links — Page 40

→ June 13, 2015
→ By keith

Saturday five, 6/13/15.

For Insiders, my recaps of the drafts for all 15 NL teams and all 15 AL teams are up, as well as my round one reactions and a post-draft Klawchat.

I don’t have another place for this, but I read Michael Ruhlman’s short autobiographical Kindle Single The Main Dish ($1.99) this week, right after the draft ended, and enjoyed it tremendously. I love Ruhlman’s writing in general, but the insight into how he became a writer – he even uses “accidental” the way I often call myself an accidental sportswriter – seems like it would be very valuable for anyone considering a career in prose.

And now, this week’s links…

Bill and Melinda Gates have given away over $29 billion, and Warren Buffett is dedicating another $70 billion of his fortune to their Foundation. Buried within this piece: There hasn’t been a new case of polio in Africa in nine months, a remarkable change given the continued violence perpetrated by Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria. Polio is now only endemic in the undergoverned region that joins Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The House of Representatives voted to repeal the Country of Origin Labeling Act that required packaged meat indicate where the animals came from, because it conflicts with WTO rules. I’m of two minds on this: I favor more labeling that tells consumers about what they’re buying, but I also believe in free trade and don’t like the idea of us flouting our trade agreements when we rely on them for fair access to other markets. That said, there’s nothing that says meat vendors can’t tell you where the meat is from … and if you buy local meat, you’re covered.
In some local schools in England, teachers are confiscating Scotch eggs from lunchboxes as well as other foods deemed unhealthful. This strikes me as an outrageous overreach, and one likely based on very bad science that holds that dietary fat is bad for us.
Comedy writer Ben Schwartz wrote a fantastic essay on comedy and the “PC” response, although much of what he says applies to our culture as a whole.
Two great examples of people being misled by statistics, both stories from NPR: One on bluefin tuna selling cheaply in San Diego, because fishermen say it’s plentiful when in reality it’s not; and a possible link between some heartburn medications and heart disease, but from a study that doesn’t explain causation while ignoring potential confounding variables.
OK, one more great NPR link: How fad diets are merely pseudoscience wrapped in a veneer of ancient religious memes. I love the fake fad diet piece at the end.
Downton Abbey is filming its final season and Maggie Smith is glad it’s coming to an end.
I believe I linked to the New Yorker story from last year about Kalief Browder, a man held in Rikers for three years without ever being convicted of a crime. He was eventually freed, but took his own life last week. Browder was 22 years old.
I don’t remember the original Chip’s Challenge game, but this story on the arduous process of getting a sequel released was still fascinating.
This excellent New York Times profile of Gawker and its founder Nick Denton also discusses the important First Amendment ramifications of Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against the company for posting a clip of him having sex with his friend’s wife.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: food safety, links, pseudoscience, saturday five, vaccines, video games

→ June 6, 2015
→ By keith

Saturday five, 6/6/15.

My third first-round mock for Monday’s draft went up on Thursday for Insiders. I’ll do one more on Monday morning. My final ranking of the top 100 prospects in the draft class is also up.

My latest boardgame review for Paste is on the D&D-themed miniatures and tile-laying game Temple of Elemental Evil.

Fewer links than normal this week because I’ve got this other thing going on…

A man held hostage for 977 days by Somali “pirates” tells the story of his captivity to the Guardian.
The Red Cross wasted $500 million in donations after the 2012 Haitian earthquake. You shouldn’t give them any of your money. Smaller charities working on the ground tend to produce a better return on investment; check Global Giving for a variety of strong micro-charitable options.
Pluto’s four smaller moons tumble and spin rather than rotating. In other news, Pluto has four small moons besides Charon.
Definitely trying this out – a recipe for a Bengali condiment called kasundi that the recipe’s author compares to ketchup in its utility. But can you put it on a hot dog?
I don’t usually do sap, but this story of a cop filling in for a teen’s dead parents at graduation was worth an exception. I actually believe most people are good by nature; the rest are on Twitter.
So, that Facebook post by Terry Coffey that criticized Caitlyn Jenner getting an award for courage by comparing her to soldiers on the battlefield? There’s a beautiful irony to the photo Coffey chose, and tremendous grace in his response.
Ben Lindbergh wrote a long piece for Grantland on macro trends in the MLB draft. While I found it interesting, this year’s class appears likely to buck his conclusions.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: links, saturday five

→ May 30, 2015
→ By keith

Saturday five, 5/30/15.

