End of January Links

More interesting stories from the previous week or so:

The Fight Over the Future of Football Has Become a Battle for California’s Soul - The Ringer

20 old Cleveland Rams photos to remind you L.A.'s Super Bowl-bound franchise began here - The Plain Dealer

Brianna Decker Will Get Her Prize Money After All, Just Not From The NHL [Update] - Deadspin

James Harden’s Transcendent Step-Back - The New Yorker 

Colorado a hotbed for North American yak ranching – Denver Post 

The 500-Year-Long Science Experiment - The Atlantic 

Particle physics may have reached the end of the line - Backreaction 

No One Is Prepared for Hagfish Slime - The Atlantic  

“Venture capital money kills more businesses than it helps,” says Basecamp CEO Jason Fried - Recode

How a retired couple found lottery odds in their favor - 60 Minutes.  Also featured here.

Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin just bought the most expensive U.S. home ever: A $238 million New York penthouse - Chicago Tribune and Daniel Snyder’s new $100 million purchase is the first superyacht with a certified Imax movie theater - Washington Post.  I don't think a higher top tax bracket would hurt anything.  It beats the guillotine.

Advances in weather prediction - Science.  "But, as the American Meteorological Society celebrates its 100th anniversary, the improvement in forecasting stands out. Modern 72-hour predictions of hurricane tracks are more accurate than 24-hour forecasts were 40 years ago (see the figure), giving sufficient time for evacuations and other preparations that save lives and property." It amazes me how accurate rainfall forecasts can be, with the timing of the beginning of the storm down to the hour.

Physics and Bullets

NPR - How Physics And Design Make Some Bullets More Destructive Than Others - Lets Talk from Alessandro Novelli - NEWGOLD on Vimeo.

We're Going To Have A.......Winter

The main Farmer's Almanacs made the news in the last few days with their winter weather forecasts, and, like today's politics, they are on the far ends of the spectrum.  The Farmer's Almanac of Lewiston, Maine grabbed a bunch of headlines with their forecast of a very cold, snowy winter:

Meanwhile, my personal favorite, the Old Farmer's Almanac of Dublin, New Hampshire predicted a wet, warm winter:

If I had to make a wager on the weather (again), I would probably go with the warmer forecast.  With the climate starting to significantly warm, I think we will have a lot fewer cold winters.  However, when we do have one, like in 2014, it'll be a very cold one.  I'd keep my eye on the weather in California.  When they get dry winters, we typically get cold, snowy ones.

Mid Week Mini-Links - May 2018 Edition

I had a little difficulty finding many good stories, but I've got some:

Stronach Group COO Tim Ritvo sees grim future for Preakness at Pimlico - Baltimore Sun.  This makes me sad.

Choking On Our Harvest: Threats Loom Over Global Food Trade – Bloomberg.  A lot of good graphics.

Big Ag turns to peas to meet soaring global protein demand – Reuters

Editorial: U.S. House embarrassed itself with its mishandling of the farm bill - Omaha World-Herald.  The GOP owns this train wreck.  They had plenty of money for corporate tax cuts, but they just can't resist kicking the poor while shoveling out piles of money to farmers and rural residents.

For Future Health Policies, Trump Administration Adds a Rural Focus - Governing.  Maybe the Ohio GOP shouldn't be pushing to roll back Medicaid expansion.  I think the lack of Medicaid expansion (along with ending reimbursement for unpaid care linked to the expected expansion), as opposed to excessive regulation, led to rural hospital closures.

Gambling Ruling May Make USDA Reports More Exciting - Progressive Farmer 

The Last Days of the Blue-Blood Harvest - The Atlantic 

Meeting Resistance – Science

Public Demands Investigation of Why F.B.I. Infiltrators in Trump Campaign Failed to Prevent Him from Being Elected – Borowitz Report

Scott Pruitt’s approach to pollution control will make the air dirtier and Americans less healthy - The Conversation

End of April Weekend Links

I was finally ready to start planting this afternoon, and wouldn't you know it, we had a technology malfunction and I didn't get a single seed in the ground.  I did find these stories over the last few days, though:

The history of the song "Louie Louie" - Marketplace.  An important FBI investigation.

EU agrees total ban on bee-harming pesticides - Guardian

Rural Lands At Risk As Ranchers Prepare For Retirement - The Salt

Rural Kansas is dying. I drove 1,800 miles to find out why - The New Food Economy.  It goes a little over the top, but brings up some brutal statistics.

