vaccines — Page 24

→ June 25, 2016
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 6/25/16.

I wrote two pieces for Insider this week, one on prospects who could be recalled by contenders this summer and one placing thirteen top draft picks (#1-12, plus #16 for obvious reason) within their new organizations’ prospect rankings. I was not able to chat this week due to a lengthy flight delay on Thursday and the chance to hang with a longtime reader and now friend of mine who lives here in Omaha.

Also, with travel and some other stuff, I’m behind on dish blogging, but I finished Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Child and it was wonderful.

And now, the links…

I’ve been a fan of and advocate for CHVRCHES since well before their first album came out, but this appears to be the year they cross fully into the mainstream of pop music. Nerdist interviewed the trio at Firefly, including observations on their pop leanings despite their indie status. Personally, I have never disdained pop music for being pop, but disdain some pop music for being vapid. Anyway, if you haven’t heard the new version of “Bury It” featuring Hayley Williams along with Lauren Mayberry, it’s one of the best singles of the year:
The U.S. patent system has been a disaster for about twenty years now, with no sign of it abating. Popular Mechanics followed one lawsuit by an inventor against a big company that presents a balanced look at how the system just doesn’t work.
Why is Estonia, the tiny former Soviet state on the Baltic sea where the people speak a language that isn’t even Indo-European, one of the most tech-friendly nations on the planet?
A burger made entirely from plant materials that looks, tastes, and even smells like beef? I’d try it. I’m no vegetarian, not by a long shot, but my diet is increasingly plant-based these days.
This was good if horrifying: Buzzfeed Canada editor Scaachi Koul wrote about two times she was roofied by men, and how would-be rapists identify potential victims.
Deadspin goes deep on the ugly, crooked business of gambling touts, focusing in particular on RJ Bell and Pregame.com. It’s an outstanding piece of longform investigative journalism.
The Atlantic interviewed the author of a new book, The Poverty Industry, about how private companies are looting government funds intended for foster children and the elderly poor.
I work for a Disney subsidiary, and thus am a Disney cast member, and have some indirect stake in the future of the company – especially as my direct employer’s revenues may be affected by declining cable subscriptions. This interview with Disney CEO Robert Iger was more candid than I expected and had some welcome news about our intentions in the digital, non-cabled space.
Why would a strawberry grown locally cost more than one grown in California? Well, it comes down to economies of scale, cheap transport costs, and, most fundamentally, a question of what we’re paying for when we pay for produce.
The story of the Trump campaign giving $35,000 to a phantom firm called Draper Sterling is more comical than controversial, but still an entertaining read.
A fascinating video on the mapping of Laniakea, the supercluster of galaxies that contains the Milky Way.
A mother whose baby nearly died of pertussis has some things to say to vaccine-denying parents.
Dr. Alice Callahan, a science researcher and instructor at Lane Community College in Oregon, penned a great, unemotional op ed against the vaccine-denier film Vaxxed. If you have (idiot) friends who saw the film, or want you to see it, well, I doubt anything will change their minds but you should send them this anyway.
Could the Orlando shooting lead to meaningful gun control legislation? I doubt it, but this Washington Post op ed argues it might because this time, the NRA’s opponent, the LGBT community, knows how to change the culture.
The nasal-spray flu vaccine was just not that effective in the last several seasons, and the CDC has recommended discontinuing its use in favor of traditional, injected vaccines.
One little-reported effect of the “Brexit:” Spain now wants shared sovereignty in Gibraltar, as the British enclave (which Spain has claimed for 300 years) voted 95% to remain in the EU.
I love this New Yorker cover about as much as I hate the UK leaving the European Union:

I almost never like New Yorker covers. But OK. pic.twitter.com/LLbR69UHHu

— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) June 24, 2016

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: food science, rape culture, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ June 18, 2016
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 6/18/16.

No new Insider content this week, although if you missed them you should check out my
American League draft recaps and National League draft recaps. No Federal League draft recaps, though, as the league folded in 1915. I held my weekly Klawchat on Thursday.

