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.

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.

Do NOT leave that amount of cash on your PayPal if you draw porn, they might shut down your account and you can lose it with zero recourse.

Before the first verified individual migrating birds in the 1800s (via finding storks with spears still in them after migrating to and from Africa) people had a lot of weird ideas about why birds weren’t there in the winter. “They fly so far it’s literally off any map you’ve seen” probably made as much sense to the average person as them flying to the moon, or burrowing into the mud at the bottom of ponds to hibernate.

The latter probably made the most sense to many people who lived rurally, because bank swallows (sand martins elsewhere) actually do nest in tunnels they’ve dug into the sand near bodies of water. To anyone who went without seeing one all winter and then suddenly saw one leaving a burrow in the spring, ‘it slept there all winter’ is a lot less of a leap than ‘it flew thousands of miles round trip and got back when you weren’t looking.’

God: An Anatomy is a great book that goes more into this if you want to read more about the ancient conception of the Abrahamic god. Very little of it has survived into Christianity.

I imagine a solution could be the same one from Web 1.0: webrings. Find one site on one and you’ve found a lot more interesting, curated ones as well.

2 looks delicious. Am I a beaver?

I do love a bussy that’s not hiding anything

I can smell this image, lol. Hope you didn’t get peed on!

It’s because watching a bunch of food water swirl around for half an hour is gross.

Anyone who understands batteries want to tell me if this will eventually explode or something?

Base 10 means when you count it goes: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Base 4 means when you count it goes: 1 2 3 10. 10 would still be equivalent to 4, 11 would be 5, 12 would be 6, and 20 would be 8.

To an alien that counted in base 4, base 4 would be base 10, because 4 is where they start adding 0s to numbers and they don’t have a concept of what 4 is. Probably not really if they were a mathematician alien, but it made me laugh.

Putting the ‘strange’ in ‘getting some strange.’

That reminds me, I keep forgetting to post this sticker I saw on a lamp post a few weeks ago:

It has the number of steps it does so that the pressure from the button holding your pants closed is evenly distributed over the fabric (and thread), so that nothing tears or rips. When sewing through cloth more points of attachment is generally better. You might be able to staple a button on without damaging the fabric over time, but it’s probably a lot less comfortable to wear than one sewn on.

Just attached a button to my pants yesterday, after the factory sewn button gave up.

Hm, I guess this is esoteric in the sense that most people aren’t interested in it?

Some clothes are made with what’s called ‘slub cotton’, which is cloth made from cotton thread that has irregular lumps jutting out of it. It gives the final woven fabric an interesting look, almost like static. If it’s done with bright or contrasting colors it can give a really interesting pop to the final item.

When you’re done with that, check out the Snagglepuss comic! The commenter that said if anything it was better was absolutely right.

the statistic showing that the number of disabled adult middle aged “refugees” is double-digit higher that the same number for Danes

You know refugees aren’t a random sample of the population, right? Why tf wouldn’t there be more refugees from war zones, gang violence, etc with disabilities compared to some random Western European country with a population that for the most part deals with none of that? What brain trust managed to convince you that the only way to be a refugee is to like, win an Olympic sprint or something?

You’re right, it is better, and the Flintstones comic was already really good! I went into it knowing a lot of the historical details of the time, but it was a fantastic and emotionally moving representation of it. 10/10.