Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
Freelance writing about the wild, old and dead. Bylines in NatGeo, SciAm, The New York Times, Texas Monthly, and many other places. Repped by @desir.ee at Looking Glass Literary (fiction) and @benglishhh.bsky.social at Transatlantic (nonfiction)
Pinned
Lions at the Kitchen Table
Saul considers the Lancashire Cotton Famine, political mythmaking and the cynical trap of "affordability"
heat-death.ghost.io
In 1862, @saulelbein.bsky.social writes, suffering textile workers streamed into a Manchester meeting hall. At stake: whether Britain should join the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. Proponents of "kitchen table politics" can learn a lot from what happened next.
New, on Heat Death!
New, on Heat Death!
Reposted by Asher Elbein
A paper I've written for for years is giving a more respectful hearing to a woman who violated every tenet of journalistic ethics to conduct an affair with repulsive Nazi eugenicist with the blood of hundreds of children on his hands than it did to its own staff & contributors re: BLM & trans rights
November 14, 2025 at 5:47 PM
A paper I've written for for years is giving a more respectful hearing to a woman who violated every tenet of journalistic ethics to conduct an affair with repulsive Nazi eugenicist with the blood of hundreds of children on his hands than it did to its own staff & contributors re: BLM & trans rights
Reposted by Asher Elbein
I swear. I don’t care if you watch or use porn. If you are in the Internet you need to support porn. Without porn most of the Internet you love wouldn’t have happened and wouldn’t be happening. Porn makes the wheels go round. Not that enough ppl pay for theirs but that’s a diff issue. (Cont)
November 14, 2025 at 12:48 AM
I swear. I don’t care if you watch or use porn. If you are in the Internet you need to support porn. Without porn most of the Internet you love wouldn’t have happened and wouldn’t be happening. Porn makes the wheels go round. Not that enough ppl pay for theirs but that’s a diff issue. (Cont)
I've made my feelings about Nuzzi very clear. I will not be clicking on all of that
November 14, 2025 at 5:45 PM
I've made my feelings about Nuzzi very clear. I will not be clicking on all of that
Reposted by Asher Elbein
Writing about Carboniferous forests today led -- somewhat by accident -- to my writing a whistlestop tour of the first oxygen holocaust, the chloroplast alliance, the Terrestrial Revolution, and the ways the first forests literally reshaped the world.
It's fun writing paleontology as epic poetry.
It's fun writing paleontology as epic poetry.
November 14, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Writing about Carboniferous forests today led -- somewhat by accident -- to my writing a whistlestop tour of the first oxygen holocaust, the chloroplast alliance, the Terrestrial Revolution, and the ways the first forests literally reshaped the world.
It's fun writing paleontology as epic poetry.
It's fun writing paleontology as epic poetry.
I'm not particularly a Dan Dare fan, so I'm curious what about this project interested you! What's the appeal to Dan Dare that makes this a @alexdecampi.bsky.social book?
Anyway if you’re a Dan Dare fan I am happy to answer (respectful) questions on a no-spoilers basis
November 14, 2025 at 4:52 PM
I'm not particularly a Dan Dare fan, so I'm curious what about this project interested you! What's the appeal to Dan Dare that makes this a @alexdecampi.bsky.social book?
Paleo followers! Any of you work (or know someone who works) on Carboniferous insects? I've got a question about how cosmopolitan some of the big insect species mostly known from Europe were, and how likely it would have been for anything similar to turn up in Texas.
November 14, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Paleo followers! Any of you work (or know someone who works) on Carboniferous insects? I've got a question about how cosmopolitan some of the big insect species mostly known from Europe were, and how likely it would have been for anything similar to turn up in Texas.
On top of everything else, I have to ask: how much of "we already known what the heroine looks like" because a lot of this stuff is *extremely* thinly veiled fan fiction of specific existing characters/actors?
This is close to what the lady (romantasy reader) said on Instagram that I wanted to throw the book at. She was like "We don't need physical descriptions, we already know what the heroine looks like."
So the industry expects us to lay down and erase our unique identities and experiences? Think not.
