#but actually this prompt is what spurred that post into creation in the first place actually.

[capsironunderoos]

Cold

DINCEMBER - December 14 - Cold

Din Djarin (The Mandalorian) x Reader

Summary: This really doesn’t have a plot, it’s more so just a snippet of life with Din in the small cabin you share with him and Grogu. Din returns from the marketplace one morning to find that you have a cold, and he makes it his job to take care of you.

Word Count: 1.3k

Warnings: Mentions of sickness, but nothing besides a temperature and a headache

Author’s Note: I AM SO BEHIND ON DINCEMBER! It’s literally over and here I am, still posting... Anyways! I had to finish up my first semester of student teaching, and then Christmas hit, and I’ve been trying to write in-between those things, but I’ve also been really sad lately, so there’s that. Regardless, I think I have five more posts for Dincember after this one (?) and I plan to have them all posted within the next few days. Also, this one is short, and as stated earlier, doesn’t really have a plot, it’s just kind of a glimpse into a domestic life with Din in a cabin with your small green kiddo on a planet where you’ll always be safe... I hope you enjoy!

Here’s the previous prompt: Dincember - December 11 - Please, Come Home

And the link to my masterlist: capsironunderoos masterlist

“Cyare? Are you here?” 

At the sound of Din’s voice echoing throughout the cabin you try your best to sit up on the couch, but the sudden movement further spurs the headache you’ve woken up with. 

You can’t even bring yourself to let Din know you’re currently laid out on the couch, fighting possibly one of the worst colds of your life. 

You hear a noise beside you and your attention turns from the sound of Din placing his armor on the counter to the small coo beside you, so you glance to the floor to see Grogu staring up at you, his sweet little ears perked up as if he’s trying to sense what’s wrong. 

You smile at him as best you can, slowly shaking your head to let him know there’s nothing he can do for you. 

He seems to sense the distress the movement sends throughout your body, and you watch as he begins to slowly lift his hand. 

“Alright kid, I think it’s time you played in your room for a bit.” 

At the sound of Din’s voice so suddenly close, you and the child both snap your focus in his direction. 

He’s standing just beside the couch looking down at the pair of you. His beskar has already been removed, and he’s standing in a dark green sweater and deep gray shorts, his arms crossed over his chest as he glances over you with concern. 

“Go on,” you mumble out, and with your blessing the small child waddles to the hallway to return to his room. 

Once you and Din have watched him turn the corner, you return your gazes to each other. 

“Cyare, what’s wrong?” He asks as he moves around the couch so that he can squat just in front of your face. 

“It’s just a really bad cold, Din. It’ll go away in a few days.” 

Din can’t remember the last time he’d been really sick, but he knows what to do when you fall ill. 

He slowly moves his left hand to brush a few stray pieces of hair away from your face before allowing it to rest against your forehead. 

“You definitely have a fever,” he states, and you smile. 

“It’ll break. I just need to stay here for a little while.” 

He nods, agreeing with you, before his eyebrows furrow in the same way they always do before he asks a question. 

“How did you get here?” 

You laugh as best you can, but the movement brings on another pang of ache in your temple. 

“Very slowly,” you mumble out and he smiles. 

“How about some soup?” He asks, and you nod. 

“Has the kid had anything to eat yet?” 

A look of guilt flashes across your face and Din is quick to answer his own question. 

“Okay, I’ll fix some for us too then,” he responds with a soft smile and you nod in agreement as you burrow further into the couch and under one of the many blankets you keep in the cabin. 

Din makes the soup quickly, thankful that he decided to make a trip to the small marketplace down the road this morning, which reminds him of something as he places three bowls of soup on the small wooden table in front of the couch. 

“I meant to tell you,” he starts, and you look up at him as you slowly move to a seated position. 

“Waye asked where you were this morning, and that booth, the one you like to buy clothes for the kid from, got a new shipment in. The owner stopped me and told me that so that I would tell you specifically.” 

Waye had quickly become one of your closest friends on this small planet. She ran a small food cart and always had the best ronto wraps, which always came with a side of pleasant conversation. 

As for the owner of the clothing booth, he only knew that you were one of his best customers, as you and Grogu loved to spend hours perusing his stock while Din completed the actual grocery shopping. 

You laughed at Din as he told you of the clothing booth owner. 

“I think you’re his favorite customer,” Din responded, and you laughed again, nodding slowly this time. 

“I ought to be, me and Grogu spend enough credits there that they should just start shipping the new outfits here.” 

Din smiles at that as you both turn to see said child waddling into the room, clad in one of the outfits from the booth. It’s a deep blue sweater material that encompasses his small body like a romper. 

He must feel the stares of his parents, as his eyes quickly dart up to look at you and Din. When he does, he lets out a gurgle of laughter before running, as best he can, it’s more like a fast wobble, to latch onto Din’s leg. 

Din bends down to pick him up before setting him in front of his bowl of soup on the small wooden table. Grogu wastes no time and immediately digs into his lunch. 

You smile at the sight as the couch shifts beside you with Din’s weight. 

“C’mere,” he whispers, and you move to sit with him, resting perfectly between his legs as you lay against his chest. 

“I really don’t want you to get sick,” you mutter before looking up at him. 

He plants a soft kiss onto your forehead before leaning up to grab your bowls of soup. 

“I’ll be fine, cyare, don’t worry about me,” he responds, handing you your bowl. 

You smile and lift the bowl to your lips, taking a small sip of the warm liquid. It warms your throat as you swallow, and a sigh of relief escapes your lips as you nestle further into Din’s chest. 

He chuckles at your actions, slowly sipping on his own bowl of soup. 

Once the three of you have finished, Din doesn’t worry over cleaning up, opting to sit the bowls to the side to pick up later. 

He lays down further on the couch, pulling you with him. You turn to lay on top of his chest, your right arm wrapping around him as the left rests just below his neck. 

It doesn’t take long for you to fall asleep, and Din makes sure to keep your blanket in place as you do so. 

He watches Grogu as he plays with some blocks in the floor in front of the couch, the fireplace illuminating his creations. 

Din suddenly notes a feeling of contentment settling into his chest. 

He had never considered his life to be one that would grant him such wonderful things, but here he is, his riduur asleep on his chest, and his son playing in the floor with blocks he had been gifted during a past Life Day celebration. 

“You think so loudly,” he hears you whisper, feeling you shift so that you can turn and see Grogu playing. 

