Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
@cassidyaster.bsky.social
Archaeologist, Master Naturalist, Game-runner, hobbyist crafter and writer.
Nonbinary, they/them.
Nonbinary, they/them.
Introduce yourself with five animals you have seen in the wild
Snake Edition, past year
Garter Snake
Dekays Brown Snake
Corn snake
Rat snake
Copperhead
Timber rattlesnake is a lifer for me, I've worked in their habitat for more than a decade now and have never seen one wild 🥲
Snake Edition, past year
Garter Snake
Dekays Brown Snake
Corn snake
Rat snake
Copperhead
Timber rattlesnake is a lifer for me, I've worked in their habitat for more than a decade now and have never seen one wild 🥲
Introduce yourself with five animals you have seen in the wild
Small-clawed otter
Clouded leopard
Bear Cuscus
Leatherback turtle
Orangutan
Small-clawed otter
Clouded leopard
Bear Cuscus
Leatherback turtle
Orangutan
November 28, 2025 at 10:22 PM
Introduce yourself with five animals you have seen in the wild
Snake Edition, past year
Garter Snake
Dekays Brown Snake
Corn snake
Rat snake
Copperhead
Timber rattlesnake is a lifer for me, I've worked in their habitat for more than a decade now and have never seen one wild 🥲
Snake Edition, past year
Garter Snake
Dekays Brown Snake
Corn snake
Rat snake
Copperhead
Timber rattlesnake is a lifer for me, I've worked in their habitat for more than a decade now and have never seen one wild 🥲
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
"Conservative groups, funded by fossil fuel magnates, spend $1B/yr interfering with public understanding of what is happening to our world. Few investments rival the return they've gotten from evangelicals."
An oldie but goodie makes the link between fossil fuels, climate denial, and U.S. religion.
An oldie but goodie makes the link between fossil fuels, climate denial, and U.S. religion.
How Fossil Fuel Money Made Climate Change Denial the Word of God
Splinter is your home for news and opinions that challenge power in our political and economic system that's becoming more unhinged each and every day.
www.splinter.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:59 AM
"Conservative groups, funded by fossil fuel magnates, spend $1B/yr interfering with public understanding of what is happening to our world. Few investments rival the return they've gotten from evangelicals."
An oldie but goodie makes the link between fossil fuels, climate denial, and U.S. religion.
An oldie but goodie makes the link between fossil fuels, climate denial, and U.S. religion.
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
Asking folks to look out for Alaska Natives this holiday who are still dealing with the devastation of miles & miles of their homes, villages, traditions, foods, & ways of life & their displacement & instability continues.
NEW: State officials announced a "draw down" or most emergency crews supporting the Typhoon Halong relief effort in Western Alaska will be departing the region, as winter sets in.
alaskabeacon.com/2025/11/25/d...
alaskabeacon.com/2025/11/25/d...
Disaster relief crews begin to depart Western Alaska as winter sets in, officials say | Alaska Beacon
Some work on critical infrastructure projects will continue, but the state’s focus will transition to supporting storm-impacted communities and evacuated residents through the winter, officials said.
alaskabeacon.com
November 27, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Asking folks to look out for Alaska Natives this holiday who are still dealing with the devastation of miles & miles of their homes, villages, traditions, foods, & ways of life & their displacement & instability continues.
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
Here are some ways to support relief efforts for Western Alaska, where Indigenous people are dramatically disproportionately impacted by total devastation of what remained of Typhoon Halong.
Community groups and businesses across the state are coordinating relief efforts after the remnants of Typhoon Halong brought widespread devastation to Western Alaska.
Here's how you can help.
alaskapublic.org/news/environ...
Here's how you can help.
alaskapublic.org/news/environ...
Update: Here's how you can help survivors of the Western Alaska storm
The remnants of Typhoon Halong have killed one person, left two missing, displaced hundreds and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes.
alaskapublic.org
November 27, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Here are some ways to support relief efforts for Western Alaska, where Indigenous people are dramatically disproportionately impacted by total devastation of what remained of Typhoon Halong.
