{"id":5399,"date":"2017-01-14T18:34:30","date_gmt":"2017-01-14T23:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=5399"},"modified":"2017-01-14T18:35:02","modified_gmt":"2017-01-14T23:35:02","slug":"stick-to-baseball-11417","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2017\/01\/14\/stick-to-baseball-11417\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 1\/14\/17."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been writing Top 100 stuff (and making related phone calls) all week, so the only content I wrote that didn&#8217;t appear here on the dish was <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2jAYJxK\" target=\"_blank\">my review of the boardgame DOOM<\/a>, an adaptation of the 1990s first-person shooter video game and an update of an earlier attempt to make a boardgame of it.<\/p>\n<p>You can <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2dtXS3S\" target=\"_blank\">preorder my upcoming book, <em>Smart Baseball<\/em><\/a>, on amazon, or from other sites <a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/9780062490223\/?utm_source=Keith+Law&#038;utm_medium=athremail&#038;utm_campaign=Smart+Baseball\" target=\"_blank\">via the Harper-Collins page for the book<\/a>. Also, please sign up for <a href=\"https:\/\/tinyletter.com\/keithlaw\" target=\"_blank\">my more-or-less weekly email newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And now, the links&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <em>Guardian<\/em> says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tv-and-radio\/2017\/jan\/03\/sherlock-slowly-perversely-morphing-into-james-bond-benedict-cumberbatch\" target=\"_blank\">turning Sherlock into James Bond is unacceptable<\/a>, and I largely agree \u2013 this season&#8217;s first two episodes had too much action and gunplay and not enough Sherlockian deduction. <\/li>\n<li>Also, if you&#8217;ve seen the Sherlock season opener, the showrunners spoke to <em>Entertainment Weekly<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/ew.com\/tv\/2017\/01\/01\/sherlock-season-4-premiere\/\" target=\"_blank\">about the surprise ending and their vision for the series<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The Internet of Things leaves us all <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/2017\/01\/13\/509355546\/what-happens-when-hackers-hijack-our-smart-devices\" target=\"_blank\">vulnerable to hackers in ways we don&#8217;t expect<\/a>, like controlling cars remotely via malware or over wireless networks.<\/li>\n<li>Let&#8217;s talk vaccines. The Director of the Cleveland Clinic&#8217;s Wellness Center wrote a garbage, anti-vaccine editorial on Cleveland.com that brought up the discreted vaccine-autism link. <a href=\"https:\/\/sciencebasedmedicine.org\/cleveland-clinic-spewed-antivaccine-misinformation\/\" target=\"_blank\">Why is anyone surprised<\/a>, given the Cleveland Clinic&#8217;s embrace of other forms of woo like naturopathy?<\/li>\n<li>Donald Trump met with noted vaccine-denier RFK Jr., who is batshit insane on this topic, and conservative writer Ben Shapiro <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/12303\/trump-embraces-rfk-jrs-anti-vaccination-garbage-ben-shapiro\" target=\"_blank\">gave us eleven reasons why Trump is wrong<\/a> to buy into this crap.<\/li>\n<li>Seth Mnookin looks at <A href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2017\/01\/10\/kennedy-vaccine-book\/\" target=\"_blank\">how RFK Jr. &#8220;distorted&#8221; vaccine science<\/a>, although I&#8217;d call it flat-out lying.<\/li>\n<li>What can the vaccine-denial movement <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.plos.org\/scied\/2017\/01\/05\/what-can-the-anti-vaccination-movement-teach-us-about-improving-the-publics-understanding-of-science\/\" target=\"_blank\">teach us about improving the public&#8217;s science literacy<\/a>? Unfortunately, one of the author&#8217;s conclusions is that denialists manipulate parents with appeals to emotion like making it a &#8220;freedom of choice&#8221; issue, whereas scientists tend to avoid such irrational efforts.<\/li>\n<li>What&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/whats-behind-the-2016-mumps-spike-in-the-u-s\/\" target=\"_blank\">behind the 2016 spike in mumps cases<\/a>? One response might be to get a third dose of the MMR vaccine, as the mumps component may gradually lose effectiveness over 10-15 years.