Join me on Duolingo (I've been on for a year!)

A day in early May was my first year anniversary trying to learn Spanish on Duolingo. I created my account many years ago, but quickly abandoned it. I'm not sure why, after all these years, I decided to try again. June 20 is supposed to mark the day I have done a lesson every day for a year (though I have often used my earned points to "buy" the weekend off). 

Spanish currently has an introductory set of lessons, followed by 10 more, each marked with a "checkpoint". It took me a year, starting from the very first lesson, to get halfway through checkpoint 4. In the early days, I would often do 10 lessons a day. Now, I do a minimum of three.

Duolingo has a free version - that's the one I use. It's not the greatest way to learn a language from scratch, but if you have taken a class, or classes, in a language in the past, it's a great way to keep your skills up. 

If you use this link to join Duolingo, I get two weeks' access to some special features I would usually have to pay for. If you do use that link, be sure to follow me on your account - I'll do the same for you. 

People who claim grievances more likely to lie and cheat

As summarized by the Genetic Literacy Project:

Newly published research indicates that people who more frequently signal their victimhood (whether real, exaggerated, or false) are more likely to lie and cheat for material gain and denigrate others as a means to get ahead.

Scholars from the Immorality Lab at the University of British Columbia created a victim-signaling scale that measures how frequently people tell others of the disadvantages, challenges, and misfortunes they suffer. Those who scored higher on this victim-signaling scale were found to be more likely to virtue-signal—to outwardly display signs of virtuous moral character—while simultaneously placing less importance on their own moral identity. In other words, victim signalers were more interested in looking morally good but less interested in being morally good than those who less frequently signal their victimhood.

Just something to think about.