{"id":10980,"date":"2025-10-25T09:52:32","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T13:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=10980"},"modified":"2025-10-25T09:52:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T13:52:32","slug":"stick-to-baseball-10-25-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/25\/stick-to-baseball-10-25-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 10\/25\/25."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I ended up unable to do a links post last weekend because I was out scouting the Arizona Fall League (which also prevented me from doing something else on Saturday morning)<strong>, <\/strong>so we\u2019re back now and at least I can post my AFL wrap-ups. I broke them up into one post on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6735473\/2025\/10\/22\/hagen-smith-anderson-brito-arizona-fall-league-pitchers\/\">the notable pitchers<\/a> and another on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6738529\/2025\/10\/23\/seaver-kind-esmerlyn-valdez-arizona-fall-league-hitters-scouting\/\">the notable hitters<\/a> I saw in the eleven games I attended, but of course I couldn\u2019t see everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over at Endless Mode, I reviewed the games <a href=\"https:\/\/www.endlessmode.com\/article\/aim-for-the-stars-with-the-fine-family-board-game-twinkle-twinkle\">Twinkle Twinkle<\/a>, a solid family-level tile-laying game; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.endlessmode.com\/tabletop\/board-games\/duel-for-cardia-a-great-two-player-game-that-deserves-a-better-name\">Duel for Cardia<\/a>, an excellent two-player capture-the-flag game that gets a lot of mileage out of its two 16-card decks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I sent out another issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/keithlaw.kit.com\/\">my free email newsletter<\/a> about two weeks ago, so I\u2019m due for another one now that I\u2019ve written some more stuff.<\/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: You\u2019ve probably seen the Politico story on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/10\/14\/private-chat-among-young-gop-club-members-00592146\">the incredibly racist, anti-Semitic, and generally hateful group chat<\/a> featuring a bunch of adult Republicans, including a state Senator from Vermont who\u2019s since resigned.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Charlie Warzel writes in <em>The Atlantic<\/em> (not my employer) about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/2025\/10\/ai-slop-winning\/684630\/?gift=nwn-guseqS6cY1kVeEKZAUeYdBRhieDEJ7qk7UuRID4&amp;utm_source=copy-link&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=share\">how AI slop is taking over the internet, stifling or threatening to stifle real creativity<\/a>. He\u2019s casting about a little for an analogy; it\u2019s just Cory Doctorow\u2019s enshittification write large. (Link is free to read.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>Mother Jones<\/em> exposes the hacking software company First Wap, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2025\/10\/firstwap-altamides-phone-tracking-surveillance-secrets-assad-erik-prince-jared-leto-anne-wojcicki\/?_thumbnail_id=1165876&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=7d5d32c5-130f-41d6-b759-f35dc075c119&amp;utm_campaign=Hootsuite\">whose products use SS7 to track phone users anywhere in the world<\/a>, without requiring that they click on a malicious link or otherwise put some sort of tracking app on their phones.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>ProPublica found that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/immigration-dhs-american-citizens-arrested-detained-against-will\">ICE has held at least 170 U.S. citizens against their will so far<\/a>, in many cases physically abusing them, and I\u2019m sure that\u2019s an undercount. The site also reported that Kristi Noem <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/kristi-noem-political-donations-income-dark-money-dhs-ethics\">took campaign donations from a dark-money group for her personal use<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Athletic (my employer) has a story by Carson Kessler and Gabby Herzig about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6554056\/2025\/08\/15\/womens-golf-catfishing-social-media-stalking-cases\/\">catfishing scams that convince men they\u2019re talking to top women golfers<\/a>, eventually conning them out of thousands of dollars and posing new safety risks to the athletes from men who think they have romantic relationships with them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An Arizona wannabe influencer tried to extort a local bakery, JL Patisserie, for a collaboration fee, or at least a bunch of free food, in exchange for a favorable video. The bakery declined; the woman showed up anyway, and then posted a negative review that had some false claims in it, so the bakery posted a point-by-point response \u2026 and then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/entertainment\/dining\/2025\/10\/15\/jl-patisserie-influencer-glamorama\/86689458007\/\">all hell broke loose<\/a>. I went there and got <a href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/keithlaw.bsky.social\/post\/3m3ptfygti22a\">a chocolate-pistachio croissant<\/a> for $8.50; it was probably the best croissant I\u2019ve ever had, and I\u2019ve been to France three times.