«ah Yeah, It’s Him. He Is The One”

Daniel Sloss- “Jigsaw”

Culture is so obsessed with the idea of lone geniuses that it doesn't really appreciate that most of the progress of science (and likely every other discipline) occurs collaboratively, in babysteps, and usually through a lot very tedious, utterly unsexy, work.

Duolingo is NOT what it used to be.

Nation.Cymru

Language learning app Duolingo to mothball Welsh course

Emily Price Language learning app Duolingo will mothball its Welsh course at the end of this month meaning it will no longer be edited or up

“Duolingo is ‘sunsetting the development of the Welsh course’ (and many others)”.

I’ve used Duolingo since 2013. It used to be about genuinely learning languages and preserving endangered ones. It used to have a vibrant community and forum where users were listened to. It used to have volunteers that dedicated countless hours and even years to making the best courses they could while also trying to explain extremely nuanced and complex grammar in simple terms.

In the past two years it feels like Von Ahn let the money talk instead of focusing on the original goal.

No one truly had a humongous problem with the subscription tier for SuperDuolingo. We understood it: if you can afford to pay, help keep Duolingo free for those who couldn’t.

It started when the company went public. Volunteers were leaving courses they created because they warned of differing longterm goals compared to Duolingo’s as a company; not long after it was announced that the incubator (how volunteers were able to make courses in the first place) would be shut down. A year goes by and the forums—the voice of the users and the way people were able to share tips and explanations—is discontinued. A year or two later, Duolingo gets a completely new makeover—the Tree is gone and you don’t control what lesson you start with. With the disappearance of the Tree, all grammar notes and explanations for courses not in the Big 8 (consisting of the courses made before the incubator like Spanish/French/German/etc. and of the most popular courses like Japanese/Korean/Chinese/etc.) are removed with it. Were you learning Vietnamese and have no idea how honorifics work without the grammar notes? Shit outta luck bud. Were you learning Polish and have absolutely no clue how one of the declensions newly thrown at you functions? Suck it up. In a Reddit AMA, Von Ahn claims that the new design resulted in more users utilizing the app/site. How he claims that statistic? By counting how many people log into their Duolingo account, as if an entire app renovation wouldn’t cause an uptick in numbers to even see what the fuck just happened to the courses.

Von Ahn announces next in a Reddit AMA that no more language courses will be added from what there already is available. His reasoning? No one uses the unpopular language courses — along with how Duolingo will now be doing upkeep with the courses already in place. And here I am, currently looking on the Duolingo website how there are 1.8 million active learners for Irish, 284 thousand active learners for Navajo, and even 934 thousand active learners for fucking High Valyrian. But yea, no one uses them. Not like the entire Navajo Nation population is 399k members or anything, or like 1.8 million people isn’t 36% of the entire population of Ireland or anything.

And now this. What happened to the upkeep of current courses? Oh, Von Ahn only meant the popular ones that already have infinite resources. Got it. Duolingo used to be a serious foundational resource for languages with little resources while also adding the relief of gamification.

It pisses me off. It really does. This was not what Duolingo started out as. And yea, maybe I shouldn’t get invested in a dingy little app. But as someone who spent most of her adolescence immersed in language learning to the point where it was literally keeping me alive at one point, to the point where languages felt like my only friend as a tween, and to the point where friendships on the Duolingo forums with likeminded individuals my age and other enthusiasts who even sent me books in other languages for free because they wanted people to learn it, the evolution of Duolingo hits a bitter nerve within me.

~End rant.

A dragon who decides to hoard mint and various types of mint plants (and not knowing that mint has the mushroom’s blessing of inevitability were ever its planted) can go one of two ways.

1: The dragon is absolutely horrified as the mint engulfs and takes over its den. Its gold? Mint. Its gems and goblets? Mint. Its stores of wine? Mint. No matter what they do they can’t get rid of it.

2: The dragon is delightfully ecstatic as the mint engulfs and takes over its den. It’s a self growing hoard. No matter what any adventurers or knights do, they can’t get rid of it.

Hey ho I don't play league but I do play WR and LoR and I have read some of the lore so here goes:

The celestials associated with Targon are human hosts of the Aspects which are powerful beings from the celestial realm. The Aspects choose human hosts to give some of their powers to and the hosts (such as Leona, Diana, Zoe, Taric, Pantheon as well but he's different) enforce the Aspects' will on Runeterra. I don't think we know why the Aspects are so interested in Runeterra, but we do know they are against the Void. This page is great for more info.

Other celestial beings include Aurelion Sol, the creator of planets and galaxies but were tricked by the Targonians into wearing a restrictive crown and is now sealing Void rifts under their control/command; Bard, a mystical entity who kind of steps in when they are needed in extreme situations to prevent Runeterra falling into chaos; Soraka, once a celestial being filled with so much compassion she gave up her immortality in order to help the people of Runeterra; and some more.

I do believe that other than the Aspects and other celestial beings, everyone else is either of the Void or native to Runeterra.

For example, the Watchers are powerful entities who have existed since forever, and they look to destroy Runeterra for waking them from their eternal sleep by creating void rifts and learning more about Runeterra so they can either unleash armies of Void monsters to destroy everything or if possible to physically show up and do it themselves. Basically, they are the Void.

The Freljordian demi-gods include Ornn, Volibear and Anivia and more, and they are native to Runeterra. I'm not entirely sure what they are (oop) but they do have immense power far higher than most if not all mortals.

Janna is a wind goddess native to Runeterra whose strength depends on her followers. She was originally in Shurima but after she was no longer needed she went to Zaun, where the people prayed to her much more often in hopes of warding off the dangerous chemical fumes.

Nagakabourous is again native to Runeterra and is the god which Illaoi serves. I don't know much else as the lore surrounding them has changed quite a bit and I'm kinda confused :/

Even Kindred, who is pretty much the personification of death, is native to Runeterra (I think?).

Kayle and Morgana are the daughters of Mihira, Aspect host of Justice. Due to this they were born with powerful magic but they, like the other Aspect hosts, are native to Runeterra (only the Aspects themselves aren't).

Don't know if these really count but the Ascended are humans given celestial magic by the Sun Disc. The Darkin are Ascended who became corrupted by the Void. Thus these are all native to Runeterra.

Hope this helps, please correct me if I'm wrong or ask any more questions :)

Here is a question for all the League of legends lovers out there. Especially the ones who read the lore.

What separates the celestials from all the other gods worshipped on Runeterra?

I know that the celestials are littarly what the name implies, celestial gods representing different aspects, like war, twilight, etc.

But what about the other gods? Are they celestials too, or are they gods/godlike beings who are purely native to Runeterra?

I know that this might sound like a stupid question, but I am genuinely curious.

All amazing points and so important to take in. I think I have done a couple of these, but not habitually or intensely. But it's good awareness for me.

btw if you find yourself dehumanizing any person or group for any reason you've already lost

I did it I made one of these

'"Fang Duobing has fallen in fascination at-first-sight with the mysterious travelling doctor, Li Lianhua–but there's a problem: they haven’t actually met yet...and Xiao Bao is a total klutz who might bungle things before they find the truth! "

Plz watch mysterious lotus casebook

Xiao Jingyan 🤝🏻 Fang Duobing

Falling in love with their boyfriend's more scheming, sickly identities and actually appreciating and caring about that side of them before they find out that their boyfriend is actually the bright, glorious sun that was their childhood love

Source

Progress being made in Africa