harvard — Page 3

→ September 30, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 9/30/17.

My one ESPN column this week is a free one, covering my awards picks for 2017, excluding NL Rookie of the Year, the ballot I was assigned (again). I also held a Klawchat on Friday.

I reviewed Azul, one of my favorite new boardgames of the year, for Paste, which will be my last review for them until November. I will continue to post reviews here in the interim.

My book, Smart Baseball, is out and still selling well (or so I’m told); thanks to all of you who’ve already picked up a copy. And please sign up for my free email newsletter, which is back to more or less weekly at this point now that I’m not traveling for a bit. I also have a new book signing to announce: October 14th at Changing Hands in Phoenix.

And now, the links…

Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are disasters after Hurricanes Irma and Maria swept through the northern Caribbean. The New York Times has had several superb (if horrifying) articles on the islands, like the massive economic toll in the Virgin Islands or the devastation of Puerto Rican farms.
Meanwhile, Nero is fiddling, and San Juan’s Mayor is done being polite, and the U.S. Army general in charge of relief efforts says he hasn’t been given enough troops or equipment. The Washington Post documents how the government’s response was delayed while the President played golf.
Longread of the week: Nicole Chung, who was born here to Korean immigrants and then adopted by white parents, writes about what it means to be “American” and dealing with family members who voted for Trump. Some of what she’s gotten back from family members, including her adoptive parents, is just appalling; I doubt I’d ever speak to my parents again if I were in her shoes.
A pair of must-reads on the Kaepernick/NFL/protest story from the New Yorker: Jelani Cobb on “ungrateful” as the new “uppity,” and David Remnick on Trump’s race-baiting demagoguery on the issue.
A Colorado University study found that vaccine denialists are getting louder and more pervasive on Twitter. Those of us who live in the real world and rely on evidence need to be just as loud in our defense of vaccines – and to fight to eliminate non-medical exemptions for schoolchildren.
A nurses’ union in Boston is suing Brigham & Women’s hospital for mandating flu shots. If you’re not willing to get a flu shot – safe, effective, and important for health-care workers – perhaps find a field other than medicine?
Jezebel looks at a new denialist ‘documentary’ about fraudster Andrew Wakefield, who lost his medical license in the U.K. after fabricating data that he then claimed showed that the MMR vaccine causes autism (it doesn’t, just to be ab-so-fucking-lute-ly clear on the topic.)
A fake Boston “antifa” account accidentally outed itself as Russian-based this week, but that’s far from the only fake leftist account run by Russian trolls.
Wild Beasts’ Boy King was my #2 album of 2016, but it’s also going to be their last as the British quartet announced that they’re calling it quits, with a new EP of leftover Boy King tracks to represent their final release.
The headline: “A Southwest passenger complained about dogs on her flight. Police forced her off the plane.” The full story: She claimed she had a serious dog allergy but didn’t have the required medical certificate. All the news coverage I saw made Southwest Airlines the villain, but it seems to me that the passenger was unreasonable. (And the police, but that’s another matter.)