Rural Teachers Working Second Jobs, Struggling To Make Ends Meet – CBS Denver

The last man who knew everything – The Week

A High Schooler Has Upended a Fundamental Chemistry Theory - Inverse

Did Math Kill God? – The New Republic 

There Are Holes In Elon Musk's Plans To Tunnel Through L.A. With Boring Co. - Forbes

The Myth That Markets Get Prices Right Won’t Die – Bloomberg.  Goddamn vampire theory. Pound a wooden stake in its heart.

Life on the Oil Frontier - Longreads

Annual Figures Show Slight Rise in Rural Jobs, But Gap With Metro Widens – Daily Yonder

Mid-April Midweek Links

I managed to find a few decent stories in the midst of all the crap out there:

The one baseball's been waiting for – ESPN.  This dude is fascinating.

The Team With the Three-Man Rotation – Wall Street Journal

White Sox, Rays play in front of reported crowd of 974 – MSN News.  From one of the biggest baseball-haters I know.

The Wonder Protein That Makes Cheese So Stretchy - The Atlantic 

In the Battle for the American West, the Cowboys Are Losing – Wall Street Journal

Giant genitals were the downfall of some ancient crustaceans – Nature. Uh oh.

Ocean circulation is changing, and we need to know why - Nature 

Lovely Weather We’re Having … Now Who Will Save Us? - Belt Magazine.  I just came across Belt Magazine, but they have some terrific articles that are right in my wheel house.

More Mississippi bridges added to list; counties get 24 hours to begin closures – Mississippi Today.  The Republican Party wants to make the rest of the country just like Mississippi.

Why the U.S. Targeted This Russian Oligarch – Bloomberg.  I realy think Trump missed his calling as a mobster.

Due Process - Lapham’s Quarterly.  Very interesting.  I personally see the regulatory state as a necessary part of modern life, but find everything else to be dead-on.

Data Visualization and Cholera: An Unexpected Connection - Visual Capitalist

Pi Day Mini-Links

I hope you had a great Pi Day.  I figured I would throw a few links up, especially since the first one involves a high seed that might not be in the tournament very long:

The Nun in Loyola-Chicago’s Huddle Has a Few Things to Say – New York Times 

Why No. 1 Virginia’s Plodding Pace Makes It Ripe for an Upset – Wall Street Journal

The EU Is Going After the U.S. Cranberry Industry – Bloomberg.  Targeting Paul Ryan's home state.

The Number of Monarch Butterflies Wintering in Mexico Is Down Again – Modern Farmer. For what it's worth, I've been avoiding the milkweed when mowing waterways and scrubland.  I've noticed more Monarchs the last couple years than I saw in previous years.

When Twenty-Six Thousand Stinkbugs Invade Your Home - The New Yorker 

Stephen Hawking Is Still Underrated – The Atlantic  

Pi Day 2018: the math of pi explained, as simply as possible - Vox

Trump's mining giveaway – Politico.  There is no better example of the ineptitude and corruption of Congress than the fact that a law as shitty as the General Mining Act of 1872 is still the law of the land after 146 years.

Canadian Amateurs Discovered a New Type of Aurora.  It’s named Steve. - The Atlantic  

NCAA Bracket

First Four: LIU Brooklyn, St. Bonaventure, NC Central, Syracuse
South Region
First Round: Virginia, Creighton, Kentucky, Arizona, Loyola-Chicago, Tennessee, Nevada, Cincinnati
Second Round: Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Cincinnati
Sweet Sixteen: Virginia, Cincinnati
Regional Final: Virginia

West Region
First Round: Xavier, Missouri, Ohio State, Gonzaga, Houston, Michigan, Providence, North Carolina
Second Round: Xavier, Gonzaga, Houston, North Carolina
Sweet Sixteen: Gonzaga, North Carolina
Regional Final: Gonzaga

East Region
First Round: Villanova, Alabama, West Virginia, Wichita State, Florida, Texas Tech, Butler, Purdue
Second Round: Villanova, Wichita State, Florida, Butler
Sweet Sixteen: Villanova, Florida
Regional Final: Villanova

Midwest Region
First Round: Kansas, Seton Hall, New Mexico State, Auburn, Syracuse, Michigan State, Rhode Island, Duke
Second Round: Kansas, Auburn, Michigan State, Duke
Sweet Sixteen: Kansas,Michigan State
Regional Final: Michigan State

Final Four: Villanova, Gonzaga
Champion: Villanova


Also, since the Irish ended up in the NIT, I'll forecast the Final Four there:
Notre Dame, Louisville, Western Kentucky and St. Mary's, with St. Mary's knocking off Notre Dame in the final.  It's not going to happen, but I'll dream.

