You are going to see a lot of commentary on Taiwan today. 98% of it will be ill informed and reactionary.

Here is a decent brief overview of the history of relations since 1949. Suggest reading this first, and making sure you understand the basics.

afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_… Here is a good article on polling and attitudes and opinions in Taiwan in general.

brookings.edu/blog/order-fro…

Josh Rojas has 3 HR today and will get to bat in the top of the 9th. Here is the list of 16 players with 4 HR in a game

stathead.com/sharing/7dDPV Rojas came into this game with a .617 OPS and 88 wRC+ in 49 PA

He now has a .896 OPS, and a 154 wRC+ in 53 PA

🧵1/If players side was really mostly invested in making things more fair for the lowest paid players, they would have dug in their heels on the minimum but given on the CBT threshold. Raising that threshold only helps the biggest start looking to get the biggest contracts. 2/ 80% of the teams are not within spitting distances of the CURRENT CBT threshold. Raising that is not going to help the middle and lower class of players one iota. But raising it helps the Max Scherzers and Mookie Betts of the world get their mega deals.

1/Here are some links that might be helpful when someone screams "But VAERS" at you

vidanewspaper.com/2021/12/30/inc… 2/mcgill.ca/oss/article/co…

1/ @dougducey Maricopa County is among the county's with the highest number of Covid-19 Hospital Admissions this week. (Dec 16-22) 2/ @dougducey Our state among the highest percent of staffed ICU beds being used for Covid-19.

1/
I think one of the biggest problems with the whole "Tanking" discussion is it's ill defined exactly what tanking means. The blanket statements overlook the need sometimes to objectively address where a team's is at and the best way to get them back to true competitiveness. 2/ Sometimes teams are just bad and the only way to make them better to is to employ a long term strategy. If teams are forced to overpay for whatever aging free agents are out there just to be marginally better they actually set themselves up for decades long playoff droughts.

If you hurry down to Salt River Fields you can still grab a decent seat 😀

Rafters vs Scorpions 6:35 PM first pitch

#arizonafallleague #Brewers OF Joey Wiemer continues to impress. With the secondbaseman shaded towards bag and down in the count 1-2, he went with pitch and lined it through hole into right for a base hit. He's hitting .444 in fall league so far, (12 for 27) with 3 DB, 1 HR, 4BB, 5K, 2 SB + Good D

Stat Cast Pitch framing, #Diamondbacks. Largely neutral according to this version of the metric Fangraphs version slightly negative for #DBacks. -2.4 in total

On 6/5 Arizona had
36% fully vaxxed
47% at least 1 dose
46% of all adults full vax
69% of 65 & older

Today numbers have increased marginally
43% fully vaxxed
51% at least 1 dose
54% of all adults full vax
73% of 65 & older

At least 1 dose only increased 4%
(all #'s rounded) Source for previous tweet
npr.org/sections/healt…

I believe #SarsCov2 #Covid19 came from a Lab. I saw a clear breakdown on why this is likely in a video from @chrismartenson from Peak Prosperity a couple of months ago. Now he is backed up by a world renown biologist.

minervanett.no/corona/the-mos… This is discussed in this video at the 37:56 point. (Although you should listen to entire video)

Thread 1/8
Data shows wearing Facemasks Saves Lives

Data in thread primarily from worldometers.info/coronavirus/ taken 9:30-10:30 A.M. AZ Time today. I filled in where needed through various other resources. Let’s start with comparing East Asia to USA 2/8
East Asian Countries in 1st table have mask wearing cultures to begin with due to Sars outbreak experience in 2003 and also Pollution problems. They were early adapters as the Pandemic got underway to achieve population wide use of Facemasks to stop the spread of Covid-19

Possible Mortality Range of Covid-19 by time reach Herd Immunity. Don't know what % required to reach but most estimates 60-70%. Don't know % W/antibodies today. Varies greatly by region. But if you believe 70% Herd required and 10% w/antibody (Ex.) then u can get a number For AZ, current % showing positive in Antibody testing is 3.5%, so even less than 5%. It's unlikely in any scenario that there are more than 10-15% w/Antibodies in AZ. Green number represents best case mortality by time reach Herd, and Red Number represents pessimistic estimate