SuBBrilliant Blog

This is positively the best Physics rock song I have ever experienced. It’s byt the Austin Band The Wannabes and is featured on their record “Decade of Moral Fumbles”

Lyrics

Caught a glimpse of a girl that was so small
positively was she there at all
a smile that’s so disarming
up, down, and strangely charming

Halos dangled in her hair
tiny charges floating in the air
The space that she’s a part of
wish I was so much smarter

If she could, still exist if I weren’t here to see
Then I would, find a way to make her matter

Though she’s only seconds from the void
Laughing knows she’d never be destroyed
Jet planes and lightning flashing
outside an atom smashing

Lost in her velocity
Can I hold her just by pedigree
With power fields sustaining
What thought of hopes containing

If she could, still exist if I weren’t here to see
Then I would, find a way to make her matter

Staring at the screen
Pondering attraction
She can’t be accountable for her lack of reaction

Has crushed stronger than her size
Awesome power, She’s deatomized
a smile that’s so disarming
up, down, and strangely charming

If she could, still exist if I weren’t here to see
Then I think she’d remain here subatomically
And the world wouldn’t miss her much except for me
Wish I could, find a way to make her matter

The dog that owns my wife and I and is commissioner of the Terran Baseball Association, is two years old today. That’s 14 to you and me. She celebrated oceanside with a few friends then retired to her home to open gifts and enjoy some specially selected treats.

Jango wishes all the best on her birthday.

What’s wrong with the steroid controversy

Steroids are cheating! Steroids are wrong! They hurt the integrity of the game and call records into question! All of those statements are wrong to a great extent. There is only one real legitimate objection to steroid use in sports, in my opinion. First, let’s look at the false beliefs that are clouding the issue, and frankly, preventing a solution.

Steroids are cheating

The common argument against steroids is that they giv eplayers an unfair advantage. But why? Checmical enhancement is often put forward as the reason. But protein shakes are also chemical enhancement and there’s no controversy over those. The protein in a protein shake comes form a lab, not from the protein tree. Players who can afford highly skileld personal trainers and training equipment definitely have an advantage on players who can’t, but no one cries foul about that. Steroids are not cheating simply because they help build up muscles. But we’ll revisit ‘cheating’ again later.

Steroids are wrong

This is just a simplistic argument. If steroids were absolutely wrong, then they wouldn’t be prescribed by hundreds of doctors for legitimate causes. There is nothing inherently wrong about steroids.

Steroids hurt the integrity of the game

Again this misses the mark. Babe Ruth never took steroids, but he also never worked out, followed a highly-tuned diet, or watched video of opposing pitchers and his own swing. He just hit 714 Home Runs in a league that didn’t allow some of the best players int he world to play because they had too much pigment in their skin. This argument has had the most exposure. Ther is one small way in whihc the integrity of the game is affected, and it’s not the one that deals with the record books. Let’s deal with that next.

Steroids are illegal
That is the only legitimate argument against steroids in any sport. They’re agains the law. They’re against the law because improperly taken, they can cause severe damage to your health. They are not against the law because they’re cheating. If steroids didn’t threaten your life, they would be as legal as protein supplements, and just as controversial. They are only cheating, insomuch as law-abiding players don’t take them, so scofflaws cna get an advantage. This is as much cheating as the guy who gets to work faster because he speeds and drives on the shoulder while you stay in proper lanes and drive the limit. The speeder is risking other lives and his own, so is arguably more of a danger to society than a steroids user. Steroids only threaten the integrity of the game insomuch as not every player has legal access. It’s not a level playing field. That argument is true.

The solution nobody wants

All the ‘solutions’ to the steroid problem involve the sports regulating themselves. No sporting league is expected to have their own police to enforce speeding rules, domestic abuse, or assault and battery. These are all offenses that players have committed that are not handled by leagues (except for possible fines), but left to law enforcement. But whenever criminal charges are brought up in relation to athletes and steroids, it’s usually in the context of granting immunity. This is fatal to the elimination of steroids in sports. If players feel they are above the law in this regard, then they will continue to find ways to avoid detection and take illegal substances. if they feared that even if they passed tests, they could be busted for sale or posession like any other citizen, then there would be a real deterrent.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not recommending police be stationed in the clubhouse necessarily, but that we need to stop focusing on the overdramtic bogus accusations of lack of integrity and cheating and focus on the criminal aspect and enforcement of that by authorities. Either that or legalize steroids.