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Starving children screaming in agony: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/myanmar-usaid-thailand-trump-rubio-aid-7f6919a1863ceea2ddf6708e47bb88f0\">the inevitable result of the Trump Administration\u2019s devastation of the USAID program<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sen. \u201cCancun\u201d Ted Cruz <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2025\/10\/ted-cruz-picks-a-fight-with-wikipedia-accusing-platform-of-left-wing-bias\/\">is targeting Wikipedia<\/a>, claiming the site \u2013 which has extensive rules on reliable &amp; verifiable sourcing \u2013 has a \u201cleft-wing bias.\u201d Well, if you\u2019re saying facts have a left-wing bias\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Christian Pastors Gone Wild: A Utah youth pastor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theroot.com\/why-this-white-christian-pastor-says-young-black-men-sh-2000066387\">says young black men should be executed<\/a> and cites the Bible in his arguments \u2026 a former South Carolina pastor was sentenced to 20 years in prison after authorities <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxcarolina.com\/2025\/10\/21\/former-upstate-pastor-sentenced-prison-federal-child-pornography-charge\/\">found over 5000 CSAM images on his phone<\/a> \u2026 an Ohio pastor who said that being gay was a \u201chealth risk\u201d and that gay literature made him \u201csick\u201d has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.advocate.com\/crime\/ohio-pastor-lgbtq-books-charged\">arrested and charged with raping a 14-year-old girl<\/a>. No trans people or drag queens were involved in any of these stories.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Indiana University <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indystar.com\/story\/news\/education\/2025\/10\/14\/indiana-university-fires-student-newspaper-adviser-amid-push-to-control-ids-content\/86694502007\/\">fired its student newspaper\u2019s advisor<\/a>, then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/society\/indiana-university-student-newspaper-censorship\/\">shut down the newspaper entirely<\/a> because the students were publishing \u2026 news. Purdue students stepped up and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfyi.org\/news\/articles\/after-ids-print-ends-purdue-student-paper-delivers-solidarity-edition-to-bloomington\">distributed 3000 copies of their own paper<\/a>, with the front-page headline \u201cWe Student Journalists Must Stand Together,\u201d on IU\u2019s campus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <em>Guardian<\/em> reported on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/stage\/2025\/oct\/09\/backlash-builds-against-comics-who-played-riyadh-comedy-festival\">the justified backlash against comics who took the Saudi dictators\u2019 money<\/a> to play the Riyadh comedy festival.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Former anti-vaxxers told Raw Story that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/raw-investigates\/rfk-jr-vaccines-2674046062\/\">they\u2019re \u201chorrified\u201d by RFK Jr\u2019s gutting<\/a> of the American health system, including eroding Americans\u2019 trust in vaccines (which are, again, highly safe and effective). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/10\/12\/nx-s1-5572507\/us-measles-outbreaks-texas-south-carolina-utah-minnesota\">Meanwhile, measles cases continue to rise across the U.S.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>And <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/vaccines-fluoride-kennedy-trump-science-antiscience-legislation-73af8e65f407331e8f31b2909812a004\">hundreds of anti-science bills have hit state legislatures<\/a> as evangelicals and \u2018do-your-research\u2019 loons try to make America die of preventable diseases again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A viral story about an Olive Garden waitress who threw breadsticks at customers is fake \u2026 but uses the identity of a real person, with her picture, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chron.com\/news\/article\/olive-garden-breadsticks-fake-story-21094417.php\">it\u2019s made her life needlessly difficult<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Texas police who said they used a network of license-plate cameras to try to track the safety of a woman who\u2019d self-administered an abortion. Turns out, of course, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.404media.co\/police-said-they-surveilled-woman-who-had-an-abortion-for-her-safety-court-records-show-they-considered-charging-her-with-a-crime\/\">they were actually trying to track her so they could charge her with murder<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Professor Lisa Moore, who heads the Department of Women\u2019s, Gender, &amp; Sexuality Studies at the University of Texas, writes that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/opinion\/columns\/your-voice\/article\/opinion-35-years-ut-austin-hardly-recognize-21089836.php?utm_source=marketing&amp;utm_medium=copy-url-link&amp;utm_campaign=article-share&amp;hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3RhdGVzbWFuLmNvbS9vcGluaW9uL2NvbHVtbnMveW91ci12b2ljZS9hcnRpY2xlL29waW5pb24tMzUteWVhcnMtdXQtYXVzdGluLWhhcmRseS1yZWNvZ25pemUtMjEwODk4MzYucGhw&amp;time=MTc2MDEwNzU5NDcyOQ%3D%3D&amp;rid=ZmM4ZTg0ZTgtMGU4Yi00ZjgyLWJkNmMtNzVjMzdhNDA1MGNm&amp;sharecount=MA%3D%3D\">she doesn\u2019t recognize the place where she\u2019s worked and taught<\/a> for 35 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Two Harvard professors wrote that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecrimson.com\/article\/2025\/10\/9\/enos-levitsky-harvard-trump-compact\/\">the school must reject the Trump Administration\u2019s so-called \u201ccompact\u201d<\/a> and take a public stand against it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>This is how you report on the President: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/clueless-donald-trump-79-humiliated-after-dodging-legal-question\/\">Clueless Donald Trump, 79, Humiliated After Dodging Legal Question<\/a>.