Early March Links

Here are a few of my favorite stories from the last week or so:

We X-Rayed Some MLB Baseballs. Here’s What We Found. - FiveThirtyEight

Sweet Redemption As Men's Curling Team Brings Olympic Gold Home To Duluth - NPR

Schuyler, Nebraska, school officials call state intervention a 'scarlet letter'- Omaha World-Herald.  The state declared the school was low-performing because of changing demographics.  Translation: the town has a meatpacking plant so the school-age population is is over 85% immigrant.

California Fruit Will ‘Die on the Vine’ After ICE Raids, Labor Warns - Bloomberg.  Stupid.

Harvard Blew $1 Billion in Bet on Tomatoes, Sugar, and Eucalyptus - Bloomberg

Jerry and Marge Go Large - Highline (h/t my former boss).  Good story about a screwy lottery game that got gamed.

The Rise Of Yeast: How Civilization Was Shaped By Sugar Fungi - The Salt

Impact of warming seas felt by northeastern fisheries - Toledo Blade

Some of the World's Biggest Lakes Are Drying Up. Here's Why. - National Geographic

The Slow-Motion Catastrophe Threatening 350-Year-Old Farms - The Atlantic 

The Man Who Bottled Evolution - MSU Today

How Trump’s Hudson Tunnel Feud Threatens the National Economy - Bloomberg

The Radical Left-Wing Theory That the Government Has Unlimited Money - Vice.  Well, not so radical.  It is Modern Monetary Theory.

Who Was Marjory Stoneman Douglas? - Portside

'Corporations Are People' Is Built on an Incredible 19th-Century Lie - The Atlantic 

WH quietly issues report to Congress showing benefits of regulations - The Hill

Trump steel tariffs to hit these 8 countries the hardest — and China isn’t one of them - MarketWatch.  Actually, they will probably hit the U.S. the hardest.

More February Links

Look at this, two links posts in less than a week:

An Oral History of The Wire’s Unforgettable 5-Minute ‘F*ck’ Scene - Vulture

Canada In Crisis.  Its Curling Teams Are In Trouble - Wall Street Journal

The Shape of Ancient Dice Suggests Shifting Beliefs in Fate and Chance - The Atlantic 

Doc: We're all better than this racist crap going on at our area high schools - Cincinnati Enquirer.  Racists on Cincinnati's west side? I'm SHOCKED.

Why Storms Seem to Follow I-95 – The Atlantic 

How Japan is preparing for the great flood – New Statesman

Besides, I’ll Be Dead – London Review of Books 

Could Brexit leave us in a French Revolution scenario of having no bread to feed ourselves? – Irish Independent

A University of, by and for the People - Sarah Vowell.  Second to abolition, land grant colleges are the finest work the Republican Party ever undertook.  The Montana tax levy vote will be one to watch.

The Business World Is Livid Over Trump’s Immigration “Train Wreck” - Vanity Fair 

How the New Tax Law Could Slow Disaster Recovery in Small Towns - Governing

Chart: The Population Rank of Every U.S. State Over 100 Years - Visual Capitalist 

NCAA Bracket

First Four: Mt. St. Mary's, Kansas State, UC Davis and Providence

East
First Round: Villanova, Wisconsin, UNC-Wilmington, Florida, Providence, Baylor, Marquette, Duke
Second Round: Villanova, Florida, Baylor, Duke
Third Round: Villanova, Baylor
East winner: Villanova

West
First Round: Gonzaga, Northwestern, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Xavier, FGSU, St. Mary's, Arizona
Second Round: Gonzaga, Notre Dame, Xavier, Arizona
Third Round: Gonzaga, Arizona
West winner: Gonzaga

Midwest
First Round: Kansas, Miami, Nevada, Purdue, Creighton, Oregon, Michigan, Louisville
Second Round: Kansas, Purdue, Creighton, Louisville
Third Round: Kansas, Louisville
Midwest winner: Louisville

South
First Round: North Carolina, Seton Hall, Middle Tennessee, Butler, Cincinnati, UCLA, Dayton, Kentucky
Second Round: North Carolina, Butler, Cincinnati, Kentucky
Third Round: Butler, Kentucky
South winner: Kentucky

Semifinals: Villanova, Kentucky

Champion: Villanova

NCAA Bracket

South Region
First Round - Kansas, Connecticut, Maryland, Hawaii, Arizona, Miami, Temple, Villanova
Second Round - Connecticut, Maryland, Arizona, Villanova
Regional Semifinal - Connecticut, Villanova
Regional Winner - Villanova