It occurs to me today that spam may undermine some of the principles of existentialism. Not in the personal sense, of course, which is the core of the philosophy. Spam will not extinguish existentialism. The American education system can do that just fine.

Here’s what I mean.

My interpretation of some of Sartre’s writing on the subject is that we must all choose what we think should be done in any case, even if the effects are not immediately different. He uses war as an example. Even if not protesting a war seems to have no different effect than protesting it, a man must follow his conscience. Making the choice even if it has no immediate practical effect is important.

My idea of why this makes sense is that if everyone did follwo their conscience then the percentage of people who acted that way would make a difference even if a minority.

Sartre was referring to World War II. But let’s apply the principle to the much more mundane problem of spam. If everyone in the world ignored spam, didn’t even open it and deleted it, there would be no more spam, or very little of it. Even at the low cost of sending spam, if there were no return it would be abandone.

Spam exists because the tiniest of tiny percentages open the email and an even tinier percentage respond. Although in some particular cases the percentages aren’t as small as one would hope. The cost of sending spam is so low, that even this tiny percentage is enough to make the enterprise profitable for the perpetrators.

So bringing it back ’round to exitentialism, if I make my choice not to open and answer spam, my hope would be that I and enough other people would be able to have a slowing effect on it. That is not the case. Even if 99% of all email recipients followed my principle, there would still eb spam. Nothing but full 100% response can inhibit it. So it reduces my action to one of symbolism only with not only no immediate effect but no effect at all. The only effect of not opening and answering spam is the effect of having the amount of spam I get rise at a slightly slower rate.

So my spam-reading decisions become consigned to the realm of philosophy with no practical effect at all. I realise that this may still be within the parameters of existentialism, but it is much less compelling than the example where I’d at least have an idealistic chance of stopping the war.

In the example of the war, there is a reality that if everyone who agreed with me acted as I did, there might be a chance to stop/change/start the war, whatever it is I wanted. The impracticality is getting everyone to act on their own conscience. I know there are enough people who agree with me, it’s a social change.

With spam, even if 99% agree AND act on their conscience it’s not enough. There’s someone out ther who likes spam and in a universe as large as that of email users it doesn’t have to be a big percentage to render the actions of the overwhelming mahority useless.

Well they did it. The Boston Red Sox are World Champions.

Thanks to the family of Chick Shorten for their posts. While our fanciful tale may not have solid journalistic backing, the following things are true.

-Babe Ruth did take Chick’s job
-Chick’s career never got fully rolling in the majors after that.
-The Red Sox did not win a World Series unti after we exposed the ‘curse of Chick Shorten.’

Draw your own conclusions but here’s ours.

The best people get angry and sometimes their actions have unforeseen repercussions. We don’t in any way believe Chick was evil, on the contrary. This year was magic. Before we posted our story the Red Sox were in dire shape against the Yankees. After that they came back and won eight games in a row to defeat both the evil empire and my beloved Cards.

There were other portents too. The Red Sox first at bat of the World Series was number 19 (Williams) pitching to number 18 (Damon). The series finished with two outfielders standing next to each other number 19 (Kapler) and number 18 (Damon). In 1918 the Red Sox won 86 games. One for every year they would have to wait until the next championship. Their final World Series loss came in 1986. And of course, the final out was made by (my favorite Cardinal) Number 3 (Renteria), the same number as the Babe wore with the Highlanders.

Tip your caps to baseball folks. Tip your caps to the Red Sox, and mostly for us tip your cap to Chick Shorten. Devil’s deal or not his good name is now in the clear.