Iraqi Kurds voted overwhelmingly for independence, a referendum that was quickly denounced by the Iraqi government and the Turkish government, the latter of which has a decades-long history of oppressing the Kurdish minority and whose autocratic President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is already threatening to starve them. If the Kurds do declare independence, this could be a Timor-esque situation and potential genocide … and our current President has done nothing but express admiration for Turkey’s dictator. Oh, and one of his resorts hosted a Turkish Airlines golf event last week.
Justice Neil Gorsuch voted to uphold the death sentence of a man convicted by a racist jury. Slate points out here how Gorsuch lied in his confirmation hearing because that’s just how it goes these days: Say whatever it takes to get elected/confirmed, then do what you wanted to do all along afterwards.
Swamp update: Trump nominated a candidate to head the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance who has previously worked for a Church of Scientology-funded health “board”. It’s a con – all of Scientology is – and while it may qualify him for this administration, we shouldn’t hire fraudsters for the DoJ.
Trump’s tax “reform” plan includes eliminating the estate tax; Bloomberg wrote in December how repealing it would be a huge windfall for him, his family, and his Cabinet.
Keith Olbermann argued that the President is using the Pittsburgh Penguins as his own political pawns (video).
The unelected official known as Ivanka Trump is taking steps to hide which Chinese suppliers manufacture Ivanka merchandise.
A number of Harvard professors have come out to publicly criticize the University’s handling of Michelle Jones and Chelsea Manning, revoking Jones’ admission and Manning’s invitation to speak in apparent bowing to public pressure.
FiveThirtyEight’s Rob Arthur has a deeper look at the juiced baseball in MLB this season.
CBS Sports’ RJ Anderson looks at catcher concussions and MLB’s battle with head trauma.
Columbia Journalism Review looks at how “pivoting to video” doesn’t really pay off.
Ugandan President (who has been in power since 1986) spoke about how genetically modified organisms will be critical to meeting his country’s food needs. You can buy non-GMO if you want, but don’t be fooled: It’s not better for you, and we will need GMOs to feed the world.
Roy Moore is the Republican candidate to fill the open U.S. Senate seat from Alabama. He believes homosexuality should be a crime. He’s also probably going to win.
St. Louis police practices have come under fire recently, such as these sweep arrests that brought in many innocent people last week.
In the wake of Hugh Hefner’s death, the Washington Post revisited the murder of Playmate Dorothy Stratten, shot by her ex-husband after her career took off.
With the Law and Order brand name now applied to a true-crime miniseries, The Ringer looks at how the original format found success by avoiding challenge, and how that formula won’t work with this current iteration.
Some local news: A Delaware mom says she was never informed her son was bullied or got in a fight at Maple Lane Elementary School in Claymont, the town at the northeastern-most tip of the state. The school officials appear to have failed to fulfill their obligations under state law here, which, of course, makes me wonder if this is an isolated incident.
Cape Cod isn’t exactly known for good food, but the Chatham Bars Inn, a well-known luxury resort on the eastern edge of the Cape, has started its own farm a few miles away in Brewster.
This started a few weeks ago but I just caught it last Saturday – Iowa Hawkeyes fans have a new and wonderful tradition: After the first quarter of each football game, they turn and wave to watching patients at the neighboring children’s hospital. Hey Iowa, you may produce some of the worst politicians in the country, but I’m glad you’re nice to sick kids!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baseball, harvard, links, Music, stick to baseball, the swamp, vaccines