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Did President Trump push Israel to accept a ceasefire to <a href=\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/2025\/10\/11\/qatar-trump-gaza-ceasefire\/\">protect his own financial relationships with the Qatari emirate<\/a>?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As Trump spends $130 million or more on the vanity-project ballroom at the White House \u2013 which he is not allowed to do without Congressional approval, not that they\u2019ll stop him from doing anything \u2013 a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/world\/typhoon-halong-alaska-kipnuk-kwigillingok-9.6937500\">typhoon destroyed villages and killed at least one person<\/a> in Alaska.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/buttondown.com\/creativegood\/archive\/dont-let-the-data-center-come-to-town\/\">Data centers make bad neighbors<\/a>. If they\u2019re trying to build one near you, speak out against it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An El Paso family claims <a href=\"https:\/\/kfoxtv.com\/news\/local\/el-paso-family-claims-border-patrol-killed-their-dog-during-search-cbp-reviewing-incident-texas-tx\">a Border Patrol agent shot and killed their dog during a search<\/a>; the incident took place in September and ended up in the national news earlier this month, but I can\u2019t find any more recent update.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Kevin Howley, a writer and media critic, writes about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mississippifreepress.org\/opinion-the-trouble-of-fact-free-anarchy-in-the-usa\/\">the harm of the \u201cfact-free anarchy\u201d that has taken over public discourse<\/a> in the U.S. with the full complicity of the mainstream media.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Defector has a good laugh at the Free Press writer \u2013 I\u2019m not calling them journalists, sorry \u2013 Olivia Reingold, who is complaining that <a href=\"https:\/\/defector.com\/free-press-reporter-discovers-that-being-an-amoral-dickhead-can-cost-you-friends\">most of her friends are shunning her<\/a> after she wrote a story claiming that the Gazan babies who died of starvation were actually sick with other things, so it wasn\u2019t that big of a tragedy. I need a quantum violin to play for her, because anything else would be too large.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The hosts of a left-wing podcast <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/cory-booker-podcast-interview_n_68eeca8ee4b0a6936a127457\">called out Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)<\/a> for his votes for Trump appointees and generally clubby attitude towards the rise of authoritarianism.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/what-brain-science-reveals-about-ethical-decline-and-moral-growth\/\">Your brain adjusts to doing things you think are morally wrong<\/a>, so that doing the same sort of thing again becomes easier and easier. The good news is you can go in the other direction by doing the right thing, and make it easier to be honest or brave or otherwise virtuous.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Raas: A Dance of Love is an upcoming board game from two Indian designers, <a href=\"https:\/\/gamefound.com\/en\/projects\/arcane-wonders\/raas-a-dance-of-love\">now up on Gamefound<\/a>; it\u2019s the first game I\u2019ve seen that uses an aspect of Indian culture and is also designed by people from the subcontinent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Boardgamegeek has an entertaining designer diary from two of my favorites, <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/blog\/1\/blogpost\/178435\/designer-diary-the-white-castle-duel\">the folks behind the new game The White Castle Duel<\/a>, as well as the original The White Castle and The Red Cathedral.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I ended up unable to do a links post last weekend because I was out scouting the Arizona Fall League (which also prevented me from doing something else on Saturday morning), so we\u2019re back now and at least I can post my AFL wrap-ups. I broke them up into one post on the notable pitchers [&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":[566,1083,113,137,1375,190,961,1400,766,870,477,940,807],"class_list":["post-10980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arizona","tag-board-game-news","tag-environment","tag-frauds","tag-indiana","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-neuroscience","tag-religion","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-texas","tag-the-swamp","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980","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=10980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10981,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10980\/revisions\/10981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}