-Tom Merritt

by Tim Moynihan, Tom Merritt, & Molly Wood

There is a specter haunting the Boston Red Sox, and it has haunted them now for some 86 years. But it’s not Babe Ruth, and the Boston fans’ attempts to reverse the “curse of the bambino” have all been for naught. They’re after the wrong guy.

The Red Sox haven’t won a World Series since 1918. They traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920. So, if the curse was simply the result of trading Babe, the Red Sox would have won the World Series with him in 1919. Something else happened during the off-season of 1918-1919 to curse the Red Sox. They haven’t discovered it, and the Babe curse has distracted them from curing it. Consider this alternative.

Babe Ruth didn’t start out as a regular outfielder for the Sox. He was a pitcher. But by 1918, he began to see action in the outfield. As a result, he began stealing playing time from other Sox outfielders–including a young man named Chick Shorten.

Shorten spent eight seasons as a reserve in the majors, leading the AL in pinch hits (9) in 1921. Over his career he played in 527 games, hitting .275 with 3 HRs and 134 RBI. In World Series appearances, he played 2 games, hitting .571

On July 11, 1917, in Detroit, Boston’s Babe Ruth pitched a gem, allowing just one scratch single in the 8th. Ruth deflected the ball but the throw by the shortstop was too late. Ruth also had a single and triple, but a pinch triple by Shorten in the 9th drove home the only run. Still, all the attention went to Ruth, despite Shorten’s game-winning hit–and that’s on top of Ruth taking his spot in the outfield.

With Ruth ensconced in the field, Shorten didn’t play major league ball at all in 1918. Initially, Chick was just depressed, but then seeing the 1918 Sox win the series without him, he vowed his revenge. Through means unknown, Shorten put a curse on the Red Sox to prevent them and the hated Ruth from ever gaining the world title again.

Shorten was extremely pleased with the fruits of his dark dealings in 1919–but in 1920, the curse came back to haunt, as all devil’s deals do. Babe Ruth was sold to the previously hapless Yankees, and went on to lead them to record numbers of World Series. Shorten watched powerless.

As for the Red Sox, their fate was sealed. In 1922 Shorten played a game for the Providence All-Stars in an exhibition against the Boston Red Sox. The All-Stars won 3-2 with a girl playing first base. A hollow victory, I’m sure.

So, for the past near-century the Red Sox fans have had the wrong man. They must switch their focus from the curse of the Bambino, and figure out how to appease the angry spirit of Chick Shorten. Otherwise, they’ll never gain a World Series title. And time is running out.

When I started writing this the Red Sox were losing to the Yankees 8-0. AS I told the story of Chick on paper, the Sox rallied and brought the score back to 8-7. It can only mean one thing–we’ve almost found the key to the curse. We’re just a man on third and a base hit away from reversing the curse.

When the day ended, Madeleine couldn’t wait to get out the door. Before her cubemate Steve had even packed his tupperware back in his bag she was down the steps and out the door.

She walked along the sidewalk looking at the people meanly. She didn’t hate hte people, she just hated the day she had. Unreasonable demands had been followed with unreasonable expectations and equally unreasonable criticisms. All in all a typical day.

She felt a slight pinch of guilt as her carefully constructed mean face landed on the homeless. She tried to strike a balance between the mean face and one too inviting as she glanced the the 49er. He just ignored her and she felt inexplicably slighted.

Her stride became strident as he marched past the closed lunch counters and edged her way through the thickening crowd as she approached the subway station.

She passed several people from work but none that she knew well enough to acknowledge and some she felt just as happy ignoring. She tried to throw a cold icy wind behind her as she passed one particularly pushy manager who had sent several thinly polite messages regarding a video he wanted posted that featured him. She hoped he felt a chill and would catch cold and not come in the next day.

Finally she was within 10 feet of the subway entrance. She decided to split in two to better deal with her evening. The Madeline with the blonde ponytail, jean jacket and tan slacks continued toward the station reaching in her bag for a book to read on the train.

Another Madeline with exquisitely styled hair, a saucy black dressy tank and a red and black silk skirt headed across the street looking for a bar, a drink, and perhaps more.

