That’s a moray

Studied online in Edinburgh, attended the graduation IRL and absolutely fell in love with the place. If I were capable of generating my own body heat I’d move there in an instant. Unfortunately I’m a tropical fish so I’ll stay swimming around the islands of southern Japan. Originally Polish/Canadian/British, but my soul yearns for a loch.

Appreciator of architecture and urban planning, intrigued by all things STEM. Occasionally tries to art or knit.

Cats: Pictures
Buildings: Cycling
Education: Laughing
Knitting: Making stuff

Last Notes

2026-06-09 02:14:09 UTC

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This is a fantastic article, not just about allergies, but for giving a detailed overview of forestry practices in Japan. I have a friend who researches wood product lifecycle, who often hosts international students. It's difficult to find english-language resources about Japanese forestry that give this level of detailed overview. Have shared it with him so that his incoming group can have a primer. Thank you for writing it!

2026-05-13 23:51:50 UTC

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LOVE IT!!!!

2026-05-13 23:48:28 UTC

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The small drawer in your fridge where you put ham and bacon and cheese is called s cheese drawer.

2026-04-17 23:05:28 UTC

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I wish humans were logical creatures but so far I have zero evidence of that. Because who gets to be the expert and who is listened to for pushing back? We know the answer to this question. Which means we we have a lot more work to do.

2026-04-17 22:38:46 UTC

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Ugh. I teach EFL and I have been literally screaming about all the dead canaries in the coal mine for as long as I can remember, everyone not in EFL has just been looking at me like I'm nuts and telling me to pipe down. I literally have not been able to find legitimate textbooks in at least 3 years. Now it's hitting domain specialists like it's a new thing. If we had done something when it was new we might've stopped it. Too damned late now.

2026-04-16 03:14:13 UTC

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You know, revisiting a lot of this, sort of as AIDS was starting to shift queerness from covert to overt, and a lot of us as teens in the 80's struggled with bi/pan/ace/trans identities, maaaybe just maybe the reason we identified with this music & aesthetic was because it was ALL about being queer, we just didn't have a way to recognize it as such.

2026-04-16 02:50:09 UTC

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Hands down https://youtu.be/dHO30Xzzhac

2026-02-19 13:50:56 UTC

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I didn't ask you to bow. You don't need to bow just because someone else has more direct experience in the field than you do. And all I'm saying is that while I understand why your colleagues fear for their positions, and I would even agree that they shouldn't have to, correlation is not causation and a languages degree had much more value when paper dictionaries were the primary way to teach yourself a language.

2026-02-19 10:32:26 UTC

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Has there been foreign language education at the primary level in the UK education system? Traditionally most English-speaking countries don't introduce foreign language education until middle school. There are exceptions, but on the whole?

2026-02-19 10:25:21 UTC

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Maybe we read different articles. This is definitely my wheelhouse and all I got was that the writer hasn't grasped that there are far better and more effective ways to learn languages other than taking a 4 year degree. They don't provide evidence that people aren't learning languages, only that degrees in modern languages are in decline.

2026-02-19 07:14:14 UTC

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Language us a tool for communication, but it's never been the case that university degrees in languages focus on communication ability. In the first year there's some of that and then it gets increasingly esoteric. Which is fine if that's your thing but for the vast majority of people learning a second language, it's not. They want to make friends, to meet people, to work together. If you have a second language with a degree in something else, the world is your oyster. Students know

2026-02-19 07:10:23 UTC

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Why can't anyone get their head around the fact that young people prefer to use their phone to deal with foreign languages? Translation tools are better than ever before, it's not difficult to find language schools in target language countries to study at for far less than a university degree. Unless you have a burning passion for 15th century Danish poetry, there's no need to do a whole degree in Scandinavian languages when you can just go online & learn Danish from Danish speakers

2026-02-09 12:48:45 UTC

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I am reading this whole thread and wondering why nobody is mentioning how half their leg got numbed from the sting....do American centipedes not sting? And perhaps..are they not a foot long and as fat as a small person's finger?

2026-02-09 09:58:10 UTC

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I've been teaching language and learning it for several decades now, and I will tell you the secret: suck. Suck but do it anyway. Make a fool of yourself. Sound like a dork. Because until you can, you will not reach the place you want to be.

2026-01-16 10:51:36 UTC

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Are...are you saying this album is.....
Cheeses of nazareth?
:blob_foxhyper2:

2026-01-15 22:48:48 UTC

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I'm not in the UK so I can safely tell you the truth: "fairly" is carrying a lot in your sentence. Ask 3 profs what fairly means, you'll get three slightly different answers. Ask 3 of your peers, preferably from different backgrounds, what fairly means, you'll get three wildly different answers. A good rule of thumb for life is to assume that everyone is doing their best under the circumstances they're in. Respond to their behaviour accordingly.