomfortable, but what was worse was the plastic guard separating you from Spencer. The clock ticked loudly, it was clearly mocking you. Reminding you of the seconds you were losing with Spencer, reminding you of all the seconds he was spending in Prison.

When you hear the buzzer scream loudly, you nearly come out of your seat you're so excited to see him. You and Spencer got married back in 2005, and you've never been separated from him for longer then a week. It's been over a month now, and each day he's not with you leaves a bigger hole in your chest. You watch him follow the other prisoners out, and the handcuffs around his wrists breaks your heart. His eyes light up the second he sees you, he nearly shoves the other guy over to get to you faster. There are tears in your eyes as Spencer's wrists are released from the cuffs from the guard standing nearby.

"Hey baby." Spencer says softly as he takes his seat across from you. All you want is to reach across the stupid barrier and touch him, hold his hand, anything. But you know the guards will punish him if he does, but being this close to him without being able to hold him is absolutely killing you. You try to blink the tears out of your eyes so that Spencer won't see, but it's all too much. Seeing him in a jumpsuit, with cuff bruises around his wrists, having to sleep in the same building as murderers. The first tear falls and you immediately look away from him.

"Please don't cry." Spencer begs softly. "I'm okay, really."

You wipe your tears before you look back up at him, digging around in your bag for a gift from Henry. You smile when you see the happiness cross onto his face as you pull the piece of paper out.

"Henry drew this for you, it's from when you guys went to the park." You hold it up for him to see and you try to fight another onslaught of tears when you see his eyes misting.

"You know, when I get out of here we should have one." Spencer says it so casually, you almost miss it. Your eyes nearly pop out of your head as you carefully lower the drawing.

"You want to try for a baby?" You can't hide the smile, and you see Spencer's eyes shine for the first time since he's been in here.

"Yeah, I want to have a baby with you." You and Spencer had a brief conversation about kids a few years ago, and you knew Spencer wasn't ready for it back then. His Father ran out on him and Diana when Spencer was just a kid, it made Spencer insecure about the type of Father he would end up being. In Spencer's mind, a fatherless man would never make a good Father. But it seems he's changed his mind. You had no issues agreeing to wait before you had kids until he was ready, you always knew Spencer would be a fantastic Father.

Suddenly from Spencer's right you hear a low wolf whistle. The tenderness that was on Spencer's face is instantly wiped away. His expression tenses, his jaw clenching as he turns his gaze to a large burly looking man covered in tattoos. The man sitting across from him, the one who was visiting, looked similar. Both of the biker looking men were eyeing me hungrily, it made my skin crawl.

"Something I can help you with?" Spencer asks, his voice tense. The tension in the room grows tenfold, and you fight the instinct to try and scoot closer to Spencer. The Biker looks Spencer in the eyes, a taunting smile on his face.

"That your sister?"

"Wife." Spencer snaps instantly.

"Your wife?" The Biker says incrediously, Spencer raises a brow, daring him to continue. "There's no way a woman with an ass that tight would marry a man as scrawny as you."

You expected to see insecurity flash in Spencer's eyes, instead all you saw was rage. Unbridled, violent rage.

"Choose your next words carefully." Spencer's voice was low, and as sharp as the edge of a blade. You almost didn't recognize him. The Biker leaned forward, fueled only by the knowledge that he was getting under Spencer's skin.

"She as tight as she looks? If I wasn't locked up, I'd fuck her so good she wouldn't even remember what your little pecker feels like."

Spencer's jaw clenches, and his fists curl tightly. The Biker is about 2 words away from a broken nose.

"Baby just let it go." You plead, and normally you don't really use pet names in public but right now you needed to show him that you're his.

"I'll tell you what Klein, I'll fuck her for you and tell you how it felt." The other man says, the man visiting. Upon hearing the words come out of his mouth, Spencer is shoving up from the chair but almost instantly a guard is tightly gripping Spencer's shirt and shoving him back into the chair. Spencer is fuming, and there's nothing you can do to calm him down.

"If you so much as lay a finger on her, your friend here will be dead before you can have another visit." Spencer hisses, and the two large men chuckle.

Spencer instantly took you off the visitors list, and while that felt like a blow to your heart you understood why. You didn't want to stress him out by visiting him.

┈ ✁✃✁✃✁✃✁✃✁ ┈

So, yeah, Spencer knew you were out of his league and when Luke pulled your chair out for you at the table before he had the chance to, it made his blood boil. Why is Luke trying to take care of you? Doesn't he know that Spencer has been released from Prison? You don't need anybody else to take care of you, your husband is more than capable of doing it himself. When Spencer sat down in the chair next to you, he rested one hand on your thigh. You're only slightly surprised, normally Spencer isn't this 'handsy' in public, but in recent weeks he's been more assertive around other men.

"The body of 23 year old Cassandra Richardson was found 2 weeks ago in Lincoln, Nebraska. Her body was mutilated and showed signs of sexual assault. Yesterday another body, 20 year old Francesca Williams was found around the same warehouse district with similar wounds to the first victim." Penelope rushes the words out, almost as though saying them pains her. Various images show on the screen of the two victims, both bloodied and battered.

"Other than similar injuries, what makes the local police think it's the same unsub?" Luke asks, his eyes flickering towards you for the briefest second. While Spencer was locked away, Luke became a shoulder to cry on. Normally when you were upset and Spencer wasn't around, you'd talk to Derek. But since he's been gone you've felt more isolated then you normally do. Luke had found you crying one morning before you had taken off, and ever since he's had an "older brother" protection over you.

"A tattoo on both of the victims thighs, the words 'temerata virginem' which is Latin for 'desecrated virgin'." With the click of a button on her remote, Penelope pulls up a photo of the tattoos. The lines are shaky, although they stay mostly straight.

"It almost looks professional, except the lines aren't perfectly straight. A professional would make the line work perfect." JJ says, examining the photo closer in the folder each of you received. You turn your gaze to Spencer when you feel his hand leave your thigh to examine the photo closer. You could practically see the gears turning in that beautiful mind of his.

"It's possible an outside source is causing a tremble in the unsubs hands, if he is a professional tattoo artist." Spencer mumbles, almost to himself. Sometimes when he's in deep concentration, he nearly forgets other people are in the room with him.

"Could be drugs-" Luke starts but is sharply cut off.

"Actually it's more likely to be alcohol, withdraw from other drugs would be too severe to operate the tattoo machine." Spencer snaps, causing a few heads to turn and look at him. Maybe under other circumstances someone would say something to him, but since Spencer got released from Prison only a few weeks ago, nobody says anything. Luke's eyebrows furrow together as he shoots Spencer a confused look, one Spencer chooses to ignore as his hand returns to your thigh. Spencer knows he's acting like a jerk but he can't help it, Luke needs to know who you belong to. Spencer had everything taken from him in Prison, he won't let anyone take you from him too.

"We've been personally asked by the local police to assist, so wheels up in 30." Emily concludes, shooting one more look at Spencer before everybody rises.