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
Did you know that schools are in large part where the Thanksgiving myth was born? Alarmed by what your kid learned about Thanksgiving at school? You are not alone. After a wave of immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Americans grew increasingly worried that their...🧵
November 26, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Did you know that schools are in large part where the Thanksgiving myth was born? Alarmed by what your kid learned about Thanksgiving at school? You are not alone. After a wave of immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Americans grew increasingly worried that their...🧵
I forgot to buy dog food so I have to face The Hoards tonight
November 26, 2025 at 8:39 PM
I forgot to buy dog food so I have to face The Hoards tonight
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
AND supporting your local library is super important! If you actually DO want books to be available to everyone, the library *already exists* and is staffed by the people who are deep in the trenches of fighting censorship! Supporting the library is doing actual good for your community!
TAPS SCREEN
For like the zillionth time: Libraries are FREE for you, but WE still get compensated for our work!!
For like the zillionth time: Libraries are FREE for you, but WE still get compensated for our work!!
Just saw someone claim that authors who want to be paid for their work are "class traitors" because we "only let the wealthy" read our books, and I think I need to go into the woods to scream into the night for a bit.
It's $5, not your first-born child! I need that $5 for health insurance!
It's $5, not your first-born child! I need that $5 for health insurance!
November 26, 2025 at 8:01 PM
AND supporting your local library is super important! If you actually DO want books to be available to everyone, the library *already exists* and is staffed by the people who are deep in the trenches of fighting censorship! Supporting the library is doing actual good for your community!
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
The NSF Bio Anthro Program DDRIG, Cultural Anthrpology DDRIG, and Archaeology DDRIG have all been archived (as of yesterday afternoon). Please speak with your grad students and plan accordingly. To say I am angry and depressed about this is an understatement.
November 26, 2025 at 3:25 PM
The NSF Bio Anthro Program DDRIG, Cultural Anthrpology DDRIG, and Archaeology DDRIG have all been archived (as of yesterday afternoon). Please speak with your grad students and plan accordingly. To say I am angry and depressed about this is an understatement.
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
The Trump Admin's proposal to rescind Endangerment Finding + climate pollution standards for motor vehicles would lead to:
📈 gas prices
📈 job losses
📈 home insurance premiums
📈 pollution fueling extreme weather events
Our analysis: https://bit.ly/43LhpU0
📈 gas prices
📈 job losses
📈 home insurance premiums
📈 pollution fueling extreme weather events
Our analysis: https://bit.ly/43LhpU0
November 26, 2025 at 3:50 PM
The Trump Admin's proposal to rescind Endangerment Finding + climate pollution standards for motor vehicles would lead to:
📈 gas prices
📈 job losses
📈 home insurance premiums
📈 pollution fueling extreme weather events
Our analysis: https://bit.ly/43LhpU0
📈 gas prices
📈 job losses
📈 home insurance premiums
📈 pollution fueling extreme weather events
Our analysis: https://bit.ly/43LhpU0
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
Gates insistence on prioritizing intellectual property rights before distributing the COVID vaccine definitely resulted in unnecessary deaths of children.
www.wired.com/story/opinio...
www.wired.com/story/opinio...
The World Loses Under Bill Gates’ Vaccine Colonialism
As many countries wait for Covid vaccines, the world needs a patent-free “People’s Vaccine”—not more of Gates’ intellectual property stubbornness.
www.wired.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:48 AM
Gates insistence on prioritizing intellectual property rights before distributing the COVID vaccine definitely resulted in unnecessary deaths of children.
www.wired.com/story/opinio...
www.wired.com/story/opinio...
