My annual ranking of the top 50 free agents this offseason is now up for Insiders, and I held my weekly Klawchat right after they were posted.
I reviewed the app version of Camel Up for Paste this week. Since I wrote that review, there’s been a minor update that cleaned up some of the issues I had with the graphics, notably the info available on screen to you. It’s available here for iOS devices or Android
And now, the links…
- Well this just sucks: Kevin Folta, scientist and advocate of genetic engineering of food crops and generally of the safety of food science, is removing himself from public debate. He’s been attacked by the FraudBabe and the dipshits at U.S. “Right to Know,” a group that uses the veneer of consumer rights to mask a blatant science-denial/anti-GMO policy. They’ve been using FOIA requests to try to scuttle legitimate research and discussion. The only solution I see is for more of us to speak up and out about science.
- Peet’s Coffee has purchased a majority stake in Intelligentsia, their second such move into high-end craft coffee after their purchase of Stumptown. I don’t know what this means for the space; I don’t see a natural synergy here but fear it’s more a move to neutralize competition from a higher-margin competitor
- We forget that the people pictured in certain memes are actual human beings, such as the skeptical Third World kid, so the BBC has done a story on that picture, finding the aid worker pictured but not the child.
- Canada’s new government seems about as pro-science as it gets, including the creation of a new post, Minister of Science. Can you imagine any of the current Republican candidates for President doing such a thing? So many of them have staked out one or more denialist positions that this seems out of the question.
- Some good sense from the Environmental Defense Blog on what the news about China’s coal consumption really means. Tip: Climate change is still real, and the CO2 measurements aren’t affected.
- Thanksgiving is coming and it’s never too early to start cooking, at least when it comes to preparing stock, as Michael Ruhlman explains. I actually make a brown chicken stock instead, since I always have chicken carcasses in the freezer (bones and necks, and sometimes wings) but rarely have turkey.
- “Smile You Bitch: Being a Woman in 2015” lives up to its provocative title. Rape culture is everywhere, and it’s ingrained in many young men from childhood.
- Speaking of treating women like navel lint, I give you the NFL’s attempt to hush up Greg Hardy’s domestic violence case.
- So the demise of Grantland led to a lot of thinkpieces (and a few readers telling me they were canceling their Insider subs, which, to be perfectly honest, just punishes all the wrong people here), but one I liked was from Fortune, talking about its implications for the business of longform journalism. I didn’t read a lot of Grantland’s stuff, but I do believe their mission mattered, and I hope the end of that site is just a blip.
- From Forbes, a good piece looking at the limited research to date on pediatricians who turn away vaccine-refusing parents. That’s a lot better than the nonsense hit piece on Bryce Harper the same publication ran earlier last week.
- I’ve often wondered about whether linking to Spotify in my music posts was helping or hurting the artists in question, but Cameron from the band Superhumanoids told me in September that it was the former, and now FiveThirtyEight has a piece supporting this with data.
- The long-running TV series Mythbusters is ending after its next season, and the NY Times offers an appreciation, crediting the show with rising interest in STEM education and careers.
- New research on the lizards called tuataras supports the theory that the penis evolved just once for mammals and reptiles and has just, well, hung around.
Good juxtaposition of GMO and vaccine articles. I’m always baffled by how many people won’t hesitate to skewer anti-vaxxers and then turn around and then use the same exact arguments that they found so ridiculous to support anti-GMO rhetoric .
I’m okay with labelling in principle, but not as a cover for this kind of anti-science muzzling. People have a right to make bad decisions that only affect themselves (e.g., avoiding all GM foods), but not to stifle science and progress.
Keith, a suggestion for you RE: turkey stock, especially since a chat reader posed a deep fry question this week— whenever we’ve made the thanksgiving turkey on the grill or in the deep fryer, I’ve always made a stock from the neck and giblets that morning while everything else is cooking. That way we had something for gravy since we’re getting any pan juices from the traditional roasted bird. Would include the backbone too if you’re going to spatchcock as you mentioned.
Thanks – I don’t do this day-of because of the space issue; I’d rather make a bigger batch earlier in the month and freeze it, and thus don’t have a big pot on the stove all T-day morning with the subsequent mess to clean up. But I appreciate the advice!
