Gindri of the sea

@fopminui It's beautiful!

@alojoh @veggie_eric I'm on my 112th day with Duolingo and to be honest I've brushed up on the French I knew and I've maybe picked up some new words but I'm going to France soon and I suspect it won't be as useful as I'd hoped. Luckily we're there for fun not business and there's Google translate.

Hi, polyglot speaking here: best way to study any language is A) 'situational' learning. The way I would explain it is that the brain connects vocabulary with situations. For example, if you always study words at your desk your brain connects the words with that situation (at your desk, in your room, calm environmet - highly artifical situation relative to language) and hence won't be able to retrieve them in the real world situation, at least not fast enough. Learn words in applicable situation. When you mix up words, use nmemonics. B) Second, always learn new words in set phrases and ideally in different tenses (depending on language) or modalities (interrogatives, commands, questions etc.). This way, you can bypass grammar. Studying grammar by itself is only useful for writing but having to think about grammar in spoken language is too slow. A) + B) solve that problem naturally. Also, try to speak fast. This solves many pronounciation issues. The higher data rate (more information per unit of time) gives the listener's brain more clues to piece together what you try to say even without correct pronouciation (as long as it is not too off). This is particular useful in 'tonal' languages like Mandarin or Vietnamese which can be exceptionally hard for Western people to master due to lack of tones in their mother tongues: when you have a language background without tones you're brain outright refuses to differentiate since it was trained to compress income signals. You have to break that mechanism first before you can hear the different tones EXCEPT if you had musical training during young age (D). (E) Repeat, repeat, repeat: switch to the language you're studying as often as possible. You can talk to yourself if there is nobody around you can talk to. Nowadays you can talk to AI. AI can correct you. The most imortant is that YOU speak. Above allows everyone to study any language regardless of age. In essence it's how kids acquire language. However, (D) will make a GIANT difference. So if you want your kid to have it easy studying new languages, make sure it trains on a classical instruments from early age. This will pay enormous dividends in language acquisition.

Has anyone actually successfully learned a language using Duolingo Seems like a lot of cute graphics and satisfying sound effects but I'm not buying that it actually works...

@ZdenekVrozina @szupraha @threadreaderapp please unroll

Bottom line: Long COVID isn’t “just fatigue.” It’s: chronic neuroinflammation, immune dysregulation, vascular dysfunction, autonomic breakdown. It’s a warning that infectious disease can leave lasting biological scars - not just in “high-risk” groups, but in anyone. @szupraha @ZdravkoOnline

A major new review from Yale (Moen, Baker, Iwasaki, 2025) offers the most comprehensive picture yet of what SARS-CoV-2 does to the nervous system. The conclusion is stark: Long COVID is a chronic neuroimmune disorder affecting brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nerves.🧵

This is me—before and after becoming bed bound with Long COVID and ME/CFS. Two years ago, I made videos on YouTube. I ran half-marathons. I traveled. I lived fully. Then my body collapsed. I lost my energy, my independence, and my ability to connect. I lost my life. This illness isn't "just fatigue." It's a devastating, invisible disease that left me in a dark room, unable to sit up, talk, or tolerate light and sound. But slowly—very slowly—I'm starting to improve. Each small step feels like a quiet victory. Please listen. Please learn. Please share. #MECFS #MillionsMissing #MEAwarenessDay #MECFSAwarenessday

@thephysicsgirl You look great! Love the little flip in the back. So glad you're feeling up to joking around. 🤩

I’m still getting used to having short hair. I keep running my hands through “ghost hair” that’s not there, looking like a weirdo 🤣 But at least I got the blonde back!

@mcuban @GuntherEagleman Which is why the word "entitlement" is a complete misnomer. Please Mark, don't spread the propaganda.

You do realize that social security is returning the money you pay out of your paycheck ? And the administration said they would not reduce payments in any way You good with making it harder for seniors to confirm the bank accounts ? Potentially leading to them not be able to get their checks ?

Got to give Doge credit for being the first to cut entitlements. End telephone support for Social Security, cut dozens of SS offices and make Grandma and Grandpa finally get online to confirm their payments. What an amazing back door way to cut payments! Gonna be some upset seniors at town halls !

@fionangreg @diannahaze I feel you. I am thoughtfully pacing again since I got so excited about feeling better and being able to do things that I did them all. Well not all, but enough to flare and crash. Just gotta remember the pacing. Hang in there.

That’s terrific news Dianna. Now just be very very gentle moving forward. Only do 80% of what you think you can do or maybe 50% 😉 Then hopefully you won’t crash so hard. But take it as a positive sign that it ‘only’ took 4 weeks to start coming out of your crash. I’m sure there were times in the years you’ve been unwell that you’d never get some normality back and here you are recovering again! It’s a very good sign. Do remember healing isn’t linear, there are going to be roller coaster moments, and during those times just hold on to the fact that you’ve improved before so you can again. That’s what I’m holding onto. No sign of improvement yet in these past two years which is why I’m super careful in pacing now. Eg, not had a shower since end of January. Was planning to yesterday, but my friend phoned me today so I put off my shower again because I can’t do both within a few days. Socializing trumps being clean 🤣 Take care 💙

Starting to come out of my crash finally. After 4 weeks of being terrified and feeling awful. And not knowing WHAT caused it. I could use some reminders to keep it easy now and pace myself 😬

Thank you for your thread and I hope you continue to regain your health. I first got covid in Jan 2020; 2 more infections since. LC sufferer since 2020 but didn't understand until the 3rd infection held a party for all the symptoms. I hope people will see reason but... 🤞

@GingerGorman 👋

Women and non-binary folks. Please raise your hand 🙋🏻‍♀️ if you have been told to shut up or talked over by a man. It can be online or irl. I’m just interested in how universal this experience is. This is question for my next book, Flying not Falling.

@DeclineTheWest @janjowen christianitytoday.com/2022/07/young-…

@janjowen Could you share the graph please

@DeclineTheWest @janjowen graphsaboutreligion.com/p/women-are-mo…

Thread of hilarious maps you've (probably) never seen before 🧵 1. World map according to fish

@JuliusGoat Your thread is going viral! #TopUnroll threadreaderapp.com/thread/1825511… 🙏🏼@ClovGraham for 🥇unroll

@JuliusGoat @threadreaderapp unroll please

"The whole point of the post-menopausal female." It was an off-handed comment, I suppose. It was said in an off-handed way. It was made by Peter Thiel VC guy and podcaster Eric Weinstein, and agreed to by Theil VP guy and flopsweat enthusiast JD Vance, and it reveals a lot.🧵

@JoyceWhiteVance Listen up, JD, we know your type, we don't have time to waste and we know how to get shit done. You've been served.

@JoyceWhiteVance JD Vance🐷🐷🐷

@JoyceWhiteVance Every time JD Vance opens his mouth another woman re-dedicates the rest of her life to being his worst nightmare.

All I’m gonna say is that Walz brand of positive and kind masculinity is a massive tool to use going forward to teach millions of people that being a strong man isn’t about domination and fear but through compassion, kindness and not the fascist masculinity of hate and domination

It’s like America is waking up and deciding not to be in an abusive relationship any longer!!!

As a foster child I went many days without food @Tim_Walz gave students breakfasts and lunches The GOP labels him a radical liberal for this I think giving food to hungry children is called basic humanity What do you think?