Thanks.
Really appreciate you taking the time to explain that. Unfortunately the journalism issue is one of those that I haven't had a chance to look into. I like to think I'm aware of the Murdoch propaganda (and the other major "news" outlets here) but there's still clearly some topics which don't register as problematic until I dig into them.
As an Australian, my government can go for it. None of the tech companies have appreciated the Australian government's attempts to regulate them ~~(e.g. trying to make Google and Meta pay for using our journalism).~~ (edit: not a good example)
That said, we have had idiots in power from time to time that definitely have worked against us, usually arguing the "security over privacy" nonsense (metadata collection laws, encryption backdoor legislation, etc.).
This is precisely why all the banks I am with use their own app for 2FA rather than send codes via SMS. Even our government services system (myGov) has an app you can use instead of SMS.
Of course, none of these are completely secure, but it's a significant step up from plaintext SMS.
I am glad to see this happening. Unfortunately a lot of the damage is already done, though - staff have been lost and may not be easily replaced, studies have been interrupted at critical points and cannot simply be resumed from where they left off, etc. At least this pushback from the courts may reduce the likelihood of further such cuts.
The writing's on the wall for AUKUS. It was a bad idea at the time and it's an even worse idea now. As per Dr. Shortis' article, we should definitely take advantage of this situation to cut our losses and come up with a better defense plan.
Yeah, that's deliberate, intentional targeting of the journalist and/or camera crew.
That's true, yes, but I suspect the variation across NTs is not as wide as the gap between NTs and neurodivergents.
As an analogy, everybody's colour vision is slightly different. But most people are similar enough that they agree on colour, whereas somebody who is colour blind has a distinctly different experience. Most people don't even think twice that what they are seeing is not what another person might be seeing (and without special software it's basically impossible for people with regular vision to gain an understanding of what a colourblind person might see, whilst a colourblind person can only get an idea of what regular colour vision looks like if they have the right colourblindness profile for a pair specialised filtering glasses to work).
To state the obvious: predominantly because they are unaware that their experience of the world is not universal, but in some cases simply because it inconveniences them.
Interesting, I hadn't seen news about that Apple feature before... There seems to be a lot more press around Recall, which in turn amps up the amount of consumer attention and backlash.
That said (and I wouldn't want Apple's "semantic search" even if I had an Apple device), I'd still trust Apple more to manage the dataset securely compared to Microsoft. The Apple ecosystem is far more strictly controlled, whereas in Windows it's more of a free-for-all (most people just used XP as an administrator, the UAC could be easily disabled on Windows Vista and 7, etc.). Especially with Microsoft's move to put advertising in Windows 11 and complete lack of security measures in the initial version of Recall, it is very hard to trust Microsoft in this regard.
I have no idea about the Paramount-Skydance merger proposal, but I think they buried the lead:
After the abrupt resignation Wednesday by Republican commissioner Nathan Simington, the regulatory body is about to go down to just two members (one Republican and one Democrat), raising questions about its capabilities.
Gardening is one of my hobbies but I don't have much retail experience... Guess that's me ruled out then.
In my experience becoming non-verbal may also depend on who you're with. It might be that your partner goes non-verbal with other people first and you last (since you are the most accepting of this).
If you're able to speak for your partner in those situations (I suggest discussing how they should signal to you that this is needed, plus in what situations it would be appropriate) that can be a big help.
Also, as a couple of other commenters have mentioned, look into other forms of communication. Texting or email is often still possible if not too overwhelmed, so again discuss with your partner - perhaps there is a shorthand set of messages or emojis they can use when they're struggling to communicate that will allow them to convey what's happening and what they need.