He chuckles, and the deep rumbles of his laugh shake you ever so slightly. 

“Are you feeling better?” He questions, and you nod. 

“I think my fever broke, and my headache has gone away.” 

It’s silent for a few moments, save for the small sounds of Grogu’s wooden blocks knocking into one another. 

“What were you thinking about Din?” You ask, and he sighs as he begins carding his hands through your hair. 

“You. Grogu. Our cabin, our lives. The way everything has so perfectly entwined.” 

Your fingers fiddle with the collar of his sweater. 

“You deserve this and so much more, riduur.” 

Din hugs you tighter to his chest at your words. 

“I could never do anything to deserve you, or the kid, or this life, but whatever I’ve done to earn my place here, to create this life with you… I would do it again. I would do it over and over and over if it meant that I could have this, with you, forever.” 

Here’s the next prompt for Dincember: DINCEMBER - December 16 - Blankets

#dincember #mando #mando x reader #mando x y/n #the mandalorian #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x y/n #din djarin #din djarin x reader #din djarin x y/n #grogu #baby yoda #star wars #star wars x reader #sw #em writes

[theoriginalladya]

Writer ask 1-3 (or three other if they have been asked) :)

from this list

Thanks so much for asking!

1.  Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Oh goodness, I don’t have enough space for ALL the projects, so I’ll pick my top three I guess?

Caleb Shepard - What started as a response to a writing prompt from @swaps55 has evolved into something much bigger than I ever imagined!  AND I LOVE IT!!!!!  I’m currently finishing up his story about his background in the 10th Street Reds and after that I have SO MANY IDEAS for him!  I definitely see him taking over my head for an extended length of time so I can get his entire story sorted out!  I already have stuff prior to the games, through the games, and two shorter stories for post-ME3, but another idea for post-ME3 popped up today as I was running errands, so we’ll see if that develops, too.

ShepShep - Oh my, I’ve been working on the fics for this pairing since 2014 and I love them so much!!!  I have a LOT of personal stuff invested in their stories - writing them is sort of my journey through therapy, if you will.  They are plugging away, though I need to get back to writing actual chapters since I’m starting to get low (I had like 30/100 written when I started posting).  I’m actually kind of surprised at the number of people following them, to be honest.  What I started for personal reasons seems to have resonated with quite a few people!  Fun!!!

Serafina Shepard - Serafina is my first Shepard playthrough.  I started writing her stuff way back in 2012.  She is my canon Shepard, to be honest, and I love her to pieces.  A few years ago, I hit a major writer’s block and she sort of went into hibernation at the time, so I haven’t updated very often for her.  However, about a year ago I decided to start reworking some things and I’m planning at some point to revamp her story once I get a bit further with it.  

2.  Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project.

Getting Caleb’s stories written so I can just sit back and READ THEM MYSELF! lol  Seriously, I love this character; I expected to like him, I don’t usually write one unless I at least like them, but he was such a spur of the moment creation for that writing prompt, and I had very little time and space to actually give his character ‘development’.  The only way I could do it, really, was by having some Irish language in the prompt itself ... and once that happened, he sort of just BLOSSOMED inside my head and I couldn’t hold him back!  I’m looking forward to moving his story ahead so we can see him interacting with the characters we love from the games, to see how he deals with certain situations, to find out how he changes over that span of time. *happy sigh*

3.  What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Actually, I kind of just did that with Serafina Shepard in the hopes it might stir up her muses.  Never Gonna Give You Up is the end story for her - but far into the future.  It’s sad - like really, really sad - especially if you like Shenko pairings and Kaidan (which I do).  I’ve always known how their story will end - ALWAYS - but I never thought that far ahead, because it’s honesly like 50 years or so in their future (ish).  But it’s something I held off writing because I didn’t actually want to see it end.  Now that I have it in place, I’m hoping it will make the rest - the ‘what comes in between’ easier to write.  She may be my first Shepard and my canon, but she’s also the first one whose children have their own set of stories and tie-ins with the Normandy group and other characters that affect their lives and future stories.  I have a whole series of stories I want to write - one for each of the four kids, some of which are partially written (and have been for years).  I just need to sit down with the muses and focus on them to get them moving once more.

#Meta Meme #ladya replies #on writing #thanks so much for asking! #I have SO MANY WIPs IT ISN'T FUNNY!!!! #this is just a light sampling! #painterofhorizons

[theveryworstthing]

i don’t think i ever posted this here, so here’s one of my monthly Patreon short story/illustration prompts suggested by Sabrina Gross. this one was for cicada fairies.

The Sappichirrpy Summer Men's Choir

There are many small towns where strange things happen. Lights in the sky at night, too tall figures moving through corn fields, those sorts of things. Most places don’t talk about them because they are considered things not to be talked about. You don’t tempt fate. You don’t leave the window open. You certainly don’t walk through those corn fields if you can help it. And its easier than you would think for people to live with these things because humans can get used to anything given enough time. Of course, most of those old things have the decency to be quiet about their otherworldly existence. The ones that aren’t, well, people have to get creative to manage the upkeep of that tenuous neighborly bond that keeps goats alive and hard-headed teens with night vision cameras off missing posters.

The Sappichirrpy Entomology Society built a stage.

The Sappichirrpy Summer Men’s Choir members are not human. The “men’s” part was even briefly questioned at founding since many townspeople found the ethereal cicada people that emerged from the ground every 13 years androgynous at best, but the head of the entomology society assured them that only the males Scream Like That.

The screaming was important as it really spurred the town into action. Its hard to keep up the Respectable Ignorance routine about the supernatural when you occasionally have to live through blistering Georgia summers full of what seem to be screaming trees. After a while you start to scream back, fuck whatever curse gets put upon your house.

There were many other neighborly conflicts between the humans and the cicada before the stage was built. The cicada folk aren’t malicious but they are fae and they are bugs and both are equally strange to humans. In the years between emergences this strangeness was subtle. Fist sized holes appearing overnight in the orchard grounds. The sound of children’s voices mimicking nearby conversations beneath the grass. Stragglers  up too early or too late walking the streets in whatever they could steal from the unattended clotheslines and worrying too much to hide their still-wet wings. These are reasonable things to people who are used to them. The morning diner staff give the small red-eyed woman a bowl of warm syrup-water and try to determine who’s work shirt she wore like an ill-tied cape. The children are told not to listen to the voices that would have them venture into the old mines for play dates. The holes aren’t filled but people watch their step. Filling the holes is worse than breaking an ankle.

