Catoblepas

EY! I’m WALKIN’ ova here!

The fact that in some instances the legal system does work according to the invocation of a magic phrase makes it so much harder to deal with the delusions of sovcits. The right to remain silent should be just that. You don’t have to say “I’m invoking my right to free speech” every time before opening your mouth for it to count.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/20/us/pennsylvania-school-lunch-debt-trnd

Unless this is happening again, this story is from 2019. Still bad, just not recent

TIL two people can’t do the same thing.

Oh, did this start January 20th? That’s probably news to Gazans.

Sunscreen is a sensory nightmare for me, so I mostly rely on UPF clothing (UPF = SPF but for clothes). It’s way better than just getting burnt!

Without sunscreen and with my skin type, it’s fine for 15 minutes according to Wolfram Alpha! 🫠

Edit: oh lol I didn’t realize it included temps on the left hand side, that’s in F rather than C.

This is just for the English speaker learning Spanish Duolingo course, which I’m told is one of the best ones, so it may not apply to other courses. But IMO it was easier to pick up the majority of the beginner vocabulary in Duolingo (they’ve got the drill aspect of language learning down pat) and then spread out to other sources. I especially needed outside help with grammar because (at least when I was doing the early parts) Duolingo didn’t explain grammar very much, so there was a bit of ramming my head against a brick wall.

How long an article takes me to read depends on how many colloquial phrases it has that Duolingo hasn’t introduced me to, if uncommon words or jargon are used, etc. The dictionary app I use is pretty good and includes slang, so when I do run into unknowns it only takes a few seconds to look it up. But overall I’d say I read maybe 1/2 to 2/3 the speed I read English, depending on all the above factors. It does fatigue me a lot faster than reading English, but I think that’s a normal thing for second languages you’re still learning.

Edit: oh oops I misunderstood your last question, it took me maybe a year to start on news articles and maybe another 6 months to get comfortable with them. Totally YMMV depending on how much and how seriously you study, this wasn’t anything like full time study for me.

By the time you’re old enough to ask “why,” they’ve subjected you to enough propaganda to ensure it doesn’t even occur to you to do so.

I learned probably 90% of my Spanish through Duolingo. My reading is good enough that I can usually follow along with Spanish news articles and Spanish spoken at a moderate pace. (So almost none of it, haha) I have hearing comprehension problems with English as well though, so that’s not Duolingo’s fault.

I’m definitely not fluent, but it’s not like I wouldn’t know what to do if someone handed me a form in Spanish, either.

Overall it’s just the repetition that matters. I don’t think I would know any less Spanish if I’d spent 20-30 minutes every day for the past 2+ years using a different app to learn.

Mango Languages is available for free through many libraries and has an app.

This is what every news article about an assault or murder of a queer person used to be like in the 00s and earlier. Then after the local queer community spends ages protesting (if there was one, and who knows how many murders flew under the radar this way) maybe someone eventually gets a slap on the wrist charge.

Maybe they’ll update these stories soon, but it’s not a great sign when they’re not even discussing the husband’s account. (The other stories, not the one you linked)