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A.J. Levin (he/him)

@ajlevin.bsky.social

230 followers 290 following 550 posts

Freelance writer, genealogist, poet, biographer. Former C18 scholar. English, French, Norwegian, a little Spanish. Passions include music, environment, science literacy, human rights. Also: [email protected]

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A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · Aug 26

Thing with GenAI "art":

ADHD types like me spend all day trying to suppress The Voice that says: "Ooh, ooh, draw a mascot for a team called the Flying Skunks."

Or: "Write a troubadour-style song about rutabagas."

We just don't burn down the planet and rip everyone off while doing it.

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A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 3h

@c0nc0rdance.bsky.social had a thread on that exact topic.

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 12h

Thomas Hobbes met Galileo, and easily lived long enough that he could have bought medicines from the apothecary of the original Merck, which eventually developed into the pharmaceutical company we know by that name.

rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 15h

you ever think about those real weird overlaps. like tennessee williams might have listened to the ramones

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A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 1d

Would love to hear more

"A jubilæum issues from the mouths of spectators in the city, ironically, once known as York. The pinstripers, now defeated twice -- not least by superlative pitching -- head back to Gotham with a Coleridgean albatross round their necks."

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 2d

Ain't gonna change fine old Navy traditions with one speech.

a group of men in navy uniforms are dancing on a boat with the words in the navy above them

Alt: The Village People, some in US Navy uniforms, dancing on a warship deck with the song title "In The Navy" on a banner above

media.tenor.com

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A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 2d

Underrated skeet

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 3d

Yes, absolutely.

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 3d

LibreOffice.

Can't do all you can with MS Office but it's free. There's no built-in AI, no privacy issues I'm aware of as there are with Microsoft telemetry, and it's published by a nonprofit foundation.

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 4d

Social media altogether.

I'll be looking into whether there are still Usenet clients about: those early 1990s squabbles about DnD and Star Trek lore might still be going on somewhere.

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 4d

Brave, I usually just let the data speak on my behalf:

www.tylervigen.com/spurious-cor...

Spurious Correlations

Correlation is not causation: thousands of charts of real data showing actual correlations between ridiculous variables.

www.tylervigen.com

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 4d

She's a knight, an archbishop, and a nurse.

Missed opportunity to go with Lawful good templar named as...

Felicity Hannah @felicityhannah.bsky.social · 5d

This article manages to name her husband before it names… her.

Article reads:
Woman named as Archbishop of Canterbury in historic first

The 63-year-old archbishop-designate is married to Eamonn Mullally, with whom she has two children. Originally from Woking in Surrey, she was the UK's chief nursing officer from 1999 to 2004.

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 5d

Some of his SCTV bits are unforgettable.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=QjQF...

SCTV John Candy as Johnny LaRue in Mr. Science

YouTube video by SCTV

m.youtube.com

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 5d

Someone says they're hungry.

In an instant, Jesusman shows up out of nowhere, totally nude but with a crucifix strapped to his back, magically doubling Filet-O-Fishes until the cops drag him away for indecent exposure, and for crimes against the culinary arts.

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 5d

I'm going to call this

Laysplaining

worm @rfksbrainworm.bsky.social · 6d

really enjoying all the people trying to explain the bible to the pope today

Pope Leo XIV
Today, more than ever, we must return to the heart, the center of feeling and emotion, the locus of freedom. Though it includes reason, the heart transcends and transforms it. Only by returning to the heart can we undergo a true ecological conversion that transforms our personal

Austin
I reject this whole heartedly. What you fail to see Mr Pope, the Bible says

Reposted by A.J. Levin (he/him)

Mike Rosenwald @mikerosenwald.bsky.social · 6d

His use of PCR sparked a movement that has freed thousands of wrongfully convicted people. Dr. Blake’s testing alone helped to exonerate more than 50, including several sentenced to death. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/s...

Edward T. Blake, 80, Dies; Forensic Expert Sparked Innocence Movement

www.nytimes.com

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A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 6d

Some Swedish words still trip me every time I see them: I can never see glasögon without thinking that they are literal glass eyes for a moment.

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A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 6d

Norwegian still uses «et vindu» - it's amusing how words remain or get lost and then re-borrowed in many languages.

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A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 9d

Not surprised that Killing Floor 3 is by most accounts a failure.

I played plenty of KF1 & 2, both enjoyable, but over the past decade there were many missteps which pointed to this being the likely outcome.

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 9d

Oof.

@thelouvreof.bsky.social is full of responses like this.

People post along the lines of "I enjoyed something creative," or "something good happened to me," and some scold offers a non sequitur of the form "how dare you enjoy anything while [insert disaster] is happening?"

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 11d

Seeing this, I am very much missing my old XJ650RJ Seca.

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A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 11d

The only book I remember complaining about in school was The Great Gatsby, and it was because I believed it to be less than Great.

The previous summer I had read Joyce's Portrait of the Artist, from about the same time but so much more resonant and lively and humane.

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A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 11d

I love that there's already an entire Wikipedia article like this:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critici...

Criticism of Electronic Arts - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 11d

The Jorge Luis Borges Memorial Louvre of Louvre of Bluesky.

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 12d

Probably living off the grid because of fear of community making you communist.

No Marx Brothers movies, I guess. 🤷‍♂️

Takes 9 right turns to drive places to avoid 1 left.

(The jokes write themselves.)

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 14d

If AI is so great, why don't they use it to replace the studio executives?

A.J. Levin (he/him) @ajlevin.bsky.social · 18d

Bit of a change for a transphobe to try to make everyone else obsess about _their_ genitals.

Dan Nguyen @dancow.bsky.social · 18d

very normal things happening

Video: Woman undresses to make point, halts Davis public school board meeting
By Davis Joint Unified School Board
September 19, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Beth Bourne, an anti-trans activist, speaks on Sept. 18, 2025 before a Davis, California school board about the district's locker room policy, and halts the meeting as she undresses.