My one ESPN+ column this week looked at players I was wrong about, including Shane Bieber and Jeff McNeil. I also held a Klawchat on Thursday and a Periscope video chat on Tuesday.
I discussed details of my new book, due out in April 2020 from HarperCollins, in this week’s edition of my free email newsletter. You can pre-order the book already on amazon.
I joined the East Village Times podcast to talk about the Padres’ farm system this week.
And now, the links…
- Longreads: WIRED has the story of a murderer undone by data on the victim’s Fitbit.
- New documents have revealed Israel and the United States’ complicity in the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Palestinian and Lebanese Shi’ite civilians. It seems like a precursor to modern attacks on civilian targets in the name of fighting terrorism.
- Serious Eats’ J. Kenji Lopez-Alt wrote about how he helped his daughter become a better eater, even as a toddler. Two of his tips for which I can vouch: Repeated exposure to foods helps, and shopping and cooking with my daughter raised her interest in eating what we made.
- Sandy Hook Promise has a powerful, harrowing new PSA to encourage more parents to push for sensible gun law reforms.
- Most of the links I provide here are ones I recommend, but occasionally I include something I find interesting because of how egregiously bad it is. This link falls in the latter category: An author complains about how she totally mismanaged the money she earned from writing, and when her advances dwindled, she wasn’t prepared for the funds to dry up like that.
- A reader of mine, Brian Godish, shared this story about his son, a cancer survivor already at age 9, and pitcher Michael Kopech.
- I enjoy potable bitters, particularly Amaro Meletti and Amaro Montenegro, but had never heard of Amer Picon, which has a strange pocket of fans in western Nevada even though the spirit is not exported from France.
- Rob Tannenbaum gives the history of A-ha’s song and video “Take On Me”, which has over a billion views on YouTube and over half a billion spins on Spotify.
- I feel like every parent wants to see their children become readers; the Atlantic looks at some factors that actually matter in encouraging your kids to enjoy reading.
- I haven’t watched Netflix’s Unbelievable yet, but the reviews are very strong, and it’s based on a true story of a serial rapist who was caught after Washington state cops coerced one victim into recanting her claims.
- SkepticalRaptor has a new post countering some key flu vaccine myths, with a mention of yours truly when he drops a baseball analogy.
- I’ve read two great books in the last year on the Chicxulub impact, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and T. Rex and the Crater of Doom. This week scientists released new information from drilling into the crater to try to learn more specifics about the impact.
- Pennsylvania state Senator Mike Folmer (R) resigned this week after he was arrested for possessing and disseminating child pornography. Last year, Folmer “opposed a bill that would have made it easier for survivors of child sex abuse to sue their perpetrators by extending the statute of limitations.”
- The Department of Education is threatening to pull funding from programs at Duke and UNC because the programs show Islam in too positive a light.
- Will Wilkinson writes in the New York Times why certain conservatives are so up in arms (pun intended) over an assault weapons ban. I think he’s right on the nose here.
- Philadelphia magazine is suing the Governor of Pennsylvania for his office’s attempts to curtail the magazine’s access in retaliation for their coverage of the wasteful DROP program.
- Violence and harassment against abortion clinics, providers, and patients is on the rise, according to a new CBS News report.
- Facebook took down a fact-checking report on medically necessary abortions, part of how forced birthers are waging war on abortion rights the same way anti-vaxxers are trying to wage war on vaccinations: through disinformation and abuse of social media sites’ own policing.
- Those of you in academia may appreciate this Twitter thread on bots infiltrating research surveys and tips for blocking them.
- Slice Out Hunger is holding its annual Dollar Slice Night fundraiser in NYC on October 3rd.
- Board game news: A group of gaming industry folk have created the American Tabletop Awards and named their inaugural winners, including the Quacks of Quedlinburg and Root.
- They’re already 2000% funded (!) but there are two new Everdell expansions on Kickstarter.
- Tweet of the week:
Teacher: Can someone give me an example of white privilege?
Student: Oh come on! I don’t want to talk about white privilege.
Teacher: Excellent job. Anyone else?— Abbi Crutchfield (@curlycomedy) September 20, 2019
That tweet is a home run