Tag Archives: earlier

A Baseball Sacred Cow Finally Starts to Fall

by HesterMcKibben7 Posted on April 12, 2017

Mother Jones

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I’m getting answers to all sorts of nagging sports questions this month. Earlier I learned that, as I’ve long suspected, intentional fouling virtually never works in the final seconds of a basketball game. Today, Jared Diamond writes about the windup used by baseball pitchers, which has always puzzled me:

This spring, Washington Nationals ace Stephen Strasburg asked a simple question that threatens to upend more than a century of baseball tradition: Why should he pitch one way with nobody on base, and another way with runners aboard? After all, he threw just as hard from the stretch as he did from the full windup, but with improved precision.

Strasburg did some research and embarked on an experiment. He ditched the windup and plans to work exclusively from the stretch this season, beginning his delivery facing third base instead of home plate. Pitchers usually deploy the stretch—a quicker, more compact delivery than the full windup—with runners on base to prevent base-stealers.

I’m not a pitcher, obviously, but I’ve never understood the weird, arms-over-the-head windup. In most sports, it’s a given that a simple, smooth motion is the best way to engage the kinetic chain, improve consistency, and throw/shoot/serve/etc. with maximum accuracy. Among quarterbacks or tennis players, for example, even small hitches in the delivery motion are mercilessly trained away by good coaches. But in baseball, an enormous hitch is not only not trained away, it’s encouraged.

I guess I always figured there must be a reason that I just didn’t understand. But maybe not. Maybe it’s just the way things have always been done. In any case, I applaud Strasburg. Pitching from the stretch should work fine, and it should improve performance with runners on base too since no delivery change is required. I wish him a great season except when he’s pitching against the Dodgers.

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A Baseball Sacred Cow Finally Starts to Fall

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Inflation Probably Won’t Be a Problem Until 2019

by CliffConde Posted on March 1, 2017

Mother Jones

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Earlier today I noted that core PCE inflation—the measure used by the Fed—has been rising very, very slowly over the past two years. “At that rate, it should hit 2 percent by about 2019 or so,” I snarked.

But that got me curious. How fast is core PCE rising? So naturally I put it into a chart:

It turns out that by 2019 it would actually hit 2.2 percent at its current rate. This is still not something we should be very worried about.1

Of course, inflation isn’t just a trend independent of everything else. If the Fed changes interest rates, or President Trump balloons the deficit, or the dollar weakens and imports get a lot more expensive, then that will affect the inflation rate. But none of those things have happened yet, and until they do we still don’t really have anything to be worried about.

1In fact, it would probably be helpful to see inflation rise to 3 percent for a year or two. If it rises above that, then it’s might be time for the Fed to act.

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Inflation Probably Won’t Be a Problem Until 2019

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Hillary Clinton Just Endorsed a $15 Minimum Wage. But Not For Everyone.

by RefugioQ83 Posted on July 24, 2015

Mother Jones

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Hillary Clinton threw her support behind efforts to boost the minimum wage for fast food restaurant workers on Friday. “The national minimum wage is a floor, and it needs to be raised,” Clinton said during a wide-ranging speech on Friday that centered on various problems with New York’s corporate culture.

But there’s one pretty big hitch to Clinton’s endorsement: it only applies to folks who work in New York. The idea Clinton is backing comes from a panel appointed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Earlier this week, that panel recommended slowly raising the minimum wage for fast food workers so that it eventually reaches $15 per hour by July 2021 (with the rate increasing at a faster clip for people who work within New York City, where the cost of living is higher, so that employers would be required to pay workers there that $15 rate by 2018).

While Clinton may support a higher wage for workers in New York, she’s resisted liberals’ calls to raise the national minimum wage to $15 per hour. “I think part of the reason that the Congress and very strong Democratic supporters of increasing the minimum wage are trying to debate and determine what’s the national floor is because there are different economic environments,” Clinton said in New Hampshire last week. “And what you can do in L.A. or in New York may not work in other places.”

Clinton’s rivals for the Democratic nomination have used the minimum wage to attack Clinton’s liberal bona fides. Shortly after Clinton made those comments last week, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley released a statement trumpeting his own support for lifting the minimum wage to $15 across the country. “Some people will say this is hard to do,” O’Malley’s statement said. “And it will be. But leadership is about forging public consensus —not following it. On this issue, we must lead with our progressive values to rebuild the American Dream.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders is also a loud proponent of lifting the minimum wage for all workers across the country. Sanders introduced a bill in the Senate this week to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15. “I think if you work 40 hours a week, you have a right not to live in poverty,” Sanders said outside the US Capitol at a rally introducing the bill. “The current federal minimum wage is a starvation wage. It’s got to be raised to a living wage.”

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Hillary Clinton Just Endorsed a $15 Minimum Wage. But Not For Everyone.

