“Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?” -Andrew Ryan, a very smart man who went to live under the sea and I am sure nothing bad ever happened to.

Not going to be useful. They don’t want a democracy, they don’t want a justice system. They want a king and the ability to use state power to shit on other people.

But what are they filtering for?

It’s a bit like Middle English (what Shakespeare wrote in), Old English (What Beowulf was wrote in) is very different. Also worth remembering that this is Scots, which is very close to English and I think largely unrelated to Scottish Gaelic.

There comes an issue when a private citizen seeks to use the engines of state to punish those whose speech offends them.

It’s one thing to withdraw society and business from someone who offends you, quite another to demand that the state crush them for you. Of course, most states will do that to a greater or lesser degree. No state extends an absolute freedom of speech.

I stand corrected.

I suspect they will graciously provide the necessities in return for your labour and any remaining rights you have.

Take a look at how company stores and scrip worked. As the song goes: Saint Peter don’t you call me 'cause I can’t go/Sold my soul to the company store.

Fair enough, I was curious as I quite like these things where the figurative language gets orphaned from its literal meaning. Giving future etymologists something to enjoy.

Do you use hood for actual cars or is it strictly when you are talking about non-car things?

I quite like shop in the sense of workshop, and I also rather like y’all.

I also often refer to whisky as scotch, though I feel like that is as much about making myself understood.

You can get paired vibrating bracelets, press the button on one and the other vibrates, I think they are supposed to be for long distance couples as a ‘thinking of you’ type thing but they would probably work here.

I heard more than a few US states decided to expend a law on requiring it because taught, your grandson might be a victim of such a policy.

Man, this must be what it feels like to be a teacher, all the time. It’s cool though, much better than I can manage.

Irreverence.

Or sometimes it’s yogh.

Vacuum is another good one, or anniversary.

Eh… Close, but they are also a concentration social power (and fundamentally deferred violence), and rights only really exist in the context of social power. You can try and establish your own personal sovereignty but you can be sure that any state that cares to will test that. Sometimes the most you can do is accept that it is able to imprison you or go down fighting, and if you are committed to pacifism the latter is a harder option.

Their god commanded them to have lots of kids. The idea crops up again and again in fundamentalist abrahamic movements. This world is bad but that doesn’t matter as it is just the doorstep before paradise.

“Hydrogen powered” generally means burning hydrogen in oxygen to make water: 2(HH) + OO -> 2(HHO). To run a car on water as you say is a lot like trying to make a fire out of ash, rather than wood. You can’t burn the ash because it has already been burned.

I found https://www.hackingchinese.com/ to be quite useful.

I have also found learning about the radicals and general construction of characters to be useful as well, being able to look at them as a collection of things rather than just a jumble of lines. A good student’s dictionary is helpful here. It’s a big chunk of change but once you have it you have it.

Duolingo is OK, but you need to be disciplined with it, and it doesn’t help much with pronunciation or production.