iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

This new Fujifilm XHalf camera is so fun, so pocketable, and reinvigorating my creativity beachside this weekend

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Wow sounds like a bullet list of my experiences (this is the shareable timeline www.thensomethingnew.com/projects) Recently logged off social media for my art and joined an org that I feel safe at vs fighting everyone to make a thing.

thensomethingnew.com

Projects | Then Something New

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

That one is hooked up to the power infrastructure to that radio tower, with the befit of it being on a backup generator

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 28/04/2025

Shared the love of sports car racing with some friends at Road Atlanta this past weekend to watch the Mitty. Our camping spot was incredible.

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Nice! That’s getting closer to my personal dream of connecting AVL and ATL! Gonna try out connectivity at Road Atlanta this weekend!

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 08/04/2025

This weekend I took a fun little trip up to Mount Mitchell (the highest point East of the Mississippi) to loan out my signal filter for our regional @meshtastic.org node on the communication tower site. We turned it back on and got 100+ nodes within minutes, some over 100mi away.

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Jay Cary (US Army Vet. forcibly removed from Chuck Edward’s town hall) speaking at the #handsoff protest in Asheville, NC

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Jay Carey (Army Vet removed from Chuck Edward’s Town Hall) receiving a warm welcome from folks in Asheville #handsoff #3e #asheville #wnc

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

More images from Asheville! Amazing event and even greater to see folks disperse into town and show a movement rising to tourists visiting from all over the Southeast

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I recently went on a Tiger Cruise to visit my sister in Japan on the USS America and one of my first thoughts being on the boat was how refreshingly diverse the crew is and how great a representation it is of us when that ship docks in foreign ports

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

A few more from Japan 🇯🇵 These look even better printed out 💅

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

Favorites off the camera roll from Japan

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

I really hope this symbolism continues to grow. Makes for powerful imagery everywhere I’ve seen it so far.

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 27/02/2025

I was really surprised how much the battery life of the tdeck improved being able to use low power mode and not continually connect to Bluetooth, and the whole tools section leaves a lot of interesting stuff to be explored as we plan and build out regional networks. 💪🏻

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

That part in the second episode of the second season where they did that long tracking shot outside of the office building made me yell out loud in joy when I saw it

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Reposted by Benjamin Ellis

Anand Giridharadas @anandwrites.bsky.social · 04/02/2025

We desperately, urgently need a media that isn’t afraid to name this as the evisceration of the federal government. That is what is going on. We cannot only be comfortable using such language when the situation is far away in time or space. It’s happening here. We need to be clear.

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

And I was working at Virgin Hyperloop in 2018 when they proposed a pod size so small to be deployed in India it would effectively revitalize the caste system. There’s awful topics like this discussed in tech every day, but with decades of no light and consequences it will just get worse.

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Painting over the core values at an FBI building. The imagery of the past two weeks is unreal.

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

I have to say I loved this little thought, and totally resonate with what you’re thinking. I’ve continually not embraced that ridiculous ’aughties’ term and have completely struggled every time I’ve needed a word for it in conversation. 🫠

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Reposted by Benjamin Ellis

kim @bitsmith.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

@adamconover.net has a theory about why time passes so weirdly now - we lost decades (and sort of jammed generations in). www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo_E... Good to follow with Mark Fisher's "Slow Cancellation of the Future" (incl themes of decades, fashion): www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCgk...

youtube.com

What Happened to Decades?

YouTube video by Adam Conover

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Reposted by Benjamin Ellis

Anand Giridharadas @anandwrites.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

It’s time to stop making excuses for Democrats. Or overlooking the gazillionaire insider traders, the ones who won’t retire, the encrusted committee chairs, the party committee that isn’t an actual organization, the donor bottle service legislators, and everyone who won’t fight and doesn’t know how.

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Reposted by Benjamin Ellis

Anand Giridharadas @anandwrites.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

It turns out that a party led by people worth $500 million constantly pestering you for $5 is not the way to crush fascism. open.substack.com/pub/anandwri...

open.substack.com

RANT: Where the hell is the opposition?

We need an extraordinary pro-democracy opposition. We don't have one

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Reposted by Benjamin Ellis

ProPublica @propublica.org · 27/01/2025

NEW: Multiple data analyses show that the voters whose ballots were targeted by a North Carolina Supreme Court candidate are disproportionately Black, Democratic and young. These are some of those voters’ stories. By @dougbockclark.bsky.social

propub.li

They Followed North Carolina Election Rules When They Cast Their Ballots. Now Their Votes Could Be Tossed Anyway.

A Republican judge is trying to overturn his election loss by challenging more than 60,000 ballots. These are some of those voters’ stories.

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Benjamin Ellis @thensomethingnew.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

Got my first @meshtastic.org node over the weekend from Muziworks. This over the air ad-hoc messaging network managed to quickly build a pretty impressive mesh that almost reaches from Winston-Salem to Atlanta. Gonna keep diving in a little more into this emerging tech

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