iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 11h

So good. Burke could make this kind of stuff sing.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 11h

College journalism is one of the least well recognized defenders of civic life.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 11h

I'd guess that Yoo resigned from the GWB administration just before exceeded the amount of leave time he could take before losing tenure. If so, I get why UC Berkeley Law School had to welcome him back after his war-crime adjacency (his torture memos). But still: what a blight on a great school!

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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 15h

If I went to Switzerland and won a Swiss watch precision contest, I would literally never talk about anything else

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 12h

Someone came to call this morning:

Daddy long legs going, “You talking’ to me?” Squatting on its hind legs, its forelimbs gesturing.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Triple penalties. And felony tax crime prosecutions for those in the approval chain.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

TL:DR... WASF. Especially if you live in the Bay Area. But I wouldn't be confident that Highway 1 stays open either.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Not to worry. Kegsbreath's shitty-form chin ups will guard all that data.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Liquid gold: (My spouse made a tagline of duck legs and lentils this evening and wha you see here is the rendering of the fat trimmed from those extremies.) Sublime roast chicken is in our future. Pretty damn go roast potatoes too.

A one-cup jar filled with a golden fluid: freshly rendered duck fat.

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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 30/09/2026

This is priceless. Check out how local news is reporting on Sen Eric Schmidt’s clown-show grilling of Jack Smith. They found Jack Smith at the game… “Top corner, section 109, row 1. In fact, that seat doesn’t even exist in Atlanta.”

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This lands so hard on your correspondent, who has a week or so past celebrated his 68th birthday.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I just figured out how to sneak this magnificent portrait into my slide dek for tomorrow's class. Yes...I am proud of myself. ;-)

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I just kicked in a bit to support Paul Ferg's kickstarter. His goal: to report on how elections in Georgia really work—and might be vulnerable—in time to prepare us to defend democracy there and by extension, the US as a whole. Paul's been a virtuoso reporter for a long time. Check it/him out.

youtube.com

Support my Kickstarter campaign for journalism coverage of Georgia Mid-Term Election Security

YouTube video by Dál.Riata.USA.Productions

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

In which the Trump administration achieves a two-fer: heightending US and global peril in the face of pandemic disease, and undermining women’s health, again, worldwide. It’s infallible: any policy choice, yea or nay, made by Trump et al. is the wrong one. Amazing (disastrous) consistency.

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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

MacFarlane: The Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio has got the same issue. Last year, they paid $50,000 for diesel to transport their food. Now, they’re paying $150,000 for the diesel to transport their food.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I want this on permanent loop in Stephen Miller’s cell.

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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The press coverage of the Academy of Natural Sciences has gone from "Oh how sad" to sounding like a hostage negotiation. Which maybe sounds bad, but elected leaders, the press, the people online, all saying "You don't have to do this, man" is better than mourning. share.inquirer.com/YTQg0s

share.inquirer.com

Philadelphia shouldn’t give up on the Academy of Natural Sciences’ historic museum | Editorial

The Academy's 150-year-old building faces roughly $150 million in deferred maintenance costs. While that may seem daunting, it is not insurmountable.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I find it very cool to learn that both John Snow (no, not THAT John Snow) & Joseph Lister treated Queen Victoria. Snow administered choloform to the Queen during the deliveries of her 8th and 9th children. Lister used his antiseptic spray when lancing an abscess in her arm. Science, kids!

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Dear everyone, I'm overwhelmed by the sympathy and kind words offered by so many on our losing Champ. And I love hearing how many of you enjoyed her lovely self vicariously. Thank you all. It is suddenly really dusty in here.

Champ (screen right) with Tikka of blessed memory. Champ has her paws on Tikka's nose and chest, as if blessing or thanking her predecessor and mentor. I miss them both.

Champ curled up with her annoying younger sidekick, Mo, the gray tiger cat. In this image, they're in a cat bed together and Champ is cradling Mo's head with her left foreleg and paw. Mo is deeply confused right now, and very needy of us, as we are of him.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Thanks to everyone who has gifted us with such kind words about Champ.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

We just lost Champ. She was the sweetest of cats (also the softest). She came to us in August of the first pandemic year and helped us so much in that moment. She was my muse (mews?), curling up in the bed on my desk, there to purr whenever a sentence had me flummoxed. I miss her so much already.

Champ curled up in her bed on my desk. Paws crossed across her face.

Champ getting ready for her podcast—sitting in front of two monitors, keyboard right in front of her, with a podcasting mic on an arm ready for her to take position and start purring.

Baby Champ offering everyone an overdose of cuteness.

Champ at about 16 weeks old, sitting on my shoulder, looking pensively past my glasses. (About to chew said glasses, IIRC).

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ProPublica @propublica.org · 26/09/2026

In response to our reporting, Susan Collins has mustered a defense that is full of incorrect and misleading claims. We’ve reviewed FBI evidence, examined thousands of pages of records and interviewed dozens of people. Here are the receipts.

propublica.org

ProPublica Debunks Susan Collins’ Claims About FBI Anti-Corruption Probe

ProPublica revealed that the FBI was circling Sen. Collins over a defense contractor’s donations — until President Trump gutted the unit in charge. Collins has since mustered a defense with a series o...