When I was really poor in grad school like sell-my-plasma-for-food-money poor I would buy those little $0.50 blueberry pies from Walmart once in a while as a little treat (I could stretch them for a couple days too) and now thanks to inflation they cost $0.84 rip current grad students #PieDiscourse
November 26, 2025 at 1:27 AM
When I was really poor in grad school like sell-my-plasma-for-food-money poor I would buy those little $0.50 blueberry pies from Walmart once in a while as a little treat (I could stretch them for a couple days too) and now thanks to inflation they cost $0.84 rip current grad students #PieDiscourse
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
Every year around Thanksgiving, I see tons of grad students post heartbreaking messages on social media about how their loved ones don’t understand or support their decision to study what seems like something pointless or silly.
Perhaps my American Scientist essay can help!
🧪🌎🦑 #SciComm
Perhaps my American Scientist essay can help!
🧪🌎🦑 #SciComm
“Why Are We Funding This?”
Long-standing myths about “silly science” have contributed to the reckless slashing of government-supported research.
www.americanscientist.org
November 25, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Every year around Thanksgiving, I see tons of grad students post heartbreaking messages on social media about how their loved ones don’t understand or support their decision to study what seems like something pointless or silly.
Perhaps my American Scientist essay can help!
🧪🌎🦑 #SciComm
Perhaps my American Scientist essay can help!
🧪🌎🦑 #SciComm
#MightyNeinSpoilers
me: I love seeing Essek in his villain era, it will make the reactions by the rest of the characters feel more justified and people won't woobify him *sees people defending his mom for slapping him* actually he was right about everything and I think he should steal more beacons
me: I love seeing Essek in his villain era, it will make the reactions by the rest of the characters feel more justified and people won't woobify him *sees people defending his mom for slapping him* actually he was right about everything and I think he should steal more beacons
November 25, 2025 at 10:51 PM
#MightyNeinSpoilers
me: I love seeing Essek in his villain era, it will make the reactions by the rest of the characters feel more justified and people won't woobify him *sees people defending his mom for slapping him* actually he was right about everything and I think he should steal more beacons
me: I love seeing Essek in his villain era, it will make the reactions by the rest of the characters feel more justified and people won't woobify him *sees people defending his mom for slapping him* actually he was right about everything and I think he should steal more beacons
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
If you want literature to exist you have to support it and that doesn't always mean you, personally, will pay. The more we USE our libraries the better they can justify their funding, and the more people they can serve.
By stealing instead, you're cheating your neighbors AND the artists. Dick.
By stealing instead, you're cheating your neighbors AND the artists. Dick.
November 25, 2025 at 8:05 PM
If you want literature to exist you have to support it and that doesn't always mean you, personally, will pay. The more we USE our libraries the better they can justify their funding, and the more people they can serve.
By stealing instead, you're cheating your neighbors AND the artists. Dick.
By stealing instead, you're cheating your neighbors AND the artists. Dick.
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
You're told it'll sabotage your career if you're a vocally politically opinionated, queer, woman. But things sabotaging my career are systemic xenophobia, sexism, and horrible job market. Which are a direct consequences of people not being vocally opinionated in the first place.
November 25, 2025 at 2:27 AM
You're told it'll sabotage your career if you're a vocally politically opinionated, queer, woman. But things sabotaging my career are systemic xenophobia, sexism, and horrible job market. Which are a direct consequences of people not being vocally opinionated in the first place.
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
1. After the shutdown fight, Republicans promised Democrats a vote on extending enhanced ACA subsidies, which cover 20 million Americans.
Now, new reporting shows that Republican negotiators want to make a trans funding ban a requirement for the extension.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Now, new reporting shows that Republican negotiators want to make a trans funding ban a requirement for the extension.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Republicans Privately Pushing Anti-Trans Funding Ban For ACA Subsidy Deal After Shutdown Compromise
The proposal, which was first detailed in the Wall Street Journal, could harm transgender people even in blue states if it becomes part of the negotiated deal.
www.erininthemorning.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:02 PM
1. After the shutdown fight, Republicans promised Democrats a vote on extending enhanced ACA subsidies, which cover 20 million Americans.
