{"id":8577,"date":"2020-08-02T14:40:05","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T18:40:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=8577"},"modified":"2020-08-02T18:16:58","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T22:16:58","slug":"stick-to-baseball-8-2-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/02\/stick-to-baseball-8-2-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 8\/2\/20."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I wrote two scouting notebook columns for subscribers to The Athletic this week, one on <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/39zIYlB\">Dustin May, Luis Robert, Brady Singer, and others<\/a>; the second on <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2EEgf3V\">Nate Pearson, David Peterson, Zach Plesac, and more<\/a>. I also held a <a href=\"https:\/\/klaw.me\/2Pd7gsq\">Klawchat<\/a> on Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can buy my latest book, <em>The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves<\/em>, anywhere you buy books, and I <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/a\/2960\/9780062942722\">recommend bookshop.org<\/a>. I sent out another edition of <a href=\"https:\/\/tinyletter.com\/keithlaw\">my free email newsletter<\/a> this week as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I participated in one panel for the Gen Con Online Writers Symposium this year, on <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XvUHHp33ht4\" target=\"_blank\">using social media in tumultuous times<\/a>. It looks like it&#8217;s free for everyone to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Longreads first: <em>Vanity Fair<\/em> has an exclusive report on how a White House group led by Jared Kushner \u2013 who is both unelected and unappointed to any official role in the government \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/news\/2020\/07\/how-jared-kushners-secret-testing-plan-went-poof-into-thin-air\">came up with a comprehensive national plan for testing and tracing back in the spring<\/a>, only to have Kushner scrap it because the pandemic was hitting blue states much harder.<\/li><li>The Daily Beast looks at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/inside-clay-travis-outkick-the-right-wing-sports-site-pushing-covid-trutherism\">alt-right sports site Outkick<\/a>, which has been pushing COVID-19 hoaxes and misinformation since late February.<\/li><li>ProPublica has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/how-to-understand-covid-19-numbers\">useful guide to interpreting public COVID-19 data<\/a>. One conclusion to bear in mind: deaths lag cases by a few weeks, so people celebrating lower death rates are often just misreading the data to support a desired conclusion.<\/li><li>OneZero looks at <a href=\"https:\/\/onezero.medium.com\/a-permanent-nightmare-pinterest-moderators-fight-to-keep-horrifying-content-off-the-platform-4d8e7ec822fe\">Pinterest&#8217;s difficulty in keeping offensive content off their platform<\/a>, although I think the takeaway here is that they&#8217;re doing a much better job than Twitter, Facebook, or Youtube. Moderating content is always going to suck as a job, and moderators should be better compensated and cared for, but the problems described here pale next to what those other sites have.<\/li><li>The <em>Guardian <\/em>has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/lifeandstyle\/2020\/jul\/26\/every-breath-you-take-the-lost-art-of-breathing\">an excerpt from James Nestor&#8217;s new book <em>Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art<\/em><\/a>.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/07\/scourge-hygiene-theater\/614599\/\">&#8220;Hygiene theater&#8221; is a waste of time<\/a>, writes Derek Thompson at the <em>Atlantic<\/em>. The novel coronavirus spreads primarily via the air, from people in proximity to one another and\/or in enclosed spaces.<\/li><li>Twenty percent of Americans say they wouldn&#8217;t get a COVID-19 vaccine if one is available. We need <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/2020\/07\/27\/science-alone-cannot-beat-pandemic-need-outreach-about-covid-19vaccine\/\">better education and outreach to overcome that<\/a>.<\/li><li>Since Jeva Lange&#8217;s piece on how <a href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/articles\/927662\/baseballs-coronavirus-crisis-america-miniature\">baseball&#8217;s COVID-19 struggles are a microcosm of the U.S. as a whole<\/a> ran, both situations have deteriorated further, with a rolling outbreak now in the St. Louis clubhouse.<\/li><li>This twitter thread from an OR doc shows how he talked a reluctant patient, who fell for fake information on the coronavirus he saw on Facebook, <a href=\"https:\/\/threadreaderapp.com\/thread\/1288489565058080772.html\">into getting a COVID-19 test<\/a>.<\/li><li>Another Twitter thread, this one authored by a (self-described) lawyer, explains why <a href=\"https:\/\/threadreaderapp.com\/thread\/1287597289255710720.html\">the &#8220;Covington kid&#8221; probably got little or nothing in his settlement<\/a> with the <em>Washington Post<\/em>.<\/li><li>Just days after her newest novel <em>This Mournable Body<\/em> was longlisted for the Booker Prize, Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga (whose <em>Nervous Conditions<\/em> was #98 on <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/25\/the-klaw-102-or-the-klaw-100-version-3\/\">my last top 100 novels list<\/a>) was <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/zimbabwean-author-tsitsi-dangarembga-arrested-during-protest-105830829.html\">arrested during anti-government protests in Harare<\/a>.<\/li><li>A Singaporean &#8216;consultant&#8217; <a href=\"used%20LinkedIn%20to%20troll%20for%20contacts%20in%20his%20work%20as%20an%20agent%20for%20Chinese\">used LinkedIn to troll for contacts in his work as an agent for Chinese intelligence<\/a>. Jun Wei &#8220;Dickson&#8221; Yeo pleaded guilty to an espionage charge in a U.S. court last month.