Dr Lena H
@lenarivkah.bsky.social
artist; lefty Jew; ragey, radical poli sci PhD/fmr prof; cat person; grackle enthusiast; disabled/chronically ill/Covid conscious;
(she/her)
For art licensing: www.reveandbloom.com
For Judaica: www.lenarivkah.com
(she/her)
For art licensing: www.reveandbloom.com
For Judaica: www.lenarivkah.com
Pinned
Dr Lena H
@lenarivkah.bsky.social
· Nov 19
This is the way to know me best, not through a list of questions, but as a soul living the journey from grackle terror into grackle stan.
George Clinton and P Funk Allstars
Bob Dylan
White Stripes
Caravan Palace
(Lots of ACL acts—those kind of run together but the picture of me on a jackalope is clear!)
Bob Dylan
White Stripes
Caravan Palace
(Lots of ACL acts—those kind of run together but the picture of me on a jackalope is clear!)
November 28, 2025 at 8:00 AM
George Clinton and P Funk Allstars
Bob Dylan
White Stripes
Caravan Palace
(Lots of ACL acts—those kind of run together but the picture of me on a jackalope is clear!)
Bob Dylan
White Stripes
Caravan Palace
(Lots of ACL acts—those kind of run together but the picture of me on a jackalope is clear!)
Reposted by Dr Lena H
May their memories be for a blessing.
This is the first Thanksgiving for Sophie & Colin Hortman without their parents, Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman who were assassinated along with the family dog in an act of political murder. National guards troops were not deployed to the state in response.
November 27, 2025 at 10:26 PM
May their memories be for a blessing.
Reposted by Dr Lena H
Cats became our companions way later than you think.
The shift from wild hunter to pampered pet happened much more recently than previously thought - and in a different place.
All modern cats are descended from the same species - the African wildcat.
🧪🐱🐾 #catsky
www.bbc.com/news/article...
The shift from wild hunter to pampered pet happened much more recently than previously thought - and in a different place.
All modern cats are descended from the same species - the African wildcat.
🧪🐱🐾 #catsky
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Cats became our companions way later than you think
In true feline style, cats took their time in deciding when and where to join us on the sofa.
www.bbc.com
November 27, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Cats became our companions way later than you think.
The shift from wild hunter to pampered pet happened much more recently than previously thought - and in a different place.
All modern cats are descended from the same species - the African wildcat.
🧪🐱🐾 #catsky
www.bbc.com/news/article...
The shift from wild hunter to pampered pet happened much more recently than previously thought - and in a different place.
All modern cats are descended from the same species - the African wildcat.
🧪🐱🐾 #catsky
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Dr Lena H
That our government (through 2 administrations) let COVID rip for the economy was the worst political scandal of my lifetime.
November 27, 2025 at 6:00 PM
That our government (through 2 administrations) let COVID rip for the economy was the worst political scandal of my lifetime.
Reposted by Dr Lena H
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
The Claims of Close Reading - Boston Review
Literary studies have been starved by austerity, but their core methodology remains radical.
www.bostonreview.net
November 26, 2025 at 3:14 PM
I wrote an essay for @bostonreview.bsky.social about what I learned about close reading when I taught at West Virginia University
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...
Reposted by Dr Lena H
Marlboro: yesssss it is also against our TOS to get cancer from smoking our cigarettes
Additionally, OpenAI argues its not liable because Raine, by using ChatGPT for self-harm, broke its terms of service
November 26, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Marlboro: yesssss it is also against our TOS to get cancer from smoking our cigarettes
Reposted by Dr Lena H
The Chotiner
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The Chotiner is out
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The Chotiner is out
A new kind of rapid Chotining. Please appreciate the alt-text.
November 25, 2025 at 4:51 AM
The Chotiner
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The Chotiner is out
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The Chotiner is out
Reposted by Dr Lena H
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
November 25, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Google at its peak was basically the best information retrieval system in human history and they and every competitor decided going from there to “you didn’t want answers you wanted half-assed auto-complete 80%-wrong hallucinations” in a few years was the right idea
Reposted by Dr Lena H
Isaac Chotiner made my cat admit that she doesn’t love me (interview conducted entirely in meows)
isaac chotiner came to my house and tricked me into admitting we weren’t out of ice cream in front of my five year old daughter
November 25, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Isaac Chotiner made my cat admit that she doesn’t love me (interview conducted entirely in meows)
Reposted by Dr Lena H
“let me invite Isaac Chotiner to investigate this further, I’m sure it’ll go well”
you gotta read these things back before you hit post man what are you doing
you gotta read these things back before you hit post man what are you doing
A new kind of rapid Chotining. Please appreciate the alt-text.
