#because the toys we tend to give to boys helps build those skills

[quietlysatan]

I need a permanent editor/beta reader.

I need someone to go through my works with or without me and make them,,,, palatable???? Readable???? Make them make sense to someone who isn’t me or you, the person who has me explaining everything to you cause my stories are mostly ideas thrown into a blender and regurgitated in a manner that only makes sense when you're on a sugar high or serotonin high or otherwise impaired, but also I use more commas than you would think possible because I tend to write how I think which is in continuous sentences and BOY does THAT show.

I’ll be giving you credit in any way that you prefer, so if you’d prefer your Instagram username, or your AO3 handle, or just a nickname so no one knows it was you or nothing at all or whatever you prefer? Absolutely, just tell me what you’d prefer once we agree, unless it's a slur.

Requirements: Literally just help me put my writing down in a way that makes sense for others, let me know if you won’t be continuing, don’t republish my work, edited or otherwise anywhere without asking and please do not give me constructive criticism unless you can do so nicely because I have really weird triggers for that and they’re very annoying. Also, I want to see what your editing skills are like so I’ll ask you to do one chapter first before I say yes so that I can be certain of our combined skills. 

Anyways, here’s everything I need an editor for currently, in order of importance? The ones I care to see edited the most? Basically, every work I need an editor/beta reader for minus the unpublished ones that I might mention if there’s anyone who wants to help with those left.

Building A Home - Harry Potter has a twin that is a girl whose name is going to change because I kind of hate Hyndragnea as a name now. At least for the Potters anyways. They were going to be Brazilian because I had a phase a while back when I wrote this that we don’t need to talk about, but now I’m toying with the idea of them being south African or African American (that is such a strange thing to actively type as a black African American person ngl) and you can definitely see that I was indecisive in a few places, for further details feel free to message me and read through what’s published so far.  [CLOSED]

Selfish - An Avengers crossover fic that hasn’t had the crossover yet, but it also has de-aged Loki (Who isn’t dating, and will not be dating anybody until he’s older, if ever) and the avengers becoming less and less mortal. To be fair, a few already are immortal. For further details feel free to message me and read through what’s published so far. [CLOSED]

Out Of Curiosity Mostly - Okay so for this one I basically just need a spell check it’s a collection of mostly Harry Potter ficlets and if you just want to do one specific chapter feel free to message me. For further details feel free to message me and read through what’s published so far. [Still open, 1 applicants]

Salvare - A slow burn Drarry fic about Lucius dying, Narcissa and Draco taking over the world, and Harry, Remus, and Sirius just sitting back and enjoying the ride pretty much. I actually still don’t know where this one is going, but it’s still open for updates, I just haven’t written anything for since I updated it cause when I published it I was right on the cusp of a really long depression episode but I’m better now so it’s fine right? Right. For further details feel free to message me and read through what’s published so far.  [CLOSED]

The Sun Has Always Said I Love You (And Look What You Can Do With A Love Like That) - I’m actually most proud of this one. It’s a Teen Wolf fic so Warning, Kate Argent is a fucking creep, and so is Gerard. Chris is cool though. So’s baby Allison. The Hales live. Derek has to come to terms with being assaulted but that'll either happen during a time skip or off-screen. [CLOSED]

Perhaps (It Was Only Just A Dream) - Starts in the Mauraders era, Jily lives, Wolfstar happens, Snape is actually a spy and ACTUALLY a good Snape, good Malfoys cause I can. This one also needs less of a complete overhaul and more of spellcheck, and comma detector because to be fair to me it is actually pretty well-written... Oddly enough. For further details feel free to message me and read through what’s published so far. [Still open, 3 applicants]

And They Were Kind, Kinder Than They Had Any Right To Be - An offshoot of What Could Have Been from the Building A Home Potter Twins Universe. Essentially, just a collection of previously written or thought of ideas that Could’ve happened but didn’t. Or at least haven’t yet. For further details feel free to message me and read through what’s published so far. [Still open, 1 applicants] 

Goodness Is Not Weakness, And Kindness Is Not Failure. - Essentially, what if Uzushio and her knowledge and her clans had lived? What if the city was more sentient, what if the entire Elemental nations were more sentient. Or, what if when that plant bitch Zesty the fucking mom obsessed in a questionable way tried to do Some Bullshit The Elemental Nations took note and said “Uhh, I think the fuck not”. For further details feel free to message me and read through what’s published so far. [Still open, 1 applicants] 

I want to warn you right now that my writing can be summed up as this Deus Ex Machina description right here.

Take that as you will.

Here’s my AO3 account by the way

Most_Likely_Satan

[afewmarvelousthoughts]

Fated (Prologue)

Master List: @afewmarvelousthoughtsadmin

Pairing: Hades!Bucky x Persephone!Reader

Summary: Humanity has broken the world. How they did it doesn’t matter. What does is that in doing so they quickened the old gods once more. A century later things are settling into a new order but all is not as it seems. As Fate draws two gods together the cracks begin to show in this new age. Will their bond tip the delicate balance or restore order to a broken world?

Warnings: Blood, death (background character)

A/N: I started thinking about a Hades!Bucky character after I saw that @invisibleanonymousmonsters wanted to see a fic centered around a Hades!Bucky and Persephone!Reader relationship. I’ve never done anything like this but I have been dabbling in a Greek pantheon novel for literal years. So I’m sort of using this as an exercise to break out of the rut with that work and to see if I can work with building a “new” character out of the bones of Bucky. It’s an interesting challenge and idk how I feel about it yet but here’s kind of a prologue thing. 

Feedback would be AMAZING because I feel very out of my depth with this. 

Tags are open!

@mywinterwolf  @disagreetoagree @breezy1415 @peachthatdrinkslemonade  @wonderlandmind4 @piensa-bonito @handplucked @katecolleen

He runs his fingers through his long dark hair. Maybe he should cut it. That seemed to be the style men preferred these days. Short on the sides, almost to the scalp, length on top. No, he liked it long. The preferences of men never did interest him as it did his brothers.

Looking down at the dark navy and gold workings of his metal left hand he’s once again impressed by his nephew’s skill. Not a single hair snagged in the delicate joints. It brings a smile to his face knowing the care that was put into it. More care than Heph’s parent’s ever showed the boy. Well… he wasn’t a boy anymore, was he? Hadn’t been for millennia.

He sighs and looks in the mirror. Striking blue eyes flash under strong dark brows, a hard mouth, dark thick stubble not quite enough to be called a beard covering a sharp jaw. It had been almost a century since the gods awoke, the cold Ichor being brought back to blazing light by the hubris of men. Yet even after all these years, he was still settling into the feelings of once again being flesh. Still trying to see himself in the glass.

“James,” he intones. Would it ever feel quite right on his tongue? It was as good a name as any and certainly was more palatable to modern tongues than other names he had worn throughout his long existence like Aidoneus, Pluton (which had always been his least favorite), and of course Hades. James, was unremarkable, just like he liked it.

Heavily he sighs running the fingers of his right hand over the scars that connected metal and flesh. Like the name, it was a good body. Though battle-scarred and broken even in such a short amount of time. There were always battles to be fought. They would always call on him to fight them. After all… shouldn’t a god of Death herself be thrilled to be in the midst of a battlefield…

He sneers at his own reflection. No. He never wanted to be Death’s agent among the celestial beings of the earth. He took the title because his brothers would have rent the heaven’s and made the cosmos bleed in order to avoid the yoke of responsibility being Death’s consort gave one.

What did it matter? Choice, was never a boon he was granted.  

Sensing their master’s distress Cerberus paws at the door. The low whine from each dog perfectly in tune making it sound like one. He can’t help the smile that rises to his face. If nothing else at least fate had seen fit to give him his companion.

He opens the door and kneels down to the three massive black hounds, “I’m ok, boy.” Happily, they lap at his face. Though by all appearances they were three separate beings it was nothing but a clever glamour. Humans had adapted faster than expected to gods among them but a three-headed hell hound was rightfully unnerving to most.

With his signature perfect timing his brother’s obnoxious voice chimes in from the ether. “How’s my perpetually gloomy older brother today?” A wavering image hovers over the obsidian scrying disk revealing that fucking smug smile.

“Not in the mood for whatever bullshit you have in mind Zeu-“

“Anthony, remember. We are doing the whole use modern names thing aren’t we? I get yours right every time Jimmy. It hurts that yo-”

James’ skin crawls. “It’s James.”

“Ever the ray of sunshine.”

“Hey, Brother!” Pos- er Steven’s golden head pops up from behind Anthony. He always had a soft spot for this one. Even if he was inarguably the moodier of the three no matter what Anthony said about James.

“If the two of you are calling it can’t be good,” he groans and falls onto the bed, the image of his brothers switching to the ceiling to stay in his line of sight.

“Just thought we’d check in on you bruv!” Anthony had a thing for human slang. It was obnoxious.

“Yeah. Sure you are.”

“Just tell him,” Steven hisses at Anthony.

“Well… there is something. A bit of a skirmish is kicking up in the midwest, some factions and a demi-god, not one of mine,” his brother was known for his messy children so the distinction was warranted.

“And you want good ol’ Hades to put the fear of Death in them?” They both smile like idiots. He groans again, louder. All he wanted was to be left alone. Was it too much to ask?

“If you could,” Steven pipes up. “If you’re not too busy. I’ve got a lot on my plate and Anthony-“

“I’ve been whipping together some new toys. Speaking of how’s the new arm?”

“Your kid did a great job, almost as good of a job as you did blowing it off.” James wanted to be sure his brother never forgot.

“It was almost a century ago. Let it go.” Anthony’s voice is wheedling. It’s all the more annoying because his brother was notoriously terrible at letting anything go… ever.

“I’ll take care of it,” not like he had a choice.

“Thanks,” they call out, almost as in tune as Cerberus.

“Yeah.” He doesn’t let them say anything else, swiping his hand in the air to break the connection.

Sighing he sits up and flexes his arm, looking at how the light reflects on the surface. The humans used to depict death with a scythe. How long would it take for them to change the image to a dark man with a deadly arm instead? Not long he figured. Fear was a powerful thing.

And everyone feared Death.

You stare at your hands, bloody and shaking. The child shrieks behind you as Mother and Calli tend to its tiny form. It would live. Another orphan among thousands… millions on this broken world but the mother… Desperately her right-hand reaches weaker my the second still longing to feel her child in her arms.

“Kore,” your mother hisses. “Come away. She’s lost.”

But you can’t. Wiping your hands on your clothes you kneel beside the woman and take her reaching hand in your own. Her mouth hangs open as if her words have been stolen from her.

“She is Death’s now,” Calli says softly from the baby’s side. “Leave her be. There is no room for the dead here, child.” You glare at the two women.

They won’t even deign to look behind them at you and the woman. A soft sob comes from her, so faint you almost wonder if you imagined it and your attention returns to her.

