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Jason Colavito

@jasoncolavito.bsky.social
2.5K followers 111 following 2.2K posts

Author, researcher. Pop culture, science, & history. Bylines in Esquire, The New Republic, CNN, Slate, etc. My new book, "Jimmy," about James Dean out now!

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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The new "East of Eden" is beautifully produced, and the leads act through it masterfully, even the didactic parts imparting Zoe Kazan's conventionally liberal moral lessons. However good I thought it, it did not "change [my] life" as Esquire promised. www.esquire.com/entertainmen...
esquire.com
Netflix’s ‘East of Eden’ Is Breathtaking Beyond Belief
Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott, and Hoon Lee honor John Steinbeck’s epic while moving into a class of their own.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Wish me luck. My agent will start pitching my book proposal tomorrow. Let's hope someone likes it!
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
After college, I did some work for the New York State Museum, and one of the exhibits I contributed to was "The World Trade Center: Rescue, Recovery, Response." I edited, revised, and wrote many of the placards, a number of which are still there 20 years later.
An image of the New York State Museum 9/11 exhibit, featuring steel from the World Trade Center and a large American flag that flew over Ground Zero.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
On 9/11, I was in an 8 AM class at college, and the professor, unusually, dismissed us 20 minutes early because he had run out of material for the day, so it was pure happenstance that I returned to my dorm room to flick on the TV just as the news broke.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Therapists and divorce lawyers say there is a new trend of women leaving their husbands after watching "Heated Rivalry," a show that caused them to realize their relationships were sterile and unfulfilling. www.elle.com/life-love/se...
elle.com
Why a Gay Hockey Romance Is Making Straight Women Leave Their Husbands
For some viewers, Heated Rivalry was a wake-up call for what’s missing in their own relationships.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The same vulture rights management firm that governs use of James Dean's image is profiled in Air Mail for their current efforts to restrict use of Einstein's image. They're even deploying AI to find anyone wearing a fright wig and claiming to be smart. airmail.news/issues/2026-...
airmail.news
Einstein's Eternal Returns
Albert Einstein has been dead for 71 years, but his face is still making a fortune selling smart meters, A.I. software, and cognition-boosting candy bars.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
When my 9-year-old watched "Garfield and Friends," I had to explain the reference to him, just as my parents had to do for me when it first aired in the early '90s, since Merv Griffin's talk show went off the air in 1986, when I was 5 years old.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
CBS boss Bari Weiss is "enraptured" with Chris Cuomo and thinks he will save the network. I'm sure that will go great. 90% of his audience did not follow him when he changed networks, and Cuomo currently has 254,000 viewers. That will help CBS how? www.yahoo.com/entertainmen...
yahoo.com
CBS Boss Reportedly Looking at Fired CNN Host for New Job
The MAGA-curious head of CBS News is reportedly text-bombing a fired CNN host in a bid to lure him over to the Trump-friendly network. Bari Weiss, 42, took on the top job at the once-prestigious netwo...
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Reposted by Jason Colavito
Ever Dundas @everdundas.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Thanks so much to @jasoncolavito.bsky.social for writing 'Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean', exploring sexuality, masculinity, and the morality of the time, how this impacted Dean’s life, and how it's still relevant today. As a Dean fan and a queer person, this book means a lot to me [1/6]
Book on a table: Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean by Jason Colavito. 'Jimmy' is in huge red capital letters above a dreamy black and white headshot of Dean from a Rebel Without A Cause Scene, looking at his out of shot friend, Plato, who he's clearly attracted to
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Am I supposed to be shocked that wealth urban elites face fewer barriers to achieving stable relationships and family lives? Having lots of money makes many things easier.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
It is really not nice to get a large surprise medical bill sent electronically at 6:30 pm on a Saturday with no clear explanation of what it is for and a notice that I can't find out until their office opens on Monday. Now I can just be upset all weekend.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I was on the "Things Visible & Invisible" podcast today to talk about James Dean and the truth about his secret life. www.youtube.com/watch?v=flhQ...
youtube.com
James Dean's Secret Life: Was the Truth in Plain Sight?