November 25, 2025 at 1:40 AM
“let me invite Isaac Chotiner to investigate this further, I’m sure it’ll go well”
you gotta read these things back before you hit post man what are you doing
you gotta read these things back before you hit post man what are you doing
Reposted by Dr Lena H
If Isaac Chotiner ever said this to me, I would move to the woods.
November 25, 2025 at 1:12 AM
If Isaac Chotiner ever said this to me, I would move to the woods.
Reposted by Dr Lena H
yes, hello, I would like to place an order for everyone’s funniest stories of holiday food-related family grudges / drama / chaotic incidents / lore
I feel like we need this
I feel like we need this
November 24, 2025 at 11:39 PM
yes, hello, I would like to place an order for everyone’s funniest stories of holiday food-related family grudges / drama / chaotic incidents / lore
I feel like we need this
I feel like we need this
Reposted by Dr Lena H
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
November 24, 2025 at 5:18 PM
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
Reposted by Dr Lena H
GenAI has polluted image search results, especially for animal pics. It’s now basically impossible to find accurate art references.
Enter this: a repository of open-access, AI-free images of wild & exotic taxa. Artists creating *without AI* have blanket permission for derivative/transformative use.
Enter this: a repository of open-access, AI-free images of wild & exotic taxa. Artists creating *without AI* have blanket permission for derivative/transformative use.
Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository
www.animal-photo-references.com
January 27, 2025 at 9:45 AM
GenAI has polluted image search results, especially for animal pics. It’s now basically impossible to find accurate art references.
Enter this: a repository of open-access, AI-free images of wild & exotic taxa. Artists creating *without AI* have blanket permission for derivative/transformative use.
Enter this: a repository of open-access, AI-free images of wild & exotic taxa. Artists creating *without AI* have blanket permission for derivative/transformative use.
Reposted by Dr Lena H
As I always say when some right-winger starts going on about "red tape that slows innovation", every regulation on the books represents a lesson we as a society learned the hard way, and then encoded so we wouldn't forget. It's someone's blood & pain.
I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.
AirBnB CEO calling it “vibe revenue” just 👨🍳 😘
The underlying cause of every bubble - debt masquerading as financial innovation - depends on not just short financial memory & speculative neophytism, but reinventing jargon of finance, like how each generation of kids has new ways to say same things.
The underlying cause of every bubble - debt masquerading as financial innovation - depends on not just short financial memory & speculative neophytism, but reinventing jargon of finance, like how each generation of kids has new ways to say same things.
November 23, 2025 at 12:17 AM
As I always say when some right-winger starts going on about "red tape that slows innovation", every regulation on the books represents a lesson we as a society learned the hard way, and then encoded so we wouldn't forget. It's someone's blood & pain.
Reposted by Dr Lena H
The bit in the headline about old-fashioned web search made me, an old, sort of think of Charlotte’s Web even tho that’s silly
Relying on ChatGPT to teach you about a topic leaves you with shallower knowledge than Googling and reading about it, according to new research that compared what more than 10,000 people knew after using one method or the other.
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Shared by @gizmodo.com: buff.ly/yAAHtHq
Learning With AI Falls Short Compared to Old-Fashioned Web Search
In virtually all the ways that matter, getting summarized information from AI models was less educational than doing the work of search.
buff.ly
November 22, 2025 at 11:25 PM
The bit in the headline about old-fashioned web search made me, an old, sort of think of Charlotte’s Web even tho that’s silly
Reposted by Dr Lena H
“adversarial poetry”??? holy shit
who wants to hire me and @pa.ulst.ar to be white hat poet ronin, I’m so serious right now
who wants to hire me and @pa.ulst.ar to be white hat poet ronin, I’m so serious right now
November 20, 2025 at 7:22 PM
“adversarial poetry”??? holy shit
who wants to hire me and @pa.ulst.ar to be white hat poet ronin, I’m so serious right now
who wants to hire me and @pa.ulst.ar to be white hat poet ronin, I’m so serious right now
Reposted by Dr Lena H
Today is Holodomor Remembrance Day. In a world where moral intuition often seems to have been lost, this is a good occasion to remind ourselves that starving people to death is evil.
The Holodomor was a series of artificial famines by the soviet regime in 1921–1923, 1932–1933, and 1946–1947. The most devastating (1932–1933) was a genocide of Ukrainians, taking millions of lives.
Remember those who died of hunger on their own land.
Remember those responsible for it.
🧵
Remember those who died of hunger on their own land.
Remember those responsible for it.
🧵
November 22, 2025 at 11:41 PM
Today is Holodomor Remembrance Day. In a world where moral intuition often seems to have been lost, this is a good occasion to remind ourselves that starving people to death is evil.
