Oh no, this is getting increasingly complicated… from a combinatorical perspective alone I now already see the potential of mortally insulting 3/4 of the people I will be meeting… 😯

I don’t remember Pokémon Red/Blue and am a parent… So this means I am considered young? 😀

Ok, this is bonkers. Although the risk of contamination with foreign insects via transit is real (we e.g. imported the Tiger Mosquito from the US via tire shipments from the U.S. into Europe some years ago…), using that as an excuse to search passenger cars is quite a stretch…

That is different to Germany. Here they are basically exclusively mounted facing the crosswalks in some way. I think I have never seen them mounted in parallel…
This might explain why we don’t have similar arrows, as in this configuration they might be less helpful…

History of early natural sciences is crazy.
Leibniz, the guy who drew this reconstruction of a unicorn, was the same Leibniz that lay groundbreaking work in many scientific fields, including computer science and much of modern calculus, in parallel with his rival Issac Newton.
Speaking of Newton, besides single-handedly inventing a major part of modern physics, he was also a huge fan of alchemy, trying to create the Philosopher’s Stone…

It’s missing the part where they suddenly change mind, hiss at you and smack you.
At least our cat is that way. Loving it nonetheless. Stockholm Syndrome or so l guess…🤷‍♂️

California has done searchs for ‘bugs’ before but don’t know if the still do.

I guess that is not “Bugs” as in butterfly?

Just owning them or actually using them? What are the fines?

Ok, expected this to be covered legally somehow.
Also as I assume that freedom of movement would be a value you are regarding highly in the States.

Makes sense. Would also just generate work for the police forces with probably only low level violations to be uncovered.
Being practical is a good approach.

One comment mentioned that some things are legal in one state but illegal in another.
And I also remember that laws in general are often quite different between states.

So, I am wondering if there exist some kind of controls near state borders to catch illegal stuff and practices (or even wanted persons?) crossing the border?

Well, an AI is incredibly patient and you can toy around with the language freely without perhaps feeling embarrassed. That alone lowers the entry bar (especially for slightly awkward persons like myself…) considerably.
On top of that AI is dirt cheap compared to a personal tutor or traveling around the world.
So it would open effective language learning to a much broader audience than before, which undoubtedly is a good thing!

Nicely written, though! I like it! :-)

This is a fantastic read that seems to come straight out of a Dirk Gently novel… But I am completely confused and have the feeling that I am missing some crucial information?

Reminds me of the first scientific attempts trying to reconstruct fossilized bones to plausible shapes:
https://viralbandit.com/photography/the-worst-fossil-reconstruction-ever-design-you-trust/

Yeah, Duolingo has been resting a bit too much on its past accomplishments and still high popularity lately.
This feature is basically exactly what I would have expected them to offer me by now in return for the money I pay them each month.
Unfortunately Google is not an alternative for me, but I already have switched some of my learning to LLM chats elsewhere.
I am curious if Duolingo will be able to keep up again with the development in the long run…

Hello everyone! Is this the experiment here? Has it started yet? Can I bring my own drinks?

Wow, this is so quaint! I totally love this, thank you for explaining.
And I will now make sure to use the correct pronunciation during my next visit to the Isles (hopefully next year…)!

Ok, similar to the ones we have here in Germany at many crossroads.
They are colloquially called “Bettelampel” which translates to something like “beggar’s traffic light”, as you are kind of a second class traffic participant at this place and have to “beg” to get a timeslot allocated.