links — Page 30

→ August 21, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 8/21/17.

This week’s links post is late because I spent the weekend at GenCon in Indianapolis along with 70,000 of my closest friends. I’ll have a big wrap on all the new games I saw (including some upcoming app releases) later this week for Paste.

My annual look at the players with the best tools in MLB started today (for Insiders) with a look at the best hit, power, run, and plate discipline tools. The next two days will feature the best pitches and the best fielding tools. I also held a Klawchat last week.

Last month, I was invited to give a Talk at Google about Smart Baseball, which you can now watch online. My book also got a mention in my alma mater’s alumni magazine.

This morning, I was back at the helm of the Baseball Tonight podcast and was joined by Eric Karabell, Jerry Crasnick, and Alex Speier. I’m often asked by readers if I’ll podcast regularly again – I don’t have a good answer for that, but if you’d like to hear more of me, then spread the word about today’s show (and tomorrow’s, and maybe the three I hosted last week). A good audience for my guest-hosting shows won’t go unnoticed.

And now, the links…

Over at the Hardball Times, Stephanie Springer looks at the ineffectiveness of baseball’s Joint Drug Agreement by looking at the chemistry of PED metabolism and testing.
Deadspin looked at the questionable labor practices of SB Nation, which profits by using barely-paid and unpaid writers to provide most of its content.
Investigative journalism efforts from several outlets, including ProPublica, has led to federal lawmakers seeking Kushner company records on its tenements in Maryland, where the President’s son-in-law has been accused of violating federal housing standards.
McClatchy freelance reporter Austin Tice has been held by terrorists in Syria since 2012, and the Sacramento Bee, a McClatchy flagship paper, is pushing for the federal government to work towards his safe return – and reminding everyone that reporters like Tice put their lives on the line to bring us #realnews.
The FCC, when it’s not busy dismantling the Internet, is using an obscure loophole to let pro-Trump broadcaster Sinclair dominate local television in a merger that probably shouldn’t clear antitrust muster.
Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungus that originated in Japan, is spreading through UK hospitals.
Ed Yong, who wrote the marvelous book I Contain Multitudes, reports on a study in India that found probiotics may help prevent sepsis in newborns. Probiotic products are a multi-billion dollar market in the west, but there’s little evidence they actually do anything good for your body.
Also at Deadspin, Jeff Pearlman looks at a local sportswriter’s prank gone awry, with fallout that lasted decades.
The New Yorker looks at how Driscoll’s ruined the strawberry by emphasizing appearance – because that’s what consumers want – over flavor.
I also thought the New Yorker had the best piece on the ‘battle of Charlottesville’.
I’ll just let this headline sit here: North Carolina No Longer Thinks It’s A Great Idea To Shield Drivers Who Hit Protesters With Cars.
The Federalist, a fairly major and very conservative opinion site, ran an editorial last week saying “Donald Trump Needs To Not Be President Yesterday.”
Hawai’i state representative Beth Fukumoto shared a racist letter she got from a Trump supporter.
Should Memphis defy state law and remove Confederate statues, given how toothless the punishments would be? (Yes, of course they should.)
Why is Gucci adamantly denying that its employees protested Trump’s visit to their Manhattan building, which he owns?
Tweet of the week, from the man who coined what is now known as Godwin’s Law:

By all means, compare these shitheads to Nazis. Again and again. I'm with you.

— Mike Godwin (@sfmnemonic) August 14, 2017

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baseball, food science, links, science, stick to baseball

→ August 12, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 8/12/17.

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

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anti-science, boardgames, british television, climate change, food science, links, pseudoscience, stick to baseball

→ July 29, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 7/28/17.

For Insiders, I ranked the top five farm systems in baseball, broke down the Jaime Garcia trade to Minnesota, and broke down Tampa Bay’s trades for Lucas Duda and Dan Jennings. I also held a Klawchat on Thursday.

UPDATE: I’ve got one more Insider post covering a few small trades from this week.

I appeared on the Freezing Cold Takes podcast this week, discussing my worst takes, my scouting process (and how failed evaluations have changed it), and Smart Baseball.

I’ve exhausted most of my signings schedule, but will be at GenCon in Indianapolis, signing books on Friday, August 18th, and I believe I will also be signing books at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia in November. Also, Volumes Book Cafe in Chicago has signed copies for sale; call (773) 697-8066 to purchase one.

