Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 52m

Some fascinating stuff in here for NBA nerds. Look at this shit!

#NBAsky

www.theringer.com/2025/10/10/n...

Two charts showing the top 300 shot locations in the NBA in 2005 and 2025, with the former having a lot of mid-range shots while the latter is only inside the paint and around the 3 point line. Charts by Kirk Goldsberry.

Reposted by Dave Levitan

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 15h

"does the president know what is real and what is not" is a legitimate question that should probably get asked a lot more

Portland Is Burning on the Only Screens That Matter

Welcome to my relaunched newsletter, with independent writing and reporting on science, politics, and policy. Read more about it here, and please subscribe at the bottom of this post to support this w...

www.gravityisgone.com

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 1h

Nice juxtaposition by the guardian here

Screenshot of the Guardian's oped with an image and link to the left with Pete Davidson and Dave Chappelle and the text "US comedians defend decision to play in Saudi Arabia: "They're paying me enough to look the other way" just next to a bit of the op-ed reading "The perception that we, as comedians, were all being paid to be silent was as laughable as the idea that Dave Chappelle, a hugely successful comic with an estimated worth of $70m (£52m), was doing his show in Riyadh for the money."

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 2h

This morning there is one Nobel Peace Prize winner, 8.1 billion or so people who did not win the Nobel Peace Prize, and one Nobel Peace Prize loser.

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 11h

Like 97 percent of why he’s obsessed with winning the Nobel peace prize is that Obama won it

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 12h

I barely watch baseball anymore and I still found that to be a profoundly fucked way to lose a playoff series

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Reposted by Dave Levitan

Roy Edroso @edroso.bsky.social · 23h

"…he probably saw ‘plywood on their windows’ in *some* footage, of *some*where, from *some*time, but the details aren't really important. It's true, to the person that matters, because his only friend [the TV] told him so.” www.gravityisgone.com/portland-is-...

Portland Is Burning on the Only Screens That Matter

Welcome to my relaunched newsletter, with independent writing and reporting on science, politics, and policy. Read more about it here, and please subscribe at the bottom of this post to support this w...

www.gravityisgone.com

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 15h

Please subscribe to this newsletter for vaguely odd combinations of independent writing and reporting like, uh, all this

www.gravityisgone.com

Four posts from Gravityisgone.com, including one on the lies about Portland burning, one on the rest of the world abandoning fossil fuels, one on the grift that is a Trump presidential library, and one breaking news story about agencies sending out emails to their entire staffs blaming Democrats for the government shutdown

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 15h

"does the president know what is real and what is not" is a legitimate question that should probably get asked a lot more

Portland Is Burning on the Only Screens That Matter

Welcome to my relaunched newsletter, with independent writing and reporting on science, politics, and policy. Read more about it here, and please subscribe at the bottom of this post to support this w...

www.gravityisgone.com

9 120 520

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 16h

Aw, a bummer. As a Red Sox-obsessed kid growing up near Boston Greenwell is lodged firmly in my brain along with Dwight Evans, Jody Reed, and Marty Barrett. RIP.

MLB Trade Rumors @mlbtraderumors.bsky.social · 17h

Mike Greenwell Passes Away

Former big leaguer and member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame Mike Greenwell has passed away at the age of 62, according to multiple sources. It was revealed in August that he had been diagnosed with medullary thyroid cancer, per Emma Healy of The Boston Globe. Greenwell was born in Kentucky but raised in…

dlvr.it

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 17h

but why

You've been unsubscribed from all marketing emails.

Please give [highlight] 7-10 days [/highlight] for this change to take effect.

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 17h

Anyway

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · Jul 5

Apropos of nothing, a few years ago I wrote whole-ass book proposal for a book all about bats and how they can explain/teach a lot about people, that didn't go anywhere. It was called Great Whirling Circles, based on this quote from Dracula. If any agents or publishers feel like getting in touch.

It was brilliant moonlight, and the soft effect of the light over the sea and sky, merged together in one great silent mystery, was beautiful beyond words. Between me and the moonlight flitted a great bat, coming and going in
great whirling circles.