And now, the links:

Should pediatricians refuse to treat vaccine refusers? It’s not as easy a question as you might think – and while you (and I) would likely want our kids’ pediatricians to shun patients who might be carriers, there’s a larger social issue at play here.
Oh, hey, the Republican Presidential nominee is a vaccine denialist. Unlike the author of that post, I am a single-issue voter when it comes to science. I will not vote for a science-denier, period.
An Australian mum who went from anti-vax to pro-vax calls the vaccine-denier movement a sort of cult. Hard to dispute that, given the deniers’ clinging to false beliefs in the face of undeniable fact.
Other cult-like behavior from anti-vaxxers: harassing pro-vaccine activists by using sockpuppet social media accounts.
A reporter in Philadelphia – about 30 miles from me – bought an AR-15 assault rifle in seven minutes. No civilian has any need whatsoever for this kind of gun, yet they are legal and available with little to no restrictions in most states.
Oakland cops who were supposed to be working to fight sex trafficking themselves raped and trafficked an underaged sex worker. And that’s just the beginning of the accusations of crime and corruption in the Oakland PD.
My former colleague Bill Simmons gave a great interview to the Boston Globe‘s Chad Finn, who I should mention was one of my earliest supporters in the mainstream sports media, so I enjoyed this Q&A for a lot reasons.
A first-person account from a gay woman and her mother in Iran, where homosexuality is not just seen as a sin, but a crime, with a third offense punishable by death. And, if you were wondering, here’s a world map showing where being gay is illegal.
Oklahoma’s extreme right-wing governor and legislature want public schools to teach a pro-life curriculum. I see no way this is permissible under the First Amendment’s “establishment clause,” as teaching that life begins at conception is fundamentally a religious belief, not a scientific one.
The Brock Turner case highlighted how an entire justice system crafted and run by men fails to serve female victims of sexual assault.
One woman responded to an unsolicited dick pic by sending her harasser a barrage of pictures of penises and outing him. Of course, Facebook then froze her account for posting nudity. The actual back-and-forth exchange, along with this idiot’s comment that “you’re a girl so you should like it,” is posted here.
A US Marine who was working as a bouncer at Pulse nightclub in Orlando is credited with saving dozens of lives by keeping his head during the panic on Saturday night. His name, by the way, is Imran Yousuf.
Jessica Luther, who has done outstanding work covering the Baylor sexual assault epidemic and institutional coverup, writes on espnW about what the 30 for 30 OJ documentary doesn’t say about domestic violence.
More on Peter Thiel’s vendetta against Gawker and underlying attack on the free press: He’s bankrolled other, largely frivolous lawsuits, including a new one against Gawker over their investigative report on Donald Trump’s hair. Within this article is a note on Shiva Ayyadurai, a crackpot who erroneously claims to have invented email.
Still think Gawker had it coming? Read the Columbia Journalism Review on how billionaires are using money and intimidation to silence media critics and tell me you’re not concerned about the state of our free press.
Climate change has claimed its first mammal extinction, as a rodent that lived on a reef island off the coast of Queensland, Australia, has been declared extinct.
I thought this speech on the Orlando massacre by the Utah Lieutenant Governor was moving, well-written, and, I think, unusually sincere for any speech by a politician.
Jezebel interviewed a woman who had an abortion at 32 weeks because the fetus was nonviable. Remember that closing abortion clinics – or shooting at them or blowing them up or merely turning your back when others do so – affects a lot of people for a lot of different reasons.
I found this piece on growing up without the father who left the author when she was seven just heartbreaking from start to finish.
Basra, Iraq, a city run by Islamist politicians supported by Iran, has a rather remarkable Western-style shopping mall that has become a new cultural hub for the city. Where there is life – and commerce – there is hope.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: climate change, links, rape culture, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ June 12, 2016
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 6/12/16.

It’s been quite a week, but the draft is over, finally, so I have some thoughts and analysis on what happened:

• My round one notes
• My round two notes
• My NL team-by-team recaps

I’m still writing the AL recaps and will have those up by tomorrow.

I chatted before the draft and after the first five rounds.

Also, don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter.