And now, the links…

I assume you’ve seen the New Yorker piece that resulted from Anthony Scaramucci calling reporter Ryan Lizza. I keep seeing references to Scaramucci as “surprisingly candid,” which is a cute euphemism for “dangerously unhinged.”
William Regnery II inherited millions and decided to plow them into funding racist right-wing movements across the country for 15 years. It’s finally paying off for him.
Twitter experienced no user growth in Q2 and actually lost users in the U.S. Maybe one reason is that their Nazi problem is still out of control.
Genes can “jump” around on chromosomes, a process called transposition, and this may be a cause of many major diseases, including hemophilia, cancer, and diabetes – but the transposons can also produce beneficial results in humans and other species as well.
The Atlantic profiles Arizona Senator Jeff Flake, who speaks and acts like a decent human but still votes for everything Trump proposes, including ACA repeal (which Flake cheerfully supports) and every dubiously qualified Cabinet candidate to come before the Senate.
Arepas, the thick Venezuelan cornmeal pancake that’s split in two (like an English muffin) and filled with meat or cheese, have become trendy around the world even as Venezuelans can’t afford to make them.
I haven’t tried this yet, but Anova, the makers of the sous vide device I own and often recommend, posted a recipe for making cold-brewed coffee via sous vide.
English comedian Peter Price spoke to the BBC about being sent for “aversion therapy” in the 1960s, when homosexuality was illegal and gays were targets for attacks. (Video)
A group of academics, led by several at Cal Berkeley, have collaborated with anti-GMO (and thus anti-science) groups to attack the new documentary Food Evolution and silence debate on GMO safety, despite a preponderance of evidence that genetically modified foods are safe to grow and consume.
An American neurosurgeon volunteering in Tanzania realized that when he left, no one would be able to perform the life-saving surgery he was providing, so he trained a local medical officer who had no surgical experience to perform it. And it worked.
ProPublica details a new type of inmate abuse on Rikers Island, shackling inmates to “restraint desks,” which leaves them defenseless if another inmate in the room slips out of his restraints.
Got a newborn somewhere in your life? Go get a pertussis booster shot to help protect that infant from whooping cough, which can kill a child.
Government run amok? A meal program for seniors in Albuquerque prohibits the recipients from using condiments or even salt to force them to comply with health guidelines.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: africa, gay rights, gmo, links, stick to baseball, vaccines, venezuelan cuisine

→ July 22, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 7/22/17.

With the trade deadline approaching, I’ve had a bit more Insider content than usual this week, including breakdowns of the Ryan Madson/Sean Doolittle trade, the David Robertson/Tommy Kahnle/Todd Frazier trade, and the Tyler O’Neill-Marco Gonzales trade. I also had a long post covering lots of prospects I’ve scouted in the last few weeks, including players from the Phillies, Nationals, Orioles, Red Sox, Atlanta, and Cleveland systems. I held a Klawchat on Friday.

My latest boardgame review for Paste covers the asymmetrical game Not Alone, which pits one player against anywhere from one to six opponents who work together, although we found the game really doesn’t work with just two players and is only slightly better with three.

Thanks to everyone who’s already bought Smart Baseball. I’ve got just a couple of additional book signings coming up:

* Chicago, Standard Club, July 28th, 11:30 am – this is a ticketed luncheon event
* Chicago, Volumes, July 28th, 7:30 pm
* GenCon (Indianapolis), August 17th-20th