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Hey @bettycrackerfl.bsky.social ... Just saw the Florida-Ol' Miss score. Wow! I hope you have raised the appropriate beverage in honor of that result.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Yes. Kids are the camel's nose inside the tent. No one wants a sick kid to suffer or die from financial arrest.* So then you have universal health coverage from 0-18 and 65-? That leaves just 47 more years to cover. *A term I first heard from a resident in a Manila hospital. Grim, right?

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I just read an 2024 Atlantic article by David Brooks, 1 of my least favorite opinion-havers. Early on it rewarded that disdain. Cherry-picked time series, deceiving modifiers in the service of his narrative, a ton of post hoc ergo propter hoc reasoning and a near complete blind eye to race*... 1/

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It is a source of ongoing vicarious joy to me on two axes that SFGATE offers an ongoing column called Dumpling Report. I get the imagined feasting on the food itself…and the journalistic appreciation of commitment to the beat/bit. www.sfgate.com/food/article...

sfgate.com

The best Bay Area dumplings to eat right now

From xiao long bao to potstickers, here are the most memorable dumplings of the year.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Texas always goes bigger, including on the acceleration of American decline.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Now I'm trying to get my head around a tasting menu...of pizza. Sure, why not? But still, it hits my funny bone. (I'm also trying to accept the possibility that global top pizza place is in London. Again, OK...but years of being polite about cousins' love of Pizza Express is hard to get over.)

foodandwine.com

The World’s Top Pizzerias Were Just Ranked — and This London Spot Took No. 1

If you’re looking for the world’s best pizza, you’ll apparently need to head to London. Napoli on the Road just took the top spot on 50 Top Pizza’s 2026 global ranking, beating pizzerias in Italy and ...

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I'm calling fake news. Goldens have much better taste.

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Michael Warburton @michaelwarburton.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

33yrs ago the New York Times published an article criticising Federico Fellini and other foreign language films — calling them "hard work". MARTIN SCORSESE sent this in response.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I’m in the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital waiting room right now and my beloved Champ is in the back in a pretty bad way—perhaps heart issues. She’s such a sweetie and still young: 6 y.o. Please send good thoughts her way.

Champ the Tuxedo cat stretching extravagantly on her bed on my desk

Champ on the left, her annoying kid step brother Mo on the right, backs to the camera, staring out the window. Both tails are putting on a show.

Champ perched on a suitcase amidst a pile of other impedimenta, staring back at the camera as she waits to start a road trip.

Champ’s close-up: head and shoulders as she lies on her back, upside down from the camera’s perspective, paws crossed over her face.

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Abdul El-Sayed @abdulelsayed.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Mike Rogers' estimated net worth in 2013: $380,000 Mike Rogers' estimated net worth in 2026: $14,600,000 He cashed in and sold out Michiganders.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Lovely thread. One of the things my own practice loses is the internal history of a book. I write in Scrivener, and I don't usually archive the intricate details of rethinking/redrafting. Whole drafts, yes...but no annotations and a lot of stuff omitted as each iteration settles down. 1/

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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 23/09/2026

Here's a piece from last year on the unsettling culture around really young, really privileged people trying to make buckets of cash in AI while living out of Bay Area group houses:

nymag.com

The AI Kids Take San Francisco

Brilliant, workaholic teenagers are flooding the city — and reshaping our future in their image.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

At some point (now) the judiciary has to rule that the phrase "national security" can't be a get-out-of-jail-free card for authoritarian overreach. At a minimum, the administration must be forced to defend that characterization with actual evidence and an argument that can be responded to.

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Mychal Threets @mychal3ts.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

In 31 years, the dearly beloved Dolly Parton gifted approximately 332,411,218 books to kids all over the world with her Imagination Library true heroes 🦋📖 We get to honor Dolly. We get to give like Dolly. We get to support literacy like Dolly. We love you, Dolly Parton! Our Queen of Book Joy 🌈 ✨

Mychal smiles and holds up a Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library tote bag

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Mamdani is a generational political talent. It appears he’s also a generational policy talent.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Kalshi's execs picture is in the dictionary next to "scum."

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Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @mayor.nyc.gov · 22/09/2026

DoorDash has ripped off more than 260,000 NYC delivery workers. We’re making them pay $131.5 million — the largest worker settlement in City history. This is New York, where hard work pays and greed will cost you.

DoorDash messed up.
They repeatedly left more than 260,000 NYC delivery workers underpaid or paid late, causing them immense stress and financial difficulty.
That's unacceptable.
We've secured a $131.5M settlement from
DoorDash - the largest worker settlement in NYC history and largest delivery worker settlement in
American municipal history.
Every worker will be paid what they are owed, and every company will be forced to abide by the laws of this city.

LOGOS:
The OFFICE of the MAYOR of NYC
NYC Consumer and Worker Protection

Mayor Mamdani and Deliveristas representatives stand behind a podium.

Three delivery workers holding a giant fake check for $131.5M.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

It really is clear what a D congress needs to do.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Our modern Nuremberg tribunal needs to make sure to go after both the bigwigs and the cogs.

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Boston Tom Levenson @tomlevenson.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

See, e.g., this, from the halcyon days when we all “knew” so much about the furin cleavage site. nautil.us/when-a-good-...

nautil.us

When a Good Scientist Is the Wrong Source - Nautilus

How a bad “fact” helped the lab-leak hypothesis go viral.

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