So the industry expects us to lay down and erase our unique identities and experiences? Think not.
what is happening
November 14, 2025 at 4:33 PM
On top of everything else, I have to ask: how much of "we already known what the heroine looks like" because a lot of this stuff is *extremely* thinly veiled fan fiction of specific existing characters/actors?
Reposted by Asher Elbein
In 1862, @saulelbein.bsky.social writes, suffering textile workers streamed into a Manchester meeting hall. At stake: whether Britain should join the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. Proponents of "kitchen table politics" can learn a lot from what happened next.
New, on Heat Death!
New, on Heat Death!
Lions at the Kitchen Table
Saul considers the Lancashire Cotton Famine, political mythmaking and the cynical trap of "affordability"
heat-death.ghost.io
November 13, 2025 at 4:01 PM
In 1862, @saulelbein.bsky.social writes, suffering textile workers streamed into a Manchester meeting hall. At stake: whether Britain should join the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. Proponents of "kitchen table politics" can learn a lot from what happened next.
New, on Heat Death!
New, on Heat Death!
Reposted by Asher Elbein
Sadly I can't be at #2025SVP, and thanks to all the tweeters for keeping us informed. Here are some 3D meshes of dinosaur skeletons I have created for research and outreach, based on 3D data from photogrammetry, lidar & first-hand observation. I hope to have prints of this available soon! #SciArt
November 14, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Reposted by Asher Elbein
I wrote about the supposed conservative "civil war" over antisemitism as more of a lovers' spat for @liberalcurrents.
The Heritage Foundation, Groypers, and the Narcissism of Small Differences
Fuentes is the fly born of Heritage’s maggot.
www.liberalcurrents.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:04 PM
I wrote about the supposed conservative "civil war" over antisemitism as more of a lovers' spat for @liberalcurrents.
Reposted by Asher Elbein
You can really understand a lot of the outrage and contempt from the press at Democrats seriously trying to contest the GOP in redistricting and legislative brinkmanship as the equivalent of those 19th century anti-suffragist cartoons attacking women for pretending to be men.
November 14, 2025 at 6:40 AM
You can really understand a lot of the outrage and contempt from the press at Democrats seriously trying to contest the GOP in redistricting and legislative brinkmanship as the equivalent of those 19th century anti-suffragist cartoons attacking women for pretending to be men.
Reposted by Asher Elbein
Are you gonna let some finance dweeb tell you what you can and can't get off to in your own goddamn home?
Anyway: pornographic art and performance is good, people have a right to the vast majority of their kinks, and it is ridiculous that consenting adults are finding those rights strangled by big tech and payment platforms
November 14, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Are you gonna let some finance dweeb tell you what you can and can't get off to in your own goddamn home?
Reposted by Asher Elbein
wife guy here, please read about @katcraft.bsky.social’s short film The Hog Queen, which is incredibly cool and had a number of disabled filmmakers on both sides of the camera!!! www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
Accessible sets aren't 'a luxury.' A new film starring 'Wicked's' Marissa Bode shows the way
With the help of Inevitable Foundation’s Visionary Fellowship, disabled artists like Bode and filmmaker Katherine Craft offer a template for accessibility in Hollywood.
www.latimes.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:04 AM
wife guy here, please read about @katcraft.bsky.social’s short film The Hog Queen, which is incredibly cool and had a number of disabled filmmakers on both sides of the camera!!! www.latimes.com/entertainmen...
Reposted by Asher Elbein
PORN IS ART, PORN IS GOOD, PEOPLE MAKING PORN IS A SIGN OF A HEALTHY SOCIETY
There has been a noticeable reticence in left and liberal circles to voice full-throated support for pornography, even as it's become increasingly clear what the open end goals of the censorship movement are
In a lot of ways other leftists chose this path folks. They shrugged and didn’t care when Patreon banned a ton of hypnosis and TF creators, or when YouTube started their ASMR crackdown. Now it’s coming for queer porn creators, more and more. Who will stand up?
