tea-inquiries

[tea-inquiries]

Sign Languages (isolates)/Language Families used in Europe    

   Light Blue: French Sign Language family  

   Light Red: Swedish Sign Language family  

   Dark Red: British, Australian and New Zealand Sign Language family  

   Brown: German Sign Language family  

   Pink: Albanian Sign Language  

   Purple: Macedonian Sign Language (unclassified)  

   Grey: Arabic Sign Language family  

   White: Iranian Sign Language  

   Dark Green: Turkish Sign Language  

   Orange: Armenian Sign Language  

   Light Green: Maltese Sign Language  

[tea-inquiries]

Please be aware that the "opt-out" choice is just a way to try to appease people. But Tumblr has not been transparent about when has data been sold and shared with AI companies, and there are sources that confirm that data has already been shared before the toggle was even provided to users.

Also, it seems to include data they should not have been able to give under any circumstance, including that of deactivated blogs, private messages and conversations, stuff from private blogs, and so on.

Do not believe that "AI companies will honor the "opt-out request retroactively". Once they've got their hands on your data (and they have), they won't be "honoring" an opt-out option retroactively. There is no way to confirm or deny what data do they have: The fact they are completely opaque on what do they currently "own" and have, means that they can do whatever they want with it. How can you prove they have your data if they don't give everyone free access to see what they've stolen already?

So, yeah, opt out of data sharing, but be aware that this isn't stopping anyone from taking your data. They already have been taking it, before you were given that option. Go and go to Tumblr's Suppport and leave your Feedback on this (politely, but firmly- not everyone in the company is responsible for this.)

Finally: Opt out is not good under any circumstance. Deactivated people can't opt out. People who have lost their passwords can't opt out. People who can't access internet or computers can't opt out. People who had their content reposted can't opt out. Dead people can't opt out. When DeviantArt released their AI image generator, saying that it wasn't trained on people who didn't consent to it, it was proven it could easily replicate the styles of people who had passed away, as seen here. So, yeah. AI companies cannot be trusted to have any sort of respect for people's data and content, because this entire thing is just a data laundering scheme.

Please do reblog for awareness.

[tea-inquiries]

its official: tumblr is selling our data to Midjourney

we'd been hearing rumors about this for a bit but now its open and out there. some details from this article

it goes without saying, but if @staff goes through with this its going to be an utter shitshow and im all but certain the website will not survive it.

[tea-inquiries]

HEY YOU! Did you already go into your settings to opt out of Tumblr selling your stuff to train AI? You better do that now!

[tea-inquiries]

Ways to Live in Direct Opposition to Capitalism

I am by no means an expert in any of these things I’m gonna talk about, so keep that in mind! I am just making a compilation of things I know of that we can do to lessen the stranglehold the capitalist lifestyle has on us while enriching our lives, our surroundings, and the lives of others. Please add anything I miss or correct anything I may be getting wrong! Anyway here goes!

Use what you have, fix what’s you can, make what you can, accept from others, thrift what you can, and finally purchase as a last resort.

This is advice I have seen float around here a couple of times that can apply to a lot of things including clothing, furniture, food, and more besides. It’s meant to be done roughly in that order as it applies to what you’re wanting/needing/doing. It’s about preventing waste, promoting self-capability, having a heightened reliance on your community, and consciously rejecting the ingrained habit many of us have to just purchase things or services.

Here’s where you can read about growing an indoor garden!

Here’s where you can read about sewing things yourself!

Here’s an online site for giving and receiving items for free!

Here is where you can find a local Mutual Aid to get things from, learn skills from, give do, volunteer for, etc. (in the U.S.)

Be politically active! (from a U.S. perspective)

Vote for every election. Know your representatives and those who will be competing in the next election. Vote without ignorance and without falling for unfounded claims. While operating within the system that actively oppresses us will not bring about the future we want, it can serve as damage control (preventing worse candidates from taking office) and it can potentially create a national atmosphere more open to change.

Here’s a good article about getting more involved in the U.S. political process.

Here’s a site that will show you how to register to vote, when and where elections are held, and more!

Here’s good advice on finding protests in your city!

Here’s some readings on unionizing! It’s your legal right to unionize!

Here’s a more user friendly site for learning about unions!

Be active within your community!

Developing strong, motivated, capable, knowledgeable, and inclusive communities is the ultimate way to combat the relentless and bleak present and future. When you’ve worked on the things above and have gotten good at it (or even if you haven’t gotten good at it yet), start spreading what you know and what you can do with others!

Give your neighbors, coworkers, and friends some of the vegetables you’ve grown.

Invite your community members to volunteer events.

Talk to folks about how to vote, when you’re doing it, etc.

Take part in Mutual Aids to teach what you’ve learned or whatever you may be an expert in! Invite neighbors, friends, and coworkers when you take part in the Mutual Aid!

