Rachel Helps
@rachelhelps.bsky.social
Graduate student. Former Wikipedian-in-residence at the BYU Library. Interactive fiction writer and Mormon literary scholar wannabe. https://rwelean.itch.io/
Reposted by Rachel Helps
a lot of people don't realize that Christmas carols and traditions are actually folk memories of suppressed pre-Christian events, namely the end of the Third Age and the Fall of Sauron.
December 24, 2025 at 10:05 PM
a lot of people don't realize that Christmas carols and traditions are actually folk memories of suppressed pre-Christian events, namely the end of the Third Age and the Fall of Sauron.
Reposted by Rachel Helps
slow day in the office so figured we'd start some beef with museums
December 19, 2025 at 11:30 AM
slow day in the office so figured we'd start some beef with museums
We need to go back to a medieval/Renaissance view of translation, which is basically that translating requires a level of interpretation that creates a new artistic work
As a multiple language speaker it's also frustrating to see people using AI for translation because the English speaking world tends to treat translators like workers for hire instead of co authors of text and this feels like more of it. Translation at the literary level is creative work.
(2/?)
(2/?)
December 21, 2025 at 5:52 PM
We need to go back to a medieval/Renaissance view of translation, which is basically that translating requires a level of interpretation that creates a new artistic work
Reposted by Rachel Helps
Honestly one of the best to do it
Eliza is 50% off. It’s a fully-voiced visual novel about an AI therapy app. It was released in 2019, years before the idea of AI became what it is now. How much did it get right? What did it get wrong? Play it for yourself (play the whole thing) and decide.
store.steampowered.com/app/716500/E...
store.steampowered.com/app/716500/E...
Save 50% on Eliza on Steam
Eliza is a visual novel about an AI counseling program, the people who develop it, and the people who use it. Follow Evelyn Ishino-Aubrey as she reconnects with people from her past, gets to know the ...
store.steampowered.com
December 19, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Honestly one of the best to do it
Reposted by Rachel Helps
Hi! Are you a game dev or studio who’s released soundtracks on Bandcamp? I'd like to chat about your experience with the platform for a piece, especially if you’re a composer.
Dm here or email me at [email protected] if interested. If you know someone, boost this or send 'em my way pls!
Dm here or email me at [email protected] if interested. If you know someone, boost this or send 'em my way pls!
December 17, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Hi! Are you a game dev or studio who’s released soundtracks on Bandcamp? I'd like to chat about your experience with the platform for a piece, especially if you’re a composer.
Dm here or email me at [email protected] if interested. If you know someone, boost this or send 'em my way pls!
Dm here or email me at [email protected] if interested. If you know someone, boost this or send 'em my way pls!
Reposted by Rachel Helps
it’s St Lucy’s day, so you know what that means — time for the best John Donne poem
December 13, 2025 at 12:22 PM
it’s St Lucy’s day, so you know what that means — time for the best John Donne poem
Reposted by Rachel Helps
Reposted by Rachel Helps
Emily Dickinson was born #onthisday in 1830. Celebrate with an exploration of her unusual manuscripts, including poems scribbled down on concert programmes and chocolate wrappers – offering a fascinating insight into how the poet worked: publicdomainreview.org/essay/t... #OTD
December 10, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Emily Dickinson was born #onthisday in 1830. Celebrate with an exploration of her unusual manuscripts, including poems scribbled down on concert programmes and chocolate wrappers – offering a fascinating insight into how the poet worked: publicdomainreview.org/essay/t... #OTD
Mother's day has been making women miserable since 1916 at least. From Nephi Anderson's "Mother's Day" archive.org/details/reli...
December 9, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Mother's day has been making women miserable since 1916 at least. From Nephi Anderson's "Mother's Day" archive.org/details/reli...
Reposted by Rachel Helps
I wish a notice like this wasn't necessary.
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
Important notice: AI-generated archival references
www.icrc.org
December 8, 2025 at 1:27 AM
I wish a notice like this wasn't necessary.
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
www.icrc.org/en/article/i...
Reed Smoot, later a US senator, owned a drug company that sold pills to keep your menstrual cycle regular (likely a kind of first trimester abortion pill). From Amanda Hendrix-Kimoto's "The Other Crime" www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/u...
December 9, 2025 at 1:23 AM
Reed Smoot, later a US senator, owned a drug company that sold pills to keep your menstrual cycle regular (likely a kind of first trimester abortion pill). From Amanda Hendrix-Kimoto's "The Other Crime" www.dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/u...
Universalism creeping into libraries
libraries are for everyone and i mean *everyone* 📚
“Satan is in Libraries”
Well if he can provide photo ID with his current address then he is entitled to sign up for a library card. We also have other ways he can sign up if he is currently without identification
Well if he can provide photo ID with his current address then he is entitled to sign up for a library card. We also have other ways he can sign up if he is currently without identification
December 8, 2025 at 2:55 AM
Universalism creeping into libraries
Reposted by Rachel Helps
Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too!