And now, the links…

The President is mobilizing for war against the rule of law. He’s talking about overturning core pillars of our democracy, and as far as I can tell, the vast majority of Republicans back him.
The Administration also spent taxpayer money collected to encourage ACA enrollment on ads opposing the law.
A scientist who was reassigned out of his job in the Interior Department – which he says was because he worked on and spoke up about climate change – published an editorial ‘blowing the whistle’ on the Administration’s anti-science machinations. He’s also filed complaints under the Whistleblower Protection Act.
Reuters is publishing a long investigative report on how Philip Morris is marketing tobacco in the developing world in violation of international agreements.
I didn’t link to the New York piece on climate change that went viral last week, because it felt a bit like alarmism-porn to me, but I was pleased to see that climate scientists had some serious criticisms of the piece too.
That original article – the most-read post in New York‘s history – also prompted this response from the New York Times, looking at how Y2K preparations might also help us work to prepare for or combat climate change. The author, Farhad Manjoo, argues that the New York was right to present worst-case scenarios, because that’s the only way to spur skeptics and do-nothings to act.
Police in Alaska are fighting a law that would ban sexual contact between an officer and sex workers they’re going to arrest. Yes, you read that right: Cops want to be free to molest or have sex with sex workers during investigations.
A Jehovah’s Witness died after refusing a necessary blood transfusion (because it’s against their religion), and a Pennsylvania court has told her family to stop suing the hospital.
There’s something awful about the story here, but the headline is incredibly misleading: “My Daughter Was Murdered in a Mass Shooting. Then I Was Ordered to Pay Her Killer’s Gun Dealer.” It omits the part where the grieving mother sued the ammunition supplier, but that a federal law protects gun dealers from such lawsuits and requires plaintiffs to pay court costs. The problem here is that law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, and the power that the gun lobby has in our country.
Disney’s firing of longtime Muppeteer Steve Whitmire, the voice of Kermit the Frog since Jim Henson died in 1990, has gotten very ugly. (Disney owns ESPN, so I am a Disney employee.)
Speaking of Disney, Vulture – for whom I occasionally write as a freelancer – looks at why the company spent half a billion dollars building an Avatar-themed area in the Animal Kingdom theme park. It might be fun, but how about adding a section to Animal Kingdom based on the Australian movie Animal Kingdom?
It’s from February 2016, but this profile of Haitian-born Yankees prospect Estevan Florial, by Joel Sherman, is worth reading, especially now that Florial has broken out with his performance this year in low-A Charleston.
DigBoston looks at racism in Boston sports, especially at WEEI, which has a long history of racist, misogynist, and other bigoted commentary and behavior from hosts. I have refused to go on the station for several years.
A Republican Congressman from California asked a scientist during a public hearing if it was possible that there had once been an advanced civilization on Mars. We really do elect the worst people to govern us.
One new study finds 91% of plastic ends up as trash, not recycling. Buy less plastic and reuse what you have.
“Rape choreography” is an actual role now in film and TV production, but the process takes a toll on everyone involved, even those who are asked to keep the actors safe during filming. Hinted at a few times in that piece: There’s way too much rape in modern film and television.
I never played much PnP Dungeons & Dragons, but I know many of you did. Paste looks at a new app, D&D Beyond, that may revolutionize the game for DMs and players.
Still not sure if this New Yorker piece on avocado toast is serious, but I just want to say that I like avocado toast, as long as there’s a fried egg on it.
Oakland Raiders runningback Marshawn Lynch bought an Oakland soul food place to keep it from closing down. But will they serve biscuits and gravy?

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baseball, climate change, disney, disneyworld, links, oakland, rpgs, stick to baseball

→ July 15, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 7/15/17.

For Insiders, I’ve got my midyear top 50 prospects update, a breakdown of the Jose Quintana trade, and a recap of Sunday’s MLB Futures Game, followed by a Klawchat Thursday afternoon where I focused on questions about the top 50.

MEL magazine’s Tim Grierson, whom you might know from his film reviews or his indispensable podcast with Will Leitch, interviewed me in a wide-ranging conversation that touched on Smart Baseball, pop culture, social media, and other non-baseball topics too.

Thanks to everyone who’s already bought Smart Baseball. I’ve got book signings coming up:

* Harrisburg, Midtown Scholar, July 15th (today!) at 3 pm
* Berkeley, Books Inc., July 19th, 7 pm
* Chicago, Standard Club, July 28th, 11:30 am – this is a ticketed luncheon event
* Chicago, Volumes, July 28th, 7:30 pm
* GenCon (Indianapolis), August 17th-20th

