Krista M. Harper
@kristamharper.bsky.social
Professor of anthropology and public policy, interested in #energysky, #climatesky , #academicsky and #Urbanism+. Writes about #participatory and #qualitative research methods. I love #crochet and hate #cancer
https://blogs.umass.edu/harper/
https://blogs.umass.edu/harper/
Pinned
A disaster not just for the US, but for cancer survivors everywhere. According to a Lancet study, cancer research expenditures, 2016-2020–Table 1 shows that NIH was source for 45% of cancer research $ globally: www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Global funding for cancer research between 2016 and 2020: a content analysis of public and philanthropic investments
Cancer research funding must be aligned with the global burden of cancer with more
equitable funding for cancer research in low-income and middle-income countries (which
account for 80% of cancer burd...
www.thelancet.com
Reupping this Lancet study of cancer research funding which shows how important NIH is not just for US patients but the entire world #NIHSavesLives #FuckCancer
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
It's going to be genuinely difficult to figure out how much money he and his family literally just took from US taxpayers. Don't even mean the crypto scam profiteering shit, like actual treasury money that by one mechanism or another he turned into his own money.
Hmm. The US is giving $10 billion in taxpayer dollars, not appropriated by Congress, to a fake board set up by the President and which he put himself in charge of *for life*... seems very, very illegal.
Trump: "I want to let you know that United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace." (Congress has not appropriated this money!)
February 19, 2026 at 8:03 PM
It's going to be genuinely difficult to figure out how much money he and his family literally just took from US taxpayers. Don't even mean the crypto scam profiteering shit, like actual treasury money that by one mechanism or another he turned into his own money.
It’s not like there’s a shortage of technically qualified people for these positions! Wonder why no one with expertise is going for these positions….
SCOOP: Jay Bhattacharya, NIH director, will also serve as acting CDC director, per two admin officials, until Trump names a permanent director.
POTUS will nominate Jim O'Neill, who left HHS on Friday, to run National Science Foundation.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...
POTUS will nominate Jim O'Neill, who left HHS on Friday, to run National Science Foundation.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/u...
N.I.H. Director Will Temporarily Run C.D.C. in Leadership Shake-Up
www.nytimes.com
February 18, 2026 at 11:21 PM
It’s not like there’s a shortage of technically qualified people for these positions! Wonder why no one with expertise is going for these positions….
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
NSF Update
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
February 13, 2026 at 9:22 PM
NSF Update
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
random people online who you find censorious and annoying =/= state censorship. Hope that helps.
February 16, 2026 at 2:57 PM
random people online who you find censorious and annoying =/= state censorship. Hope that helps.
Volts Mid-Transition episode incoming! I am as excited as I’m ever going to be about a podcast.🤓
Tomorrow, I am talking with researcher @gruberte.bsky.social about her work on the energy "mid-transition," that messy period when fossil fuel systems are declining as clean energy systems grow. Her latest paper contemplates the "minimum viable scale" for such systems before they collapse.
Got Qs?
Got Qs?
February 15, 2026 at 10:24 PM
Volts Mid-Transition episode incoming! I am as excited as I’m ever going to be about a podcast.🤓
Interesting : what to do with smart grid/demand management/ virtual power plants now that we know that the tech companies are totally fine with surveilling us in our homes and happy to hand over energy use data to ICE or DHS so they can make sure we aren’t hiding Anne Frank’s family in our attic.
There has been about a 15(?) year push for the "smart grid, the grid of the future, grid 2.0" and this is the reality of all that; all the assumptions about "virtual power plants" enter this arena.
Most of what people assume is the inexorable destiny of the grid is going to be fiercely contested.
Most of what people assume is the inexorable destiny of the grid is going to be fiercely contested.
From Flock cameras to fusion centers, “free” surveillance equipment funded by tech vendors, federal grants, and private donors locks cities into recurring costs and long-term data‑sharing, including with ICE. The end result is an erosion of our civil liberties. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
February 14, 2026 at 5:13 AM
Interesting : what to do with smart grid/demand management/ virtual power plants now that we know that the tech companies are totally fine with surveilling us in our homes and happy to hand over energy use data to ICE or DHS so they can make sure we aren’t hiding Anne Frank’s family in our attic.
Filing this away for my lab—this semester we are designing a “distributed energy dominos” game for our public workshops!
Three board games for the climate
We were playing a board game the other everning as a family, and my daughter chose Carbon City Zero. It's an educational game about climate change, but it totally stands up as a form of entertainment. This isn't always true of educational games, and climate change…
We were playing a board game the other everning as a family, and my daughter chose Carbon City Zero. It's an educational game about climate change, but it totally stands up as a form of entertainment. This isn't always true of educational games, and climate change…
Three board games for the climate
We were playing a board game the other everning as a family, and my daughter chose Carbon City Zero. It's an educational game about climate change, but it totally stands up as a form of entertainment. This isn't always true of educational games, and climate change isn't the easiest thing to make a game out of either. So here are three board games that get the balance right.
earthbound.report
February 13, 2026 at 4:45 PM
Filing this away for my lab—this semester we are designing a “distributed energy dominos” game for our public workshops!
