{"id":10020,"date":"2023-10-21T14:04:38","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T18:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10020"},"modified":"2023-10-21T14:04:39","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T18:04:39","slug":"stick-to-baseball-10-21-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/21\/stick-to-baseball-10-21-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 10\/21\/23."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/4967319\/2023\/10\/16\/arizona-fall-league-scouting-reports-ricky-tiedemann\/\">My second Arizona Fall League notebook<\/a> went up on Monday, covering everyone of note whom I hadn\u2019t written up in <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/4958013\/2023\/10\/13\/arizona-fall-league-jackson-jobe-tekoah-roby\/\">the first one<\/a>. I also held a <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/19\/klawchat-10-19-23\/\">Klawchat<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/post.futurimedia.com\/chumam\/playlist\/law-on-why-diamondbacks-can-challenge-phillies-in-nlcs-extended-rest-issue-excuses-for-top-mlb-postseason-seeds-and-tiedemanns-afl-performance-46459.html\">I appeared on TSN 1050 in Toronto<\/a> to talk about the League Championship Series and the Blue Jays, including prospect Ricky Tiedemann and the controversial decision to replace Jos\u00e9 Berrios with Yusie Kikuchi in what turned out to be their last playoff game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Longreads first: Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has profited by spreading lies and half-truths about vaccines for twenty years now. A book his group, Children\u2019s Health Defense, and his publishing partner Skyhorse put out about the COVID-19 vaccines <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/rfk-kennedy-election-vaccines-2ccde2df146f57b5e8c26e8494f0a16a\">used the photo of a 12-year-old who died when a malformed blood vessel burst in his brain<\/a> on its cover, claiming he\u2019d died from the vaccine. He was unvaccinated, and of course they used his photo without his family\u2019s permission. This Associated Press story talks to several families hurt by Kennedy\u2019s lies and his so-called activism.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A Koch-funded right-wing site, Cowboy State Daily, is injecting climate denial and transphobic rhetoric into Wyoming politics, crowding out legitimate news sites that adhere to basic journalistic standards. It\u2019s part of the national Metric Media network, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjr.org\/tow_center_reports\/metric-media-lobbyists-funding.php\">has over 1200 sites across the country<\/a> and also takes funding from the Koch family\u2019s DonorsTrust foundation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/states-tribes-water-rights-history-repeating-itself\">Arizona continues to deny native tribes water rights<\/a> they were promised under a 1908 treaty with the federal government. A third of homes on the Navajo reservation do not have access to clean water.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em>\u2019 Michael Hiltzik looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/business\/story\/2023-10-20\/a-scientist-asks-why-professional-groups-dont-fight-harder-against-anti-science-propaganda?utm_source=pocket_saves\">how anti-vaxxers are exacting a personal and professional toll on scientists<\/a>, and we\u2019re losing the war against such disinformation. Dr. Peter Hotez notes within the story the death threats, doxing, and other intimidation tactics he\u2019s seen as a vaccine developer and advocate for vaccination and science in general.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Meanwhile, a new study in <em>BMJ<\/em> estimates that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/383\/bmj.p2388\">27 would-be mothers in the UK died during the pandemic<\/a> because of confusion over the safety of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <em>Minnesota Reformer<\/em> has a story on <a href=\"https:\/\/minnesotareformer.com\/2023\/10\/17\/small-business-owners-they-are-pressured-to-hire-off-duty-mpd-cops-for-security\/\">how small businesses in Minneapolis are pressured to hire off-duty cops as \u201csecurity\u201d<\/a> in what sure sounds like a protection racket to me.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) owns a conglomerate of hog farms that are dumping huge amounts of nitrates into ground water in the state, but when a local journalist published an expos\u00e9 in the Flat Water Free Press, Gov. Pillen attacked her personally by saying \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/flatwaterfreepress.org\/governors-comments-about-ffp-reporter-are-in-a-word-wrong\/\">the author is from Communist China. What more do you need to know?<\/a>\u201d I think I need to know when he\u2019s going to clean up his hog farms, and I hope more journalists there put his pig\u2019s feet to the fire.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Barbers Hill ISD in Texas <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/hairstyles-racial-discrimination-crown-act-d4c682d334f52eac813d109b7499901e\">suspended an 18-year-old Black student for wearing dreadlocks<\/a> and is now forcing him to attend an alternative high school, despite the fact that Texas passed its own CROWN Act, prohibiting discrimination based on hairstyle, and the district already lost a lawsuit over the same issue in 2020. The district\u2019s superintendent and deputy superintendent are both white, in case you were wondering.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Book-banning zealots in Iowa are having a field day <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2023\/10\/19\/book-bans-iowa-kim-reynolds-gop-censorship\/\">by targeting any books with a \u2018sex act,\u2019<\/a> including numerous important works of literature like, ironically, the dystopian novels <em>1984 <\/em>and <em>Brave New World<\/em>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The federal government has begun distributing the $100 billion in funding for climate change mitigation projects under the Inflation Reduction Act, but <a href=\"https:\/\/heatmap.news\/economy\/inflation-reduction-act-grants-funding\">it\u2019s taking much longer than expected<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Trump, with the help of The Heritage Foundation, has a plan to gut the federal civil service and <a href=\"https:\/\/washingtonmonthly.com\/2023\/10\/13\/trump-and-the-republican-war-on-the-civil-service\/\">replace tens of thousands of employees with Trump sycophants<\/a> in a return to the \u201cspoils system\u201d of the 1800s.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>\u00adMy friend Tim Grierson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cracked.com\/article_39798_eddie-izzard-has-a-lot-to-say.html\">has a long, entertaining interview with Eddie Izzard<\/a> on Cracked.com.