Free C-Sci Resources | Resources ✨

i’m jewish - sort of getting back to my roots, i was raised pretty secularly, but was told some stories about jewish holidays growing up from my grandmother. i’ve really been wanting to reconnect with it and am kind of lost on what i should get reacquainted with first & foremost. do you have any suggestions?

Linking an oldie but goodie post I made with a bunch of resources :)

Do you like reading books? Can you suggest books that are easy to read in Spanish for beginners, or some movies?

Hi, of course! I hope some of these recommendations are helpful!

Books:

• Spanish Short Stories For Beginners by Lingo Mastery

• Short Stories In Spanish For Beginners & Spanish Short Stories For Beginners 2 by Olly Richards

• Easy Spanish Reader by William T. Tardy. This book is separated into three sections and the readings in each are followed by comprehension activities.

*All three of the previously mentioned books can be downloaded for free on https://z-lib.org

• This organization’s website has a few great picture books in Spanish that you can download for free. https://www.heifer.org/what-you-can-do/get-involved/schools/home-school-activities/books-and-reading-resources.html

• This website has a handful of great pdfs https://www.spanishplayground.net/spanish-books-for-beginners/

Spanish Playground

Spanish Books for Beginners of All Ages - Spanish Playground

Spanish books for beginners for different ages and interests. Free PDF downloads ,TPRS novels, leveled readers and other books for Spanish l

Movies:

• El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth) This is available on Netflix and I’d suggest watching movies with subtitles. If you’re able to, there’s a chrome extension you can download called Language Learning with Nextflix where you can have subtitles in both your native & target language

• I also suggest watching any movie you’re familiar with like if you love Disney movies you should find the Spanish version of them

Sorry I don’t have any true movie recs yet! If anyone has any other resources they know of, feel free to add them :)

Going FOSS: An Intro to Open-Source software for studyblr (and also some privacy related bits)

Source for Header Image

Intro & attempt at TLDR

Hey everyone! Today I’d like to tell y’all something about Open Source Software, and also Why this should matter to you! This’ll probably be the first post of a series I intend to do, because I believe the Studyblr community, even the non-nerd folks, could really benefit from switching some things out in their digital environment. Since this is a long post, I attempted to summarise it below, please do read on if you have the spoons tho!

TLDR?

FOSS stands for “Free and Open Source Software” the “free” part doesn’t necessarily mean it’s free as in free pizza, but mostly means free as in freedom.

There’s a humongous amount of variants on this concept, but the core of FOSS specifically is the four freedoms:

1. To run the program however you want and for whatever you want

2. To study how the program works and to change it in whatever way you want

3. To be able to share it with whomever you feel like

4. To be able to share your modified version with whomever you want

There’s a whole host of software licenses built around these concepts, you can check those out at the Open Source Initiative website, or at Choose A License. Both have a good summary of what they all stand for.

Open Source software is used for a lot of products, nearly every single webserver is an Apache Linux server, Google chrome is built on top of their open source chromium (google is still the devil, but y’know, it’s an example), and even deep deep down, Apple computers run on top of a Linux Kernel. Many more can be listed, but I won’t do that otherwise this isn’t a TLDR anymore.

Now, Why is this important for you? The Open Source Initiative summed it up real nicely already, but heres a short paraphrase:

Control & Security. If software is open source then you can check if it really works the way it does, and to make sure it’s not spying on you. Even if you don’t have the skills for it, someone else who does will be able to check. Also if you don’t like how something works in a program, then you’ll be able to change it or find someone else’s changed version that you like more.

Training. People who want to learn programming can use the code to see what makes programs tick, as well as use it as a guide for their own projects.

Stability. Because everything’s out in the open, that means someone else can take up maintaining a project or make a successor of it, in case the original developers suddenly quit working on it. This is especially important when it’s software that’s absolutely critical for certain tasks.

Community. It’s not just one program. It’s a lot of people working together to make, test, use, and promote a project they really love. Lots of projects end up with a dedicated fanbase that helps support the developers in continuing to work on the software.

I’d like to add one more tho: Privacy, which ties in a lot with the security part. Nowadays with protests going on and everything being online due to the pandemic, folks have been and will be confronted much more with the impact of privacy, and lack thereof. Open Source software means that if any company or group tries to spy on you, then you and anyone who feels like checking, will be able to know and take action on it. Here’s the EFF page on privacy and why it should matter to you

If that got your attention then read on past the readmore button! Or, if nothing else maybe check out the Free and Open Source Software portal on Wikipedia? Or maybe the resources page of the Open Source Initiative?

Keep reading

How to Learn an African Language: Resources

I have been working on a database of resources for learners of African languages. You do not to search manually to find the best resources anymore—this site does it for you.

It includes material for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners.

Already has a wide variety of languages for you to explore—from major languages such as Amharic, Igbo and Swahili to smaller languages such as Basaa, Coptic and Moba.

You can filter by language, type of resource, rating and level.

Continually updated with more resources every day.

Honest and unbiased ratings and reviews; no affiliate links.

https://href.li/?https://learnafricanlanguages.co

Language timeline

I wanted to share the timeline I am using to learn my target languages. Keep in mind, mine is set up for nine different languages, but if you aren't learning nine at the same time (because most people aren't insane like I am), you can modify it to match your learning easily.

Before I show you my timeline, I wanted to talk a little bit about why I decided I wanted to tackle nine languages at once, and why I chose the languages I did. First of all, I am self studying all of these languages except ASL. I am in a college level course for ASL, and will still be posting about learning it, just less than I will about any of the other languages.

