We are more common than many thing. However, we also tend to self select our groupings. We are a lot less common than WE feel we are.

Basically, about 50% of my local makerspace are ND. That is way higher than the general populous. However, even within family, work, or random friend groups, I still see an abnormally high percentage. I basically self select for weird people and have done all my life. This seems to be common for many of us.

As with many ND hobbies. It sprawls out in almost as many ways as people who do it.

Some love the massive powerful machinery that is a locomotive. Others are obsessed with the timings and predictability. Still others love the organisational side of things.

It even overlaps with the model train interest groups. Recreating aspects of the train network, based on their own interests.

ND hobbyists are a bit like cats in many ways. There's not much pack drive. We tend to wander and explore interests in our own way, independent of the labels that get applied. It can be broadly grouped, but has a lot of spread.

The term "neurodiverse" (or as a friend calls it "neurospicy") came about because of this. It turns out that ASD blurs into a lot of other "conditions". They also tend to blur into each other.

Rather than deal with explaining the details of how your weird, neurodiverse is used to indicate your weird, but not broken. E.g. high functioning autism isn't naturally a disorder. Instead it makes you better at some things, but worse at others. Unfortunately, one of those happens to be social skills.

Neurodiverse people tend to have a lot more in common than average. It's both from social conditioning, and commonality of interests. We also often find "normal" to be uninteresting, if not boring. We seem to naturally gather and seek out like minded people. It also runs in families. This makes it seem that it's disproportionately common. We're not actually that common, we just tend to just concentrate into a few areas.

ASD etc have there uses, but as clinical terms, for problem management. It's annoying when it's overused in media, as a catch all term.

We have "family film nights". We all have dinner together, then get out some beanbags, on the floor. We then all watch a film together, cuddled up on the beanbags.

The films are ones our daughter hasn't seen, and can often push her boundaries. E.g. we watched "Monsters Inc" together. She was a little bit scared, but with mummy and daddy there, she loved it.

It's definitely one for building memories together. We are too often distracted, even when present. Having dedicated family time makes a huge difference.

Oh, and she also doesn't watch much paw patrol, even when around friends. Apparently "Daddy doesn't like it" is quite enough to put her off it. A classic "respect over fear" situational win for me.

On a side note. The screen time correlation goes away, when you correct for the child's parenting and lifestyle situation. It's not "screens are bad" but that kids in worse situations watch more TV, etc. The causation is backwards.

I'll introduce you to the concept of WAF, Wife Acceptance Factor.

Basically, all smart IoT devices MUST default back to dumb behaviour in an expected manner. All MITM systems must either fail gracefully, fall back simply, or be robust enough to not fall over.

It's sand that has never been exposed to water or oxygen. This leaves various reactive chemicals on the surface that would normally be broken down. The lack of water also means the particles haven't been smoothed off as much. They are sharp and spiky.

The combination of these effects makes the dust quite unique, compared to earth dust.

If he's allowed to choose black or white, he could force Kasparov to play himself. Each loop he just includes whatever Kasparov did at the end of the chain last time. Eventually, this will result in a guaranteed win. He just needs to then reverse the side and replay.

The real European cryptid.

I was curious and looked it up. Apparently it mostly happens between trees of the same species, with several causes.

Most are mechanical. The tips brush against each other, and damage new branches and leaves. Both trees divert growth away from the area.

Some also sense shading via red light. They focus growth away from shade. This means neither tree grows into the gap, since they are partially shading each other.

It also helps limit the spread of leaf eating parasites. Again, particularly useful in a forest of the same species.

So yes, the trees are social distancing, to avoid the spread of disease.

I've got a Miele washing machine that's the best part of 40 years old. It's required some maintenance over the years. However, it was designed with maintenance in mind, so all the repairs have been fairly painless.

My 5 year old dishwasher, on the other hand, has cost me more time, money and stress than the (very overworked) washing machine.

The reason for this is that we tend to sleep deeper now than our ancestors. Because of this, we are more prone to roll onto a baby, and not wake up.

It can still be done, you just have to avoid things like alcohol, that stop you waking. You also need to make sure your sleeping position is safe. Explaining this to exhausted parents is unreliable, however. Hence the advice Americans seem to be given.

Fyi, if people want a halfway point, you can get cosleeping cribs. They attach to the side of the bed. Your baby can be close to you, while also eliminating the risk of suffocating them.

The solution is that it's a social contract. I agree to tolerate your weirdness and quirks. You agree to do the same to myself and others.

By being intolerant (without a good reason), they break the social contract. Therefore they are no longer protected by it either.