Jean jacket Madeleine debated between taking the train in the opposite direction to get a jump on the people outbound. But her train was coming next and she decided to risk it. To her surprise it looked fairly empty. An asian lady cut her off getting on the train and a white guy in a suit cut off the asian lady. The double cut off left her the only one standing in her section of the car. She split in two again, loeaving the jean jacket Madleine standing politely reading while another Madeleine with a tatoo on her kneck, a black t-shirt and black jeans stomped off ot the other end of the car to look for a seat. She found th suit guy who had cut off jean jacket Madeleine hogging a double seat all to himself. Without asking she shoved in him beside him, smiled, and pulled out a magazine from her green canvas backpack with an anarchy symbol neatly inscribed on the front pocket.

Meanwhile at Jeff’s Grill, silk skirt Madeleine was perched on a bar stool drinking a cosmo and watching the television with disinterest as she though back across her day. A man in a beige suit ordered a beer and struck up a conversation with her. IN 5 seconds she knew he’d be passable in bed, uninterested in her, and a jerk to his wife. She milked all of that from the way he ordered and the way he introduced himself.

“Hi, I’m Mark.”

She told him while she wasn’t against a passable night in bed she wasn’t in the mood for putting up with a cheating jerk who would be defensive about an attitude she never had or would hold.

“Hi.”

He replied that he didn’t really care what she thought of him as long as they both had a good time.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

Sh re-emphasized that while physically it might be enjoyable the aftermath wouldn’t be worth the trouble, so thanks but no thanks.

“Got one.”

He let her know the offer still stood.

“All right.”

She politely declined by turning her head away from him and getting in lost in thought and the brownian motion of her alcohol.

On the train, jean jacket Madeleine got off the train and turned left towards home while hippie Madeleine turned right towards the coffee shop. Punk Madleine had got off with the white guy after chatting him up about his job as a lawyer. She was headed back to his apartment to have some drinks and listen to his Dead Kennedys records. It turned out he was an activist lawyer for environmental causes and had been a huge punk in the early 1990s.

Hippie Madleine passed punk Madeleine and merged back into her, instantly regretting not making it to the coffee shop. Thi sled punk Madeleine to ask lawyer guy if he wanted to get coffee. He wasn’t all that interested but saw Madleine’s sudden interest and so agreed. As they turned around, a Madeleine with curly blonde hair and a baseball cap on, decided to go work out before going home. Punk-hippie Madeleine decided she was tired and the coffee would help her stay awake.

Downtown, silk skirt Madleine had met a very cool girl who had a good sense of humour and seemed worth her time. A church-going Madeleine split off to head to an evening bible study near home, while silk skirt Madeleine headed to funny girl’s house.

Jean jacket Madeleine had a frozen pot roast for dinner and sat down to finish reading her book. Church-going Madeleine noticed workout Madeleine coming out of the gym and joined up with her to head home. Silk skirt Madeleine ran into punk-hippie Madeleine at the corner convenience store near her house buying aspirin. They laughed and walked home together.

Jean-jacket Madeleine had fallen asleep in her chair. As silk skirt Madleine stumbled in, she woke up, collected herself and moved off towards bed. She still dreaded th enext day but hoped a good night’s sleep would help her deal.

Recently after years of discussion we adopted a dog. Thank god. It’s over. The guilt trips. The strange behaviour with the stuffed animal. The mournful looks. We have a dog. She’s great. Best dog in the world.But my wife is still acting as if we don’t have a dog in one very odd way. Just like before we adopted Jango, my wife sits at her laptop cruising dog adoption sites, craigslist, and yes, even dogster.

I’m worried.

She assures me she doesn’t want another dog, she’s just looking. Today she put forth the excuse that she’s looking for Jango’s brothers and sisters.

Hmmm.

Perhaps she never wanted a dog at all (not that she doesn’t love Jango. She does. Maybe what she wanted was the search. The looking. The quest. Or maybe she’s tired of talking to me. I know I am.

So What would have happened if major league baseball franchises had never moved?

Here’s a stab.

Does it bother Mormons that theior religion is based on a visit from the angel Moroni? Moron – i? Probably not.