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Asher Elbein@asherelbein.bsky.social |
1778 followers 754 following 5209 posts
Freelance writing about the wild, old and dead. (Plus comics.) Bylines in The New York Times, SciAm, Undark, Texas Monthly, and lots of other places. Repped by @desir.ee at Looking Glass Literary.
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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My latest! Researchers found an extremely weird relative of land vertebrates that was a.) 20 million years later than expected b.) three times the size of the rest of its family and c.) the ecological equivalent of discovering a crocodile species in Manatoba 🧪🐸🎁🦖
3 replies 14 reposts 49 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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The good news: I successfully saw water monitors in the wild for the first time! The bad news: they were far away and I didn’t bring my binoculars. Might as well have been looking at sea serpents 😭
0 replies 0 reposts 12 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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The only one of these in a while that I just could not be assed to watch. It looked too stupid, which is really saying something!
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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My beloved Indonesian partner has come around to genuine enthusiasm about most reptiles over the course of our relationship, but her aversion to cecak kecil goes to the bone
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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They get decently bigger than that — bigger than the Mediterranean house geckos you find in America and Europe, anyway — but the babies are *miniscule*
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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The face of a man who had not slept in 24 hours and had received the shot of the energy that only seeing an unfamiliar (to him) lizard in the wild can provide
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Hello from Jakarta, and to the first lizard of the Indonesian trip! It’s a baby cecak, aka the Asian house gecko — an incredibly common species found all over the region, even in seemingly inhospitable apartment blocks. Their names in both Bahasa and English come from the sound of their chirps!
3 replies 0 reposts 18 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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This is one of those stories that’s hard to quickly summarize but does actually have major implications for what we know about land vertebrate evolution. Give it a read!
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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My latest! Researchers found an extremely weird relative of land vertebrates that was a.) 20 million years later than expected b.) three times the size of the rest of its family and c.) the ecological equivalent of discovering a crocodile species in Manatoba 🧪🐸🎁🦖
3 replies 14 reposts 49 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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…no?! This is the first I’m hearing about it!
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Speaking as someone who’s super anxious: I’m going to do my level best just to post Indonesia stuff for a few weeks, and ignore American politics to the extent of my ability. The situation is clear, I recognize it, and it will (alas) still be here when I get back. No reason to cook my brain in it
1 replies 0 reposts 20 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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I just hit this point, too. Things are at a dangerous point, but I think we are all making each other insane
0 replies 4 reposts 15 likes
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Faine Greenwood
@faineg.bsky.social
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This man is making his evil intentions as crystal-clear as they possibly could be, and everyone who cares about humanity should be blasting that message out in every possible venue.
49 replies 636 reposts 1675 likes
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b-boy bouiebaisse
@jbouie.bsky.social
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these people do not intend to ever lose power again
136 replies 1276 reposts 4070 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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The Singaporean airport really is a remarkable pleasant space to be in — spacious, lots of huge windows, nice architecture, and plants literally everywhere
1 replies 1 reposts 14 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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It is so easy not to do this
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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She just keeps digging!
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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The giant jungle garden attached to the Singapore Airport? Folks…It’s good
1 replies 8 reposts 60 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Journalists should not be stenographers, but a single ounce of social and political awareness really is not too much to ask
1 replies 1 reposts 11 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Journalists should not be stenographers, but a single ounce of social and political awareness really is not too much to ask
1 replies 1 reposts 11 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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If this iteration of the Republic does indeed fall, there will be a fair amount of blame to go around. But I, personally, will never forget or forgive the feckless and destructive news companies and journalists who helped it to happen
3 replies 6 reposts 40 likes
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b-boy bouiebaisse
@jbouie.bsky.social
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very much reflective of the lack of any real survival instinct among journalists that they think the big story today is whether biden will step down
43 replies 423 reposts 2177 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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After a 15 hour flight, I’d be pretty mad if it were the same!
