{"id":7895,"date":"2019-09-14T10:46:09","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T14:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=7895"},"modified":"2019-09-14T10:50:26","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T14:50:26","slug":"stick-to-baseball-9-14-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2019\/09\/14\/stick-to-baseball-9-14-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 9\/14\/19."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For ESPN+ subscribers, my annual <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2kF27O8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Prospect of the Year<\/a> column went up this week, with Wander Franco, Luis Robert, and Gavin Lux the three finalists. I also held a <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2khHnfe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Klawchat<\/a> on Thursday and a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/keithlaw\/status\/1171498820296798208\" target=\"_Blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Periscope video chat<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>My latest game review for <em>Paste<\/em> covers <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2kkJpeC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Realm of Sand<\/a> from Deep Water, a mashup of Patchwork and Splendor with incredible artwork by the same artist behind Hanamikoji and Shadows of Kyoto.<\/p>\n<p>My latest email newsletter went out on Wednesday. You can <a href=\"https:\/\/tinyletter.com\/keithlaw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sign up for free<\/a> to get whatever topic is on my mind when I feel like I&#8217;ve gone too long without sending one.<\/p>\n<p>And now, the links&#8230;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Longreads first: This <em>Washingtonian<\/em> story about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonian.com\/2019\/09\/08\/paranoid-tech-bro-homemade-nuclear-bunker-shocking-death-askia-khafra-daniel-beckwitt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a hoarder, a would be tech bro, and a murder<\/a> is really out there.<\/li>\n<li>Lead poisoning may be the real explanation for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/environment\/2016\/02\/lead-exposure-gasoline-crime-increase-children-health\/\" target=\"_Blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the rise and fall of violent crime from the 1960s to the 1990s<\/a>, and the problem isn&#8217;t gone because so much of lead belched out by cars burning leaded gasoline is still in our environment. (Small world department: I worked with Prof. Reyes for about a year at a consulting firm before I went into baseball and she returned to academia.) Of course, the Trump administration is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/trumps-plan-for-the-economy-make-drinking-water-dirty-again\/2019\/09\/12\/f83bd3f6-d59a-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">rolling back regulations to keep lead and other pollutants<\/a> out of our water supply.<\/li>\n<li>In the <em>New Yorker<\/em>, Michael Schulman looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2019\/09\/16\/superfans-a-love-story\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the rise of the &#8220;superfan&#8221; and what it means for content creators<\/a>, especially when those fans don&#8217;t agree with creative choices in books, films, or TV shows.<\/li>\n<li>Garrett Graff, author of the new book <em>The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9\/11<\/em>, ponders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2019\/09\/september-11-blind-luck-decided-who-lived-or-died\/597688\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">how much sheer luck or randomness determined who survived the 9\/11 attacks<\/a> in an essay for the <em>Atlantic<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Vox looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/energy-and-environment\/2019\/9\/9\/20804544\/climate-change-phoenix-heat-wave-deaths-extreme-weather\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">what &#8220;a Hurricane Katrina of heat,&#8221; caused by climate change, would look like for Phoenix<\/a>, the second-fastest growing metropolitan area in the country, which already had <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NWSPhoenix\/status\/1050114811076456449\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">128 days over 100 degrees in 2018<\/a>. Beyond the obvious strains on the power and water supplies, such extended heat waves would lead to substantial emergency room visits and deaths from heat stroke.<\/li>\n<li>Panama disease is a fungus that attacks banana plantations and destroys entire crops; since the Cavendish bananas we see in every store are all genetically identical, the plants have no way to develop immunity through natural selection. Two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/90399214\/scientists-are-racing-to-reengineer-the-banana-before-its-gone-forever\" target=\"_Blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">gene-editing efforts are racing to create a new banana plant that can resist the fungus<\/a> before the Cavendish goes the way of its predecessor, the Gros Michel, which disappeared in the 1950s for a similar reason. If you like that link, check out the book <em>Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World<\/em>, which I <a href=\"http:\/\/klaw.me\/13uI4w9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reviewed in 2013<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>If you thought anti-abortion advocates were about anything other than subjugating women, look at this utterly absurd, anti-science &#8216;debate&#8217; over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2019\/9\/11\/20859034\/ectopic-pregnancy-abortion-federalist-intrauterine-ohio-surgery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">surgery to treat ectopic pregnancies<\/a>, operations that save the lives of the women while removing pregnancies that are nonviable by definition. Several anti-abortion zealots are claiming this surgery is abortion, and that ectopic pregnancies can magically relocate to the uterus (wrong), and that doctors should employ &#8220;watchful waiting&#8221; to see if the pregnancies miscarry on their own (risking the woman&#8217;s life in the process).<\/li>\n<li>Florida&#8217;s race to codify woo into the state&#8217;s regular operations has gone from schools to medicine now, as a new law <a href=\"https:\/\/sciencebasedmedicine.org\/new-florida-law-forces-physicians-to-endorse-pseudoscience\/\" target=\"_Blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">forces doctors to endorse nonmedical, ineffective pseudoscience<\/a> as &#8216;alternatives&#8217; to opioids. Remember, there is no such thing as &#8220;alternative medicine.&#8221; If something works, it&#8217;s medicine.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2019\/09\/13\/760460922\/new-zealand-moves-to-create-firearm-registry-and-stiffen-penalties-for-gun-crime\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New Zealand is creating a firearm registry and increasing penalties for illegal gun sales<\/a>, while we have a sitting Texas state representative threatening to use an assault rifle against a Presidential candidate. It took <strong>one<\/strong> mass shooting to galvanize their public and their government to take action on guns.<\/li>\n<li>A woman frustrated by receiving unsolicited dick pics <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2019\/09\/social-media-unsolicited-dick-pics-filter.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">created her own filter to block them<\/a> \u2026 which, I don&#8217;t know, Twitter and Facebook and most dating apps could buy and use?<\/li>\n<li>A judge in Florida ruled that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/news\/tampa\/2019\/09\/09\/judge-rules-4-year-old-boy-with-leukemia-will-stay-with-grandparents-to-ensure-his-health\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a four-year-old leukemia patient will remain with his grandparents<\/a> because his own parents refuse to get him chemotherapy, instead claiming they&#8217;ll use &#8220;natural&#8221; treatments (i.e., they&#8217;ll let him die). This has important implications in the vaccine mandate debates: Your right to parent your children does not extend to denying them medical care.<\/li>\n<li>Lee Salem was an influential comic strip editor who helped find or develop strips as diverse as &#8220;Doonesbury,&#8221; &#8220;Calvin and Hobbes,&#8221; and &#8220;For Better or Worse.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/obituaries\/story\/2019-09-11\/lee-salem-comic-strip-editor-dead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">He died earlier this month at age 73<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Preorders for the latest game in the Azul series, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextmovegames.com\/en\/home\/94-azul-summer-pavilion-pre-order.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Azul Summer Pavilion<\/a>, are now available.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For ESPN+ subscribers, my annual Prospect of the Year column went up this week, with Wander Franco, Luis Robert, and Gavin Lux the three finalists. I also held a Klawchat on Thursday and a Periscope video chat on Tuesday. My latest game review for Paste covers Realm of Sand from Deep Water, a mashup of [&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":[821,828,113,984,190,961,824,870],"class_list":["post-7895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anti-science","tag-climate-change","tag-environment","tag-guns","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-pseudoscience","tag-stick-to-baseball","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7895","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=7895"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7899,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7895\/revisions\/7899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}