“Shh,” you whisper in her ear. “You did your best. Your son will live.” Reaching into your pocket you pull out one of the old smooth coins you always keep. “Here,” you slip it into her hand, “for the ferryman.” Her eyes look like that of a frightened rabbit and your heart hurts. “I’m sorry.”

“That is enough, Kore!” Mother bellows with the force only a goddess can muster. It makes your hair stand on end. She still won’t spare you or the woman a glance. Quickly you kiss the woman’s forehead and rise. “Come tend this new life and stop wasting your time on one that is over.”

“She can hear you still, Mother,” the woman’s small heartbeat still tings in your ears.

“What does it matter?” She’s slipping tiny socks onto the baby boy’s feet. “Humans die every second. We are shepherdesses of life daughter. We don’t sully our hands with death.”

Calli nods in agreement and offers you a warm smile. You don’t return it. Instead, you focus on the child, now quieted by being given a bit of milk with the smallest drop of Ichor to fortify the small thing. Life pulses around him, hot white strands of light, so bright it almost hurts your eyes.

They always thought about life, her mother and Calli. Preserve life. Nurture life. Make things grow, make them thrive, heal this broken earth. They never wanted to talk about from where life came. Never wanted to acknowledge that even a plant must destroy its seed in order to grow. As far as you could tell all life sprung from the death of something else. Even this life you were all living, similar as it was to a distant past, was built on the ashes of humanities fall.

The old unsettling thought rises to your mind. The other gods spoke of ages past but you remembered nothing of those times. Mother said it was simply your youth- the woman makes a small sound, throwing off your train of thought and you know she’s gone.

Suddenly, the room feels too tight. You bolt, ignoring Mother’s call. Your feet echo in the hall as you run, desperate to be outside, to feel the earth beneath your still bloody hands, to breathe air that didn’t smell of birth and death.

Bursting from the doors you stumble into the courtyard, surging with plant life. It’s here too though, you can smell it. The decay from which the life springs. It overwhelms you. Every rose suddenly seems sinister in its beauty, every apple inherently vile.

Something that has been brewing inside you is reaching its peak. This was the fifth maternal death in the last week. And you’d lost count how many you had seen die in such a way over the decades you worked by Calli and your Mother’s side here at Eleusis House. Too many. Some girls you had brought into the world only to see them die years later in the same place they took their first breath.

You stare up at the steeple of the building, once a holy place for some now silent god. Something like a memory tickles at the edges of your mind, songs, a dry cracker being placed on your tongue. Shaking your head you look away. These echoes always came when you were upset. Mother said you were just being dramatic as young goddesses are wont to be from time to time. She’d then tumble into some tale about Hera you didn’t care about hearing.

“Kore?” Abigail stands at the door of the main hall staring at you, concern on her face. It takes a moment to understand why. You’re covered in the gore of a messy birth still and… when you look at your hands you notice the sheen of magic surrounds you. “Are you ok?”

Abigail was a kind person, one of the women who pledged to serve Eleusis House. She and her sisters helped find women who were with child and without resources. They would be safe and cared for here, better than anywhere else. Mother had made this place a haven, clearing a whole block of the city surrounding the compound that was already there to make a small piece of paradise.

The humans thought it was a kindness. Overwhelmed how these new gods cared for their fragile lives so much. You know that without the humans the balance of the world would tip and everyone would die. It wasn’t kindness to protect the humans. It was survival. Still, she liked helping them, and Abigail was something like a friend.

“Yeah. I just… needed some air.”

Abigail looks at your bloody clothing, “Danielle didn’t make it… did she?” Danielle. You hadn’t even known the woman’s name. You just shake your head. Abigail stares into the distance, her gauzy head covering marking her a servant of Demeter blowing in the breeze.

“Her son lives though,” you hope it’s a comfort.

“Small victories are still victories,” she sighs out. Thought creases her brow, “Who will he go to?”

It was March 21st. “He’ll be sent to a house of Ares.” The system had been worked out almost a century before. A crude but effective way to ensure the orphans had a place to belong by sorting them based on birthdate.

Abigail snorts, “And to Hades before 30.” She likely wasn’t wrong. Children of Ares died young, fighting some battle or other. It was the way of things. “I… I’ll tell the others and send someone for the body.”

“Thank you,” Abigail just nods and heads silently back to the main hall.

Your eyes wander to the rise of the skyline peeking over the barrier wall, covered in lush night-blooming vines. To your memory, you had never left this enclave nestled in the city once known as New York. Existence began and ended here for you, though you knew that couldn’t be right. Like all the gods you had lived before only to sleep away centuries… You shudder.

Regardless, it wasn’t a bad life. There was so much work to do. Plants to help heal the scorched earth as well as medicinal herbs for the blights threatening humanity needed to be cultivated and sent out. The women who came here needed shelter, healing, and someone to watch them tear themselves open… For decades you took comfort in this. Now… it wasn’t enough.

This growing awareness of death was bringing everything Mother told you was worth paying attention to in this world into question. Causing a restlessness within you nothing could quell. You begin to pace this section of garden, stopping before a small apple tree.

The golden ones were just about ready to pick and you run your fingers over the thin skin of the fruit. You can feel the glowing tendrils of light within it, connecting it to the tree, to the roots, to the earth herself. Life bright and beautiful pulsing there.

Your mind goes foggy for a moment. It’s as though something else takes hold of you then and you begin to pluck at those strands of light with an invisible hand. One by one they snap. Little rivulets of light like blood drip from the withering fruit down your palm.

When you fully realize what you’ve done you gasp and pull away. The apple hangs there swaying a bit, shriveled though not necessarily rotten before it falls, devoid of the light it held a moment before, to splatter on the ground below. An instant later, it’s dust. 

What had you done…?

[lady-dimitrescus-loving-wife]

Hisollumi || I’m Your No One and You’re My Fuck Up

Warning: This story will include younger character x older character, rape, murder, child abuse, mental abuse, attempted murder, underage sex, and etc.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

📖🍋🕸

-

Florescence lights of aqua, violet, turquoise, crimson and many others shivered and spun around the pub casting color in various areas of darkness nonstop. Giggles and chuckles ran through the building, music bumping and bodies humping against each other.

Hisoka had been in the bathroom, cheeks red and shirt in between his teeth, wrinkled and a bit wet due to his saliva staining the fabric. The room had been empty of course unless someone came in to puke, do drugs, or fuck which wasn’t likely considering it was happening out on the dance floor. His pants was rolled down his wide thighs baggy and wrinkled presenting smooth pale skin shining under the dimly lit bathroom lights. Shaking a bit as he played with himself.

His hands were gentle at first, careful to not hurt himself with those claws he called nails. A shaky grunt left his struggling mouth as his pointer and middle fingers flexed and rubbed over his labia minora causing sensations so sweet that he he could almost taste it. Thighs jumping when the nail of his thumb scraped just right against his clitoris hood. He moaned sharply, the fabric in his mouth threatened to slip for a second as he resorted to laying his head on the hood of the toilet. Hair sticking to his head due to sweat but mainly still gelled up as his golden orbs slowly slid shut, his mind wandering.

Long pitch black locks that for some reason reminded him of gunpowder, a strong but lean body that was both feminine and masculine, and those unusually wide obsidian eyes that could literally see into a human beings soul. Such beauty. Such beauty indeed.

Hisoka felt his breath hitch as he pushed in a finger, vagina stretching a little giving off a warm feeling as it surrounded the digit. The skillful digits slid into the warm wet cavern as he arched on the toilet seat, muscles in his stomach tensing as he gasped, legs coming up and spreading wider for him to go deeper, and that strong back moving like a cat in heat. Shit, if it wasn’t for his determination and long nails he wouldn’t have grazed over his cervix letting out a heated cry that floated around the stalls flooding his ears.

He sounded so much like a woman.

His cheeks burned red, nipples erect and sensitive being exposed to the cool air of the room but also twitching under the slight heat that the magician had been blowing through his nose.

Illumi.

He thought of those eyes that hated him deep down.. how much the assassin despised him... how bad that Zoldyck wanted him dead. Not like any of them didn’t... He wanted to get closer to the Zoldyck. He wanted the other so fucking bad. Wanted them to be together. However he was Hisoka Morow. A damaged creature who many didn’t even consider human anymore. Even though Illumi had a downside Hisoka was judged, criticized, hated. Who could love him? No one.. that’s who.

He curled his fingers, his walls stretching even more while his nails dug into his soft squishy insides tapping his g-spot briefly before he cried out. A sweet sound despite who he was. His voice raising and octave and sounding to much like a pleasured woman. Shirt slipping from his clean white teeth as his hips jutted repeatedly, over and over again as he cummed. A milky cream spurting out, slipping through his strained fingers before he pulled them out slowly.

The cream falling onto the dirty stall floor beneath him as he basically scraped it out. He went limp for a second, lowering his legs; heels clicking against the hard dirty floor as his hands went to his sides. Head tilted back to let out puffs of air, he felt breathless as though he had been choked this whole time and only just now was let free. Oxygen filling his lungs once more as he came back down to earth.

He slowly tilted his head back up, head rolling a bit as though it suddenly weighed a hundred pounds. He stood, legs a bit shaky but not too back as he placed a hand on the wall, still wet and slimy but drying as well. He gave a light chuckle before dipping down to pull on the roll of toilet tissue wiping himself up from between his thighs getting rid of the residue. He tossed it in the toilet, which had still been a bit warm due to him sitting there for a while before he pulled up his underwear, which were a bright pink with lacy bottoms that looked absolutely beautiful against his skin tone.

He twisted around, groaning lightly as his muscles popped, flushing the toilet before pulling up his pants dusting them off. He opened the metal door and glanced down at the floor the held his orgasm but gave a simple shrug before walking over to the sink, heels clicking making a distinct noise considering it was much quieter in here. He approached the mirror looking over his body.

Slim waist, wide hips, and a gorgeous face. Now that’s not only a woman killer but a man’s as well. Not many people admitted it, none really, but had to give the magician props. He was attractive, in his own weird and disturbing way.

He gave a sigh and almost rubbed his fingers over his temples but remembered what he had just done. With a bit of a disgusted scoff he flipped on the water. He stared down at his hands, golden hues watching the pale skin get wet under the icy cold water without being bothered.

He should have known a place like this wouldn’t have any soap... or warm water. He perked a little thinking of how it was surprising for the stall to have toilet paper. It didn’t matter now though. He pulled his hands away going for paper towels only to notice there were none. His eyes narrowed and honestly for a second he felt like punching a hole through the wall..

With a shake of his head he sighed before remembering why he was at this place in the first idea. Illumi. They had decided to go out and talk about a plan concerning Gon and Killua.

“Hm.” He said quite simply as he walked over to the squeaky wooden door before pushing it open and stepping out immediately greeted with the colorful and loud room. He quickly found his way back over to the eldest Zoldyck who had been sitting alone, cherry vodka in hand as he placed his head on the other. A slight aura coming from him making Hisoka shiver just a little as he approached.