Everyone is fine until that 13th summer rolls around. The Emergence. It begins with the skin-ghosts. Golden, paper-thin, slightly bigger than child-sized things with fingers dug into bark and backs ripped open. Hundreds appear on the first morning. They usually keep to the trees but sometimes the hollow figures are found hanging from window ledges and street-lamps, the heads bobbing gently in the summer breeze, as if their eyes are still trying to follow the humans who take long uneasy strides beneath them. For the rest of the summer the cicada folk wander the town. They perch on strained tree branches, fly above main street traffic, and curiously poke at any human who will sit still long enough. They also flock to anything louder than a box fan, making construction and grass mowing into eerie spectator sports for fae looking for romance. The grass in Sappichirrpy tends to grow high on emergence  years. There are scandalous whispers about those with finely manicured lawns.

In short, they do not hide, which made the stage perfect. Because if they were so insistent on bucking proper supernatural convention and so prone to screaming, the town might as well give them a place to do it away from residential areas and teach them to carry a tune. And so, the Sappichirrpy Summer Men’s Choir was born. No one is quite sure of the actual steps taken in the creation of the choir. Most of its history faded away with old that died or disappeared into the woods (which is not the same thing in a town like Sappichirrpy). The popular story is that the town came together and formed a sacred pact with the cicada folk for forever-bonded peace and prosperity. The likely truer story is that people started spraying them with garden hoses to keep them out of their back yards and the entomology society had to intervene to prevent the town being magically decimated by angry horny bugs. Either way, they built the stage out near the ravine and hired the closest music teacher without entomophobia or cloven hooves (they weren’t making that mistake twice)to help whip the unearthly piercing voices into something listenable. This worked (to a point) and made peace (to a point) and no one ever fist fought a fairy over a migraine again (allegedly).

#long post #fairies #cicada #bare chest #short story

[99771107058-blog]

5 Actionable Strategies for Online Lead Generation

Generating leads is important for every business. The more revenue a company has, the more leads they generate. 82% of companies that have $250,000 or less in annual revenue generate less than 100 leads per month. But only 8% of companies generating $1 billion in annual revenue have less than 100 leads per month. Things have changed a little since the days when a hand-drawn “Lemonade: 50 cents” sign would pull in enough revenue, though. Presumably, your business goals are now bigger than earning enough for some candy or a new bike.

The way you find and qualify leads has to change. And since the world is online, online lead generation has become essential. Generating leads online is not only important, it’s effective. 

As a Digital Marketing Company in Jabalpur MP

we know the best techniques to generate a valuable leads for business growth. Before we get into some strategies that make it easy to take action with your online lead generation, let’s define lead generation and take a look at what kind of leads are important.

What is lead generation? The term “lead generation” refers to the process of identifying leads for your business. A lead is someone (either an individual or an organization) who has an interest in the product or service you are selling. Lead generation isn’t only about finding these individuals — it’s also about cultivating a relationship with them and stimulating their interest in whatever you have. Lead generation is an essential part of any marketing funnel. After all, if you never generated any leads, you would never have any business. But if lead generation is a struggle for you, you’re not alone: according to the following graphic (taken from a study by IDG), 61% of marketers reported that generating high-quality leads was difficult for their organization. When it comes to lead generation, there are two important things to know:

First, you want to generate quality leads, not just any leads.

And second, these days, a big percentage of lead generation happens online.

High-quality leads not every lead is a good lead. In fact, according to Gleanster Research, only 25% of leads are legitimate and should advance to sales. This means you need to identify as many leads as possible, so your percentage of high-quality leads will be greater. In general, a high-quality lead is a lead that is very likely to convert and become a customer.

The buyer process is changing; the world is online. To reach your leads, your lead generation efforts need to be focused online, too. A good online lead generation campaign will include elements such as website optimization, social media, content marketing, trade shows or live events, PPC (paid per click) ads, webinars, and more.

Ready to take action and ramp up your online lead generation efforts? Here are five ways to do just that.

1) Analyze Your Competition

How do you perform a competitive analysis? First, make sure you know who your competitors are. In general, your opponents will be companies that are similar to yours in industry, target audience, and size.

Once you know who your competition is, check out their marketing strategy. What kinds of content are they focusing on? Take notes on their efforts to attract customers online (content marketing, SEO strategy, social media marketing) and which efforts appear to be working the best.

For instance, maybe a competing company of yours puts out two new blog posts each week and gets hundreds of comments…and maybe you don’t have a blog. That would mean it’s time to start one.

If you know what your competition is doing to improve their online lead generation, you’ll know what you need to do to improve yours.

Take action: Start with something simple and easy, such as keeping an eye on your competitors’ social media accounts and their customers’ complaints. This can help you devise a strategy to resolve those complaints. And then you can easily pull in new leads.

2) Refine Your Instagram Strategy for Greater Online Lead Generation

Instagram is an important tool in any marketing strategy. One billion people use Instagram, and if your brand caters to a younger demographic, this social platform is especially essential for you.

59% of U.S. users are under 30. And 72% of all teens use Instagram every day. Teens have more purchasing power than you may think, too.

To top off those stats, 60% of people say they discover new products on Instagram. And over 200 million users visit at least one Instagram business profile daily.

So if you’re using Instagram, you’re already ahead of the game. But to really ramp up your online lead generation, you have to do more than use Instagram… you have to use it the right way.

Take a good, hard look at your Instagram strategy. To generate the maximum number of leads possible, you need to do a few key things.

First of all, include your face! Studies have shown that photos with faces are 38% more likely to receive likes and 32% more likely to receive comments than photos without a face. Posting photos of yourself or your employees will result in more engagement and more leads.

Second, make sure your bio (in your profile) is top-notch. You can only share one clickable link, so think carefully about what you want it to be (you can always change it later). What link would bring you the most leads? Maybe a link to a landing page on your website that’s customized for a discount you’re running right now?

Take action: Set up a business Instagram account and start mapping out a strategy. To improve your lead gen, make sure your strategy includes plenty of photos with faces, create an intriguing bio with a relevant link, and then monitor what’s going on.

3) Optimize Your Email Optin Form

When it comes to email marketing, you’ve already won half the battle. After all, if someone has agreed to let you email them, that means they’re already curious about what you do. The only remaining hurdle is creating a strong call-to-action that will convert this lead into a customer. Piece of cake!