And now, the links…

The judge who gave Stanford rapist Brock Turner six months, saying a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on this sentient pile of shit, has been the target of threats after the ruling. Here’s the one threat I can get behind: an effort to recall Judge Persky, which I’d hope you would sign and back if you live in Santa Clara County.
Of course, it’s hard to get too optimistic when voters in Orange County re-elected a judge censured for having sex with two law students in chambers, as well as failing to recuse himself in a case where he had a conflict of interest.
There’s a new restaurant in LA called Birdies that sells fried chicken, donuts, and good coffee. Why eat anywhere else in LA?
The Appalachian tradition of salt-rising bread, fermented with Clostridium perfringens, a Gram-positive bacterium that causes food poisoning, is vanishing. Baking kills the bacteria, of course.
Angola’s bushmeat markets are alive and well, even though they’re illegal.
A Twitter user who was harassed by vaccine-denier assholes ended up having Twitter give them her home address as she tried to get the site to take down photos of her infant child that the harassers were using. (I looked up two of the main harassers; one I’d already blocked, the other had blocked me.)
Some actual good news on the vaccine front: researchers have developed the first vaccine for toxic shock syndrome, a dangerous type of staph infection, and the FDA has approved a new cholera vaccine for travelers to affected areas.
Also, we’re cranking up requirements for the meningitis B vaccine, which is particularly recommended for adolescents and college students. If you’ve got a kid going to college, make sure s/he has gotten this shot.
Donald Trump is being sued many times over for not paying tradesworkers and employees, as well as numerous other liens for back pay.
Japanese knotweed is the hot new ingredient in kitchens, and since it’s a destructive, invasive plant, no one has to worry about sustainability.
Some parenting anti-tips on how to teach your daughters that their consent doesn’t matter.
Scientists have found antibiotic-resistant “super bacteria” pretty much everywhere in Rio. These Olympics might be an all-time disaster, and no one who matters seems to be willing to entertain the possibility of moving or canceling the games. Money talks, even if we might get a global pandemic as a result.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: links, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ June 4, 2016
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 6/4/16.

My third mock draft went up Friday morning, without a ton of big changes from the last one. Feedback from club sources so far is that it’s reasonable other than the fact that I don’t have Mickey Moniak going in the top ten; I agree with them, and was very uncomfortable with where I had him, but as I said in yesterday’s Klawchat I didn’t have a clear indication of any teams on him other than Philly and Colorado. I can add a bonus tidbit here: Boston, at 12, is on Virginia catcher Matt Thaiss as well as the other names I’ve mentioned.

I also tweaked my my rankings of the top 100 prospects for the draft, again with the help of Eric Longenhagen.

My latest monthly new music playlist went up Thursday morning.

Thanks to all of you who’ve signed up for my newsletter – I’m well over a thousand subscribers already.

And now, the links:

I tweeted this link, but here it is again: The founder of the Take Back the Night charity relives how she used her own assault to tell the world about date rape. How she was treated may appall you, or you may think “rape culture” is just some bullshit that SJWs made up on social media. Also, I’m not going to lie – I skimmed through the details of the rape, for the same reason I fast-forwarded through that scene in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I just can’t.
Brock Allen Turner, a former Stanford student who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman, received just six months in prison for raping an unconscious woman because the judge feared a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on him. His victim read this statement about the “severe impact” his assault had on her at the sentencing hearing. I’m not sure what the terms are for recalling a judge in California, but this would seem to be a good reason for doing so.
The Ringer has already featured some great stuff, none better so far than Keith Olbermann’s tribute to Muhammad Ali.
There’s a deluge of great content today on the life of Ali, and I’ve only read a sliver of it, but I’ll also recommend David Remnick’s remembrance in the New Yorker.
The NY Times details the appearance of two indie coffee shops in the South Bronx. There’s a real question underneath here: what kinds of small businesses (or large ones, I guess) encourage urban renewal? Do we want a Starbucks or a Whole Foods in a blighted area to help drive economic growth, even if a side effect is some gentrification? I’d certainly vote yes.
The Big 12 conference won’t even let walk-ons transfer without sitting out a year. I mean, really, the NCAA should be broken up by the feds for all of these restrictions on athletes. It’s a cartel.
Alan Sepinwall looks back at twenty years of writing about watching television and how the medium – both media, really – have changed in that period.
Buzzfeed covers the bizarre story of how two bands toured as the Zombies in the 1960s even though neither was the real band.
Could psilocybin, the psychoactive chemical found in ‘magic mushrooms,’ help treat depression and/or anxiety? A pair of studies show some promise, although the mechanism is not yet understood.
The Nation offered an op ed slamming the Washington Post‘s poll on their NFL team’s nickname. I have some problems with that poll, especially the identification of respondents, but I think this focuses too much on the potential harm of the name and not enough on questioning the science behind the poll (if needed).
A chemist and a synthetic biologist (I didn’t know this was a thing) at Harvard have developed a “bionic leaf” that creates alcohol fuels from sun, water, and CO2. It’s still very early in the development process, but the possibilities – creating renewable fuels and plastics while reducing CO2 in the atmosphere – are huge.
This article on what questions quantum computers might best be able to solve reminded me of Lance Fortnow’s book on the P vs NP problem, The Golden Ticket. So-called “NP-hard” problems represent the most complex problems in computational theory, and quantum computers right now appear to offer the only possible way to solve them.
A deranged pediatrician in Nashville has stopped offering vaccinations, claiming they cause autism. Needless to say, if you live around there, don’t give him your business.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: climate change, coffee, rape culture, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ May 28, 2016
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 5/28/16.