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FBI: Background Check Failure Allowed Dylann Roof to Get His Gun

by KendricI79 Posted on July 10, 2015

Mother Jones

In a statement on Friday, the FBI said a background check flaw allowed Dylann Roof, the suspected gunman behind last month’s fatal shooting in Charleston, to purchase the gun that killed nine people inside a historic black church. From the Times:

A loophole in the check system cleared the man, Dylann Roof, to buy the .45-caliber handgun despite his having previously admitted to drug possession, the bureau said. Those conducting the background check did not have access to that police report.

“We are all sick this happened,” said the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey. “We wish we could turn back time.”

Speaking to reporters about the loophole, Comey said Roof had admitted to previous drug possession charges, but the background check flaw failed to alert authorities and thereby prevent Roof from obtaining a weapon. According to NBC News, “unlawful users” of controlled substances are prohibited from buying a gun.

The vast majority of mass shooters over the last three decades have obtained their weapons legally, according to a Mother Jones data investigation.

Following the massacre on July 17, President Obama expressed his continuing frustration with Congress’ inaction on gun control, reminding reporters, “This kind of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.”

Earlier this week, Roof was indicted on nine counts of murder, one count of weapons possession, and three counts of attempted murder.

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FBI: Background Check Failure Allowed Dylann Roof to Get His Gun

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We Have Some Good News For You About Marijuana

by SadieKneebone Posted on February 24, 2015

Mother Jones

When comparing seven commonly used recreational drugs, marijuana clocks in as by far the least dangerous, nearly 114 times safer than the most dangerous drug concluded in a new study—alcohol.

This is according to research recently published in Scientific Reports, which examined the exposure risks of heroin, meth, alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy, tobacco, and marijuana, by individuals. While previous studies have long suggested marijuana use poses a lesser mortality risk than alcohol—a point commonly cited in calls to increase legalization in more states—such a wide margin was not previously known.

In the new study, researchers also concluded that the deadly risks of alcohol have most likely been severely underestimated. Alcohol and tobacco (the fourth deadliest drug) are the only two substances in the study that are generally legal for adult use in the United States.

The findings come as more states appear to be coming around to the idea of marijuana legalization. Earlier this week, Alaska became the first red state to legalize pot, and Washington D.C. is preparing to do the same in just a few days. The recent passage of the $1.1 trillion federal spending bill marked a huge step towards ending the war on medical marijuana with the inclusion of an amendment preventing the Department of Justice from using funds to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries.

Researchers behind the study said their results should encourage lawmakers to move away from the “current prohibition approach” under federal law, and opt for a more “strict regulatory approach” instead. The study also suggested a “risk management prioritization” that emphasizes a focus on alcohol and tobacco, rather than illicit drugs.

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We Have Some Good News For You About Marijuana

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Watch Anita Sarkeesian Explain Gamergate’s “Attacks on Women” and Convince Colbert He’s a Feminist

by Gregory2612 Posted on October 30, 2014

Mother Jones

Anita Sarkeesian, the feminist critic at the center of the Gamergate controversy, appeared on The Colbert Report last night to explain the sexual harassment issues rampant in the gaming world and why women aren’t going to just accept a “separate but equal” community.

“Women are perceived as threatening because we are asking for games to be more inclusive,” Sarkeesian said. “We are asking for games to acknowledge that we exist and that we love games.”

But as recent disturbing events have shown, many gamers are not pleased with Sarkeesian’s work and have been launching extremely violent messages against her and her supporters via social media. Earlier this month, Sarkeesian was forced to cancel a speaking engagement after an anonymous email threatened to stage the “deadliest mass shooting in American history” if she spoke.

Speaking to Colbert on Wednesday, she went on to reject the defense that Gamergate is actually about ethics in video game journalism.

“That is sort of a compelling way to reframe the fact that this is actually an attack on women,” she said.”Ethics in journalism is not what’s happening in any way. It’s actually men going after women in really hostile, aggressive ways. That’s what Gamergate is about. it’s about terrorizing women for being involved in this industry.”

For more a deeper dive into the Gamergate controversy, check out our excellent explainer.

Correction: A previous version of this story erroneously quoted Sarkeesian in the headline. This has since been corrected.

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Watch Anita Sarkeesian Explain Gamergate’s “Attacks on Women” and Convince Colbert He’s a Feminist

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Gun-Pointing Cop Who Threatened to Kill Ferguson Protesters Is Suspended

by JSYPreston Posted on August 20, 2014

Mother Jones

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The protests in Ferguson, Missouri, were relatively calm yesterday, especially compared to previous nights where heavily armed police have responded to protests with tear gas and arrests. But there was at least one police officer who took things a little too far. In this video, an unidentified officer points a rifle at journalists and others walking in the street and warns, “I’ll fucking kill you.” (NSFW language in the clip.)

Somebody off-camera asks for his name and the officer replies, “Go fuck yourself.” Soon afterward, a county police sergeant comes and ushers the officer away. Earlier today the ACLU asked for the officer to be removed from Ferguson. The St. Louis County Police Department has announced that the officer has been suspended, according to the Washington Post:

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Gun-Pointing Cop Who Threatened to Kill Ferguson Protesters Is Suspended

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