{"id":6464,"date":"2018-03-17T13:00:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-17T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=6464"},"modified":"2018-03-19T08:41:25","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T12:41:25","slug":"stick-to-baseball-3-17-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2018\/03\/17\/stick-to-baseball-3-17-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 3\/17\/18."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>My biggest news this week is that <em>Smart Baseball<\/em> is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.harpercollins.com\/9780062490230\/smart-baseball\" target=\"_blank\">now out in paperback<\/a>. This edition has a new afterword covering a few new developments from the 2017 season.<\/p>\n<p>For Insiders this week, I had three posts from the Cactus League, covering:<br \/>\n &bull; <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2DuVtgR\" target=\"_blank\">Hunter Greene &#038; prospects from four orgs<\/a> (CIN, LAD, CWS, LAA)<br \/>\n &bull;  <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2FGKXVw\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Paddack, Adrian Morejon, and other Padres &#038; Rockies prospects<\/a><br \/>\n &bull;  <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2Hs01Xw\" target=\"_blank\">Mackenzie Gore and even more Padres prospects<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>I also wrote about <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2tBfWkj\" target=\"_blank\">the Jake Arrieta contract<\/a>. Due to spring travel, the next chat may not be until April, unless I get a rainout on the road somewhere.<\/p>\n<p>Here on the dish, I wrote up <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/2Ixjmba\" target=\"_blank\">a slew of new restaurants I tried in Arizona this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>One true longread this week: Jane Meyer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2018\/03\/12\/christopher-steele-the-man-behind-the-trump-dossier\" target=\"_Blank\">profiles Christopher Steele of &#8216;Steele dossier&#8217; fame<\/a> for the <em>New Yorker<\/em>, which, in particular, shows the absurd, counterfactual lengths to which the President&#8217;s sycophants will go to defend him.<\/li>\n<li>The <em>Guardian<\/em> has revealed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2018\/mar\/17\/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election?CMP=share_btn_tw\" target=\"_blank\">how Cambridge Analytica used Facebook profile data on 50 million users<\/a>, without authorization, to help Trump&#8217;s election campaign in 2016.<\/li>\n<li>Meanwhile, the Administration is pushing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esquire.com\/news-politics\/politics\/a19408910\/trump-voter-suppression\/\" target=\"_blank\">new voter suppression efforts<\/a>, like dispatching Secret Service agents to polling stations; fortunately Maryland <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baltimoresun.com\/news\/opinion\/oped\/bs-ed-op-0314-voting-bills-20180312-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">is already considering legislation to combat such efforts<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/features\/john-skipper-details-espn-exit-cocaine-extortion-plot-1094657\" target=\"_blank\">extremely candid interview with former ESPN President John Skipper<\/a> was illuminating, and also explains why he quit so abruptly, just days after an all-hands meeting where he explained his strategy for the company going forward.<\/li>\n<li>The Iowa GOP <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmoinesregister.com\/story\/opinion\/columnists\/kathie-obradovich\/2018\/03\/12\/backdoor-gerrymandering-just-one-iowa-gop-election-rigging-attempts\/410500002\/\" target=\"_blank\">is hard at work trying to rig upcoming elections<\/a>, through such means as putting the Republican candidate first on nearly all ballots in the state. Richard Thaler wrote in <em><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2HJcTc9\" target=\"_blank\">Nudge<\/a><\/em> that the candidate listed first gets a 3.5% bump in votes, more if the candidates are generally not well known (e.g., there&#8217;s no incumbent).<\/li>\n<li>The Justice Department is fighting <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2018\/03\/did-you-know-the-justice-department-was-anti-vax-now\/\" target=\"_blank\">for an anti-vaxxer parent in Wisconsin<\/a> under the bullshit guise of &#8220;religious freedom.&#8221; The plaintiff was a nurse in a nursing home and refused to get the flu shot mandated by her employers, who fired her, because she&#8217;s a fucking idiot. I don\u2019t think that goes far enough: You should lose any medical license you hold if you decline to get vaccinations mandatory in your profession.<\/li>\n<li>The GOP tax bill, or &#8220;tax scam&#8221; depending on your perspective, was not really tax reform (which I favor), but just shifted around a bunch of giveaways to corporations. The Center for Public Integrity <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.publicintegrity.org\/tax-breaks-the-favored-few\/#craft-beverage-makers\" target=\"_blank\">broke down the corporate welfare<\/a>, including tax breaks for craft beverage makers, a rum tax that benefits distillers on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, tax credits for mining operations on Native American reservations, and a faster depreciation schedule for people who own racehorses. <\/li>\n<li>Matthew Yglesias examines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2018\/3\/12\/17100496\/political-correctness-data\" target=\"_blank\">the truth about public and campus support for free speech<\/a> in the face of anecdotal claims that &#8216;political correctness&#8217; is threatening it.