This week I posted an updated ranking of the top 25 prospects in the minors and my second mock draft for 2015. I also held yet another Klawchat this week, still focusing on the draft.

And now, this week’s links…

A bipartisan editorial from Newt Gingrich and Van Jones calling for better treatment options for mentally ill nonviolent criminals. I couldn’t agree with this any more.
Twitter finally grew a spine and banned serial rules violator Chuck C. Johnson, who outed a rape victim and still was allowed to remain on the service.
Kansas has become a real political backwater, with their latest stunt the paternalistic $25 daily limit on welfare recipients’ withdrawals. The legislators supporting this awful law cite anecdotal evidence of waste rather than relying on research that gives the contrary conclusion.
If you can’t accept the reality of climate change, perhaps the fear of the extinction of coffee will get to you? That BBC piece details some of the efforts to breed hardier coffee plants that can adapt to a warming planet.
Still in denial? How about the loss of so much ice in Antarctica that it may be shifting the Earth’s gravitational field?
Bill Gates talked to Vox about the inevitable global flu pandemic, with a lot of additional reporting on the how, why, and maybe what we can do about it.
A funny take on helicopter versus free range parenting.
A fair question on why there isn’t more media coverage of Atlanta Hawks guard Thabo Sefolosha missing the playoffs because he was attacked by NYPD officers. You’d think an assault on a famous person of color would at least get the media’s attention.
Longread of the week: Atul Gawande, author of The Checklist Manifesto (which I reviewed) and Being Mortal (which I haven’t read), writes about the plague of unnecessary medical care in America. There are a lot of expensive tests, procedures, and medications with little to no proven benefit (or a proven lack of benefit) that are routinely administered to patients in the U.S., and we all end up paying for them in our insurance premiums.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: climate change, coffee, links, saturday five

→ May 23, 2015
→ By keith

Saturday five, 5/23/15.

My first “mock” draft for 2015 went up for Insiders on Wednesday night, although I’d already change a few things (e.g., the Red Sox’ pick). There’s also a new Insider minor league scouting roundup, with notes on Dylan Bundy, Luis Severino, Reynaldo Lopez, the Royals’ Cody Reed, and more. I held my regular Klawchat on Thursday.

Over at Paste, my latest boardgame review covers the highly anticipated Elysium, from the designer of Relic Runners. The game, which comes out on the 28th, has a great concept and theme, but I thought it was too short to let the mechanics play out.

And now, the links…

George Howell, artisan roaster and founder of the Boston-based chain The Coffee Connection (RIP), is
opening a new cafe near Downtown Crossing.
Ozy interviews Bill and Melinda Gates about the Gates Foundation’s work for global health, answering questions on new innovations, accountability, and working with non-democratic regimes.
The theft of rare books and/or pages cut from them is a rising problem in the rare-books world, so there’s a new effort afoot to stop them.
A great Washington Post piece on how a fish sandwich reflects the gentrification of a black DC neighborhood.
It hasn’t made global waves, but a young woman from a conservative part of Turkey was shot in the head for appearing on a reality singing competition. Her ex-boyfriend has been charged with the shooting.
Relevant to my work life: A somewhat frivolous NY Times piece on fighting over seats on airplanes.
Yet another study showing benefits of organic agriculture, this one saying it may promote biodiversity. You shouldn’t buy organic produce or meat because you think it’s more healthful for you – it’s almost certainly not – but you should buy it because it’s far better for the planet and thus for the future of our species.
From reader Garrett, a great longread provocatively titled Why it pays to be a jerk. The argument is more nuanced, though; the conclusion is more along the lines of “be a jerk when it can help other people too.”
The New Yorker ran a great summary/analysis of this week’s revelation that a major study on gay marriage support was a fraud. The grad student who claimed to have produced data showing that support for gay marriage could increase with just one conversation with a supporter is now accused of fabricating his results. This essay asks a number of pertinent questions, foremost among them whether confirmation bias among those who wanted to see such results made them less willing to see the signs the data might be faked.
Alton Brown offered NPR some basic grilling tips for the weekend, including the important tip that “flame is bad.”
The NRA fought to water down an anti-domestic violence bill in Louisiana. Because, you know, guns.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: coffee, food science, links, saturday five, vaccines

