I feel like with the advent of nearly ubiquitous unlimited mobile data plans (in some parts of the world) a lot less people use public WiFi. However on a plane you have little choice, so it makes sense.

I’ve been learning Spanish using a method called “Comprehensible Input” in which basically you just… watch and listen to things in Spanish. That’s it. No translation. No grammar study, no vocab memorisation. I’ve been at it about 9 months, and almost 800 hours of listening/watching time. (Which is about half of what supposedly will get you to conversational fluency, at least for romance languages. Less related to English languages can take longer)

It works. I can understand day to day conversation easily. I’m watching Breaking Bad with a Spanish dub. I can read YA novels (and listen to audiobooks). I miss some words and phrases here and there of course, but I still get the meaning from context most time and that helps me learn.

My speaking lags significantly behind my comprehension skills of course, as I’ve only practiced that a small fraction of the time. But it’s grown leaps and bounds. I can speak 10x better than I could a month ago. Supposedly it doesn’t take nearly as long to develop that skill once you start racking up listening/reading hours and that’s been my experience.

The beginning is a slog though since you have to watch things you can understand… Which basically amounts to videos of people talking at you like a baby with drawings and hand gestures so obvious that you can understand what they’re saying even if you muted the audio, but once you get to the point that you can understand actually interesting content it becomes SUPER easy. You just replace all the time you spend watching and listening and reading things with… Watching and listening and reading things in the language you want to learn. Once you reach that point it doesn’t take effort. Learning Spanish has changed from something I’m trying to do to an inevitability. It’s honestly like magic. If I’ve gotten this far in less than a year I can’t imagine where I’ll be in two.

If you’re interested in the method check this playlist and this guy can explain in detail (turn on English subtitles if you don’t understand Spanish): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlpPf-YgbU7GrtxQ9yde-J2tfxJDvReNf

I’m not trying to advertise for the site he runs, you can totally apply the method through free resources (and he has hundreds of free videos for this too). But it is an incredible resource that’s super cheap and can get you past the beginning stages. I’ve moved past their content at this point but it was invaluable in the beginning.

If only Redbox had 4k blurays I’d probably have used them more, but I know that’s probably way too niche.

That quote is so stupid.

“yeah I’m in cognitive and physical decline, but I’m totally capable of leading one of the most powerful and influential nations in history. Trust me bro.”

Yep. “Free phone” via bill credits for 2 years but they’ll proudly proclaim they don’t do contracts and there’s no ETFs. Technically true, but realistically no difference.

In your circle maybe, I’d love the statistics on this though because I’m pretty sure the overwhelming majority are paying for their phones on installment through their carriers.

I just like how it works with trackpads more, and tend to do more things basically fullscreen anyway.

!

For me it’s KDE on desktop, GNOME on laptop.

This was actually near Dallas lol.

I planned so hard for the April 8th eclipse it honestly gave me really bad anxiety lmao.

I had sites picked out for hundreds of miles along the path, constantly analyzing cloud cover projections every 6 hours that they released comparing a dozen different ones.

It was cloudy across nearly all of the path I could get to. But I did successfully find a spot where I was pretty sure cloud coverage should clear up beforehand. And it did. But I was freaked out almost up to the event.

Clouds when I arrived

Clearing up

Totality!

Just not being obese is generally a huge factor

Debian’s great but not the best choice here.

Yep, it’s wild what teachers tell kids sometimes.

Sure it could, but I think Apple makes so much on overcharging for the machine itself they don’t need to be so aggressive over data collection just logically.

12 years since they stopped selling the 2nd Gen. Not bad imo.

Oh nooooooo

Apple doesn’t require you to make an Apple ID to use a Mac lol

I appreciate the high effort of this answer! People like you really help the fediverse and Lemmy.

The Eisenhower administration used propaganda and covert action extensively, and the Central Intelligence Agency supported two military coups: the 1953 Iranian coup d’état and the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état.

…

The Cuban Revolution broke out during Eisenhower’s second term, resulting in the replacement of pro-U.S. military dictator Fulgencio Batista with Fidel Castro. In response to the revolution, the Eisenhower administration broke ties with Cuba and Eisenhower approved a CIA operation to carry out a campaign of terrorist attacks and sabotage, kill civilians, and cause economic damage. The CIA also trained and commanded pilots to bomb civilian airfields. The CIA began preparations for an invasion of Cuba by Cuban expatriates, ultimately resulting in the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion after Eisenhower left office.

Oh and this one isn’t quite related but definitely interesting

Eisenhower’s administration contributed to the McCarthyist Lavender Scare[223] with Eisenhower issuing Executive Order 10450 in 1953.[224] During Eisenhower’s presidency thousands of lesbian and gay applicants were barred from federal employment and over 5,000 federal employees were fired under suspicions of being homosexual.[225][226] From 1947 to 1961 the number of firings based on sexual orientation were far greater than those for membership in the Communist Party,[225] and government officials intentionally campaigned to make “homosexual” synonymous with “Communist traitor” such that LGBT people were treated as a national security threat.[227]

Still he wasn’t the worst US president by a long shot, though they’re all pretty awful.