It's been a heck of a week to look at the near miraculous effects of vaccination campaigns in post-war Russia (figures specifically for RSFSR).

Yep, I've got a History degree and the lessons from it are far less predictive of what will happen in contemporary society than Gender Studies and Critical Race Theory, which are like that sports almanac in Back to the Future II.

“Supplying cannon fodder for the war is now considered the main indicator of effectiveness for Russian governors...” Expert on Russian military recruitment expects more coercion, deception, and exploitation of economic situation in the provinces in 2026.

Turns out studying philosophy is actually valuable. Philosophy majors don’t just argue well, they actually become better thinkers and do better on tests. Data from 600k students shows they outscore every other major on reasoning, curiosity and open-mindedness.

Telegram project tracking Russian war dead lists 4000 in just Saratov with 40-50 dying every week. MIA not included. (English dubbing on clip)

this is precisely it. also why i couldn't use it much at work. created more work than time it saved. gemini's new models still get about 1 in 3 knowledge requests wrong, according to google's *public* data. probably worse when you look at internal data.

This is no Hallmark Christmas story …

Thought for the Day

Putin emptied the prisons for the front lines - now those freed prisoners are returning and killing or injuring people at home - mostly family members.

Child deaths under 5 believed to be rising for first time in decades Cuts to development aid from several countries is a key factor, researchers said. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

🌟 PhD Opportunity in History of Health 🌟 Social History of Polio Vaccination in Australia, 1950 to 1970 with Prof Catharine Coleborne Newcastle (or Sydney-based) Domestic students only Applications close 30 January 2026 ❗ More information ⬇️ www.newcastle.edu.au/study/resear... #histSTM #histmed

Rare set of varied factors triggered Black Death, starting with a cluster of volcanic eruptions. arstechnica.com/science/2025...

Fabergé is in the news for sale of one of the imperial eggs - the Winter egg - which sold for $23M. You may know about the design house because of the eggs or jewelry or what not - but I want to talk about possibly the most frequently sold objects from the design house - cigarette cases. (1/6)

Russia’s demographic crisis deepens, and, yet again, the answer is to regulate women’s behaviors rather than further incentivize not just birth, but parenthood, focus on the male behaviors that have been leading to their early death, or most pressingly, end the war. (1/4)

Fabulous FREE read on the history of climate and health from the always brilliant but never social media savvy Matthew P Romaniello. Access it from @cornellupress.bsky.social here: cornellpress.manifoldapp.org/projects/eur...

An overview of NEH leadership staffing, operations, and awards since the spring — after the cancellation of many competitions and revoking of other awards, the allocation of many direct “Chairman’s grants” without any review and lacking even transparency of recipients in some cases. Gift Link.

Join up! The AAUP fights for academic freedom and protects your rights to teach difficult and challenging material.

@cornellupress.bsky.social issued Ciggy in paperback. Use the code 09WINTER and get a copy for under TWENY BUCKS! Me being campy is just a free gift with, or without, purchase.

Today's research fun fact - in the late USSR the MiG25 fighter was called a "Flying Restaurant" because the distilled alcohol used as a coolant could be consumed. Training flights were often cancelled because coolant had been drunk or sold. Feshbach and Friendly, Ecocide, 165.

History is all over this. The Soviets had one of the highest rates of doctors per capita in the world but struggled to get docs to serve outside major urban centers. Such moves will not ease a legacy of poor pay and prestige in medicine. www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/11/11/s...

AYFKM

My next book has a cover! I Will Not Abandon You is a new history of queer women under Nazism that calls for us to rethink how we understand fascist persecution as well as the very foundations of progressive politics today. You can preorder it anywhere you buy books bookshop.org/p/books/i-wi...