<\/li><li>The British-Japanese musician Rina Sawayama found out <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_uk\/article\/g5p8gj\/mercury-prize-brits-rina-sawayama\">she&#8217;s ineligible for the prestigious Mercury Prize and the BRIT Awards<\/a> because she holds a Japanese passport. Those awards&#8217; rules have &#8220;nationality clauses&#8221; that exclude her, even though she&#8217;s lived in the UK for 25 years, in part because she&#8217;s a solo artist; musical groups don&#8217;t have to comprise only British citizens.<\/li><li>A profoundly anti-gay state Senator in Arkansas called mask mandates &#8220;draconian,&#8221; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.towleroad.com\/2020\/07\/anti-gay-arkansas-senator-hospitalized-with-covid-19-after-railing-against-draconian-mask-mandate\/\">then was hospitalized with COVID-19<\/a>. Guess his party affiliation!<\/li><li>U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (also of Arkansas) called slavery a &#8220;necessary evil&#8221; in building the United States, and is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arkansasonline.com\/news\/2020\/jul\/26\/bill-by-cotton-targets-curriculum-on-slavery\/\">fighting attempts to introduce new historical perspectives on slavery into U.S. school curricula<\/a>, such as considerations of the long-term impact of slavery on Black Americans.<\/li><li>Movie theaters have been mostly closed since March, so we are now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vulture.com\/2020\/07\/the-rise-of-the-netflix-hit.html\">relying on opaque claims from streaming services<\/a> to determine when a movie is &#8220;a hit.&#8221;<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/07\/28\/business\/media\/deadspin-staffers-start-defector.html\">Several ex-Deadspin staffers have banded together to create Defector Media<\/a>, a new site that promises, at least, to fill the void left by Deadspin&#8217;s implosion last year.<\/li><li>Much &#8220;nutrition research&#8221; today <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/food\/nutrition-research-has-led-us-astray-heres-what-we-should-study-instead\/2020\/07\/23\/b229257a-cc58-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html\">amounts to p-hacking<\/a>, writes Tamar Haspel, who helped expose \u2026 , in the <em>Washington Post<\/em>. She suggests more research on the effects of portion sizes, food delivery to people to keep them out of supermarkets, food and nutrition education, and more.<\/li><li><em>Society<\/em> , a research journal published by Springer Nature, published a commentary by Prof. Lawrence Mead of NYU that argues that Black and Latinx people lack the ambition and temperament of European immigrants to rise out of poverty, leading to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/quicktakes\/2020\/07\/31\/journal-editor-regrets-publishing-racist-article\">a massive backlash and quick retraction<\/a>. NYU issued a statement <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyu.edu\/about\/news-publications\/news\/2020\/july\/Statement_FAS_Wagner_Leadership_Lawrence_Mead.html\">decrying the paper&#8217;s sentiments while defending Mead&#8217;s academic freedom<\/a>.<\/li><li>Board game news: The cooperative game <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/1236720\/Spirit_Island\/\">Spirit Island is now available on Steam<\/a>.<\/li><li>Renegade announced an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renegadegamestudios.com\/news\/embarcadero-premiering-at-gen-con-online?mc_cid=6c4138882d&amp;mc_eid=374d8f1815\">upcoming game called Embarcadero<\/a>, from one of the designers of Scoville, featuring hand management and tile-laying mechanics.<\/li><li>A number of publishers put together <a href=\"https:\/\/shop.gencon.com\/collections\/publisher-spotlight-bundles\">game bundles for sale during Gen Con Online<\/a>, which took place from Thursday through Sunday, which would have been the dates for the regular convention had COVID-19 not led to its cancellation.<\/li><li>Serious Catan players might like <a href=\"https:\/\/b2b-media-production-ana.s3.amazonaws.com\/filer_public\/f6\/77\/f67712fc-20f8-4ad5-aaf6-2b1bdcc99f8c\/gg_pr_product_release_catan_en.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&amp;X-Amz-Expires=3600&amp;X-Amz-Date=20200802T183501Z&amp;X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&amp;X-Amz-Security-Token=FwoGZXIvYXdzEMT%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2FwEaDN4iNWilDhZWY6%2Br0CLKAYOppfnGuDpXQ5Kc5L7b%2BNJN9TwIvYlK3XmJlSyERCpua2OVCxnhDP5intYulVrc%2BI58TjxL6dyx3XGoisbm8MWymc1iKBfkYZtXy4yNxIi4j5V2kxT8d0MPalV9Zb%2FGVKQT9t2%2FjBx45gCLrfArFz3WTl9i8XBBx%2F5H%2B5oEUSDY0KLd67zeU8eFROwL%2Fk5z3HuAcLQN4azYeV6z7UMu6WpgOE0%2FZ0gLlkdjXhSmmuxjuoQiBAJZFffiuKdNYWOgOq3EmLJ6fmVKGAQoiYyc%2BQUyLXIK5jheV0W2%2FxMXJX7f7fHdJ6CN5YWtH4yms1vtL%2FYz4540gDsmalIl698pmw%3D%3D&amp;X-Amz-Credential=ASIAZZHALS6O43KT3RKY%2F20200802%2Fus-east-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&amp;X-Amz-Signature=9bec745f6d8807039786a64badaaf008aa0a34f18cc852e4b27523b888d541c9\">these new game-specific accessories<\/a> coming soon from a partnership between Gamegenic and Asmodee.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wrote two scouting notebook columns for subscribers to The Athletic this week, one on Dustin May, Luis Robert, Brady Singer, and others; the second on Nate Pearson, David Peterson, Zach Plesac, and more. I also held a Klawchat on Friday afternoon. You can buy my latest book, The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, [&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":[899,1051,49,1083,1162,190,961,561,228,907,870,940],"class_list":["post-8577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-arkansas","tag-baseball","tag-board-game-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-links","tag-longreads","tag-mercury-prize","tag-nutrition","tag-social-media","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-the-swamp","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8577","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=8577"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8579,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8577\/revisions\/8579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}