He climbed on to his stool sitting down, legs spread and hands in his lap as he went to say something playful only to get cut off by the wide eyed man.

“You were gone for a while you know. Were you taking a shit?” The assassin question tilting his head to look at the other, before moving the hand that held his head to his hair brushing the long thick strands behind his ear. Hisoka felt his eyes follow the movement but simply shook his head. He and Illumi were just coworkers... that wasn’t enough for him to tell him what he had done. Much less to tell him what he didn’t or did have in his pants.

“No, I would never do that in a place like this.” He spoke, voice smooth as freshly made chocolate before a chuckle rumbled in his chest. Now this time Illumi seemed mocked surprised as he looked at the golden eyed man before looking at his drink before gulping it down.

“Oh really? Well you couldn’t have been having sex. No one wants to fuck you.” He spoke quite bluntly like he always did. Never giving a second thought about someone else’s feelings except his own and Killua’s..

Hisoka felt a frown show up on his lips at the thought before he looked down at his glass of white wine. He laced his fingers around the stem of the glass before waving it around causing the liquid inside to rotate like a mini hurricane. Yeah he was bothered by the words but honestly couldn’t help but be jealous of the white haired boy. He had Gon, he had Illumi. Friends and family something he had to grow up without.

He nearly flinched as a memory from his past tried to slip into his mind before he fought it up. He learned to build a mental wall around those days. He didn’t want to talk about his childhood because well... he didn’t get to have one. Jack black eyes were now staring at him and had been for a while due to the silence between them.

“Clown-“

“I was simply checking people out to see if any had noticed us. Nothing much.” He spoke quickly noticing his silence. He looked away and Illumi nodded before glancing back over to the bartender calling him over wanting another drink.

“Even if they did they’d be too weak to fight.” He spoke not caring that Hisoka didn’t seem interested or focused in their conversations like he usually was. Illumi couldn’t say he didn’t like it though. He loved when Hisoka didn’t speak. It was almost like heaven on earth. What was even better was when he wasn’t around at all. He hated the constant flirts, stares, and touches. He hated it a lot.

If it wasn’t for the fact that he was a strong opponent he wouldn’t talk to him at all. To say the least, Illumi saw Hisoka as a toy and nothing but a toy.

“Refill.” The Zoldyck spoke in a strong tone that made the man quickly do as told before leaving to tend to another person. Hisoka wanted to leave, he was upset and annoyed now and being surrounded by this many people wasn’t a good idea. He stood catching the other’s attention who turned his head to him.

“Where are you going? I didn’t think we were finished talking.” Illumi inquired as he looked up at the man who didn’t look at him until a second later, he formed a charming smile before speaking stepping from the seat.

“Back to my motel room.” He stated and Illumi blinked, which could be extremely rare at times, before standing as well making Hisoka’s heartbeat speed up a little.

“Ah, then I’ll be going too. No need to stay if we’re done. We’ll talk tomorrow.” The man stated before gulping down the drink and sitting the glass down. Then he started walking not sparing Hisoka a second glance or waiting for him to leave so they could go together. No, he was just gone. Leaving the older man as though he was trash and as much as the pink haired man hated to admit it, he really did feel that way. He sighed and gulped down his wine before turning to leave stopping in his tracks as the bartender called out to him.

Curious he turned and the green haired man had offered him a rather large glass. For some reason he looked familiar but Hisoka didn’t ask as he held out his hand taking the glass with great care, careful to not drop it. He lifted a neat brow and the man gave a toothy grin and maybe it was the fact the Hisoka was already a little tipsy but he felt like this was a little off.

“It’s on the house.” The working man smiled. Hisoka looked at him before shrugging.

Careless.

He brought the rim of the glass to his mouth and chugged it, the lids of his eyes twitched at the unique flavor as he finished it off.

Mistakes.

He licked the inside of his mouth tasting the residue that had been left behind. His eyebrows furrowed and he looked up, his vision a bit shaky and he blinked a couple times. For every person he saw there were now two, along with the lights, chairs and tables. He usually didn’t get drunk but they had been there for a couple hours. It’s been a very long time since he’s felt this affected but that only meant he needed to get back sooner.

He’d hate to pass out in front of a bunch of people who clearly wanted him dead. With that thought he turned somehow managing not to tip over in his shiny crimson heels as he walked out the door. The cold winds surprised him a little, not like he wasn’t used to such weather now that he’s grown up and has had to live with it for years. His skin felt icy as he looked around, the moon had been out, shining in the sky along with a couple lampposts.

The loose strands of hair swaying with the breeze as he walked along the pavement. Not too many people had been out just some drunks who were way more wasted then he had felt like he was. He didn’t pay them any mind as they gave him some harsh predatory looks as he continued to walk.

Once he reached the motel room he dug around in his pockets locating the golden but rusty key. He leaned against the wall for support, was the aftermath getting stronger? He didn’t know, nor did he care at the moment as he pressed the key into the keyhole and twisted it hearing the loud click saying it had opened.

He twisted the doorknob and went it closing the door back with a bit of a slam as he walked over to his bed. The carpet floor had lines in it due to him dragging his heels flopping on the bed. He ended up staring at nothing, a couple things on his mind before darkness started to fill his vision.

That brat Killua.

Sweet innocent Gon.

Loveless and emotionless Illumi.

His fucked up past.

Him as a child.

[thebabyatelier]

Role of Color and Texture in One’s Life

Children and even adults learn best and retain the most information when they engage their senses. Many of our favorite memories are associated with one or more of our senses: for instance, the color of your favorite cartoon character as a child or a song you memorized the lyrics to with a childhood friend or even what your favorite quilt felt like. Now, when your mind is stimulated with those familiar visuals, sounds or textures, your brain triggers a flashback memory to those special memories/moments.

It is vital for our children to actively use their senses as they explore their world through sensory play as this is crucial for brain development – it helps build nerve connections in the brain’s pathways. This leads to a child’s ability to complete more complex learning tasks and supports cognitive growth, language development, gross motor skills, social interaction and problem solving skills. 

THE ROLE OF COLOR

We all know that there is a strong link between colors and our emotions, we even have an abundance of idioms to show how each color can affect our mood. Do you ever feel blue? Or are you green with envy? Are you seeing red? Is your world black and white?

Well, color is a powerful communication tool and can be used to signal action, influence mood, and even influence physiological reactions. Certain colors have been associated with increased blood pressure, increased metabolism, and eyestrain.

So how exactly does color work? How is color believed to impact one’s life?

While everyone responds and reacts differently to colors, there are some color effects that have universal meaning such as colors in the red area are known as warm colors and include red, orange, and yellow. These warm colors evoke emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility.

Colors on the blue side of the spectrum are known as cool colors and include blue, purple, and green. These colors are often described as calm, but can also call to mind feelings of sadness or indifference.

In several ancient cultures, color was used as therapy & treatment. In this treatment:

Red was used to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation.

Yellow was thought to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.

Orange was used to heal the lungs and to increase energy levels.

Blue was believed to soothe illnesses and treat pain.

Indigo shades were thought to alleviate skin problems.

ROLE OF TEXTURE

Babies and toddlers already have a fairly good sense of touch when they are born, but as with all the other senses, it’s important to encourage them to explore different types of textures. Texture is ubiquitous. It contains important visual information about an object and allows us to distinguish between animals, plants, foods, and fabrics. This makes texture a significant part of the sensory input that we receive every day.

What do we mean by “Texture”?

Texture is  “the sensations caused by the external surface of objects received through the sense of touch.” Basically, how things feel. Think about squishing soft carpet between your toes, running your hand along an extremely prickly bush, or feeling a soft blanket.

Texture plays an important role in a person’s growth because it contributes to the development of a rich sensory language – providing experiences for children to recall later when engaged in other projects or activities.

Texture focused activities help because they

allow children the freedom to explore varied materials without a predefined outcome;

enable discovery of new and surprising effects, both visual and tactile;

extend aesthetic experience beyond what is visible to them;

broaden vocabulary as children encounter and learn to identify differences in texture – rough, smooth, soft, hard, lumpy, runny, slimy, prickly etc.

The Importance of Texture in Nutrition

Texture is one of the primary reasons for rejecting a food, both in adults and in children. Children need to learn ways of managing texture since healthy foods have more complex textures. This should be done as soon as children are developmentally ready, which makes the first 18 months of life a critical period. If this opportunity is missed, proper texture handling may never be achieved.

Hence it is very important to introduce foods of various textures early in a child's life. If this is not done it could lead to them rejecting foods of complex textures even as an adult making their eating habits unhealthy.

Color & Texture through Age Development

There is a cycle of changing colors & textures that affect us through the different stages of life. These are reflected in our changing color & texture preferences. 

Infants & Toddlers

Strong, bright colors have the effect of shocking the baby’s inner vibrations, which can make the baby unsettled and restless, primary red, yellow and orange can stop a child from sleeping well and cause them to cry. Bold patterns, rough textures and strong contrasting colors are also likely to be over-stimulating in large doses so for a small infant soft tones, which radiate warmth and peace are emotionally soothing and comforting.

Pre-schoolers  

It is advisable to stay away from bold geometric patterns & textures on walls or drapes as they are generally distracting. Various shades of blue-greens work as study/learning colors and coupled with yellow-creams and lesser amounts of orange-yellows create stimulation energy. At this age, they tend to prefer things with soft & fluffy texture, such as stuffed toys that are often  their best friend and partner in crime, helping them grow and be happy. Even as adults they tend to remember how their favorite stuffed toy looked & felt.

Teenagers

Asserting individuality and growth spurts, both physically and emotionally, are typical of this time.

Teenagers go through an identity crisis and often use black to hide this as they feel it is cool. Using small amounts of fluoro brights will lift the young person away from the feeling of isolation or withdrawal from the world. Red is a favorite bright for this age group – intense energy. Bold blues and citrus greens also provide some tranquility. Texture and changing sheens in fabric (matt velvets to silky satins) offer a positive tactile experience to teenagers as well as to seem cool. At this age, a fixation with metal and glass in all forms is prevalent – car fetishes with young boys and jewelry with girls and hence they start moving from liking soft fluffy textures (of soft toys) to glass & metal.

Older people

Becoming old can bring about a sense of loneliness and fear so a variety in the colors in the immediate environment can boost interest in the world and keep cognitive function alive. Older people can be drawn to soft pastels but they may not have the vitality of hue needed to stimulate the mind and mood. Eyesight problems can also impair how the color is seen and what is seen. They also now prefer smooth, light and comfortable textures around them.

So what's the bottom line? Experts have found that color & texture can have an influence on how we feel and act. Colors play an important role in deciding what we like or dislike, because they evoke complex psychological reactions and give rise to relevant feelings and the addition of texture even changes the perception of colors however all these effects are subject to personal, cultural, and situational factors. 

[deimoslunaa]

For Kendell.

happy birthday @booyahkendell, welcome to the 20′s! as promised, a schmoopy kid fic.

