Linked List: March 7, 2018

Wednesday, 7 March 2018

ESPN Feature on Ichiro Suzuki 

Fantastic piece by Wright Thompson on 44-year-old Ichiro Suzuki:

The first time he went on the disabled list as a major leaguer was because of a bleeding stomach ulcer. That year, he’d led Japan to a victory in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, winning the final game with a base hit in extra innings. The stress ate a hole in his stomach. Weeks later, a Mariners team doctor told him he couldn’t play on Opening Day. Ichiro refused to listen, his teammate Sweeney says. Before the team ultimately forced him to sit, the doctor tried to explain that a bleeding ulcer was a serious condition that could actually kill him.

Ichiro listened, unmoved.

“I’ll take my chances,” he said.

The best hitter I’ve ever seen is Barry Bonds. But Ichiro is up there, and remains simply sublime. I’ve never seen anyone play baseball like Ichiro plays baseball.

Alexa Is Laughing at People, Unprompted 

Venessa Wong, reporting for BuzzFeed:

Owners of Amazon Echo devices with the voice-enabled assistant Alexa have been pretty much creeped out of their damn minds recently. People are reporting that the bot sometimes spontaneously starts laughing — which is basically a bloodcurdling nightmare.

Everyone who’s on the “No way am I putting one of these listening devices in my house” side of the fence is nodding their head with a smug look on their face right now.