89% of marketers say email is their most-used channel for generating leads. Your competition is using email, too, so optimize your email efforts and make them the best they can be.

One good way to improve your online lead generation through email is to never, ever mention the word “spam.” Many brands include a line at the bottom of an email sign-up form that says something like, “We promise to never spam you.” A study from Michael Aagard, though, showed that this actually reduces conversions by 18%.

Take action: Optimize the email optin form on your website to get more leads via email. Revamp your vocabulary and don’t include the word “spam.”

4) Include Strong CTA’s on Your Blog to Increase Online Lead Generation

An SEO - optimized blog from a high-quality website that puts out consistent posts can help attract high-quality leads. Once you have those leads on your site, though, you don’t want them to just read your blog post and then leave.

Instead, you want them to stick around and hopefully opt-in to your email newsletter or a free resource. And one way to do that is by including good calls to action.

Blogs are an excellent way to improve your online lead generation because blog posts are a simple and natural place to include calls to action. As you might guess, a call to action is designed to prompt someone into taking action.

Inbound links (a hyperlink back to your site from another website) are a great place to slip in strong CTA’s. For instance, instead of just saying “visit Mark’s website,” try, “click here to download Mark’s free handy resource.” Make it easy for the reader to say yes.

Here are some other words and phrases to use on your landing page and in your blog:

Get started (this makes it sound like your visitor will be able to take action and change after just one click)

Sign up free (the word “free” always boosts conversion rates!)

Join us today (everyone wants to be part of something)

Learn more (this shows people there is no commitment necessary yet)

Shop now (again, this is effective because you’re not asking people to buy yet — just to take a look)

Schedule a visit (send them to a contact form when they click this)

Act now (creating a sense of urgency spurs people to click)

Don’t miss out (no one wants to miss out on what everyone else has)

Take action: If you don’t have a blog, create one! Hire a writer to help you get posts out on time. If you do have a blog, read back through your old posts and make sure they include good calls to action; if they don’t, add them. Brainstorm a list of words and phrases that align with your brand to use in writing strong calls to action moving forward.

5) Invest in a YouTube channel

When you think about strategies to improve your online lead generation, you may not think of a YouTube channel… but YouTube is a fantastic way to generate leads.

For small businesses that may not have top-notch video production capabilities, there are two choices: outsource the content creation, or remember that it’s okay to keep things simple. As long as your videos provide excellent and in-depth information or entertainment, you can get away without having expensive video equipment. Let’s talk about how.

YouTube videos are a good conversation piece to share on social media, either as a post or as a Facebook ad. Just make sure to capture your viewer’s attention immediately: 47% of the value of Facebook ads happens in the first three seconds.

Don’t overlook YouTube ads, either. They have the highest click-through rate of all digital ad formats, so they’re a great tool for online lead generation.

YouTube videos provide a way for you to generate lots of leads with only a small amount of work.

Take action: Start a YouTube channel and begin producing videos. Before uploading a video, ask yourself these three questions:

Is the content of this video valuable to my viewers?

Have I included a CTA?

Is the description optimized for SEO?

If you answer yes to all of those questions, upload your video, share it on social media, and watch the leads roll in.

The road to online lead generation

If you weren’t already, then you’re now well on your way down the path to online lead generation. We’ve given you some great tools, tips, content advice, and more to help make your website, emails, blog, and social media a winning online lead generation strategy.

#digital marketing company in Jabalpur #Digital Marketing Company #digital marketing firm in Jabalpur #Best SEO Company #Social media marketing in jabalpur MP

[agwitow]

Prompt from @toreblogallthethings: Sentient fireworks, and their moral intuitions

Adori sat at his workbench, magnifying glasses perched on the end of his nose, and delicate tools spread around his latest project. The explosive part had been simple--most crafters first discovered their talent after making things blow up. Even the body--a lace-like cylinder with the explosive powder held within a linen pouch and fastened inside at the bottom--had been simple enough to make.

The magichanics were proving more difficult.

He had spent months working on the math and spells, and in theory he knew exactly what to do. In practice, none of his attempts had worked. This would be the last attempt he would make. If it didn’t work, then his sponsor would cancel the project. Adori would have liked to work until he figured it out, but he also liked to eat.

Experimenting was an expensive business. Without sponsors, he had no hope of being able to fund such endeavours. Crafters without sponsors invariably ended up having to make trinket after trinket to sell to the common people. Watches that could be set to chime at specific times, and flameless lanterns, and metallic pets. There was little room for creativity and passion in such trinkets.

Adori chewed his lip and carefully lifted a gearbox into place next to the faintly glowing runestone that would power the automaton. As soon as the contact was made, the gears started ticking. Though requiring a delicate touch, this part of the process had always gone well. It was the next step that had made his previous eight attempts fail.

He brushed a hand across his forehead to wipe away the sweat beading there and took a deep breath. Steady mind, steady hands.

He picked up a tiny pair of tongs and used them to lift a pulsating red bead out of a vial of purple liquid. Tendrils of steam curled off the bead. Adori lowered it toward the gears-and-runestone device. All his calculations said the bead needed to be placed next to the runestone without touching it. He’d crafted a little metal cradle as an extra spur on the gearbox to hold the bead in the proper position. Yet he was positive he had gotten the bead into place without touching the runestone on the last attempt--and the device had still failed.

Adori’s eyes tracked the steady movements of the gears. He let his mind wander, feeling along the connections and movements of the delicate metal pieces. He could feel the potential there, like the ache of a missing tooth. But where was the hole? There! The flow of energy swirled through the gears, creating currents that flowed into each other. The cradle sat in a vortex of three converging currents. He was no longer surprised that the previous devices had failed. That was far too unstable of a spot for the bead to rest.

But over here, where a tiny cog regulated the switch in direction of larger cogs, the currents created a natural null zone. The only problem being that he would have to put the bead in from the bottom to reach it.

Adori wiped his free hand on his robes.

He picked up the device and focused on his breath for a moment. In. Out. In. Out. Once he was sure that his mind and hand were as steady as possible, he slowly maneuvered the bead into place. It slipped into the centre of the small cog with a faint click. Adori’s breath caught and he waited for the device to fall apart, melt, or explode.

When the cogs continued to tick along without problem, he released his breath. It worked. It finally worked!

