{"id":8539,"date":"2020-07-18T12:07:20","date_gmt":"2020-07-18T16:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=8539"},"modified":"2020-07-18T12:18:07","modified_gmt":"2020-07-18T16:18:07","slug":"stick-to-baseball-7-18-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2020\/07\/18\/stick-to-baseball-7-18-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 7\/18\/20."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I didn&#8217;t write anything this week other than the review here of Patrick Radden Keefe&#8217;s book <em><a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2B1Ys5f\">Say Nothing<\/a> <\/em>and my review of the lovely little light strategy game <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/38PNZX9\">Walking in Burano<\/a>. I will do a season preview with some picks for breakout candidates this week for subscribers to The Athletic, as well as a new game review for Paste, and a Zoom Q&amp;A session on The Athletic&#8217;s site on Thursday at 3 pm ET. I answered reader questions on a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/podcast\/168-the-keith-law-show\/?episode=22\" target=\"_blank\">mailbag episode of my podcast<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My book, <em>The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves<\/em>, is out now, just in time for Opening Day (okay, three months before, but who&#8217;s counting). You can order it anywhere you buy books, and I <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/2960\/9780062942722\">recommend bookshop.org<\/a>. I&#8217;ll also resume <a href=\"https:\/\/tinyletter.com\/keithlaw\">my email newsletter<\/a> this week once I have some new content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ll be speaking at the U.S. Army Mad Scientist Weaponized Information Virtual Conference on Tuesday at 9:30 am ET, talking about topics from <em>The Inside Game<\/em>. You can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/us-army-mad-scientist-weaponized-information-virtual-conference-registration-111828112896\">register to watch the event here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Longreads first: Data scientist David Shor, fired for tweeting that nonviolent protests tend to push public opinion leftward (a conclusion based on data), spoke at length to <em>New York<\/em> about what <a href=\"https:\/\/nymag.com\/intelligencer\/2020\/07\/david-shor-cancel-culture-2020-election-theory-polls.html\">the data say about the Democrats&#8217; chances in 2020 and beyond<\/a>. It&#8217;s sobering, but comes with evidence-based recommendations that start with not taking any swing states for granted in October.<\/li><li>The <em>Guardian<\/em> looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/food\/2020\/jul\/14\/nespresso-coffee-capsule-pods-branding-clooney-nestle-recycling-environment\">the rise and fall of Nespresso<\/a>, which faces low-price competition, criticism of environmental impact, and growing consumer awareness.<\/li><li>Politico has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2020\/07\/10\/elissa-slotkin-congress-trump-351513\">a long profile on Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D)<\/a>, a first-term representative from Michigan running for re-election in her purple district, and what lessons she may have to offer Democrats nationwide.<\/li><li>The inspiration for the original text-based adventure game <em>Colossal Cave Adventure <\/em>(often just abbreviated as Adventure) was Patricia Crowther, ex-wife of the game&#8217;s co-creator, who didn&#8217;t <a href=\"https:\/\/onezero.medium.com\/amp\/p\/ef572ccde6d2?__twitter_impression=true\">credit her with the cave mapping that he used to design the game<\/a>.<\/li><li>Orac looks at the controversy over <a href=\"https:\/\/respectfulinsolence.com\/2020\/07\/13\/airborne-transmission-covid-19-controversy\/\">airborne transmission of COVID-19<\/a>. His conclusions: the virus can be spread via respiratory aerosols, but we already guessed that, and mandating masks and physical distancing is part of the solution.<\/li><li>Cases have been rising, but deaths weren&#8217;t, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/health\/archive\/2020\/07\/second-coronavirus-death-surge\/614122\/\">which isn&#8217;t the good news it might appear to be<\/a>, writes Alexis Madrigal for the <em>Atlantic<\/em>. The death rate has begun to rise since Madrigal&#8217;s piece went up, though.<\/li><li>The CDC&#8217;s longtime status as an agency beyond the reach of partisan politics has left it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2020\/07\/13\/cdc-apolitical-island-defenseless\/\">defenseless against attacks from the science-deniers in the White House<\/a>.<\/li><li>Vox looks at why <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/future-perfect\/2020\/7\/8\/21311347\/arizona-coronavirus-pandemic-covid-outbreak\">Arizona has the nation&#8217;s worst outbreak of COVID-19<\/a>, and may be undercounting cases since they have so little testing. They closed too late, reopened too soon, people didn&#8217;t take the masks and distancing guidelines seriously.<\/li><li>The <em>New Yorker<\/em> looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/news\/news-desk\/how-texas-republicans-politicized-the-coronavirus-pandemic\">how Texas Republicans politicized the coronavirus pandemic<\/a>, leading to an ongoing outbreak, and over 600 deaths in just the last four days.<\/li><li>An Alabama jail refused to give masks to prisoners because, jail officials claimed, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.al.com\/news\/2020\/07\/alabama-jail-refuses-inmates-covid-19-masks-because-theyre-going-to-eat-them.html\">the prisoners would eat them<\/a>.<\/li><li>There&#8217;s a threat to American democracy beyond that posed by the President and his sycophants \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/culture\/archive\/2020\/07\/ghosting-news-margaret-sullivans-alarm-bell\/614011\/\">the ongoing disappearance of local news outlets<\/a>. When nobody watches local officials, they can get away with a whole lot more.<\/li><li>Why are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opb.org\/news\/article\/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters\/\">federal law enforcement agents arresting protestors in Oregon<\/a>, using unmarked vehicles? When did the feds start looking at the Sicherheitsdienst as a model?