┈ ✁✃✁✃✁✃✁✃✁ ┈

The tension on the jet is thick, you're absolutely sure everybody can feel it. Hardly anyone has interacted with Spencer, except to ask him a question about the case. You sit back against the couch, Luke sitting in one of the chairs at the table, and Spencer sitting on the arm of the chair next to you. In your hand was a nearly empty cup of coffee, and just as you move to refill, Luke rises with his own empty cup.

"Need a refill?" He asks, offering you a friendly smile.

"Yeah actually-"

"I got it." Spencer says abruptly, standing from where he was sitting. His eyes meet Luke's, silently challenging him. You try to be understanding, but you can't help but feel annoyed at Spencer. If he was acting like this to some random guy then that's one thing, but this is Luke. He's your friend, he's Spencer's friend. Luke, and the rest of the team, put everything on the line to free Spencer from Prison.

"It's cool man, I can do it-" Luke offers again, but Spencer isn't having it.

"I said I got it." Spencer reaches his hand out for your mug, which you instantly give to him. His eyes don't leave Luke's until he turns around and heads to the back of the jet to refill your coffee. Luke pauses for a few seconds, his eyes meeting yours and mirroring the same look of concern before he heads for the coffee pot as well. Luke isn't even upset by how Spencer is treating him, he- like everyone else, is worried about Spencer's psyche.

"What is going on with Spencer?" JJ whispers once she's sure Spencer is out of earshot. You shrug, your worried eyes landing on your husband. His posture is tense, almost defensive.

"Well can you blame him? In Prison, everything that's yours can and will be stolen by the other male inmates. Now that he's free, Spencer is being protective of his wife, someone that is his and can be taken by other men." Rossi says, always naturally a tad protective of Spencer.

"There isn't a man on this planet that would make me leave Spencer." You say defensively, although you know Rossi didn't mean anything by what he said.

"That might be obvious to you, but not to Spencer." JJ says, eyeing Spencer standing back near the coffee machine.

"Doing okay man?" Luke asks hesitantly as he moves to stand next to Spencer.

"Yep." Spencer says shortly, waiting for the pot to brew. Luke feels the tension rolling off Spencer in waves, and it's all being directed at him and he's not sure why.

"Look, if I've done something to upset you, just talk to me about it Reid." Luke's voice is gentle, understanding. Spencer's jaw clenches again as the pot finishes brewing and he refreshes your cup before reaching for the creamer.

"I'm fine Alvez. Really." Spencer says again, but Luke isn't willing to let this go yet.

"No Reid, you're not-"

"Stop flirting with my wife." Spencer's tone is firm, and the look in his eyes tells Luke just how on edge Spencer is.

"You got it." Luke agrees instantly, even though he was never flirting with you. But he knows that right now arguing with Spencer will only make things worse. Seemingly satisfied with Luke's answer, Spencer carries your cup back you, slinging an arm around you.

┈ ✁✃✁✃✁✃✁✃✁ ┈

Spencer twists his wedding ring around his ring finger, something he does when he's stressed out or tense. You're currently sat in the interrogation room with the male suspect, a tattoo artist attending AA meetings, the tattoo on the first victim was the shakiest because he had just quit drinking. The other, more recent, victims tattoo's were more steady. The longer he stayed sober, the more his trembling faded. In Spencer's other palm is your wedding ring, you fit the physical preference of this killer perfectly, but he only went after single women. Emily thought sending somebody in fitting his victimology would throw him off enough to say something incriminating. In order for the rouse to work, you needed to appear single- meaning the wedding ring had to come off. The thought didn't settle well in Spencer's gut.

"You have to relax." JJ said suddenly from Spencer's right. He nearly ignored her but his frayed nerves were beginning to eat at him.

"I can't. Do you see the way he's looking at her?" Spencer was pacing back and forth in front of the one way glass like a caged animal, unable to take his eyes off of the train wreck happening in front of him.

"She can handle herself Spence." JJ insists gently, almost using a motherly tone to talk to him.

"She's mine!" And suddenly the crux of the issue comes to light, and Spencer pinches the bridge of his nose, releasing a heavy breath. JJ thinks about her words carefully, trying to find something to say that will calm him at least a little.

"Yeah, and nothing is going to change that Spencer. You need to relax, and you have to trust her. You're not in Prison anymore, nobody is going to take her from you." JJ says, looking him in the eyes. Suddenly the sound of metal screeching across a concrete floor sounds from behind Spencer and when he turns around, his blood boils hot in his veins. The suspect, Alan Baker, has shoved out of his chair and has started towards you.

"Spencer-" JJ's voice is distant, and comes too late. Spencer isn't listening to her anymore when his fist curls around the door handle and he nearly rips it off its hinges.

"You need to step back." Spencer snaps, reaching for his gun as Alan Baker backs you into the corner of the interrogation room. You weren't ever truly afraid, you could have handled Alan. Slowly, Alan backs away from you and Spencer instantly reaches for you. He leads you out of the room with a gentle but firm hand on your back. Once you're out of the interrogation room you turn to Spencer.

"What the hell? I could have dealt with him!" You insist, frustration laced in your tone. At this point JJ silently slips out of the room, giving you and Spencer some much needed privacy. Spencer crosses his arms as he leans back against the one way mirror.

"You didn't need to, I did." Spencer huffs and you seriously resist the urge to throw something at him.

"What is your problem today? You could have compromised my entire interrogation, he's never going to tell me anything now!" You snap, anger pinching at your features.

"Good! Now you have no reason to talk to him again." Spencer snaps back, can't you see that he's just protecting what's his?

"Spencer we're trying to save somebody! You're being selfish!" You say to him angrily, trying your best not to start yelling at him. Spencer's selfish possessiveness over you could have just ruined your entire investigation.

"This is why the Bureau was hesitant to reinstate you. They were scared you wouldn't be able to control yourself." You snap at him, crossing your arms.

"Are you saying they made a mistake?" Spencer asks incrediously, suddenly becoming defensive.

"Maybe they did. Because you're acting like an asshole right now. You've been a jerk to Luke the entire day when he busted his ass to help get you out of Prison and back to me! Since when have you not trusted me during an interrogation? What did you think was going to happen? That I was going to let him touch me? I thought you trusted me." You cry out, tears filling your eyes now. Spencer didn't say anything as you turned for the door, anger still laced in his features.

"This has nothing to do with me not trusting you-"

"If you don't trust me, then maybe you should just hold onto my wedding ring for a while. I don't want it." You snap quietly, and you regret the words the second they leave your lips. No matter how mad he makes you, you'd never leave Spencer. You watch Spencer's expression shift from anger to...hurt. He watches silently as you slam the door behind you. Prison has turned him into somebody he isn't, and Spencer doesn't know how to turn off this part of his brain. The part telling him that you belong to him, and that he needs to protect what's his.

Rossi catches the sight of your tear stained cheeks as you move back towards the kitchen in the precinct. You wipe your tears as he comes to stand beside you, and the look on his face tells you that he overheard your fight with Spencer. Rossi bumps you with his elbow gently, a small smile on his face.

"You don't look okay." He says softly and you let out a self-depreciating laugh.

"I'm not. I don't know how to help Spencer, he doesn't trust me." You say sadly, your heart breaking in your chest.

"It's not you he doesn't trust, it's other men." Rossi clarifies, although it does little to ease the pain. You reach up to brush your hair behind your ear when Rossi catches your hand, examining your ring finger.