<\/li>\n<li>A disabled writer explains <a href=\"https:\/\/www.menshealth.com\/health\/a19436617\/stephen-hawking-death-people-with-disabilities\/\" target=\"_blank\">what the elegies to Stephen Hawking got wrong<\/a> about the astrophysicist&#8217;s disability. Also, the death of a great scientist was a perfect time for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mystatesman.com\/news\/state--regional-govt--politics\/briscoe-cain-trolls-stephen-hawking-death-for-not-believing-god\/auImfOioVHxWovIigmg49H\/\" target=\"_blank\">a Republican Texas state rep to show his ass<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/food\/2018\/03\/is-russia-using-the-gmo-debate-to-troll-americans\/\" target=\"_blank\">Is Russia fomenting anti-GMO sentiment online<\/a>? One study looking at online coverage of the topic found Russian sites would slip anti-GMO content even into unrelated articles. GMO foods are safe, and public bias against them, which is rising, isn&#8217;t based on any actual science.<\/li>\n<li>The Oath Keepers are a white, anti-government, extremist group that has, among other things, shown up unbidden to protect white businesses during the Ferguson riots or to &#8216;guard&#8217; schools in the wake of shootings. Their founder <a href=\"https:\/\/talkingpointsmemo.com\/livewire\/report-wife-of-oath-keepers-founder-sought-restraining-order-over-abuse\" target=\"_blank\">stands accused of beating his wife and trying to choke his daughter<\/a>, in a request his wife filed for a restraining order as she seeks a divorce.<\/li>\n<li>The <em>Guardian<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2018\/mar\/09\/is-vitamin-d-really-a-cure-all-and-how-should-we-get-our-fix\" target=\"_blank\">explores the questions and evidence around vitamin D&#8217;s role in health<\/a>, including mixed signals on supplements and the difficulty of getting enough in plant-centric diets.<\/li>\n<li>Climate change is very real, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2018\/03\/15\/594140026\/fema-drops-climate-change-from-its-strategic-plan\" target=\"_blank\">FEMA has dropped the term from its strategic plans<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Arizona will hold a special election in April to fill the seat vacated by Trent Franks; it&#8217;s expected to go to Republican candidate Debbie Lesko, given how red the district is, even though <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/news\/local\/arizona-environment\/2018\/01\/30\/west-valley-congressional-candidates-climate-change\/1067821001\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lesko denies climate change and blames it on the sun<\/a>. Her opponent, <a href=\"http:\/\/hiralforcongress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dr. Hiral Tipirneni<\/a>, accepts the science on climate change and advocates increased solar and wind power in the state.<\/li>\n<li>A new study by researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center found that people who believe the untruth that the MMR vaccine causes autism <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2018\/03\/180315130717.htm\" target=\"_blank\">were then less likely to accept a hypothetical vaccine against Zika<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/how-cheese-wheat-and-alcohol-shaped-human-evolution-180968455\/\" target=\"_blank\">Our diets have shaped how our species has evolved<\/a>, with adaptations like lactose tolerance and lighter skin arising in response to what we eat.<\/li>\n<li>Michael Silverman of the <em>Boston Herald<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/sports\/red_sox\/2018\/03\/silverman_eight_years_later_ryan_westmoreland_eases_into_life_away_from\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">caught up with former Red Sox prospet Ryan Westmoreland<\/a>, whose promising career was cut short by a cavernous malformation in his brain. He just had his 16th surgery related to the issue on Monday. <\/li>\n<li>My daughter and I both loved this photo essay from the BBC <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/travel\/story\/20180308-a-ghost-island-in-the-middle-of-the-indian-ocean\" target=\"_blank\">on the abandoned Ross Island in the Indian Ocean<\/a>, which nature is slowly taking back, as it does.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My biggest news this week is that Smart Baseball is now out in paperback. This edition has a new afterword covering a few new developments from the 2017 season. For Insiders this week, I had three posts from the Cactus League, covering: &bull; Hunter Greene &#038; prospects from four orgs (CIN, LAD, CWS, LAA) &bull; [&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":[566,828,800,190,870,807,937],"class_list":["post-6464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-arizona","tag-climate-change","tag-evolution","tag-links","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-vaccines","tag-voter-suppression","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6464","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=6464"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6471,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6464\/revisions\/6471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}