→ May 16, 2015
→ By keith

Saturday five, 5/16/15.

My Insider content this week includes my redraft of the 2005 class as well as a recap of the first round picks who didn’t pan out. I also held my weekly Klawchat on Wednesday. My first mock draft will go up on Tuesday.

And now, this week’s links…

The illusion of memory in action: The New York Times shows two false eyewitness accounts of a shooting in New York City. This is one of the six cognitive illusions discussed in The Invisible Gorilla, which I reviewed this week.
Chef Hugh Acheson stars in the first episode of Eater’s Real Chefs Cook Dumb Recipes. This one, for chicken nachos, is really dumb: It’s from Kris Jenner’s cookbook, but it’s Nicole Brown Simpson’s recipe. Actually, it’s not so much dumb as totally tacky. Also, Acheson’s newest cookbook, The Broad Fork, just came out last week – it’s all about cooking with vegetables and fruits.
Why did Rehoboth Beach reject Dogfish Head’s expansion plans? Do they not like jobs? And beer? In fact, that’s my campaign platform. Keith Law for Governor of Delaware: Jobs and Beer.
Are seed libraries legal in your state? You won’t believe the bullshit reason some state governments are using to shut such seed-exchange programs down.
Good news on the vaccine front: California’s Senate is trying to end non-medical waivers. There are no good non-medical reasons to eschew vaccinations. None.
Frontline had a great series of reports on food-borne illnesses in raw chicken.
The Amtrak derailment this week brought out some regrettable social media behavior, including massive attacks on a music professor and violinist who sent an angry tweet to Amtrak about retrieving her instrument.
A cute followup on the Israeli professor who calmed a student’s crying baby. Apparently this is par for the course for him. (Pun intended.)
More bad news on the environmental front: NPR reports on the 42% drop in honeybee colonies from 2014. This comes on the heels of two more studies blaming pesticides known as “neonics” for their role in colony collapse disorder.
Also from NPR’s Science Desk, why would a fish have gained (through evolution) the ability to make its own sunscreen?
The BBC reports on ideas for improving how you learn and/or memorize new material.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: beer, environment, evolution, food safety, links, psychology, saturday five, vaccines

→ May 9, 2015
→ By keith

Saturday five, 5/9/15.

My ranking of the top 100 draft prospects for 2015 is now up for Insiders, and I held a Klawchat afterwards to answer questions about it. I’ll be at UConn’s game today (Saturday) against Cincinnati to see Ian Happ before I head home for Mother’s Day.