"Where's your wedding ring?"

"Told Spencer I didn't want it." The words are laced with heavy regret, and when you remember the look on his face when you said it you almost start to cry again. Rossi wraps an arm around you, and you lean your head on his shoulder.

"Deep down, he knows you didn't mean it." He tries to reassure you.

"That's the problem, he probably thinks I meant it."

┈ ✁✃✁✃✁✃✁✃✁ ┈

Normally it only takes you and Spencer a few hours to smooth things over after a fight. But this time, it's been nearly 3 hours and you haven't spoken a word to each other. You're both working on searching through Alan Baker's financial records without speaking at all. Neither of you have said anything, and Spencer still has your wedding ring. You desperately want it back, but you don't know how to start that conversation. You're angry about how he's been treating everybody, and you feel like asking for your ring is accepting defeat. You're not ready to accept defeat. When Emily comes into the room, her eyes settle on the two of you.

"Okay, what's going on with you guys?" Her arms are crossed.

"Nothing." The word comes from both yours and Spencer's mouths at the same time, and you say it far too quickly. Emily raises one brow at the two of you before closing the door behind her.

"Alright I'm going to have to be a boss now. We are not going to lock this guy away if the two of you are fighting. We need everybody on their A-game. Fix it. Now, and I mean right now." She says, leaving the room but closing the door behind her. There's a suffocating silence that fills the room, both you and Spencer too stubborn to speak first. But you can't take it, you hate it when he's mad at you. You hate it when you guys fight, which isn't often but it does happen occasionally.

"I didn't mean it." You whisper, leaning on the table, facing away from him. Spencer doesn't say anything but you know he's listening.

"I didn't mean it Spencer, I want my ring." He'd be lying if he said he wasn't relieved to hear you say that, his entire world crashed down around him the second you told him to keep the ring. The irrational part of his brain told him you were going to divorce him.

"Can I please have it back?" You ask, barely turning your head to look at him. With a huff Spencer pushes away from the table to move in front of you. His eyes are focused on your hand, he has yet to look at you. Spencer fishes around in his pocket before he finds your ring and gently slides it onto your ring finger.

"You have to stop glaring at any man that gets to close to me, especially Luke." You tell him, but he continues to look away from you. Spencer pushes past you to stand near the windows, his back facing you. The thing about Spencer is that he's stubborn, really stubborn. You take a few steps towards him, nibbling on your lower lip.

"I love you Spencer, I'm sorry. I was an ass, but you acted like an ass too." You tell him, but Spencer only turns his head further away from you. You move to stand in front of him, but his eyes turn to the ground and his arms are crossed tightly. Seriously?

"Please talk to me Spencer, tell me what's going on." You can see the frustration laced in his features, there's something on the tip of his tongue that he needs to say.

"Spencer."

"After you left from your visit, do you know why I didn't let you come back?" Spencer snaps, his hands finding your shoulders to yank your body against his. Your chest collides with his and suddenly you feel a dampness building between your legs. You instantly turn to putty in his hands.

"I didn't let you come back because that asshole told everybody about you. Told everybody what a tight little body you have. Soon the entire cell block was fantasizing about my 'sexy wife'. Do you have any idea what it's like to listen to men constantly talk about fucking your wife?" Spencer's voice is tense, but you can see it. The lust building behind his eyes, the frustration, and the fear of losing you simmering underneath it all.

"N-No." Your voice is breathy, and your eyes are lidded as Spencer's hands slide up your arms to your shoulders.

"It's fucking hell Y/N. Every time I see any man look at you I want to rip his eyes out, and I can't turn it off. I've tried, and the way that Alvez looks at you- it drives me fucking crazy." Spencer snaps, the anger building by the second. Your entire body begins to hum with an intense need, and Spencer can see it in your eyes. Spencer releases you then and he turns for the door, at first you're afraid he's going to leave but instead he locks the door. Luckily it's late, so the police station is more deserted then it is during the day. Turning back to you, Spencer reaches for the blinds next and you can't help but follow his every movement with your eyes.

"Get on your knees." Spencer says suddenly, and you freeze in shock. Did he just say...?

"Get. On. Your. Knees." Spencer says again through clenched teeth, leaning back against the table, heat simmering in his eyes. His hands grip the edge of the table and you feel a throb from between your legs. Quickly you scramble onto your knees in front of him, your hands reaching up to undo his belt. Once the belt is unfastened, you're quickly unbuttoning his dress slacks, your eagerness making your hands a bit clumsy. Spencer has never been this dominant during sex, but you have no complaints. He has your knees weak and he hasn't even touched you. You quickly dip your hand into his boxers to pull his hardening cock out. As soon as his cock is freed, your lips are wrapping around the head. Spencer's head tosses back in ecstasy.

"Your lips look so pretty stretched around my cock. Those bastards could only imagine having you on your knees for them." Spencer snaps, his hand weaving into the hair at the back of your head. You moan softly around him at his crude words, slowly sliding down his cock. Spencer groans when he feels your tongue laving the underside of his cock, along the vein that runs from base to tip. Apparently feeling impatient, Spencer pushes your head further down his cock. He feels his tip right at the entrance of your throat, and with one gentle thrust he breaches your throat and his cock slides all the way into your mouth.

"Fuck," Spencer hisses, and Spencer does not curse often. So the fact that you have been able to draw curses from his mouth is nothing short of a miracle. Spencer's chest heaves slightly as you gag lightly around him, drawing another deep groan from his chest. You feel nearly desperate to please him, you need to make him cum. You want him to fucking pound you, you want him to use your body for his pleasure. You want him to release all of his frustration out on you, you want to be sore when he's done.

"You're mine. This is my body to touch and admire, my tight pussy to stretch open, mine." Spencer growls, thrusting gently to meet your hasty movements. You whimper around his cock, gagging slightly again as spit dribbles down your chin. Your eyes are wide and watery as you look up at him, and the sight of you nearly causes him to blow his load. You just look so fucking beautiful on your knees in front of him, drool on your chin and your mouth full of cock. It's a sight he will never forget. You move your head faster, keeping your eyes locked on his. Spencer squeezes the edge of the table, his head tossing back when his orgasm hits him. You feel his cum shooting in spurts to the back of your throat and you swallow every drop. Once you pull off him, Spencer is grabbing your elbows to pull you to stand.

Spencer's hands are reaching for the button of your dress slacks as his mouth presses messily to yours. Spencer's tongue pushes into your mouth, his hands pushing your pants down and you kick them off. Instantly, Spencer's fingers are sliding into your panties and through your slick folds. You whine loudly against his mouth, your eyes fluttering shut as his palm roughly cradles the back of your head.

"Need to make sure you know who you belong to." Spencer snaps as he pulls away from you, quickly pushing two long fingers into your dripping hole. You cry out before Spencer is slapping a hand over your mouth, your back pressed against the wall. Spencer's slender frame is leaning against you, effectively trapping you against the wall and his body. Your eyes are rolling when Spencer's finger crook inside of you while roughly thrusting into you.

