iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

😮‍💨🙌😁 Successfully accompanied another class of college students on their journey through this novel

Worn paperback of Bleak House (Norton Critical Edition) exuding “rare aesthetic” aura

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

Interestingly, a whole realm of AI-written long stories and engagement bait also disappeared from Threads

sixcoloredkid 4h
Threads today: cartoon animals leaping in the sunshine

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

This was basic but not terrible! Liberalism lives, but with an edge: you can have your alliance of left-coded wealthy Black lawyer and right-coded Christian white woman lawyer — as long as you have them bond over a shared enemy (evil tech companies)

The well reviewed new show Cupertino, by the makers of The Good Wife

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

“Beg for the bad news” is one of the famous “Unwritten Rules” of being a CEO

It's good advice from a book that contains lots of other useful aphorisms including:
• Beg for the bad news
• Don't be known as a good starter but a poor finisher
• If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much
• Treat the name of your company as if it were your own
• It is easier to get into something than it is to get out of it
In 2005 when these 32 principles first came to light, they were so compelling they were called the CEO's Secret Handbook.
Unfortunately, it was later discovered that many of these were already included in the 1944 book, The Unwritten Laws of Engineering by W. J. King.

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Stephanie O’Rourke flew all the way from St Andrews to Illinois to give a talk about shifting depictions of deep mine structure around 1800: gradually the pictures of miners working and conversing underground become simple diagrams of where the coal is. This is her new book! @sorourke25.bsky.social

PICTURING LANDSCAPE IN AN AGE OF EXTRACTION (U of Chicago P, 2025)

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

This show is funny: and depicts what seems to be an emerging Brainrot/Grindset Dialectic in Gen Z 🤔

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I’m hearing this happened in the Senate today?

GOP Senators realizing their attack on Jack Smith was based on a stupid error about basketball teams

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Okay, these numbers are great. But why boast about your #36 program in Economics when your #21 English program (in a nation with thousands of English departments!!!) is sitting right there? 🤨🤨

Liberal Arts & Sciences at Illinois
LAS
1d • c
The results are in: College of LAS programs are some of the best in the country, and it's all... more
12
UNDERGRADUATE
PSYCHOLOGY
PROGRAM
10
UNDERGRADUATE
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
PROGRAM
PUBLIC UNIVERSITY
IN THE NATION
·36
UNDERGRADUATE
ECONOMICS PROGRAM
U.S. News & World Report

Clear Filters
English Schools x
University of
Illinois--Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL
#21 in English (tie)
4.1 PEER ASSESSMENT SCORE
Save to My Schools

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I am not a theater kid so it should not be my job to announce that the cast of The Gilded Age is putting out a Christmas album

FEATURING CAST MEMBERS FROM THE EMMY AWARD-WINNING HBO ORIGINAL SERIES
1. IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR - BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL
2. WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS — CHRISTINE BARANSKI
3. 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (PART 1) - CARRIE COON & MORGAN SPECTOR
4. THE WORLD NEEDS SOME CHRISTMAS — BEN AHLERS
5. I REMEMBER — AUDRA MCDONALD, DONNA MURPHY & KELLI O'HARA
6. I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS - KELLI O'HARA
7. O HOLY NIGHT — DENÉE BENTON & JORDAN DONICA
8. I WONDER AS I WANDER —AUDRA MCDONALD
9. 'TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (PART 2) - CARRIE COON & MORGAN SPECTOR
10. LET IT SNOW — TAYLOR RICHARDSON & TAYLOR TRENSCH
11. HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE CHRISTMAS - ADRIENNE WARREN
12. WEXFORD CAROL — CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER & LAURA BENANTI
13. JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS — LAURA BENANTI
14. "TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (PART 3) - CARRIE COON & MORGAN SPECTOR
15. IT'S BEEN REAL - DONNA MURPHY
ALBUM PRODUCED BY DESMOND CHILD

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

UIUC talk by @nathankhensley.bsky.social based on his book Action Without Hope — here he’s saying “Perhaps my title is a little intense” 😁

Nathan Hensley of Georgetown U giving a talk at UIUC entitled No Escape, No Ending: Gesture, Improvisation, Solidarity

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Yellow woolly worm (not the weather predicting kind) munching on lavender