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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I’m about to get on a flight to Indonesia — a whole corner of the world I’ve never gotten to visit! — where I will be meeting my partner’s family, visiting ecosystems I’ve only read about, and seeing totally foreign species of lizards. (It is, however, a 15 hour flight. Prayers up, please)
4 replies 0 reposts 23 likes
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Popehat
@kenwhite.bsky.social
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There are two elements to the immunity decision that are particularly extreme in a way that many will miss: (1) motive is irrelevant and (2) immune acts are not just excluded from prosecution, they’re excluded from evidence. /1
50 replies 905 reposts 2436 likes
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Proof of Burden
@proofofburden.bsky.social
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The paraphrase in #2 here is both why I wouldn't have them say it and why you all need to calm the fuck down; Biden's deputy campaign manager didn't say that, that's a whole 'nother sentence
3 replies 7 reposts 32 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Part of the joy of Hellboy comics is that various supernatural factions are tripping over one another to recruit or use him, and completely failing to understand that he has no interest in being recruited or used
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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hola, mi nombre es francine pants
@robertjbennett.bsky.social
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“No kings in America” is a great slogan
7 replies 73 reposts 300 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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I’m not convinced about the color grading or direction, but “single Hellboy adventure unrelated to a broader story” is a pretty damn appealing offering
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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This raises an interesting question for performers, to wit: would you create art that you yourself cannot consume?
2 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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The Supreme Court has put a gun on the table, yes. The question now is which man gets the chance to grab it, and that is a decision with genuine consequences
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Consider: lizard
2 replies 2 reposts 84 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Yeah. All they really had to do was send the thing back down the pipe if they wanted to bail Trump out this year and take no other position on the matter. That is...not how Roberts has decided to play it
0 replies 0 reposts 4 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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I'm not sanguine about this -- I am, in fact, very worried and distressed -- but this is not the action of a political faction that feels at all secure and powerful
1 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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They're trying to overtly tip the scales, and the price of that is being seen to overtly tip the scales. And if they win, well, it'll have worked. But if they don't, I think it could to go very badly for them
1 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Like, the last thing you want to do in the situation is scare liberals into mobilizing against you *again* on top of what they did with Dobbs, and it would have been pretty easy to soft-pedal rescuing him in a way that doesn't make you look overtly and contemptuously in the tank for him
1 replies 0 reposts 22 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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The safer and arguably more effective move here was to write an opinion saying "presidential immunity? hmm. Much to consider. Very serious. We would like the lower court to consider these questions but otherwise we are taking no position"
2 replies 0 reposts 22 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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It's a hell of a gamble on the Supreme Court's part, and I can't tell if it's coming because they genuinely think they're going to get their thousand year reich or because they're terrified they won't
2 replies 0 reposts 28 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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I'm not saying you're a wrecker and a fed, but you're sure posting like a wrecker and a fed
0 replies 0 reposts 7 likes
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The Silvered Spherical Ideal Median Voter
@swolecialism.bsky.social
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frankly, the first defeat that we can hand them, in November, is the easiest possible one we are going to be offered, and we'd be fools not to make it happen.
15 replies 371 reposts 1229 likes
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Michael Tae Sweeney
@mtsw.bsky.social
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Always telling on which subjects you are allowed to use editorializing opinion language like "debacle" on the news side!
8 replies 28 reposts 216 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Power doesn't panic!
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Or what they've opened the door to if the increasingly dictatorial presidency ever does end up in the hands of somebody who isn't part of their conservative gang!
0 replies 0 reposts 8 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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I will be voting for Biden in November to block Trump from re-ascending to power. No kings in America.
1 replies 10 reposts 34 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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Resist inevitability. It doesn't exist. It's an invention of people trying to convince you to shut up and go along so that they don't have to fight you, because fighting is hard and there's generally a very good possibility that they'll lose
1 replies 21 reposts 55 likes
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Asher Elbein
@asherelbein.bsky.social
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This whole thread is good, and this, to my mind, is the key point: actions like this are an attempt to pretend that the game is over, when the ball is very much still in play. Trump's faction is gambling because they're standing on a knife edge. It doesn't have to work.
2 replies 22 reposts 62 likes
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Emissary Of Night | ليلى
@diplomatofnight.com
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The 1912 platform of the Socialist Party of America called for "the abolition of the power usurped by the Supreme Court of the United States to pass upon the constitutionality of . . . legislation enacted by Congress," and "term limits for all judges, “ as well as changes to the amendment process.
1 replies 39 reposts 150 likes
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NTP_Nate 2.0
@ntpnate.bsky.social
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No kings in America, be they Executive or Judicial.
1 replies 8 reposts 19 likes
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The Silvered Spherical Ideal Median Voter
@swolecialism.bsky.social
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a vote for the Democratic candidate is, among many other things that are also good, a vote for being allowed to continue to vote in the future
1 replies 32 reposts 174 likes
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Tom Scocca
@tomscocca.bsky.social
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Clarence Thomas unquestionably committed tax fraud on his motorcoach deal and the president has the power to put him in handcuffs this afternoon, in his official capacity in charge of the IRS and federal law enforcement
45 replies 623 reposts 2557 likes