And now, the links…

Longread: How tech startups like Airbnb are causing the spread of a similar, sterile, bland style aesthetic across the world, euphemistically referred to as “the harmonization of tastes,” less kindly described here as “Every coffee place looks the same.” (It’s my one complaint with Blue Bottle; I love their espresso, but I feel like I’m drinking it in a hospital waiting room.)
Bill Shaikin of the LA Times looked at the declining presence of people of color atop baseball organizations, an inevitable outcome of the industry trend of privileged young men with Ivy League or comparable backgrounds who can afford to take low-paying or unpaid entry-level jobs in front offices.
The Senate Judiciary committee advanced the nomination of John K. Bush, a judge who used the word “f—-t” and supported the Obama birther hoax, for a federal judgeship. He’s expected to win confirmation on the Senate floor, of course, but maybe call your Senator on Monday and express your feelings on whether someone who refers to gays by that term is suitable for the bench.
Arkansas, the only state I’ve never visited, has become increasingly hostile to women and to LGBT residents in the last few years, but this is a new low – a law that would require all women, even abuse or rape victims, to get the permission of the man who impregnated them before they could have an abortion. To be clear: A woman who got pregnant as the result of a rape would have to ask her rapist’s permission before she could abort the fetus.
Utility-industry lobbyists are rolling back laws designed to encourage rooftop solar panel installations.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is a former Verizon employee who wants to destroy net neutrality. Broadband Internet is a public utility; lacking access to it puts people at a significant economic disadvantage, especially in the job market.
The anti-GMO movement, which has put many academics in science on the wrong side of the facts, had an embarrassing moment this week when forty-five professors (and others) endorsed a letter criticizing a film they hadn’t seen, a letter whose author didn’t disclose her own relationships with anti-GMO organizations.
A new research paper published in the National Academy of Sciences’ journal shows a correlation between pertussis outbreaks and states that allow nonmedical vaccine exemptions. I worked with my state rep to tighten Delaware’s nonmedical exemption rules, although (according to him) the Republicans in our legislature wouldn’t approve eliminating religious exemptions entirely.
EPA Chief Scott Pruitt wants scientists to debate climate change on live TV. Yes, please.
Longtime Iowa baseball coach Marty Gehen is entering his final season at the helm as a hereditary disease robs him of his vision.
Gwyneth Paltrow’s woo site GOOP has become legend for selling overpriced bullshit to people who embrace the irrational, but even they sunk to a new low when they attacked an actual doctor who pointed out how dangerous their “vagina jade eggs” could be. GOOP may have gotten something right, though, if you want to credit them with the placebo effect.
The Denver Post looks at a group of loonies who claim they’re being persecuted for believing the earth is flat. I think the part that bothers me most is that they’re teaching kids this nonsense.
The headline is a little misleading but this National Review post does detail some real issues with organic foods that aren’t really organic. Knowing your farmer or source is more important than just buying something labelled “organic.”
Three Boston-area teenagers discovered that the Boston Garden has violated terms of the law that funded its construction and may owe the city hundreds of tens of dollars in restitution to help build public sports facilities the public can actually use.
TV critic and friend of the dish Alan Sepinwall wrote about the frustration of the “it gets better after six episodes” phenomenon of TV series in an era where none of us really has the time for that kind of investment.
The New York Times described the scourge of alternative Oreo flavors. There was nothing wrong with the original. Nothing.
Why do men remarry faster than women after the death of a spouse? This piece was spurred by the news that Patton Oswalt is engaged to actress Meredith Salenger, who, by the way, lived one floor up from me during my sophomore year in college.
A Montana woman who was targeted by neo-Nazis who called her house and left death threats is suing the man who runs the Daily Stormer website for launching the harassment campaign. Also weird: The guy who runs the white supremacist site claims he lives in Lagos, Nigeria, a city of 16 million-plus people, nearly all of whom are black Africans.
Airbnb, VRBO, and other online short-term rental companies are causing landlords to convert apartment buildings into de facto hotels, reducing the supply of housing for middle-class (and below) residents in many tourist towns.
The President keeps referring to his friend “Jim,” whom the AP reports may not even exist. I’m not really OK with a President who keeps and constantly refers to an imaginary friend as if he’s real.
An actual feel-good story: Beachgoers on the Florida panhandle formed a human chain to rescue a drowning family who’d been caught too far from shore.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baseball, climate change, gmo, links, net neutrality, organic agriculture, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ July 8, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 7/8/17.

For Insiders this week, I previewed the Futures Game and broke down some of the worst omissions from the All-Star rosters. I held a Klawchat on Friday.

On the non-baseball front, I reviewed the high-strategy boardgame Great Western Trail for Paste this week. I also have a new piece up at Vulture looking at how the TV show Orphan Black has used boardgames as an integral part of several episodes.