YouTube video by Things Visible & Invisible
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
An Albany woman was arrested for plotting to bomb the New York State Capitol for ISIS. Disturbing that this happened only a couple of miles from me, and I was right next door to the Home Depot where she bought the supplies while she was there yesterday. cbs6albany.com/news/local/w...
cbs6albany.com
New York Capitol, Albany City Hall listed as targets in foiled attack plot
Federal investigators say an Albany woman tried to provide material support to ISIS.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Penguin has scrubbed journalist Ross Barkan's forthcoming book from its website and removed sales listings for it after New York magazine found Barkan had plagiarized in at least 67 columns he wrote for the magazine. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
washingtonpost.com
Publisher suspends sales of journalist’s book after plagiarism review
New York Magazine said it updated 67 of Ross Barkan’s columns that did not include proper attribution. His Penguin Random House book on Mayor Zohran Mamdani was set for the fall.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
The hottest new literary genre is aimed squarely at men who don't like to read: Books that tell straightforward, mechanical fantasy stories modeled on describing playing through a video game, complete with "leveling up" and "skill trees." Meet LitRPG. www.telegraph.co.uk/books/news/n...
telegraph.co.uk
Forget romantasy, the hottest new literary trend is strictly for men
Having not been catered to by traditional publishers, male readers have been discovering – and devouring – books with video-game qualities
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
South Korea plans a new run of a musical about the life of James Dean, featuring an "imaginative" account of a supernatural game of souls occurring in the last minutes of Dean's life. The show, originally performed in January, opens next month. www.nc.press/news/article...
nc.press
‘James Byron Dean: The Original’ Finds Three Faces of a Restless Icon in Hui, Yoon Seobin and Lee Dongwook - 뉴스컬처
[News Culture] Hollywood’s eternal symbol of youth and rebellion is returning to the music
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I watched this movie with my 9-year-old son recently after one of the streaming algorithms recommended it as a family-friendly monster movie. I hadn't seen it in decades, and I was shocked by the very questionable content that passed for "family-friendly" in the '80s.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
I'm not sure what to make of "The Shards." It's another Ryan Murphy show that makes the viewer feel unclean if you think too deeply about what it's asking you to feel. But it's also too shiny and empty to care too much about. It's like a gay(er) "Cruel Intentions" made by A.I.
A still from "The Shards" showing the characters of Brett (Igby Rigney) and Robert (Homer Gere) descending a mall escalator.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
I watched "Leviticus" today, and it was both an excellent horror story and love story. The tale of two gay teens stalked by a demon their parents summoned to punish them is reminiscent of "It Follows," but in this film you care more about the characters than you do the plot.
A still from "Leviticus" (2026) depicting the movie's central couple separated by a screen, hands touching through the mesh. Unbeknownst to one, the other is secretly a demon.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
New in my Library, my translation of a rare and special story: "Manor" by Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1885), one of the earliest vampire tales to take the form of an openly gay love story. The tragic tale tells of the love of two teen boys, one undead. www.jasoncolavito.com/manor.html
jasoncolavito.com
Manor
Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895) was a German lawyer, writer, and a gay rights advocate. He advocated for the reform of Prussian laws against homosexuality, and he published widely on what he called....
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Diana Pasulka's "The Others" is a dry, overly academic discussion of theology and philosophy punctuated by insane interviews with high-powered believers in the paranormal and tedious efforts to claim science fiction novels as philosophical treatises. www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-...
jasoncolavito.com
Review of "The Others" by D. W. Pasulka
The Others: UFOs, AI, and the Secret Forces Guiding Human Destiny D. W. Pasulka | St. Martin’s Essentials | July 2026 | 288 pages | ISBN: 9781250394866 | $28.00
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
This seems a little short-sighted if you can't predict reliably what skills or knowledge will be valuable 10 or 20 years from now--or whether today's "top-earning" degrees will still hold value then. I'm just going to bet that A.I. prompting won't be a cutting-edge skill in 2050.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Joe Rogan spent three hours discussing lost civilizations with a YouTuber who was inspired by another YouTuber who was inspired by Graham Hancock. Lowlights from a conversation that spanned heavy rocks, dragons, and full-throated hatred of academic elites: www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/joe-rog...
jasoncolavito.com
Joe Rogan Talks Lost Super-Civilizations with Yet Another Pseudoscience YouTuber
​Joe Rogan was at it again this week with a podcast exploring archaeological conspiracy theories. This time, Rogan interviewed Cassie Coppersmith, a YouTuber who makes videos about ancient stone...
