Explained Briefly: Logical Positivism

def: "if there is no test to prove the truth or falsity of a claim then that claim is meaningless."

tf

Statements only have significance to our knowledge if they are objectively verifiable.

“jack's dog is barking,” “that tree is twenty feet tall,” and “there are thirteen midgets in this cafeteria” are all cognitively meaningful because there is a process that can prove their truth or falsity. we can hear jack's dog barking. we can break out measuring tape to determine if the tree is twenty feet tall. we can count the number of midgets. there are ways to determine if these statements are valid.

On the other hand, statements which cannot be proved true or false have no intelligible meaning.

“the universe is infinite because my alcoholic neighbor said so,” “the meaning of life is a life of meaning,” and “god exists because he came to me when I was on the shitter last night.”

None of these statements have cognitive meaning. there is no process for determining whether or not your drunken neighbor knows the truth about the universe. however, there are aspects to our consciousness other than cognitive thought, like emotions and spirituality. statements like "god exists" can still have meaning to our spiritual lives despite the fact that they cannot be objectively verified.

MLB Waivers Explained, Ignorance Beaten Back With A Large Wooden Stick

One of my most embarassing ignorances about Major League Baseball has finally been extinguished: I now know how post-trade deadline waiver deals work.

It has confused me every year since I started following the sport. The trade deadline would come and go, yet players would continue to switch teams. The less-than-urgent nature of the subject coupled with my lethargy kept me from taking five minutes out of my day to figure out how waivers work. Until now. In light of Manny Ramirez getting picked up by the White Sox in a waiver deal, I have finally decided to beat back my ignorance. It's surprisingly simple, here's how it works:

Any team can place a player on waivers at any point during the season. Once a player is on waivers, any team can claim him. If more than one team claims him, the team with the weakest record in the player's league gets preference. If no team in the player's league claims him, the team with the weakest record in the other league gets preference.

Once a player is claimed, the "waiving team" has several options. They can: (1) request a trade for the player, (2) rescind the request and keep the waived player, or (3) do nothing and allow the claiming team to assign the player to their major league roster, take on the player's contract, and pay the waiving team a fee.

Thank you, Yahoo Answers.

Now let's conduct an always-exciting hypothetical situation.

Cardinal's GM John Moseliak suffers temporary brain damage after shoving a Crayola crayon too far up his nose (ala Homer Simpson). In his debilitated state, he takes advice from Cubs GM Jim Hendry and places Albert Pujols on waivers. Within several hours, the Cubs, the Brewers, and the Orioles claim him. In this situation, the Cubs get Pujols because they have the worst record in the National League. If the Cubs weren't in the picture, the Brewers would get him because they too play in the National League. The only way a team from the American League could snag Pujols is if no other National League team claimed him.

Now that the Cubs have claimed Pujols, Moseliak has three routes to choose from. He can attempt a trade and try to get some players in return for Pujols, he can come to him senses and retract the request (a move that would bring Pujols back to the Cardinals with no reprecussions to the organization) or he could simply give Pujols to the Cubs if they agree to (1) pay a waiver fee, (2) pick up the remainder of Pujols' contract, and (3) place him on their Major League roster.

That, in a nutshell, is how waivers work.

5 Reasons Why Boise State will Beat Virginia Tech

1. Road woes against top five foes. Tech has never beaten a top-five team away from Lane Stadium: the Hokies are 0-21 all-time, 0-12 during Frank Beamer's tenure.

2. Experience. Boise State returns 23 of 24 starters from a team that went 14-0 and captured the program's second major bowl in four seasons.

3. Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore. He's 26-1 as a starter, 2-0 in national-spotlight games (two Fiesta Bowl victories), and he'll be going up against a Tech defense with seven newcomers.

4. Motivation. Publications all around the country have built this up to be the biggest game in Boise State history. They aren't exaggerating. A win solidifies the Broncos as a legitimate national power, while a loss takes the Broncos out of the national championship picture and casts a shadow of disappointment over the rest of the season. Tech has other chances (GA Tech, Miami, North Carolina) to prove that it's a national championship contender, Boise State does not (minus a September matchup with Oregon State). Tech can make amends for a loss, Boise State can't. The Broncos won't let this opportunity slip through their collective hooves. Which brings me to my fifth point...