My Mock Draft 2.0 Is now up for Insiders. You can also see my post from Tuesday ranking the top 25 prospects in pro ball. I’ll expand that list to 50 after the Futures Game in July.

I also held my usual Klawchat, this time on Friday morning on a flight from Birmingham to Baltimore.

And now, the links…

The wife of one of my readers penned this excellent piece on how protectionism will hurt the United States. With one Presidential candidate pushing a Hawley-Smoot vision of trade, and the other talking about using tariffs as a weapon, we may be on the verge of an entirely preventable hit to our economy.
Colistin-resistant bacteria have made their first appearance in the U.S. While health officials say there’s no current cause for alarm, this is very, very bad news. The most likely cause? China’s overuse of antibiotics in livestock.
Best news/opinion piece I saw on the Baylor debacle was this review and takedown from Texas Monthly‘s Jessica Luther and Dan Solomon.
Peter Thiel, billionaire founder of Paypal and Facebook board member, financed Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker as part of his own personal vendetta. This is a very dangerous precedent for our legal system.
A Republican judge in Ohio ruled that a GOP-backed law violated the Voting Rights Act because its practical effect would be to suppress the black vote.
Ah, Mississippi, where gays are second-class citizens and a mentally ill man has been in jail for 11 years without a trial.
The Washington Post praised a speech in which Elizabeth Warren eviscerated Donald Trump, but does it matter? I feel like his base is impervious to this kind of criticism, and I’m not sure it will sway many of the undecided voters either, so this feels like either wishful thinking or some sort of cheerleading.
Four WaPo pieces this week. Their in-depth profile of a 13-year-old girl’s online social life disturbed me, the father of a 10-year-old girl who is sitting next to me with her iPad mini right now. Richard Deitsch pointed out online that this girl’s experience isn’t universal, though: she’s financially well off, certainly, and there’s probably a good companion piece to be written on a kid on the other side of the digital divide.
The best BBQ place in San Antonio has taken the egalitarian cuisine upscale. I’m a little disappointed I couldn’t fit a trip to see Forrest Whitley into my schedule so I could have eaten dinner at the Granary.
The World Bank issued a report warning of the water shortages that will come with climate change. It’s very cheery stuff.
A writer at The Mighty shares her story of depression and how we tend to overlook people who appear to be successful in life but may still have depression or anxiety disorder.
Why was the National Children’s Study cancelled after 14 years, over $1 billion in expenses, and no results? There are many answers, none very satisfying, provided in this look by Undark.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: bbq, climate change, links, mental illness, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ May 14, 2016
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 5/14/16.

My first Big Board for the 2016 draft (assembled with an assist from Eric Longenhagen) went up for Insiders this week. I’ll have my 2006 redraft piece up Monday, and then my first mock (as in, an actual first-round projection) on Wednesday.

I also wrote a free news item on MLB’s investigation of the Red Sox’s July 2nd signings, and held my regular Klawchat on Thursday.