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
For my Polish readers, an excerpt from "Jimmy" ran today in this popular Polish publication. www.onet.pl/kultura/wyda...
onet.pl
James Dean, którego nie znaliście. Biografia burzy legendę aktora [FRAGMENT KSIĄŻKI]
James Dean żył zaledwie 24 lata, zagrał tylko w trzech filmach, a mimo to na zawsze odmienił historię kina i stał się symbolem buntu oraz nowoczesnej męskości. Przez dekady wokół jego życia narosły je...
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Men are taking an unapproved peptide to give themselves sunless tans, but the injection is giving them unwanted side effects ranging from muscle loss and melanoma to spontaneous, uncontrollable, and painful 30-hour erections. www.menshealth.com/health/a7317...
menshealth.com
Young Guys Are Taking Melanotan II for the Perfect ‘Sunless Tan’—and Finding Other Results
Yes, your skin will get darker. But is the peptide worth the risks?
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
The anti-science "wellness" crusaders who brought you raw milk and vaccine conspiracies are now attacking a new target: sunscreen. They falsely claim sunscreen, not UV radiation, is the cause of skin cancer. www.menshealth.com/health/a7186...
menshealth.com
Inside the Rise of the Anti-Sunscreen Movement
Sunscreen is in the middle of a PR crisis, with skeptics claiming it’s hazardous to your health. Experts dismiss the claims as misinformation, but has the damage already been done? MH investigates.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
A couple of months ago, I recorded a podcast interview about H. P. Lovecraft with the "Things Visible & Invisible" podcast. I wasn't aware that it had already run until they told me when I came back for a second interview, which will be out shortly. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWhd...
youtube.com
H.P. Lovecraft: Genius or Something Far Stranger
YouTube video by Things Visible & Invisible
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
This video, with weird A.I. animation, tells the story of the "curse" of Little Bastard and ends by explaining that "researchers" combed the records and could find no trace of its supposed trail of deaths. The "researchers" are me. I am the researcher. www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl52...
youtube.com
James Dean 'The Curse of the Little Bastard' - CollideTV Original
YouTube video by CollideTV
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
This is doubly insane because Axel Springer officially claims to be all-in on AI and is actively working to replace journalism with AI-generated content. What would Bari Weiss do for $120 million? Prompt the AI to be more conservative?
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
It's not just a strange piece on the merits; it's also strange because TNR, for which I have written, allowed Katherine Kelaidis to write it without explaining that her own work promotes Orthodox Christianity and she herself uses her historical writing as ... wait for it ... political punditry.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
A fascinating account of the invention of edge markers on American roads and the man who relentlessly promoted their use in the twilight of his life. www.wsj.com/business/whi...
wsj.com
This Simple White Line Is America’s Greatest Unsung Innovation
You know about the lightbulb and the iPhone. This is the unknown story of another ingenious creation that changed a nation.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
As Pride month comes to a close, I'll put in a plug for my book "Jimmy: The Secret Life of James Dean," a compelling reassessment of the iconic American actor and the secret same-sex relationships that defined his life and art. Print and audio available. www.jasoncolavito.com/jimmy-the-se...
The cover of "Jimmy" on a field of rainbow-colored clouds with an endorsement from Film Stage magazine reading "A fine, juicy reassessment."
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
In the WSJ's review of the new Zorro TV show, the writer explained that "Everyone is Don here, so don't assume it's a political allegory." I'm not sure if it's worse that he assumes readers think Don must be a Trump reference or that he doesn't know it's a Spanish title not name.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
I guess it is good that my work is now just accepted as fact, and while Buzzfeed did link to my Esquire piece, it would have been nice for them to acknowledge that this interpretation of "Rebel without a Cause" is mine. www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillau...
James Dean was the It boy of Hollywood before his early death, and his sexuality was the subject of speculation even then. When asked by a reporter if he was gay, he said, "I’m not a homosexual, but I’m not going through life with one hand tied behind my back." In Rebel Without a Cause, he leaned into the story's queer subtext in his performance, and advised his co-star Sal Mineo to do the same.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
I was genuinely shocked to see that the old cherry tree in my front yard produced cherries for the first time I can remember.
A photograph of a branch of a cherry tree in my front yard showing three bright red cherries nestled among the leaves.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
On the "Diary of CEO" podcast, Vice President JD Vance revised earlier comments about UFOs being demons, saying he also believes in aliens. Additionally, he claimed an exploding lightbulb was the work of his grandmother's ghost. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cKD...
youtube.com
EXCLUSIVE - Vice President JD Vance: They Tricked Me About Donald Trump, But Everything Changed!