And now, the links…

A grieving yet proud mother writes about losing her 29-year-old daughter to mental illness.
The New Republic offers a hopeful piece on the imminent decline of pseudoscience.
What’s the best way to fight science denial? This piece argues that it involves showing other pieces of science denial first.
A thirty-year study by the Rodale Institute found that organic agriculture beat conventional methods for energy efficiency, water quality, soil health, and other important variables. Organic produce probably isn’t any more healthful than conventional, there’s limited evidence that it’s more nutritious (that seems to be a function of the soil itself), and there’s minimal risk from pesticides on conventional stuff. But organic ag is way better for the soil and the water, and it should use far less fossil fuels as well.
From last week, a reader sent along this rejoinder to the pro-TPP link I included in that post.
Kickstarter is behind lots of success stories, including many acclaimed boardgames, but what happens when a crowdfunded startup goes south?
I haven’t followed football at all since the 1980s, but I couldn’t stop reading this New York Times “where are they now?” piece on the first-round picks from the NFL’s 1990 draft.
Excellent piece from the Washington Post on one woman’s 400-mile drive to end a pregnancy. Women who seek abortions are not merely heartless babykillers, and reducing access to abortion services doesn’t do anything to reduce the demand, only to increase the hardships for women who need them.
Scientists have found feathered fossils of birds from 130 million years ago, about 5 million years older than the previous hypothesized date for the first birds to appear on earth. Those scientists, man. They keep doing stuff.
You probably caught this one going around, but a school in Texas that taught abstinence-only sex education had a chlamydia outbreak. I’m sympathetic to parents who believe the choice to teach kids about sexual morality should be theirs, not the school’s, but there’s a public health aspect to the question too, and, more importantly, a growing body of evidence that abstinence-only education doesn’t work.
Turns out that getting vaccinated for the measles reduces your susceptibility to a bunch of other illnesses to which the measles would make you more vulnerable.
They didn’t have this class when I was there: Harvard engineering students spent a semester building the ultimate brisket smoker.
Speaking of barbecue, Aaron Franklin of Franklin BBQ in Austin (and of those AmEx commercials) became the first pitmaster to win a James Beard “best chef” award. If you’ve had his brisket, and I have, he deserves all the awards. Like, even the Nobel Prize for Economics, which is kind of a made-up thing anyway.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: bbq, evolution, experimental cuisine, links, pseudoscience, saturday five, vaccines

→ May 2, 2015
→ By keith

Saturday five, 5/2/15.

My annual ranking of the top 25 MLB players under 25 is up for Insiders, as is another draft blog post on Vanderbilt’s Carson Fulmer and Dansby Swanson. My weekly Klawchat transcript is up.

I also appeared on actor Nate Corddry’s Reading Aloud podcast, talking mostly about books and pizza with a little baseball chatter thrown in.

And now, the links…

English college student Ione Wells wrote a letter to her assaulter as a statement of strength for herself and other victims of sexual assault. It’s absolutely worth reading (and re-posting, since I tweeted to it on Wednesday).
Anything with David Simon is an auto-link for me; with Baltimore in flames earlier this week, he’s a a natural commentator, and you might say he has some thoughts on the matter. The failed War on Drugs comes up, as you would expect.
Hugh Acheson and Empire State South barista Dale Donchey will open a new coffee shop called Spiller Park Coffee in Atlanta’s Ponce City Market, with a projected opening date in September. They’ll use a selection from a small number of the best small/third-wave roasters in the country.
Nearly all economists agree free trade is good, so why are some members of Congress fighting renewal of the President’s Trade Promotion Authority? Why is Elizabeth Warren, by all accounts a fairly intelligent person, on the wrong side of the table here – along with a good chunk of her fellow Democrats?
The New York Times was strong this week, between that op ed and this investigative report on the deep, unspoken support for the drone program within Washington’s inner circles of power.
Chipotle, the most responsible of all national food chains when it comes to sourcing ingredients, will no longer serve food made with GMO ingredients. That’s too bad, as it feeds into FraudBabe-style anti-science woo-woo; GMOs are completely safe to eat and can improve crop yields, although they have negative externalities regarding pesticide use. (I still favor GMO labelling, as it’s the consumer’s right to decide what to consume, even if they want to be stupid about it.)
Rubella has been eradicated in the Americas. You know why? Because vaccines. It’s the third virus that infects humans to be wiped out in this hemisphere and the fourth virus in total (including rinderpest, which infected mostly cattle and buffalo).
NPR’s Fresh Air dedicated a show to an interview with journalist Mark Arax about California’s water wars, especially the current conflict over almond farms’ use of water.
A short but potent piece from Ta-Nehisi Coates on Nonviolence as Compliance in Baltimore.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: atlanta, coffee, food science, links, saturday five, vaccines

→ April 25, 2015
→ By keith

Saturday five, 4/25/15.