Thanks to everyone who’s already bought Smart Baseball; sales spiked this month between Father’s Day and the positive review in the Wall Street Journal. I’ve got book signings coming up:

* Miami, Books and Books, today at 3 pm
* Harrisburg, Midtown Scholar, July 15th
* Berkeley, Books Inc., July 19th
* Chicago, Volumes, July 28th, 7:30 pm
* GenCon (Indianapolis), August 17th-20th

If you’re with an independent bookstore and would like to host a signing, please contact Danielle Bartlett at HarperCollins; we’re trying to accommodate everyone we can within my work schedule. I’m talking to one store about a signing/talk in Brooklyn (along with another author) in August or early September.

And now, the links…

The headline may be salacious, but the problem is serious: Antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea is spreading, due in large part to unprotected sex (including oral sex), resulting in some patients with untreatable cases. And given what we know about horizontal gene transfer in bacteria, this should terrify you even if you aren’t at risk of contracting this particular disease.
Longread of the week: Nathan Fenno, who wrote the definitive piece on Rays prospect turned accused murderer Brandon Martin, has another, similar piece, on former NFL player De’von Hall, who killed his mother during an argument, apparently after a quick decline into mental illness and homelessness.
Digg has a riveting first-person account of post-partum psychosis. The girl who grew up next door to me, two years my senior, took her own life about a decade ago a few days after giving birth, the result of post-partum psychosis.
James Beard winner Sean Brock, the celebrity chef behind Husk (Charleston, Nashville, and soon two more locations), opened up to the New York Times about getting sober after friends staged an intervention around his drinking.
Bloomberg profiled a strange, remote, popular hotel on Newfoundland’s Fogo Island in a piece from May of 2016. The photos are as incredible as the story.
WIRED looks at the unlikely rise of mathematician June Huh, who didn’t come to mathematics until college and is doing his best work now at age 34, well past the typical peak years of most mathematicians. Clearly we should be testing him for Proof Enhancing Drugs.
From Gizmodo, why people with implanted medical devices should fear automatic doors and the general rise of devices operating in the same frequency ranges as, say, brain implants or pacemakers.
Austin is a rare bastion of progressive thought and policy in Texas, a state with one of the country’s most reactionary governments, leading to conflict between the citizens of the state’s capital and the politicians working in it, particularly over “preemption laws,” whereby states tell cities and counties they can’t pass certain ordinances or enact policies that might run counter to what the state governments want.
A white man shot and killed an 18-year-old black woman in a road rage incident in Pennsylvania last week. It doesn’t appear their races played a role in the crime, but they seem to have affected the news coverage of the incident. David Desper had a permit for the 40-caliber semi-automatic he (is alleged to have) used to kill Bianca Robertson.
A Kenyan woman told the BBC how she missed her own wedding because she’d been abducted and gang-raped outside of Nairobi.
Flights in the southern US (and beyond) are increasingly facing high-heat delays due to climate change, which our current federal Administration still denies even exists.
John Le Carré gave a speech, transcribed in the Guardian, extolling the virtues of learning German in a post-Brexit world, although I think his points can apply to anyone learning any foreign language. Not only does it facilitate communication, but different languages can express different concepts and can give the speaker new perspectives.
Are humans insignificant in the cosmos, and if so, does life have meaning? A fellow of philosophy and epistemology examines a question often reserved for clergy and theologians.
Eighteen states are suing the Department of Education for delaying implementation of a rule aimed at helping students conned by for-profit universities. For-profit colleges aren’t necessarily bad, but the field is certainly ripe for scams, particularly since federal aid is so easy to come by.
The Guardian‘s editorial page also came out in favor of mandatory childhood vaccinations, while accurately comparing modern anti-vaccine movements to the religious fundamentalists – the article mentions the Taleban, but Christian Scientists have the same bad beliefs – who also oppose vaccinations.
Lindy West, who deleted her Twitter account in January due to the service’s refusal to deal with abusive trolls, writes about how the same class of trolls threatens free speech rights.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: charleston, climate change, links, math, stick to baseball, texas, vaccines

→ July 1, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 7/1/17.

Couple of Insider posts this week – one with reactions to the initial rosters for the Futures Game and one on top prospects for tomorrow’s international free agent signing period. I also held a Klawchat on Friday afternoon en route to Lakewood from Bristol.