YouTube video by The Diary Of A CEO
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Michael Shermer's "Skeptic" magazine publishes an article by Roman Polanski, noting only that Polanski faced "serious controversy" and that choosing to publish his article should not be seen as "a referendum on that legacy." www.skeptic.com/article/roma...
skeptic.com
Roman Polanski: Hell is empty. All the devils are here.
Filmmaker Roman Polanski, one of the last living survivors of the Krakow ghetto, reflects on antisemitism, the Holocaust, and how quickly the unthinkable can become reality.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
A Chinese company is selling what it claims to be shreds of historic letters written by celebrities. I, however, doubt it.
A Chinese-produced collectable card featuring an "Authentic History Relic." The cut square of a handwritten letter is preposterously attributed to Aristotle, complete with postmark.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
This week Sky in the UK aired an English version of a French documentary about James Dean that first aired in December. I was shocked by how similar its themes were to my 2024 book "Jimmy," right down to Sky using almost the same wording I used in my conclusion.
Title card for "James Dean: The Emotional Man" featuring the title in red beside a colorized photo of Dean from the Torn Sweater series of photos.Poster for "James Dean: Le Nouvel Homme," the French version of the documentary, featuring the title in red atop a photo of Dean dressed as a bullfighter and waving a large cape behind him.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
New in my Library: I have translated the Aztec Legend of the Suns from the Codex Chimalpopoca to make this text available online in full in English and not just in summary. www.jasoncolavito.com/the-legend-o...
jasoncolavito.com
The Legend of the Suns
NOTE
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
$1.77 trillion seems like a lot for a company that makes exploding rockets and an AI that calls itself Mecha-Hitler.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
I still remember the "Abu Dhabi: That's where you'll stay / Abu Dhabi, it's far away!" song, and at the time I had a cousin who worked in the UAE, but it's amazing how much Abu Dhabi has changed since then. No one would name it as a distant backwater anymore.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
If true, this gives the lie to the reports over the weekend that Ellison was looking to oust her because she had become a liability.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
These kinds of pronouncements are silly. My hot take? Modern Italian cuisine and modern Italian-American and other diaspora Italian foods are all coequal inheritors of late 19th century Italian peasant cookery and are all inauthentic in different ways. www.telegraph.co.uk/food-and-dri...
telegraph.co.uk
Angela Hartnett: Eating pizza with a fork is a crime against Italian food
The Michelin-starred chef on the right way to cook spaghetti and her strong feelings about Parmesan
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
In all the articles about the "Masters of the Universe" movie, I read a lot about how adult critics reacted while watching it alone, so I wrote a reflection on seeing the film with my 9-year-old son and sharing a fleeting moment of childhood wonder. jasoncolavito.substack.com/p/i-have-the...
jasoncolavito.substack.com
“I Have the Power!”
On the bittersweet pleasures of watching “Masters of the Universe” with my son.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Look at this absolute unit of a moth that decided to spend the day snoozing on my back door.
A very large, brown-colored moth clings to the screen on my back door.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Honestly, if the "largest white supremacist group" has only 540 members in a country of 340 million people, it's probably not as existential a threat as this piece makes it sound. By comparison, the Crips have 30,000 members. michaelfanone.substack.com/p/leaked-ame...
michaelfanone.substack.com
🚨 Leaked: America's Largest White Supremacist Group Is Twice the Size We Thought, in Almost Every State
More than 540 members. Every state but one. Doubling every year since 2018. And the most disturbing thing in the leak isn't the size — it's who keeps signing up.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
My new piece on the secrets of Ohio's Serpent Mound is now available in Archaeology magazine's July/August issue, in print and online. I examine exciting new research into the cosmology and mythology behind North America's largest effigy mound. archaeology.org/issues/july-...
archaeology.org
Who Built Ohio’s Serpent Mound? - Archaeology Magazine
Is a Native American origin story embedded in Ohio’s colossal earthwork?
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
I just heard Pluto TV describe "Hart of Dixie" (2011-2015) as "nostalgic" viewing, and I am now ready to decompose into a pile of dust.
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Jason Colavito @jasoncolavito.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
You might want to proofread your AI training ad.
Text from an AI training advertisement reading "Al isn't the enemy." The writer did not realize that they wrote "Al" instead of AI."
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