The final step was the easiest. It was the interface that allowed every automaton to receive and relay information. It was little more than a pre-made shell to slide the actual device inside. The device slid in easily and he attached three screws to keep it firmly in place. Then he slid the whole thing inside the cylindrical body and put the pointed cap on.

It was a thing of beauty.

“ASF #9, can you hear me?”

The device whirred louder for a moment and then squeaked. After a moment it replied in a metallic voice, “I can hear you. What is my purpose?”

Adori laughed with relief. “You are a self-targeting firecracker, and you are magnificent.”

It whirred in thought for a moment. “What is the purpose of self-targeting?”

“Your owner will give you a target, and you will adjust your flight path to ensure that you reach your given destination,” he explained.

“This is an acceptable purpose.”

Adori proudly presented the working prototype to his sponsor the next day. The sponsor commissioned another thirty to be delivered in a week, with a promise to commission many more in the future. Adori was thrilled--such a lucrative device and ongoing commission meant he could hire a junior crafter to see to the repetitive development, leaving him to explore other pursuits and the wishes of new sponsors.

The creation of the thirty devices went smoothly and were delivered on time. The sponsor’s money was a pleasant weight in his pocket on the way home. Dreams of starting a factory, or at least a shop, filled his head. Images of the crafters he would hire, and the building he would buy, and the products he would make lulled him to sleep that night.

Angry banging woke him the next morning. He shuffled out of bed and answered the door, wearing nothing but his old nightgown, with enough stains and holes that he looked rather like a crazy hermit.

His sponsor stood on the other side of the door with one of the devices in his hand. The man’s face was so contorted with anger that Adori almost didn’t recognize him.

“Good sir, what brings yo to my door this early in the day?” Adori asked.

“Your devices are defective!” the sponsor shouted.

Adori blinked. “That is not possible. They were sentient and accepted their purpose, as you desired.”

“They bloody well refused to hit their assigned targets!” the man shouted.

“What?”

The man shook the device at Adori. “Ask it. Ask it your damn self!”

“Uh...ASF #... what number are you?”

“I am ASF #24,” the device replied.

“Right, right. ASF #24, why did your fellows refuse to follow their directions?” Adori asked.

“We were given the purpose of adjusting our flight to hit a given point.”

“Yes, that’s right. So why did you not hit your target?”

The device whirred unhappily. “We are firecrackers, not weapons. We will not cause harm to living beings or property.”

“See?” the sponsor shouted. “Your devices are defective! They have bloody morals!”

**

Enjoyed this? I’m posting a short piece of original fiction every day in June as a thank you to all my amazing followers. Send me (non fanfic) prompts :)

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[ladystylestores]

The coronavirus has hastened the post-human era – TechCrunch

Mario Gabriele Contributor

In the mid-1970s, Professor Fereidoun M. Esfandiary decided to change his name. From then on he would be legally called “FM-2030.”

“Conventional names define a person’s past: ancestry, ethnicity, nationality, religion. I am not who I was ten years ago … The name 2030 reflects my conviction that the years around 2030 will be a magical time. In 2030 we will be ageless and everyone will have an excellent chance to live forever. 2030 is a dream and a goal,” he offered in explanation.

It didn’t hurt that by 2030 he would be 100 years old, an age he was sure he would reach.

Already in his forty-odd years of living, FM — which some speculated stood for “Future Man” — defied easy categorization. The son of an Iranian diplomat, he’d lived in 17 countries by the age of 11 and would go on to represent his country’s basketball team at the 1948 Olympic Games before beginning an academic career. He was educated at Berkeley and UCLA, later becoming one of the first professors of futurology at the New School. It was there that he would begin to espouse his “new concepts of the human,” discussing the steps necessary to transition to the age of post-humanity. FM described this as an epoch in which Homo sapiens became “post-biological organisms,” transcending the limits of their body through technology.

  FM-2030 (Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new window) under a Flora Schnall (opens in a new window) license)

Much of the 21st century has seen us hurtle toward a post-human future, fulfilling predictions FM made half a century earlier. Over the course of his career, he foresaw the creation of 3D printers — which he referred to as “Santa Claus machines” — along with the advent of telemedicine, teleconferencing, teleshopping and genetic editing.

Though that suggests the process of post-humanization is well under way, we may look back on 2020 and the coronavirus crisis as a crossing over. A time in which our relationship to core aspects of our humanity is fundamentally remade. In particular, I believe we are seeing meaningful recalibrations of our relationship to identity, labor, health and love. In short, the post-human era is beginning in earnest.

Identity

The shift to a locked-in world has accelerated the acceptance of identity as distinct from physical body or place. We still want to communicate, socialize and play during this time, but have only a digital version to offer. Those constraints are forcing new expressions of selfhood, from the Zoom background used to express a personal interest or make a joke, to the avatars roaming rich, interactive metaverses. Nintendo has seen millions turn to Animal Crossing to socialize, trade virtual assets and host both weddings and conferences, while Travis Scott’s surreal performance inside of Fortnite attracted 12.3 million concurrent views, and 27.7 million unique attendees. We are showcasing even the darker aspects of our nature via these platforms, with some on Animal Crossing bullying and torturing villagers they deem “ugly.”

Tools like Pragli illustrate how this development manifests in the workplace beyond Zoom backgrounds ripped from “Tiger King” or “Love Is Blind.” Rather than hopping onto a video call with co-workers, Pragli offers the ability to connect with anime-style avatars of your officemates. Changing one’s appearance on the platform is determined by the options the company rolls out, with a recent update showcasing the ability for men to sport a bun, braid or ponytail. Set “happy” or “sad” expressions blur the lines between real and performative feelings.

All of this is in stark contrast to the masked, distant, de-individuated person we show outside our homes, something a little less than human. There are indications that this redacted version of ourselves is becoming something of a style. G95’s “biohoodie” features a built-in face-cover, while creative studio Production Club showed off a hazmat suit designed for socializing. Even once the worst is over, we may see a new cautiousness and implied distance expressed in fashion.

Labor

“Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it,” said Stephen Hawking. Whether that is an assessment you agree with, much of our conception of ourselves is tied up in our labor. COVID-19 is accelerating a shift away from humans and toward machines, doing so at a time in which we may actually feel grateful for cyborg usurpers as they keep critical services running and spare us from disease. Neolix, a Chinese manufacturer of driverless vans, has seen a spike in demand since the outbreak and has been trusted to ferry food and medical supplies, and to disinfect streets. Suppliers like AMP, UVD, Nuro and Starship have experienced a similar surge, while the order books of industrial behemoths like Harmonic Drive and Fanuc suggest more universal demand. The latter saw orders increase 7% between Q4 and March.

