{"id":6726,"date":"2018-06-30T12:58:23","date_gmt":"2018-06-30T16:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=6726"},"modified":"2018-06-30T12:58:23","modified_gmt":"2018-06-30T16:58:23","slug":"stick-to-baseball-6-30-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/30\/stick-to-baseball-6-30-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 6\/30\/18."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m back from a European vacation that took us to Dublin, southern France, Monaco (my daughter really wanted to see it), Genoa (to visit my cousins there), and Milan. I ate a <em>lot<\/em> of gelato, which is the most important part, isn&#8217;t it? Before I left I did file one Insider piece, the annual <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2tQXt0c\" target=\"_blank\">top 25 players under 25 list<\/a>, and please read the intro because as usual many people didn&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>Over at <em>Paste<\/em>, my review of <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2IE9ATF\" target=\"_blank\">Merlin, the really awful new game from Stefan Feld<\/a>, also went up while I was gone. Feld has designed several games I love, including The Castles of Burgundy, so this point-salad mess was a huge disappointment.<\/p>\n<p>Book signings! I&#8217;ll be at Politics &#038; Prose in Washington DC, with my friend Jay Jaffe, to talk baseball and both of our books <a href=\"https:\/\/politics-prose.com\/event\/book\/keith-law-smart-baseball-story-behind-old-stats-are-ruining-game-new-ones-are-running-it\" target=\"_blank\">on July 14th at 6 pm<\/a>, and will be at Paul Swydan&#8217;s new bookstore The Silver Unicorn in Acton, Massachusetts, on July 28th at 1 pm (waiting for the link but it is confirmed). I will also be at the Futures Game in DC on the 15th.<\/p>\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Longreads first: The <em>Guardian<\/em> profiles <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2018\/jun\/15\/how-to-spot-a-perfect-fake-the-worlds-top-art-forgery-detective\" target=\"_blank\">art forgery detective James Martin<\/a>, who now works for Sotheby&#8217;s and has advised museums and government agencies on dozens of cases of suspected counterfeit art pieces.<\/li>\n<li><em>WIRED<\/em> has a very long read on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/tezos-blockchain-love-story-horror-story\/\" target=\"_blank\">the scandal around the cryptocurrency Tezos<\/a>, which appears to have attracted several scam artists, shockingly, to a real bit of technological promise. Most of these so-called currencies are Ponzi schemes; Bitcoin itself is down 70% since November after a brief bubble over the winter. And the SEC is now clamping down on them by (correctly) identifying them as securities bought and sold as investments.<\/li>\n<li><em>Forbes<\/em> examines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/danalexander\/2018\/06\/18\/lies-china-and-putin-solving-the-mystery-of-wilbur-ross-missing-fortune-trump-commerce-secretary-cabinet-conflicts-of-interest\/#300a5e537e87\" target=\"_blank\">the ongoing mystery of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross&#8217;s missing wealth<\/a>, which appears to be tied up in companies that he&#8217;s charged with regulating, or companies caught up in various other scandals, including one that is now enmeshed in Robert Mueller&#8217;s investigation.<\/li>\n<li>James Bridle&#8217;s medium post last year on algorithmically-generated Youtube videos that were totally inappropriate for the children they targeted went viral and led to promised changes in Youtube&#8217;s policies, but he writes now for the <em>Guardian<\/em> that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2018\/jun\/17\/peppa-pig-youtube-weird-algorithms-automated-content\" target=\"_blank\">things haven&#8217;t really changed much at all<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Rebecca Traister&#8217;s much-shared <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecut.com\/2018\/06\/summer-of-rage.html\" target=\"_blank\">Summer of Rage editorial<\/a> covers a ton of ground in a brief space, but the main takeaway is that we are still governed by a small minority of white, Christian men, who seem increasingly uncomfortable when anyone from outside their circle of members and sycophants tries to share in their power.