Per Ahlberg
@perahlberg.bsky.social
Palaeontologist at Uppsala University. Early vertebrate enthusiast. Moderately effective gardener. Views my own.🇸🇪🇺🇦🇨🇦🇬🇱
Pets and small children start disappearing in the vicinity…
November 14, 2025 at 6:07 AM
Pets and small children start disappearing in the vicinity…
Also, 80s poodle-rock hairstyles were weirdly convergent on Iron Age warrior hair.
November 11, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Also, 80s poodle-rock hairstyles were weirdly convergent on Iron Age warrior hair.
My PhD student Rebecca Sheng is attending for the first time and is presenting a poster in the Colbert Prize session on a real rarity: a new, articulated, Devonian tetrapod. So go along, be amazed, and show your appreciation!
November 11, 2025 at 7:00 AM
My PhD student Rebecca Sheng is attending for the first time and is presenting a poster in the Colbert Prize session on a real rarity: a new, articulated, Devonian tetrapod. So go along, be amazed, and show your appreciation!
Gorgeous painting! Is that Irritator in the background?
November 10, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Gorgeous painting! Is that Irritator in the background?
Gonna make a subsonic man out of you, eh?
November 10, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Gonna make a subsonic man out of you, eh?
You're not travelling at the speed of light though, are you?
November 10, 2025 at 2:48 PM
You're not travelling at the speed of light though, are you?
OK, that's a genuine surprise. One of their periodic 'non-evil' decisions intended to throw the opposition off the scent?
November 10, 2025 at 2:47 PM
OK, that's a genuine surprise. One of their periodic 'non-evil' decisions intended to throw the opposition off the scent?
And you need to go to a British newspaper to read about it. That also says something.
November 9, 2025 at 5:17 PM
And you need to go to a British newspaper to read about it. That also says something.
I think you missed the point: this, right here, is an AI image of fake flowers.
November 9, 2025 at 5:13 PM
I think you missed the point: this, right here, is an AI image of fake flowers.
But exactly how it had been done and that it was only one of a large number of similar videos (many featuring the same guy). Hopefully it will have made some viewers think.
November 9, 2025 at 2:17 PM
But exactly how it had been done and that it was only one of a large number of similar videos (many featuring the same guy). Hopefully it will have made some viewers think.
I’m pleased to say that Sweden is starting to take this seriously. Just the other evening the main TV news programme (‘Aktuellt’) ran a segment on the viral fake video of the weeping 🇺🇦 conscript, explaining in detail not only that this was 🇷🇺 propaganda featuring the face of an influencer,
November 9, 2025 at 2:17 PM
I’m pleased to say that Sweden is starting to take this seriously. Just the other evening the main TV news programme (‘Aktuellt’) ran a segment on the viral fake video of the weeping 🇺🇦 conscript, explaining in detail not only that this was 🇷🇺 propaganda featuring the face of an influencer,
In the first few centuries AD there was a ferment of ideas about who Jesus actually had been and what he had meant: a flowering of different “christianities” if you like. You could make a case that Nicean Christianity (i.e. “our version”) and Islam are the two main survivors of this flowering.
November 9, 2025 at 2:01 PM
In the first few centuries AD there was a ferment of ideas about who Jesus actually had been and what he had meant: a flowering of different “christianities” if you like. You could make a case that Nicean Christianity (i.e. “our version”) and Islam are the two main survivors of this flowering.
Totally beside the point, but I DO appreciate a passing Lovecraft reference!
November 9, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Totally beside the point, but I DO appreciate a passing Lovecraft reference!
Maybe they should look at historical precedents for what a hungry, desperate populace tend to do to their rulers once they have been pushed past the limit of endurance.
But then again, that would require them to read.
But then again, that would require them to read.
a picture of a ladder that says mnf on the top
Alt: A guillotine against an evening sky, the blade falling again and again.
media.tenor.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Maybe they should look at historical precedents for what a hungry, desperate populace tend to do to their rulers once they have been pushed past the limit of endurance.
But then again, that would require them to read.
But then again, that would require them to read.
"Small" is probably being generous.
November 8, 2025 at 1:10 PM
"Small" is probably being generous.
Ebenezer Scrooge would have called it "decreasing the surplus population."
The Ghost of Christmas Present replied thus: "It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child."
I think this is very probably true.
The Ghost of Christmas Present replied thus: "It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child."
I think this is very probably true.
November 7, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Ebenezer Scrooge would have called it "decreasing the surplus population."
The Ghost of Christmas Present replied thus: "It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child."
I think this is very probably true.
The Ghost of Christmas Present replied thus: "It may be, that in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child."
I think this is very probably true.
Oh absolutely! In fact, this makes it worse. On top of the specific actual risk of harm, there is the broader harm to our moral discourse as humans of being taken in by the mere mimicry of a literally mindless machine.
November 7, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Oh absolutely! In fact, this makes it worse. On top of the specific actual risk of harm, there is the broader harm to our moral discourse as humans of being taken in by the mere mimicry of a literally mindless machine.
And yet again, the same disastrous category error! The LLM didn't "demonstrate awareness" of anything, it just reproduced a statistical association between word strings by adults hitting on teens and other word strings by individuals discussing the illegality of such conduct. FFS!
November 7, 2025 at 10:03 AM
And yet again, the same disastrous category error! The LLM didn't "demonstrate awareness" of anything, it just reproduced a statistical association between word strings by adults hitting on teens and other word strings by individuals discussing the illegality of such conduct. FFS!
Not only intrinsically impoverished (a truth demonstrated e.g. by the observation that many concepts don’t map perfectly between languages) but with a disturbing power to shape our thinking. What could go wrong?
November 7, 2025 at 7:40 AM
Not only intrinsically impoverished (a truth demonstrated e.g. by the observation that many concepts don’t map perfectly between languages) but with a disturbing power to shape our thinking. What could go wrong?
Hey, you leapfrogged Sweden! Boo! Hiss! Obviously a corrupt fix. Somebody received a brown envelope with 200 Canadian dollars...
November 6, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Hey, you leapfrogged Sweden! Boo! Hiss! Obviously a corrupt fix. Somebody received a brown envelope with 200 Canadian dollars...
How little it takes, what a tiny provocation, to topple a well-functioning serial killer into the abyss of evil that is the Republican Party.
November 6, 2025 at 7:02 PM
How little it takes, what a tiny provocation, to topple a well-functioning serial killer into the abyss of evil that is the Republican Party.
Like they used to say: "A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury".
November 6, 2025 at 9:05 AM
Like they used to say: "A night with Venus, a lifetime with Mercury".
Indeed. Just look at George Takei’s contributions right here.
November 6, 2025 at 5:22 AM
Indeed. Just look at George Takei’s contributions right here.