My one Insider piece this week was a draft blog post on Donny Everett, Mike Nikorak, and first-round rumors, and I’ll have a similar post up within 24 hours on two Vanderbilt prospects and more gossip. I held my Klawchat on Wednesday, and I have a new boardgame review up for Paste on the X-COM boardgame adaptation, which seems to be true to the spirit of the video game, but which I found excessively complicated.

And now, the links…

Yet another study showing vaccines don’t cause autism. How much research time and money has been wasted because of one disgraced doctor’s fraud? And how many children have suffered because their parents bought into the vaccine deniers’ lie?
The BBC has a 25-minute Inquiry program on the true causes of the conflict in Yemen, and why it matters for the rest of the world. It’s an essential story that’s barely covered in the U.S. right now, even though we’ve had a hand in it and are poised to come out big losers once again.
Does a US child go missing every 90 seconds? No, of course not, but that won’t stop people from repeating a bad statistic that gets clicks.
It’s full of spoilers, but I enjoyed the NY Times‘ recap/review of the Broadchurch season finale. My review of season two is mostly spoiler-free.
Are hospitals doing all they can to prevent Clostridium difficile infections? Not yet, according to a terrifying new study.
How Dodgers fans are using tech tricks to evade the TV blackout. This isn’t a black-and-white issue; viewers getting screwed by a legally sanctioned monopolist are resorting to illegal methods to access content for which they would and do pay. MLB can solve this quickly by ending local blackouts, or Congress could force cable companies to open their infrastructure to competitive carriers, and please stop laughing now.
Earlier this month, a federal court upheld New Jersey’s ban on gay “conversion” therapy, leading to calls for a national law doing the same. The Human Rights Commission has some links on the harm such therapy inflicts, as well statements from major medical associations against the practice. It’s abhorrent and cruel.
My friend Wendy Thurm waxes on the Islanders’ departure from Nassau Coliseum. I grew up an Islanders fan and still remember hanging the Newsday cover with the headshots of everyone on the Isles’ roster after they won their fourth straight Stanley Cup, as well as the cover the following spring with the headline “Deprived of Five.” (Damn you, Gretzky.) But the Coliseum is a dump and it was never easy to get to in the first place. That said, if you play in Brooklyn, you’re no longer allowed to be called the “Islanders.” You can be the Hipsters, you can be the Tip-Tops, you can even be the Bums, but once you crossed the county line into Queens you ceased to be Islanders.

Finally, apropos of nothing, I’m just going to leave this here:

PSA: #evolution is not an synonym for atheism. It is a scientific explanation for biological diversity with wide acceptance amongst Xtians

— Zoology Guy (@EvolutionQA) April 19, 2015

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: boardgames, gay rights, links, saturday five, tv, vaccines

→ April 18, 2015
→ By keith

Saturday five, 4/18/15.

My Insider post this week covered seven prospect-laden minor league rosters, which went up after Eric Longenhagen identified the Opening Day assignments for all 300 prospects in my thirty team top 10s. This week’s Klawchat transcript, full of “small sample size” questions, is up as well.