West Region
First Round - Oregon, St. Joseph's, Yale, Duke, Northern Iowa, Texas A&M, VCU, Oklahoma
Second Round - St. Joseph's, Duke, Texas A&M, Oklahoma
Regional Semifinal - Duke, Oklahoma
Regional Winner - Oklahoma

Midwest Region
First Round - Virginia, Butler, Purdue, Iona, Seton Hall, Utah, Dayton, Michigan State
Second Round - Virginia, Purdue, Seton Hall, Michigan State
Regional Semifinal - Virginia, Michigan State
Regional Winner - Michigan State

East Region
First Round - North Carolina, Providence, Indiana, Kentucky, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Xavier
Second Round - North Carolina, Kentucky, Notre Dame, Xavier
Regional Semifinal - North Carolina, Xavier
Regional Winner - Xavier

National Semifinal - Villanova, Michigan State
Winner - Villanova

Sure, Catholic schools aren't going to do that well, but one can dream.

Update: My Midwest bracket is junk, along with most of the rest of the country.

First Four Picks

I haven't taken the time to fill out my bracket, so I'll just get my First Four picks made before the games start tomorrow night.  I'll take Farleigh Dickinson, Wichita State, Holy Cross and Michigan.  I apologize to each of these teams I've jinxed.

End of January Weekend Links

It's unseasonably warm here, but you won't hear me complain.  Here are some good stories to sit out in the sun and enjoy:

Buffalo  and Wide Right, Broken Hearts and No Illusions - SB Nation

A Guy Like Me - The Players' Tribune

How Prince Sammons Came To America - Cincinnati Magazine  

The world's first robot-run farm will harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce daily - Tech Insider

Legal Beef - Texas Monthly

Scientists Are Building a Case For How Food Ads Make Us Overeat - The Salt.  Food ads are about the only commercials that work on me.  That's probably why I am very poorly dressed but also fat.

Math whizzes of ancient Babylon figured out forerunner of calculus - Science Magazine

The Man Who Tried to Kill Math in America - The Atlantic

The Crusade Against Multiple Regression Analysis - Edge

The Great Migration: The African American Exodus from the South - Priceonomics

Theranos Is Running Out of Time - Bloomberg

Who Poisoned Flint, Michigan? - Rolling Stone.  Who are Republican policymakers, Alex.

The Buddy System - The New Yorker

Long Before Helping Flint, Michigan Officials Were Shipping Clean Water to Their Own Workers - Mother Jones

New Koch - The New Yorker  

Big Agriculture Gets Its Sh*t Together - Fortune.  Fair Oak Farms.  Interesting anecdote from Wayne Pacelle to open the story.  Farmers who hate Pacelle are totally over-matched.

 

Conference Championship Weekend Links

Who will win the Cheater Bowl in Denver?  If you don't really care, here are some stories for your enjoyment:

The Great Wight Hope - SB Nation.  This one is really crazy.

Bill Johnson, U.S. Olympic Champion, Dies at 55 - New York Times.  When I was almost 10, I wanted to be Bill Johnson.

The Tennis Racket - Buzzfeed

In California, A Treasure Hunt For Gold Rush-Era Fruit and Nut Trees - The Salt

U.S. farmland, ag machinery market declines extend into 2016 - Agrimoney.  Um, no shit?

Ernst vows to fight Obama 'waters of U.S.' rule - Des Moines Register.  Farmers have no idea what they are talking about.

To Fight Growing Threat From Germs, Scientists Try Old-Fashioned Killer - Wall Street Journal

The Contempt That Poisoned Flint's Water - The New Yorker

The Death of the Midwestern Church - Pacific Standard.  Just another death in the midwest.

The Rebel Virgins and Desert Mothers Who Have Been Written Out of Christian History - Atlas Obscura

How Voltaire Made a Fortune Rigging the Lottery - Today I Found Out

Can an Algorithm Eliminate the Unfairness of Gerrymandering? - Priceonomics

How an obscure adviser to Pat Buchanan predicted the wild Trump campaign in 1996 - The Week.  Very interesting, but I predicted the Republican party would be a clown show back in 2006, and I'm a bigger nobody than this white supremacist dude.

What Kind of Man Spends Millions To Elect Ted Cruz? - Bloomberg.  I would say an idiot or an asshole.  This guy definitely seems like the latter.