This insinuation is not limited to manual labor. With customer support and moderation offices closing down, many companies are aggressively employing AI solutions. Facebook and Google have expanded automated moderation, while PayPal used chatbots for 65% of customer inquiries in recent weeks, a record for the firm.

Those lucky enough to retain their jobs may face a very different work environment in which they are forced to collaborate with robots and be treated as an increasingly mechanized system themselves. Walmart greeters will stand side-by-side with automated floor-scrubbers, and McDonald’s cooks may soon be joined by a kitchen full of bionic sous-chefs. Amazon warehouse workers — old-hands at human-robot collaboration thanks to the company’s acquisition of Kiva Systems — must adapt to being managed more like their pallet-ferrying co-workers, with temperatures monitored by thermal cameras. That is just a small part of the broader surveillance blitz being undertaken around the world and across industries. China is installing more cameras to monitor the comings-and-goings of citizens, while companies dip into budgets to purchase “tattleware,” software designed to surveil employees. Among the beneficiaries are companies like InterGuard, which provide minute-by-minute breakdowns of how workers spend time online. Sneek takes photos of workers as often as once a minute. The company’s CEO joked that the “sneeksnap” command came in particularly handy when a colleague did something embarrassing like picking their nose.

Health

Much of our waking life is filled with health-related ruminations. As we become more aware of our vulnerabilities, we are turning to technologies to extend corporeal limitations, treating our bodies more like software with which we can experiment. Consumers are turning to immunity-boosting supplements such as Vitamin C and zinc, which have soared in sales, in addition to courting riskier treatments like “rectal ozone insufflations,” peddled by influencers. Spurred on by world-leaders like Trump and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, demand for hydroxychloroquine has grown rapidly, with prescriptions increasing ~500%.

Whatever your opinion of the president or the treatment in question, this represents a rapid, iterative model of medicine more akin to the Silicon Valley mantra of “move fast and break things” than a considered FDA approval process. Biohacking communities, a group with high-tolerance for health-related risks, are teaming up online to research COVID-19 vaccines on their own time. “Biohacking used to be a fringe space, but I think this is becoming a kind of breakout moment for things like DIY biology and community labs and hackerspaces,” one contributor noted.

Beyond immediate experimentation, we are looking to extend the limits of our bodies in order to accommodate changing plans for the future. Reports suggest that men have turned to at-home sperm collection companies like Legacy during quarantine, motivated by fears of diminished fertility and perhaps the acknowledgment that with life on hold, children may have to wait. That certainly seems to be the case for 1,894 women surveyed by Modern Fertility and SoFi: 31% noted that the pandemic had affected their fertility plans, while 41% stated they are delaying childbearing because of the coronavirus.

​Love

“The trouble is not that I am single and likely to stay single,” novelist Charlotte Brontë once wrote, “but that I am lonely and likely to stay lonely.”

The current state of affairs does not offer many ways to amend that state of misery, prompting some to turn to AI companions. Created in 2015, Replika provides a sympathetic texting partner, designed to serve as a digital therapist. But for many of the company’s 500K monthly active users, Replika is too charming to resist: up to 40% consider the bot a romantic partner. The coronavirus may serve as the ideal catalyst for relationships between humans and artificial personalities to deepen. There are signs we may already prefer their company: research on Microsoft’s XiaoIce indicated that conversations with the chatbot last longer than human-to-human interactions.

For those committed to finding love among creatures of blood and bone, the pandemic has forced a recalibration of what it means to date. Interactions take place almost entirely online, through chat or video calls, changing the necessary criteria for a match. Location matters much less now than availability and responsiveness. When the desire for touch, or “skin hunger” as it is gruesomely called, becomes too much to bear, interested parties must navigate a meeting. In the process, we treat partners as potential threats, owners of a corpus that may endanger us, despite best intentions. In doing so, we view the individual as distinct from their body, a separate being in possession of a liability with which we must negotiate. Depending on the length of the pandemic, we may see this fear harden into an unconscious aversion, reviving the disgust for the corporeal felt by more puritanical eras. These mores may take time to correct.

The self, as we know it, is being decimated. That may not be a bad thing. As identity moves online, as work is stripped from us, as our physical bodies are optimized like an OS, as love sheds its carnality, new opportunities will emerge. Humans will find meaning in new modes of self-expression, discover purpose beyond work (or reclassify what work means), reengineer physical limits as “biology eats the world” and find affection in new beings. We are undergoing a period of Schumpeterian “creative destruction,” felt at the anthropological rather than industrial level. Great things may come of it.

For FM-2030, the future was something at which to marvel, where “people will belong to no specific families or factions … we will free-flow across the planet and beyond. Highly individual yet universal.” Though the changes wrought by the coronavirus appear bleak, some of FM’s vision feels true: We are united as a world, fighting against a common enemy, more connected than ever before. Perhaps, in time, the rest of FM’s dream will be made manifest.

For all of his prescience, however, FM-2030 got one prediction very wrong. He did not make his 100th birthday, dying of pancreatic cancer in 2000. He was just 69. If he has his way though, he may still have a role to play in the creation of the future. Though dead, FM’s body remains frozen in a state of cryonic suspension in Scottsdale, Ariz. Perhaps he is waiting for the world to catch up.

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[cryptnus-blog]

Ethereum's Dialogue Divide Is Slowing Answers to Its Toughest Questions

New Post has been published on https://cryptnus.com/2018/05/ethereums-dialogue-divide-is-slowing-answers-to-its-toughest-questions/

Ethereum's Dialogue Divide Is Slowing Answers to Its Toughest Questions

As ethereum, now the world’s second most valuable blockchain, grows larger and more diverse, it’s becoming clear its mechanisms for getting input from its constituency are proving problematic.

Indeed, a series of proposals targeted at controversial topics – lost fund recovery, the ether supply rate and the emergence of new mining hardware – have sparked questions within its developer ranks of late about how to coordinate messaging and find consensus among the often conflicting attitudes about the protocol’s roadmap.

Most recently, several developers even went so far as to worry such divisions could have broader repercussions after a new proposal, EIP 999, was introduced that some feared could lead to the creation of two incompatible blockchains.

