Karl Hall

Historian of science, esp. Central and Eastern Europe and Russia. @CeuHistory Documenting contagious historical humor for the pandemically confined since 2020.

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

A long 🧵 indeed: Part 3 on the Russo-Japanese war...

[Joe G @EastEndJoe]

Perfectly expressed!

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

This miserable fraud has poisoned the national conversation about lifesaving vaccines with his conspiracy theories, but he is also doing so much more to destroy science and progress.

This will grind lifesaving research to a halt and set us back decades for no good reason.

[History of Science in CESEE @hpscesee]

Call for Proposals: 2026 Joint Meeting of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS) and History of Science Society (HSS), Scotland, 13-16 July 2026

Link to the full Call For Proposals is available here<https://t.co/4Lq3rELmJq>

[Bart Staszewski @BartStaszewski]

It’s confirmed that Victor Obram will join Budapest Pride

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

@RepBaumgartner

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

As Americans celebrate Juneteenth, I want to say: Trump can try to erase whatever history he doesn't like, and he can try to brand "diversity" as something bad.

But he won't succeed.

We'll remember ALL of our history and affirm that diversity is our strength here in America.

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

@RepBaumgartner

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

My message to @SecretaryWright: Your budget cuts BILLIONS from research to manufacturing, & it will RAISE energy bills.

With Trump's budget, the only energy we are going to save is from the lights that go out at factories across the country.

Congress should rip this budget up.

[Dominique Kirchner Reill @DominiqueReill]

July 17-19 Central European History Convention (CEH-C) panel program is out, featuring 55 panels. Keynotes by Peter Haslinger, Tara Zahra, + 3 panels dedicated to work of Pieter Judson, with receptions galore! It's going to be SOMETHING! More soon! Share! https://t.co/FjAvML3nvQ

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

Burnett's essay is both welcome and insightful, but the faulty abstraction of "the total archive" troubles me. It represents a massive distortion of what AI "knows," especially beyond the English-language corpus. The machines are leaving a lot of us out, in epistemic labor.

[B. Harun Küçük @bharunkucuk]

Yes, I have felt like a time traveler at times. What is happening at American universities also has striking similarities to what happened at Bogazici.

[Kevin Hall @KevinH_PhD]

After 21 years at my dream job, I’m very sad to announce my early retirement from the National Institutes of Health. My life’s work has been to scientifically study how our food environment affects what we eat, and how what we eat affects our physiology. Lately, I’ve focused on unravelling the reasons why diets high in ultra-processed food are linked to epidemic proportions of chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. Our research leads the world on this topic.

Given recent bipartisan goals to prevent diet-related chronic diseases, and new agency leadership professing to prioritize scientific investigation of ultra-processed foods, I had hoped to expand our research program with ambitious plans to more rapidly and efficiently determine how our food is likely making Americans chronically sick.

Unfortunately, recent events have made me question whether NIH continues to be a place where I can freely conduct unbiased science. Specifically, I experienced censorship in the reporting of our research because of agency concerns that it did not appear to fully support preconceived narratives of my agency’s leadership about ultra-processed food addiction.

I was hoping this was an aberration. So, weeks ago I wrote to my agency’s leadership expressing my concerns and requested time to discuss these issues, but I never received a response. Without any reassurance there wouldn’t be continued censorship or meddling in our research, I felt compelled to accept early retirement to preserve health insurance for my family. (Resigning later in protest of any future meddling or censorship would result in losing that benefit.) Due to very tight deadlines to make this decision, I don’t yet have plans for my future career.

The NIH has been a wonderful place because it allows scientists to take risks, form unique collaborations, and do studies difficult to conduct elsewhere. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished and I’m fortunate to have had such wonderful colleagues and scientific collaborators. I hope to someday return to government service and lead a research program that will continue to provide gold-standard science to make Americans healthy.

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

@RepBaumgartner

[Sen. Maria Cantwell @SenatorCantwell]

This tariff policy disrupts an integrated economy, hurts small businesses, and disrupts what is an important opportunity for the United States to grow more jobs for the future. Building alliances and strengthening our innovation economy is what we should be doing.

[Lakota Man @LakotaMan1]

Who here agrees? 🤚🏾

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

@RepBaumgartner

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

The Trump administration ripped Kilmar Abrego Garcia off the street, ignored due process, and illegally deported him to a torture prison in El Salvador.

It is un-American, immoral, illegal, and needs to stop.

[Maria Rentetzi @mrentetz]

Are you a medical anthropologist, sts scholar or sociologist? We are hiring! Check us out @STGS_FAU

https://t.co/S6dPsvsczB

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

@RepBaumgartner

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

Trump’s trade war is all pain and no plan—and it's families and small businesses who are suffering from the rising costs.

Republicans need to join Democrats and reverse these massive taxes on working Americans.

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

The view from Vienna as the 1890 McKinley tariffs are about to be imposed: “Only fraudsters are allowed entry from Europe!”
(Kikeriki, 1890)

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

Obscure Austrian Catholic joke about Bismarck’s 1879 tariffs: You’ll love them, they come with this gift watch that let’s you turn back the clock a hundred years!
(Kikeriki, Vienna, 1879)

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

@RepBaumgartner

[Senator Patty Murray @PattyMurray]

No, the President actually does not decide how tax dollars are spent. Congress does.

It would be good if we had an Attorney General who focused on understanding the law rather than groveling and reciting lies to score points with the President.

What an embarrassing spectacle.

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

Tariff man: “Good in substance, but not much!”
The two cows: “Would you just mix the feeds for us, then things would be fine for all of us!”
(Nebelspalter, 1880)

[Karl Hall @SicTransitPest]

Protective tariffs and Free trade
(free trade cow has lots to eat, but poor quality; tariff cow has little, but good quality)
Tariff defender: “How’s it going with you, brother?”
Free trader: “Very well, but kind of pointless! And with you?” (1/2)