*Tremendously* happy that I got to come on @xplainthexmen.bsky.social to talk about Magneto. I think it ended up being a very interesting discussion

Really, really glad we got to have this conversation with Asher.

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

Perhaps unsurprising for Miami, but I still find it notable that the three students quoted with most sexist, bigoted and antisemitic texts are named Bejerano, Gonzalez, and Valdes. As someone said recently, America is such a melting pot that these days even our white supremacists are multicultural.

This is the exact same Guy you could find 2,000 years ago as a Roman senator gleefully listing the number of Germani slain and sold into slavery, 900 years ago exulting in the sack of Jerusalem, or 100 years ago celebrating 500 yards taken on the Western Front. Timeless chickenhawk scum.

Today, the Senate had an opportunity to take a stand against this war — and almost every Senate Republican voted against it. They let us down because they care more about doing Trump's bidding than the interests of the American people.

a lot of critiques in aughts alleged that pentagon was influencing video games and in truth the relationship seems to be the other way around

I think we should just go ahead and formally abolish the Senate, because this current thing where they don't do their jobs but draw a paycheck isn't really working for me

Hard same, I know it's a marketing gimmick (I hope like most marketing gimmicks all this booktok shit evaporates in the cleansing light of day) but the "tropes checklist" is one of the worst things to happen to the public's relationship to books, every time I see it I feel the call of violence

I don’t know if this is controversial but to me [survival] sex work includes every woman who has ever had to sleep with or marry a man in order for him to provide her food, shelter, etc in order to survive

NEW: Progressive groups readying to primary Dems who break ranks on the Iran war powers vote. "If the filing deadline has passed, they'll do it in '28," one House Dem told @axios.com. Justice Dems, MoveOn & OurRevolution all firing shots across the bow. www.axios.com/2026/03/04/d...

*whispers* bitch

I don't even go here with Dark Romance, but my wife does, and we've both been spending a lot of time puzzling over this tendency of not wanting romantic characters to have friction, even when you'd think the friction would be the juicy stuff

real footage of a critic being driven slowly out of her mind

As the time to talk #SurvivingEarth nears, I wanted to say that I’m extremely proud to have been part of the amazing team who worked on it I was commissioned by Tim Haines (producer of Walking with Dinosaurs) and his team, to create the concept art for MANY animals for this project! #paleoart

This is *incredibly* cool. What a weirdo!

and finally 3) Gondwana in the Early Permian was a complex place, with a mix of forms familiar to us in Europe and North America, and some lineages with deep Gondwanan ancestry. The Pedra de Fogo records a period of time after this faunal interchange, but still preserves Gondwanan endemics.

So. Big takeaways: 1) Early Carboniferous tetrapods lived on in Gondwana. Multiple lineages and they were filling a range of ecological niches (apex predator, omnivore/herbivore). These were not simply relicts holding on until advanced tetrapods outcompeted them.

We are beset by an epidemic of people who are trying to be Cool and it is, on top of all of the hideous damage they're doing, driving me absolutely nuts

Now that the Texas Democratic primary is over, all politics-brained posters can return to focusing on the actual shitshow Democratic primary of this year: Maine

Don't let them kill free speech, call your reps ahead of Thursday when bills including KOSA will be discussed again

Crockett concedes: “This morning I called James and congratulated him on becoming the Senate nominee. Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person.” (Statement via NBC’s Priscilla Thompson)

Jasmine Crockett concedes to James Talarico this morning: “With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominee. I'm committed to doing my part and will continue working to elect Democrats up and down the ballot." #TxSen

The quoted post below *is* a major problem in Democratic primaries -- people don't or won't make explicit arguments for candidates they want to vote for, and start making shadow-boxing arguments about the rest of the electorate

If this swing holds in the November elections, Republicans may lose a Senate seat, several gerrymandered House seats, with the governorship suddenly in play. Even if it doesn’t happen, Rs will have to pump a ton of resources into the state just to hold it.

Worth revisiting this profile from last week if you haven't read it, and which is framed partially around Talarico's efforts to reach out to Black voters and leaders in the state -- something that's only going to be more important for the rest of the race

I am really, really vibing with Fraction/Jimenez's BATMAN run

The Texas Republican primary electorate will always, always, always *choose* the harder stuff

I like the implication that there's some Democrat who *wouldn't* be too radical for Texas, but honestly this is very low effort www.texastribune.org/2026/03/03/t...

Revamped Spinothingie!

Yeah, this tracks. In the last few days I saw a few Crockett signs go up on the east side around a few Black businesses (though it seemed to me they went up kind of late?) while there have been a lot of Talarico signs around the city for months. He's the hometown guy

I feel lucky in that some of my nature pieces do get some independent shares -- people often want to know about cool critters -- but this is a genuinely wearing part of the job these days

Guess we'll see how it shakes out, but even if Talarico wins clean without Dallas -- which, as of 10:07 pm CST, is looking likely -- Crockett has a right to be mad about the Texas State Supreme Court openly trying to fuck over Dallas voters. Just hoping she trains her fire in the right direction.

I think often of this one Baldwin paragraph, not specifically because of Jewish contexts but because of the assumptions that are often made about what oppression does to anyone archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes....

I wish some major media outlets would do broad reports on the impact of death threats on our politics, and on who's doing them (MAGA men mostly from what I can tell), and why law enforcement appears to be doing so little about them. They are such a big (submerged) part of our politics now.

Can someone write about the rise of Black social gospel movement Christianity in American politics? Should it be me? Cuz yall know everyone is obsessed with talking about white right wing evangelicals

I just want Henry Cuellar to lose so bad, man. I can't express how much I want that dude to lose

JUST IN: Democrat Alex Holladay has flipped a GOP-held seat in *Arkansas*. Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried hard to delay this race and wanted the seat to stay vacant for 8+ months, but the courts told her to hold it today. If she was worried, she was right to be. Our full recap:

Really proud of this piece and so thankful to all the sex workers who talked with me while I was researching! I don’t often see this framed as a speech and artistic expression issue but it is: Visa/MC are effectively crowning themselves art directors as they rip sex workers off.

The Texas Supreme Court getting involved here is dirty, dirty, dirty

This represents the big divide between how Talarico and Crockett campaigned. Crockett ran a primary-heavy campaign, betting she could boost turnout with traditional blocs within the Democratic coaliton. Talarico is using this primary as a test run to stitch disaparate parts together for a coaliton.

I really never thought I'd see the end of smilin' Sid Miller. Can't wait to see him replaced by someone ever worse

requiem for vanished birdsong

Nice to see @asherelbein.bsky.social in my mailbox!

Oh *fuck* yeah

God, this is heartbreaking.

SpaceX -- our leading producer of exploding rockets -- is trying to get its hands on more environmentally sensitive, endangered-species filled land in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. The deal is open for public comment. Please let them know what you think about this.

Batten down the hatches, non-monogamous Bluesky folks: shit's about to get very annoying

For 23 million years, temperate Europe was dominated by a mosaic of woodland-grassland biomes, shaped by large herbivores. Until human started eradicating the megafauna and closed-canopy forests took over. Paintings by Márton Zsoldos #PaleoSky 🧪 ⚒️ 🌍 🌿

When I was a kid, Cladoselache was *the* early shark. The fish was presented as an indication of how supposedly little sharks changed. Now we know that non-sharks like Cladoselache were shark-shaped and filled shark roles that more modern, actual sharks play now. Shark is just a good shape. 🦈