My latest boardgame review for Paste is the two-player game Santorini, which has some light chess/Othello elements to it but is played on a smaller board (5×5) that keeps the games a bit shorter.

Thanks to everyone who’s already bought Smart Baseball; sales spiked this month between Father’s Day and the positive review in the Wall Street Journal. I’ve got book signings coming up:

* Miami, Books and Books, July 8th
* Harrisburg, Midtown Scholar, July 15th
* Berkeley, Books Inc., July 19th
* Chicago, Volumes, July 28th, 7:30 pm
* GenCon (Indianapolis), August 17th-20th

If you’re with an independent bookstore and would like to host a signing, please contact Danielle Bartlett at HarperCollins; we’re trying to accommodate everyone we can within my work schedule.

I also spoke with Sportsnet about the book, anxiety, and the 2017 Blue Jays.

And now, the links…

Russell Carleton looks at the utility of pickoff throws over at Baseball Prospectus.
This isn’t surprising if you follow Zack Greinke at all, but the pitcher told MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert how he used Statcast data to help turn his 2016 season around.
“The Time I Got Recruited to Collude with the Russians.” Long, and you may have seen it, but it seems like more evidence of wrongdoing from the Trump campaign last summer.
VICE details a planned (or, really, hypothetical) pay-for-play college basketball league that would focus on the Historically Black Colleges & Universities that have largely missed out on the financial windfall of modern college basketball.
The mother of an immune-compromised daughter who was hospitalized recently because she was exposed to chicken pox lashed out at vaccine deniers for putting her daughter’s life at risk. Your decision not to vaccinate your kids isn’t just about your own neglect, but potentially harms other vulnerable people in your community.
If you heard that a European Union court ruled against vaccine safety, well, not really.
A research paper in the New England Journal of Medicine looks at benefits of increased health insurance coverage under the ACA, including lower costs of reduction in mortality rates compared to other policies. (One of the authors is Dr. Atul Gawande, the author of Being Mortal and The Checklist Manifesto.)
Eater has a great profile of gelato maker Meredith Kurtzman, who recently retired after two decades in the NYC food scene, working at restaurants (notably at Mario Batali’s Otto) and earning plaudits from chefs and restaurateurs for her work. It’s a wonderful piece because it doesn’t shy away from the fact that Kurtzman isn’t a very engaging or even likable subject.
The NY Times is now charging for access to its cooking site, which … is fine, actually. I know there’s always a backlash when sites charge for content, but if you want good content, you’re going to have to start paying for it somewhere. I subscribe to their main site, the Washington Post, and Fine Cooking magazine, among others. However, charging for recipes is tricky because they can’t be copyrighted – you can copyright text, but not the specifics of a recipe – which makes this a little different than most subscriber walls.
The great BBC series Broadchurch just returned on Wednesday for its third and final season, and IndieWire ran a Q&A with star David Tennant that’s more insightful than the standard “actor talks about series he didn’t write but explains everything anyway” sort of piece.
The Koch Brothers plan to spend $400 million to help elect conservative Republican candidates in 2018. Repealing Obamacare and reducing taxes on the highest earners are two of their main policy priorities.
Daniel Vaughn’s latest list of the top 50 BBQ joints in Texas came out a few weeks ago for Texas Monthly, and if you’re visiting that state, it’s a great resource. (If you live there, well, I’m sorry.)
The new Presidential commission on so-called “voter fraud” – which does not actually exist on any significant scale – is really just an attack on voting rights. Even some GOP-led states are declining the requests for state voter information. Delaware hasn’t made any statement yet, but I have reached to the Secretary of State, asking them to refuse to comply.
Sen. Al Franken very calmly de-pantsed Energy Secretary Rick Perry on climate change, helped by Perry’s apparent lack of any knowledge on the subject whatsoever.
Whole Foods had long contributed to local farmers both in access to markets and in providing low-interest loans to help farmers ramp up operations to serve the chain. Now the farmers worry these programs will end after amazon’s purchase of the retailer.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: bbq, british television, climate change, gelato, links, Sports, stick to baseball, vaccines, whole foods

→ June 24, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 6/24/17.

I wrote two new pieces for Insiders this past week, one looking at teams that just drafted their new #1 prospects and a minor league scouting piece on Phillies, Cleveland, Red Sox, and Astros prospects. I held a Klawchat on Thursday.

