Asher Elbein
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asherelbein.bsky.social
Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
19K followers 2.4K following 26K posts
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)
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asherelbein.bsky.social
Al Ewing's affection for the Blue Streak is one of my favorite running gags in his lighter cape comics. I laughed when I got to this page turn
November 12, 2025 at 1:38 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
The "bisexual" bit is a very dumb rhetorical flourish! But this, to me, is the meat of what she's saying, and I just find it hard to get het up about her saying "voters, including our base, should feel like we like them"
November 12, 2025 at 12:17 AM
asherelbein.bsky.social
People are claiming that Sara McBride compare "bipartisanship" to bisexuality. I was curious, so I went and looked at the actual article (which many people did not link.) And I gotta be honest: that feels like the most bad-faith possible reading of her actual comments

www.yahoo.com/news/article...
Sarah McBride explains how Democrats’ ‘big tent is bisexual’ "“It’s true,” McBride, the first out trans member of Congress, said. “Voters fundamentally ask two questions: Does this candidate like me? And what does this candidate think? If you can’t answer the first question, they never get to the second.” She paused before adding, “You can’t build a diverse working class coalition if people don’t feel like you like them. And that means not being assholes to our base either.” The standing-room-only audience laughed as she then went further. “A big tent,” she said, pausing for effect, “is bisexual.” The laughter turned into cheers. “That means it goes both ways,” she continued. “It starts with us being kind to one another, being respectful to one another, and being welcoming to one another.'"
November 12, 2025 at 12:00 AM
asherelbein.bsky.social
✨Research✨
November 11, 2025 at 1:27 AM
asherelbein.bsky.social
Hard mode: do not invoke Indiana Jones
November 10, 2025 at 4:09 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
Late-afternoon herping walk! In addition to a ton of narrowmouth toads and cliff-chirping frogs under various boards, I found a handsome and feisty rat snake, a big sleepy whiptail, and a wary diamondback rattler. (Plus a nearby rattler snakeskin which might have been theirs, which I took home.)
November 9, 2025 at 1:05 AM
asherelbein.bsky.social
The question in conjunction with the existence of the Least weasel, of course, is this: what is the Most weasel

(Most people would say wolverine, but I think for my money it's the Amazonian giant river otter. They almost clear six feet!)
November 8, 2025 at 10:09 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
There are people out here who apparently *cannot grasp* that remarking about or observing something isn't the same thing as being surprised about it. Poor souls! Lost in a world where every other human is a perpetual naif
November 8, 2025 at 5:24 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
I will not be posting myself from a different era. As far as you all are concerned, I was always this way
November 7, 2025 at 4:57 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
Also, even if you take the most maximally pessimistic view of Jewish history, diasporic thinking has long been -- as my brother wrote recently -- the shield of the Jews. They can't get you all if you're not all in the same place!

heat-death.ghost.io/the-myths-of...
November 6, 2025 at 1:45 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
Look, I'm a natural history guy so I don't want to get out over my skis here, but given the ongoing reproducibility crisis and stuff like this, I have to ask: is Social Psychology... real
"In 1954, Dorothy Martin predicted an apocalyptic flood and promised her followers rescue by flying saucers. When neither arrived, she recanted, her group dissolved, and efforts to proselytize ceased. But When Prophecy Fails (1956), the now-canonical account of the event, claimed the opposite: that the group doubled down on its beliefs and began recruiting—evidence, the authors argued, of a new psychological mechanism, cognitive dissonance. Drawing on newly unsealed archival material, this article demonstrates that the book's central claims are false, and that the authors knew they were false. The documents reveal that the group actively proselytized well before the prophecy failed and quickly abandoned their beliefs afterward. They also expose serious ethical violations by the researchers, including fabricated psychic messages, covert manipulation, and interference in a child welfare investigation. One coauthor, Henry Riecken, posed as a spiritual authority and later admitted he had “precipitated” the climactic events of the study."
November 6, 2025 at 12:14 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
Let us together contemplate the stages of pundit grief

1. It's Inconcievable
2. It Can't Happen
3. It Won't Happen
4. It's Unlikely To Happen
5. It Must Not Happen
6. *%&&*Q$#!!
7. Pffft. It Doesn't Matter That It Happened
November 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
Yes, that's what the people who read Teen Vogue long for: content that focuses on "career development." Great change. No notes

www.vogue.com/article/teen...
As a dedicated pillar on Vogue, Teen Vogue will focus its content on career development, cultural leadership and other issues that matter most to young people, according to the publication.
November 3, 2025 at 7:26 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
This Washington Post article about MAGA people trying and failing to date in Washington is...really something

www.removepaywall.com/search?url=h...
When Morgan Housley, 29, moved to Washington for her job in April, she had some non-negotiables for the conservative man she was looking to date: He had to “love the Lord,” genuinely enjoy going to church, and be able to “provide and protect, emotionally, physically, spiritually, all of those things.” A fit, athletic man she could go on runs with. So far, Mr. Right has not materialized. Instead, many of the single MAGA men she’s seen are … “Not fit, workaholics and not taking finding a wife seriously,” Housley says. If she had it her way, she would be married and expecting her first kid. She says a lot of her colleagues at the American Principles Project, a conservative advocacy group whose website says “in order to save America — we have to save the family,” are settling down and having children. But it’s rough out there. When we reached Housley by phone, and she told a co-worker that she was discussing dating in D.C., a voice at the other end of the line could be heard saying, “Oh nooooo!” So, that’s where we are. “I felt like, being in conservative politics, there would be more, like, masculine men in the conservative movement,” Housley says, “and I find that a lot of them aren’t as masculine as I would have hoped.”
November 3, 2025 at 2:00 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
This Halloween, I am…