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
Anthropic head of AI safety quits, warning of "world in peril" & announces plan to study creative writing, as my college charges ahead in deal with Anthropic, which trained its tech on at least 25 books taken without permission from our Creative Writing faculty. www.bbc.com/news/article...
Anthropic AI safety researcher quits with 'world in peril' warning
It comes in the same week an OpenAI researcher resigned amid concerns about its decision to start testing ChatGPT ads.
www.bbc.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:46 AM
Anthropic head of AI safety quits, warning of "world in peril" & announces plan to study creative writing, as my college charges ahead in deal with Anthropic, which trained its tech on at least 25 books taken without permission from our Creative Writing faculty. www.bbc.com/news/article...
It was never about saving “American jobs”
Federal immigration agents have abducted Eustaquio Orozco Verdusco, a workers’ rights organizer well known in Minnesota for fighting wage theft and labor trafficking
#ICE #MPLS
inthesetimes.com/article/work...
#ICE #MPLS
inthesetimes.com/article/work...
Worker Organizer Abducted By Federal Agents in Minnesota
“It was just eerie to have to get in the car, drive it back to my house, knowing that I don't know when I'm going to be seeing my dad again.”
inthesetimes.com
February 9, 2026 at 7:12 PM
It was never about saving “American jobs”
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
The video for El Apagón includes a great documentary on the climate crisis in Puerto Rico, including the energy injustice issues referenced in the halftime show.
youtu.be/1TCX_Aqzoo4?...
youtu.be/1TCX_Aqzoo4?...
February 9, 2026 at 1:52 AM
The video for El Apagón includes a great documentary on the climate crisis in Puerto Rico, including the energy injustice issues referenced in the halftime show.
youtu.be/1TCX_Aqzoo4?...
youtu.be/1TCX_Aqzoo4?...
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
Commenting on energy injustice is now the floor for any halftime act.
February 9, 2026 at 1:33 AM
Commenting on energy injustice is now the floor for any halftime act.
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
Remember that under the first Trump administration, Puerto Rico had to suffer through the longest power blackout in U.S. history bsky.app/profile/cost...
During his Administration, Hurricane Maria knocked out power to 1.5 million people in Puerto Rico and it didn’t get restored for ABOUT A YEAR! It was the largest blackout in U.S. history. This should be line one of any hurricane recovery political coverage. www.vox.com/identities/2...
February 9, 2026 at 1:38 AM
Remember that under the first Trump administration, Puerto Rico had to suffer through the longest power blackout in U.S. history bsky.app/profile/cost...
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
thank you bad bunny for highlighting the importance of critical power distribution infrastructure bsky.app/profile/cost...
It’s the weekend everyone, so you know what that means. Time to drink two polar seltzers and do a thread on the power transformer shortage. Without transformers, we don’t get a clean energy transition. And as energysky knows, there’s been a shortage due to covid, supply chain, & labor constraints 🔌🔋
February 9, 2026 at 1:35 AM
thank you bad bunny for highlighting the importance of critical power distribution infrastructure bsky.app/profile/cost...
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
Ahead of today's hearing with NIH Director Bhattacharya, @sanders.senate.gov released a report on cuts to critical healthcare research. New NIH awards in key health areas were down 16% last year, cutting off innovation for new cures.
Read the whole report: www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/u...
Read the whole report: www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/u...
February 3, 2026 at 5:48 PM
Ahead of today's hearing with NIH Director Bhattacharya, @sanders.senate.gov released a report on cuts to critical healthcare research. New NIH awards in key health areas were down 16% last year, cutting off innovation for new cures.
Read the whole report: www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/u...
Read the whole report: www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/u...
The first pro-cancer president and administration
NIH research is in the red zone. $561M in grants for cancer and heart disease is frozen, and 304 trials are defunded. Vacancies in 15 director roles create a leadership gap that stalls medical progress here in the US.
#MedSky 🛟 #AcademicSky
#MedSky 🛟 #AcademicSky
Trump admin is "destroying medical research," Senate report finds
In a Senate hearing Tuesday, NIH director dismissed concern about research chaos.
arstechnica.com
February 6, 2026 at 7:44 PM
The first pro-cancer president and administration
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
1. It was not an accident.
2. It was not a staffer.
3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia.
4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares.
5. His base agrees with him.
6. He will do it again.
7. No one in power will hold him accountable.
2. It was not a staffer.
3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia.
4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares.
5. His base agrees with him.
6. He will do it again.
7. No one in power will hold him accountable.
February 6, 2026 at 5:42 PM
1. It was not an accident.
2. It was not a staffer.
3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia.
4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares.
5. His base agrees with him.
6. He will do it again.
7. No one in power will hold him accountable.
2. It was not a staffer.
3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia.
4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares.
