{"id":5579,"date":"2017-03-19T01:34:35","date_gmt":"2017-03-19T05:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=5579"},"modified":"2017-03-19T01:34:35","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T05:34:35","slug":"stick-to-baseball-31817","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/19\/stick-to-baseball-31817\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 3\/18\/17."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two Insider posts this week from Arizona, one <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2nyPG6f\" target=\"_blank\">on Padres and Dodgers prospects<\/a> and one on <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2nawV8D target=\"_blank\">Dodgers, Reds, and Rangers prospects<\/a>. I&#8217;ll have one more post coming from this trip. I did not chat this week because I was out at games every day. The trip also meant I didn&#8217;t get to review a boardgame this week either.<\/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>. The book now has two positive reviews out, one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kirkusreviews.com\/book-reviews\/keith-law\/smart-baseball\/\" target=\"_blank\">from <em>Kirkus Reviews<\/em><\/a> and one from <em><A href=\"http:\/\/www.publishersweekly.com\/978-0-06-249022-3\" target=\"_blank\">Publishers Weekly<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>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 best longread of the week comes from Patrick Hruby of <em>Vice<\/em>, on <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/nigel-hayes-is-playing-in-march-madness-and-taking-on-ncaa-amateurism-in-federal-court\" target=\"_blank\">Wisconsin forward Nigel Hayes and his lawsuit against the NCAA<\/a>, challenging the college cartel&#8217;s rules on amateurism.<\/li>\n<li>Also great, although with some caveats: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/culture\/cultural-comment\/the-fate-of-the-critic-in-the-clickbait-age\" target=\"_blank\">what is the fate of the critic in the &#8220;clickbait&#8221; age?<\/a> There&#8217;s an underlying argument here about quality of content versus that clickbait mentality, but I think the author lapses into cultural elitism enough to undermine his point.<\/li>\n<li>The world&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/magazine\/2017\/04\/gelada-monkeys-grass-eating-guassa-ethiopia-bleeding-heart\/\" target=\"_blank\">only grass-eating monkeys survive in one protected savannah in Ethiopia<\/a>, but their habitat is under threat from humans and climate change. The photography in this <em>National Geographic<\/em> piece is stunning.<\/li>\n<li>Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, who belongs to a crackpot evangelical medical association called AAPS, said that states should decide on mandatory vaccination laws, and the <em>Washington Post<\/em> <A href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/politics\/wp\/2017\/03\/17\/why-mandatory-vaccinations-are-critical-visualized\/?utm_term=.aa86da0d90a4\" target=\"_blank\">showed why this is a terrible idea, in graphical form<\/a>. They also wrote about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/powerpost\/wp\/2017\/02\/09\/through-views-and-alliances-hhs-nominee-has-long-opposed-government-role-in-health-care\/?utm_term=.9b6fa7ad62b9\" target=\"_blank\">the AAPS&#8217; &#8220;unorthodox&#8221; (read: bullshit) positions on science<\/a> a month ago. It is absolutely insane that someone so virulently anti-science is running HHS.<\/li>\n<li>An algal bloom in the Gulf of Oman <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/39cdba54f35548ffb0914094343bb0c6?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&#038;utm_source=Twitter&#038;utm_medium=AP\" target=\"_blank\">is growing thanks to climate change<\/a>, which our Clueless Leader says doesn&#8217;t exist and\/or is a Chinese hoax.<\/li>\n<li>Trump fired US Attorney Preet Bharara earlier this month, perhaps because <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/preet-bharara-fired-investigating-tom-price-hhs-stock-trading\" target=\"_blank\">Bharara was investigating Secretary Price&#8217;s stock trades<\/a> for evidence of insider trading. The move may <a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/daily\/intelligencer\/2017\/03\/winner-in-trumps-decision-to-fire-bharara-might-be-murdoch.html\" target=\"_blank\">also benefit Friend of Trump Rupert Murdoch<\/a>, whose Fox News was facing multiple investigations from Bharara&#8217;s office.<\/li>\n<li>If you live in Georgia&#8217;s sixth district, formerly represented by Price, and are as outraged as I am over the anti-science, anti-civil liberties policies of the current administration, consider <a href=\"https:\/\/electjon.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">supporting Jon Ossoff<\/a> in the upcoming special election on April 18th.<\/li>\n<li>Congress is threatening to pass <a href=\"http:\/\/www.salon.com\/2017\/03\/13\/one-of-the-worst-trends-in-red-state-politics-is-coming-to-a-blue-state-near-you\/\" target=\"_blank\">a national right-to-work law<\/a>, which would deal the most serious blow to American unions since the Wagner Act guaranteed workers&#8217; basic rights to organize. There is a legitimate debate to be had on unionization; closed shops can artificially restrict employment, and unionized labor forces can increase prices for consumers, to pick two issues that arise in industries with strong unions. Right-to-work laws circumvent the debate entirely, and serve no purpose but to help enrich employers.