Nora Liu loves her job. She loves it even more now that she switched out of teaching high school and went back to pre-school education.

(More like ran out, but no one needs to know that detail.)

There are still high stress situations; more responsibility being a pre-school teacher. Toddlers operate more like hazardous drunk people more than little human beings. Nora has gotten used to the spike in her blood pressure whenever she couldn’t locate one of them during head count for recess.

But she likes kids. Kids are easy. Feed them, entertain them, make sure they get their mandatory nap and keep a goddamn eye out. It’s not rocket science, as many (cough, her ex-boyfriend) think.

Oh, and make sure they don’t kill each other.

That, was easier said than done.

Typically, that’s the one rule that’s actually hard to regulate. Kids tend to use their hands more than their words. Which, well, she can’t exactly blame them because a solid third of them can barely even use words.

George and Ken for example, are almost impossible to separate since they are best friends. Best friends who like to beat each other up.

Zoe hates sharing, which is something both her parents and Nora are working on changing. Nora caught her swing at another kid for touching her building blocks once.

Some of them are just straight up nightmares.

Nora loves her job. She loves kids. And sometimes…

Sometimes, they surprise her.

Alex Carisi, for example. Four years old going on forty, in Nora’s opinion. She plays alone, not because other kids don’t like her or don’t want to include her but because she genuinely enjoys it. She can entertain herself and still put her toys away when playtime’s over. The kid barely kicks up a fuss and never makes a loud scene, which wouldn’t be so surprising if her twin brother wasn’t the polar fucking opposite.  

Julian Carisi is a firecracker and oddly articulate for his age. He talks a lot, asks even more questions and makes it his job to give Nora heart attacks for how nimble (and fearless…) he is once a tree is in his sights.

For twins, they don’t really look alike. Nora first assumed they were adopted, knowing that they have two fathers (not that she’s met them yet, green as she is.) But there are similar enough features that hint that they have some genetic connection, if not one hundred percent.

Alex’s light brown hair is long and always styled half up, half down with a different coloured bow. Her complexion is fair, as well as her eyes that are a bright blue. When she laughs and smiles, two dimples appear deep in her cheeks.

Julian also has brown hair, short and curly atop his head. He’s a barely a shade darker than his sister and instead of blue eyes, his are green.

Nora thinks they have the same nose. But that’s about it. She doesn’t know why she can’t stop trying to figure it out.

But then George throws sand in Lucas’ eyes and that train of thought dies.

-

It’s the end of the day and Nora is waiting for the parent pick up at the front of the school. Most of them have already been taken home. Nora checks her watch; it’s a little past two pm. She glances back up and does another head count. All accounted for.

Among all the boys left, Alex is the only girl. While the boys play together, she sits in the sandbox, making a castle. She looks focussed. Nora walks over to her and Alex doesn’t even look up to acknowledge her presence.

“That’s a pretty sandcastle Alex,” Nora says, squatting to reach her eye-level.

“Thanks,” Alex says, she’s not really listening. Instead, she’s looking at her miniature toys and takes the princess toy and places her on top of the castle.

“Is it a princess castle?” Nora presses. It’s weird; how much she normally would give anything for the kids to shut up some days and yet wants nothing more than for this one to open up.

Alex nods and pushes her hair out of her face. Nora unscrews her water bottle. It’s been a hot week. “Wanna see something cool?”

Alex nods again and shuffles back in the sand. Her tights and shirt are sandy. Nora smiles and digs around the castle with the tiny plastic shovel and pours her water in, making a moat. Alex’s face lights up and she claps.

“She can swim now!” Alex cries and drops her princess face down into the water. Nora bites back a laugh. Nora picks up the doll and shakes the water off.

“Yeah, she can swim now. This is called a m—”

But Alex isn’t listening to her anymore, her attention is over her head and Nora has never seen that expression on her face before. It’s like pure sunshine. “Daddy!”

Alex scrambles to her feet and runs. Nora hears a low voice from behind her make an exaggerated hurt sound and Alex giggles. She turns as she gets up, the wet doll in her hand and –

Wow.

The man is tall and lean, holding Alex comfortably at his hip. He’s dressed formally; a navy three pieced suit and expensive looking shoes. Nora would assume he works somewhere on Wall Street, if his police badge wasn’t on his hip, glinting in the sunlight. Alex’s tiny arms are wrapped around his neck and she’s talking a mile a minute into his ear. The man laughs and they’re close enough that she can make out identical dimples on his cheeks that match Alex’s.

This must be Alex and Julian’s father. He kisses her on the cheek and she starts to wriggle, wordlessly telling him she wants to be put down. He does so but Alex holds his hand, and starts to climb up his leg like he’s some sort of tree. Nora can’t really blame her. He’s tall as one and gorgeous as fu—

“Sorry I’m late,” her father says, snapping Nora out of her thoughts. He doesn’t seem to mind that his daughter is using him as a jungle gym, carrying on a conversation still. He’s bent over a little bit but keeps his eyes on Nora and damn, that’s where she gets those blues from. “Got here as fast as I can. How was she? Not too much trouble I hope?” He smiles, lips full and pink. Jesus Christ.

His accent is obviously Staten Island, and a thick one at that. He’s effortlessly handsome, his age only shown in the greys on the side of his light brown hair. Luckily, the absurdity of that question is enough to wake her up from drooling.

“Trouble? Alex?” Nora asks, unable to keep the laugh out of her voice and comes closer to hand Alex her toy back. “I don’t know what magic you’ve got going on at home but she’s the complete opposite of trouble. Believe me.”

Alex’s father laughs at that, eyes shining and looks down at his daughter who has given up trying to climb him and just holds his hand and hugs his leg. Daddy’s little girl. “Yeah, she is,” he says and then he seems to remember something. “Speaking of trouble, where’s your brother?”

Alex shrugs, the question and concern beneath her. Sonny rolls his eyes.

“Oh, he’s – “ Nora turns to point to the play structure in the middle of the yard.

“Julian!” Alex’s father shouts and like clockwork, Julian’s face pops out from inside the play castle, like he’s been caught red-handed. When he sees who it is, he leaves his friends behind and runs down the fort and into his dad’s other leg. Julian starts talking a mile a minute, tugging his dad towards the playground.

“I found a snail daddy,” Julian says, like he’s found buried treasure.

Alex tugs him the other way. “Is Papi home yet Daddy?”

“Oh yeah?” His dad says to Julian with something like genuine interest and then, “Papi’s on his way here sweetheart. Let your brother show daddy the snail while we wait.” Then to Nora, “I’m Sonny by the way, I’d shake your hand but,” he shrugs. Like this is his life now.

Nora blinks. “No problem.”

Sonny grins. Julian lets go of his hand and he picks up Alex, who now looks grumpy. As he lets his son lead him to the jungle gym, he presses another kiss to his daughter. “Hey, you mad at me?” Alex pouts and doesn’t say anything. “Aww, you mad at daddy?” He says, grinning wide now. Nora feels something die inside her at the sight of it. He nuzzles his nose to her face until she shoves him away with her little hand, giggling. Alex kisses him off centre on the lips, a forgiveness.

Nora’s pretty sure her standards have skyrocketed into the atmosphere just watching this.

-

Turns out Sonny is more than just a pretty face with an even prettier body and impressive father skills. He’s funny, he’s a good listener and can multi-task like nobody’s business.

They keep a on and off conversation, waiting for his husband to show up.

(“You grow up here?” He asked, keeping an eye on his kids as they went up and down the slide.

Nora shook her head. “California. Moved her about ten years ago.”

Sonny whistled. “Long way to teach.”)

(“So, you’re a cop,” Nora said, a little awkwardly.

“Yup,” Sonny responded, popping the ‘p’.

“That must be…fun.”

Sonny laughed, like there was some sort of inside joke she wasn’t privy to. “Well it sure isn’t boring. That their father’s job, not mine.” And when Nora just stared, Sonny was quick to fill her in. “He’s a lawyer.”

“Ah.”)

(“Not to cross any boundaries,” Nora asked later, “but they’re fraternal right?”

Sonny smiled at that. “They look identical to you?”

“Um – “

Sonny waved her off, “nah, I’m just screwing with you. Yeah, they are. They have the same mother, biologically, but everything else is,” he made a weird gesture that Nora figured meant to say: one part of me, one part of their other dad.

“Huh,” she said. “Cool.”

And Sonny glanced over at her, arms crossed with a soft smile on his lips. “Yeah. It is.”

-

It’s another ten minutes or so, when “Papi” appears.

All the children have been picked up and technically, Nora doesn’t have a reason to stick around any longer. She has a bottle of Pinot Noir calling her name at home, but she can’t help her curiosity to see who put a ring on Sonny. She’s looking up recipes for dinner on her phone (Sonny had suggested a great website) when she hears him shout loud and sarcastically, “well look who decided to show up!”

He’s still smiling despite the tone in his voice; sitting cross legged on the ground with his suit jacket to protect his pants from the wood chips. His sleeves are rolled up past his elbows and he somehow managed to get Alex and Julian both playing together. Nora turns around from her seat on the bench.

A man approaches, an expensive looking leather briefcase in one hand. If Sonny’s suit was impressive, his belongs on a runway. It probably costs more than what Nora gets paid. He’s about her height, maybe a bit taller and his hair is dark; dark like Julian’s. The closer he gets, the more she can see Julian in every aspect of him. Nora bets behind those shades, his eyes are green just like his.

“Look who it is,” Sonny whispers to Alex, who has her arms around his neck but doesn’t move to greet her dad.

Julian is already in his arms, heavy and exhausted from playing under the sun all day. ‘Papi’ brushes his unruly hair down, trying to get it flat when he pushes his glasses over his head. He’s unfairly handsome in an unobtainable type of way. All tanned skin and green eyes.

“Alexandra,” he says softly, “you can’t give Papi a kiss hello?”

This is all a little too private for a stranger. Nora watches as Alex grips onto Sonny harder and hides her face. Nora can tell that he’s being played with and played with well. Sonny seems to notice it too.

Sonny rolls his eyes and rubs her back. “Papi didn’t mean to be late honey,” he says sweetly. “He’s out there saving the world remember? Making the world a better place like daddy.”

Je-sus.

Alex pulls her head away from Sonny’s neck and looks to her dad, who reaches out to her with his free hand. “I’m sorry mi amor, forgive me?”

It looks like those words affect Sonny more than they affect Alex who seems to think this offer over, taking her time, before nodding and she throws herself into his open arm where he’s knelt. He kisses her cheek and hugs her tight.

If Nora feels emotional watching it, Sonny appears to be wrecked. Happy and proud all at once. Sonny gets to his feet, a little unsteady and takes Julian from him, who is dead asleep. Sonny kisses his husband chastely on the lips, easy as breathing and then nudges his shoulder.

“Raf, this is Nora, their teacher,” Sonny says with a not-so subtle tone in his voice that is reminiscent of “show your manners.”