"Gotta be quiet, wouldn't want Luke to catch us now would we?" Spencer breathes in the shell of your ear, sending goosebumps spreading over your skin. You are completely at Spencer's mercy and you wouldn't have it any other way. The pleasure shooting through you goes rocketing up your spine when Spencer scissors his fingers inside of you. You're mumbling incoherently against his palm, desperate pleas not to stop, to please let you cum. Your entire body is flushed, and you feel sweat on your skin like a sheen layer over you. Spencer feels you begin to squeeze around his fingers and he replaces his palm with his mouth, swallowing all of your moans and desperate cries.

Your back is arching as your high approaches, and you climb higher and higher to meet it. Spencer never lets up, his fingers steadily pumping into you and his lips muffling all of your cries of pleasure. The sounds you make are music to his ears, they tell him that you will always be his, no matter what childish fears he has. Your hands come up to unbutton the buttons on Spencer's dress shirt, you need to feel more of him. Before you can finish undressing your husband, his fingers nudge your cervix and you instantly clamp around his fingers, your body convulsing.

"You look so beautiful when you cum." Spencer praises, his cock rock hard again. He needs to be inside of you as soon as humanely possible. Spencer pulls away from you to grasp the base of his cock, no need to bother with protection. The two of you already agreed that you want to try for a baby anyway.

"Please baby, please get inside me. How could you think I'd ever leave you? I love you, and nobody could make me cum like you can." You moan desperately, turning to bend over the table. Spencer's hand runs up your spine, enjoying the way you wriggle your hips in search of his cock. There are butterflies squirming in your stomach as you spread your legs apart wider for him, but he still doesn't bring his cock closer to you.

"Oh c'mon Spence don't do this please. Baby, fuck me." You plead, nearly sobbing as you shamlessly beg. He presses his tip against your soaked entrance and you whine. You hear fabric rustling around and you turn your head just in time to see him pull his tie from around his neck.

"I needed to hear you beg for me, and this is to keep you quiet. As much as I love the sounds you make when I'm inside you, I can't let anyone else hear you." Spencer says, his voice low and rumbling from his chest. You open your mouth to let him tie the silk fabric in your mouth. You try to whimper but you gag around the tie in your mouth, and you see a pleased smile cross onto Spencer's face. Your fingers grasp at the edge of the table as you impatiently wait for Spencer to push into you. You feel his glorious cock nestled at your entrance, the tip barely nudging in. You feel another wave of slick gush out of you and Spencer is running his tip through your already drenched folds. Such a tease.

You whine softly, trying to push back against him. Spencer chuckles darkly before his hands grasp your hips to hold you steady. With one firm thrust, Spencer is breaching your folds and sliding deep inside you. You feel heat searing through you, your head dropping to the table as you whimper through the burn. The stretch burns more then you anticipated, and you hear Spencer groaning softly, which sends another wave of liquid heat rushing through you.

"God you feel so good baby, you take my cock so fucking well." Spencer praises, gently pulling out to slowly thrust back in. His eyes are locked on the place where you two connect, watching with hooded eyes as his cock disappears inside you.

"I wish you could see this baby, I love watching you take my cock." He praises through a soft moan, and you drink up every sound he makes. Spencer needed this so bad and you love the fact that you can give him a type of relief nobody else on the planet can give him. Spencer steadily thrusts into you when you both hear footsteps slowly passing outside the room. You expect Spencer to stop, to pull out of you and start redressing but he doesn't. He slows his pace considerably, but he still slowly thrusts into you.

"Shh, I would hate for whoever that is to see my cock buried in your pretty pussy." Spencer whispers as he leans forward to whisper in your ear. You struggle to contain the whimpers, but somehow you remain completely silent as Spencer gently thrusts into you. Once whoever it is passes by, Spencer resumes his quicker thrusts. His pelvis hits your ass with enough force to send you lurching across the table and your fingers scramble to find purchase against the smooth surface.

"This is my pussy, you're my wife, you're mine. Not Luke's, not that dick from the Prison. Mine." Spencer says, punctuating the words with a sharp thrust into you. You wished you could answer him, that you could cry to the heavens that you belong to Spencer Reid- that you never want to belong to anybody else. You settle for squeezing his cock whenever it returns to your velvety warmth, chanting the same word in your head over and over.

Yours yours yours yours yours.

Your forehead presses against the table, muffled and strangled cries escaping your lips every time Spencer hits deep inside you. His cock stretches you perfectly, and always hits places deep inside you. Places you didn't know existed. Soon you feel your orgasm creeping up on you, and you feel lightheaded so you reach up to yank the tie away from your mouth.

"Please make me cum Spence, I'm so close baby please don't stop." You beg, muffling your moans with your palm as he drives his cock into you. You feel sweat covering your entire body and Spencer holds your hips with a bruising force. You feel that coil winding tighter and tighter, and you release a high pitched whine when Spencer's hand snakes around your body to thumb your clit.

"Oh Spencer your cock feels so good, soo good baby. Always feels so good, fuck baby I love you," You're not sure what you're saying at this point, an incoherent mess of praises for the man above you. Spencer loves when he reduces you to this, speaking in a jumble of words and disconnected statements because you can't think with his cock inside you.

"I, shit, I love you-" Spencer gasps, slamming his cock inside you and rolling your clit before you're squeezing around him tightly, your mouth falling open in a silent scream. You cum in hot gushes around him and Spencer can only offer a few more stuttering thrusts before he's cumming with a loud growl, coating your walls in his hot cum. Spencer keeps his cock inside you, ensuring his cum stays inside you. He wants to get you pregnant. His palms gently hold your hips, and all the frustration he's felt all day has completely disappeared. His chest is heaving from the exertion but he feels more relaxed then he has all day. There's a smile on your face and your eyes are closed as your legs finally give out and you collapse against the table.

"You okay?" You hear Spencer's voice, and you can't help but smile when you hear that he's panting slightly. You hum with a smile on your face.

"I'm amazing." You mumble back, feeling Spencer begin to gently massage your back. You love enjoying the afterglow with him, even if you're laying on a table. Slowly Spencer pulls out, but he groans softly when he sees his cum inside your pussy. He reaches to the floor to pull your panties and dress slacks back up your legs and he quickly tucks himself back into his pants. He buttons the 4 buttons you managed to open on his shirt before he's gently pulling you to stand.

"You sure you're alright?" Spencer asks, concern in his eyes. You nod with a smile, but when he releases his hold on your shoulders, you feel your legs tremble and give out underneath you. Spencer immediately catches you and sets you down on the table. You laugh softly.

"Guess you fucked me good."

"Sorry." Spencer says sheepishly, but you press a chaste kiss to his lips.

"Don't be, that had to have been the best sex we've had in a long time." You mumble against his lips and Spencer hums in agreement. Reaching for his tie, Spencer shoves it in his pocket before he pokes his head out of the room you guys just defiled.

"Spencer, I'm so sorry about what I said. I love you so much, I didn't mean what I said about my ring-" You blubber suddenly, drawing Spencer's attention to you. He cradles your head against his chest, pressing kisses to your forehead.

"I know baby, it's okay. I love you." Spencer answers quietly, holding you to him tightly.

"I'm sorry I was a jerk today. I'm just so protective of you. I can't let anything steal you from me." Spencer admits softly and you cup his cheeks to make him look at you. There is a sadness in his eyes that you want to obliterate, you can't stand it when he's sad. It breaks your heart.