All of the languages on my list are priorities right now, but I will focus the most on ASL, Frisian, Arabic, Korean and Afrikaans. I am doing it this way because I want to learn many languages, of course, but doing both easy and hard languages at relatively the same time can make it easier on my brain. This might not be the same for you, but my special interest is languages and I want to learn as much as I can right now. Obviously, this isn't going to work for everyone, as learning one language at a time is pretty difficult in its own right.

Now onto the reasons I'm learning each language. I am learning Spanish because it is extremely useful in daily life and in the professional world, I am learning Ukrainian because I want the challenge, I am learning Finnish because I have always had a fascination with the language as I am part Finnish, I am learning Frisian because its interesting to learn a language so close to English, I'm learning Korean and Arabic because I love the writing systems, and I'm learning Afrikaans because not only is it a beautiful language, it can give me a foundation should I want to learn Dutch later on as they are similar. Finally, I am learning ASL for the ability to communicate well with deaf people and because I am interested in the culture.

My timeline is weekly view. I plan on studying three languages a day, studying for two hours each day. Thursdays are for practicing a little of everything, focusing on things I need more time to understand or need to research a little bit more, as well as trying to form sentences and practice pronunciation more.

Mon

Frisian- 45 minutes

Korean - 30 Minutes

French - 45 Minutes

Tue

Arabic - 35 Minutes

Finnish - 50 Minutes

Afrikaans - 35 Minutes

Wed

ASL - 30 Minutes

Ukrainian - 60 Minutes

Spanish - 30 Minutes

Thu

All Languages

20 mins each

Grammar practice

Fri

Afrikaans - 40 Minutes

ASL - 40 Minutes

Finnish - 40 Minutes

Sat

Ukrainian - 45 Minutes

Frisian -30 Minutes

Korean - 45 Minutes

Sun

Spanish - 30 Minutes

Arabic - 60 Minutes

French - 30 Minutes

TED Talks for the New Year

Here are TED Talks that will give you a guide to a successful year

How to learn anything

Power food for the brain

Secret to self-control

Don't be a jerk to yourself

Building your identity capital

Improving your body language

What your future self wants

Saying Yes

Habits of original thinkers

Become the person you can't imagine

Designing the life you want

Be your own life coach

How to talk so that people listen

Curiosity over ambition

Life is your biggest project

How to achieve your most ambitious goals

Resource List for Learning Russian

Hi Language Enthusiasts,

Do you want to learn Russian but don’t know where to start? Then I’ve got the perfect resource list for you and you can find its links below. Let me know if you have any suggestions to improve it. I hope everyone can enjoy it and if anyone notices any mistakes or has any questions you are free to PM me.Here is what the resource list contains;

Handmade resources on certain grammar concepts for easy understanding.

Resources on learning pronunciation.

Websites to practice reading.

Documents to enhance your vocabulary.

Notes on Colloquial Language and Dialects.

Music playlists

List of podcasts/audiobooks And a compiled + organized list of websites you can use to get hold of grammar!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IUZPxKviSmPFO6S8go2_BqqE58Bbjsqfj4QqzC_r5yI/edit?usp=sharing

17 free and helpful things, that everyone can take advantage of

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library They send an age appropriate book once a month if you have a child younger than 5.

Project Gutenberg Lots of free classic books.

Library Genesis A great place to look for and download college/university textbooks for free, as well as other books.

Scihub Endless Free college books. (and peer-reviewed scientific publications that are otherwise hidden behind a paywall)

Khan Academy Free knowledge that you can use to clep out of university courses, or to simply invest your time in a worthwhile topic.

Openlearn UK’s Open University - free courses for all levels of study, samples of university materials, study skills and tie-ins to BBC documentaries. Everything under Creative Commons licence so you can use it as you see fit.

Duolingo The Green Owl of Languages. There are a few hundred that it teaches and the mobile app makes it easy to do anywhere while waiting (!warning! only good for Spanish, German, French, Dutch, Esperanto, and English. with anything else it gets very low-quality and short.).

Codecademy An awesome site to learn how to use some programming languages. Doesn't get into the really advanced stuff, but it's good for a start.

Photopea Completely free Photoshop clone that has all the basic features of Photoshop, using basically the same interface.

Gimp Another free version of Photoshop.

Unsplash Stock of free photos of just about anything, provided by the photographers themselves, to do with what you like.

Futureme You can write letters to yourself (or other people) in the future! You can also make notifications and reminders of a +doctors appointments or anything else important.

Heavens Above You can look up all the satellites flying over your house tonight, including the ISS, Hubble Space Telescope, those pesky Starlink satellites, and whatever else your heart desires, complete with star maps and precise timing. And there is an Android app, but unfortunately no iOS one last I checked. (For iOS you can use “Sputnik!” which is free and tells, when ISS and Hubble passes overhead.)

Night Sky Other astronomy app for iOS. If you hold your phone to the sky the app tells you what you're looking at (or point it at the ground for a view from the other side of the planet). Zoom in with two fingers and tons of deep space stuff is revealed.

Freecycle its literally people giving away stuff they don't need/want any more that they can't/don't care enough to sell.

Nexus Mods Has thousands of video game mods (for 1,509 PC games), made by independent content creators, available to download at no cost.

Archive The Archive aka Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and so much more... For example a lot of DOS games (classics like Prince of Persia, Oregon Trail, DOOM, Monkey island, Rayman, Turtles), directly playable through the browser.

My earlier list

More things to do