A rather unproductive trip to Florida (thanks in no small part to rain and high school coach decisions) is over and I’m heading home before my first TV hit of the new season, on this week’s Wednesday Night Baseball Telecast of the Phillies at the Reds. I’ll be on roughly for innings four through six, discussing the teams’ farm systems and strategies as well as this year’s draft, in which the Phillies pick first and the Reds pick second.
I had three Insider pieces over the last eight days: my status updates on the top 50 prospects; my full standings and award winner predictions for 2016; and a scouting blog on Detroit and Atlanta prospects, led by Michael Fulmer.
I also held a Klawchat on Thursday.
And now, the links…
- A North Korean defector describes growing up in one of the country’s prison camps, the mere existence of which Pyongyang has long denied. The Daesh gets the headlines right now, but among formal states in the world, is there any more dangerous than this one?
- This Bloomberg BusinessWeek piece about an operative who claims to have rigged several Latin American elections is riveting and entirely disturbing, such as the claims about manipulating public opinion via social media sockpuppet accounts. He’s now in prison in Colombia. I know the Cold War CIA no longer exists, but one wonders if an unscrupulous government intelligence agency might find use for this hacker’s skills in disrupting elections in hostile states.
- Nature discusses the black-hole collision that reshaped physics, because it produced gravitational waves that we could detect, thus providing direct observational evidence of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
- A charter school – of course – in California has reopened after an unvaccinated student caught the measles, but some stupid, selfish parents still won’t vaccinate their kids.
- The Netherlands is going to have to close some prisons because they don’t have enough criminals to fill them. A focus on rehabilitation for nonviolent offenders plus decriminalization of personal drug use are factors behind the drop in crime.
- Donald Trump and his now-charged campaign manager used classic victim-blaming language to try to evade the consequences of an assault caught on video.
- Climate change – which is actually happening, and caused by man, no matter what every remaining GOP Presidential candidate tells you – is affecting the Antarctic ice shelf more than previously forecasted, which could lead to sea level rises of up to three feet by the end of the century. On the bright side, there’s an enormous financial opportunity right now in future beachfront property near the South Pole.
- From last year in the New Yorker, can reading make you happier? I’d certainly argue yes; reading is my daily meditation, although I sometimes indulge in the more traditional breathing meditations as well.
- Why do we teach young girls that it’s cute or even expected to be scared? I’m guilty of this too, although I might be equally guilty if I had a son. I’ve always tended to be a nervous person anyway.
- This rant by author LaMonte M. Fowler comes unapologetically from the left side of the political spectrum, but his targets are those on the far right, so I imagine many of you will find at least some of his points amusing, as I did.
Excellent point about North Korea. Foreign leaders are often described as “crazy” or “madmen” when the U.S. wants to turn public opinion against them. Not only is that insulting to people suffering from mental illnesses, it’s dishonest as well. They’re trying to imply that these leaders will act irrationally, against their own and their nation’s interests. In the vast majority of cases, that simply isn’t true.
But if there’s an exception, it has to be North Korea, doesn’t it?
On the matter of Republican candidates and climate change, you are misrepresenting John Kasich’s position on the issue. While he may not be exactly where he should be on the matter, he has clearly acknowledged that climate change is real and man is a direct contributor to the phenomenon
You’re right – I didn’t research his views before writing that (thinking primarily of the other two candidates). He has acknowledged that humans contribute to it, but says “we don’t know how much” and tends to downplay man’s role.
Here is a great article for anyone that wants to combat the often repeated satellite data from 1997/1998 to today not showing climate change.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/01/29/ted-cruz-keeps-saying-that-satellites-dont-show-warming-heres-the-problem/
TL;DR
Satellite data doesn’t actually measure surface temperatures better than, you know, surface temperature data. Satellite data measures a part of the atmosphere that many scientists believe is very sensitive to El Niño events. The 1997/1998 data is heavily skewed by a big El Niño event which is why Cruz and the Koch’s use the often repeated line that satellites show no climate change for 18 years instead of 15/20/or for how long the days has been available.
living in arizona and flying every day – your carobn footprint is massive. scarping down meat at every turn as well. adjust your lifestyle then give me some sass talk about global warming.
I haven’t lived in Arizona for several years, and I eat far less meat than the average American (about 60% of the average, as far as I can tell). I don’t fly every day, or even close to it; I do drive quite a bit, but my hybrid Civic gets 44-46 mpg. So what the hell are you talking about?
you live an exorbitant consumer driven north american lifestyle that generates about 100 times the carbon footprint as an average human on the planet. HYPOCRITE. You compare yourself to your fellow north american piggys.
No, Doug, I’m not. You have already demonstrated that you know nothing about my lifestyle.
I’ve warned you once before about insults. You can’t continue to comment here if this is how you intend to speak to me or others.
look into your soul. YOUR COMFORTABLE LIFESTYLE IS THE CAUSE. dont find solace in those worse than you.
true greenhouse gas emission reduction will require real change in the lifestyle of middle class and upper middle class america. REAL CHANGE.
It’ll require a hell of a lot more than that. Global deforestation has nothing to do with U.S. middle class lifestyles. Neither does rising meat consumption in third-world countries, nor the entire planet’s dependence on fertilizers derived from fossil fuels.
i imagine you walk to florida to arizona to all the other locations that you write about. or bicycle. i congratulate you on that. your greenhouse gas footprint must be massive. mine also larger than i would like. difference is i admit it.
a wealthy north american (and you are wealthy compared to almost everybody on the planet) yapping about global deforestataion – what a laugh. International major league sports revenue could easily secure all at risk tropical forests. decaprio shooting his mouth off in indonesia is disgusting. the per capita income in Indonesia is < 5000/annum (probably much less).
Your entire rant here is just one big tu quoque fallacy.
You also ignore the simple fact that your $5000/year Indonesian has far less ability to change the course of the species than the average American does, and that latter probably has less ability than a member of the media with a built-in audience.
I am a hypocrite. i have greatly and substantially reduced my personal green house gas footprint. it is remarkably small in comparison to typical north american middle class piggy and i am sure that your personal footprint dwarfs my own. but i have not relieved it sufficiently too relieve my conscience. because it requires very substantial
sacrifice and effort. i am also a hypocrite on this issue.
Right
Doug,
All joking, and your odd fixations aside, you really ought to speak with a mental health professional.