→ June 10, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 6/10/17.

I’ve been busy this week, with a top 100 draft prospects “Big Board” up for Insiders, and a free article profiling top draft prospect Hunter Greene, who gave me some really thoughtful answers on the topics of preparation, being a two-way player, and baseball’s declining African-American audience. I also held a Klawchat on Friday afternoon.

I’ll have a new mock draft up tomorrow (Sunday) and my editors and I will update that file until the draft begins Monday evening. I’m also planning to do a chat Monday afternoon as the draft gets closer.

In non-baseball content, BBC America asked me to to rank the main clones on the show Orphan Black, which returns for its fifth and final season tonight on the cable channel. The first four seasons are all available on Amazon Prime, and I highly recommend it.

Over at Paste, I reviewed the cooperative puzzle game Unlock!, which is actually a series of modules that mimic the escape-room experience by asking players to solve riddles on cards and enter codes into a free app on their phones. The publisher sent me four of the modules; I played three before the review, and they’re all difficult but worth playing. The fourth, The Island of Dr. Goorse, was too abstruse, and that’s not just my opinion but the opinion of all five of us who played, including my father, the (retired) electrical engineer and one of the smartest people I’ve ever met.

And now, the links…

Two longreads from the Atlantic: One on a new approach to treating psychopathy in children; and an educational if meandering longread on bitcoin, blockchain, and the myth of anarcho-currency.
The Royals have partnered with an anti-abortion group that’s known for misleading pregnant women who are considering terminating their pregnancies.
Venezuelan MLB players are facing retaliation for speaking out against their country’s failing government.
The Guardian agrees with me: Orphan Black is television’s smartest show.
mental_floss tells the story of how Monty Python sued ABC to prevent the network from airing their shows.
Bon Appetit looks at where we get all that firewood in restaurant kitchens as cooking over open flame has become trendy again. Two of my favorite meals in the last few years, at Cincinnati’s Sotto and San Francisco’s Cotogna, included food cooked in an open wood-fired-hearth – and in both cases I sat at the counter watching the whole process.
We waste a lot of food, and a huge portion of it is fresh produce. The article suggests buying frozen rather than fresh, which is fine, but we also need to think more about how to preserve what we buy – freezing, pickling, canning, or cooking. Got some firm veg about to turn? Slice it and pour a hot vinegar solution over it for quick pickles. Fruit on the verge? Make jam, or even bake it into a pie. Roast those red peppers and oven-dry those tomatoes. Slice the cabbage and make kimchi, which keeps for months. Most of these techniques are centuries old, but have been lost in the age of convenience and refrigeration.
A reader in my chat this week mentioned the Kooks Burrito controversy in Portland over whether food can be subject to cultural appropriation; Willamette Week asked local chefs, mostly non-white, for their opinions.
Vaccines aren’t just for kids; here are five vaccines adults should get.
Caffeine is showing up in California waterways, which is entirely the result of human activity.
A German think tank argues that climate change will fuel terrorism recruitment, because food and water shortages will create a vulnerable pool of young candidates.
NPR reports that two of its reporters killed in Afghanistan last year were specifically targeted, rather than victims of a random attack.
Massachusetts’ legislature is considering a bill banning schools from using Native American names and symbols as mascots.
Harvard withdrew acceptance offers for ten incoming students for sharing offensive memes in a group chat. I’m fine with this decision, but I understand the argument against such a hardline response, articulated towards the end of the piece.
If you live in North Carolina, well, you live in a state with a legislature as corrupt as those of African pseudo-democracies.
Into the swamp: Esquire‘s Charles Pierce writes that it’s time for Donald Trump to resign – or be forced out.
The President’s “raging” against Jeff Sessions resembles patterns common to autocratic leaders, according to history professors who’ve studied despots from around the world.
Meanwhile, the President and his son Eric appear to have funneled donations to their children’s cancer charity into the Trump business itself, which I kind of thought wasn’t legal.
A beautiful time-waster: Mic.com looks at the 101 most ‘influential’ tweets in history. Most of the tweets I expected to be there were on the list; two more I’d submit were dril’s budget tweet and David J. Roth’s things of that nature tweet. Sadly, eppur si muove didn’t make the cut.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: climate change, environment, food waste, harvard, links, tv, vaccines

→ May 27, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 5/27/17.

My one Insider piece this week was on Luis Robert, his deal with the White Sox, and the poor history of Cuban position player free agents. I did not hold a Klawchat, and will have another mock draft up on Tuesday.

Smart Baseball continues to sell well and I am very grateful to all of you who purchased it. I have about 100 signed bookplates that I can send out to readers who’ve bought the book, and I’ll get that info to everyone soon – probably in my next email newsletter.