November 13, 2025 at 11:59 PM
PORN IS ART, PORN IS GOOD, PEOPLE MAKING PORN IS A SIGN OF A HEALTHY SOCIETY
Reposted by Asher Elbein
Reposted by Asher Elbein
Let’s effing go libs and leftists. We have a right to porn and it promoted human flourishing like any other genre
There has been a noticeable reticence in left and liberal circles to voice full-throated support for pornography, even as it's become increasingly clear what the open end goals of the censorship movement are
In a lot of ways other leftists chose this path folks. They shrugged and didn’t care when Patreon banned a ton of hypnosis and TF creators, or when YouTube started their ASMR crackdown. Now it’s coming for queer porn creators, more and more. Who will stand up?
November 13, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Let’s effing go libs and leftists. We have a right to porn and it promoted human flourishing like any other genre
There has been a noticeable reticence in left and liberal circles to voice full-throated support for pornography, even as it's become increasingly clear what the open end goals of the censorship movement are
In a lot of ways other leftists chose this path folks. They shrugged and didn’t care when Patreon banned a ton of hypnosis and TF creators, or when YouTube started their ASMR crackdown. Now it’s coming for queer porn creators, more and more. Who will stand up?
November 13, 2025 at 11:46 PM
There has been a noticeable reticence in left and liberal circles to voice full-throated support for pornography, even as it's become increasingly clear what the open end goals of the censorship movement are
People in institutions facing a legitimacy crisis fail to understand that while their individual actions can often be reasonable and well-considered, it *does not matter,* because a long series of larger actions have wholly eroded people's willingness to believe the institution is a good actor
November 13, 2025 at 9:41 PM
People in institutions facing a legitimacy crisis fail to understand that while their individual actions can often be reasonable and well-considered, it *does not matter,* because a long series of larger actions have wholly eroded people's willingness to believe the institution is a good actor
Thread.
More than anything else, powerful men - like the ones who run the NYT - believe in the legitimacy of power itself. Because if it isn’t legitimate, they have to start asking hard questions about the world and themselves.
November 13, 2025 at 9:13 PM
Thread.
Reposted by Asher Elbein
As I have been working with mammals a lot lately, I have had a lot of thoughts about how fur, feathers, or any other filaments affect the silhouette.
A coelophysis with feathers and without. Two completely different animals.
A coelophysis with feathers and without. Two completely different animals.
November 13, 2025 at 4:43 PM
As I have been working with mammals a lot lately, I have had a lot of thoughts about how fur, feathers, or any other filaments affect the silhouette.
A coelophysis with feathers and without. Two completely different animals.
A coelophysis with feathers and without. Two completely different animals.
I get why this happens, but I find it personally frustrating that Society of Vertebrate Paleontology presentations are now, by and large, embargoed from people tweeting about them
November 13, 2025 at 8:54 PM
I get why this happens, but I find it personally frustrating that Society of Vertebrate Paleontology presentations are now, by and large, embargoed from people tweeting about them
Oh, this is super cool!
SVPers, come see my work on pterosaurs from Appalachia: several new morphotypes of pteranodontians and azhdarchoids.
Thursday Poster Session B199 #2025SVP
Thursday Poster Session B199 #2025SVP
November 13, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Oh, this is super cool!
Reposted by Asher Elbein
An early Triassic bone bed excavated at 78°N changes the story about how marine life recovered after the most cataclysmic extinction in Earth history ~252 million years ago.
Learn more in this week's issue of Science: https://scim.ag/48bLsGI
Learn more in this week's issue of Science: https://scim.ag/48bLsGI
November 13, 2025 at 7:05 PM
An early Triassic bone bed excavated at 78°N changes the story about how marine life recovered after the most cataclysmic extinction in Earth history ~252 million years ago.
Learn more in this week's issue of Science: https://scim.ag/48bLsGI
Learn more in this week's issue of Science: https://scim.ag/48bLsGI
Reposted by Asher Elbein
in online corners like these I think people largely recognize how credulous, unprincipled opposition to "wokeness" functioned as lightly papered over defenses of impunity, but it's one of those drums people should probably start beating for normies
Something absolutely perfect about Larry Summers riffing about the scourge of woke cancel culture being unfair to predatory men in a friendly email to his pal JEFFREY EPSTEIN.
November 13, 2025 at 2:13 PM
in online corners like these I think people largely recognize how credulous, unprincipled opposition to "wokeness" functioned as lightly papered over defenses of impunity, but it's one of those drums people should probably start beating for normies