<\/li>\n<li>George Will wrote an op ed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/vote-against-the-gop-this-november\/2018\/06\/22\/a6378306-7575-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html?utm_term=.490d30f10596\" target=\"_blank\">urging voters to vote against the Republican Party this November<\/a>. Will is one of the very few leading conservative voices to take a pragmatic hard line against the current GOP.<\/li>\n<li>Russian buyers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/news\/politics-government\/white-house\/article210477439.html\" target=\"_blank\">have been buying Trump properties, often at inflated prices<\/a> via shell companies, which at least appears to be a mechanism for money laundering.<\/li>\n<li>The <em>New York Times<\/em>&#8216; opinion page had a massive editorial breakdown last week, as it ran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/06\/25\/opinion\/trump-sarah-huckabee-sanders-restaurant-civility.html?smtyp=cur&#038;smid=tw-nytopinion\" target=\"_blank\">a very good editorial decrying this bullshit &#8216;civility&#8217; debate<\/a>. I can only assume the page&#8217;s editor, James Bennet, was out sick that day.<\/li>\n<li>California put <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/california\/la-me-ln-sears-license-20180629-story.html\" target=\"_blank\">noted anti-vaccine crank Dr. Bob Sears on probation<\/a>, rather than revoking his license outright, for writing a bogus letter exempting a toddler from all mandatory vaccinations. Of course, he&#8217;s denying wrongdoing even though he settled the case, and says he&#8217;ll continue to fight public health laws that require vaccinations for schoolchildren.<\/li>\n<li>Anti-vaxxers love to claim that Dr. Diane Harper has claimed that the HPV vaccine is harmful, but she made it very clear in a statement earlier in June that <a href=\"https:\/\/medicine.umich.edu\/dept\/family-medicine\/news\/archive\/201806\/nci-statement-cervical-cancer-prevention-draws-leadership-family-medicine-faculty\" target=\"_blank\">the vaccine is safe and she supports its use across the population<\/a> to help lower the rates of cervical and other HPV-related cancers.<\/li>\n<li>A new study from Massachusetts General Hospital found that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wbur.org\/commonhealth\/2018\/06\/21\/vaccine-diabetes-bcg-type-1\" target=\"_blank\">an old tuberculosis vaccine may permanently lower blood sugar levels in diabetics<\/a>, although the effect can take a few years to kick in. <\/li>\n<li>Dr. Vinay Prasad, an oncologist active on social media, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/health-shots\/2018\/06\/24\/621068147\/tweeting-oncologist-draws-ire-and-admiration-for-calling-out-hype\" target=\"_blank\">has provoked the ire of cancer researchers by calling out the bogus hype around &#8216;precision&#8217; treatments<\/a> that claim to use the patient&#8217;s genes to create more targeted anti-cancer medications. The data, he argues, do not show anywhere near the benefit that precision treatment&#8217;s proponents promise.<\/li>\n<li>The FDA just approved <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/fda-approves-countrys-first-marijuana-based-medicine\/\" target=\"_blank\">its first marijuana-derived prescription drug<\/a>, which uses cannabidiol (CBD) to reduce seizures in two severe forms of epilepsy. The DEA still has to remove CBD from its list of Schedule I drugs before the medication can hit the market.<\/li>\n<li>Unfortunately, the FDA is also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/fda-repays-industry-by-rushing-risky-drugs-to-market\" target=\"_blank\">rubber-stamping approval of many drugs of dubious safety and\/or efficacy<\/a> as it caters to the pharmaceutical firms that fund it.<\/li>\n<li>BuzzFeed looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/alexkantrowitz\/how-twitter-made-the-tech-worlds-most-unlikely-comeback?utm_term=.kjjBLEXkll#.syE0E6vRmm\" target=\"_blank\">the unlikely comeback of Twitter<\/a>, which I was told even by people within ESPN was a dying medium and not worth the time writers were spending on it.<\/li>\n<li>The Royals floated a trial balloon around their plans to sign convicted child molester Luke Heimlich, and it went over about as well as you&#8217;d expect. The <em>Kansas City Star<\/em>&#8216;s Vahe Gregorian wrote a great piece <a href=\"https:\/\/kansascity.relaymedia.com\/amp\/sports\/spt-columns-blogs\/vahe-gregorian\/article213688604.html\" target=\"_blank\">on why they shouldn&#8217;t do it<\/a>. Here&#8217;s my take in two sentences: If you believe Heimlich deserves a &#8220;second chance,&#8221; then you have to explain why you&#8217;re giving him one even though he&#8217;s denying he ever committed the crimes to which he confessed. If you believe that he&#8217;s telling the truth now and didn&#8217;t commit those acts, then you have to explain why you think a 6-year-old girl fabricated these stories about her abuse and why you&#8217;re taking the word of someone with everything to gain over the word of a child victim.