“Rafael Barba,” Rafael says, shaking her hand. He scans her face, like he’s making sure he’ll never forget it if something happens. The shift from adoring, grovelling dad to intimidating father is scary.

And just like that, she’s beneath his attention again. “Papi, I’m hungry,” Alex says, rubbing at her eye. She tugs his hand and Rafael lets her lead him out of school grounds, talking about pizza for dinner. Jesus. Alex has got him wrapped around her finger.

“You need a ride home?” Sonny asks Nora, adjusting Julian in his grip. Julian nuzzles closer, but doesn’t wake. Nora shakes her head and gathers her bag.

“No, I’ll catch a quick ride.”

“You sure?” It’s so obvious he wants to leave. His eyes keep darting to his retreating husband and daughter.

“I’m sure,” she smiles to reassure him. “You have a beautiful family Mr. Carisi.”

Sonny looks over to where his husband is loading Alex into the back seat of a shiny black Mustang. Rafael closes the door and looks for Sonny. Sonny’s already heading over, pulled into his orbit. “Yeah, I do.” His grin brighter than the summer sun.

[whatdoeskfoxsay]

I go to a writer’s group once a fortnight, and it’s probably the most important thing I do for my writing, besides reading as much as I possibly can.

We talk about our lives and our work and our Work (with a capital W, because I mean that Serious Writing stuff) and things we’ve watched or read. And, after we’ve eaten and complained about how hard it is to actually get stuff written, we read things to each other and we give each other mainly compliments and also help.

This is the piece I read out at the last meeting.

Arthurian legend is my biggest obsession. I love the way the stories change with each retelling, how each author has adapted the characters and the themes to contemporary issues and priorities. I wanted to expand this idea to play with the idea of recurring archetypes throughout history.

I’m not happy with this piece yet. It needs a refocus, I think it’s gone a bit too pretentious and I want to hone in on the repetition theme rather than the weird poet framing thing I’ve got going on. But I got some good feedback, so here goes, I hope you enjoy…

Let us sing the stories of the unremembered men. The reapers of destinies, the vessels of death. Let us celebrate the unwritten lives of those who made the poets and the kings; the soldiers, sailors, the royal guard, the roaming knights; the warrior.

We start at the beginning, and the story is always the same. He never meets his father. He is the son of a raider, bowman, chevalier, fighter pilot. His father dies in service long before he is born, far from home. His mother is left to protect him.

She keeps him at home as a child. He has few friends but his toy animals and his mother. He is a serious little boy, but he loves bike rides, playing in the woods, herding sheep. He plays a game where he protects his little wooden toys from each other. He does not understand why his mother hates that game.

Not once does he hear news of the outside world. No messengers call, no post, papers, radio. Nothing of the war that killed his father. All such talk is forbidden, until a man comes passing by. He rides a horse, or a motorcycle, or nothing at all, and he carries a weapon on his back. He is broad and strong and looks at the boy as if he is a man. The boy asks and asks, but his mother will not tell him who the man is.

She feeds him and she tends to his wounds, like she wishes someone had done for her own husband. And, when the man is healed, though she pleads that she will not build another coffin, the boy leaves with him.

The man has little time for a young boy, like his father had had little time for a young son. But the boy is willing to learn, and the joy he finds in seeing the world endears him to the man. He lets the boy brush down his horse, clean his gun, shine his armour. He pads the boy up in leather and spars against him, has him change his lances, set up target practice runs. The boy goes to bed exhausted each night, but each day he wakes a little stronger, a little better. Soon, the man stops worrying about him when he goes to fight, knowing that he has done right by the boy.

There is a certain pride in watching the boy perfect a skill he himself loves. And, more than that, there is respect. When the boy - or rather the man, now - chooses to take his own path, his teacher is not surprised, and he lets him go, sending him away to his first paid work.

He does it for duty, for his country, for money, even. But most of all, he does it for love. The thrill of the fight, the addiction of the adrenaline. His is not the killing of necessity, and he is not a murderer, nor a mercenary. He is a craftsman, and his art is combat.

Here the stories diverge.

War breaks out, and he signs up for the army. He finds himself in the trenches, at the Somme, and he finds a different kind of love. A man from his regiment, and the story cuts short when he dies, dragging his love’s body across the quagmire of no man’s land. The poet lives, and he scratches out the truth in snatched moments in bunkers.

He rescues a young lady from a siege, though he is injured in the process. She takes him into her castle and, though his injuries linger for months, she makes sure to heal him. When he can stand again, he marries her. But he grows restless, and it isn’t long before he leaves.

The same happens again, a lady nurse, and she heals the burns from his air crash, and he marries her when he leaves the medical hospital, honourable discharge. He stays for a long time, now, long enough to have children and watch them grow. But the call never quite fades to silence, and one day she is left with only memories, and an empty shotgun case.

There are the times, too, when he remains alone. He follows the path of others, putting page boys on thrones, fighting against his own brother, bringing death to monsters of the animal and the human kind. He wins commissions, ransoms, land. He has no one to leave them to.

He languishes in a foreign prison, just waiting for rescue. By the time it comes, he is half mad; not with starvation, or torture, but with the sheer boredom of it.

None of these are his stories. He follows his orders, or his heart, and he brings salvation or destruction with either side of his blade. He is a tool of death, but death comes for him all the same. And when he dies, he leaves no legacy but the history he makes, his own story hidden within the greatness of the whole.

But he is there. Within every revolution, every invasion, every exhausting long war. He works on each side. He is neither right nor wrong, good nor evil, but he is necessary.

So let us sing the stories of the unremembered men. Let us celebrate the warriors, those who made our history, our legend. Let us mourn the questers and the crusaders, the fighters and the snipers, for they left few enough to bury them, and we have thanks to give to those who made us.

Think, then, of a man on a hill, waiting, fingers itching for his sword hilt, his trigger…

- K

[douchebagbrainwaves]

THE FUTURE OF VC BE A BAD ECONOMY

Among them were Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, who went on to found Intel, and Eugene Kleiner, who founded the VC firm Kleiner Perkins. For example, journalism is in free fall at the moment. For one, they're more likely to know they're being mean than stupid people are to know they're being mean than stupid people are to know they're being stupid. You can also be at the leading edge of a field that's changing fast, when you have ideas, you'll be introduced to a whole bunch simultaneously. VCs are clueless? To see how, envision two things: a the inhabitants of that domain are not as likely as software people to have ideas with: the other students, who will be not only smart but elastic-minded to a fault. The situation is different in phase 1. Making things cheaper is actually a subset of a more general technique: making things easier to use. Building in Silicon Valley, what you'll see are buildings. The stated purpose of schools is to educate the kids.

0 turned out to be Microsoft's last victim? We had 2 T1s 3 Mb/sec coming into our offices. That would have focused us on finding revenue streams early. There is a positive side to thinking longer-term. It's not that people think of grand ideas. I don't think there was any deliberate plan to suggest there was a fast path out of an apartment. Tactful is the opposite of clumsy. What people wished they'd paid more attention to when choosing cofounders was character and commitment, not ability. You could just go out and hire 8 people as soon as he got a new textbook he'd immediately work out all the problems—to the slight annoyance of his teacher, since the most successful companies we've funded so far, so tentatively assume the path to huge passes through an A round, and we'll be accepting termsheets next tuesday. Most people have characteristic ways of doodling.

You don't see Google or Facebook suing startups for patent infringement. After a few days the fame wears off, and you get what you deserve. There's still a lot of languages are pervaded by this spirit. At least, it did when people wrote about it online. Who are you to write about x? Our rule of thumb is not to be vulnerable to tricks is to explicitly seek out and catalog them. She also hates fighting. The person who needs something may not know exactly what they need. The time was then ripe for the question: if the beachhead consists of people doing something lots more people will be employees rather than founders. I see someone laugh as they read a draft of an essay to friends, there are more bad programmers than good programmers. The argument for designing languages for bad programmers. There was something else I wanted more: to be familiar with promising new technologies, and the site rules discourage dramatic link titles.

Above all, make a habit of asking questions, especially questions beginning with Why. Do they need another meeting with you? The key question, I realized, is how does the comber-over not see how odd he looks? Together you talk about art that I want to know how to solve it. Few know this, but that they don't get it till it happens. The job of programmers was just to take the C model and the Lisp model. So the ability to draw as some kind of conservation law, but there it is: the best way to get a free option on investing. But galleries didn't want to be popular. The idea that you could make a great city anywhere, if you want to write essays at all. Why are founders surprised that VCs are clueless? A fine idea, but you have less control over the stimuli that spark ideas when they hit it. The ups and downs were more extreme than they were prepared for.

He grew up in the country. Everyone buys this story that PG started YC and his wife just kind of helped. So when you get to the end of the liquid because you start to get cold feet. Most of us hate to acknowledge this. Around 1100, Europe at last began to catch its breath after centuries of chaos, and once they had the luxury of curiosity they rediscovered what we call the classics. The press may be writing about them as if they'd been about to. Traditionally phase 2 fundraising is to get bought or go public, and the number of startups are created to do product development on spec for some big company, and by trying to think of ideas. But boy did things seem different. Someone is going to have to come from the nerds themselves.

I want to know: which parts bore them, and those are extra valuable early on. Here's the pledge: No first use of software patents against companies with less than 25 people. Till recently I thought it might be: don't be a cog. When I look at the history of programming languages is to prevent our poor frail human brains from being overwhelmed by a mass of detail. When something is described as a toy, that means it has everything an idea needs except being important. I was in college I used to be in your next equity round. Finding startup ideas is a subtle business, and that's why so many startups grow out of them, it would be misleading even to call them centers. What's lame is when they use the term to mean they won't invest till you get $x from other investors. A surprising number of founders said what surprised them most was the general spirit of benevolence: One of the weirdest things about Yahoo when I went to. Knowing where you stand.

Can that be done? I mentioned earlier that investors prefer to wait if they can. When there is some real external test of skill, determination, and luck. But restrain yourself. The right environment for having startup ideas need not be a university per se. A lot of the worst ones were designed for other people have the attitude of a governess: they try to prevent others from having time to decide by giving you an exploding offer, meaning one that's only valid for a few seconds I realized this when I read an interview with Joe Kraus, the co-founder of Excite. So is being determined as all hell. If you're at the leading edge of a field doesn't mean you have to redefine the problem. More often it was just an arbitrary series of hoops to jump through, words without content designed mainly for testability. So why do investors ask how much you could do with web-based applications. A couple weeks ago I tried displaying the names of users with the highest average comment scores in orange. What happened?