The Harvard Public Health Review published an editorial that made a clear, rational call for the Rio Olympics to be moved or cancelled due to the Zika outbreak. This virus is no joke, and I have to wonder if we might have stopped or slowed it had we taken various other mosquito-borne illnesses (malaria, dengue) that primarily affect poorer countries more seriously.
Ronan Farrow’s op ed on his father, Woody Allen, and the free pass the director gets on his child molestation allegations is a must-read for so many reasons. I particularly hope reporters interviewing the stars of Cafe Society ask one simple question: Why would you work with a man who stands accused of molesting his daughter?
If someone overdoses on drugs given to him/her by a friend, is the friend guilty of murder? Even if you favor decriminalization of drug use (as I do), this question isn’t so easy.
Don’t be shocked, but quack doctors in California, led by Dr. Bob Sears, are selling medical exemptions to the state’s tougher childhood vaccination law. The only real solution is to flood the state medical board – which, as the article states, is generally worthless – with complaints and hope they do something.
Ontario has it right: Parents who refuse to get their kids vaccinated may be forced to take a class on the science of immunization. Good. Let’s do it here, in every state.
Zika is coming, and it’s going to hit states in the deep south – states that have done their best to circumvent Roe v Wade and limit abortion rights – the hardest.
Difficult longread of the week: The Boston Globe‘s Spotlight team looks at sexual abuse and cover-ups in New England boarding schools.
Why is the Washington Post‘s science section touting the pseudoscience of acupuncture?
Speaking of junk science, Louisiana is all in, pushing the state’s Health Department to study the “abortion reversal” nonsense. It doesn’t work, it’s dangerous, and most of all, it’s more men legislating what women can do with their bodies.
Vox dives deep on the multitude of studies that contradict the conventional wisdom that you can lose weight by exercising. Note that it’s complicated, like science often is.
How oregano may help reduce cow belches and fight climate change.
Two silly stories from England: A British couple were told to restrain their cat by the Royal Mail because he’s grabbing the mail when the postman pushes it through their mail slot. Also, a different couple got a request for a larger wedding gift than the £100 check they gave in an email after the event.
The New Yorker takes a somewhat serious look at how Michael Jordan became fodder for a mocking meme.
Tweet of the week:

Um … so, a couple of things … https://t.co/S4mZqO3DnG

— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) May 10, 2016

which referred to this quote:

.@HeidiSCruz compares her husband's journey to slavery: "It took 25 years to defeat slavery. That is a lot longer than four years."

— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) May 10, 2016

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: stick to baseball, vaccines

→ April 30, 2016
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 4/30/16.

No new Insider content this week, although I had a draft blog post last Saturday on Riley Pint, Joey Wentz, Braxton Garrett, and more players I saw. I held my usual Klawchat on Thursday.

And now, the links…

From my alma mater’s magazine, can gene editing lead to the end of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases? What are the ecological consequences of wiping out a species to better humanity?
My friend Lindsey Adler wrote a heartbreaking piece about her past battle with anorexia.
A female state Senator in South Carolina has introduced a bill requiring counseling and a 24-hour waiting period for men to get a Viagra prescription to highlight the gender inequity in laws that restrict abortion access. No, it’s not an apt analogy, nor do I think Sen. Mia McLeod is trying to compare the two directly; she’s pointing out, correctly, that anti-abortion laws are largely passed by men and only affect women.
More evidence and arguments contradicting the allergen-avoidance strategy for new parents from the NY Times.
Nearly half of (self-described) conservative Republicans climate change is real, so why is the putative party of conservatives still in denial?
In Oklahoma, non-consensual oral sex isn’t rape if the victim is drunk, because Oklahoma law is still stuck in the 1800s.
The NY Times obituary of Ozzie Silna, former owner of the ABA’s Spirits of St. Louis, is an ebullient retelling of the saga of the greatest deal in sports history.
Memphis has six identified measles cases already, several infants plus one unvaccinated dipshit adult. A woman in Washington died of measles last year, so, you know, get the damn shot already.
I linked a few weeks ago to a story on Sci-Hub, the not-really-legal site where researchers can download copyrighted academic papers for free, and Science has a report on how everyone around the world is using it. Slate rips Science for an accompanying editorial defending the academic-journal paywall. Copyright law has a purpose, but providing huge economic rents on academic papers was not one.
Reader Ridley Kemp passed along this link after Thursday’s chat: Nature blows up the myth of gender as biologically binary.
FiveThirtyEight goes deep on the concept of universal basic income, a new and unproven way to address the income gap, poverty, and economic insecurity. It’s also very expensive and probably a political non-starter. My gut says it’s crazy.
There isn’t much new in the Brigham Young University honor code scandal, but this Guardian summary of the school’s absurd victim-crushing policies is a strong read. I still do not see why this school is receiving any federal funds at this point.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: climate change, rape culture, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ April 9, 2016
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 4/8/16.