Thanks for noting about Kevin Folta. There is a reason most practicing scientists choose to not communicate about basic concepts. It is hard to disseminate any scientific information without being labeled a corporate lackey who will do anything for a buck. Hopefully others will fill his void.
On the “Smile You Bitch” topic, I was chatting with a male coworker the other day, and he was grousing about how bitchy one of our female coworkers was being. He was struck dumb when I told him that if I said the same things she did, he’d characterize me as direct and no-nonsense. She just doesn’t fit his conception of how a woman should behave, and that’s not on her.
Grantland was my favorite website for sports analysis. Bill Simmons clearly had a tremendous eye for talent and what constituted good sports writing. I was crushed when the site closed. I was angry because it seemed like a defeat for quality and a victory for hot takes, clickbait, contrarianism, and everything else plaguing sports journalism. I’m angry at your employer, and I did for a moment consider cancelling my Insider subscription. I quickly decided against it because I believe Grantland’s demise highlighted the importance of paying for quality. Ever since I first heard about the site’s financial troubles, I had always thought that ESPN should’ve grouped it with Insider or even have it be a separate subscription. In my opinion, Grantland provided pay-quality content.
The whole concept that Grantland was free illustrates the very reason why many people (myself included) think that insider is a waste of money. I don’t begrudge the writers who want to get paid for their work…that’s not my issue at all…but when there is still more quality free content On the internet than I could ever possibly consume, why would I pay for anything.
If Intelligencia coffee was for sale but McDonalds was giving coffee away for free every day, there’s no chance I’d ever spend money for the better stuff. Because to me, it’s not that big of a difference. Same goes for free vs. pay content.
That ‘free’ coffee you might get at McDonald’s isn’t free, though; it may not cost you directly, but the coffee farmers are probably getting far too little for their product, so you get your free coffee but they stay poor. The lower return to them encourages cheaper, more damaging practices like the use of petroleum-based fertilizers (contributing to climate change) or cheaper, more dangerous chemicals. And that says nothing about the quality of what you’re drinking.
Grantland didn’t make money; it wasn’t sustainable without a subsidy, which is true of a lot of sites today that deliver “free” (really, ad-subsidized) content without a subscription piece attached or a higher-revenue ad-supported product like video or a podcast for which the written content is a loss leader. If you actually want quality content, then pay for it to ensure it sticks around. If you don’t care about quality, that’s certainly your choice and right, but then you don’t have much of a complaint when a site that focuses on quality (as Grantland undoubtedly did) can’t stay in business.
Keith,
In no way was I bemoaning the loss of Grantland. I was merely using it as one example of free content. As long as the free (to me) content exists then I have no reason to pay for content. I think you’re work is of very high quality, but so is the stuff produced by fangraphs, THT, and a half dozen blogs. I only have so much time in the day to read so to me I can get everything I need at no cost to me. Youll never hear/read me complaining about ads on websites because I am grateful that they’re there to support the sites so I don’t have to pay.
It’s no different than people choosing to cut the cord on cable…if the whole internet cost money I wouldn’t ever be on it.
There’s a false equivalence in there. You may get what you need from those other sites – some of whom (not FG/THT, of course) merely crib from folks like me – but their output isn’t the same as mine. Perhaps you don’t see the value I add, but others do.
It’s quite different from people cutting the cord on cable; I’m even considering that, because I pay for a lot of content I don’t use at all. If DirecTV offered a la carte pricing, I’d have switched to that long ago. The problem is that I watch fewer than ten channels regularly … but the ones I watch I value very highly and would pay for them. I’ll continue to pay HBO directly even if I cut the cord with DirecTV.
Re: my previous message, any you’re/your issues are entirely auto-correct related…no mocking is necessary.
Keith,
It’s not false equivalence. I readily admit your work is better than most options. But it isn’t so much better that it’s worth paying for when free options are available that are good enough for what I want.
Agreed, I’m ambivalent about labeling. I just can’t believe how much effort is being made to turn GMOs into a plank of progressivism, particularly when its inclusion undermines the fact that so many other key positions (climate change) are evidence-based and pro-science.
Well, I would take it that for many people taking those “key positions” it is not as evidenced-based and pro-science as you believe. It’s just belief.