<\/li><li>Multiple employees of color at ESPN spoke to the <em>New York Times<\/em> about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/07\/13\/sports\/espn-racism-black-employees.html\">racism behind the camera at the company<\/a>, from limited career opportunities to a lack of diversity in leadership. I can&#8217;t say I ever witnessed any of this, or heard about it from people affected, but given the ways you get into leadership positions at ESPN, a lack of diversity is a feature rather than a bug.<\/li><li>Authorities in Selah, Washington, including the city leaders, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/07\/16\/us\/sidewalk-chalk-police-selah-washington.html\">are trying to criminalize speech in the form of chalk writing<\/a> of &#8220;Black Lives Matter.&#8221;<\/li><li>Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler (guess!) is running against Black Lives Matter, opposing the WNBA&#8217;s use of the term (she owns part of the WNBA&#8217;s Atlanta Dream) and claiming that BLM harbors anti-Semitic and anti-Christian views (they don&#8217;t, as BLM is not a single, coherent organization). Here&#8217;s a list of <a href=\"https:\/\/popular.info\/p\/kelly-loeffler-is-running-against\">some major companies that donated to her<\/a> while proclaiming support for Black Lives Matter and efforts to fight structural racism.<\/li><li>Three articles on the additional challenges working mothers are facing during the pandemic: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/07\/15\/parenting\/working-moms-coronavirus.html\">They Go to Mommy First<\/a>,&#8221; from Jess Grose in the <em>New York Times<\/em>; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/07\/parents-need-facts-kids-covid-19\/613744\/\">Parents Can&#8217;t Wait Around Forever<\/a>, by author\/economist Emily Oster in the <em>Atlantic<\/em>; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2020\/06\/25\/child-care-women-unemployment-339012\">how a lack of childcare options is keeping women unemployed<\/a>, in Politico.<\/li><li>A woman who had been tested for COVID-19 but didn\u2019t self-isolate while she waited to get her results dropped off her child at a day care facility in upstate New York. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.syracuse.com\/coronavirus\/2020\/07\/at-least-16-sick-after-coronavirus-exposure-at-dewitt-in-home-day-care-take-this-seriously-stay-home-if-sick-at-all.html\">She tested positive and gave it to 16 other adults and children<\/a>.<\/li><li>A meeting in Utah to discuss requiring students to wear masks in schools was postponed because <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.delawareonline.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2020\/07\/16\/utah-meeting-masks-schools-postponed-due-crowd-without-masks\/3287459001\/?fbclid=IwAR209CT3G_E90GtKaTXfmRMdomPGM2QEWcjcFmGat-nhdYZOS-V-hGpo42g\" target=\"_blank\">dingbats without masks filled the room<\/a>, some carrying signs opposing the mask requirement. Their &#8216;arguments&#8217; mirror those of anti-vaxxers&#8217;, which should be reason enough to overrule them.<\/li><li>An activist couple who support Palestinian causes found themselves attacked online in columns appearing in the <em>Jerusalem Post<\/em> and <em>The Algemeiner<\/em> by a student at the University of Birmingham named Oliver Taylor \u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-cyber-deepfake-activist\/deepfake-used-to-attack-activist-couple-shows-new-disinformation-frontier-idUSKCN24G15E\">except that Oliver Taylor doesn&#8217;t exist<\/a>, and seemingly accurate photos of him are just well-made deepfakes.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/nationalpost.com\/health\/top-toronto-health-official-wins-rare-intervenor-status-in-court-battle-over-vaccinating-couples-children?fbclid=IwAR3FwXv_mO12nWRZeMAsw53mQgryCHDStkm-GZKvPPUAaynB17o28El56xs\">A Toronto health official has the right to intervene<\/a> in the case of two children whose dipshit mother doesn&#8217;t want to get them vaccinated. Vaccines work. They are safe and effective, and it turns out that <a href=\"https:\/\/asm.org\/Press-Releases\/2020\/MMR-Vaccine-Could-Protect-Against-the-Worst-Sympto\">the MMR vaccine may even protect you against some of the worst symptoms of COVID-19<\/a>.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pastemagazine.com\/travel\/disney-world\/disney-permanently-closes-three-disney-world-attra\/\">Walt Disneyworld is permanently closing three attractions<\/a>, two rides and a show, none of which will be particularly missed.<\/li><li>Board game news: Renegade Game Studios announced a new line of puzzles based on art from four popular board games, including Raiders of the North Sea and Arboretum, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renegadegamestudios.com\/jigsaw-puzzles\">with pre-orders now open<\/a>.<\/li><li>Grail Games has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/grailgames\/whale-riders\">a Kickstarter up for Whale Riders<\/a>, a new game from Reiner Knizia, which is always of interest to me. I&#8217;m not sure about this theme, though; those look like Inuit people, and there&#8217;s no reason to use them in the artwork.<\/li><li>Marvel Villainous, the new standalone game in the Villainous line from Ravensburger, is <a href=\"goto.target.com\/ZZ6Eg\">available for pre-order exclusively through Target<\/a>. I have a review copy and have played it once; it&#8217;s quite good, with five new villains from the MCU, but can&#8217;t be played with any of the 15 villains from the previous four boxes in the series.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I didn&#8217;t write anything this week other than the review here of Patrick Radden Keefe&#8217;s book Say Nothing and my review of the lovely little light strategy game Walking in Burano. I will do a season preview with some picks for breakout candidates this week for subscribers to The Athletic, as well as a new [&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":[964,566,1083,84,1162,103,137,190,961,1173,870,483,807,707],"class_list":["post-8539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alabama","tag-arizona","tag-board-game-news","tag-coffee","tag-coronavirus","tag-disneyworld","tag-frauds","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-michigan","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-utah","tag-vaccines","tag-video-games","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539","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=8539"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8543,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8539\/revisions\/8543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}