{"id":10227,"date":"2024-03-30T11:44:44","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T15:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10227"},"modified":"2024-03-30T11:44:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-30T15:44:45","slug":"stick-to-baseball-3-30-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2024\/03\/30\/stick-to-baseball-3-30-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 3\/30\/24."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I had two new posts for subscribers to the Athletic this week<a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/5368497\/2024\/03\/27\/mlb-predictions-2024-season\/\">, my annual season predictions post<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/5374212\/2024\/03\/28\/nationals-futures-game-scouting-keith-law\/\">scouting notes on the Nationals\u2019 Futures Game at Nats Park<\/a>. I wanted to do a chat, but about 20 minutes before I was going to do it, our Internet went down for four hours. Good times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over at Paste, I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pastemagazine.com\/games\/board-games\/wyrmspan-board-game-review\">reviewed Wyrmspan<\/a>, the new standalone sequel\/spinoff to Wingspan, adding a few rules changes to make it more complex while also replacing the birds with dragons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I spoke to my friend Tim Grierson this week for RogerEbert.com about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/interviews\/best-baseball-movies\">baseball movies, good, bad, and horrendous<\/a>. I also <a href=\"https:\/\/wgntv.com\/video\/keith-law-talks-cubs-and-sox-ahead-of-opening-day\/9544804\/\">appeared on WGN-TV<\/a> to talk Cubs\/White Sox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I did indeed send around another issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/keithlaw.substack.com\/\">my free email newsletter<\/a>, which you should definitely subscribe to if you enjoy my ramblings.<\/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: This <em>Atlantic<\/em> piece on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2024\/03\/stanford-israel-gaza-hamas\/677864\/\">the campus climate shift around the Israel-Hamas war<\/a> by Stanford student Theo Baker, who wrote the story on former Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne\u2019s role in faked research that led to his resignation, is one of the best things I\u2019ve read this year. Baker takes a stance while maintaining balance throughout the piece, and this quote sums up the situation in Palo Alto and many other campuses that are caught between protecting freedom of expression and ensuring a safe environment for students: \u201cThe real story at Stanford is not about the malicious actors who endorse sexual assault and murder as forms of resistance, but about those who passively enable them because they believe their side can do no wrong.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>New York<\/em> looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/article\/andrew-huberman-podcast-stanford-joe-rogan.html\">the toxic personal history of pop-neuroscientist Andrew Huberman<\/a>, who seems to have a history of psychological manipulation of the women in his life.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>New York<\/em> also has a story from John Herrman on <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/article\/who-is-behind-all-the-pussy-in-bio-porn-spam-on-x.html\">how the pornbots all over Twitter actually try to scam users<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>The American Prospect<\/em>\u2019s Maureen Tkacik looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/prospect.org\/infrastructure\/transportation\/2024-03-28-suicide-mission-boeing\/?utm_source=pocket_saves\">how Boeing drove its best engineers out of the company<\/a>, leading to the small problem of its planes falling apart or crashing. They had the help of the federal government, which has increasingly outsourced regulation of private companies to the companies themselves. It\u2019s wrapped within the story of longtime Boeing employee turned whistleblower John Barnett, who was found dead recently of a gunshot wound to the temple \u2013 between days of his deposition in his case against Boeing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb has been investigating whether Leonard Leo\u2019s nonprofits violated their tax status by paying his for-profit companies for various services. Republicans aligned with Leo, who helped Trump pack the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary with extreme conservatives, are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/03\/23\/brian-schwalb-leonard-leo-investigation-00148385\">now attacking Schwalb for doing his job<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The same is happening to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2024\/03\/when-fighting-disinformation-doesnt-work\/677879\/\">people trying to combat online disinformation around vaccines and COVID-19<\/a>, as this <em>Atlantic <\/em>story on the mostly futile efforts to get state medical boards to sanction doctors who spread false information explains.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Billionaire Republican donor Jeff Yass <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/24\/business\/jeff-yass-shares-trump-media-merger.html\">now owns a sizable share of Donald Trump\u2019s Truth Social<\/a> after it merged with a shell company in which Yass\u2019s investment firm owned about 2%.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Remember how a number of kids who caught COVID-19 pre-vaccines ended up near death with MIS-C, a major inflammatory reaction to the virus? <a href=\"https:\/\/sciencebasedmedicine.org\/covid-19-vaccination-significantly-reduces-risk-of-severe-inflammatory-syndrome-in-kids\/\">Vaccination significantly reduces the risk that kids will get it<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Long COVID is becoming less common thanks to the vaccines, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2024\/mar\/23\/long-covid-effects-study\">many people are still dealing with its long-term effects<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Police in Raleigh, North Carolina, raided the wrong house in April 2021, confusing one Arab family with another in the same neighborhood. Now <a href=\"https:\/\/indyweek.com\/news\/wake\/raleigh-cops-tell-judge-that-allowing-the-public-to-see-footage-of-a-botched-raid-would-be-dangerous\/\">the cops are refusing to share bodycam footage<\/a> in the family\u2019s lawsuit, claiming it might \u201cdamage officers\u2019 reputations.