iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 28/08/2026

I’m rather proud of this one.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 26/07/2026

My labradoodle chased a groundhog up a tree. This photo feels like it needs to be a meme. Open to suggestions.

A groundhog scared half to death clinging to a branch halfway up a tree.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 13/07/2026

So great that I have a contract with my mediocre sandwich and soup provider.

An email with the subject line “Updates to the MyPanera Terms and Conditions” 🙄

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 15/05/2026

I made a thing. Galaga arcade marquee needlepoint, roughly life-size - 28” x 10”, 90,000 stitches. Around 100 hours of work. In-progress photos and details of how I did it here: photos.app.goo.gl/LtWotK8XCQwC... #needlepoint #retrogaming

28”x10” needlepoint reproduction of the Galaga arcade machine marquee.

Back of a 28”x10” needlepoint reproduction of the Galaga arcade machine marquee.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 27/04/2026

My sense of humor in a nutshell

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 17/04/2026

PLATFORMOCRACY: I gingerly wade into the debate over age verification for social media. I am a parent, so I understand the concerns & do not think laissez faire is the right answer. I am worried that we are making big platforms stronger without being clear about the problem we’re trying to solve. 1/

At an amusement park, a sad ipad stands next to a height measurement that says "you must be this tall to use this app." The iPad is too short.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 09/04/2026

Seen on 34th Street between 7th Ave and Broadway in Manhattan. Reminds me of the dot-com bubble days. @logrocket.bsky.social

A purple flatbed truck advertising an AI b2b startup called LogRocket. It has a bulbous purple rocket angled up on back.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 06/03/2026

Today's largest platforms have more users than the population of the world's largest countries. That isn’t an excuse to impose bureaucratic autocracy. Our vital challenge is to figure out a new evolution of democracy that can work for global communities of billions of people. 5/6

A bar chart showing the largest social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube have larger user bases than the population of the world's largest countries like India and China.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 02/03/2026

Hey New Jersey! Did you know that besides the Roxbury concentration camp, ICE is also trying to lease space for 40 lawyers in Roseland? Tell Aresco Management (the owners), that you don't want ICE functionaries operating in a building with a day care center. Details in attached image. #newjersey

Details of how to contact Aresco Management, owners of the building where ICE wants to place 40 lawyers.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 13/02/2026

PLATFORMOCRACY: Platforms say their processes are thorough and fair, but they frequently restore terminated accounts when there's public outcry. Are they getting it wrong all the time, or are they throwing principle overboard to tamp down criticism? Transparency would help them, as well as us. 1/5

A man in a suit with a monitor for a head is speaking to reporters on the steps of a courthouse.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 05/02/2026

The new Muppet Show is a GODDAMNED DELIGHT FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY FROM START TO FINISH. Everyone please, please watch it a billion times so we can have more episodes.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 01/12/2025

Problem solved. Next problem please

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 01/11/2025

Happy Halloween! Don't forget to VOTE!

Three pumpkins lit up -- a soccer ball, a traditional smiling pumpkin with pointy plastic teeth, and one that says VOTE TUE NOV 4!

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 18/10/2025

I finally learned how to make a homemade bowl of ramen. Dual-soup shoyu, mostly based on a video from Way of Ramen on YouTube, plus Serious Eats for the chashu. Sun noodles are as good as advertised. Doesn't look pretty, but the taste was spot on and the family enjoyed it. ❤️🍜

A bowl of homemade ramen soup with chashu and spinach

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 03/10/2025

Online identity should not be a one size fits all proposition. Different stakeholders (individuals, communities, platforms) have different expectations based on the channel (one-on-one, small group, broadcast, etc). We need technology to support more nuance and control. 1/2

A woman at home talking on a cellphone while watching an online video of a man giving a speech to an audience of people.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 26/09/2025

There is no online safety without anonymity. We have thirty years of evidence that requiring real-world identities online is harmful. 1 - Identifying people online is how authoritarian regimes punish dissent. 1/4

A debate between a man with a TV head with thumb down, and a man in a blank mask with thumb up.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 12/09/2025

Can we protect the Internet without revealing our real-world identities? 1/4

A line drawing of stick figures waiting at a border crossing. A sign says "HAVE ID READY." Large figures review each person, rejecting some and letting others through to a happy space with a sign that says "WELCOME TO THE KINGDOM OF THE NEWSFEED."

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 08/08/2025

💯 This week's @404media.co podcast talks about how the anti-porn crusade that led to the Steam and itch.io NSFW takedowns started 30 years ago. They mention how the alarmist 1995 Time magazine cover about Cyberporn was based on "research" so flawed that the author of the article later disavowed it.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 06/08/2025

I’m in a book! “Yield: How Google Bought, Built, and Bullied Its Way to Advertising Dominance” by Ari Paparo came out this week. I led product management of the ad tech products at the heart of the DOJ’s antitrust case against Google, so I’m in it a lot and have many thoughts + an apology. 1/10

A parody cover of Mo Willems' "We Are In A Book!" where I replace Elephant and Piggie is reading "Yield" by Ari Paparo.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 15/03/2025

[In best Homer voice] Mmm, forbidden book.

Hard copy of the book Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 05/02/2025

Welcome to the “twenty minutes later” panel, everyone.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 15/01/2025

The b*st*rds tore ours down in 1963.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 28/11/2024

First time doing fortified stock. Started by making my usual 2-hour Instant Pot chicken stock. Then, put that stock back in the instant pot with a bunch of roasted turkey parts and more aromatics for another 2 hours. Look at the color difference. It’s gonna make some gooooood gravy for Thanksgiving.

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Jonathan Bellack @bellack.com · 22/11/2024

Just finished The City And The City by China Miéville last night. The idea of two peoples intertwined in physical space but living apart, with different languages and cultures, taught from birth to not see or hear each other, hits hard. I can’t believe it was written in 2009, not yesterday.

Book cover for The City & The City by China Miéville

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