<\/li>\n<li>The Ringer looked at noted vaccine-denialist and all-around quack <a href=\"https:\/\/theringer.com\/dr-joseph-mercola-natural-health-website-bc1ac5e6ebc#.9z7dhpasc\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Joseph Mercola, who makes over $10 million a year<\/a> from his so-called &#8220;alternative health&#8221; sites. <\/li>\n<li>Mercola&#8217;s site has &#8220;4,400 articles on the benefits of turmeric.&#8221; Too bad <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/deceptive-spice-extract-offers-cautionary-tale-for-chemists\/\" target=\"_blank\">research on the benefits of turmeric (specifically curcumin) keeps coming up empty<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/tuscaloosapeds\/photos\/a.306995796015.155616.133717796015\/10154153180746016\/?type=3&#038;theater\" target=\"_blank\">notice to parents from an Alabama pediatrics office<\/a> is absolute pro-vaccine gold.<\/li>\n<li><em>WIRED<\/em> has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/2017\/01\/oj-made-in-america-oral-history\/?utm_source=pocket&#038;utm_medium=email&#038;utm_campaign=pockethits\" target=\"_blank\">an oral history of the making of the ESPN documentary <em>O.J.: Made in America<\/em><\/a>, which seems likely to get least get a nomination for Best Documentary Feature at this year&#8217;s Oscars.<\/li>\n<li>Shiva Ayyadurai, who claims he invented e-mail and files nuisance lawsuits against sites that dispute this, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techdirt.com\/articles\/20170111\/11440836465\/techdirts-first-amendment-fight-life.shtml\" target=\"_blank\">is now suing Techdirt for the same thing<\/a>, a lawsuit that could put the site out of business. He&#8217;s backed by billionaire Trump supporter Peter Thiel, who also backed Hulk Hogan&#8217;s lawsuit against Gawker. Ars Technica <a href=\"http:\/\/arstechnica.com\/tech-policy\/2017\/01\/popular-tech-blog-sued-by-self-proclaimed-inventor-of-e-mail-hits-back\/\" target=\"_blank\">has a little more detail on the suit<\/a>, and on why Ayyadurai is wrong. Lots of folks responded to my tweet about this by saying, in essence, that Gawker got what it deserved, but 1) that&#8217;s irrelevant to this case and 2) Gawker only posted the Hogan video after a federal court ruled it was newsworthy, making the results of Hogan&#8217;s lawsuit hard to explain.<\/li>\n<li>Derrick Goold wrote about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/sports\/baseball\/professional\/maness-a-trailblazer-new-surgery-for-elbow-repair-cut-recovery\/article_165ee721-5a36-58f9-8d8e-fb515ba037da.html\" target=\"_blank\">a novel type of elbow surgery<\/a> that may bring Seth Maness back to the big leagues in about half the time it would have taken after Tommy John (ligament transplant) surgery. Maness&#8217;s tear was in the right location, near an attachment point, and the ligament was otherwise in good enough shape that he qualified for the new procedure.<\/li>\n<li>Rye bread \u2013 I mean real rye bread, the dark, nutty stuff, made with whole-grain rye or even rye berries, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/01\/10\/dining\/rye-grain-bread.html?hp&#038;action=click&#038;pgtype=Homepage&#038;clickSource=story-heading&#038;module=mini-moth&#038;region=top-stories-below&#038;WT.nav=top-stories-below&#038;_r=1\" target=\"_blank\">is making a comeback<\/a>. It&#8217;s a lower-gluten relative of wheat, so breads made primarily or wholly with rye flour tend to be denser than wheat breads, but I think rye has a more interesting, complex taste than commercial whole wheat flours.<\/li>\n<li>I figure most of you have seen this, but just in case, <em>GQ<\/em> had a great longread on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.gq.com\/story\/the-concussion-diaries-high-school-football-cte\" target=\"_blank\">the diaries of a HS football player who killed himself<\/a> after suffering from concussion-related CTE. He left detailed instructions for his parents to spread the story of what football did to his brain. It&#8217;s a wrenching read, and I wish someone would wallpaper Roger Goodell&#8217;s office with it.<\/li>\n<li>Have you seen those cheesy infomercials for MyPillow? Well, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inc.com\/cameron-albert-deitch\/how-mypillows-promo-turned-into-a-scandal.html\" target=\"_blank\">the owner may have broken the law<\/a> with his neverending &#8220;buy one get one free&#8221; promotion, which also cost the company its BBB rating. It&#8217;s kind of a story of the owner&#8217;s arrogance, figuring that if something works for his business it must be OK.