<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, in Australia, the Rational United States, the Prime Minister has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-australia-39251585\" target=\"_blank\">proposed banning unvaccinated children from childcare facilities<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The gluten-free fad may be a symptom of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/environment\/2017\/03\/real-reason-many-people-go-gluten-free-has-nothing-do-gluten\" target=\"_blank\">a bigger problem of patients forum-shopping and falling for quacks<\/a>, like &#8220;naturopaths&#8221; or &#8220;allopathic&#8221; practitioners who con patients into submitting to expensive tests for conditions that can only be cured by those charlatans&#8217; treatments.<\/li>\n<li>Gwyneth Paltrow, who has become an expert of pseudoscience and woo, proposed a &#8220;goat milk therapy&#8221; for parasites that <a href=\"https:\/\/drjengunter.wordpress.com\/2017\/03\/15\/gwyneth-paltrows-goat-milk-therapy-for-parasites-is-stupid-and-dangerous\/\" target=\"_blank\">is both stupid and dangerous<\/a>. Paltrow appears to have the biology knowledge of very small rocks, but that hasn&#8217;t stopped her from recommending all kinds of fake &#8220;treatments.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>The rise of Elijah Quashie, an amateur food critic in the UK known as the Chicken Connoisseur, led to this Eater piece <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eater.com\/2017\/3\/2\/14780712\/chicken-connoisseur-elijah-quashie-restaurant-critic\" target=\"_blank\">asking who gets to be a food critic<\/a>? Is it true, as Quashie said in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e5MD-2GTqto\" target=\"_blank\">this interview<\/a>, that once you start being a critic, then you&#8217;re a critic, with no further credentials required? If not, then is criticism of food, art, fashion, etc., inherently elitist, available only to those who can afford the proper background or training?<\/li>\n<li>A basketball player in Maryland was prevented from playing in the team&#8217;s first regional final game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/sports\/highschools\/after-playing-all-season-maryland-girl-held-out-of-basketball-game-for-wearing-a-hijab\/2017\/03\/13\/63fe82be-0767-11e7-8884-96e6a6713f4b_story.html?tid=ss_tw&#038;utm_term=.e13a5de25d57\" target=\"_blank\">because she was wearing a hijab<\/a>. The error was the referees&#8217;, not the district or state authorities.<\/li>\n<li>The <em>Guardian<\/em> did an update and profile of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2017\/feb\/25\/rachel-dolezal-not-going-stoop-apologise-grovel\" target=\"_blank\">Rachel Dolezal, the NAACP chapter head who was posing as a black woman<\/a> until she was outed by her parents as white. The piece includes an excerpt from her upcoming memoir. I might have found a shred of sympathy for her after reading this, although I still think posing as a person of color and then comparing herself to transgender people was inexcusable.<\/li>\n<li>Reader Stephanie K. passed along this <em>Modern Farmer<\/em> link from last June <a href=\"http:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2016\/06\/cold-pressed-juice-food-waste\/\" target=\"_blank\">on how cold-pressed juice is bad for you and for the environment<\/a>. Pro tip: eat whole fruit, rather than just drinking juice.<\/li>\n<li>Reader Larry passed along this link from <em>Vice<\/em> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/when-your-used-car-makes-you-a-target-for-cops\" target=\"_blank\">how lax regulations allow shady used-car dealers to sell cars they don&#8217;t own<\/a>, which in turn become legal nightmares for the buyers.<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;d mentioned a few weeks ago that Kurt Eichenwald had gone after trolls who&#8217;d sent him images with the goal of triggering his epilepsy. One of them <A href=\"http:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/us-news\/man-charged-cyberstalking-after-sending-tweet-epileptic-reporter-n735241?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma\" target=\"_blank\">was just charged with cyberstalking in Texas<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Remember Srebrenica? The Bosnian town just <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-39212425\" target=\"_blank\">elected a Serb mayor<\/a>, reigniting long-simmering ethnic tensions in the village and in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole, where the three main ethnic groups are threatening to divide the country into yet smaller states along religious and linguistic lines.<\/li>\n<li>Another reader recommendation (I apologize, I can&#8217;t find your tweet): Ars Technica explores <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gaming\/2017\/03\/the-cia-uses-board-games-to-train-officers-and-i-got-to-play-them\/\" target=\"_blank\">some of the boardgames the CIA uses to train officers<\/a>. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll be reviewing Collection or Kingpin any time soon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two Insider posts this week from Arizona, one on Padres and Dodgers prospects and one on<\/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":[821,60,190,363,824,870,807],"class_list":["post-5579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anti-science","tag-boardgames","tag-links","tag-ncaa","tag-pseudoscience","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579","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=5579"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5581,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5579\/revisions\/5581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}