About 1 in 3 US Nobel prize winners are immigrants. About 1 in 4 were government employees at some point. About 44% of all Nobel prize winners were educated in US higher education. As Trump demands a Nobel prize, he is destroying the means by which America came to dominate the prizes. Sources below

The idea that the combined MMR is dangerous but separately the vaccines are fine was created out of whole cloth by Andrew Wakefield, a disgraced former doctor who had a patent on a non-combined version of the MMR. We've known his research was bunk for almost 30 years.

Russia’s body-intensive assaults part of est. 1m in losses — first a tank, then a sacrificial vehicle to draw fire and reveal defensive positions, and “Lastly, small groups of infantry are sent on one-way missions to infiltrate forest belts. ‘They clear minefields with their own bodies.’”

Hmmm.

@themoscowtimes.com put together a list of reasons not to stand too close to windows in Russia.

The @aaup.org Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom has curated practical resources for those facing threats to their academic freedom, including how to find organizations that offer legal support. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] with questions or concerns

“They’re very clear about what they want and what they thought was missing in 2024: They want leaders who will fight for everyone. … They’re very health care-oriented. … They have a clear economic agenda around affordability and making the wealthy pay what they owe in taxes.”

Just look at this school - called "The Frog" (!) in the Netherlands. That green facade generates electricity. Those are solar panels! (Photo: Solarix.)

headline: "democrats lost voters on transgender rights." the article:

New research on the dangers of vaping - “common sense tells you — your mom would tell you — that a superheated chemical inhaling right into your lungs isn’t going to be good”

According to demographer Alexei Raksha, data from one region showed “life expectancy for men dropping from 66 years in 2024 to 61 in mid-2025, while life expectancy for women held steady at 75.”

“There is further evidence of increased activation of the prefrontal cortex and the inferior frontal gyrus when interacting with cats, which is speculated to be linked to the characteristic, hard-to-predict temperament of the animal.”

"The technical skills are being provided by the machine, or by very competent people in other parts of the world who have really nailed the technical skills at a relatively low cost... I'm going to go back to curiosity and empathy." bit.ly/3FYOBPb

Here's the ultra-short read on the Mamdani logo design www.gq.com/story/zohran...

Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security.    Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations.   Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. —Harry Truman, 1952

The Baker-Burton-Smith Prize Committee of the European History Section of the Southern Historical Association is accepting nominations up to August 1 for the Charles E. Smith Prize. The prize will be awarded at the SHA meeting November 5-8, 2025 in St. Pete Beach, Florida. Find out more here:

“One study put that payback time at seven months — not bad considering the typical 20- to 25-year lifespan of a wind turbine.” Paramount this took 1 minute to find, please forward my showrunner fee. yaleclimateconnections.org/2021/06/what...

The HPV vaccine is/was on the precipice of eliminating entire classes of cancer. This is what these ghouls want to take from us.

The disgusting moves from this administration keep rolling in…. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The toys of war. “This is a protracted war, so the state and Vladimir Putin need boys, even from kindergarten, to already be preparing for the future battlefield.”

“universities contributed patents underpinning 50% of FDA-approved drugs… NIH-funded basic science has contributed to the development of more than 90% of new medicines, vaccines, and devices… 75% of scientists in America were considering leaving the country.” www.statnews.com/2025/06/06/u...

Students from National History Day competitions, events funded by the NEH and imperiled by cuts, testify as to how history helps them understand the present.

If you had told me the bitchiest moment of Pride Month would be this...

Someone lock all the Dems in a room without their phones, so they don’t somehow get in the way of what’s happening

Man it really sucks when someone just takes your government funding away out of nowhere on a whim

Trump’s proposed budget would eliminate the Fulbright exchange program. For state by state fact sheets with data you can use when calling your reps, as well as a lot of other info, check out this helpful toolkit. fulbright.org/toolkit

Baldwin to RFK Jr: "Is funding for Alzheimer's research centers DEI? Because you're holding up $65m for 14 of those centers in 9 states, including UW Madison. Is funding for cancer centers DEI? Because you're holding up $47m in cancer center support grants at 9 cancer centers in 8 states."