I’m back from a week of vacation in Aruba, which was lovely, not least because I turned my phone off when we took off from BWI and didn’t turn it back on until we landed on US soil seven-plus days later. That means my last Insider posts were at the trade deadline, including breakdowns of the Yu Darvish trade, the Sonny Gray trade, and the Justin Wilson/Jeimer Candelario trade.
I’m back at Paste with a new boardgame review, this time of the two-player variant of Uwe Rosenberg’s massive Caverna, Caverna: Cave vs. Cave.
I appeared on the Ringer’s Achievement Oriented podcast, co-hosted by Ben Lindbergh, to discuss the current golden age of boardgames and how that might be affecting videogame funding. I also spoke with Jeff Krushell, who worked for the Blue Jays for some of the same years I did, about my book, Smart Baseball, and the role of analytics in the sport.
While I was away, the Washington Post ran a favorable review of Smart Baseball.
I’ll be at GenCon 50 in Indianapolis starting on Thursday, appearing on a few panels, signing copies of Smart Baseball on Friday at 2 pm (or if you see me walking around), and trying lots of new boardgames. I hope to see a bunch of you there.
And now, the links…
- From Paste comes the ultimate breakdown of that insane SF Craigslist job posting. It has to be seen to be believed – and, for the record, I think the posting was serious and the authors possibly the least self-aware people outside of show business.
- I mentioned the drop in videogame funding – specifically via Kickstarter – which Ben & co-host Jason pointed out to me via this link.
- The headline for this piece, calling two-factor authentication “a mess,” is a bit overblown, but it’s true that 2FA isn’t the panacea it was promised to be. I use a hardware token for 2FA for some critical accounts.
- The vaccine-denier lunatics traveling the US in a bus to show their bullshit movie Vaxxed tried to take their show to Australia, but the Aussies denied them entry and banned two of them from reentering Australia for three years. Australia is looking more and more like the sensible United States every day.
- Trump’s anti-science proclamations have further energized the anti-vaccine movement, making it even more critical that those of us who support science – rational people, that is – are just as vocal about vaccines’ safety and efficacy.
- There’s a bill likely to pass the House of Representatives with something like bipartisan support that uses the fight against sex trafficking as a cover for stripping liability protections for content providers. Imagine if Facebook was liable for copyright infringement every time a user posted a photo on the site without the copyright owner’s permission.
- “Those with access to large amounts of money and raw power have been able to subvert all reason and fact in collective decision making.” Al Gore has a new documentary out and spoke to the Guardian about the pernicious influence of money on Western democracies.
- Splinter looks at how that money has led the religious right to deny climate change.
- It would be just fine with me if science-denier Jill Stein would just go away already.
- Saudi Arabia, a so-called ally of the United States, has one of the most repressive regimes in the world when it comes to women’s rights (they have almost none), which is leading Saudi victims of domestic abuse to flee the country entirely.
- “Clean” eating is codswallop, but it sells. The Guardian dives deep on why so many people swallowed this snake oil.
- And speaking of snake oil, why don’t journalists question studies funded by advocacy groups the same way they question studies funded by industry?
- Orphan Black is about to conclude its fifth and final season, which I’ve saved up on the DVR to binge after the minor league season ends. The show’s success has come in part due to its willingness to engage directly with fans online, including incorporating fan suggestions as details in actual episodes. It’s not a coincidence that I’ve been able to write about the show a few times, since I’ve been a vocal fan as well, ranking the clones for BBC America
and discussing the show’s use of boardgames in its stories. - Boardgamers in greater Philly: there’s a big boardgame convention, like GenCon, coming to the city in November. PAX Unplugged is dedicated to all things tabletop, and I’ll be there with bells on, signing books somewhere and walking the floor. Tickets (badges) are now available if you’re interested.
- GIF-master CJ Fogler wins the Tweet of the Week with this feline/boardgame pun.
@keithlaw @Adam_Jacobi pic.twitter.com/ZGILMdp05j
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) August 7, 2017