"Nothing could steal me from you. I only want you Spencer." You say quietly and you see tears misting his eyes. He presses his lips desperately against yours, and you feel tears cascading down yours and his cheeks. The kiss is wet, but it's passionate and you throw every ounce of love you have for this man into it. When you and Spencer part, your foreheads are pressed together.

"Hey Spence? How am I gonna get to the hotel. I can't walk." You say softly with a giggle and Spencer smiles mischievously.

"I guess I'll have to carry you." He scoops you bridal style into his arms then and you blush deeply when he carries you out of the room and towards the front entrance.

"Spencer! Everybody is going to know!" You whisper into his ear and he chuckles.

"Good."

[dorcasrempel]

Study: State-level adoption of renewable energy standards saves money and lives

In the absence of federal adoption of climate change policy, states and municipalities in the United States have been taking action on their own. In particular, 29 states and the District of Columbia have enacted renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) requiring that a certain fraction of their electricity mix come from renewable power tech­nologies, such as wind or solar. But now some states are rethinking their RPSs. A few are making them more stringent, but many more are relaxing or even repealing them.

To Noelle Eckley Selin, an associate professor in the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, and Emil Dimanchev SM ’18, a senior research associate at the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, that’s a double concern: The RPSs help protect not only the global climate, but also human health.

Past studies by Selin and others have shown that national-level climate policies designed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions also significantly improve air quality, largely by reducing coal burning and related emissions, especially those that contribute to the formation of fine particulate matter, or PM2.5. While air quality in the United States has improved in recent decades, PM2.5 is still a threat. In 2016, some 93,000 premature deaths were attributed to exposure to PM2.5, according to the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation. Any measure that reduces those exposures saves lives and delivers health-related benefits, such as savings on medical bills, lost wages, and reduced productivity.

If individual states take steps to reduce or repeal their RPSs, what will be the impacts on air quality and human health in state and local communities? “We didn’t really know the answer to that question, and finding out could inform policy debates in individual states,” says Selin. “Obviously, states want to solve the climate problem. But if there are benefits for air quality and human health within the state, that could really motivate policy development.”

Selin, Dimanchev, and their collaborators set out to define those benefits. Most studies of policies that change electricity prices focus on the electricity sector and on the costs and climate benefits that would result nationwide. The MIT team instead wanted to examine electricity-consuming activities in all sectors and track changes in emissions, air pollution, human health exposures, and more. And to be useful for state or regional decision-making, they needed to generate estimates of costs and benefits for the specific region that would be affected by the policy in question.

A novel modeling framework

To begin, the researchers developed the following framework for analyzing the costs and benefits of renewable energy and other “sub-national” climate policies.

They start with an economy-wide model that simulates flows of goods and services and money throughout the economy, from sector to sector and region to region. For a given energy policy, the model calculates how the resulting change in electricity price affects human activity throughout the economy and generates a total cost, quantified as the change in consumption: How much better or worse off are consumers? The model also tracks CO2 emissions and how they’re affected by changes in economic activity.

Next, they use a historical emissions dataset published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that maps sources of air pollutants nationwide. Linking outputs of the economic model to that emissions dataset generates estimates of future emissions from all sources across the United States resulting from a given policy.

The emissions results go into an air pollution model that tracks how emitted chemicals become air pollution. For a given location, the model calculates resulting pollutant concentrations based on information about the height of the smoke stacks, the prevailing weather circulation patterns, and the chemical composition of the atmosphere.

The air pollution model also contains population data from the U.S. census for all of the United States. Overlaying the population data onto the air pollution results generates human exposures at a resolution as fine as 1 square kilometer.

Epidemiologists have developed coefficients that translate air pollution exposure to a risk of premature mortality. Using those coefficients and their outputs on human exposures, the researchers estimate the number of premature deaths in a geographical area that will result from the energy policy being analyzed.

Finally, based on values used by government agencies in evaluating policies, they assign monetary values to their calculated impacts of the policy on CO2 emissions and human mortality. For the former, they use the “social cost of carbon,” which quantifies the value of preventing damage caused by climate change. For the latter, they use the “value of statistical life,” a measure of the economic value of reducing the risk of premature mortality.

With that modeling framework, the researchers can estimate the economic cost of a renewable energy or climate policy and the benefits it will provide in terms of air quality, human health, and climate change. And they can generate those results for a specific state or region.

Case study: RPSs in the U.S. Rust Belt

As a case study, the team focused on the Rust Belt — in this instance, 10 states across the Midwest and Great Lakes region of the United States (see Figure 1 in the slideshow above). Why? Because they expected lawmakers in some of those states to be reviewing their RPSs in the near future.

On average, the RPSs in those states require customers to purchase 13 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030. What will happen if states weaken their RPSs or do away with them altogether, as some are considering?

To find out, the researchers evaluated the impacts of three RPS options out to 2030. One is business as usual (BAU), which means maintaining the current renewables requirement of 13 percent of generation in 2030. Another boosts the renewables share to 20 percent in 2030 (RPS+50%), and another doubles it to 26 percent (RPS+100%). As a baseline, they modeled a so-called counterfactual (no-RPS), which assumes that all RPSs were repealed in 2015. (In reality, the average RPS in 2015 was 6 percent.)

Finally, they modeled a scenario that adds to the BAU-level RPS a “CO2 price,” a market-based climate strategy that caps the amount of CO2 that industry can emit and allows companies to trade carbon credits with one another. To the researchers’ knowledge, there have been no studies comparing the air quality impacts of such carbon pricing and an RPS using the same model plus consistent scenarios. To fill that gap, they selected a CO2 price that would achieve the same cumulative CO2 reductions as the RPS+100% scenario does.

Results of the analysis

The four maps in Figure 2 in the slideshow above show how the enactment of each policy would change air pollution — in this case, PM2.5 concentrations — in 2030 relative to having no RPS. The results are given in micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter. For comparison, the national average PM2.5 concentration was 8 micrograms per cubic meter in 2018.

The effects of the policy scenarios on PM2.5 concentrations (relative to the no-policy case) mostly occur in the Rust Belt region. From largest to smallest, the reductions occur in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia. Concentrations of PM2.5 are lower under the more stringent climate policies, with the largest reduction coming from the CO2 price scenario. Concentrations also decline in states such as Virginia and New York, which are located downwind of coal plants on the Ohio River.

Figure 3 in the slideshow above presents an overview of the costs (black), climate benefits (gray), and health benefits (red) in 2030 of the four scenarios relative to the no-RPS assumption. (All costs and benefits are reported in 2015 U.S. dollars.) A quick glance at the BAU results shows that the health benefits of the current RPSs exceed both the total policy costs and the estimated climate benefits. Moreover, while the cost of the RPS increases as the stringency increases, the climate benefits and — especially — the human health benefits jump up even more. The climate benefit from the CO2 price and the RPS+100% are, by definition, the same, but the cost of the CO2 price is lower and the health benefit is far higher.

