End of Year Links and New Year's Resolutions

2018 was a pretty bad year, both for this blog and for the world.  2019 might be better, but I have my doubts.  Here are a bunch of links I've saved from the last part of the year:

My Dad's Friendship With Charles Barkley – NPR Only A Game.  This is a great read.

#CardCorner: 1958 Topps Wally Post - National Baseball Hall of Fame.  Local legend from St. Henry, Ohio.

Nebraska vs. Oklahoma State in an old-school battle in South Dakota? How did that happen? - Omaha World-Herald.  Here because of the gym.

The game of their lives was 25 years ago. They’re still replaying it in their minds. - Washington Post

How Christmas evolved from raucous carnival to domestic holiday - The Economist  

A Storm and a Strike Hit Blueberry Giant's Global Supply Plans – Bloomberg

TREADING WATER | Unfocused and underfunded, goal of cleaner water falters – Cedar Rapids Gazette

Uncertain fate awaits quirky Rochester landmark – Minnesota Public Radio

40 million Americans depend on the Colorado River. It’s drying up. - Grist

As oil and gas exports surge, West Texas becomes the world’s “extraction colony” - Texas Tribune

Oklahoma’s Future Rests in the Hands of Two Very Different Oil Billionaires - Bloomberg

Dr. Elon & Mr. Musk: Life Inside Tesla's Production Hell – Wired 

The Genius Neuroscientist Who Might Hold the Key to True AI – Wired

Bizarre ‘dark fluid’ with negative mass could dominate the universe – what my research suggests – The Conversation 

Indiana's 'broken arrow' — that time 5 nuclear bombs got caught fire – Indianapolis Star.  How we survived the Cold War I will never know.

Austin Rising - Louisville Courier-Journal.  A series on Austin, Indiana, where an HIV outbreak in 2015 linked to IV drug use shocked the Midwest.

Losing the Farm - Belt Magazine 

The Corruption of the Republican Party – George Packer

The Plot Against America – The Atlantic.  Paul Manafort

A college kid running for 13th Ward alderman gets a lesson in the Chicago Way – Chicago Tribune

The godfather of fake news – BBC

King of the Low Road – The Weekly Standard

These charts show how Democrats represent the growing modern economy – and how Republicans are left behind - CNBC 

Finally, for the resolutions.  One, I'm going to have to start exercising.  I am not looking forward to that.  Two, I'm going to have to take on a lot of maintenance projects this year.  Finally, I'm going to try to get back into regular blogging, with at least two posts a week.  We'll see how that goes.