{"id":9872,"date":"2023-04-08T17:10:28","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T21:10:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/?p=9872"},"modified":"2023-04-08T17:10:29","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T21:10:29","slug":"stick-to-baseball-4-8-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/08\/stick-to-baseball-4-8-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Stick to baseball, 4\/8\/23."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I had two new pieces up this week for subscribers to The Athletic, my <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/4378592\/2023\/04\/04\/cactus-league-scouting-padres-ethan-salas\/\">second minor league scouting notebook from the Cactus League<\/a> and a draft blog post on <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/4380888\/2023\/04\/05\/law-mlb-draft-scouting-cholowsky-wilson\/\">a few potential first-rounders I saw in Arizona<\/a>. I also held a <a href=\"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/06\/klawchat-4-6-23\/\">Klawchat<\/a> on Thursday. I\u2019m down with some sort of cold right now, though, so I\u2019ll be away from the stadium for a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My first column for Wirecutter on board games, giving recommendations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/wirecutter\/reviews\/great-modern-yahtzee-alternatives\/\">for five great roll-and-write games<\/a> for different age\/skill levels, ran this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My podcast will return this week, now that I\u2019m off the road (and even if I\u2019m still not 100% on Monday). I am about to send out a new issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/tinyletter.com\/keithlaw\">my free email newsletter<\/a> today, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And now, the links\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Longreads first: The <em>Atavist<\/em> has the story of Lesley Hu, whose ex-husband was so brainwashed by anti-vaxxers whose content he found online that <a href=\"https:\/\/magazine.atavist.com\/sins-of-the-father-san-francisco-vaccines-murder-suicide\/?utm_source=pocket_reader\">he killed their son rather than allow him to be vaccinated<\/a>. It\u2019s a horrifying story of misinformation, mental illness, and a court system unprepared to deal with these cases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>You\u2019ve probably seen the ProPublica story about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/clarence-thomas-scotus-undisclosed-luxury-travel-gifts-crow\">the conservative billionaire who\u2019s been lavishing gifts on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas<\/a> for twenty-plus years. The most important thing to remember \u2013 and, if you\u2019re outraged, to keep telling your Representative and Senators \u2013 is that <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/news-and-politics\/2023\/04\/clarence-thomas-broke-the-law-harlan-crow.html\">it\u2019s fairly clear that Thomas broke the law<\/a> by failing to disclose these gifts.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>BMC Infectious Diseases<\/em> is set to retract a paper published last year that claimed, with insufficient evidence (to put it mildly), that COVID-19 vaccines had caused up to 278,000 deaths. How did <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chronicle.com\/article\/this-questionable-study-caught-fire-in-anti-vaccine-circles-how-did-it-get-through-peer-review\">such a terrible study get through peer review<\/a>? The problem is with the process, not just this particular paper.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I linked to a story a few months back about a U.S. Marine who used the courts to kidnap an Afghan baby whose parents had been killed but who had living relatives willing to take her in. This past week, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/afghanistan-baby-marine-adoption-joshua-mast-295673fb358cf30abd243995cd846c99\">a different U.S judge voided the adoption<\/a>. It\u2019s not over, but this is a step in the right direction. The Marine and his wife used their Christianity as a justification for taking the child, who is now 4 years old.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.democracydocket.com\/news-alerts\/mississippi-legislature-passes-bill-creating-unelected-court-in-jackson\/\">Mississippi is about to create a separate, state-appointed court to oversee the city of Jackson<\/a>, meaning white state officials will determine the judges who rule over the 80% Black municipality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his handpicked, denialist Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/news\/health\/2023\/04\/07\/florida-surgeon-general-covid-19-vaccine-study-heart-problems-men\/\">omitted key data from a flawed COVID vaccine report<\/a> that claimed that young men should not get these safe, effective immunizations. Infection with COVID-19 carries a much greater risk of cardiac-related deaths than the vaccines do, but the report left out data showing this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A writer who used to cover the Tennessee State House says the legislature has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/magazine\/2023\/04\/08\/tennessee-descent-statehouse-mag-00091090\">trending in the direction of autocracy for years now<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcrg.com\/2023\/04\/07\/enhance-iowa-board-awards-over-17-million-grants-20-iowa-projects-including-field-dreams\/\">Iowa is increasing its funding to the so-called Field of Dreams stadium<\/a>, which will run between $52 million and $57 million in public support.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Republicans are mad that young voters keep tipping elections to Democrats, often progressive ones, so <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/03\/29\/us\/politics\/republicans-young-voters-college.html\">now they\u2019re trying to make it harder for college students to vote<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why do so many of the people on the <em>Forbes <\/em>30 Under 30 list of entrepreneurs and business leaders <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/business\/2023\/apr\/06\/forbes-30-under-30-tech-finance-prison\">end up in prison<\/a>?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There\u2019s a shortage of the wonderful French herbal liqueur known as Chartreuse, but it\u2019s not because of supply-chain issues: <a href=\"https:\/\/vinepair.com\/articles\/chartreuse-shortage-explained\/\">The monks decided not to make as much of it<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I wasn\u2019t familiar with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-india-64796715\">the Indian metal band Bloodywood<\/a>, who fuse Western styles from thrash to death metal to rap-metal with Indian folk music, but they\u2019ve become a breakout act in a country that has never embraced the metal genre the way other nations with comparable arts scenes have.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>An atheist prisoner in West Virginia has sued the state <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/atheist-inmate-lawsuit-west-virginia-corrections-5de11457dcca66ed21befdc6edab5b77\">for making Christian-affiliated programming a required part of his release conditions<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Board game news: Klaus Teuber, the designer of the game now known simply as Catan, died this week at age 70. The <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/04\/05\/business\/klaus-teuber-dead.html\">New York Times<\/a><\/em>, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/2023\/04\/07\/catan-inventor-klaus-teuber\/\">Washington Post<\/a><\/em>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/boardgamegeek.com\/blogpost\/146085\/klaus-teuber-designer-catan-dies-age-70\">Boardgamegeek<\/a> all published worthwhile obituaries, honoring the man whose creation has sold over 40 million copies and divided board game history into Before and After. Catan and Ticket to Ride are the two games that did the most to turn me into a board gamer, and in turn into something of a board game writer, too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Inside Up Games has a huge hit on its hands with Earth, which I\u2019ll be reviewing this month or in early May and which I think is the favorite right now to win the Kennerspiel des Jahres. Their next big release, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/insideupgames\/terminus-4\">the route-building and resource management game Terminus<\/a>, is on Kickstarter now.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Alderac\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/alderac\/lets-go-to-japan-from-aeg\">Kickstarter for Let\u2019s Go to Japan<\/a> ends in just over two more days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I had two new pieces up this week for subscribers to The Athletic, my second minor league scouting notebook from the Cactus League and a draft blog post on a few potential first-rounders I saw in Arizona. I also held a Klawchat on Thursday. I\u2019m down with some sort of cold right now, though, so [&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":[821,1083,576,128,137,1004,190,191,961,757,1059,1306,870,1044,807],"class_list":["post-9872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anti-science","tag-board-game-news","tag-catan","tag-florida","tag-frauds","tag-iowa","tag-links","tag-liquor","tag-longreads","tag-metal","tag-mississippi","tag-scotus","tag-stick-to-baseball","tag-tennessee","tag-vaccines","entry"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9872","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=9872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9873,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9872\/revisions\/9873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/meadowparty.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}