Figure 4 in the slideshow above presents the quantitative results behind the Figure 3 chart. (Depending on the assumptions used, the analyses produced a range of results; the numbers here are the central values.) According to the researchers’ calculations, maintaining the current average RPS of 13 percent from renewables (BAU) would bring health benefits of $4.7 billion and implementation costs of $3.5 billion relative to the no-RPS scenario. (For comparison, Dimanchev notes that $3.5 billion is 0.1 percent of the total goods and services that U.S. households consume per year.) Boosting the renewables share from the BAU level to 20 percent (RPS+50%) would result in additional health benefits of $8.8 billion and $2.3 billion in costs. And increasing from 20 to 26 percent (RPS+100%) would result in additional health benefits of $6.5 billion and $3.3 billion in costs.

CO2 reductions due to the RPSs would bring estimated climate benefits comparable to policy costs — and maybe larger, depending on the assumed value for the social cost of carbon. Assuming the central values, the climate benefits come to $2.8 billion for the BAU scenario, $6.4 billion for RPS+50%, and $9.5 billion for RPS+100%.

The analysis that assumes a carbon price yielded some unexpected results. The carbon price and the RPS+100% both bring the same reduction in CO2 emissions in 2030, so the climate benefits from the two policies are the same — $9.5 billion. But the CO2 price brings health benefits of $29.7 billion at a cost of $6.4 billion.

Dimanchev was initially surprised that health benefits were higher under the CO2 price than under the RPS+100 percent policy. But that outcome largely reflects the stronger effect that CO2 pricing has on coal-fired generation. “Our results show that CO2 pricing is a more effective way to drive coal out of the energy mix than an RPS policy is,” he says. “And when it comes to air quality, the most important factor is how much coal a certain jurisdiction is burning, because coal is by far the biggest contributor to air pollutants in the electricity sector.”

The politics of energy policy

While the CO2 price scenario appears to offer economic, health, and climate benefits, the researchers note that adopting a carbon pricing policy has historically proved difficult for political reasons — both in the United States and around the world. “Clearly, you’re forgoing a lot of benefits by doing an RPS, but RPSs are more politically attractive in a lot of jurisdictions,” says Selin. “You’re not going to get a CO2 price in a lot of the places that have RPSs today.”

And steps to repeal or weaken those RPSs continue. In summer 2019, the Ohio state legislature began considering a bill that would both repeal the state’s RPS and subsidize existing coal and nuclear power plants. In response, Dimanchev performed a special analysis of the benefits to Ohio of its current RPS. He concluded that by protecting human health, the RPS would generate an annual economic benefit to Ohio of $470 million in 2030. He further calculated that, starting in 2030, the RPS would avoid the premature deaths of 50 Ohio residents each year. Given the estimated cost of the bill at $300 million, he concluded that the RPS would have a net benefit to the state of $170 million in 2030.

When the state Legislature took up the bill, Dimanchev presented those results on the Senate floor. In introductory comments, he noted that Ohio topped the nation in the number of premature deaths attributed to power plant pollution in 2005, more than 4,000 annually. And he stressed that “repealing the RPS would not only hamper a growing industry, but also harm human health.”

The bill passed, but in a form that significantly rolled back the RPS requirement rather than repealing it completely. So Dimanchev’s testimony may have helped sway the outcome in Ohio. But it could have a broader impact in the future. “Hopefully, Emil’s testimony raised some awareness of the tradeoffs that a state like Ohio faces as they reconsider their RPSs,” says Selin. Observing the proceedings in Ohio, legislators in other states may consider the possibility that strengthening their RPSs could actually benefit their economies and at the same time improve the health and well-being of their constituents.

Emil Dimanchev is a 2018 graduate of the MIT Technology and Policy Program and a former research assistant at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change (the MIT Joint Program). This research was supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through its Air, Climate, and Energy Centers Program, with joint funding to MIT and Harvard University. The air pollution model was developed as part of the EPA-supported Center for Clean Air and Climate Solutions. The economic model — the U.S. Regional Energy Policy model — is developed at the MIT Joint Program, which is supported by an international consortium of government, industry, and foundation sponsors. Dimanchev’s outreach relating to the Ohio testimony was supported by the Policy Lab at the MIT Center for International Studies. 

This article appears in the Autumn 2019 issue of Energy Futures, the magazine of the MIT Energy Initiative. 

Study: State-level adoption of renewable energy standards saves money and lives syndicated from https://osmowaterfilters.blogspot.com/

[itcrisis-blog]

IT Industry Crisis

In recent months, I've been reading and hearing about GIS-Infra Support Crisis in IT Industry. I see it differently and thought of writing it down today and take feedback of looking at it from a different angle.

The first software export zone, SEEPZ – the precursor to the modern-day IT park – was established in Mumbai in 1973. More than 80 percent of the country's software exports were from SEEPZ in the 1980s.The Indian economy underwent major economic reforms in 1991, leading to a new era of globalization and international economic integration, and annual economic growth of over 6% from 1993–2002. India has mostly been Software Exporter business since the inception of IT and its boom. We basically knew how to make the product but lacked the business strategy. All major headquarters in US felt the need of outsourcing work in India because of cheap labor (conversion rate being low and IQ being High). We then started building more infra in terms of engineering colleagues, Personality development classes, etc. Thus, to meet growing IT and BPO sector needs we had to prepare the youth for the growing business demands. Now, we have invested more money in the economy just to meet the growing needs of the IT industry. Life Style costs became high, Real Estate saw a great boom, sales increased for Automobiles industry as earning capacity of people increased. Thus, overall money flow in the economy went very high which in turn affected the share market and saw a great boom there as well. We all know how corporates can drive the elections as they pump in loads of money during election campaigns of political party. We then choose the political parties and ask them to govern us. Ideally, it’s the corporate who governs us because now they will ask for ROI from political parties and make amendments in political reforms and finance polices.

Connecting the DOTS: Let's Take Corporate A being the most powerful Finance House in India/World. He decides to make some money. He funds few Startups in US and invests in few Colleges in India. Idea was to generate money from the investment made in Startups. Now see the flow:

Invest 100$ in US Startup B. Ask them to outsource few work to India.

India is now getting more business (lucrative). To meet the needs of the business, We need to train the Youth on Personality Development, Engineering, MBA, etc. Thus, new Career and courses were outlined because of the planned business project.

Now, Corporate A invests in Building of college infrastructures for building Engineering Colleges, Personality Development and others. This is now promoting a new career line for youth as well and giving job opportunities. There is now increase in Employment for the country and new Funds are pumped in the economy. One of the major Prima Facie for Any selected Prime Minister is to ensure Economy is growing and job opportunities are growing. This objective is now met.

New Bonds also gets introduced to take money from People of the country and giving them tax deductions under Sec 80C. We got Infrastructure Bonds. :)

Business AS Usual goes on for quite some time. Customers (Business Product Consumer) understood the art of the game and started demanding more at low cost because Cost increased and thus Tax as well. To meet both you got to lower the expenses. Now Market never forsee this situation. I see this is all planned.