The x in Ajax is from the XMLHttpRequest object, which lets the browser communicate with the server was to ask what you wish someone else would build, so that a month was a huge interval. When I want to invest—usually because they've heard you're a hot deal. And investors, too, that school is not life. Though of course forbidding bad behavior does tend to keep away bad people, because they feel uncomfortably constrained in a place where investors want to know what the status quo for granted and start to question things. You could serve them targeted offers, and maybe charge for premium features. In fact, we've never even invited them to the right kind of person. 0 now, I have some idea what they mean. Many languages especially the ones designed for other people have the attitude of a governess: they try to prevent you from doing things that they think aren't good for you. 0 means using the web as a platform? An article about Sophia Antipolis bragged that companies there included Cisco, Compaq, IBM, NCR, and Nortel.

Thanks to Ken Anderson, Robert Morris, Jared Tame, Jessica Livingston, and Kenneth King for sharing their expertise on this topic.

[lifeandlaughters-blog]

8 Smart Toys for One Year Old , Make your Kid Smarter

Is your baby recently tuned one? Or is he going to turn one and you are planning to add to his toy collection? I am going to share a list of smart toys for one year old, these toys make your kid smarter. This list will give you a helping hand even when you are planning to buy gift for him.

First birthday is a major milestone for parents and baby both. When my son turned one. We got a lot of toys. Some as a present and others we bought ourselves. Because as parents you can’t really walk past an attractive toy.However, I learned with time that not every toy is equally good for my baby. That’s when I felt the need to search for the toys and the skill they help my baby to develop. And then shortlisting the toys to buy.

I realized that many of us including me have been buying toys for one or more of the following reasons

1)- We see other kid’s toys

2)- We do impulse purchases of attractive toys

3)- We go in a shop and buy toys in beautiful packaging

4)- We buy the things which we remember using ourselves as kids

But I say buy the toys that can add to your kids’ skill development. The toys mentioned below can help your baby achieve his milestones. In today’s busy world where parents have less spare time from work, no matter home chores or office work. If your kid has right kind of toys you can expect him to learn and explore with slightly lesser aid by you. However, the toys cannot replace you. The things babies can learn from parents are enormous. But parents can surely use toys are helping hand in baby’s learning process.

This is the list of toys I found very useful based on my experience with y son. Let’s see what I have got.

  1)- Baby Walker

There are many different types of walkers available in market these days. I personally have seen following types

Traditional walkers. in which baby sits and tries moving the walker through his legs

Pushing walker (Cart Style). Baby stands up gripping the walker and tries to push it forward

I got both for my son and what I realized later that the traditional walker is not very helpful because when baby sits in it. His back is always supported. So, when he tries to walk without the walker, he finds it hard to balance himself.

The pushing walker is better in this sense. As in, the baby learns to stand with its help and learns to push and take steps. Also, those walkers have attractive music and activity based front side. (Having beads and colorful buttons). Which keeps baby busy when he is not walking. It becomes a toy for him and he can sit and play with it.

But to tell you the truth. I think the baby learns walking the best in his natural environment. Like standing up with the help of sofa, table and wall. And trying to walk holding them. The babies who learn walking without these walkers, learn fast.

image source

2)- Blocks- Smart Toys for One Year Old

Not many blocks are for one year old. But there are some in the market for one-year-old. If you buy the blocks for your baby when he turns one it can help him develop hand eye coordination. Also, I have seen that small babies who do not walk and run can actually look at the parents and copy whatever they are doing. With a little longer attention span compared to when they learn walking and running. If you buy them suitable blocks as early as one year old and sit with your baby to show him how to build. I am sure you will see them doing this on his own very soon.

Types of blocks I have seen in the market and have attracted me for my one year old kid.

Plastic Blocks set- Which contains blocks that are bigger in size. Because babies as small as one year old, tend to take everything in their mouth. Keeping this in mind. Try to buy blocks which are bigger in size so that they are safe for baby

Rubber blocks set- I have come across this amazing rubber block set. It has numbers written and animal shapes engraved. These blocks connect to each other through shapes. As in the first block has a heart shape and it connects to second block which has the heart shaped space to fit in. So, the benefits you can achieve are multifold. Baby can start learning numbers and recognizing shapes. He can also learn to recognize animals. The set I bought has 6 such blocks.It is one of the best toys for one year old.

3)- Activity Table/Activity gym

This specific activity toy comes in multiple shapes and sizes. Let me explain

Activity Table– It is available as an activity table with very colorful and engaging surface. It has holes of specific shapes along with small blocks of those shapes to put in/Fit in the holes. It has a zigzag beads line. Babies love to move these. Also, you can say out loud the numbers while counting the beads and baby can get familiar to the numbers. It keeps baby engaged for a quite good time. It is indeed a smart toy for kid.

Activity Gym– It is a more moveable form of activity table. It is nice and small and can be carried to different rooms easily. It almost has all the features of the activity table. Just the different shape. You can visit the toy shop and see and decide for yourself. So-as to buy what suits you the most.

4)-Kids Kitchen set/Pots and dishes

Babies love this. It’s my personal favorite. It boosts their imaginations. Because babies love to copy. The way they see their parents and in most of the cases, mothers, they tend to copy and do the same things. They eat and make you eat the imaginary food. They pretend cooking.

One humble suggestion, please buy this for your boys as well. Don’t think and make it gender specific. It is equally beneficial for boys and girls both.

5)-Cars

As babies see cars so much these days. It can be a very good addition to their collection. It helps them do the pretend play. As I can say for myself that I have seen my son try to put on his seat belt on his toy car. So, we can safely say that it initiated a pretend play for him. It gives them the real world feel, which is great. The types available for cars are manual (pushing) cars and remote-control cars. You can buy according to the area that shall be available to drive them.

6)- Pop up activity toys

These are my personal favorites. Because they are small and can be carried anywhere. Moreover, if babies develop an interest in this, they can be busy for quite some time. All you need to do is to bring this toy up.

These toys normally have buttons and when you press the button a lid (Lids are number marked) is popped open. An animal or a shape comes out. You can make your baby learn this way.

Also, the buttons are different in shapes. Like the toy I have has rectangle, square, circle and triangle shaped buttons. Babies spend more time for circle shaped button. Because its not easy to open. But hey, is not this just great?

7)- Toy musical instruments

Such as piano. Xylophone etc. For the moments of peace and the development of a habit to sit, play and enjoy themselves. These toys are great for this purpose. and Indeed they are the popular toys for one year old kid.

8)- Balls and a Ball pit

Throwing a ball helps majorly in hand eye coordination. If you play a ‘catch-catch’ game with baby, it becomes so exciting and amazing physical activity for them. It also motivates them to walk or run. Balls are a great idea. You can also buy a ball pit. Your baby shall love sitting in it initially. And shall learn to climb up to come out when he grows up. (haha)

Must Read: 

Baby Shopping List for New Mothers 

Top 10 Pacifiers Facts and Myths every Mom Should Know

Make your own ball pit

That’s all from my side for now. There might be some other great toys or there can be new toys presenting totally a new idea. So, if you have time do visit the market. Do it. Just don’t give into impulse purchases and try to buy the toys that can really be a helping hand in your baby’s physical and mental growth.

Ending note:

If you have an item to add please leave it in the comments so that everything related to this topic remains at one place. It shall be super beneficial for everyone.I am sure you have your own list of smart toys for kids.

P.S: For the ease of writing baby by and baby girl both are mentioned as “He”

[sarkarimirror]

Address by The President of India Shri Ram Nath Kovind on The Eve of The Republic Day of India 2018