<\/li>\n<li>Q-Tip once again <a href=\"https:\/\/www.complex.com\/music\/2018\/06\/q-tip-teases-his-solo-album-the-last-zulu-once-again\" target=\"_blank\">teased the solo album he&#8217;s been promising for five years<\/a> in a tweet two weeks ago.<\/li>\n<li>No, Mr. President, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/policy-and-politics\/2018\/6\/18\/17474600\/trump-tweet-crime-germany\" target=\"_blank\">crime in Germany is <em>not<\/em> way up, it&#8217;s way down<\/a>, at its lowest level in decades.<\/li>\n<li>The Representative from my hometown of Smithtown, New York, <a href=\"https:\/\/patch.com\/new-york\/eastmeadow\/s\/gghct\/hungarian-white-supremacist-headlines-lee-zeldin-campaign-rally\" target=\"_blank\">held a campaign rally featuring Hungarian neo-Nazi Sebastian Gorka<\/a> this week.<\/li>\n<li>Maine Senator Susan Collins has somehow acquired the label of a &#8220;moderate&#8221; Republican, but <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/moderate-susan-collins-sides-with-trump-on-separating-immigrant-kids-from-their-parents-a40c3a9904ff\/\" target=\"_blank\">wrote a letter to constituents defending Trump&#8217;s policy of separating immigrant families<\/a>. Her term is up in 2020.<\/li>\n<li>Walgreens faced a backlash last week when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/friendlyatheist\/2018\/06\/24\/walgreens-pharmacist-refuses-to-give-woman-medicine-to-induce-miscarriage\/\" target=\"_blank\">an Arizona pharmacist refused to do his job<\/a> when a woman came in with a prescription for a drug to terminate her non-viable pregnancy. Walgreens claimed the employee acted &#8220;within company guidelines.&#8221; <\/li>\n<li>A family of Syrian refugees whose Damascus chocolate factory was destroyed in the civil war <a href=\"https:\/\/lheuredelest.org\/du-chocolat-pour-la-paix\/\" target=\"_blank\">have restarted their business in Nova Scotia<\/a> (article in French). Their products include a limited edition <a href=\"https:\/\/peacebychocolate.ca\/collections\/pride-bars\" target=\"_blank\">line of pride-themed packaged chocolate bars<\/a>. As our President and his myrmidons continue to attack immigrants as criminals and leeches, it&#8217;s worth remembering that many refugees had lives and careers that were destroyed by war \u2013 they were doctors or lawyers or craftspersons and want little more than a safe place to live and work.<\/li>\n<li>Tweet of the week:<br \/>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">1) No they don\u2019t.<br \/>2) No they don\u2019t.<br \/>3) Yes they can.<br \/>4) No, they reduce SIDS by 50%.<br \/>5) No they don\u2019t.<br \/>6) No they fucking don\u2019t.<br \/>7) No they don\u2019t except for fleetingly rare anaphylaxis.<br \/>8) No they don\u2019t.<br \/>9) No they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>Vaccines cause adults. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pcAeClyuYW\">pic.twitter.com\/pcAeClyuYW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Doc Bastard (@DocBastard) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DocBastard\/status\/1009181091922677761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 19, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m back from a European vacation that took us to Dublin, southern France, Monaco (my daughter really wanted to see it), Genoa (to visit my cousins there), and Milan. I ate a lot of gelato, which is the most important part, isn&#8217;t it? Before I left I did file one Insider piece, the annual top [&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":[617,49,341,1005,190,1020,568,261,870,940,750,807],"class_list":["post-6726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art","tag-baseball","tag-chocolate","tag-cryptocurrencies","tag-links","tag-maine","tag-new-york","tag-rap","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-the-swamp","tag-twitter","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6726","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=6726"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6727,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6726\/revisions\/6727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}