Smart Baseball got a nice sales bump last week from Father’s Day and from George Will’s favorable review in the Wall Street Journal (subscriber link). Ty Duffy also mentions the book in passing in a smart piece on how analytics are changing the game on the field, possibly for the worse. Thank you to everyone who’s purchased it. I hope to see many of you at my upcoming signings/appearances:

* Toronto, The Sports Gallery, June 26th
* Miami, Books and Books, July 8th
* Harrisburg, Midtown Scholar, July 15th
* Berkeley, Books Inc., July 19th
* Chicago, Volumes, July 28th, 7:30 pm
* GenCon (Indianapolis), August 17th-20th

Still working on Brooklyn and Phoenix for later this summer/fall, and I believe I’ll be signing at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia in November. Bookstores interested in hosting should contact Danielle Bartlett at HarperCollins; we’re trying to accommodate everyone we can within my work schedule.

And now, the links…

Chiropractors are bullshit, according to this longread, and in my experience a ridiculously high percentage of them are anti-vaxxers too.
Speaking of vaccine deniers, enjoy this post on how one rabid denier can’t do basic math despite claiming the minuscule amount of formaldehyde in vaccines is harmful. (Your body produces formaldehyde every day.)
WIRED looks at the leading hypotheses on the causes of autism spectrum disorder. Note that vaccines aren’t among them.
Buzzfeed has a great longread on the British scientist likely assassinated by Russian agents, and the British government’s apparent complicity in covering it up. The victim, Dr. Matthew Puncher, had helped prove that a Russian dissident was himself killed, via polonium-120 poisoning, by the Russian state. That’s the same Russian government to which our current Administration is cozying up, by the way.
Missouri, fighting to overtake Texas in the race to the bottom, is considering a law that would allow employers to disciminate against women who’ve had abortions or used birth control.
The Guardian looks at a 19-year-old heroin addict turned dealer in West Virginia as part of its series on the U.S. opioid epidemic.
The tick whose bite makes people allergic to red meat – specifically to a carbohydrate in red meat called alpha-gal – is spreading to the northern half of the U.S.. Use an insect repellent that contains DEET and, if you’re camping or otherwise outdoors in an area likely to have ticks, treat your clothing with permethrin.
Last week brought the shocking (#notshocked) news that coconut oil isn’t a magical health food after all. How did it ever get that reputation in the first place? A couple of isolated studies on individual chemicals found in coconut oil fueled a lot of wacko theories and charlatans selling “alternative medicine” solutions. It can be pretty useful in baking, though.
David French of the National Review had my favorite argument on why the Philando Castile verdict was “a miscarriage of justice”. Many of these cases are about race; this is about a cop who killed an innocent man who followed the cop’s instructions and died anyway.
Vulture’s Kyle Buchanan tells the movie industry to stop blaming critics for their own bad blockbusters.
Everyone’s got an opinion on why amazon is buying Whole Foods; I liked this explanation from The Atlantic‘s Derek Thompson, although I think the real answers are probably even more complex. If Amazon merely wanted to buy a brick and mortar network to reach consumers, was this the best or only option? And what happens to folks like me, who’ve chosen Whole Foods because of the quality of its merchandise and/or because it allows consumers more choices for (ostensibly) responsible spending?
One study on Seattle’s minimum wage hike found it didn’t hurt employment in the food services industry, one of the sectors that was, in theory, likely to be most affected by such a law.
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, author of the cookbook The Food Lab, is joining partners in opening his first restaurant, a sausage and beer hall in San Mateo, CA.
A Rhode Island teacher got to meet the President after winning a state award, and in his photo op decided to be ‘visibly queer’ to make a statement. The reason I included it here: He asked the President if it was OK before the pic, and Trump said yes.
Those Carrier jobs Trump/Pence claimed they’d saved? The company automated the plant and is moving the jobs to Mexico.
The ransomware attack earlier this year may have distracted authorities from an even more serious attack using tools leaked from the NSA.
I’ve mentioned the NYC cocktail bar Coup before, and they just got a positive writeup in the New Yorker. All proceeds there go to nonprofits fighting or threatened by the current Administration; you get a token with every drink you buy, and you place it in a vase for the charity you want to support.
Former NFL player Ryan O’Callaghan planned to killed himself because he didn’t want admit he was gay, but members of the Chiefs medical staff noticed changes in his behavior and ended up leading him to choose to live and come out publicly. The conversation he had with then-Chiefs GM Scott Pioli is particularly touching.
The “Angry Chef” now has a book coming out detailing how “alternative” ideas like detoxing are mostly just bullshit. Speaking of which, NASA just called bullshit on Gwyneth Paltrow’s fake-medicine site GOOP for claiming a product used the same material found in spacesuits. You are a complete idiot if you give her any of your money.
A Wisconsin ironworker is going to challenge Rep. Paul Ryan for the House Speaker’s seat next year, and while he’s got to be the longest of longshots, his first campaign ad is a doozy.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: beer, cocktails, gay rights, links, pseudoscience, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ June 17, 2017
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 6/17/17.