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 17h

The researchers then HEARD CHEWING SOUNDS on the biologger the bat was fitted with, FOR 23 MINUTES. YES I AM SHOUTING THIS IS AWESOME. LOOK AT THIS BAT WITH A FEATHER AND BLOOD IN ITS MOUTH.

(Photo credit Jorge Sereno)

A large bat on a black background, its wings somewhat extended, with a white feather hanging off its chin

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 17h

EXTREMELY COOL BAT STUFF: A study out in Science today found that the greater noctule bat, Europe's largest, hunts and catches *migrating birds* while in flight. In at least one case, a bat climbed to more than 1200 feet, then chased a robin downward FAST until it caught it near the ground.

Greater noctule bats prey on and consume passerines in flight

Despite billions of passerines seasonally migrating during the night at high altitudes, only three bat species have been found to consistently tap into this rich prey resource. However, it remains unk...

www.science.org

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 18h

This is very weird and is almost certainly something other than what it sounds like

Trump’s new foreign aid plan eyes $50 million for Greenland’s polar bears

Documents reviewed by The Post show the administration may spend millions to protect vulnerable wildlife, proposals that stunned critics of its moves to gut foreign assistance.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 18h

If someone had bet RFK Jr that he couldn't increase the insanity of his autism claims by a factor of 2 every single month for the duration of Trump's term that wouldn't look any different from what we're getting

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 20h

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

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Reposted by Dave Levitan

Meghan Bartels @meghanbartels.bsky.social · 1d

The science is in: COVID boosters are worth it, even if you've been vaccinated and/or infected before. Stay safe out there, friends!: 🧪 🛟 www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-...

Annual COVID Vaccines Save Lives, New Study Shows

A new study shows that receiving an updated COVID vaccine reduced people’s risk of severe disease and death in all age groups, regardless of immunity from prior infection or vaccination

www.scientificamerican.com

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 23h

I genuinely think he can't really differentiate reality from fiction at any given moment.

Anyway, please subscribe to this, it's free for the moment but I'm getting toward time-to-charge-small-amounts-for-my-work territory.

www.gravityisgone.com/portland-is-...

I have long "joked" that Trump lacks both object permanence and theory of mind — other people essentially do not exist to him, and the most true thing in the world is whatever the last person who he does not completely hate told him. The "person" he hates least of all is the television — primarily Fox News, given its complete subservience, but the screen in general is his best and arguably only true friend. That friend, these last few weeks has been telling him One Big Thing: that Portland, Oregon, is on fire, and that he, the President, must act to save it. There is a chance that some part of him knows this is all a lie, but...

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 23h

I wrote about the president's only friend lying to him

Portland Is Burning on the Only Screens That Matter

Welcome to my relaunched newsletter, with independent writing and reporting on science, politics, and policy. Read more about it here, and please subscribe at the bottom of this post to support this w...

www.gravityisgone.com

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 1d

The Poster’s Prayer

Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 1d

God keep me from ever completing anything.

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 1d

And of course, if you are at those or any agencies and have info or thoughts you’d like to get out there, Signal is davelevitan.26 and you can remain anonymous

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 1d

Of course, I got laid off from the place I was doing that in August. Subscribe here for the new independent version:

www.gravityisgone.com

Gravity Is Gone

Independent reporting and commentary on science, politics, and policy

www.gravityisgone.com

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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 1d

Gaining a reasonable bunch of followers on here really did help me connect with federal employees over the past nine months to break some news and tell some stories about what’s been happening inside NIH, EPA, NOAA, and other agencies.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 2d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Reposted by Dave Levitan

Jonathan Cohn @jonathancohn.bsky.social · 1d

Trump has been illegally bombing boats off the coast of Venezuela.

Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff forced a vote on reasserting Congress's role over war powers and ending this reckless
warmongering.

It failed 48-51.

Murkowski and Paul voted yes.

Fetterman voted no.

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Reposted by Dave Levitan

Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · Jul 25

Few “don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone” examples as potent as an independent DOJ

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