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>Scientific American<\/em> looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/why-the-sleeping-beauty-problem-is-keeping-mathematicians-awake\/\">the \u201cSleeping Beauty problem\u201d in probability<\/a>, which has generated arguments like the Monty Hall problem and the question of that dress\u2019s color.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A professor at UC-Davis <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc10.com\/article\/news\/local\/davis\/uc-davis-professor-social-media-posts\/103-38bbf42f-0611-4efc-821b-7a214fec25cf\">tweeted a fairly overt threat against the lives of Jewish journalists<\/a>, spurring an investigation by the university.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If ChatGPT can do much of the work in academic grant writing, does that tell us that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-023-03238-5?fbclid=IwAR3UIYzwirgZg5fv2LdyKJFeCt519sEBooix1wFjHKHks-fGSMTQkgb-42Y_aem_Adqz3_goNDiSxAkUM7hHASTWbktDWjAyYzKUbxFyfkECZ94jvFnZzRt_eKMctJDFQ-Y\">the grant-writing process is broken<\/a>?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Police in Newton, Iowa, have twice arrested a local resident for speaking out against the police at town meetings, so <a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2023\/10\/13\/iowa-man-files-lawsuit-after-being-arrested-twice-for-criticizing-the-police-at-a-public-meeting\/\">he\u2019s suing them for violating his First Amendment (and other) rights<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Azeri-Armenian conflict <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/2023\/10\/11\/azerbaijan-armenia-karabakh-nakhchivan-corridor\/\">may move to Meghri<\/a>, an Armenian town in a strip of land that separates Azerbaijan from its Nakhchivan exclave. Azerbaijan calls it the Zangezur corridor, and it borders Iran, which opposes any changes to the current structure, while Turkey and Russia appear to favor some alteration that would connect the two parts of Azerbaijan even at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/10\/20\/armenians-fear-after-karabakh-offensive\">a reduction in Armenia\u2019s sovereignty<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <em>Guardian<\/em>\u2019s Jonathan Freedland argues that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2023\/oct\/20\/benjamin-netanyahu-hamas-israel-prime-minister\">Benjamin Netanyahu has walked into Hamas\u2019s trap<\/a>, and Israel needs to remove him from power before the situation gets even worse.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2023\/digital\/news\/x-twitter-blue-check-mark-users-superspreaders-disinformation-israel-hamas-war-1235763100\/\">Twitter Blue subscribers have become \u201csuper-spreaders\u201d of misinformation about the Israel-Palestine conflict<\/a> according to a brief analysis from the independent group NewsGuard, which attempts to rate the reliability of news sites.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <em>New York Times<\/em>\u2019 Katherine Miller writes <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/10\/16\/opinion\/trump-republican-primaries.html\">about the rambling, repetitive speeches of Donald Trump<\/a> as he pounds his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.riverfronttimes.com\/news\/st-louis-county-cops-are-mum-on-mccullochs-status-in-shooting-lead-up-41081737\">St. Louis County police appear to have ignored erratic, threatening behavior from one of their own<\/a> in the days leading up to him firing shots in the air at a trunk-or-treat event and shouting \u201cyou\u2019re all going to die!\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/deepfake-porn-is-out-of-control\/\">Deepfake porn videos are spreading too fast<\/a> for the available tools, and far faster than any government is moving to stop them. Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY) did introduce <a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Politics\/bill-criminalize-extremely-harmful-online-deepfakes\/story?id=103286802\">a bill to ban deepfakes and step up enforcement<\/a>, revising a similar bill she\u2019d introduced in 2019, but it\u2019s only at the committee stage and all sponsors are Democrats.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>David Roth writes about <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/2023\/10\/how-michael-lewis-got-duped-by-sam-bankman-fried.html\">how Michael Lewis was taken in by fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried<\/a>, as Lewis\u2019 reputation continues to take hits after his cringy response to Michael Oher\u2019s lawsuit against the Tuohy family. (Oher appears to have no dispute with Lewis over the book <em>The Blind Side<\/em>.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Chicago man who stabbed a 6-year-old Palestinian boy 26 times, killing him, and stabbed the boy\u2019s mother as well <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/suspect-wadea-al-fayoume-death-was-obsessed-israel-hamas-war-prosecuto-rcna120589\">appears to have been radicalized by right-wing media<\/a>. The spread of disinformation and hate has real consequences.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Board game news: The Kickstarter for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/mikegnade\/merchants-of-magick-dangerous-business\">the roll-and-write game Merchants of Magick<\/a> is 3x funded and still up for six more days.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This year\u2019s Essen Spiel convention was the largest ever, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dicebreaker.com\/events\/essen-spiel-2023\/news\/essen-spiel-2023-was-the-biggest-ever\">bringing nearly 200,000 people to the German city<\/a> for the biggest board game con in the world.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My second Arizona Fall League notebook went up on Monday, covering everyone of note whom I hadn\u2019t written up in the first one. I also held a Klawchat on Thursday. I appeared on TSN 1050 in Toronto to talk about the League Championship Series and the Blue Jays, including prospect Ricky Tiedemann and the controversial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[821,1049,566,1001,1083,113,959,1004,1109,190,961,553,1116,886,1364,1197,907,870,477,807,1307],"class_list":["post-10020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anti-science","tag-anti-semitism","tag-arizona","tag-armenia","tag-board-game-news","tag-environment","tag-first-amendment","tag-iowa","tag-israel","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-math","tag-minnesota","tag-nebraska","tag-palestine","tag-police","tag-social-media","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-texas","tag-vaccines","tag-wyoming","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10021,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10020\/revisions\/10021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}