\u201d Duh.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Author Vernor Vinge, who won three Hugo Awards for Best Novel, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/28\/books\/vernor-vinge-dead.html\">died this week at 79<\/a>. I didn\u2019t love his writing, but he ranks among the best sci-fi authors for his ability to foresee the growth of technology and its rising role in the social order.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Elon Musk tried to use the Center for Countering Digital Hate for reporting fairly on Twitter\u2019s failure to police antisemitic content, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/culture\/culture-news\/elon-musk-suit-dismissed-against-center-for-countering-digital-hate-1234979237\/\">he lost the case in embarrassing fashion<\/a>. This wasn\u2019t the only bad news for Twitter, as the site has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/tech\/tech-news\/fewer-people-using-elon-musks-x-struggles-keep-users-rcna144115?utm_source=pocket_saves\">seen its user base collapse in the last six months<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>New research found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2024\/03\/27\/1240811895\/leaving-religion-anti-lgbtq-sexual-abuse\">increasing numbers of Americans leaving their religions<\/a> and citing anti-LGBTQ+ policies and doctrines as well as the endless cycle of sex-abuse scandals in churches as the main reasons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A study published in <em>JAMA <\/em>says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kxan.com\/news\/texas-abortion\/researchers-claim-texas-leads-country-in-rape-related-pregnancies-after-dobbs-decision\/\">that Texas leads the U.S. in rapes and rape-related pregnancies<\/a> in the wake of the overturning of Roe and that state\u2019s mad rush to <s>control women<\/s> enact an abortion ban.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The wife of the judge in the mifepristone case now before the Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2024\/mar\/25\/judge-james-ho-wife-mifepristone-abortion-pill\">was herself paid by the anti-abortion group suing<\/a> to subvert the FDA\u2019s authority.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>New Hampshire Public Radio spoke to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhpr.org\/nh-news\/2024-03-20\/transgender-students-school-sports-ban-new-hampshire-plymouth\">a 15-year-old trans girl in New Hampshire whose ability to play soccer is now under attack<\/a>, as House Republicans in the Live Free or Die state just passed a bill to ban trans girls from playing middle or high school sports. These bills &amp; laws \u201csolve\u201d a problem that doesn\u2019t exist while ruining the lives of a very small number of vulnerable children.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Republican assault on higher education continues in red states across the south and west: Tennessee Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tennessean.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2024\/03\/28\/republican-lawmakers-vacate-full-tennessee-state-university-board\/73124246007\/\">wiped out the HBCU Tennessee State\u2019s board<\/a> so the Governor can stock it with his appointees, over the objections of Black legislators. South Carolina Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postandcourier.com\/politics\/south-carolina-diversity-equity-inclusion-dei\/article_368c0f84-ec86-11ee-bb81-47a194dc746e.html\">passed a ban on DEI initiatives at public universities<\/a>. The University of Kentucky\u2019s President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/faculty-issues\/shared-governance\/2024\/03\/28\/kentucky-president-proposes-strip-faculty-bodys\">is moving to dissolve the faculty senate<\/a> and move its policy-making power to the Board of Trustees. Meanwhile, the NAACP\u2019s CEO Derrick Johnson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2024\/03\/21\/opinions\/ncaa-march-madness-black-players-college-dei-johnson\/index.html\">is urging Black student-athletes to reconsider their college choices<\/a> in the face of these attacks on higher ed, explicitly targeting Florida schools in a statement earlier this month.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Tabletopper Games has <a href=\"https:\/\/gamefound.com\/en\/projects\/tabletopper-games\/under-our-sun\">a crowdfunding effort for a new semi-cooperative game, Under Our Sun,<\/a> with an interesting world-building theme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had two new posts for subscribers to the Athletic this week, my annual season predictions post and scouting notes on the Nationals\u2019 Futures Game at Nats Park. I wanted to do a chat, but about 20 minutes before I was going to do it, our Internet went down for four hours. Good times. Over [&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":[1300,1083,1391,1162,181,190,961,1268,531,1197,524,907,671,870,1044,477,940,1239,807],"class_list":["post-10227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abortion","tag-board-game-news","tag-colleges","tag-coronavirus","tag-kentucky","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-misinformation","tag-north-carolina","tag-police","tag-science-fiction","tag-social-media","tag-south-carolina","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-tennessee","tag-texas","tag-the-swamp","tag-trans-rights","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10227","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=10227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10228,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10227\/revisions\/10228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}