Walter Püttner, Sirene und Scaphandler (Siren and Deep-Sea Diver), 1896.
...
#ok look. autistic barbie represents real autism about as well as pregnant barbie represented real pregnancy#and i don't know how much more could really be expected to be fair#idk woke barbie to me always looks like mcdonalds salad. come on lads you know this isn't your area
You know, I think this gets at part of it for me?
Like I feel like we have spent so long fighting so hard for autistic people to be seen, more than anything else, as three-dimensional...
And I don't blame anyone who does feel in any way meaningfully represented by this, I don't, but.
Barbie is, by definition, not that.
"Love and Protect your Neighbors Don't Trust the Feds"
Seen in South Minneapolis, January 2026
The New Croton Aqueduct Tunnel Under the Harlem River, Scientific American, 9/14/1889.
“On the way down he stopped the bucket occasionally and invited his companions to feast their untrained eyes on sundry cavernous holes that radiated from the shaft at various depths … The daylight above faded to a disk of white about the size of a barrel head, while below the air was clammy and cold, and night never looked so black”
“Engineer Rice’s Stroll: He Walks Under The Harlem River Through a Siphon.” New York Times, 8/13/1890 (pdf)
Due to various mundane circumstances, I did not get my hands on a copy of Winter’s Tale until a couple weeks ago. I’m only a little ways in - work, a wedding celebration, the usual distractions interfered - but I am enjoying it overall so far.
A couple differences already strike me between when I originally read the book and now, besides what the ravages of time hath wrought on my person. For one, back then I had not visited New York since infancy. Not that having never visited a place precludes enjoying a book set there, obviously one of the great joys of reading is exploring places you’ve never been or that don’t exist, yet knowing geography of New York or what the Willamsburg Bridge looks like seems to be helping me this time around.
For another, the internet is no longer in its infancy. Now when I read about, for example, the Harlem Siphon where the Short Tails Gang bury their dead, I can, within a few moments, find both a drawing and newspaper article about the same.
Morning mist: threadleaf Japanese maple tree, Princeton, New Jersey, 2016 - by Josh Friedman, American
^^^ This. The COMBINED population of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) is only about 2.6 million. That's not small town numbers, sure, but compared to NYC (20.1 million in the metropolitan area)? LA? (12.9 million "")?
Minneapolis is being made an example of because they're the most bitesized target, and if you're doing a shock and awe campaign like this you need to not choke on national tv.
(And they're still having to fight for it. Minneapolis isn't taking this laying down, and more power to them for their courage.)
hands you my carol sturka swearing spreadsheet
B-17 bomber is riddled with German anti-aircraft fire but miraculously survives. Later they discover the explosive shells were all inert; sabotaged by Nazi slaves working in armament factories.
Inside one empty shell is a written note: it's all we can do for you now.
The most important part of all this is that these small acts of bravery and noncompliance cannot be known as long as the enemy still stands, and might never be known. Just because it doesn’t seem like anyone is doing anything doesn’t mean it’s true. The best malicious compliance or subtle sabotage is the one that’s never detected, but makes ravages nonetheless.
A critical part of any resistance is
Do not post your crimes
Do not brag. Do not look for brownie points. Do not publicly recruit. Keep your mouth shut.
Posting on 1/13/2026
