Per Ahlberg

@perahlberg.bsky.social

6.4K followers 4.7K following 4.3K posts

Palaeontologist at Uppsala University. Early vertebrate enthusiast. Moderately effective gardener. He/him. Views my own. The photo is me, not some random bloke. Background image from Ymer Island, north-East Greenland.🇸🇪🇺🇦🇨🇦🇬🇱🇪🇺🇬🇧 .. more

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Per Erik Ahlberg is a Swedish palaeontologist working with the earliest tetrapods. He took his Ph.D. in zoology at the University of Cambridge in 1989 under English palaeontologist Jenny Clack. He is currently professor at the Department of Organismal Biology, University of Uppsala. He has collaborated with Clack on a number of projects. .. more

Environmental science 27%

Chemistry 24%

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 8h

The situation is just bizarre. In my lab we use high-end desktop computers with large amounts of RAM, usually DELLs, for segmentation of synchrotron data. Over the past 6 months they have doubled in price and become almost unobtainable.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 9h

That’s interesting, JD. For our part, we would like you to stop breathing.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 9h

Yep. Trump’s an odd one: simultaneously so evil and yet so easily manipulated. We are in the hands of a malevolent five-year-old.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 9h

Oh I’m sure! I wouldn’t for a moment suggest that one shouldn’t take this vaccine. My colleague said it was pretty painful, but maybe that was just an individual thing.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 9h

There’s a dangerous desire to normalise: a difficulty to even grasp the idea that Russia (like Trump, for that matter) lies ALL THE TIME.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 9h

Absolutely, and it makes sense, given that this is a virus that lies dormant in nerve cells. Maybe it causes low-level chronic inflammation that generates cumulative damage. Wouldn’t be surprising.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 9h

We keep seeing these ”Ukrainians are losing heart and preparing to give up” headlines, always from semi-anonymous sources. At this point I just assume they are all Russian psy-ops and ignore them.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 9h

Friend of mine who had it says the after-effects are pretty brutal, so schedule a couple of days’ rest afterwards, but it’s well worth getting. I’m planning to do so later this spring. In addition to the shingles protection there’s intriguing evidence it may protect against dementia.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 11h

"Um, guys, has someone got a D20 for the saving throw?"

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 11h

And, of course, they were absolutely dependent on a particularly savage form of slavery. Granted, Athens was also a slave society, but you get the feeling that they could have fed themselves and run their society in at least a rudimentary fashion without them. Spartans would have been helpless.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 12h

In fact, it's hard to escape the thought that seizing Greenland would be part of a pincer movement against Canada.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 12h

Truth. Greenland too, of course.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 12h

"Captain, the strawberries canna take it!"

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 14h

Oxy- is superfluous.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 18h

For certain values of "honourable".

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 18h

"Welcome to Chicxulub, where Really Bad Things Happen"

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 21h

around the mid-range of the Democrats. Even our alt-right populists with neo-nazi roots, Sverigedemokraterna, are arguably to the left of much of the GOP.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 21h

It’s genuinely weird. If I look at Swedish politics, our two most conservative parties, the “Moderates” (classic conservatives with socially-conservative and neoliberal wings) and the Christian Democrats, are light-years to the left of US conservatives; on your scale they would fall somewhere

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 23h

But Faine, you don’t understand: it’s OTHER people, brown people far away, so it’s OK.

People who argue that the human population of the planet needs to be reduced, never ever see themselves as members of the cohort that needs to die. And they certainly never volunteer.