iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Huge congratulations to @timnitgebru.blacksky.app on being awarded the Right Livelihood Prize!!

Reposted by Per Ahlberg

Kate from Kharkiv @kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Russia struck the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kyiv. In broad daylight! People are climbing out of windows to avoid burning alive. Freaking barbarians!

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Reposted by Per Ahlberg

Joni Askola @joniaskola.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

This is what people like Le Pen, Mélenchon, Weidel, and Wagenknecht support. These traitors want to cut aid to Ukraine and see even more of this

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Waiting with a certain amount of trepidation for the end of the negotiations to form a coalition government, following the Swedish elections, when I was suddenly struck by something interesting - especially perhaps for US friends who are forced to watch in horror as the patriarchy reasserts itself

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Watching Mark Carney live, addressing the European Parliament, outlining the new Canada-EU alliance. The breadth and depth of vision is jaw-dropping. The world order is shifting on its axis.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Autumn in the garden. There are not many flowers now, but a few are at their best, one has just opened and one is still to come (so you will have to wait for that one). In the sunny south bed, the last of the dahlias - Pooh - is still in bloom.

A red dahlia flower with an inner ring of yellow petals and an orange center.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Well, we voted this morning, then headed off to the forest to look for mushrooms. And they have started to come! After a rainy week the forest soil is moist again and all of a sudden the hidden fungal diversity becomes visible. Fly agarics, Amanita muscaria, are easy to spot:

A young fly agaric poking up through the moss. The cap is bright red with white spots on the lower part. The stem is white with a frilly, hanging ring.

A fully grown fly agaric with a bright red white-spotted, disc-shaped cap.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

One thing that intrigues me about the "AI will exterminate humanity within 10 years!" panic is the hopelessly online and computer-centered vision behind it. Do they really think Amazonian tribes, or New Guinea highlanders, or Mongolian camel herders, are susceptible to extermination by AI? I don't.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Weird report in The Guardian about an Italian man apprehended smuggling the head of a "critically endangered crocodile" into Italy, and now facing a fine or prison. In fact it's an American alligator, classed as "least concern" by IUCN, & probably captive-bred. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Crocodile head found in luggage at Italian airport

Man, who had arrived in Turin from Miami via Istanbul, under investigation for smuggling and faces fine or prison

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Reposted by Per Ahlberg

Alex Winter @alexwinter.com · 08/09/2026

RT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open, period.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

I spent most of the weekend (except Saturday afternoon when I made jam) at a pottery studio in Stockholm learning to make nerikomi pottery - a traditional Japanese technique using colored clays on mosaic fashion, rather than coloured glazes. I’m pretty pleased with the results!

A shallow pottery bowl with an intricate abstract blue/white pattern.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

At last, it’s time for lingon (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), often called ‘lingonberries’ in English, though strictly speaking the correct name is the rather less inspiring ‘cowberry’. Also known as “the red gold of the forest”. The last of the Swedish forest berries to ripen.

A forest scene. In the foreground, a low bushy plant with leathery green leaves and round red berries. In the background a crouching man who’s picking.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

As the #SciArtSeptember Day 1 theme is malachite, I’m posting a fake-malachite panel on a key cabinet I made and painted back in the 90s. Because why not.

A door panel painted to resemble dark green malachite. It is set in a grey marbled surround.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Star Trek II: The Annoyance of Khan

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

🧪 The latest from the Origin of Tetrapods project! For decades our Latvian colleagues have been excavating at Pavari, a Devonian locality yielding the tetrapod Ventastega. Here's a new lungfish from the same fauna, described by @draliceclement.bsky.social and the rest of us.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Hi, I’m seagulls on the runway at Akureyri Airport!

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

🧪Another open-access paper from our lab came out a while ago but I forgot to post a link, so here it is. Ossification of the pectoral fin skeleton of a phylogenetically basal stem lungfish. Based on the same material as my very first paper, from 1989! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.com

Ossification of the pectoral fin of Glyptolepis groenlandica: implications for the evolution of the lungfish appendicular skeleton - Developmental Biology Advances

Developmental Biology Advances - Lungfishes are commonly considered to be the sister group to tetrapods. They appeared around 415 million years ago, then rapidly evolved, diversified and spread....

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

🧪I'm delighted to present a new open-access paper from our team, describing the contents of a fish coprolite assemblage from the beginning of the Late Devonian, about 382-380 million years old, in northern Russia. Data collected in happier days before the war. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Investigating a Devonian vertebrate assemblage with synchrotron microtomography of coprolites - Scientific Reports

Scientific Reports - Investigating a Devonian vertebrate assemblage with synchrotron microtomography of coprolites

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Bilberries: endgame. We returned to the forest armed with berrypickers for a final serious blitz that would yield enough for a batch of jam.

A close-up of a berrypicker: a red plastic scoop with black metal teeth that ‘comb’ the berries from the plant. Shown with a bilberry plant carrying dark blue berries.

Me crouching on the forest floor, using the berrypicker.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Quiz time! What links these two photos? @demiurg.bsky.social knows, but can anyone else figure it out?

A statue of Engelbrekt, who led a 15th century rebellion against the king.

A plant with yellow flowers and purple bracts, called “natt och dag” (night and day) in Swedish.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

@christophermberry.bsky.social, here’s one for you! We were in Stockholm today and were lucky to catch the departure of SS Blidösund, built in 1910, one of very few archipelago steamers that hasn’t been converted to diesel. Enjoy!

