Elizabeth Preston
@inkfish.bsky.social
Science journalist, humor writer and aspiring cephalopod. Boston-adjacent. Author of THE CREATURES' GUIDE TO CARING, out now! elizabethgpreston.com elizabethgpreston.substack.com
Please enjoy this video, recorded in Wellfleet, MA, of a fiddler crab defending his hole against another fiddler crab who wants to be in that hole (and seems to forget, for most of the dispute, that he has a beefy arm): 🧪🦀
Child: Look, it's a red Mazda 3 like ours! But it has a roof rack. Me: That's sexual dimorphism. Child: Mom. Me: The rack is for carrying their young; I just don't remember which sex has it. Child: MOM STOP
People keep asking me at my book events whether animals can have pets! I've been telling them about the person who called into a radio show I was on and said that she knew a cat with a pet cockroach. 🧪
Sabrina Imbler@sabs.bsky.social · 5d agoI asked the question on everyone's lips 🐒 defector.com/can-a-monkey...
My latest newsletter is about how to uplift your friends, repel your demons, and shimmer like an Asian giant honeybee: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-shi... 🧪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLMh...
Watch these giant honeybees’ nests ‘shimmer’ | Science News
YouTube video by Science News
youtube.com
When dealing with professional jealousy, have you considered imitating the shimmering display of an Asian giant honeybee? elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-shi... 🧪
How to Shimmer Until You're Scary
Enlist your friends; repel your enemies
elizabethgpreston.substack.com
Urgent beach question: is this a shrimp? It’s jumpy! 🧪
I heard Bluesky likes crabs so here's a bucketful of fiddlers that my kids collected on the Cape yesterday. (The crabs were set free before any violence ensued. And then they all ran off in a sideways parade like 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 🦀 while the kids shrieked)
Reminds me of the long-tailed giant ichneumon wasps This one from about 10 years ago in my yard, ovipositing
Bug people: This construction vehicle in my neighborhood was reminding me of something, and I thought it was some insect's proboscis, but maybe it was dragonflies mating? Please weigh in. 🧪
As respectful as we can possibly be while discussing animal babies and boinking. 🧪
Porter Square Books in Cambridge & Boston@portersqbooks.bsky.social · 2w agoTonight in Cambridge at 7PM Elizabeth Preston and Perrin Roosevelt Ireland discuss their books The Creatures Guide to Caring and Poking the Squid, respectively. (I assume they'll also be discussing respectfully)
Camberville!! I’m so excited to be at @portersqbooks.bsky.social tomorrow night, teaming up with my pal Perrin Ireland to talk about animal families and the hanky-panky that makes them. See you there? 🧪
“¿And qué es Fox One anyway?” I asked. “¿Does Sean Hannity hablar about the game and then tell ICE to deportar the team de Colombia?” I laughed so much at this: www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/i-w... @mcsweeneys.net
I Watched the Copa Mundial Non-Stop on Telemundo for Cinco Weeks and Now I Don’t Hablar Inglés Anymore
“Hola, Chad aquí, de Greenwich, Connecticut, a muy blanco área of los Estados Unidos. A few weeks ago, I decidir to watch Estados Unidos vs. Paraguay in fútb...
mcsweeneys.net
Sal visited on our walk again yesterday! I remembered to bring peanuts this time. Sal let me put them right next to her/him on this tall fence, and then called over the offspring to share
I have an exciting update (!!!) to the story I wrote for @audubon.org magazine about Sal and Pal, my sister's crow friends. For many months, my sister had fed these crows and received frequent visits in her yard. Then the birds suddenly disappeared... (1/n) www.audubon.org/magazine/are... 🧪
Are Crows Really Our Friends?
An investigation into the state of corvid–human relations.
audubon.org
short answer: no long answer: nooooooooooooo lol
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w agoCould AI be conscious?
Look, whatever's going on with you right now, I really think it would help to take a moment and consider this perfect echidna puggle. 🧪 (photo via @sandiegozoo.bsky.social)
My newsletter this week is about my habit of smashing my head against a wall (i.e. checking my book's Amazon sales ranking). Also, goats! elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-qui... 🧪
How to Quit Smashing Your Head against a Wall
No, YOU stop hitting yourself!
elizabethgpreston.substack.com
I'm at the combination apocalyptic air quality/mass diarrhea event
i love when a press release headline sounds like it was written by an aggrieved fish
Not all of an animal's evolved instincts are healthy: Goats give themselves brain damage by head-butting. Let's not be goats! elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-qui... 🧪
How to Quit Smashing Your Head against a Wall
No, YOU stop hitting yourself!
elizabethgpreston.substack.com
Head-butting goats are giving themselves traumatic brain injuries. Don't be a goat: elizabethgpreston.substack.com/p/how-to-qui... 🧪
How to Quit Smashing Your Head against a Wall
No, YOU stop hitting yourself!
elizabethgpreston.substack.com
I genuinely can’t believe this is really happening. We need the night. This is some of the most dystopian stuff I have ever seen in my entire life.
Meredith Rawls@merrdiff.bsky.social · 4w agoThanks, I *do* hate it www.pcmag.com/news/fcc-app...
Just got an email about my daughter's soccer league that began, "Here's a polished and updated version [...] that improves the flow and professionalism." Like, if you want ChatGPT to write your emails, OK whatever. But how are you putting something in my inbox without even reading it first??
When I was a children's science magazine editor we sometimes had trouble with deep-sea photos because everything looks like penises
Natasha Kindred@thehoursgodsends.bsky.social · 4w agoHorrible new bullshit from the sea every time. It’s never ‘oh we found a new pink fish that is so happy’ it’s always stuff like this, the crush-depth screw-headed dongwongler, and it’s got to have big long creepy bits. Sick of the ocean tbh.