Accept your community. Take them for who and what they are. Discrimination is the enemy of cooperation. You have much more in common with everyone in your community than a single billionaire or corporation. We’re all passengers on this spaceship earth.

Do it one step at a time!

Obviously we can’t do all of these things at once. Do what you can when you can, and you’ll start to notice real change in your life!

Our online communities where we talk about our visions and hopes are fantastic, but they have little impact if we don’t actually get up and do the real work that change requires.

Want to be better, and keep hope for the future!

Harbor and nourish that desire to be a better person and to be the change you want to see in the world. You need to be hungry for a better future if you plan to make it through the rough times when everything feels pointless and without hope. Reach out to others when you’re down, and be someone others can lean on when their lives get hard.

That’s it! Please interact with this, spread it to others, and add your own thoughts and ideas! It’s important that we do the real work to get the change we crave!

#solarpunk

[tea-inquiries]

Just finished a book I wanted to share cause I think some fellow Solarpunks might like.

Green Rising by Lauren James is set in the modern world where people aged between 9 and 20 have suddenly developed the power to grow plants, and are such named "Greenfingers"

It follows three different teenagers with such powers.

Gabrielle Ventura, climate activist, anarchist, leader of Climate Rebellion and the first person to develop the powers in the middle of a protest.

She uses this publicity to help spread information about climate change and ways to combat it and proclaims the powers must of been given to them specifically to fight climate change.

Hester Daleport, daughter of the owner of Daleport industries who's main export is oil.

She starts a team of greenfingers as a cover up when her own powers act up in a meeting but throughout the book she learns the real impact of what her fathers company is doing and Fights to stop it.

Theo Carthew, son of a fisherman in England who was already struggling, then looses all income when their boat is crashed by an unmarked Daleport rig.

Theo takes a job as one of Hesters greenfingers to keep his family afloat and is the main person to help expose her to the companies impact.

While it doesn't speak on every important topic relating to this it does touch on the consequences of trying to help when being informed and causing more harm.

And how big risky actions could have no or even negative impact.

(Highly reccomend this post by @thefloralmenace for more information on that)

TW for Body horror (plants growing in and over bodies) but I think that's the only one.

#solarpunk

[tea-inquiries]

Okay so, how exactly do Password Managers work?

Because I'm pretty sure that giving some random corporation all my passwords would just make it EASIER for my personal info to get leaked.

I mean it is genuinely complicated; I don't know if you saw my explanation about dominoes yesterday, but basically you're not giving the company your information. You are creating an account with a company and they are handing you a tool that is extremely securely encrypted to store your passwords in. The company never has access to your passwords, or to the key you use to unlock your account. What they have access to is the cryptographic hash of your key to prove that it is you trying to access the account, but they can't reverse engineer the key that you use.

It's the same sort of process that encrypted email services like ProtonMail use. It's zero-knowledge storage. All that the password manager company is storing (in the case of a good password manager like Bitwarden) is up to 1gb of encrypted data for free users. They don't have access to your information. They couldn't get into it if they wanted to. All that they know about you is whatever information you used to register for the service and broad information about creation of the account.

Part of the reason that I recommend Bitwarden is that it is both open source and pretty widely used and recommended.

Open source security products are often considered more secure than closed-source tools because they can be examined and tested at the source-code level by *anyone* to check for vulnerabilities and holes in the security. Functionally what this means is that you have very smart, very motivated, and very security-conscious people testing products like Bitwarden for flaws and reporting them immediately.

I'm not great at explaining cryptographic hashing so I'm in a position where basically all I can tell you is "Trust me it works, and if that's not enough you have to go do some reading about hashing because I can't explain it." This is the barrier that a LOT of people have to using a password manager, and it's frustrating because genuinely, it is not something that people who work in security worry about *at all.*

When we're working with security the concern about password managers is *never* that a zero-knowledge company is going to have a leak. The concern is that data might actually be stored in plaintext (something you don't have to worry about with bitwarden because if that was the case everyone on the forums would be screaming their heads off at all times, and they are not) or that a phishing campaign is going to trick a user into handing over their password to the password manager.

But yeah, when you start using a good password manager with zero-knowledge storage, you aren't handing your data to a company. What's happening is that the company is handing YOU a tiny safe. The tiny safe has a ten-thousand-digit combination lock that you set the code for, and the company has no way of figuring out that code. They're hoping that you will pay them for the safe. And if you forget your code, you're screwed - the company can't get you access because, again, they have no way of getting the code. They don't store it, they don't see it, they don't know it, they can't produce it if ordered to do so at trial, and they can't reset the code.