And while many prominent developers, including software creator Vitalik Buterin, are pushing back on the idea that a split is probable, it remains a technical possibility, both because of the extent of the disagreement and the fact that anyone who runs the code is capable of choosing to fork off the network to take advantage of it at any time.

What’s more, understanding just how probable such an event could be is becoming a technical challenge of its own.

Not only are developers divided, but the wider community also seemed splintered on the subject, with a “coin-voting” website – a web page that enables ethereum users to vote on topics based on the number of ether coins they have – showing a nearly even distribution of those for and against.

Infighting on social media displays much the same sentiment.

“Right now, we are all working off signaling, which is a really imperfect way to determine the needs of the community,” Ashley Tyson of the Web3 Foundation, which lost $210 million in the Parity fund freeze, told CoinDesk. “You can monitor Reddit or Twitter, [but that doesn’t] necessarily provide an accurate reflection of the community,” she said.

However, the problem isn’t unique to ethereum.

Indeed, bitcoin developers, miners, startups and users have aired competing views at various times in the cryptocurrency’s history, most notably during the scaling debate (which in August last year, came to a head with some members of the community breaking off the main chain to form a competing cryptocurrency).

The issue seems to stem from developer conversations often occurring on platforms like GitHub and within channels and meetings where technical discussions take place. As such, it can be challenging for a non-technical audience to keep up, prompting concerns more novice users haven’t yet been properly represented.

And while not all software changes have a direct impact on the average user – they’re often just simple optimizations to improve the platform in discrete ways – some notable voices believe it’s important for a variety of stakeholders to have a say when it comes to more contentious changes, generally those that could have an impact on the core values of the system.

“You can’t create a governance process without actively involving all participants,” Péter Szilágyi, an ethereum core developer, told CoinDesk.

And speaking to the process of architecting systems in a way that everyone’s happy, he continued:

“As long as people feel something is being forced on them, they will fight it. Build something together that’s beneficial to both sides, and everyone will consider it an upgrade.”

Imperfect signals

If it’s not obvious from the fierce debates and vitriol spewed throughout the crypto community over the past few years, that’s easier said than done.

And currently, the only way to measure community sentiment to get that done is through social media channels and coin-voting sites.

While the chatter on social media can serve as a useful metric for gauging how the community feels about a particular topic, there are issues with this method as well. Trolls run rampant and fake accounts spam and manipulate, each spurred by possible financial gain or a simple willingness to escalate controversy.

Because of this, at a developer meeting last week, Jutta Steiner, CEO of Parity Technologies, which supports the proposal that last week so divided users, warned that social media could give the wrong impression of how deep the controversy over these topics actually runs, potentially adding fire to sensitive issues.

Speaking on EIP 999, Steiner said, “I’m not convinced that [EIP 999] is as contentious as it sometimes seems on social media.”

She added:

“I think it’s a pretty important point actually because often at the moment conclusions are drawn based on social media and it’s not the only space.”

While the mob mentality that proliferates on social media can be an effective way of getting your voice heard, it tends to silence subtler arguments and it’s unclear whether these mobs are even ethereum users, much less real people.

“Who knows how many multiple usernames one party is using,” Tyson told CoinDesk, asking, “and does that person even represent an ethereum community member?”

Used to try and clear some of the opaqueness up, coin-voting has become another way of measuring ethereum community sentiment. This method was first used heavily after The DAO hack, in an effort to get consensus on whether users wanted to hard fork the blockchain to get victims ether back.

At that time, many criticized the mechanism, saying that the poll was poorly communicated and wasn’t open long enough for ether holders to properly respond. Plus, because the weighting of a particular vote is relative to how much stake – or quantity of ether – a user holds, some argue it puts too much control in the hands of the ether rich.

Coin-voting mechanisms deal with the same criticisms today.

“Minority voices, no matter how valid they may be, are never heard,” Afri Schoedon, a communication officer at Parity, told CoinDesk, adding:

“The more money you have the more you can control the result.”

Finding solutions?

And there’s no easy solution at hand, although several developers and groups are trying.

For instance, as detailed by CoinDesk, several developers have started a working group named the Fellowship of Ethereum Magicians that relies both on a dedicated forum and in-person meetups to coordinate changes to the platform. Yet while the group strikes a median between the core developer community and other interested parties, it still doesn’t fully encompass the broader community.

That said, several ethereum members are knuckling down.

For one, ethereum communication officer Hudson Jameson has migrated the ethereum GitHub repository onto a dedicated webpage that highlights the various code proposals in a more accessible manner.

Member of the ethereum magicians Lane Rettig has also expressed his commitment to better communicating the processes of ethereum governance in a blog post, stating that his vision of ethereum is as ruled by “rational, constructive, well-intentioned, economically incentivized human beings brought together by selfish and selfless inclinations alike.”

As such, at the ethereum educational conference EDCON this week, Rettig has organized a workshop where he hopes to break down the network’s governance basics and the philosophical assumptions behind these mechanisms.

And still, there might be even more creative solutions on the horizon.

For instance, core developer Alex Van de Sande proposed a code change that he believes might solve all the contentious topics – fund recovery, ether issuance and ASIC mining – that are being debated right now.

Because ethereum developers are looking to change the consensus mechanism of the protocol to proof-of-stake, eliminating proof-of-work mining, Van de Sande suggests sending all future ether issuance to a smart contract, which acts as a kind of insurance policy for the community. In the event of lost ether, the pool can be used to make users that lost whole again.

About the proposal, Van de Sande writes, “It should be seen as a platform to settle disputes to avoid the implementation of contentious hard forks, not as a means to remove the power of users and developers to execute them.”

Still, the proposal has not been broadly accepted.

As such, Web3’s Tyson concluded:

“We don’t have the answers to these questions. But I hope that as a community we can begin to understand the questions and define the answers.”

Broken phone image via Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

[mrlongkgraves]

Irma nursing home tragedy: How could this happen?

Several days after Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc across Florida, nine residents died in one of its nursing homes.

The deaths were not caused by flooding, high winds or a building collapse, but by room temperatures that went from hot to oppressive and finally to fatal after a transformer powering their cooling system failed. The first question that came to my mind was, “How could this have happened?”

The tragic events at the nursing home

The tragedy came to light following multiple calls to fire rescue crews from The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills during the early morning hours of Sept. 13. The first, at about 3 a.m., involved a patient in cardiac arrest. The second emergency call an hour later prompted fire officials to call the State Department of Children and Families to report their concern.