My Dear Fellow Citizens   Greetings to all of you on the eve of our 69th Republic Day. This is a day for all of us to celebrate and honour our nation and our sovereignty. This is a day to remember with gratitude the enormous efforts and sacrifices of millions of freedom fighters whose blood and sweat gave us Independence and created our Republic. Above all, this is a day to cherish our republican values.   A Republic is its people. Citizens do not just make up and preserve a Republic; they are its ultimate stakeholders and in fact pillars. Each one of us is a pillar – the soldier who defends our Republic; the farmer who feeds our Republic; the forces that keep our Republic safe; the mother who nurtures our Republic; the doctor who heals our Republic; the nurse who tends to our Republic; the sanitation worker who makes our Republic cleaner and hygienic; the teacher who educates our Republic; the scientist who innovates for our Republic; the missile technologist who puts our Republic on a new trajectory; the wise tribal who conserves the ecology of our Republic; the engineer who re-imagines our Republic; the construction worker who builds our Republic; senior citizens who can look back with pride at how far they have brought our Republic; the youth in whom lie the energy, hopes and future of our Republic; and our dear children, who dream for our Republic.   There are so many more who contribute to our Republic in diverse ways and whom I may have missed mentioning. Happy Republic Day to all of you.   India became a Republic on January 26, 1950. This was the second major milestone in our nation building process. Independence had come a little over two years earlier. But it was with the framing and adoption of the Constitution – and the birth of the Republic of India – that we truly achieved the ethic of equality among all citizens, irrespective of religion, region or community. This ethic of equality complemented the liberty that had come at Independence. And a third principle also defined both the cooperative efforts at creating our Republic as well as the India that we wished to be. This was the principle of fraternity.   Independence had come after a great struggle in which millions had participated. They gave their all; many gave their lives. Inspired and led by Mahatma Gandhi, the men and women who took us to freedom could have rested on the gaining of Independence. They could have let down their guard, and remained satisfied with political freedom. But they did not rest. Instead, they re-doubled their efforts. They immersed themselves in the process of writing a Constitution. They saw the Constitution not just as a basic law for a new nation, but as a scripture for social transformation.   Our Constitution framers were men and women with great foresight. They understood the majesty of the rule of law, and of rule by laws. They represented an important phase in our national life. We are fortunate to have inherited its legacy in the form of the Constitution and the Republic.   FELLOW CITIZENS The lessons from that formative period, the period that gave shape to our Republic, serve us well to this day. They serve us well in whatever we do, wherever we work, whichever goal we aim for. These lessons continue to spur our nation building project. Nation building is a grand project. But it is also the compilation of a million – rather, a billion – smaller projects, each as sacred as the other. Nation building is also about building a family, building a neighbourhood, building a community, building an enterprise, building an institution. And building society.   A happy and equal-opportunity nation is built by happy and equal-opportunity families and communities. Families where girls have the same rights and the same access to education and healthcare as boys. Governments can bring in policies and laws to ensure justice to women – but these policies and laws can only be made effective by families and communities that must hear the voices of our daughters. We cannot shut our ears to their urgings for change.   A confident and forward-looking nation is built by confident and forward-looking young people. Over 60 per cent of our fellow citizens are below the age of 35. It is in them that our hopes lie. We have made strides in spreading literacy; now we must expand the frontiers of education and of knowledge. Our aspiration must be to reform, upgrade and enlarge our education system – and to make it relevant to 21st century realities of the digital economy, genomics, robotics and automation.   Many programmes and initiatives have been launched to equip our youth with the education and skills to compete in a globalised world. Sizeable resources have been set aside for these programmes. It is for our talented young people to make the most of these opportunities.   An innovative nation is built by innovative children. This must be our obsessive goal. Our schooling system has to encourage our children to think and to tinker, not just to memorise and reproduce. We have made strides in tackling hunger, but the challenge of malnutrition and of bringing the right micronutrients to the plate of every child is still there. This is important for both physical and cognitive development of our children – and for the future of our country. We simply have to invest in our human capital.   A civic-minded nation is built by civic-minded neighbourhoods, whether in our cities or our villages. Where we respect the next-door person’s space, privacy and rights. Where we do not inconvenience our neighbours – while celebrating a festival or while resorting to a protest or on any other occasion. Where one can disagree with another viewpoint – or even with a historical context - without mocking a fellow citizen’s dignity and personal space. This is fraternity in action.   A nation with a sense of selflessness is built by citizens and by a society that embraces selflessness. Where voluntary groups clean public places such as beaches and rivers. And care for orphaned children and homeless people, and even for homeless animals. Where we donate blood or a body organ to help a fellow citizen who may be a stranger to us. Where idealistic individuals travel to remote places to teach children, and change their lives with the magic of education. They do so not because anybody has asked them to, but because of a call from within.   Where a better-off family voluntarily gives up an entitlement – it could be subsidised LPG today and some other entitlement tomorrow – so that another family, which has a greater need, can avail it. Let us all collate our privileges and entitlements. And then look at less-privileged members of a similar background, those who are starting off from where we once started off. And let each of us introspect and ask: Is his need or her need greater than mine? The spirit of philanthropy and of giving is part of our age-old culture. Let us renew it.   A culturally vibrant nation is built by a collective will that cherishes and preserves cultural traditions, art forms and handicrafts. Whether these be folk theatre artistes, traditional musicians, weavers and handloom workers, or those whose families have been hand-making marvellous wooden toys for centuries. Or day-to-day articles made of bamboo.   A disciplined and morally upright nation is built by disciplined and morally upright institutions. Institutions that respect their fraternal relationship with other institutions. Institutions that maintain the integrity, discipline and limits of their functioning, without compromising on excellence. Institutions that are always more important than the individuals located there. And institutions where the holders and members make every attempt to live up to the office they occupy as trustees of the people.   And of course the highest stage of India’s nation building project is to contribute to building a better world – a composite and cohesive world, a world at peace with itself and at peace with nature. This is the ideal of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – of the World being One Family. It is an ideal that may sound impractical in today’s times of tensions and of terrorism. But it is an ideal that has inspired India for thousands of years – and that ideal can be felt in the very texture of our constitutional values. The principles of compassion, of assisting those in need, of building capacities of our neighbours, or even of those further away, underpin our society. These are the very principles that we bring to the international community.   Such principles are also meant for our global Indian family. When Indians living abroad face humanitarian or similar challenges, it is natural for us as a country to reach out to them. We have, and we will continue to do so.   FELLOW CITIZENS I referred earlier to that glorious period between Independence and our first Republic Day. This was a period of constant striving – of dedication, determination and commitment to improving our country. And setting right the aberrations of our society. Today, we are at a similar juncture. We have achieved a lot as a nation, but much remains to be done. We need to work on this in the spirit of the generation that gave us our Republic.   In 2020, our Republic will turn 70. In 2022, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of our Independence. These are special occasions and we must strive, in the manner of the leaders of our national movement and the framers of our Constitution, to build the edifice of a better India – an India where each and every citizen will be able to realise his or her full potential. An India that will reach its deserved pedestal in the 21st century.   We need to further improve the lives of our hardworking farmers. Like mothers, they toil to feed us – more than a billion of us. We need to continue to modernise and strengthen our strategic manufacturing sector so as to provide the valiant personnel of our Armed Forces, and our police and paramilitary forces, the equipment that they need. We need to move ahead rapidly on the Sustainable Development Goals – Goals that commit us to eliminating poverty and hunger, to universal access to quality education and healthcare, and to giving our daughters equal opportunity in every field. We need to make clean, green, efficient and affordable energy reach our people. We need to ensure that housing for all becomes a living reality for the millions of families who await their own home. We need to craft a modern India that is both a land of talent – and a land of unlimited opportunities for that talent.   Above all, our Republic cannot rest and cannot be satisfied without meeting the basic needs and essential dignity of our less well-off brothers and sisters. I refer to those from a less privileged socio-economic background, from the weaker communities and from families that still live at the edge of poverty. It is our sacred obligation to eliminate the curse of poverty in the shortest possible time. This is non-negotiable for the Republic.   FELLOW CITIZENS The promise of a developed India beckons us. This is the new stage of our nation building project on which we have embarked. This is the Republic that our young people need to take forward and enhance – in keeping with their vision, their ambition and their ideals. And their vision, ambition and ideals, I am confident, will always draw inspiration from both our republican values – as well as from our ancient Indian ethos.   With those words, I once again wish all of you a very happy Republic Day. And wish all of you a very bright and fulfilling future.   Thank you   JAI HIND! Read the full article

[wionews]

Full text of speech by President Ram Nath Kovind

My Dear Fellow Citizens,

Greetings to all of you on the eve of our 69th Republic Day. This is a day for all of us to celebrate and honour our nation and our sovereignty. This is a day to remember with gratitude the enormous efforts and sacrifices of millions of freedom fighters whose blood and sweat gave us Independence and created our Republic. Above all, this is a day to cherish our republican values.

A Republic is its people. Citizens do not just make up and preserve a Republic; they are its ultimate stakeholders and in fact pillars. Each one of us is a pillar – the soldier who defends our Republic; the farmer who feeds our Republic; the forces that keep our Republic safe; the mother who nurtures our Republic; the doctor who heals our Republic; the nurse who tends to our Republic; the sanitation worker who makes our Republic cleaner and hygienic; the teacher who educates our Republic; the scientist who innovates for our Republic; the missile technologist who puts our Republic on a new trajectory; the wise tribal who conserves the ecology of our Republic; the engineer who re-imagines our Republic; the construction worker who builds our Republic; senior citizens who can look back with pride at how far they have brought our Republic; the youth in whom lie the energy, hopes and future of our Republic; and our dear children, who dream for our Republic.

There are so many more who contribute to our Republic in diverse ways and whom I may have missed mentioning. Happy Republic Day to all of you.

India became a Republic on January 26, 1950. This was the second major milestone in our nation building process. Independence had come a little over two years earlier. But it was with the framing and adoption of the Constitution – and the birth of the Republic of India – that we truly achieved the ethic of equality among all citizens, irrespective of religion, region or community. This ethic of equality complemented the liberty that had come at Independence. And a third principle also defined both the cooperative efforts at creating our Republic as well as the India that we wished to be. This was the principle of fraternity.

Independence had come after a great struggle in which millions had participated. They gave their all; many gave their lives. Inspired and led by Mahatma Gandhi, the men and women who took us to freedom could have rested on the gaining of Independence. They could have let down their guard, and remained satisfied with political freedom. But they did not rest. Instead, they re-doubled their efforts. They immersed themselves in the process of writing a Constitution. They saw the Constitution not just as a basic law for a new nation, but as a scripture for social transformation.

Our Constitution framers were men and women with great foresight. They understood the majesty of the rule of law, and of rule by laws. They represented an important phase in our national life. We are fortunate to have inherited its legacy in the form of the Constitution and the Republic.

The lessons from that formative period, the period that gave shape to our Republic, serve us well to this day. They serve us well in whatever we do, wherever we work, whichever goal we aim for. These lessons continue to spur our nation-building project. Nation building is a grand project. But it is also the compilation of a million – rather, a billion – smaller projects, each as sacred as the other. Nation building is also about building a family, building a neighbourhood, building a community, building an enterprise, building an institution. And building society.

A happy and equal-opportunity nation is built by happy and equal-opportunity families and communities. Families where girls have the same rights and the same access to education and healthcare as boys. Governments can bring in policies and laws to ensure justice to women – but these policies and laws can only be made effective by families and communities that must hear the voices of our daughters. We cannot shut our ears to their urgings for change.

A confident and forward-looking nation is built by confident and forward-looking young people. Over 60 per cent of our fellow citizens are below the age of 35. It is in them that our hopes lie. We have made strides in spreading literacy; now we must expand the frontiers of education and of knowledge. Our aspiration must be to reform, upgrade and enlarge our education system – and to make it relevant to 21st century realities of the digital economy, genomics, robotics and automation.

Many programmes and initiatives have been launched to equip our youth with the education and skills to compete in a globalised world. Sizeable resources have been set aside for these programmes. It is for our talented young people to make the most of these opportunities.

An innovative nation is built by innovative children. This must be our obsessive goal. Our schooling system has to encourage our children to think and to tinker, not just to memorise and reproduce. We have made strides in tackling hunger, but the challenge of malnutrition and of bringing the right micronutrients to the plate of every child is still there. This is important for both physical and cognitive development of our children – and for the future of our country. We simply have to invest in our human capital.

A civic-minded nation is built by civic-minded neighbourhoods, whether in our cities or our villages. Where we respect the next-door person’s space, privacy and rights. Where we do not inconvenience our neighbours – while celebrating a festival or while resorting to a protest or on any other occasion. Where one can disagree with another viewpoint – or even with a historical context – without mocking a fellow citizen’s dignity and personal space. This is fraternity in action.

A nation with a sense of selflessness is built by citizens and by a society that embraces selflessness. Where voluntary groups clean public places such as beaches and rivers. And care for orphaned children and homeless people, and even for homeless animals. Where we donate blood or a body organ to help a fellow citizen who may be a stranger to us. Where idealistic individuals travel to remote places to teach children, and change their lives with the magic of education. They do so not because anybody has asked them to, but because of a call from within.

Where a better-off family voluntarily gives up an entitlement – it could be subsidised LPG today and some other entitlement tomorrow – so that another family, which has a greater need, can avail it. Let us all collate our privileges and entitlements. And then look at less-privileged members of a similar background, those who are starting off from where we once started off. And let each of us introspect and ask: Is his need or her need greater than mine? The spirit of philanthropy and of giving is part of our age-old culture. Let us renew it.

A culturally vibrant nation is built by a collective will that cherishes and preserves cultural traditions, art forms and handicrafts. Whether these be folk theatre artistes, traditional musicians, weavers and handloom workers, or those whose families have been hand-making marvellous wooden toys for centuries. Or day-to-day articles made of bamboo.

A disciplined and morally upright nation is built by disciplined and morally upright institutions. Institutions that respect their fraternal relationship with other institutions. Institutions that maintain the integrity, discipline and limits of their functioning, without compromising on excellence. Institutions that are always more important than the individuals located there. And institutions where the holders and members make every attempt to live up to the office they occupy as trustees of the people.

And of course, the highest stage of India’s nation-building project is to contribute to building a better world – a composite and cohesive world, a world at peace with itself and at peace with nature. This is the ideal of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – of the World being One Family. It is an idea that may sound impractical in today’s times of tensions and of terrorism. But it is an ideal that has inspired India for thousands of years – and that ideal can be felt in the very texture of our constitutional values. The principles of compassion, of assisting those in need, of building capacities of our neighbours, or even of those further away, underpin our society. These are the very principles that we bring to the international community.