My standings and awards predictions for 2016 went up last Saturday, in case you missed those. My one Insider piece since then was a draft blog post, co-authored with Eric Longenhagen, covering Jason Groome, Bryson Brigman, and more. We will have a top 50 draft prospect ranking up on Tuesday.

I held my usual Klawchat on Thursday, going a bit longer than normal because I was so busy answering your questions I lost track of time.

And now, the links…

Best longread of the week comes from the Guardian, which explains how nutrition scientists pushed low-fat advice and ignored science for decades, even to the point of destroying the career of the first scientist to sound the anti-sugar bell. A Harvard professor is cited within the piece as demanding the retraction of a peer-reviewed article published in BMJ on the topic; I exchanged emails with him, and he said that the author of the article, Ian Leslie, was “clearly not interested” in hearing a contrary opinion.
The NCAA isn’t just a group of corporate fat cats and millionaire coaches profiting off the unpaid physical labor of college athletes; it’s a giant wealth transfer from black to white.
Amy Schumer’s “plus-sized is okay but I am not plus-sized” imbroglio got thinkpieced to death this week … but the A/V Club did do the subject justice by pointing out the damage of labeling women at all. Men don’t really face this – there’s “big and tall,” but hell, tall is considered good for men. (I am not tall; I’m 5’6″, very short for an adult American male, and trust me, I’ve long heard how this is not a good thing.) Why do women have to be plus-sized or minus-sized or whatever-the-fuck-sized at all?
From the “look at this idiot” department: A vaccine-denier mom gave her newborn whooping cough. She regrets being an idiot now, apparently. If you think vaccines are not safe, you are wrong, and should listen to every reputable scientist and doctor in the world who says to vaccinate your kids.
Eephus is a new sports-themed online magazine (do I even have to say “online” any more?) and one of its first pieces was by my friend Will Leitch, who waxes nostalgic over baseball boardgames.
A great interview with culinary icon Alton Brown from Bitter Southerner.
A state senator in Virginia wants Beloved out of public schools because it’s “smut,”, and he told a high school English teacher that he knew better than she did. Read his emails to see his ignorance at work, as he calls the greatest American novel of the last 40 years “vile,” “smut,” and “moral sewage.”
Facebook now has a tool to report users who might be about to harm themselves and try to get them help.
All this talk about the various laws raising the minimum wage to $15/hour led me to this takedown of a WaPo editorial criticizing the laws, in which the author contends (among other things) that the rise in wages for the lowest income bracket will lead to greater increases in demand, because when you have very little money, you spend each additional dollar you get.
This JAMA editorial argues that we may be reaching the financial limits of pharmaceutical innovation. I think he’s half right, in that we are approaching that limit, but do not believe it will stop or even slow innovation, but must drive new price models. A fundamental problem of health care is that our demand for services that will improve, extend, or save our lives is essentially inelastic: You can raise the price and we’ll still want as much, and eventually we will simply pay everything we have if it means continuing to live.
The chefs at Nashville’s wonderful izakaya and ramen joint Two Ten Jack read and respond to negative reviews in this funny 90-second video. I brought a group of writers to TTJ in December (Jess Benefield came out to chat while we were there) and had an unbelievable and very reasonably priced meal.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: alton brown, Economics, science, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ April 3, 2016
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 4/3/16.

A rather unproductive trip to Florida (thanks in no small part to rain and high school coach decisions) is over and I’m heading home before my first TV hit of the new season, on this week’s Wednesday Night Baseball Telecast of the Phillies at the Reds. I’ll be on roughly for innings four through six, discussing the teams’ farm systems and strategies as well as this year’s draft, in which the Phillies pick first and the Reds pick second.

I had three Insider pieces over the last eight days: my status updates on the top 50 prospects; my full standings and award winner predictions for 2016; and a scouting blog on Detroit and Atlanta prospects, led by Michael Fulmer.