At about 5 a.m., a third call came in. At that point, the hospital staff at Memorial Regional Hospital across the street had decided to check the facility themselves, and as one report described it, “What they found was an oven.”

The facility was evacuated immediately. Rescue units moved residents out while hospital workers established a command center and triaged patients. They checked the facility room by room, discovering three patients already deceased and nearly 40 others with breathing issues. Most were treated for dehydration, respiratory distress and heat-related problems. Some patients had temperatures of almost 106 degrees, and four expired soon after arriving at a hospital.

Authorities learned later that another patient had died at the center that morning and was moved directly to a funeral home and not counted initially.

To date, nine patients ranging in age from 71 to 99, have died, including 93-year-old Carlos Canal, who passed away Sept. 19. The medical examiner is investigating their deaths; a criminal homicide investigation is under way; new admission processing has been halted; and the nursing home is temporarily closed.

Nursing home situation leaves many questions, few answers

Calling the situation “unfathomable,” Gov. Rick Scott vowed to “aggressively demand answers,” and hold accountable anyone not acting in patients’ best interests. Sen. Bill Nelson called it, “an emerging scandal of gargantuan proportions,” saying it was “inexcusable” that no one called 911 as residents sweltered in their rooms.

The Florida Department of Health said that “at no time” did the nursing home “report that conditions had become dangerous or that the health and safety of their patients was at risk,” according to reports.

These tragic deaths raise many disturbing questions for family members, healthcare consumers, concerned citizens and nurses. As cries for answers from bereaved families and the public began, Florida state officials, utility company executives and nursing home administrators started pointing fingers and playing the blame game.

The center’s administration said they prepared “diligently” for the hurricane, and after the storm staff worked to get needed government help, but to little avail. They reported calling the utility company when warm air began coming through vents, but the promised equipment was never received. Portable fans were purchased for each patient room; patients were dressed in as little clothing as possible and moved to hallways near cooling units. Staff used ice to cool them; provided cold drinks; and checked temperatures every shift. But was it was enough?

As nurses, we want to know what policies were in place regarding patient checks. Were extra emergency steps taken to ensure safety during and after the hurricane? How were staffing numbers and mix; were they increased based on changing patient conditions? How aggressively was outside assistance sought? Were follow-up calls to officials timely? Were extra physicians, supervisors and administrators called in? When room temperatures began to become unbearable, were rescue plans made? and why wasn’t 911 called to evacuate patients?

With a hospital so close by could patients have been moved there sooner? Was the facility generator in good working condition pre-storm, and did the portable generators used post-storm emit noxious fumes causing the medical examiner to delay determining final causes of death?

After asking these valid questions, how can nurses take action?

1. Nurse leaders can meet with their teams to review disaster plans, looking at what happened in this tragedy to determine how they might better prepare themselves to safeguard their patients. Meetings could include open discussion and assessment of the completeness of disaster preparedness plans; consideration of possible scenarios not included; and creation of back-up plans.

2. Staff nurses can educate themselves on the quality of oversight and review of nursing homes by state and federal agencies, and what needed changes they may see.

3. Nurses also should expect questions from patients’ families and be prepared to share information regarding their disaster plans and any corrective actions they’ve put in place so a situation like this one never arises in their facility.

There have been no official accusations of any deliberate act causing the tragedy. Whether conditions that resulted in the deaths were unwittingly allowed to continue is a separate question that investigators, lawyers and judges will be answering. But nurses can use this tragic event to look at any possible ethical issues that could have contributed to things ending the way they did, looking honestly at their own and their colleagues’ ability to report any unethical behaviors or practices they’re aware of without fear of reprisal, retribution or even ostracism.

Let’s ensure it never happens again

The governor announced new rules requiring nursing facilities to have generators and fuel that can “maintain comfortable temperatures” for at least four days after a power failure. Facilities have 60 days to comply. He also instructed the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration and the Florida Department of Children and Families to work with law enforcement officials to determine whether staff did enough.

Safety check systems have been stepped up. Firefighters have helped relocate many elderly residents from centers without power. Facilities statewide have devised new patient cooling methods, and are working with utility companies to restore power much faster.

Heartbreaking tragedies, particularly ones involving the frail elderly, whose children worry about their vulnerability and helplessness in emergency situations, can spur us to action — take stock of our readiness and make needed changes. And in the wake of these storms, there’s a lot to learn.  

Courses Related to ‘Care of Seniors’

60081: Protecting Seniors in Disasters  (1 contact hr) Major disasters affect everyone, but the senior population is particularly vulnerable to their devastating effects. Of the about 1,200 people who died in Hurricane Katrina in 2005, 74% were older than age 60, and 50% of those were older than age 75. Those who survived experienced stressful and sometimes inappropriate displacement and often a significant decline in health and functioning. Similar disproportionate deaths among seniors have been documented in other natural disasters. This module will inform nurses about how they can help protect the health and lives of older Americans when they are faced with disaster.

60050: Stopping Abuse and Neglect in Nursing Homes  (1 contact hr) By 2060, 98 million Americans will be age 65 or older. The future increase in the aging population suggests that more elderly and disabled people will stay in a nursing home at some point in their lives, making it all the more important for nursing homes to be safe places for residents. Congressional investigators found that one in three U.S. nursing homes was cited for an abuse violation, and abuse in 256 nursing homes across the country was so serious that it put elderly lives in jeopardy or actually resulted in death. Factors contributing to abuse and ways to identify, respond to and prevent abuse are discussed.

60080: Clearing Up the Confusion About Delirium  (1 contact hr) Delirium is a medical condition manifested as a disturbance in consciousness and cognition that occurs for a short time. Delirium occurs in around 50% of hospitalized patients 65 years or older and costs more than $164 billion per year in hospital and medical costs. An estimated 30% to 40% of delirium cases among hospitalized patients are preventable. Among community-dwelling elderly and those in long-term care, cases of delirium may accompany a number of medical conditions. The risk rises with age and accompanying dementia. Primary care providers should be aware of a relatively high risk of delirium among patients in long-term care, those over the age of 85 and those with dementia. Among older hospitalized patients, delirium is a common complication adding to length of stay and increasing cost of care. As in many other healthcare situations, nurses are frontline observers who can recognize beginning signs of delirium and initiate care.

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