[tea-inquiries]

cool new language resource i just discovered: lingotrack! it functions somewhat like polylogger, allowing you to log your activity for languages, but, more than that, it has an explore section where you can find media that's in a particular language, such as books, tv shows, films, etc! one of the hardest things when you reach a more proficient level of a language is finding media in that language to engage with, so i think this is probably a good resource, or at least a place to get started. besides the explore function, there's also collections of media/resources, and a library function where you can add your own resources. it does require you to have a paid account to log study time for multiple languages (the free version allows you one primary language), but the other aspects seem to be available to free users in their entirety!

[tea-inquiries]

Best language learning tips & masterlists from other bloggers I’ve come across

(these posts are not my own!)

THE HOLY GRAIL of language learning (-> seriously tho, this is the BEST thing I’ve ever come across)

Tips:

Some language learning exercises and tips

20 Favorite Language Learning Tips

what should you be reading to maximize your language learning?

tips for learning a language (things i wish i knew before i started)

language learning and langblr tips

Tips on how to read in your target language for longer periods of time

Tips and inspiration from Fluent in 3 months by Benny Lewis

Tips for learning a sign language

Tips for relearning your second first language

How to:

how to self teach a new language

learning a language: how to

learning languages and how to make it fun

how to study languages

how to practice speaking in a foreign language

how to learn a language when you don’t know where to start

how to make a schedule for language learning

How to keep track of learning more than one language at the same time

Masterposts:

Language Study Master Post

Swedish Resources Masterpost

French Resouces Masterpost

Italian Resources Masterpost

Resource List for Learning German

Challenges:

Language-Sanctuary Langblr Challenge

language learning checkerboard challenge

Word lists:

2+ months of language learning prompts

list of words you need to know in your target language, in 3 levels

Other stuff:

bullet journal dedicated to language learning

over 400 language related youtube channels in 50+ languages

TED talks about language (learning)

Learning the Alien Languages of Star Trek

.

Feel free to reblog and add your own lists / masterlists!

[tea-inquiries]

Duolingo Sucks, Now What?: A Guide

Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:

"I just want an identical experience to DL"

Busuu (Languages: Spanish, Japanese, French, English, German, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Korean)

"I want a good audio-based app"

Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)

"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"

Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)

Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)

*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.

"I have a pretty neat library card"

Mango (Languages: So many and all endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)

"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"

AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)

"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"

AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone

"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"

lingory

"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"

ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)

"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"

Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)

[tea-inquiries]

[tea-inquiries]

[tea-inquiries]

English vocab for level B2 and higher #2

-> definitions from Cambridge dictionary & Collins dictionary

perfunctory = done quickly, without taking care or interest

noisome = very unpleasant and offensive

reticent = unwilling to speak about your thoughts or feelings

peremptorily = in a way that expects to be obeyed immediately and without any questions

wharf = an area like a wide wall built near the edge of the sea or a river where ships can be tied and goods can be taken off them

portentous = too serious and trying to be very important

boon = something that is very helpful and improves the quality of life

languidly = slowly and with little energy, often in an attractive way

simious = pertaining to or characteristic of apes or monkeys; simian

prognathous = having a projecting lower jaw

affectation = behaviour or speech that is not sincere

minatory = expressing a warning or a threat

disquisition = a long and detailed explanation of a particular subject

spry = (especially of older people) active and able to move quickly and energetically

brusquely = in a way that is quick and slightly rude

stalwart = loyal, especially for a long time; able to be trusted

bumptious = unpleasantly confident

bungling = doing something very badly, in a careless or stupid way

querulous = often complaining, especially in a weak high voice

puerile = behaving in a silly way, not like an adult

#more like C2 but sure

[tea-inquiries]

a couple snippets from a presentation i gave at school this past week on storyboarding!!

‼️DISCLAIMER: I am a still a student and have only worked on student and indie projects! This is just stuff that I personally find helpful as an amateur, so feel free to take it with a grain of salt!

Happy boarding, friends! ✍️💕

[tea-inquiries]

25•03•23// off to run errands, visit a pop up and then go to Toronto for a gig! I’m ready for an action packed day.

[tea-inquiries]

No zero days in 2023 langblr challenge

The idea is to spend every day of 2023 engaging in both of my languages (Icelandic and German) every single day. Even if it's just a few minutes on an app or a short video, I have to spend at least a little bit of time with each of my languages. The underlying concept is to force myself to develop some sort of routine.

I will be filling out a google sheet-based heatmap to visualize my progress, which can be found here (you can make a copy!), and I'll post screenshots of it every day, as well as telling what I did that day in both languages!

If you want to participate with me, you can! You don't have to do it for the whole year, you can pick a month or a season or whatever feels right. The tag I'll be using will be #no zero days 2023 langblr. You can tag me in your posts as well, I'm excited to see your progress!

Catch me in January :)

[tea-inquiries]