{"id":10609,"date":"2025-02-16T11:11:30","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T16:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10609"},"modified":"2025-02-16T11:11:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T16:11:30","slug":"stick-to-baseball-2-16-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2025\/02\/16\/stick-to-baseball-2-16-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 2\/16\/25."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>My entire offseason prospect rankings package is now up for subscribers to the Athletic, and you can find links to all 33 lists\/articles on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6126744\/2025\/02\/11\/mlb-top-20-prospects-all-teams-divisions-2025\/\">this index page<\/a>. If you just want the highlights, here\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6078454\/2025\/01\/27\/top-100-mlb-prospects-2025-keith-law\/\">the top 100<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6094581\/2025\/01\/30\/mlb-farm-system-rankings-2025\/\">the farm system rankings<\/a>, and the two Q&amp;As I did around the package on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6126715\/2025\/02\/12\/keith-law-mlb-prospect-live-chat\/\">February 12<sup>th<\/sup><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6089277\/2025\/01\/28\/mlb-prospects-live-chat-keith-law\/\">January 28<sup>th<\/sup><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pastemagazine.com\/games\/board-games\/dont-tiptoe-past-the-fairy-ring-board-game\">reviewed the family board game Fairy Ring<\/a> over at Paste about two weeks ago; it\u2019s really great, easy to learn for kids 8 and up, but with enough mental calculations on each turn that it has enough to keep adults engaged. My review of Harvest will go up this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I got back to <a href=\"https:\/\/keithlaw.substack.com\/\">my free email newsletter<\/a> in the last few weeks, and hope to get back to posting more regularly on the dish as well now that the mad rush of the prospect rankings is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There were way too many articles to link to since my last roundup to include them all, so here\u2019s a quick list of high (or low) lights\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Longreads first: Doesn\u2019t matter much now, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2025\/01\/28\/kennedy-confirmation-hearing-niece-releases-emails-vaccine-criticism-conspiracy-theories\/\">RFK Jr. still espouses the same bullshit anti-vaccine and conspiracy theory views he did before his nomination<\/a>, no matter how much he tried to dissemble and deny in his confirmation hearings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This may also be a bit out of date already but the American Association for the Advancement of Science published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/blog-post\/revised-and-extended-what-s-happening-inside-nih-and-nsf\">an inside look at the devastation going on inside the NIH, NSF, and other federal science agencies<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The BBC exposed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cx25m231n8xo\">how MI5 lied to a court to protect one of its agents who had a history of abusing women<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <em>New Republic<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/190841\/sarah-mcbrides-quiet-revolution-capitol-hill\">profiled Rep. Sarah McBride (D)<\/a>, my representative in Congress and the first openly trans Congressperson in either chamber.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Society for the Study of Evolution issued an open letter to the President and Congress <a href=\"https:\/\/evolutionsociety.org\/news\/display\/2025\/2\/7\/letter-to-the-us-president-and-congress-on-the-scientific-understanding-of-sex-and-gender\">on the current scientific understanding of sex and gender<\/a>, a small but important gesture against the Republican Party\u2019s relentless war on trans people \u2013 which included a threat to pull all federal funding to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children if the group didn\u2019t remove all mention of trans kids from their site. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advocate.com\/politics\/missing-exploited-lgbtq-kids-removed\">And the cowards complied<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/kffhealthnews.org\/news\/article\/texas-measles-outbreak-gaines-county-public-health-measles-vaccine\/\">There\u2019s a big measles outbreak in a county in Texas with a very low vaccination rate<\/a>, a direct result of the right\u2019s attack on the extremely safe and effective MMR vaccine. Measles can kill and maim children, and some people who recover will die years later from an incurable neurological condition called SSPE.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailyrecord.co.uk\/lifestyle\/baby-dead-50-ill-after-32539512\">A baby died and over 50 people fell ill from a pertussis outbreak in Greece<\/a>. Pertussis is also vaccine-preventable, although its efficacy depends even more on herd immunity than measles does.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Shutting down USAID is already threatening <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/some-u-s-officials-fear-disaster-as-trump-upends-ebola-response-in-uganda\/\">to help an Ebola outbreak continue spreading in Uganda<\/a>. The idea that contagious diseases will respect borders is yet another fiction of the anti-science crowd (some of whom don\u2019t believe viruses exist at all).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A 29-year-old woman <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/woman-29-dies-after-chiropractor-adjusted-her-neck-8782125\">died from a chiropractic \u201cadjustment\u201d that tore an artery<\/a>. That thing where chiropractors crack your neck? It\u2019s dangerous and totally useless. Chiropractic is woo. It\u2019s based on a ghost story, not any actual science or evidence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Paul Krugman spoke to the <em>Columbia Journalism Review<\/em> about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjr.org\/analysis\/paul-krugman-leaving-new-york-times-heavy-hand-editing-less-frequent-columns-newsletter.php\">why he left the <em>New York Times<\/em><\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>WAMU has a story on <a href=\"https:\/\/the1a.org\/segments\/the-new-american-board-game-craze\/\">the new American board game craze<\/a>, although I dispute the \u201cnew\u201d part.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A writer for the Federalist and The Daily Wire who claimed queer people were \u201cgrooming\u201d children <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lgbtqnation.com\/2025\/02\/conservative-writer-who-accused-drag-queens-of-grooming-kids-arrested-for-child-molestation\/\">has been arrested for molesting a child under the age of 12<\/a>. Remember that if you buy anything from U-Line, you are funding the Federalist.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A judge in upstate New York was forced to resign after he tried to get out of jury duty <a href=\"https:\/\/ballsandstrikes.org\/ethics-accountability\/judge-new-york-jury-duty-everyone-is-guilty\/\">by claiming anyone accused of a crime must be guilty<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The title of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/14\/opinion\/trump-public-health-funding-nih.html?\">this <em>New York Times<\/em> op ed<\/a> keeps changing \u2013 I have it saved on my phone as \u201cWhy Would We Undermine the Marvel of American Science,\u201d now it\u2019s showing up on my laptop as \u201cI Used to Run the N.I.H. Here\u2019s What Worries Me,\u201d and Chrome shows it as \u201cAmerican Science is Under Attack\u201d in my history. Whatever the title, it\u2019s worth a minute. The wholescale assault on American science research will destroy American health and wreck our economy, which depends on innovation since we have long lost our competitive advantages in manufacturing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Yes, <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/business\/2025\/02\/elon-musk-tesla-stock-valuation-consumer-boycott.html\">everyone should boycott Tesla<\/a>. At this point, if you\u2019re buying a Tesla, you are openly choosing to side with the guy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My entire offseason prospect rankings package is now up for subscribers to the Athletic, and you can find links to all 33 lists\/articles on this index page. If you just want the highlights, here\u2019s the top 100, the farm system rankings, and the two Q&amp;As I did around the package on February 12th and January [&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":[899,1309,179,190,961,568,824,870,477,1239,807],"class_list":["post-10609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-great-britain","tag-journalism","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-new-york","tag-pseudoscience","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-texas","tag-trans-rights","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10609","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=10609"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10610,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10609\/revisions\/10610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}