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Per Ahlberg

Per Ahlberg

@perahlberg.bsky.social

5.8K followers 4.3K following 3.4K posts

Palaeontologist at Uppsala University. Early vertebrate enthusiast. Moderately effective gardener. Views my own.🇸🇪🇺🇦🇨🇦🇬🇱

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 · 9h

It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that sting.🎶

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 23h

Totally. If there was ever a definitive portrayal of a character from literature, this is it.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 23h

Narrator: “When Brother Odo, a 15th century Cluniac monk from Brabant, reincarnated in late 20th century Britain, most of his past life was lost in the mists of forgetfulness. But not all of it; certain quirks and predilections survived, and would resurface in later years.”

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 1d

Well, that’s a No then.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 1d

Mechaflipper

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 1d

Feeding ONE American, it would seem. Maybe she thinks of it as an incremental approach.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 1d

Makes me think of this.

a man with long hair and a beard is looking at another man

Alt: Grima Wormtongue whispering to king Theoden.

media.tenor.com

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 1d

Also a very big part of Trump's appeal.

On a related point, these kinds of people always sneer at the concept of microaggressions, dismissing it as made up by sensitive snowflakes, but "it's just a joke!" is the archetypal microaggression: a precision dagger thrust envenomed with deniability.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

Aaaand blocked.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

"But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science."

- Winston Churchill, 1940

Only the timing was off.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

Don’t you think he might be flammable due to high alcohol content? You don’t want a fireball in the crash test lab.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

It’s fear that led them to blunder straight into the trap that now holds them fast.

I guess they thought some kind of “gentlemen’s agreement” of mutual non-aggression with Russia was possible. A disastrous misjudgment.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

I love the way rodents basically have hands.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

"Scientists say", eh?

1950s cigarette advert showing doctors recommending Lucky Strike cigarettes.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

And Shelley was a brilliant vocalist. Did you know that the stage set for their "Ozymandias" number, featuring two vast and trunkless legs of papier-maché, is widely credited as the inspiration for the Spinal Tap "Stonehenge" gag?

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

Wasn't he the drummer / lyrics writer with turn-of-the-19th-century prog-rock band Lonely Cloud and the Daffodils?

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

Hungary?

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

Yeah, look, about that; I'm sorry I made you spill your pint.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

In 1981-82 I would occasionally hang out at the Stanhope Jazz Club, a little dive in an upstairs room above a pub near Gloucester Road tube station. I have always loved Dire Straits' Sultans of Swing because it captures the mood of that kind of place so perfectly.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

The Marquee was wonderful! Went to some very sweaty gigs there.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

In my judgement it is partly repairable, but that would take a LONG time. It would require 1) comprehensive defenestration and punishment of the regime, 2) constitutional reform to prevent a criminal takeover happening again, and 3) a half-century of good governance to show the new system working.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

Those years were incredible for me. Aged 14, I had moved in 1977 from Stockholm (with a music scene that completely failed to interest me) to London. You can imagine! The first single I ever bought was Sound of the Suburbs by The Members.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsHG...

The Sound of the Suburbs - The Members . Original 7" Mix

YouTube video by The Members Official YouTube Channel

www.youtube.com

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

"Even at the age of ten
Smart boy Kevin was a smart boy then
He always beat me at Subbuteo
'Cause he "flicked to kick"
And I didn't know"

Perfection

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

That sounds horrible. My spontaneous reaction is - you should not feel shame for whatever happened. Manipulators are good at manipulation and it isn’t your fault that you didn’t see it coming. It may seem obvious in hindsight, but, well, that’s hindsight.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

At present it certainly does. And sexual predation is only part of the package, though a highly visible one. The underlying mindset is that ordinary people have no value except as prey or slaves. Your misery or death means nothing, except perhaps as a source of amusement.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 2d

Well, America could. Easily. Pity that they allowed their government to be captured by Russia without a fight.

Now they are like one of those insects driven mad and forced to act against its own interests by a parasitic fungus that controls the brain. Or a dog with rabies.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 4d

Day after day after day. Night after night after night.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 4d

Lovely! My sister lives at walking distance from that: her property actually backs onto the National Park boundary in the small village of Hädinge. I'll be going down there just before Christmas for a family meet-up.

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 4d

I would genuinely love to see a European counter-proposal on the lines of "begin your withdrawal from Ukrainian territory within 24 hours or we impose a complete maritime blockade of Russian shipping in the Baltic".

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 4d

I had a photo of the 5th century BC bronze of Zeus (or Poseidon) throwing his thunderbolt (or trident), at the National Museum in Athens, hidden in a similar fashion a couple of weeks ago. His tiny bronze willy was too much for them to cope with, apparently.