Snake and Mouse

I am level two autistic. I am visibly autistic and always have been. And I still got misdiagnosed as not autistic four times for complete nonsense reasons.

- My parents always spoke to my brothers and me as though we were their intellectual equals, with proper sentence structure and the vocabulary they'd use when speaking to a fellow adult. The three of us all started talking early and we've all always had very good vocabulary and sentence structure, and they are pretty sure this was because they never baby-talked to us. They essentially used parentese before parentese was a widely-known thing

- They aren't actually sure when I started genuinely talking. I hit the baby babble stage where I would copy things I'd heard them say earlier than normal, but they aren't sure at what point I reached the stage where I figured out that those sounds had meaning. All they knew was that at some point in the late eight-month to early nine-month range, they realized that I had graduated from babbling to genuinely calling my mom Mama. They were first-time parents so they didn't know how to tell at that point. And yes, part of the babbling I did included copying phrases and sentences I'd heard with a strange level of clarity, and looking back they remember a few things that were clearly vocal stims. My mom very clearly remembers me, an avid Dora enjoyer, at ten months old, repeatedly saying "Swiper no swiping" at our dog so constantly that poor Alex started to respond to Swiper the way he responded to his name. And also that it took me a long time to actually start conversing. So even if it wasn't autism, she knew something was up there because that's not normal.

So like, regardless of anything else, the fact that the doctor refused to go "Yeah, that's kind of strange" is wild to me. Say it wasn't autism, sure, I can forgive that considering it was 2005. But I do not know how he genuinely saw that and didn't think anything was abnormal.

(My mom also remembers he pointed out that I made good eye contact, but that I actually didn't. They'd noticed that while I would look at people if not otherwise preoccupied with drawing or something, they'd never actually seen me make eye contact. But when she pointed that out he said she was imagining it.)

(My mom was also a special education teacher and interacted with autistic kids constantly because that was her job. So.)

picture: a bat showing off it's tiny and CLEARLY insectivore teeth

this is an eastern red bat, it's teeth are small and very sharp, they're great for piercing an insect's exoskeleton. It's small and crunchy and lots of small teeth help. you get that general tooth shape with other mammals that eat bugs as well

this:

is a vampire bat. the upper incisors are extremely sharp, they nip at mammal skin very efficiently and then lap up the blood. being adapted to piercing mammal skin (soft, flexible) and insects (hard exoskeleton) results in differently shaped teeth. What we associate with vampire teeth isn't actually what the three species of vampire bats have in their mouths, instead they have these charming dorky smiles

No subscription. Just program.

On your computer. You got to use it forever and ever and never had to worry about it going away.

Because it was physically on your computer. As a program. That you actually owned. Not because you got it separately, but because it was a standard inclusion with your computer.

I'm sorry but I'll just never get over it. I remember when companies cared about their products being usable out of the box. I remember when our things belonged to us.

Shes a very sweet girl who LOVES pets

From the story:

We repeatedly emphasized that we were aboard a small 8-meter sailboat, but the response was the same each time: "We are a 50-meter three-masted sailboat, and we offer our assistance in towing you to Paimpol." We were perplexed by the size difference between our two boats, as we feared being towed by a boat that was too large and at too fast a speed that could damage our boat. The arrival of the Götheborg on the scene was rapid and surprising, as we did not expect to see a merchant ship from the East India Company of the XVIII century. This moment was very strange, and we wondered if we were dreaming. Where were we? What time period was it? The Götheborg approached very close to us to throw the line and pass a large rope. The mooring went well, and our destinies were linked for very long hours, during which we shared the same radio frequency to communicate with each other. The crew of the Götheborg showed great professionalism and kindness towards us. They adapted their speed to the size of our boat and the weather conditions. We felt accompanied by very professional sailors. Every hour, the officer on duty of the Götheborg called us to ensure everything was going well.[...] This adventure, very real, was an incredible experience for us. We were extremely lucky to cross paths with the Götheborg by chance and especially to meet such a caring crew. Dear commander and crew of the Götheborg, your kindness, and generosity have shown that your ship is much more than just a boat. It embodies the noblest values of the sea, and we are honored to have had the chance to cross your path and benefit from your help.

Ok so roads are important infrastructure. A lot of stuff that's important happens on roads. Now, let's imagine that quadrillionaire Matt Stench has decided that the next big tech innovation is the Wide Car. It's a car that takes up six lanes despite seating only one passenger.

The Wide Car is supposed to be the future, and everyone's going to be driving Wide Cars, even though nobody who makes Wide Cars is turning a profit. Employers are offering Wide Cars as an employee benefit, and getting "nah." Some employers are going as far as demanding their employees drive Wide Cars, and the result is that people take time out of their workdays to get in the mandatory gas usage for their Wide Car before driving home in a regular car.

In spite of the fact that the Wide Car is clearly set to fail, there's an enormous push to expand to twelve-lane roads to accommodate a bunch of Wide Cars that simply will not materialize. This is not an organic response to demand, but a speculative investment that amplifies the existing issues with road development for no good reason.