Reposted by Dr Lena H
PLEASE, retail workers
from a religious minority living under Christian hegemony year-round
(factcheck: true)
the public space stuff this time of year is a lot
(though I'd 100% take public Christmas but w/national abortion access if playing forced choice, ofc)
PLEASE DO THIS
it is a kindness
from a religious minority living under Christian hegemony year-round
(factcheck: true)
the public space stuff this time of year is a lot
(though I'd 100% take public Christmas but w/national abortion access if playing forced choice, ofc)
PLEASE DO THIS
it is a kindness
When I worked at a bookstore, I quickly learned that people cannot tell the difference between Xmas music and any Baroque or Elizabethan music album that doesn't get too organ-ish. I used this to my advantage.
One customer caught on... AND THANKED ME
One customer caught on... AND THANKED ME
If we had to hear “Baby Shark” everywhere we went for two whole months out of the year we’d throw a fit, right?
And rightfully so.
So tell me, why do we put up with it when the song is “Frosty the Snowman”?
And rightfully so.
So tell me, why do we put up with it when the song is “Frosty the Snowman”?
November 22, 2025 at 5:21 AM
PLEASE, retail workers
from a religious minority living under Christian hegemony year-round
(factcheck: true)
the public space stuff this time of year is a lot
(though I'd 100% take public Christmas but w/national abortion access if playing forced choice, ofc)
PLEASE DO THIS
it is a kindness
from a religious minority living under Christian hegemony year-round
(factcheck: true)
the public space stuff this time of year is a lot
(though I'd 100% take public Christmas but w/national abortion access if playing forced choice, ofc)
PLEASE DO THIS
it is a kindness
Reposted by Dr Lena H
Everyone acting like she’s not getting popular on the left take your fucking blinders off.
Here’s a thread of people on the left praising her.
bsky.app/profile/erin...
Here’s a thread of people on the left praising her.
bsky.app/profile/erin...
You fucking people will let anyone off the hook for their violent hateful beliefs and all they have to do is say shiny words you like
You’re all a bunch of Nazi tattoo forgiving, Jewish space lasers forgetting gullible marks getting played for fools
As a Jew I suggest you all go fuck yourselves.
You’re all a bunch of Nazi tattoo forgiving, Jewish space lasers forgetting gullible marks getting played for fools
As a Jew I suggest you all go fuck yourselves.
November 22, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Everyone acting like she’s not getting popular on the left take your fucking blinders off.
Here’s a thread of people on the left praising her.
bsky.app/profile/erin...
Here’s a thread of people on the left praising her.
bsky.app/profile/erin...
Reposted by Dr Lena H
This guy has his finger on the pulse of his party's base in a way that others in his caucus unequivocally just do not
November 21, 2025 at 10:45 PM
This guy has his finger on the pulse of his party's base in a way that others in his caucus unequivocally just do not
Reposted by Dr Lena H
Reporter: Are you affirming that you think the president is a fascist?
Mamdani: I've spoken about --
Trump: Just say yes, it's easier than explaining.
Mamdani: I've spoken about --
Trump: Just say yes, it's easier than explaining.
November 21, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Reporter: Are you affirming that you think the president is a fascist?
Mamdani: I've spoken about --
Trump: Just say yes, it's easier than explaining.
Mamdani: I've spoken about --
Trump: Just say yes, it's easier than explaining.
Reposted by Dr Lena H
So I’m very committed to critiquing elected officials, and cringe at cults of personality and all that leftist jazz— but is Zohran, like, a sorcerer?
November 21, 2025 at 11:36 PM
So I’m very committed to critiquing elected officials, and cringe at cults of personality and all that leftist jazz— but is Zohran, like, a sorcerer?
I made it through a PhD with no sexual harassment or worse from profs, but what I endured from my male classmates in my grad program requires a lot of content warnings. So even if you win one, you probably still lose.
I would be more interested to hear if any female students didn’t experience some form of sexual harassment by teachers and/or professors.
This stuff is more common than most want to admit… even these days.
The patriarchal culture needs to change.
This stuff is more common than most want to admit… even these days.
The patriarchal culture needs to change.
In honor of Larry Summers, I asked the female members of my college class (1987) to say if they had any experiences with sexual harassment by teachers/professors, back when this was tolerated as, I dunno, the cost of attending college, and OH MY GOD.
November 21, 2025 at 3:46 AM
I made it through a PhD with no sexual harassment or worse from profs, but what I endured from my male classmates in my grad program requires a lot of content warnings. So even if you win one, you probably still lose.
Reposted by Dr Lena H
the Harvard Crimson called Epstein a “child sex offender” while the Chronicle of Higher Ed called him a “disgraced financier” and that pretty much sums up where we are with higher ed journalism
November 20, 2025 at 3:29 AM
the Harvard Crimson called Epstein a “child sex offender” while the Chronicle of Higher Ed called him a “disgraced financier” and that pretty much sums up where we are with higher ed journalism