How the Epidemic of Drug Overdose Deaths Ripples Across America - New York Times

Rob Manfred Splits the Baby in Rose Case

Cincinnati Enquirer:

Pete Rose is headed to the Hall of Fame – the Reds Hall of Fame.
Not only that, Rose’s No. 14 will be retired this June and a statue is on the way, the team announced at a press conference Tuesday morning at Great American Ball Park. The team will honor Rose and the rest of the Big Red Machine during a three-game series against the Padres, June 24-26.
“Pete was told that in the immediate future he is probably not going to be able to (be inducted) in Cooperstown and we certainly wanted to make sure we picked up that vacuum and the commissioner gave us permission to do that,” Reds CEO Bob Castellini said. “We couldn’t be more pleased that it is now. Now is the time.”
The Reds Hall of Fame had employed the same rule that the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has had since 1991, barring any players on baseball’s permanently ineligible list from induction. In December, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred denied Rose’s request to be lifted from baseball’s banned list.
The Reds Hall of Fame board of directors voted unanimously to change the bylaws and elect Rose to the team’s Hall of Fame. The board bypassed its usual selection process that involves fans and media voting to make Rose the lone inductee in 2016.
“I’m not going to sit here and say this is the second-best thing, because it’s not,” Rose said on Tuesday. “Maybe it would be if I wasn’t from Cincinnati, but I’m from Cincinnati, so this is the first big thing.”
The Reds, who had not honored Rose directly in their ballpark, will now lift the self-imposed ban. Rose’s No. 14 will join the team’s other nine retired numbers and 42 – retired across baseball for Jackie Robinson. Rose will also have a statue in his honor commissioned at some point, Castellini said on Tuesday.
Castellini said all of the Reds’ celebrations of Rose come with the blessing of Manfred and Major League Baseball.

Manfred got what he wanted, keeping Pete Rose out of the coaching ranks and preventing him from humiliating baseball with embarrassing gambling story after gambling story.  Cincinnati gets to draw in fans with events honoring Rose, which the rest of baseball can just ignore.  Pete may eventually get into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but it will only be after he is dead, and can no longer make an ass of himself.  Good for the Reds, good for Pete and good for baseball.

MLK Weekend Links

Like me, you probably don't get a three-day weekend, but you can still enjoy these stories:

The Dark Knight Unmasked - SB Nation

In Losing The Rams, St. Louis Wins - Joe Nocera NYT

Deontay Wilder Is Making Heavyweight Boxing Fun Again - New York Magazine 

Most U.S. Egg Producers Are Now Choosing Cage-Free Houses - The Salt.  I guess maybe the market has spoken.

Task force: Here’s how we fix Iowa’s water quality - Des Moines Register.  I'm shocked it involves paying farmers to try to get them to mitigate pollution.

This Bee-Killing Pesticide Is Terrible At Protecting Crops - Mother Jones.  I think the headline overstates the evidence, but it is interesting nonetheless.

Scientists move one step closer to turning water into hydrogen fuel, affordably - Christian Science Monitor

This is how toxic Flint's water really is - Washington Post

Hope Rekindled for Perplexing Proof - Quanta

How the Klan Got Its Hood - The New Republic

Local Control in Maine is a Luxury Few Towns Can Afford - New York Times

Bundyland - Willamette Week

New Navy Ships Have Trouble Surviving the High Seas - Bloomberg.  The Navy is so overrated.

Republican Deficit Hypocrisy - New York Times.  This cannot be said too many times.

Who's Winning the Presidential Campaign? - The Upshot.  God help us.

Mid-November Weekend Links

Well, I was a little lazy last weekend, and then I lost a number of the stories that I had tracked down and hadn't bothered typing in.  Here are a few which caught my eye, and I swear sometime I'll get off of my ass and post a few actually original posts (though not right now):

Can the Bison Still Come Back? - SB Nation

Rounding Up The Last Of A Deadly Cattle Virus - The Salt

US farmland prices stabilize - but 'further declines ahead' - Agrimoney.  I agree.

The Hunt for the Tinmouth Apple - Boston Magazine

Howard Buffett Is Getting His Hands Dirty - Bloomberg

How The Old Farmer's Almanac Previewed the Internet Age - The Atlantic

500 Years of Virgin Mary Sightings in One Map - National Geographic

How Apple is Giving Design a Bad Name - Fast Company.  I am not a member of the Apple cult.

The Discovery of Statistical Regression - Priceonomics.  Gauss sounds like something of a jerk.

The Asteroid Hunters - Popular Science

It's Not Just the Drug War - Jacobin

How the Kochs launched Joni Ernst - Politico

What George H. W. Bush Got Wrong - The New Yorker

13 maps about America worth bringing up at dinner parties and/or first dates - Vox

Sum

Sum from Studiocanoe on Vimeo.

Biologic

Biologic from Tangible Media Group on Vimeo.