The above business model started in a phase where there was scarcity of Engineers, and other skill sets. Thus, demand was high and supply of trained individuals was less. Then in BAU Situation, Demand and Supply was at par and Business Consumers had settled down well in the market and performing research. Finally, the Supply went high because in BAU the Demand was not increasing (it was stagnant), we didn't realize because we were busy manufacturing the skill sets or it was a predicament situation. Now, when supply is high we do not have enough jobs to offer because from BAU the Demand did not go up. The research done in BAU Phase we understood how to optimize the current work. Hence, Old skillsets with higher experience became tough to maintain because new skill set was available at a cheaper price.

Thus, in BAU Phase if we could have stopped the Supply and concentrated more on different level of Skillset then the market stagnation wouldn't have happened at the first place.

Overall Conclusion in few Points

Great Planning: Corporate A understood that he has earned enough out of his investments and he wanted more. Thus he kept on creating the Supply for which the demand was never there. This helped him to get more earnings from Dead investors in education because that is something we never question and ask for return.

Could not Forsee the Future: Investors were busy pumping money in the economy to yield more ROI of the investments. Thus, investors objective was to make money out of this situation and which is fine as they are investors. Investors could never forsee a sustainable plan to keep their ROI going. They were mostly interested with what their planners could show them in the short term. Leaders could not draw the complete picture of the overall business design and thus they could not plan the overall supply and demand chain properly.

Corporate A could never judge the situation in the first place, hence the downfall today.

Final Conclusion by Own Understanding:

We are busy looking at short term growth and miss to see the overall future for any new business coming in. Even if I'm wrong on this, it is pretty evident with current market situation, that it was not planed and implemented well.

Education System: Our Indian Education system is a series of old content going on for a pretty long time. Our education content in all standards should be aligned with current market conditions and varied fields of specialization should be made open at a very early age. Ex: My few engineer friends doesn't even implement 5% of their engineering knowledge in their current work Profile. That means their 4 years of engineering, money invested for education, Hostel/Lodge fees, Food Expenses are a complete waste. We should treat Education as another investment sector and should look forward to ROI. Parents/Students should completely understand the ROI of investment once they are going to take over professional content. Clear chart should be laid out with all corporates and education institutes to see what percentage of marks/Grade with Specialization combination will yield what starting salary package.

Job Market: Every corporate talks about Normalization. I think most of the companies has not even driven any activity in last few years to understand what skill & Experience should yield what amount of salary. Of course there will be a delta % depending upon the performance of the candidate. A baseline figure will help us to understand the ROI of our efforts. As supply is more, employees have very low success rate of negotiation with the company.

MSI: Every Employee eagerly waits for his/her performance appraisal hike at the end of the year. They work their heart out to get good benefits and good salary hikes to support the ongoing inflation rate of the economy. It’s a postpaid system. Most of the companies will end up saying that the organization did not do well, hence, no hikes for this year. Think of this in this way, You are using a postpaid connection of a certain telecom operator and as per the contract you are supposed to pay at the end of the year. Now, during payment cycle the consumer says that there were lot of call drops, 4g speed was not up to the mark, etc and says that no payment for this year because we did not earn enough. I'm sure this is not the right way and will leave companies in debts. I've spoken about a different productive way in my MSI blog. Please review and share your inputs on that blog.

[flique-researches1]

Intentional Objects (In Accidentally Specific Appearances)

(2014)

Friendship characterizes the complex set of relations produced between a series of quasi-utilitarian objects and their context, the multiple possibilities they suggest and the people that activate or produce them. Each work depends and relies on something else, which might be participative, or physical, infra- structural – such as electricity, water, the wall, the floor, people, etc. Referencing the design of nineteenth-century museums, which were modelled on private domestic galleries, Intentional Objects... inhabit space as furniture-like things, and as discreet alterations to the physical fabric of the buildings themselves.

“You have won rooms of your own in the house hitherto exclu- sively owned by men. You are able, though not without great labour and effort, to pay the rent. You are earning your five hundred pounds a year. But this freedom is only a beginning –the room is your own, but it is still bare. It has to be furnished; it has to be decorated; it has to be shared. How are you going to furnish it, how are you going to decorate it? With whom are you going to share it, and upon what terms?” – From Virginia Woolf, Professions for Women, speech delivered before a branch of the National Society for Women’s Service on 21 January 1931.

Alterations To Existing Conditions (to Simon Popper)consists of four interventions in the existing architecture of the space: an extraction fan has been installed, curtains removed and replaced by two screens articulating entrance and exit, and a window has been revealed. In this way the exhibition can be navigated by following the flow of light and air that comes from the street, is channelled into the exhibition, all the way through to the other space, past a window that allows you to know where you are. A wedge given by a friend becomes material for entering a new space and as a way to begin the making of an exhibition, by acknowledging and adapting the existing context.

A curtain separates space and articulates the relationships between inside and outside, day and night, public and private. The Bottom Line (to Kathrin Boehm)appears to designate a domestic space, and moves softly like an other-worldly jellyfish; yet it reveals another interior and an open window through its semi-transparent, heat-reflective weave.

The Weird Charismatic Power That Capitalism Has For Teenagers (to Johan Hartle) is a narrative device, made for multiplying talking together, and it is dedicated to the continuing conversations with the philosopher. The double ‘te?te-a?-te?te’ – referencing a type of seating invented for social relationships – furnishes the exhibition space as a place that has the ability to engage body as well as mind, in spite of the historical bias to view the spectatorial body as a disembodied eye. Hidden in plain sight, day and night, the museum bench acknowledges, recognises and admits the material ground of aesthetic vision, and its location in bodies with needs and limitations. It welcomes rest and climbing; it glows in the dark.

Taking as its starting point the ottomans of eighteenth-century public spaces, such as museums or parks, A Bras Le Corps – with Philodendron (to Amalia Pica) [in English ‘head on’] holds a two-fold existence as a form of transformative interspecies communication. A hexagonal sculpture has been turned into a sympathetic environment for houseplants flourishing in artificial conditions, which will in turn eventually completely overgrow it. The steel structure provides something to climb over for the plant with heart- shaped leaves, the ‘friend of the trees’ (from ‘Philo’, the friend, and ‘Dendron’, tree).

Neoplastic (to David Bussel) charts the search for a mysterious furniture-like object that appears in the only surviving photograph of Wladyslaw Strzeminski’s Neoplastic Room in Museum Sztuki, Lodz, Poland, from 1948. In what was the first artist-founded museum, invented as an institution for the art of the future, Strzeminski created a complete environment as an artwork to display other artworks, an exhibition room for sculptures by his lost love Katarzyna Kobro. The pursuit of the elusive object, which turned out to be called Spatial Composition, has led to its re-appearance in several guises throughout this exhibition: it is seen here from below, in a cumulative investigation through colour. It is also present in the baubau (to James Langdon) wallpaper, and is, or could be, under Spatial Composition 11 (to John Tilbury) – blanketed in the same way that furniture is covered when owners leave a house.

"One night as he sat at his table head on hands he saw himself rise and go. One night or day. For when his own light went out he was not left in the dark. Light of a kind came from the one high window. Under it still the stool on which till he could or would no more he used to mount to see the sky. Its faint unchanging light unlike any light he could remember from the days and nights when day followed hard on night and night on day." – From Stirrings Still, by Samuel Beckett, 1986-89

One day in May 2014, pianist and AMM group member John Tilbury performed a piano accompaniment of Samuel Beckett’s final prose Stirrings Still while sitting on Spatial Composition 11 (to John Tilbury), dedicated to him. He said: “My accompaniment is really a soundtrack. I am a pianist so the piano is featured. I am comfortable with it – no, not comfortable, I am familiar with the instrument.”