5. Hooves vs. Turkey Feet. Think about it, hooves are solid. Therefore, things cannot slip through them: not even something as intangible and slippery as a victory. Do you know what Virginia Tech's mascot is? A turkey. Turkeys have feet with very widely spaced toes. There's a lot of room for a victory to slip through. Now, some of you might argue that turkey feet have the ability to grasp things, a skill that would give them quite an advantage over the less-flexible Bronco hoof. To those people, I say this: can a turkey grasp onto a victory when it's dead? No. It's muscles are no longer functional. That turkey will be dead after the Broncos stampede into Washington and stomp it's skull into the dirt at Fedex Field.

Eight Albums that Will Restore Your Faith in Contemporary Music

8. Drive By Truckers - Pizza Deliverance

Despite what Toby Keith may have you believe, there is more to southern culture than drinking beer, driving trucks, and talking about how awesome it is to drink beer and drive trucks.

There is a dark side to drunken mudbogging and other aspects of southern culture, and no band captures that dark side better than the Drive-By Truckers. Pizza Deliverance is the band's most candid assessment of the underbelly of life in the deep south.

Whether he's singing about killing his family and roommate ("One each for my immediate family/They'd be so disappointed to see what I'd done/One left over I'll save it for my roommate/After all, it's my roommate's gun") or mocking the Christian establishment ("Stop that dope smoking, stop that masturbation/take the lord into your heart and stop that fornication/we're building us an army gonna knock out Satan/Visa or mastercard, our operators are waiting"), Patterson Hood delivers his lyrics with conviction and, most importantly, heart.

In a word...gritty.

Why this is an important album: Pizza Deliverance is rough, dark, oddly inspiring...and it offers a meaningful perspective of the south that sits at the opposite end of the table from the romanticized portrait painted by many mainstream country 'artists.'

7. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

The most serene music to come out of Seattle since...well, folks in the Queen City started producing and releasing music. "But wait!" you scream at me, tossing your copy of Fleet Foxes debut album Fleet Foxes to the carpet, "There's no angst! No distorted guitars! No suicidal lyrics! Are you sure these guys are from Seattle?"

Indeed they are, but your skepticism is warranted. Fleet Foxes are only from Seattle in the geographical sense. Musically, they hail from somewhere much more divine and a lot less cloudy. Like Heaven. Or Tazewell, Virginia. Many have made the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young comparison and I think that's fair. The one extremely abstract difference I will try to draw between the two bands is this: CSNY's music is atmospheric, but it still sounds 'worldly,' if you will...like walking down a winding, isolated country path surrounded by vegetation on all sides, when all of a sudden the trees end, revealing a burning red sun illuminating the clouds along the entire horizon line. Fleet Foxes is like walking down that same path, but instead of reaching a sunset you are greeted by four beautiful angels who lift you off your feet and send you floating over the valley. In no way is that a shot at CSNY...Fleet Foxes just make it seem that effortless.

In a word...cosy.

Why this is an important album: Fleet Foxes is authentic as it comes and easily one of the best folk albums in recent memory. Take this quote from front man Robin Pecknold from the inner flap of the band's EP Sun Giant. It sums up the sound of this album better than I ever could:

"Sometimes, when driving, or riding the bus, or walking around in some park, I will try to get an image in my head of what the land around me would have looked like 400 years ago. The same hills, the same landscape, but in my mind I'll cover it in nothing and wonder what it was like to be the first man to chance upon it."

6. M. Ward - Post-War

5. Air- Moon Safari


4. Badly Drawn Boy - Hour of the Bewilderbeast


3. Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West

If you don't dig the initial wobbling, drunken guitar riff that opens this album, it's likely you'll absolutely despise the rest of The Lonesome Crowded West.

If you do dig it, you're in luck - the rest of the album sounds just as intoxicated. And, like most drunks, it's loud, sloppy, rambling, frank, and passionate...and I use those adjectives in the most flattering way possible. Frontman Isaac Brock rambles about rednecks, guns, alcohol, Jesus, drugs, drunk dialing, the afterlife, and a slew of other topics with overflowing angst comparable to another Seattle-area music legend (You know, that blonde haired guy that started a band that changed the face of rock forever?). Brock's original lyrics and authenticity keep the album from faceplanting into contrivity. Point in case: the chorus for the song "Polar Opposites" ("I'm trying to drink away the part of the day that I cannot sleep away.") would

2. Nirvana - In Utero


1. Radiohead - OK Computer


Honorable Mention
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Tortoise - TNT
Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling

You know you're at a Powhatan church softball game when...