I also held a Klawchat on Thursday.

And now, the links…

A North Korean defector describes growing up in one of the country’s prison camps, the mere existence of which Pyongyang has long denied. The Daesh gets the headlines right now, but among formal states in the world, is there any more dangerous than this one?
This Bloomberg BusinessWeek piece about an operative who claims to have rigged several Latin American elections is riveting and entirely disturbing, such as the claims about manipulating public opinion via social media sockpuppet accounts. He’s now in prison in Colombia. I know the Cold War CIA no longer exists, but one wonders if an unscrupulous government intelligence agency might find use for this hacker’s skills in disrupting elections in hostile states.
Nature discusses the black-hole collision that reshaped physics, because it produced gravitational waves that we could detect, thus providing direct observational evidence of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
A charter school – of course – in California has reopened after an unvaccinated student caught the measles, but some stupid, selfish parents still won’t vaccinate their kids.
The Netherlands is going to have to close some prisons because they don’t have enough criminals to fill them. A focus on rehabilitation for nonviolent offenders plus decriminalization of personal drug use are factors behind the drop in crime.
Donald Trump and his now-charged campaign manager used classic victim-blaming language to try to evade the consequences of an assault caught on video.
Climate change – which is actually happening, and caused by man, no matter what every remaining GOP Presidential candidate tells you – is affecting the Antarctic ice shelf more than previously forecasted, which could lead to sea level rises of up to three feet by the end of the century. On the bright side, there’s an enormous financial opportunity right now in future beachfront property near the South Pole.
From last year in the New Yorker, can reading make you happier? I’d certainly argue yes; reading is my daily meditation, although I sometimes indulge in the more traditional breathing meditations as well.
Why do we teach young girls that it’s cute or even expected to be scared? I’m guilty of this too, although I might be equally guilty if I had a son. I’ve always tended to be a nervous person anyway.
This rant by author LaMonte M. Fowler comes unapologetically from the left side of the political spectrum, but his targets are those on the far right, so I imagine many of you will find at least some of his points amusing, as I did.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: climate change, heavy reading, links, stick to baseball, vaccines

→ March 26, 2016
→ By keith

Stick to baseball, 3/25/16.

My one Insider piece this week covers my breakout player picks for 2016. I also reviewed the simple abstract strategy game Circular Reasoning for Paste. I was unable to chat this week due to travel and attending games in Florida.

And now, the links…

Well this is some bullshit: The Tribeca film festival is screening a vaccine-denial “documentary” directed by Andrew Wakefield. Yes, Wakefield, the guy who faked the MMR/autism study that helped land us in this mess in the first place. Fuck you, Robert Deniro, for being a denialist and spreading this garbage.
Meanwhile, Uganda will jail parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids.
Drew Magary on why he’ll never quit Twitter. It’s the same reason I probably won’t either: We have audiences there, and tweeting to those audiences gets people to read our writing.
Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post wrote a piece on Tyler Matzek and how they’re both battling anxiety disorder.
Under Crazy Scott Walker, the state of Wisconsin gutted tenure at public universities, which led to foreseeable yet unforeseen consequences at UW-Madison. Tenure is a bad system, but Wisconsin replaced it with something worse.
The Atlantic points out how the Republican party, which professes to be the party of business, passed a law businesses hate this week, just to screw with gay people. If your bigotry runs that deep, then you’re not the party of business – and you’re going to let the Democrats, long seen as the party of higher taxes and more regulations, seize some of that reputation.
There might be a vaccine for dengue fever – which kills over 10,000 people each year – on the horizon, and that in turn could lead to a vaccine for the related Zika virus.
I loved this NY Times profile of both Natasha Gregson-Wagner and her mother Natalie Wood. I remember watching the atrocious Two Girls and a Guy and finding it totally ridiculous that Gregson-Wagner was supposed to be playing the unattractive (or at least less attractive) girlfriend.
Reader Reggie passed along this interesting piece on our brains’ evolution may be related to anxiety, in that our brains evolved (he uses the “were designed for” phrasing, which isn’t scientifically accurate) to handle a different type of stress than we typically face today. I also recommend the site Sick Not Weak, founded by TSN personality Michael Lansberg to promote understanding of mental illness, including depression and anxiety.

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