Jacqueline Antonovich

*peers through two holes cut in a newspaper*
www.spymuseum.org/about/career...

Quick thoughts:
*These are two huge and complex organizations. They are not part-time gigs. They deserve full-time leaders.
*You now have a single person in charge of the two largest sources of personal data in the government.
*7 IRS leaders in less than 9 months.

And I always get the: "How do you study this stuff all day and not get completely depressed??"

a baby girl is sitting on a couch with her eyes closed and making a funny face . Alt: a baby girl is sitting on a couch with her eyes closed and making a funny sleepy face .

I always have to prepare for the fact that a group of people will linger afterwards to pepper me with questions they've always wanted to ask, but never encountered a historian of medicine. It feels like being on a quiz show. I'm very tired now and want to sleep.

Every once in a while I'm asked to give a histmed lecture of some sort to pre-med students/med students/health professionals. And I love it BUT...

This isn't the first time moms have been blamed for their kids' autism One of the earliest theories of autism is centered on “refrigerator mothers.” Echoes of it can be found in plans to Make America Healthy Again.

On the echoes of refrigerator mothers in MAHA policy: Tiffany Hammond @fidgetsandfries.bsky.social "sees the focus on Tylenol and vaccines not only as a way to blame moms, but as a way to distract from Trump’s cuts to the services and supports families like hers need."

19thnews.org/2025/10/refr...

“… the data out of Montgomery County, Maryland makes one thing unmistakably clear: this crusade is not a mass movement. It’s the obsession of a vanishingly small minority …”

Attention friends!!

Thank you, Susan!

oops, I meant early 20th c.

Borrow away! I give them a few Google digitized sex-ed books like "Almost Fourteen" to help them get the tone right.

LOLOL!

😆

It's right before midterms! So a little fun is needed.

Next class, we will look through old copies of the Police Gazette to find coded advertisements for abortion, birth control, and pornography.

Today is the day I pull out the construction paper and markers and have students make early 19th-century sex-ed booklets. The only rule: they can't violate the Comstock Act. Always a super fun activity but it also occurs to me that it is an anti-AI activity.

Picture of a price tag at a grocery store - that says Leeks, Baby!

What are you making for dinner?

Brunkow got the news of her prize from a photographer.

She said she had ignored the earlier call from the Nobel committee. “My phone rang and I saw a number from Sweden and thought: ‘That’s just, that’s spam of some sort.’”

Husband: “When I told Mary she won, she said, ‘don’t be ridiculous'."

Are you an adjunct or VAP? Someone who works in history but outside academia? Check out this call for papers!

I am full of vaccines! Covid, Flu, and RSV all taken care of - and it's worth noting that if you're over 50 and have asthma and/or diabetes, or some other health conditions, you can (and should) get an RSV shot now. www.cdc.gov/rsv/hcp/vacc...

Happy Fannie Lou Hamer Day! Resistance is just about the most American thing we can do.

memorydaycalendar.blogspot.com/p/october-no...

Looks comfy, honestly

Black History Month 2025 in Britain and Ireland! In recognition of Black History Month in Britain and Ireland this October, and celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945, we are offering 40% off books on the ...

In celebration of Black History Month in Britain and Ireland, we're offering readers 40% off a range of titles on Black radical lineages, legacies, and futures. Check out the full list here ⬇️
www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/532-bl...

Elon Musk Gambles Billions in Memphis to Catch Up on AI xAI is aiming to win the tech arms race with its “Colossus” data centers, thrown up at lightning speed, but Memphis is divided over the massive power and water demands.

"Musk’s data centers will probably bring in only a few hundred jobs to Memphis while consuming millions of gallons of water a day and more electricity than is needed to power all the city’s homes. Natural-gas turbines powering the data centers have brought pollution and controversy over their use.."

This cracks me up.

"Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General of the Nobel Committee, said he was only able to reach Sakaguchi by phone Monday morning. He left voicemails for Brunkow and Ramsdell."

A photo of a Nobel medal

BREAKING: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Shimon Sakaguchi "for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance"

Stay tuned for more.
#NobelPrize

Investigating Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Vaccines: Is There a Link? Research exploring the link between vaccines and Guillain-Barre syndrome suggests there is a minimal overall risk for GBS associated with vaccination.

Since this question came up in class last week on flu vaccination and Guillain-Barre syndrome, I think I’ll mention this tomorrow: “most research indicates that active influenza infection poses a higher risk for GBS, and vaccination may provide protection against it” cc @jackiantonovich.bsky.social

Me: I was raised on reruns of the Brady Bunch

Kid: what is a rerun and what is the Brady Bunch?

really should get around to writing my take that "AI uprising/robot uprising" fiction is just barely sublimated fear of domestic slave revolt

Honestly, what is even happening right now?