I recapped the drafts for all 15 NL teams and all 15 AL teams on Friday and Thursday, respectively, and previously had reactions to day one and day two of the draft, as well as a Klawchat during day two.

I did manage to squeeze in a boardgame review for Paste, breaking down the family-level tile-laying game Bärenpark, which has a Tetris/Patchwork-like mechanic and plays well with four but needs a few rules tweaks to keep it fair.

Smart Baseball continues to sell well, according to my editors, so thank you all for buying, reading, and talking it up. I have signings coming up in Toronto (6/26), Miami (7/8), Harrisburg (7/15), Berkeley (7/19), Chicago (7/28, details to come), and at GenCon 50 in Indianapolis (August 17-20).

I was a bit busy this week, and was offline most of the day Thursday as we went strawberry picking, which means we now have jam and strawberry-rhubarb pie, so the list of links is pretty short. I should be back to normal next week.

Longread of the week: Ars Technica looks at the guy who says he invented email and is suing everyone who says he didn’t. No serious outlet agrees with his claim, but he has access to enough cash to fund these suits, one of which is threatening to shut down the site Techdirt because of the ruinous cost of defending itself against the suit. The soi-disant inventor is also a Trump supporter and announced that he’s running for the Massachusetts Senate seat occupied by Elizabeth Warren.
Two pieces this week found that baseball’s home run spike is at least partly the result of changes to the baseball. The first came from Ben Lindbergh and Mitchel Lichtman at The Ringer, and the second from Rob Arthur at FiveThirtyEight.
Want to get more done in a day? Manage your energy, not your time. That means embracing moments of “unfocus,” and ending the futile effort to be productive every minute of your workday. I wouldn’t say this is how I planned to work, but it is definitely how I do work.
Farhad Manjoo makes a rational argument against using Uber, at least until the company cleans up its act. I’ve switched to Lyft and taxis when I need a ride somewhere.
My adopted home state of Delaware took a major step to ensure a woman’s right to choose in the face of threats to abortion rights at the federal level, to say nothing of efforts in states with right-wing governments like Texas and Missouri to enact end-runs around Roe v. Wade.
Meanwhile, in Ohio, women protested that state’s bill to restrict abortion rights by appearing in costumes from The Handmaid’s Tale. I haven’t seen the series, but the book is a must-read.
Have you seen the list of doctors who claim to be vaccine skeptics? If you argue with anti-vaxers at all, this list inevitably comes up. SkepticalRaptor goes through the list and finds they’re not immunologists, and often aren’t doctors at all. What a shock. I’m in favor of any medical board pulling the license of a doctor who advises parents not to vaccinate their kids.
This GQ profile of LA chef Jordan Kahn and his new restaurant Vespertine seems extremely unflattering to me – not because the writer aimed to take down the subject, but because the entire undertaking seems so out of place. The friend who sent me this link called it “pretentious” and I’d go even farther; the article makes Vespertine sound like a chef’s ego trip around the world.
Puerto Rico voted for statehood, sort of, with an opposition boycott resulting in just 23% of voters casting ballots in the nonbinding referendum. The BBC looks at what statehood would mean for the commonwealth.
A lobbyist who represents “Russian interests” in Washington told the Guardian that he can contradict Jeff Sessions’ claims before Congress that the Attorney General never had contacts with any such people during the 2016 campaign.
Maryland and D.C. have sued the President, alleging a breach of the Constitution’s emoluments clause.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: baseball, links, puerto rico, right to choose, stick to baseball, 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

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