For other ESL speakers who had problems parsing this headline, swifts are a type of bird: 
this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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English is my first language and I was still confused about what fast bricks were for.
Also a programming language developed by apple.
Fuck, why'd you have to remind me of that garbage
Because the subject of this thread was just too wholesome.
Objective C was so much better I agree
I'd say it's not an ESL problem so much as a "common swift not endangered nor news here" problem.
Ohhhhh I thought this was about the SWIFT banking system at first lol, TIL
I thought it was about the speed the brick could fly at when thrown, so yeah…
This is quite weird, your comment was downvoted by a bunch of accounts (that are now banned) that joined about 15 hours ago: https://lemvotes.org/comment/lemmy.world/comment/21934464
Yeah there’s someone on this site who makes throwaway accounts constantly. They create accounts, post a bunch of stuff in comics and news communities, then self deletes after a couple hours before they can be banned.
Any time someone calls them out on it they use their throwaway accounts to go through your recent history and downvote everything you post. They also like to make impersonation accounts to spam from.
There’s a couple threads calling this shit out here in c/comicstrips and c/support
LMFAO that's hilarious. What's next, high-speed roof tiles?
More like non-uk inhabitants
English is my second language, but instead of swift bricks I had to web search what ESL stands for... When addressing non-native speakers, please don't use cryptic and ambiguous acronyms.
ESL (English as a Second Language) is an incredibly common and widely recognized acronym (at least in the US, not sure about other countries).
incredibly common and widely recognized
(at least in the US
LOL
I researched this term (I read the wikipedia page) and apparently it is used in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US. In Ireland and the UK, ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) is more common, and some other terms are floating around in the anglosphere. Where this is notably not used is where English is not a native language.
Again, when addressing non-native speakers, using cryptic (and ambiguous, I as a German mostly know ESL as an abbreviation for Electronic Sports Leagues, swiss people could first think of l'École Suisse de Langues, etc) terms is really not the best idea.
notably not used is where English is not a native language
I mean, not to be blunt, but duh?
it would only really make sense to even talk about English as a second language if the general population does speak it as a native language. in the US people arent ever going to say something like french as a second language, because there's no need for the distinction
But most people with English as an additional language live outside countries where English is a native language. So again, when addressing people who speak English but not as their native language, why use terms that are exclusively used in countries with English as a native language?
Or do you think the internet exists only in countries where English is a native language?
the likelyhood of talking about ESL (an initialization of English words to begin with) wouldnt generally happen where English is non-native, though. you don't have two Germans asking if the other speaks English as a second language
So again, when addressing people who speak English but not as their native language, why use terms that are exclusively used in countries whith English as anative language?
As an English speaker in a city with many people whose first language isn't English, it was probably just habit. I didn't originally know it wasn't a well known term either.
It was used in my (German) university's English classes.
To be fair, they are taught by native speakers. But still!
I have now spent majority of my life speaking English/living in English speaking country and yeah they love their acronyms. Unnecessary useless acronyms. I suspect they're wired for it from young age and don't even realize, because despite starting to learn English at a young age, there was no incentive for me to start coming up with or learning acronyms.
No we're not. I fucking hate them and don't understand things at work because there are too many to know.
unfortunately ESOL is the less common/more cryptic term generally. we all learn a lot every day!
I figured as much. That's why I thought it might be helpful to explain the cryptic term to make communications easier. Hoped it was helpful.
I mean, you don't need to know what ESL means for my comment to be helpful. The helpful bit is in the second part without any confusing abbreviations.
So? I mean, while honorably clearing up some confusion, you created another point of confusion for someone else to clear up.
why do we want to brick birds
Birds need homes too.
The swift swift swiftly swifted in the swiftest way possible.
You ever think about the word "saw"? It's a motorized power tool used for cutting. But it's also the past tense of having seen something. So if you see a saw, later can say you saw a saw. And it's also a verb. So if you watch a saw cutting another saw, you will have saw a saw saw a saw.
English is weird.
You can also play on a seesaw.
If your goal was to seriously derail the topic of discussion, I applaud you for a job extremely well done.
I just wanted to help because the headline really confused me. Then it took on a life of its own.
Yeah, sorry - my comment was meant to poke fun, but unfortunately came out more accusatory. Not what I meant, so sorry about that. I just thought it amusing how quickly and thoroughly things veered off in another direction.
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Why would you want to brick your iPhone?
So birds can live in it. It's like you didn't even read the article! /s
How many of these are they going to put in one house? Hopefully it’s not every brick in the wall. I feel like people would be upset if their wall had hundreds of birds nesting in it.
One brick per house would be nice though.
Wouldn't it be more logical to make separate birdhouses if there is a need for them?
Most swifts won't use birdhouses. They prefer large structures with hollow cavities, partly due to the increased shelter and partly due to the decrease in competition from other bird species.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) designs, distributes plans for DIY, and sells a nesting box specifically for swifts, and instructions for where to place them on homes.
To note however, the RSPB were one of the main campaigners for swift bricks.
Huh, fascinating! I've never seen these before!
They still need making and putting up, and they're more obtrusive than a swift brick as they stick out instead of being embedded in the wall itself.
swifts nest in colonies, tend to keep the same nest for life, and require nests to be fairly high up & sheltered.
hollow bricks like this allow swifts to do what comes naturally to them, with v minimal change on our side of things, since they're just being added during the building process & not being retrofitted.
individual bird boxes in trees etc can be great for other birds, but it'd be tough to convince swifts to use them!
Bird boxes are also super-temporary in the greater scheme of things. One property owner is a bird lady with 25 boxes, she moves- next property owner doesn't like bird boxes 25->0 overnight.
There's kind of need for them everywhere and this is a pretty practical way to ensure they end up everywhere and will stay there.
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Cute!
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