And now, the links…

Longread: Pro Publica exposes abusive working conditions at Case Farms, the chicken purveyor that provides meat to many major brands including KFC, Taco Bell, Popeye’s, and Boar’s Head. Skip those brands if you’re horrified by what you read here.
Another longread: The Guardian looks at the great London property squeeze, as affordable housing disappears from the metropolis. The same is happening in some American cities – New York and San Francisco come to mind – where many people who work in the city can’t afford to live in or even close to the city. I’m talking about people you expect to be there, like teachers, first responders, even the ‘invisible’ workers in restaurant kitchens and late-night cleaning crews. They need and deserve a place to live.
Make Michigan sick again! A Republican lawmaker there claims rules to let parents opt out of vaccination mandates hurt ‘parental rights,’ oblivious to the irony that it hurts the rights of those parents’ kids to avoid preventable diseases. All religious and philosophical exemptions for vaccinations should be eliminated, period. The science on this is as unequivocal as it gets.
The Washington Post‘s Dave Weigel explains how the Seth Rich conspiracy hoax shows how fake news still works, which was followed two days later by a piece from Rich’s parents asking these nutjobs to stop politicizing their son’s murder. Fox News blowhard Sean Hannequin has taken a “vacation” in the wake of his own reprehensible role in promulgating this insanity. If you want to see how incredibly stupid, gullible, and obstinate otherwise normal-seeming people can be, search Rich’s name on Twitter. But really, don’t do that.
The last 50 years of climate change have brought exceptional plant growth to Antarctica.
Actress-turned-loon Gwyneth Paltrow said recently that anyone who wants to “fuck with” her needs to “bring (their) A-game,” to which one scientist responds, we’re not fucking with you, we’re correcting you.
The NY Times looks at Twitter co-founder Evan Williams’ (@ev) quixotic quest to ‘fix’ the Internet by developing a new model for selling content. I don’t think it’s going to work.
A South African hunter was crushed to death by an elephant after it is fatally shot. I have just one question: Why the hell are we still shooting elephants?
A sociology professor from Occidental College (not the deliberate one) writes in TIME that all universities should ban fraternities. I think she gets half the argument right; what she misses is how such social ‘clubs’ can also serve to undermine institutional efforts to fight discrimination and allow wealthy kids to isolate themselves from less privileged classmates – and thus to reinforce the old boys’ network that came about when universities were limited to families who could afford the tuition up front. (That’s the main purpose of “finals clubs,” Harvard’s unofficial, not-exactly-banned alternatives to fraternities, which are under attack and yet have been defended by unlikely voices. I was not a member of any finals club.)
Gunning for Snowflake of the Year honors, Alabama’s Governor Kay Ivey (a Republican) signed a bill preventing local governments from removing Confederate monuments. Remember, this is the same GOP that preaches decentralizing power from the federal government to the states. It’s almost as if the Republican party’s core platform is based on self-interest rather than actual principle.
Not to be outdone, Ayatollah Greg Abbott of Texas joked about shooting reporters just two days after now Representative-elect Greg Gianforte physically assaulted a reporter who asked him about Trumpcare.
The City of Commerce, Texas, is under attack after its police chief illegally let his 14-year-old drive, then accosted and arrested a black woman for driving around them, calling her a “black bitch.” The City has denied the woman’s claim that Crews called her that term, but has offered no explanation for why she was forced to spend a night in jail; she claims it was because she refused to apologize to whoever called her that slur.
A Baltimore attorney was arrested this week for offering a rape victim $3000 to decline to testify, then threatening to deport her.
Morrissey (as in the Smiths) has outed himself as a bigot, especially when it comes to Islam.
An African-American student at Bowie State University was killed by a white University of Maryland student in what authorities are bizarrely not calling a hate crime even though the suspect was a member of a Facebook group that called itself “alt-Reich.”
Meanwhile, the man accused of killing two people on a Portland, Oregon, train is a well-known white supremacist in that area. The victims had tried to intervene when the killer was harassing two Muslim women on the vehicle.
Is the key to fighting superbugs ending our war on less harmful bacteria? In other words, does every bacterial infection need antibiotics? The more we dose ourselves (and our pets and our livestock) with such drugs, the faster we end up with bacteria our drugs can’t kill because we create a process of unnatural selection.
Our President is now actively hurting the U.S. dollar. Add to the list of things I thought Republicans would care about, but that they’re ignoring because it’s inconvenient.
More from Pro Publica: Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, is a landlord from hell.
Charles Blow wrote las week for the New York Times that there was blood in the water around this Presidency … and in five days it has already been lapped by new disclosures of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.
Could economic stratification and ecological strain lead to the collapse of western civilization? Of course, the United States is doing its best to find an even faster and more efficient way to achieve the same end.
A physician wrote about the potential disaster of the Administration’s anti-abortion views and proposed policies, which she says “are not grounded in reliable evidence.” The money quote, not just on reproductive rights but this entire Administration: “These appointments are a stunning example of what happens when willful ignorance gains a powerful platform.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anti-science, chicken, climate change, environment, food safety, harvard, hoaxes, links, stick to baseball, vaccines

Stick to baseball, 9/30/17.

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