Ern
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lenstalesiam.bsky.social
Ern
@lenstalesiam.bsky.social
Bibliophile. Photographer. Foodie. Public health. Epidemiologist.
Read Brontë’s Wuthering Heights… the tl;dr review AITH edition is: ESH!

(Also. I absolutely cannot with the first cousin marriage(s)!)

#booksky
February 11, 2026 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Ern
Inspired by @labmuffin.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:58 AM
Reposted by Ern
“victims of nazism & other dictatorships never stopped repeating fascism had not died, that it was still lurking, waiting for the moment to resurface. That is why it will be so important to be aware of history. Looking back is the best way to face the present”

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
If you are reading this it is because I’m dead: here’s what I want to tell you about how to live | Carlos Hernández de Miguel
Leaving this world in an age of lies and cruelty, my last message is simple: don’t give up on truth, says Spanish journalist Carlos Hernández de Miguel
www.theguardian.com
February 6, 2026 at 8:34 AM
Reposted by Ern
Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post to be its savior. Instead, he’s the man presiding over its decline, @ruthmarcus.bsky.social writes. newyorkermag.visitlink.me/v-gXaw
How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post
The Amazon founder bought the paper to save it. Instead, with a mass layoff, he’s forced it into severe decline.
newyorkermag.visitlink.me
February 5, 2026 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Ern
again we do not really do a good job of explaining how wealthy people like Jeff Bezos are

his net worth is $253.2 billion.
so he could take one million dollars, and just light it on fire
and then do it again tomorrow
and again the day after that
and then do it every day for 693 years and 8 months
February 4, 2026 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Ern
"Toleranz wird zum Verbrechen, wenn sie dem Bösen gilt."

(Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil.)

Thomass Mann, 1924.
(Nobel prize winner)
January 19, 2026 at 7:10 PM
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I never understand why people who tout their moderate and centrist credentials aren't directly asked about this.
January 19, 2026 at 5:23 PM
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Making a pot of tea to prepare for my ritual reading of Letter from Birmingham Jail

(Reposting with better link)

www.csuchico.edu/iege/_assets...
January 19, 2026 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Ern
For centuries, a “gossip” was a woman who attended another woman's delivery. The word was a corruption of “god-sib” or “god-sibling,” meaning “sister in the Lord.” The gossips offered support to mother & midwife. Only later did it become derogatory.

More info: www.historyextra.com/period/gener...
January 13, 2026 at 9:46 AM
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Literally a publication for eight-year olds 40 years ago
January 4, 2026 at 6:49 PM
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will also add - yes, this is my personal crusade - that turning podcasts into videos implicitly asks women to once again make more effort than men, as the bar for "camera-ready" for one gender is obviously higher than for the other
December 27, 2025 at 10:20 AM
Reposted by Ern
Increase in productivity since 1979: 87%

Increase in hourly pay since 1979: 32%

Just so happens that ~25% of workers were unionized in 1979. Today? 10%.

As unions declined, the super-rich have taken a larger share of wealth generated by labor. We must build back union power.
December 28, 2025 at 1:00 AM
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When we say "no, everything hasn't been digitized," I need you to understand that we really mean is that virtually nothing has been digitized. This is because the realm of primary sources that historians use is incomprehensibly large.
December 22, 2025 at 1:40 AM
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the slow death of legitimate, verifiable, reliable knowledge systems
I’m sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.
December 20, 2025 at 1:58 PM
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Frikkin amazing stuff.
November 26, 2025 at 8:29 AM
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we've finally actually hit the curing cancer stage of technological development & we're going to shit it all away for rotbrain political ideologies and to give LLMs a fucking crack at it
November 27, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Reposted by Ern
THE HISTORY OF HIV | Explore four decades of the HIV story, from the first cases to breakthroughs in prevention, science, and South Africa’s fight against the virus: www.spotlightnsp.co.za/2025/11/25/a...
TIMELINE | The journey of HIV through science, struggle, activism, and hope
From the first reported cases of HIV in 1981 to the latest breakthroughs in long-acting prevention, this Spotlight timeline traces key moments in the global and South African response to the virus. It...
www.spotlightnsp.co.za
November 25, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Reposted by Ern
What I've been noticing lately in convos with students is that they *despise* the AI-slopification of everything as much or even more than I do. And yet our universities & their admin seem to believe that students for some reason want it integrated into everything. THEY DON'T.
November 20, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Reposted by Ern
there was an amazing article about exactly this somewhere

in the old days where everyone was paid well and was unionized, this chart was reversed, living expenses were cheap but luxuries like TVs and whatnot were what you had to save up for. You could live a comfortable life if you were frugal
November 18, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Reposted by Ern
There is a severe shortage of rental stock for local residents in Cape Town’s inner city, and what is available is priced beyond the reach of the majority of Capetonians.

Read groundup.org.za/article/inne... by Steve Kretzmann
Inner city Cape Town: no room for locals
Short-term letting through various platforms, including Airbnb, locks up 70% of residential units in the central city
groundup.org.za
November 18, 2025 at 7:31 AM
Reposted by Ern
We bought into the "post scarcity" narrative because digital tech feels so magic and ethereal but we need to get back to an understanding of the material costs and effects of those systems. They are not very post-scarce in reality.
November 15, 2025 at 6:09 PM
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"Our actions are working, and they are not enough.
Nothing we do is sufficient, and everything we do matters.
We must be strategic, and we must operate on multiple fronts simultaneously.
Time is of the essence, and we have to act for the long haul.
This is how change happens." Dan Berger
November 14, 2025 at 10:45 PM