And now, the links…

Orphan Black, one of the best shows on television, is back tonight with the first episode of season 3. The New Yorker has a history-cum-review of the series that points out that it’s one of the few shows on TV that provides a quality leading role for a woman.
Security expert Bruce Schneier MLB metal detectors are a waste of time. Schneier’s been shouting into the void for years about how our reactions to real or imagined threats of terrorism are usually ineffective and sometimes harmful.
New Republic‘s informative history of the Hot Take. ESPN comes in for a little bit of blame in there.
A vaccine denier mom writes – from quarantine – how she realized she was an idiot when her whole family caught whooping cough.
How should journalists cover quacks like the FoodBabe in a fair, ethical manner? I don’t see a quandary here: Present the facts, and if that paints the subject in a bad light, so be it.
Self-styled “free range” parents arrested *again* in Maryland for leaving their kids unsupervised well away from the house. They’re invoking the same “parental rights” nonsense that vaccine deniers try to use, but you can’t put your kids at risk (and, in this case, violate the law, which is very clear on what’s not permitted) in the name of some vague freedom.
From the Virginia Quarterly Review comes a piece on cooking, social media, and intellectual property rights in the kitchen, oddly titled “The Meringue War.”
Why can a pharmacist invoke religion to refuse to fill a prescription? Shouldn’t we deny such people the right to become pharmacists or doctors?
A roundtable on the state of barbecue in the U.S. Granted, that’s not the ideal set of six voices, but there are some solid insights and recommended Q joints in there.
From the BBC: 9 psychological reasons we love lists. Only nine? My lists go to 100, so take that, John Bull.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: links, saturday five, vaccines

→ April 11, 2015
→ By keith

Saturday five, 4/10/15.

My ranking of the top 50 prospects in this year’s draft class went up on Friday for Insiders; I also had a draft blog post specifically on Nate Kirby and Kyle Funkhouser, and I broke down the Craig Kimbrel/Melvin Upton trade. I held my regular Klawchat on Thursday.

My latest boardgame review for Paste covers the excellent baseball-themed deckbuilder Baseball Highlights: 2045, which is currently $32 over at amazon. My daughter, who doesn’t have much interest in the actual baseball thing, even asked me last night if we could play it again this weekend.

Amazon is having a huge sale on strategy games today in honor of International Tabletop Day, with almost half off Splendor, 7 Wonders, Five Tribes, and King of Tokyo.

And now, the links:

A repost from my social media accounts this week: Why the “Food Babe” is full of shit. The shame is that she could marshal her small group of followers to make meaningful changes to our food supply, like pressuring vendors to stop buying meat from animals raised with antibiotics, but instead propagates ignorance and anti-science sentiment.
More on the FraudBabe: A post from September on the harm such pseudoscience quacks can cause in their followers. And followers they are, much like those of a cult leader.
One baseball link, from my colleague Stephania Bell: What we’ve missed about Tommy John surgery, with a focus on why some pitchers require a second transplant surgery soon after their first one.
Longread of the week: Vanity Fair delves into the deterioration of NBC’s news department that culminated in the Brian Williams debacle. Shorter version: This was the end of a long decline.
The health of our bodies is related to the health of the trillions of bacteria that live in our GI tracts; one gene in the mother may affect the composition of bacteria in a newborn’s gut.
Children with maple syrup urine disease, an organic acidemia similar to the one my daughter and I have (3-MCC), can only be cured via a liver transplant. Now their discarded livers can be transplanted into other patients who might not qualify for a liver from a “healthy” (meaning dead but not diseased) donor.
This excerpt from Masha Gessen’s The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy on the death of one of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s friends at the hands of the FBI poses some uncomfortable questions about the nature of policing in an endless war against terror.
Cops are much more likely to stop black drivers than white drivers for investigatory (that is, non-safety) reasons. And that’s how you get situations like the murder of Walter Scott. (Confession: When I saw #WalterScott trending, I started thinking of Waverley jokes or something I could tweet in Scott’s variety of the Scottish dialect, only to discover what the trend was about and stop myself from being horribly insensitive.)
Daniel Vaughn, aka @BBQSnob aka Texas Monthly‘s barbecue writer/editor, went to Phoenix’s Little Miss BBQ and loved it. I feel validated by this. I like the slaw more than he did, and I’ve had better sausage there than he got, but otherwise we’re on the same page.
Vice has some ominous news for almost everyone on the Internet: Your porn is watching you, or, more specifically, it would be rather easy for someone to reveal any online porn viewer’s habits if they were to compromise any major site’s server logs. There’s some skepticism, but I think the larger point about our lack of privacy online (porn or not-porn) is valid.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anti-science, baseball, bbq, links, saturday five, vaccines

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