Erika Hendra

It's been fascinating to see how quickly a number of academics have concluded that using a program to generate a lit review is good enough, as if writing the lit review is merely a chore and not part of the process of building expertise in the subject.

Ding-dong! The Dutch Fish Doorbell needs you to help migrating fish A Dutch lock is closed for the spring, and its employees want you to tell them when migrating fish come knocking by ringing a digital doorbell

"Nijs says being able to ring the doorbell fills people with a “positive feeling,” and many people have told her about the calming effects of watching the canal’s fish. But the biggest benefit has been for the fish themselves."

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”

James Baldwin

Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover

The richest man owns X.

The second and third richest men control Google.

The fourth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fifth richest man owns The Washington Post.

And now the sixth richest could soon take over both Paramount and Warner Bros.

See the problem here?

As a community college English professor, I see the challenge of getting students to read as a call to arms.
I’m redesigning my curriculum now to include reading at least one entire book. I’m excited for the challenge and for the conversations.

Public lands are more than resources or real estate. They hold clean water, cultural memory, biodiversity, and the quiet foundations of our collective well-being. I wrote a piece in @sciam.bsky.social reflecting on what’s at risk when we treat shared landscapes as disposable.

Five stunning images from the Close-up Photographer of the Year awards An otherworldly coral, a very cute moth and an intricately beautiful mushroom are among the winners in the prize this year

An otherworldly coral, a very cute moth and an intricately beautiful mushroom are among the winners in the prize this year

A list, in no particular order, of just some of the moves that the Trump administration has made in its ongoing campaign to suppress and deter journalism essential to democracy: Arrest Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for covering an anti-ICE protest. Raid the home of a Washington Post reporter, ...

Hundreds of Millions of Audio Devices Need a Patch to Prevent Wireless Hacking and Tracking Flaws in how 17 models of headphones and speakers use Google’s one-tap Fast Pair Bluetooth protocol have left devices open to eavesdroppers and stalkers.

a big load of earbuds, headphones and speakers need updating to patch vulnerabilities that could be exploited to hijack audio, take over mics for eavesdropping, or even in some cases for location tracking www.wired.com/story/google...

Pain has but one Acquaintance And that is Death - Each one unto the other Society enough - Pain is the Junior Party By just a Second’s right - Death tenderly assists Him And then absconds from Sight -

It’s not a natural disaster. We actually CAN work to pause AI development if it mattered enough to those in power.

I blitzed through 7 classes of final grading today and squeaked in final grades 4 hours before the deadline. I also chose to prioritize my holiday time and I don’t regret it.

It is EXHAUSTING not only being made responsible for coming up with new kinds of assignments for our students; it's also tedious reading op-eds that suggest the core problem is a crisis in teaching. But, as Chris and I lay out here, this isn't a crisis in teaching; it's an attack on learning.

A quick reminder during this busy travel season to know your rights as a passenger. Please be kind, be safe, and have a great holiday season!

Settling in for my newest Christmas tradition: watching Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. #LOTR #traditions

Yes! There can have academic rigor and also no
panic to publish a certain amount every year or for rank advancement.

N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul signs sweeping AI safety bill New York is now the latest state to have broad safety rules for the most advanced AI models.

Hochul signed *TWO* AI safety bills.

The RAISE Act requires AI incident reporting and risk assessment. AB295D requires agencies to disclose use of automated decision-making tools and conduct impact assessments for safety, effectiveness, privacy, security and bias. www.axios.com/2025/12/19/n...

the slow death of legitimate, verifiable, reliable knowledge systems

Agree! And how much of this practice of using AI is rooted in the “publish or perish”pressure that academic institutions have actively engaged in?

It would be great if the Reconnect program was for all programs, not hand-selected ones.

How much money from AI companies is SUNY getting for doing this? What kind of white papers about AI and curriculum have been consulted to make decisions based on data rather than fear and peer pressure?

Chart from The Economist showing the annual income in 1798 of various professions and of Jane Austen characters

Happy birthday to Jane Austen, and to this very on-brand Economist chart
www.economist.com/christmas-sp...

The original definition of academic freedom came from the American Association of University Professors--the union for professors--in response to suppression against professors for being "too left" & it focused a LOT on universities not being beholden to corporate funders or wealthy benefactors...🧵

Also seeing Return of the Jedi with my dad. He hated movies but he took me to that one. At 7 years old I was OBSESSED with Star Wars after that. I’ll never forget seeing Leia on a speeder bike! Girls could be badass!

Going to Trilogy Tuesday to see extended versions of Fellowship of the Rings and Two Towers before the midnight release of Return of the King. 14+ hours in the theater; we had pizza delivered, and played games between the movies. It was so much fun!

This is your annual reminder that if you are in the US and have FSA funds that you won't use, Menstrual products are covered by FSA funds and can be donated to food pantries and shelters.

I hope people understand that if Trump gets his way America will soon be part of the global axis of evil if we aren't already. You see it in the Caribbean, you see it in Ukraine, and you see it with Trump trying to buddy up to Xi. We are a malevolent force.

The Magical Animation of 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' The Christmas television special—the longest running in history—was groundbreaking in its use of stop-motion animation with puppets

This is a fun holiday read. Who made Rudolph happen? A Jewish copy writer; his Jewish composer brother-in-law; the BIL’s neighbor who happened to be Arthur Rankin; and a Japanese animator who had pioneered new stop motion techniques. Now that’s an American Christmas

Two cats sniffing and looking a treadmill while standing on it.

Bought a new treadmill and my in-home equipment inspectors are very dedicated to their job.
#caturday

Supposedly on the new FAFSA, if student checks “white” as their race, the for
has a follow-up questions for clarification about the specific ethnicity- Irish, English, German, Polish,etc.