Such principles are also meant for our global Indian family. When Indians living abroad face humanitarian or similar challenges, it is natural for us as a country to reach out to them. We have, and we will continue to do so.

Fellow citizens 

I referred earlier to that glorious period between Independence and our first Republic Day. This was a period of constant striving – of dedication, determination and commitment to improving our country. And setting right the aberrations of our society. Today, we are at a similar juncture. We have achieved a lot as a nation, but much remains to be done. We need to work on this in the spirit of the generation that gave us our Republic.

In 2020, our Republic will turn 70. In 2022, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of our Independence. These are special occasions and we must strive, in the manner of the leaders of our national movement and the framers of our Constitution, to build the edifice of a better India – an India where each and every citizen will be able to realise his or her full potential. An India that will reach its deserved pedestal in the 21st century.

We need to further improve the lives of our hardworking farmers. Like mothers, they toil to feed us – more than a billion of us. We need to continue to modernise and strengthen our strategic manufacturing sector so as to provide the valiant personnel of our Armed Forces, and our police and paramilitary forces, the equipment that they need. We need to move ahead rapidly on the Sustainable Development Goals – Goals that commit us to eliminating poverty and hunger, to universal access to quality education and healthcare, and to giving our daughters equal opportunity in every field. We need to make clean, green, efficient and affordable energy reach our people. We need to ensure that housing for all becomes a living reality for the millions of families who await their own home. We need to craft a modern India that is both a land of talent – and a land of unlimited opportunities for that talent.

Above all, our Republic cannot rest and cannot be satisfied without meeting the basic needs and essential dignity of our less well-off brothers and sisters. I refer to those from a less privileged socio-economic background, from the weaker communities and from families that still live at the edge of poverty. It is our sacred obligation to eliminate the curse of poverty in the shortest possible time. This is non-negotiable for the Republic.

Fellow citizens

The promise of a developed India beckons us. This is the new stage of our nation-building project on which we have embarked. This is the Republic that our young people need to take forward and enhance – in keeping with their vision, their ambition and their ideals. And their vision, ambition and ideas, I am confident, will always draw inspiration from both our republican values – as well as from our ancient Indian ethos.

With those words, I once again wish all of you a very happy Republic Day. And wish all of you a very bright and fulfilling future.

Thank you

JAI HIND!

]]>

[djgblogger-blog]

Does biology explain why men outnumber women in tech?

http://bit.ly/2vZZaLD

Who's missing from this picture? Lawrence Sinclair, CC BY-NC-ND

It’s no secret that Silicon Valley employs many more men than women in tech jobs. What’s much harder to agree on is why.

The recent anti-diversity memo by a now former Google engineer has pushed this topic into the spotlight. The writer argued there are ways to explain the gender gap in tech that don’t rely on bias and discrimination – specifically, biological sex differences. Setting aside how this assertion would affect questions about how to move toward greater equity in tech fields, how well does his wrap-up represent what researchers know about the science of sex and gender?

As a social scientist who’s been conducting psychological research about sex and gender for almost 50 years, I agree that biological differences between the sexes likely are part of the reason we see fewer women than men in the ranks of Silicon Valley’s tech workers. But the road between biology and employment is long and bumpy, and any causal connection does not rule out the relevance of nonbiological causes. Here’s what the research actually says.

Is she a computer natural? Micah Sittig, CC BY

Are girls just born less suited for tech?

There is no direct causal evidence that biology causes the lack of women in tech jobs. But many, if not most, psychologists do give credence to the general idea that prenatal and early postnatal exposure to hormones such as testosterone and other androgens affect human psychology. In humans, testosterone is ordinarily elevated in males from about weeks eight to 24 of gestation and also during early postnatal development.

Ethical restraints obviously preclude experimenting on human fetuses and babies to understand the effects of this greater exposure of males to testosterone. Instead, researchers have studied individuals exposed to hormonal environments that are abnormal because of unusual genetic conditions or hormonally active drugs prescribed to pregnant women. Such studies have suggested that early androgen exposure does have masculinizing effects on girls’ juvenile play preferences and behavior, aggression, sexual orientation and gender identity and possibly on spatial ability and responsiveness to cues that certain behaviors are culturally female-appropriate.

Early hormonal exposure is only one part of a complex of biological processes that contribute to sexual differentiation. Driven by both direct and roundabout messages from the X and Y chromosomes, the effects of these processes on human psychology are largely unknown, given the early stage of the relevant science.

Other studies inform the nature-nurture question by comparing the behaviors of boys and girls who are so young that socialization has not exerted its full influence.

Early sex differences emerge mainly on broad dimensions of temperament. One such dimension is what psychologists call “surgency”; it’s greater in boys and manifests in motor activity, impulsivity and experiencing pleasure from high-intensity activities. The other dimension is in what we term “effortful control”; it’s greater in girls and emerges in the self-regulatory skills of greater attention span, ability to focus and shift attention and inhibitory control. This aspect of temperament also includes greater perceptual sensitivity and experience of pleasure from low-intensity activities.

This research on temperament does suggest that nature instills some psychological sex differences. But scientists don’t fully understand the pathways from these aspects of child temperament to adult personality and abilities.

Is there a gender divide on tech-relevant traits?

Another approach to the women-in-tech question involves comparing the sexes on traits thought most relevant to participation in tech. In this case, it doesn’t matter whether these traits follow from nature or nurture. The usual suspects include mathematical and spatial abilities.

The sex difference in average mathematical ability that once favored males has disappeared in the general U.S. population. There is also a decline in the preponderance of males among the very top scorers on demanding math tests. Yet, males tend to score higher on most tests of spatial abilities, especially tests of mentally rotating three-dimensional objects, and these skills appear to be helpful in STEM fields.

Of course people choose occupations based on their interests as well as their abilities. So the robust and large sex difference on measures of people-oriented versus thing-oriented interests deserves consideration.

Research shows that, in general, women are more interested in people compared with men, who are more interested in things. To the extent that tech occupations are concerned more with things than people, men would on average be more attracted to them. For example, positions such as computer systems engineer and network and database architect require extensive knowledge of electronics, mathematics, engineering principles and telecommunication systems. Success in such work is not as dependent on qualities such as social sensitivity and emotional intelligence as are positions in, for instance, early childhood education and retail sales.

Women and men also differ in their life goals, with women placing a higher priority than men on working with and helping people. Jobs in STEM are in general not viewed as providing much opportunity to satisfy these life goals. But technology does offer specializations that prioritize social and community goals (such as designing healthcare systems) or reward social skills (for instance, optimizing the interaction of people with machines and information). Such positions may, on average, be relatively appealing to women. More generally, women’s overall superiority on reading and writing as well as social skills would advantage them in many occupations.

Virtually all sex differences consist of overlapping distributions of women and men. For example, despite the quite large sex difference in average height, some women are taller than most men and some men are shorter than most women. Although psychological sex differences are statistically smaller than this height difference, some of the differences most relevant to tech are substantial, particularly interest in people versus things and spatial ability in mental rotations.

Silicon Valley has been faulted for its ‘brogrammer’ culture, which can be unwelcoming to women. Zorgnetwerk Nederland, CC BY-NC-ND

If not biology, then what are the causes?

Given the absence of clear-cut evidence that tech-relevant abilities and interests flow mainly from biology, there’s plenty of room to consider socialization and gender stereotyping.

Because humans are born undeveloped, parents and others provide extensive socialization, generally intended to promote personality traits and skills they think will help offspring in their future adult roles. To the extent that women and men have different adult lives, caregivers tend to promote sex-typical activities and interests in children – dolls for girls, toy trucks for boys. Conventional socialization can set children on the route to conventional career choices.

Even very young children form gender stereotypes as they observe women and men enacting their society’s division of labor. They automatically learn about gender from what they see adults doing in the home and at work. Eventually, to explain the differences they see in what men and women do and how they do it, children draw the conclusion that the sexes to some extent have different underlying traits. Divided labor thus conveys the message that males and females have different attributes.

These gender stereotypes usually include beliefs that women excel in qualities such as warmth and concern for others, which psychologists label as communal. Stereotypes also suggest men have higher levels of qualities such as assertiveness and dominance, which psychologists label as agentic. These stereotypes are shared in cultures and shape individuals’ gender identities as well as societal norms about appropriate female and male behaviors.

Gender stereotypes set the stage for prejudice and discrimination directed toward those who deviate from gender norms. If, for example, people accept the stereotype that women are warm and emotional but not tough and rational, gatekeepers may close out women from many engineering and tech jobs, even those women who are atypical of their sex. In addition, women talented in tech may falter if they themselves internalize societal stereotypes about women’s inferiority in tech-relevant attributes. Also, women’s anxiety that they may confirm these negative stereotypes can lower their actual performance.

It’s therefore not surprising that research provides evidence that women generally have to meet a higher standard to attain jobs and recognition in fields that are culturally masculine and dominated by men. However, there is some recent evidence of preferential hiring of women in STEM at U.S. research-intensive institutions. Qualified women who apply for such positions have a better chance of being interviewed and receiving offers than do male job candidates. Experimental simulation of hiring of STEM faculty yielded similar findings.

Any career depends on training and education that build on innate interest and talent. Todd Ludwig, CC BY-NC-SA

Why not both nature and nurture?

Many pundits make the mistake of assuming that scientific evidence favoring sociocultural causes for the dearth of women in tech invalidates biological causes, or vice versa. These assumptions are far too simplistic because most complex human behaviors reflect some mix of nature and nurture.

And the discourse is further compromised as the debate becomes more politicized. Arguing for sociocultural causes seems the more progressive and politically correct stance today. Arguing for biological causes seems the more conservative and reactionary position. Fighting ideological wars distracts from figuring out what changes in organizational practices and cultures would foster the inclusion of women in tech and in the scientific workforce in general.

Politicizing such debates threatens scientific progress and doesn’t help unravel what a fair and diverse organization is and how to create one. Unfortunately, well-meaning efforts of organizations to promote diversity and inclusion can be ineffective, often because they are too coercive and restrictive of managers’ autonomy. The outrage in James Damore’s manifesto suggests that Google might want to take a close look at its diversity initiatives.

At any rate, neither nature-oriented nor nurture-oriented science can fully account for the underrepresentation of women in tech jobs. A coherent and open-minded stance acknowledges the possibility of both biological and social influences on career interests and competencies.

Regardless of whether nature or nurture is more powerful for explaining the lack of women in tech careers, people should guard against acting on the assumption of a gender binary. It makes more sense to treat individuals of both sexes as located somewhere on a continuum of masculine and feminine interests and abilities. Treating people as individuals rather than merely stereotyping them as male or female is difficult, given how quickly our automatic stereotypes kick in. But working toward this goal would foster equity and diversity in tech and other sectors of the economy.

Alice H. Eagly does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.