If this were a normal woolly worm that predicts the weather (the Isabella tiger moth caterpillar) this would mean a really warm winter. But it isn’t. Pretty unusual to see any insect determined enough to go for lavender tbh

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Oktoberfest starts tomorrow in Munich but is already in full swing in the remote fields of Illinois

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Pick your favorite sunset thundercloud

Gloomy cloud boiling up in front of illuminated cloud wrack

Gloomy cloud with brilliant glowing cumulus behind it

Cloud glowing dark apricot as sunset approaches

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Go go strong little butterfly 💪

Monarch feeding on purple asters — part of the generation that flies thousands of miles to the south

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

They put poor Jack Lowden in a muslin shirt 👀 but at least he gets to wear a vest over it

Jack Lowden as Darcy in the upcoming Netflix Pride and Prejudice

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Very exciting prospect of @nathankhensley.bsky.social visiting UIUC next week to give one of his devastating and unmissable talks 😄😄😄

Poster announcing talk by Nathan Hensley: “No Escape, No Ending: Gesture, Improvisation, Solidarity”

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

It’s so filmable: a French team analyzes a ruined piece of the kleroterion and gives it to a Greek sculptor to rebuild He takes it off to his remote island and sculpts it from a block of marble, inventing a device to catch the dice They demonstrate it on 150 high school students in Athens 🥹

French team in Athens unveiling the rebuilt kleroterion: moody sculptor at left

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Caffe Latte and cardamom bun at the Gothenburg public library café 🥹

Latte and sweet bun in a light filled glass space in Sweden. This is in May so (granted) half the year it’d be quite dark

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

At the U of Illinois Modern Critical Theory lecture on 9/8: @chadwellmon.bsky.social on the history of the university from Berlin 1810 (the uni both separate from & responsive to the state) to Illinois 1900 (production of scientists) to Berkeley 1950 (distribution node for social utility)

Chad Wellmon talk “Theory in the University”

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

The Victory Gate in Munich, erected by King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Partly rebuilt after WW2 with the new motto “dedicated to victory, destroyed by war, urging peace” At some point soon , Americans are going to have to decide whether to preserve some of our uniquely cursed monuments 😔

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I’m hearing they no longer care about the ONE actual ball on the field 😅

FB post boasting their screen is the size of 32,000 footballs — no longer a department of athletics, just a Big Screen Posting Account

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

RIP Baudrillard: I’m sorry I ever doubted you 😔

A photo of the scoreboard at the U of I football field that is so immense it can be seen from miles away. Imagine trying to play a stressful game, in your human body, while being blasted with that insane light show paid for by a private equity donor — possibly about $50 million. Surely will cause neurological dysregulation

WCIA 3 News
Fans were excited and curious to finally see the largest scoreboard in college football at Gies Memorial Stadium. The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana's new scoreboard made its first-ever appearance in a game as the Fighting Illini took on the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
WCIA
03
NEWS
FANS GET FIRST LOOK AT ILLINI'S LARGEST-EVER COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCOREBOARD

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Accidentally confused my “Emma” class yesterday by mentioning that Bill Nighy had played Mr Woodhouse as slightly more clever than in the book Well of course! they said — they thought I was talking about Bill Nye the Science Guy

Anya Taylor-Joy and Bill Nighy playing Emma and Mr Woodhouse

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Hey wait a minute that’s my building 😂

English Building at UIUC during Quad Day : just an extracurricular fair, not a raging party

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Grudgingly accepting that the dumb AI summary of the internet kept me from committing a terrible crow faux pas

if you put a silvery object near a dead crow will the other crows take it as a sign of respect
• Al Overview
No, other crows will not interpret a silvery object placed near a dead crow as a sign of respect. © Instagram • Zack D. Fi...
How Crows Actually React
• Risk Assessment: What looks like a funeral is actually an investigation. Crows gather around a dead peer to figure out what caused the death so they can avoid the same danger. (f Facebook Zack D. Fil...
• Suspicion of Humans: If a human is seen near a dead crow, the flock tends to view that person as a threat. f Facebook • NPR
• Long Memories: Crows remember human

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Eleanor Courtemanche @ecourtem.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

At last: I finally saw a cold-air funnel The only li’l tornado it’s ok to watch, because it dissipates quickly. The air in Illinois just really wants to be tornado-shaped this year 😮‍💨