iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 27/08/2025

Love this comic from r/uiuc. Ride the bus, it's great!

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Love this man! Take names, bide your time, and restore justice.

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Addison Del Mastro @ad-mastro.bsky.social · 18/08/2025

The *scale problem* explains so much about American commerce/land use/transportation:/housing. We are missing something like the bottom half of the "scale ladder" for almost everything - streets, vehicles, homes, commercial spaces. thedeletedscenes.substack.com/p/backyard-c...

thedeletedscenes.substack.com

Backyard Coffee And Jazz In Kyoto, Japan

A "magical" experience, and what we get when we let people pursue their passions

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

I have been looking for just such a reading to assign to our incoming grad students for their upcoming orientation. Very timely post that aligns with my thinking on this subject. The work is the point!

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Jen Rice @jenrice.bsky.social · 04/08/2025

illinois gov. JB pritzker responds to ken paxton's threat to arrest TX democrats who fled the state: "they're here in illinois. we're going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them."

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Boze Herrington, Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

If you're using AI to write essays, eulogies, a text to your wife, I do think less of you as a person. Ceding your mental and creative abilities to a machine is an embarrassing thing and people should be ashamed to admit doing it in public.

$[quoting a tweet by fractalcounty that reads, “today I learned that there are actual people irl who get genuinely upset if they catch you using chatgpt. like they view it as a serious moral failing in certain circles”]$

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

Based on my handedness, I gotta go with "Left Hand Free" by alt-J youtu.be/NRWUoDpo2fo?...

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

I frequently think about how the cool stuff you can buy for the price of one lift kit on a crew cab pickup truck with a stubby bed

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mattie lubchansky @mattielubchansky.com · 28/07/2025

AI shaming | patreon.com/lubchansky

PANEL 1: MATTIE is talking to a MAN as they walk on the street. The MAN is typing on his phone.
MATTIE: What do you wanna do tonight?
MAN: Hmm…!
MAN: What…do…I…want…to…do…tonight?

PANEL 2: MATTIE rolls her eyes. The phone pipes up as well.
MATTIE: Are you asking a chatbot? Come on.
PHONE: SEEING FRIENDS IS ALWAYS A GREAT WAY TO SEE YOUR FRIENDS.
MAN: Oh, are you A.I. SHAMING ME? Wow. I didn't think you were a bigot.

PANEL 3: MATTIE, arms spread wide. The MAN strokes his chin.
MATTIE: What? Nobody was doing this a year ago. It's completely unnecessary!
MAN: Huh, that's true. I wonder why that happened.

PANEL 4: The MAN types on his phone, brow furrowed.
MAN: Why…am…I…doing…this

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

My alma maters are good at hitting people and arguing with them 💪

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Took my oldest to Shedd Aquarium and happily confirmed that she's not going to ask us to have a tarantula as a pet anytime soon

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eli yudin @eliyudin.com · 19/07/2025

When you throw a dead fly in the trash you’re laying it to rest amongst a great fortune like a pharaoh

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Blair Lorenzo / The Fox and the City @thefoxandthecity.com · 18/07/2025

It's hard to see this and not think of William Cronon's "Nature's Metropolis." The final physical end of a huge moment in Chicago and US urban history: the commoditization of grain and its centralization by rail.

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I Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 10/07/2025

“Then they started to talk about cuffing me, and that if the kids were here legally, what do they have to lose by answering. I told them that they still have their fifth and fourth amendment rights, and that they don’t have to speak to you or help with any investigation.”

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

I heard a guy do an acoustic cover of QOTSA's "No One Knows" at the Urbana Hootenanny after rambling around on my bike for an hour. What a city. Champaign for life but Urbana is so good.

a guy playing guitar under a tent in a parking lot in God's backyard

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Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Shabbat Shalom to everyone who recognizes that the safety, freedom & thriving of Jews and Muslims are bound up together — in Israel & Palestine, across the five boroughs, and in many other beloved places.

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

Congrats to Meta for making this ad that inadvertently illustrates why their "personal AI" product is for incompetent morons

youtube.com

Your personal AI. The new Meta AI app.