You hear: "Come on, Houser, I couldn't hit that with a 6 foot two-by-four!" after a strikeout.

The first base umpire is an anemic looking 60-year old name Bruce who texts during the game and has the perceptive prowess of a wet carrot.

At least one player on each team is taking the game way too seriously. If you notice a player doing any of the following things, you've spotted yourself a "Softball Guy": (1) using a work-out band to warm up his arm so he can throw the ball 40 miles an hour underhand, (2) wearing a helmet at the plate, (3) tucking a towel into the back of his pants like he's playing quarterback at the University of Michigan, (4) shouting obscenities at amateur, volunteer umpires who are sacrificing their own time to put up with crappy softball and verbal abuse, (5) refusing to shake hands after a loss, (6) isolating himself from his teammates after a loss, getting in his car, weeping for a half hour, then beating the shit out of his wife after she asks how the game went.

A 10 year old and a 70 year old are playing on the same field.

The pitcher is wearing a helmet and a facemask.

Half of the team shows up drunk. Both halves get drunk afterward.

The pitcher smokes two cowboy killers between innings.

The pitcher's name is "Gravy."


more to come...

ACC Preview: #6 Virginia Tech Hokies

Last Season: Finshed #10, 10-3 (6-2)
Returning Starters: 8 on offense, 5 on defense
Strength of Schedule: B+
Defining Games: vs #5 Boise State, vs #17 GA Tech, @ #18 North Carolina, @ #13 Miami
Predicted Finish: 10-3 (7-1), 1st in ACC Coastal. Losses to Boise State, Central Michigan, and Miami.

The Hokies return a Heisman-caliber talent at tailback in Ryan Williams and a skatty playmaker at quarterback by the name of Tyrod Taylor. Taylor's ability to compete athletically at the Division I level has never been a question, but his ability to read coverages and make sound decisions in the passing game has raised some eyebrows. The passing stats from his freshman and sophomore years are dismal: 7 TD, 10 INT, for only 1966 yards. Last year, however, Taylor took major strides as a passer, ending the year with 2311 yards, 13 TDs and only 5 interceptions. Look for about the same amount of production from him through the air this year.

The Hokies biggest test will undoubtebly be the first week of the season against the Broncos from Boise State. The boys in blue return a staggering 23 starters from last year's Fiesta Bowl-winning squad, including all 11 players on the offensive side of the ball. A victory for the Hokies would not only knock the Broncos out of the national title picture, but also allow them to crack into the top 5 in the coaches' poll. A loss would likely catapult Tech out of the top ten and, because of their relatively weak schedule, they would have little chance of reentering until their matchup against Georgia Tech on November 30.

After that matchup with Georgia Tech, the Hokies hit the trail to take on North Carolina and Miami in back to back weeks. The November 20th matchup with Miami is especially intruiging, as Jacory Harris and the 'Canes will be looking to avenge a 31-7 ass pummeling given to them in Blacksburg last year. While most of the thugs on the Miami roster are acquainted with such anal debauchery due to extended stays in federal prison, they don't necessarily take a liking to being degraded on national television. Look for Jacory Harris to play with a fire in his ass - a fire that still burns due to repeated penetration from the Hokies defense last fall. The only thing that will sooth Jacory's aggravating ass pain is a victory...well, that, and a thick creamy layer of Preperation H.

The Hokies end the season with (what should be) a snoozer against UVA, assuming new coach Mike London has no cure for the impotence of the Wahoos offense. Fun Fact: The polo wearing, book wielding preps haven't won a meeting between the two since 2003.

Rape jokes aside, the outcome of that three week stretch starting in late-November will, in all honesty, define the legacy of this Hokies squad. A loss in any of these three games would cripple their dreams for a national title, assuming that they're in the thick of things that late in the season. Which they won't be, because they'll lose to Boise and drop another mid-season game to, I don't know, Central Michigan? (I only wish Tech would have had Central Michigan on the schedule last year so I could have witnessed MAC legend Dan LeFevour taking on the formidable Hokies defense. I think he would have faired pretty well, I honestly do. Well, better than Jacory Harris at least...) All in all, I don't believe Tyrod Taylor is a solid enough quarterback to win a national championship, and lack of experience on the defensive side of the ball will prevent the Hokies from going to Pasadena. They'll be ACC Champions and bowl-game winners, but the kids in Blacksburg will have to wait at least one more year for a coveted national championship.