My boss stopped learning Spanish on Duolingo when he lost his streak. It's a powerful motivator even if it's not a "true streak" due to streak freezes and such. My streak is at 1436 and if I lost it, I wouldn't stop Duolingo because I actually like it to learn, but the streak does make me happier, haha. I think I've had 2 days in the last few years of streak freezes due to 1 day forgetting and 1 day the site not saving my exercise. Ah well, I still like my streak even if it's not 100% pure!
I'm not defending the current system, but the predatory tactics of a decade+ ago changed dramatically under Obama and there are other steps currently being taken to prevent overly aggressive marketing tactics. University of Phoenix, for example, completely changed their marketing habits (among others afraid of getting sued/losing accreditation).
My boss got me on CookUnity and I use it because the taste/variety is good enough and I'd rather spend my time on my hobbies. Re: portion size, you just have to know what to pick to get your money's worth.
The calorie counts looked way off in the past, and my boss actually contacted them about it. I still don't believe most of the calorie counts and breakdown of macros.
I heard their service went downhill for some people but I've never had any issues, and a long time ago got a deserved refund for something.
I always get alerts before the cutoff time, so you could "skip" that week rather than message customer service. I'm not saying the author's gripe isn't real, it is, but they've at least always been clear with my orders.
Deaths from the current year can take a while to be finalized, and Decembers can be one of the deadliest months. If the U.S. hits 500k excess deaths this year, that's still a 20-25% hike on our normal death rate (2.7M give or take). Seems like Sweden will surpass past years in the end, perhaps by a similar percentage.
I live in the East Village and sure you can see the occasional rooftop gathering or neighbor having a 5-10-person get-together, but except for some anecdotes about 'underground parties,' nightlife is quite shutdown except for outdoor (and minimal) indoor dining that closes early. No one I know has been to an 'underground party' and we are the types to go out to bars/dance places on weekends outside of Covid.
So I went through the whole Duolingo tree for Portuguese and thought it was high quality and got me good a foundation. As others noted, there is no substitute for actual conversation/interaction with native speakers, and I wish I started that sooner. I also second the recommendation of using something like Anki or Quizlet for vocabulary practice. I only noted that it's good to have a base before starting with professional teachers because if you're budget isn't unlimited, you might not get the bang for your buck having teachers walk you through the most basic stuff like hello/how are you/how much does that cost/etc. that you can get with Duoloingo/Rosetta Stone or similar programs. But if you want to start off with Italki and lessons on day 1 with native speakers, it certainly won't hurt!
I do daily 30-60 minute conversations with native Brazilian speakers on Italki. That can add up in price quickly, but I would recommend at least 1-2 lessons per week to start after getting the basics down on something like Duolingo/Rosetta Stone. It was a world of difference between year 1 only using Duolingo/YouTube etc. and actually having Brazilian teachers correct my grammar, pronunciation, and add vocabulary for very context-specific situations that came up in conversations. Not to mention slang, idioms, etc.
Yes I agree with you there. There are a whole host of blue collar crimes that have too high a penalty as well. I'm not saying don't change the sentences. Just noting the difference. I personally tried to convince multiple people that insider trading should be illegal and prosecuted (example of white collar crime that is hard to pinpoint someone who suffers directly). Between libertarian-minded people and very left-wing people, it's hard to convince some people I know that want to eliminate prisons (left) or regulations (libertarians), that we should be handing out penalties for certain things, let alone stiffer penalties. Prosecute fraud? I'm with you on that!
While this is a fair point (due to the difference in money), there is something to be said about the trauma imposed on people who are witness to a bank robbery, not to mention the potential lives hurt/lost if things go sour. I'm not saying in your above example that the 27mo and 10yr sentences should be shorter or longer, I'm just noting that there are reasons the two aren't equal.
I was a Mad Magazine collector as a kid and my dad still subscribes to this day to keep the tradition going. I have fond memories of going to their NYC headquarters as a kid and having various comics/editors sign my Mad merch.
There were some bull markets within the Great Depression, so like then, maybe the green days aren't here forever and we'll test new lows.. but for some reason I feel like it'll be bad but we'll be more resilient than the Great Depression (eternal optimist!).
When I got Lyme as a teenager I was very lucky to notice a bulls-eye pattern (which not everyone gets) and quickly get treatment, with no complications after. I wonder if this new drug, or any future drugs, that work for the 20% of the people that doxycycline doesn't help, will also help people who figured out they had Lyme very late after being infected.
Italki Italki Italki, nothing has been better for that. I use my flashcards I made on Quizlet, listen to videos/podcasts, re-practice Duolingo, etc., but 3-6 hours per week talking to native Speakers on Italki (or any equivalent service) will work wonders.
I use Duolingo for Portuguese and I would highly recommend sticking as much to desktop as possible, given that it requires you to work more at the exercises than on mobile. Better for ingraining concepts in your head.
Duolingo, along with other resources, gave me a great foundation for when I added Italki and started talking to Brazilians in Portuguese for 30-60 chunks of time. I probably should have started Italki ("out loud" conversations sooner), but Duolingo's Portuguese tree definitely gave me a great start on vocab and all the different grammar types (subjunctive in Portuguese is intense!).