<\/li>\n<li>Princeton Professor Cornel West reflects on what he calls <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2017\/jan\/09\/barack-obama-legacy-presidency\" target=\"_blank\">the sad legacy of President Obama<\/a>. It&#8217;s worth reading, but the essence is that the practical results of Obama&#8217;s policies were not progressive enough for his supporters on the left. <\/li>\n<li>There&#8217;s real hope for the first time in the forty years since the island&#8217;s division that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-38544859\" target=\"_blank\">Cyprus could be reunited via a tripartite peace deal<\/a>, although Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan later dismissed the possibility of a full Turkish troop withdrawal from the divided island. (Given the history of both the Turkish and Greek governments in Cyprus, I kind of don&#8217;t blame him.)<\/li>\n<li>Climate change is causing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2016\/10\/24\/world\/asia\/living-in-chinas-expanding-deserts.html?utm_source=digg&#038;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\">China&#8217;s largest desert to expand at an alarming rate<\/a>, displacing people and turning thousands of acres uninhabitable.<\/li>\n<li>With climate-change denial the official policy of the President-Elect and the party that controls both houses of congress, a new group <a href=\"http:\/\/motherboard.vice.com\/read\/314-action-drafting-scientists-to-run-for-office-to-oppose-trump\" target=\"_blank\">is trying to recruit scientists to run for office<\/a> so that we get some rational thinking in our government.<\/li>\n<li>A North Korean boy who was abandoned by his parents and lived on the streets of Pyongyang <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/magazine-37914493\" target=\"_blank\">shared his story with the BBC, including his eventual escape to South Korea<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Russia&#8217;s parliament <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/domestic-violence-russia-decriminalize\/\" target=\"_blank\">moved to decriminalize domestic violence<\/a> this week. <\/li>\n<li>And now, to the outhouse \u2026 The Trump-Russia connection became more sordid and problematic this week, as the BBC&#8217;s award-winning Paul Wood <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-38589427#pq=RbIoXb\" target=\"_blank\">explains in a measured piece<\/a> that doesn&#8217;t quite go as far as BuzzFeed did in revealing the documents.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.esquire.com\/news-politics\/politics\/news\/a52203\/donald-trump-russia-allegations\/\" target=\"_blank\">Charles Pierce explains how no one knows what comes next<\/a>. He compares Trump to Captain Ahab, but I think he&#8217;s more Captain Queeg.<\/li>\n<li>Trump&#8217;s plan to name his son-in-law Jared Kushner to a key advisory post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/the-fix\/wp\/2017\/01\/10\/donald-trumps-first-attempt-to-ignore-the-law\/?postshare=4421484068950055&#038;tid=ss_tw&#038;utm_term=.03be836e41eb\" target=\"_blank\">is his first attempt to ignore the law<\/a>, specifically a 1967 law that prohibits this sort of nepotism. My fear isn&#8217;t that he&#8217;ll do it, but that no one will challenge it.<\/li>\n<li>Betsy DeVos, a creationist nutjob who gave a lot of money to the GOP and coincidentally has been nominated to be our next Secretary of Education, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/education\/betsy-devos-omitted-125000-political-donation-from-senate-disclosure-form\/2017\/01\/13\/7a82c368-d9ba-11e6-9f9f-5cdb4b7f8dd7_story.html?tid=sm_tw&#038;utm_term=.daac0194ff01\" target=\"_blank\">conveniently &#8220;forgot&#8221; a $125,000 donation she made<\/a> to support an anti-union ballot measure in Michigan.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve been writing Top 100 stuff (and making related phone calls) all week, so the only content I wrote that didn&#8217;t appear here on the dish was my review of the boardgame DOOM, an adaptation of the 1990s first-person shooter video game and an update of an earlier attempt to make a boardgame of it. [&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":[64,828,190,767,807],"class_list":["post-5399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bread","tag-climate-change","tag-links","tag-sherlock","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399","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=5399"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5401,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5399\/revisions\/5401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}