Following Beckett’s text above like a set of instructions, a stepladder functions as a desk as well as a viewing platform in The Double And The Half (to Avery Gordon).The structure is an assemblage of different bits of furniture, that all act as extensions to the human body – ladders and legs, prosthetic devices – which in turn rest on one another, so that none of them can stand up by themselves. As a device to work, talk and position oneself, it is dedicated to the writing and thinking of Avery Gordon, whose conversations appear in the book resting on it.

In the three-dimensional landscape of bau bau (to James Langdon) different elements, techniques and influences of Celine Condorelli’s practice cohabit, are layered on, and enact possible stories. From the German Bau for ‘construction’, which has its origin in the Old High German Buan ‘to dwell’+ the Italian onomatopoeia Bau ‘woof ’. The wallpaper billboard acts as a score and a documentation of the relationships between a series of narrative objects, both existing and fictional, present and absent in the exhibition, that question the legal status of objects themselves. They are called ‘Deodands’; objects, which, according to an English common law, valid until 1846, were implicated in legal arguments. ‘Deodands’ terribly upset the dichotomy between what is intentional and unintentional as related to the animate or inanimate, and transform any notions we may have on the status of objects as being fixed or reliable. They also describe how we rely on a set of manners and provisions for dealing with beings, things and objects in recognisable ways.

[paulckrueger]

2017 Annual Bond Market Awards

Bond of the Year – Veolia 0% due 11/20. It’s not that a BBB-rated French company was able to borrow at ZERO percent, it’s that they actually charged lenders a premium for the privilege of holding their debt: 100.078 on the reoffer, or a negative yield to maturity of -0.03%! Either lending in the public markets isn’t what it used to be or we’ll look back on this as another symptom of over-exuberant monetary policy distortion. My only question is, if they had over EUR 1B in interest, why did they only issue EUR 0.5B?!? For those wondering, I am happy to report that we passed on the new issue.

Central Banker of the Year – Jerome “Jay” Powell. Honestly, I love the choice. He’s a very balanced blend of real markets experience and official institutions ideology. He’s willing to challenge the consensus views at times, but once a decision is made, he has a history of getting behind it and making it work. But how on earth did he do it?!? He was on no-one’s list at mid-year, yet effortlessly took down Cohn, Yellen, Taylor and Warsh. We should keep a very close eye on him – he’s politically more astute than he gets credit for. Now, Jay…just painlessly ‘normalize’ and deregulate so that you get re-nominated next year!

Lifetime Achievement Award – Janet Yellen. She’s done it! She’s the first Fed chair in about 40 years without a recession on their watch.  She also started the normalization process with both rates and the balance sheet…while keeping the economy rolling ahead and the capital markets humming. I hope we continue to hear her policy musings in the future…she’s one cool lady!

Currency of the Year – Mexican Peso. Wait a minute…wasn’t that currency supposed to be dead and buried with a new US president and administration hell-bent on ‘America first’ and protectionist policies? It’s a powerful reminder that a currency can get oversold and that there are two sides to the trade. Congrats to Banxico for stepping in to support their currency with a powerful policy response and to the investors that happily went along for the ride.

Comeback Player of the Year – Developed Market Government Bonds. I know I’m a bond manager but, frankly, I’m getting a little tired of this. Wasn’t this supposed to be the year that we saw central banks tighten monetary policy, stimulus from DC and government bond yields reset at higher levels? The global economy is just fine and inflation is OK – sure, we’d like a bit more of both – but where is the need for these emergency central bank policies that are keeping real yields at zero? While it is true that the yield of the entire US Treasury market is up about 25 bps this year, longer maturity yields are actually down and the Treasury index has generated a positive total return of over 2% so far in 2017. It’s time for central banks to take the punch bowl away and let bond yields find their own level without the distortion and price-insensitive buying they have created.

Unsung Hero – The Yield Curve. So important, but so misunderstood.  If it weren’t for a flattening yield curve, bond market returns would look poor if not negative. In some respects, it was just BAU: the Fed raises rates and the curve flattens around where investors play ‘guess the terminal Fed funds rate’. This time around, moderate inflation expectations and the ongoing torrent of cash exported from overseas into the US market also weighed on the long end of the US yield curve. It has since created some anxiety in the markets as flattening yield curves are the traditional precursor to recession.  We’re not worried. For the time being its pretty normal and we’ll see what happens to the curve when the Fed and ECB dial down the size and growth in the balance sheets. What WOULD worry us is an inverted yield curve.  BTW: the runner up in this category was European bank capital notes. Good yield, tidier loan books and onerous regulation designed to prevent another crisis – what’s not to like?

Villain in a Leading Role – Bitcoin. I confess that I was getting worried about a month ago. Every asset class and asset was so well behaved, I wasn’t sure we would even have the award this year. And then it happened – like a holiday miracle – Bitcoin went vertical. We know the unprecedented amount of money printing has created significant asset price inflation – but where was the bubble? We always have one at this stage in the cycle which needs bursting.  One of the great definitions of an asset bubble is that you can graph the price of the asset on a logarithmic chart, and if there is upward curvature in the line – BUBBLE! Well, here it is. I’m not going to waste my time explaining the sound concepts of ‘store of value’, ‘blockchain’ or ‘digital currency’. They will all make more sense to me once a central bank administers them. But moves of 10-20% in a day reek of monetary excess and mania.

Rookie of the Year – Cross Currency Swap Basis. Who knew that this little known domain of currency and bond geeks would emerge into the spotlight as the prerequisite for understanding 2017 capital market flows?  In short, the pools of capital resident outside the US are finding their way into US assets, and are then hedged back to their home currency.  The calculation on the cost of the currency hedge is based off of the differential in short term interest rates and helps to quantify the yield and/or return potential of the investment.  For the bond market, shape of the yield curve in the US and the home market are important, for other asset classes, not so much. Anyway, when the cross currency swap improves, foreign flows accelerate into the US; when it declines, flows tail off. Fed normalization is going to make this a heck of a lot more fun in 2018!

Runners up – Corporate bonds and municipals. Just grinding appreciation all year…every back up was met with buying…BORING.  Tax reform ought to impact these sectors next year as both the amount and type of issuance should change along with the base of potential buyers.

Most Valuable Player – QE. I really wanted ‘volatility’ (the absence of it) to be the MVP, but I just couldn’t do it.  We knew that the vast pool of money printed via QE was sloshing around the markets and depressing volatility while inflating prices.  There was no point fighting it, and we along with other investors made money by just going with it. Sure the macro economy was fine…sure corporate fundamentals were improving…sure central banks were being patient in withdrawing accommodation. But how to explain the rich valuations across markets? The benign backdrop simply created the cover for the vast pools of liquidity to flow into markets. This time next year it will be different.  The global Central Banks’ aggregate balance sheet will shift from expansion to contraction. Then we will see if investors had been picking up nickels in front of a steamroller since Q1 2016!

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