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
December 6, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Have you ever wondered what you would find if you could keep your eyes on a bee for more than a few meters? Us, too!
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
preprint (with videos!) + thread 🧵
Precise, individualized foraging flights in honey #bees 🐝 revealed by multicopter drone-based tracking
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/9
Reposted by Rachel Helps
Julian of Norwich after eating a hazelnut: bro
A good meme to send people who are convinced we live in a computer simulation.
December 1, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Julian of Norwich after eating a hazelnut: bro
Children who had already been baptized (usually at age 8) used to do baptisms for the dead (LDS Church). These days you need to be turning 12. From Hearts turned to the fathers
A history of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1894-1994
A history of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1894-1994
November 28, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Children who had already been baptized (usually at age 8) used to do baptisms for the dead (LDS Church). These days you need to be turning 12. From Hearts turned to the fathers
A history of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1894-1994
A history of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1894-1994
Reposted by Rachel Helps
In academic writing it is vitally important to know when you have said enough to prove your argument. It is at this point that you must add every single other piece of evidence you have come across
November 26, 2025 at 8:30 PM
In academic writing it is vitally important to know when you have said enough to prove your argument. It is at this point that you must add every single other piece of evidence you have come across
I rewrote the Wikipedia page on Biblical paraphrase for a class assignment in my sonnet seminar. It was fun to learn about how this genre was used for exegesis and devotional purposes by men and women in English-speaking history. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblica...
Biblical paraphrase - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
November 21, 2025 at 10:26 PM
I rewrote the Wikipedia page on Biblical paraphrase for a class assignment in my sonnet seminar. It was fun to learn about how this genre was used for exegesis and devotional purposes by men and women in English-speaking history. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblica...
Incredible use of the "dubious" tag here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weird_D...
![Steve is in love with his attractive coworker Emily. Unbeknownst to Steve, Emily is possessed by a daemon named Zelloripus who was banished to Earth, stripped of most of her powers, and trapped in a human female[dubious – discuss]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:fdnh742vkxb2gv2noo357ffk/bafkreidugn3sg4peocwellnswzizz2o4mol5vgppdkz6gya3msw3quubt4@jpeg)
November 21, 2025 at 6:03 AM
Reposted by Rachel Helps
Why yes, I did study English literature.
November 21, 2025 at 5:14 AM
Why yes, I did study English literature.
today's public domain find: The Hexaplar Psalter: bring the Book of Pslams in Six English Versions archive.org/details/hexa...
The hexaplar Psalter : being the book of Psalms in six English versions : Wright, William Aldis, 1831-1914, ed : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Coverdale (1535) Great Bible (1539) Geneva (1560) Bishops (1568) Authorised (1611) Revised (1885) in parallel columns
archive.org
November 20, 2025 at 8:56 PM
today's public domain find: The Hexaplar Psalter: bring the Book of Pslams in Six English Versions archive.org/details/hexa...
Reposted by Rachel Helps
The year is 2025, and the NSA is recruiting the nation’s top poets
This study show that using poems to jailbreak LLMs is... super effective? What the heck.
November 20, 2025 at 6:41 PM
The year is 2025, and the NSA is recruiting the nation’s top poets
Watching the film The Name of the Rose and I'm surprised at how gay it is. Am I projecting my modem sensibilities on it?
November 20, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Watching the film The Name of the Rose and I'm surprised at how gay it is. Am I projecting my modem sensibilities on it?
Reposted by Rachel Helps
Looking to speak with academics/experts specializing in video games studies specifically ideas around conquest, environmentalism, and land for a piece. Please repost this or give recs.
November 19, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Looking to speak with academics/experts specializing in video games studies specifically ideas around conquest, environmentalism, and land for a piece. Please repost this or give recs.
Reading from Chad Flake's copy of Prophecy and Modern Times in the BYU library, nbd (he's a legend in Mormon rare book collecting)
November 19, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reading from Chad Flake's copy of Prophecy and Modern Times in the BYU library, nbd (he's a legend in Mormon rare book collecting)
Reposted by Rachel Helps
It's time!!! Independent Games Festival judging is wrapping up and thus comes my list of IGF Games I Want To Talk About for the year!
As usual, I'll threadpost this later (maybe tomorrow) but people willing to click on a link can read it in full right now on my blog! auratriolo.com/blog/2025/11...
As usual, I'll threadpost this later (maybe tomorrow) but people willing to click on a link can read it in full right now on my blog! auratriolo.com/blog/2025/11...
IGF Games I Want To Talk About 2026 – AURAMBLES
auratriolo.com
November 5, 2025 at 11:15 PM
It's time!!! Independent Games Festival judging is wrapping up and thus comes my list of IGF Games I Want To Talk About for the year!
As usual, I'll threadpost this later (maybe tomorrow) but people willing to click on a link can read it in full right now on my blog! auratriolo.com/blog/2025/11...
As usual, I'll threadpost this later (maybe tomorrow) but people willing to click on a link can read it in full right now on my blog! auratriolo.com/blog/2025/11...