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

In the lovely city of Örebro today, with @janetahlberg.bsky.social. The city center is dominated by the looming bulk of the castle, medieval with later additions.

An older couple standing in front of a castle. Both are wearing sun hats.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

The Swedish Football Association has declared that it has no confidence in Infantino. 👍

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Out in the forest again for more bilberries, and this time we chanced upon a stand of peach-leaved bellflower (stor blåklocka in Swedish), Campanula persicifolia. It was the favourite flower of my grandfather, Rudolf Forssell (born 1889), and always flowers around his birthday.

A stand of tall blue bellflowers, each stalk carrying 3-5 flowers, against a background of greenery and fallen tree trunks.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Artificial grass. Fake ‘antique patina’ and hand-tool marks on machine-made modern junk. Failure to distinguish between ‘principle’ and ‘principal’. Sorry, couldn’t stop at one.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Having seen Nolan's Odyssey today, in its IMAX glory, I'm minded to share my thoughts about it. My qualifications for joining the furious hubbub are an interested-amateur knowledge of Greek mythology and Bronze Age archaeology, and...err...that's it. But lack of expertise hasn't stopped anyone else,

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Off to the local forest today with @janetahlberg.bsky.social to pick bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus).

A forest scene with spruce trees in the background and a smoothly rounded rocky outcrop in the foreground. A man in a red plaid shirt (me) is walking purposefully away from the camera, along the spine of the rocky outcrop.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Dahlias on the kitchen table. From left to right, Bishop of York, Mexican Star, Bishop of Oxford. Cut and arranged by @janetahlberg.bsky.social

A clear glass vase on a wooden table, containing (from left to right) a yellow, a dark red and an orange Dahlia flower.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

A bit of a tough day for various reasons, but at least there are water lilies! James Brydon.

Photo looking straight down into a pink water lily. All you can see is pink petals around a circle of orange stamens in the middle.

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Reposted by Per Ahlberg

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 21/07/2026

1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.

arxiv.org

The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science

As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...

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Reposted by Per Ahlberg

Lena Struwe @drgentian.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

"Hence our dismal conclusion: rather than finding that LLMs free us to do a better job of what we were doing before they came along, they shift scientific incentives (and the playing field of academic competition) in ways that compel us to do more and more, faster and faster, less and less well."

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

When the prison guard throws the switch, of course.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

The strangest thing happened today. We went to the uninhabited island of Lunga, west of Mull, to look at the puffins nesting there. I was just taking photos when I felt a thump as something landed quite heavily in my head. It was a puffin! It stayed for about a minute before flying off.

A man with his back to the camera, wearing a blue jacket and a grey woolen hat. A puffin is sitting on top of his head. On the left, an arm holding a mobile phone can be seen. In the background, a green slope and the sea beyond.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

@irishrainforest.bsky.social, here’s one for you! We are on Mull, staying in Tobermory, and the local rainforest is gorgeous. Small hazel and birch, occasional large oak and sycamore, and carpets of ferns and mosses everywhere.

A wet, tangled forest of small multi-stemmed trees. The ground is covered with ferns.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Now the other water lily is out! This is Arc-en-ciel, named for its supposed rainbow colour though it mostly looks white to me. Lovely anyway.

A white water lily with narrow petals, against a background of dark water.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Some roses, because it’s rose season. Rosa gallica var. Officinalis, the Apothecary’s Rose, also the Red Rose of Lancaster. Perhaps the oldest rose in cultivation. The camera struggles to capture its extraordinarily intense colour.

Two intensely coloured reddish-pink rose flowers against a background of green foliage.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

High summer is here, hot and humid, as we get a lick (but thankfully no more than that) of the infernal heat wave that’s tormenting continental Europe. The pond looks like a documentary from the Pantanal. And the first water lily has opened! The lovely James Brydon. Golden lily in background.

A pond covered in water lily pads, with a single pink flower in the middle. In the background a pair of white garden chairs and a clump of lilies with small golden-orange flowers.

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Reposted by Per Ahlberg

Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Only it doesn't. It doesn't upend anything, because NOBODY in the early tetrapods research community believed that all early tetrapods had a tadpole-like larval stage or that this was a key enabler of the transition to land. I have been at the heart of this community for 40 years and I KNOW.😡

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Husaby Church, near Kinekulle. The place where king Olof Skötkonung converted to Christianity and was baptized in 1008. The tower is late 11th century, possibly the oldest stone building in Sweden (excluding Skåne, which was Danish then). And yes, it really looks like this! No filter.

A fairytale tower with three pinnacles, seemingly rising out of a sea of daisies and framed by verdant foliage.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

On the road back home, stopped off in the town Lidköping for lunch in its lovely 17th century Old Town Hall. But what’s this? A plaque on the wall points to a nightmarish revenant from 20th century British horror fiction.

A multistory, almost pagoda-like, red wooden building with black shingle roofs. In front, an expanse of lawn edged by flower beds.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Off on a cruise into the Gothenburg archipelago on the S:t Erik, built in 1881. Long since converted from steam to diesel, alas, but you can’t have everything.

A white vintage steamer with a brown wooden superstructure and a red-and-black funnel, lying at the quayside. In the background the masts of a tall ship.

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Per Ahlberg @perahlberg.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

As a slight tweak on the theme, here are three perfect covers, all from the golden years of the late 60s: 1. Joe Cocker - “With a little help from my friends” 2. Janis Joplin - “Summertime” 3. Jimi Hendrix - “All along the watchtower”

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