Now, new reporting shows that Republican negotiators want to make a trans funding ban a requirement for the extension.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Now, new reporting shows that Republican negotiators want to make a trans funding ban a requirement for the extension.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
From the Rockies to the Himalayas, mountains are warming faster than surrounding lowlands, new research shows.
More intense heat is melting ice, threatening a vital source of fresh water for more than a billion people worldwide.
More intense heat is melting ice, threatening a vital source of fresh water for more than a billion people worldwide.
World's Mountains Warming Faster Than Lowlands
e360.yale.edu
November 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
From the Rockies to the Himalayas, mountains are warming faster than surrounding lowlands, new research shows.
More intense heat is melting ice, threatening a vital source of fresh water for more than a billion people worldwide.
More intense heat is melting ice, threatening a vital source of fresh water for more than a billion people worldwide.
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
Oh you’d like me to undertake a gendered analysis of excavation tasks in the 10 excavation shots I have from four 1930s excavations? I hear you.
November 25, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Oh you’d like me to undertake a gendered analysis of excavation tasks in the 10 excavation shots I have from four 1930s excavations? I hear you.
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
The story told here--one where anecdata suggests agency and autonomy have run amok and nameless activists are to blame--certainly rhymes with the NYT's disastrous panic about trans kids. Then you realize it's literally being written by the same author.
Autism rates have increased in recent decades, but the reasons are more complicated than what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has presented. Hear more on today's episode of "The Daily." nyti.ms/480eqtm
The Autism Diagnosis Problem
Autism rates have increased in recent decades, but the reasons are more complicated than what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has presented.
nyti.ms
November 24, 2025 at 9:36 PM
The story told here--one where anecdata suggests agency and autonomy have run amok and nameless activists are to blame--certainly rhymes with the NYT's disastrous panic about trans kids. Then you realize it's literally being written by the same author.
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
Remember that striking Starbucks workers are asking you not to buy Starbucks right now
November 24, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Remember that striking Starbucks workers are asking you not to buy Starbucks right now
Reposted by Cassidy Aster 🏳️⚧️ They/Them
Hoping to see this one on some awards lists - check it out!
@slashnburnett.bsky.social @unchartedmag.bsky.social
@slashnburnett.bsky.social @unchartedmag.bsky.social
Bone-eater Earth was in @unchartedmag.bsky.social.
If we don’t get our act together, Mother Earth is gonna make some big decisions for us. So, hey, maybe we consider degrowth, instead?
CW: amputation, rude language, techbros
www.unchartedmag.com/stories/bone...
If we don’t get our act together, Mother Earth is gonna make some big decisions for us. So, hey, maybe we consider degrowth, instead?
CW: amputation, rude language, techbros
www.unchartedmag.com/stories/bone...
Bone-Eater Earth - Uncharted
I lose my finger during the private flight back from Japan. It isn’t the whole finger, of course, just the bone. When I drugged myself into oblivion at the start of the flight, it was totally fine. Wh...
www.unchartedmag.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Hoping to see this one on some awards lists - check it out!
@slashnburnett.bsky.social @unchartedmag.bsky.social
@slashnburnett.bsky.social @unchartedmag.bsky.social
There's some problem with the heater at my apartment where it's running too hot and I have to open windows in the dead of winter just to sleep. I turned the heat off and it's still getting to 80+ degrees. I got to work and it's like 68 in the office and I'm about to pass out it's so comfortable.
November 24, 2025 at 2:14 PM
There's some problem with the heater at my apartment where it's running too hot and I have to open windows in the dead of winter just to sleep. I turned the heat off and it's still getting to 80+ degrees. I got to work and it's like 68 in the office and I'm about to pass out it's so comfortable.
I tried making my homemade salsa a different way this time and I think the problem I've been encountering is I need a bigger food processor, or to make it in half batches. Given the size of my kitchen, half batches for the foreseeable futute.
November 23, 2025 at 6:53 PM
I tried making my homemade salsa a different way this time and I think the problem I've been encountering is I need a bigger food processor, or to make it in half batches. Given the size of my kitchen, half batches for the foreseeable futute.