5. His base agrees with him.
6. He will do it again.
7. No one in power will hold him accountable.
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
One of the reasons I so greatly dislike the “can men and women be friends?” nonsense (yes, full stop, shut up) is that it casts suspicion on people with opposite-sex friends instead of where it more often belongs: on people with no opposite-sex friends.
Anyway, yeah. The overwhelming impression one gets from so many of these emails is that a lot of them are guys who have never had a real, serious friendship with a woman in their lives.
Which sucks for them, but also sucks for every woman who has to deal with them, ever.
Which sucks for them, but also sucks for every woman who has to deal with them, ever.
February 5, 2026 at 6:47 PM
One of the reasons I so greatly dislike the “can men and women be friends?” nonsense (yes, full stop, shut up) is that it casts suspicion on people with opposite-sex friends instead of where it more often belongs: on people with no opposite-sex friends.
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
US NSF/GEO folks: if you/your students had GRFP applications that were returned without review, please send a note to grfpprodirector@nsf.gov - they are logging and handling inquiries.
February 5, 2026 at 5:05 PM
US NSF/GEO folks: if you/your students had GRFP applications that were returned without review, please send a note to grfpprodirector@nsf.gov - they are logging and handling inquiries.
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
Faculty women work so hard to be paid, on a good day, the same as male counterparts. They strive to get appointments that mediocre male colleagues receive as if by natural born right. Undergirding the system of inequity is crap like this.
Yale prof David Gelernter defends his letter urging Epstein to hire "v small goodlooking blonde" student by saying that he was "keep[ing] the potential boss's habits in mind."
This creep shouldn't be allowed anywhere near students.
yaledailynews.com/articles/gel...
This creep shouldn't be allowed anywhere near students.
yaledailynews.com/articles/gel...
February 5, 2026 at 4:40 PM
Faculty women work so hard to be paid, on a good day, the same as male counterparts. They strive to get appointments that mediocre male colleagues receive as if by natural born right. Undergirding the system of inequity is crap like this.
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
Let me scream about a weirdly specific thing: Celebrate your IRB approvals!! They’re a big deal. It’s a giant amount of paperwork and it means your thought about you study quite a bit.
go out to dinner. Eat a fancy dessert. buy a reasonably priced video game.
go out to dinner. Eat a fancy dessert. buy a reasonably priced video game.
February 4, 2026 at 12:56 AM
Let me scream about a weirdly specific thing: Celebrate your IRB approvals!! They’re a big deal. It’s a giant amount of paperwork and it means your thought about you study quite a bit.
go out to dinner. Eat a fancy dessert. buy a reasonably priced video game.
go out to dinner. Eat a fancy dessert. buy a reasonably priced video game.
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
This cannot be something a civilian law enforcement agent is allowed to wear in the US — and an agency that has a culture that tolerates this cannot be saved.
Fucking surreal that people dressed like this and carrying assault rifles are permitted to kidnap people off our streets
February 4, 2026 at 12:53 AM
This cannot be something a civilian law enforcement agent is allowed to wear in the US — and an agency that has a culture that tolerates this cannot be saved.
For shame.
BHATTACHARYA: I do not believe patients' care was disrupted. If there were disruptions, it's the responsibility of the researchers, not the NHS
HASSAN: That is an unacceptable and outrageous response. You can make an edict - 'Don't disrupt care!' - but that can be a very complicated thing
HASSAN: That is an unacceptable and outrageous response. You can make an edict - 'Don't disrupt care!' - but that can be a very complicated thing
February 3, 2026 at 11:59 PM
For shame.
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
Lucifer, Sorry to hear about your falling out with God! Hugs to Mephistopheles and imps. Speaking of Mephi, he mentioned something about "letting me live in all voluptuousness" and "research grants for four and twenty years" and I was hoping we could connect about that next time you're in town.
February 3, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Lucifer, Sorry to hear about your falling out with God! Hugs to Mephistopheles and imps. Speaking of Mephi, he mentioned something about "letting me live in all voluptuousness" and "research grants for four and twenty years" and I was hoping we could connect about that next time you're in town.
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
I'm worried that the broader public isn't really understanding the Epstein Files. The problem isn't that everyone in the files is a secret pedophile, it's that all the people are corresponding with him because they *don't care that he's a pedophile*. It's a story of elite impunity.
You can look at the Epstein files and conclude that only bad people have billions of dollars, but I think it’s also possible that having billions of dollars cauterizes your humanity
February 3, 2026 at 7:26 PM
I'm worried that the broader public isn't really understanding the Epstein Files. The problem isn't that everyone in the files is a secret pedophile, it's that all the people are corresponding with him because they *don't care that he's a pedophile*. It's a story of elite impunity.
Reposted by Krista M. Harper
“Gramsci used to say 'Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will'. What he meant is: understand how the bloody system works.” - Stuart Hall, born Feb. 3, 1932
February 3, 2026 at 2:05 PM
“Gramsci used to say 'Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will'. What he meant is: understand how the bloody system works.” - Stuart Hall, born Feb. 3, 1932