YouTube video by Meta

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Watching Lander use his platform to hit this theme over the past few days is genuinely healing for my battered Jewish soul

As he wrapped up his speech, Lander again congratulated Mamdani, whom he cross-endorsed. And Lander, who is Jewish, declared, "We are not going to let anyone divide Muslim New Yorkers and Jewish New Yorkers."

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

After 12ish yrs of practicing as a planner and teaching land use law, I am still mystified by the way housing proposals in California aren't bound by the categories of "zoning compliant" & "non-conforming" but can also be some weird quantum category simultaneously both and neither of the above.

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

This is why APA and its chapters need to stop giving awards to recently adopted plans and start giving awards to plans that are 5+ years old. Reward the combo of aspiration and implementation, not aspiration alone.

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Asher HELLbein @asherelbein.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

This is a kiddish hashem and honestly it feels nice to be able say that about a public performance of Judaism

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Screamer Jim @screamerjim.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

He’s thinking about building a baseball field you moron

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Constant Screaming @ajaxsinger.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

I am watching colleagues' classrooms turn into Dead Internet versions of school. Teachers use AI to create lessons which assign work to students who then use AI to complete it before it is turned in and assessed by AI. No humans effort required to produce gradebook entries.

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 12/06/2025

Governor JB Pritzker said to Rep. Mary Miller: "I am not going to be lectured to by somebody who extols the virtue of Hitler." Finally, someone says it to their faces.

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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 12/06/2025

My family owes everything to America's acceptance of a refugee named Nicholas Pritzker on its shores over a century ago. My story, however, is not unique — our state and nation have been strengthened by people from across the globe seeking freedom, opportunity, and refuge here.

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Good article. Fuck em up, JB!

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Val 🏳️‍⚧️ @valondar.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Mozart and Salieri

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Finally, a bike helmet I would consider wearing on my daily ride

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Champaign Showers @champaignshowers.com · 09/06/2025

In his first article for the blog, @jaredfritz.bsky.social takes a look at a particularly confusing case of zoning in Champaign, and what it means for the city's housing priorities moving forward. Read the full piece here on Champaign Showers dot com: champaignshowers.com/longer-reads...

champaignshowers.com

This Building Shouldn’t Be Controversial - Champaign Showers

A century-old home. A growing housing crisis. And a city caught between its past and its promises.

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 08/06/2025

Idea: supplemental childhood educational programming about Midwestern culture AKA after school enranchment

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CUrbanism Club @curbanism.bsky.social · 20/05/2025

Reposting this, because the survey date has now been extended through May 31! Please share this with all your IL friends and encourage them to share as well. Let's show them how much we support HSR!!!

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Moira Donegan @moiradonegan.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

In what might be the logical endpoint of American Zionism, the Heritage Foundation has declared that pro-Palestinian activism is not just antisemitic, but is in fact a shadowy global conspiracy … led by Jews. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/u...

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Getting to work on this campus is such a privilege

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Rusty Foster @rusty.todayintabs.com · 09/05/2025

If you can’t handle me at my Dance Yourself Clean 0:00-3:05 you don’t deserve me at my Dance Yourself Clean 3:06-8:56

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CUrbanism Club @curbanism.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Where are the CU high speed rail folks? We’ve got to show up in this survey, enter your zip code and when asked for comments say it’s really important that the line between Chicago and Stl go through CU! www.ilhighspeedrail.org

ilhighspeedrail.org

HOME | IL HSR Study

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

you could do a lot worse tbqh

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Joshua Erlich @joshuaerlich.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

100% there's not a ton that i take seriously enough to not joke about but prison conditions are one of them. conditions across the country are subhuman and a violation of the 8th amendment by any reasonable metric.

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Christopher McKnight Nichols @cmcknichols.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Your turn big public universities! A lot of us are now looking at you Ohio State, Michigan, Texas & Texas A&M, Arizona State, Virginia, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan State, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Penn State, and on and on and on... www.harvard.edu/research-fun...

harvard.edu

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Every day offers new opportunities to think about Robert "Competence" Floorplans

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Ben LeRoy @leroylanduse.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

I am once again totally bewildered by the way California does zoning. "[N]o discretion to reject or modify the project. The homes meet all city standards[.]" That's how it's supposed to work! That's what by-right zoning is! California zoning makes a mockery of due process.

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