…Sexy Legally Generic Urban Fantasy Protagonist!
A man in black pants, a black vest, a trench coat, black hat, and gnarled staff. He looks like a noir guy who is also a wizard. Draw your own conclusions
November 2, 2025 at 4:16 AM
asherelbein.bsky.social
Most modern fantasy writers would answer this question, whether or not they'd given it much thought. Sapkowski flatly will not and resents you asking him about it
Q: Hello Mister Sapkowski, How do gnomes and dwarves live together in Mahakam (especially in the capital)? Do they live in a big city together, or do gnomes have their own place? Or is it one on top, the other below? A: No idea. None of the plots I've created required such information, so there hasn't been any, and there probably never will be. To clarify for the future, which would also apply to other questioners: please ask me about what is in the books, not about what is not. If something isn't there, it's for two reasons: a. the reader doesn't need that information because it is not essential to the plot, b. the author intends for that information to remain a secret from the reader. In both cases, as you can probably understand, I won't answer any questions.
November 1, 2025 at 4:45 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
Tyrannosaurs are a bit unusual for theropod dinosaurs in having more binocular vision, which means you can get that real double-barrel penetrating stare that, in my opinion, paleoartists don't really take advantage of enough. (This John Conway T.rex is a great example.)
October 31, 2025 at 9:19 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
A 1990s Wayne Barlow depiction of Nanotyrannus, which is a bit out of date now -- in terms of musculature, to say nothing of the question of feathers -- but still marvelously evocative, well-observed and intimidating. Barlow makes tricky anatomy look easy!
October 31, 2025 at 9:15 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
I love him. I would kill for him. I would die for him
a render of the herbivorous cretaceous crocodile simosuchus oh my god who's a GOOD BOY
October 31, 2025 at 7:34 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
This is Chip Zdarsky's first Big Event Comic, right? Historically an extraordinarily tricky sort of story to land, and I'll be interested to see how he manages
October 31, 2025 at 7:17 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
This @witmerlab.bsky.social piece about l'affair Nanotyrannus is extremely sharp and even-handed about some of the dynamics that made this particular argument so contentious and -- occasionally -- bitter

rdcu.be/eNv94
The following key question can now be asked. Why, even before the discovery of NCSM 40000, did a scientific consensus consolidate so quickly around the hypothesis that all Nanotyrannus specimens are juvenile T. rex, especially given the well-known short-comings that should, at least, have dictated more caution?That’s a question perhaps more suited to historians or sociologists, but fascinat-ing, if uncomfortable, issues abound. For example, some advocates for the validity of Nanotyrannus do not have advanced degrees or are not employed by universities or museums, raising the spectre of the role of influence, elitism and the protective ivory tower of academia. Other factors to consider are the related issues of commercial fossil collecting and the ethics of studying fossils that are in pri-vate hands rather than public museums. Many specimens relevant to this debate were commercially collected and remain privately... held, and many of these have come to attention thanks to social media, auction catalogues and television documentaries. The ethics policies of some professional societies and journals oppose the publication of studies about specimens in private collections for valid reasons, such as issues relating to access and reproducibility of results11, although there is the conflicting ethical concern about wilfully ignoring relevant scientific data12. All of these issues have affected the Nanotyrannus debate, but it’s also probable that the consensus emerged quickly simply because it was so useful to finally have what were deemed juvenile T. rex specimens, despite the persistent concerns of a minor-ity of scientists. Given the investment in the consensus view, that side is unlikely to go down without a fight, but this exceptionally researched study by Zanno and Napoli puts Nanotyrannus on a solid foundation.
October 30, 2025 at 10:00 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
I cannot express to you how cute some of the images in this piece on snake sociability are. Look at these prairie rattlesnake pups huddling on a female who is likely their mother!

www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti...
a big mottled orange and brown rattlesnake sits in coil amid the rocks and greenery. Four hatchling rattlesnakes are coiled on top of her, one of them nestled way down in her coils. They are all extremely cute.
October 29, 2025 at 12:25 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
You should take better care of your internet security then, because someone's been posting that the Nazis have the right idea from your account
October 26, 2025 at 4:31 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
This is just really cool, you know?
October 23, 2025 at 8:47 PM
asherelbein.bsky.social
I want to really, really emphasize how clear our pitch guidelines at HEAT DEATH have been about not sending us anything generated by AI, and how much that has not appeared to matter
Do not use Generative AI to write your pitch or essay. Seriously, don't try it. We will be able to tell if you are doing so, and will regard it as an insult to our time and to the larger newsletter project. Heat Death is a newsletter by humans, for humans. If you can't write your own pitch – or your own piece – go elsewhere.
October 21, 2025 at 6:40 PM