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Schilling strikes out 3,000th; A's sweep OAKLAND, Calif. - Barry Zito outpitched Curt Schilling on a day the Boston ace became the 14th pitcher with 3,000 career strikeouts, Mark Ellis and Bobby Kielty each hit solo home runs and the Oakland Athletics beat the Red Sox 7-2 Wednesday to complete a three-game sweep. Jason Kendall doubled among his three hits, drove in a run, and scored twice for the A's, who won their season-best ninth straight game at home and 15th in 19 overall. Nick Swisher had an RBI double and Frank Thomas, Mark Kotsay and Jay Payton all singled in runs. Oakland began the day with a 7 1/2-game lead over the Los Angeles Angels in the AL West. The A's have not held a bigger advantage in the division race since being 8 1/2 games up on Sept. 25, 1992. Zito (15-8) pitched 6 1-3 strong innings to win his third straight start, receiving a standing ovation when he left after striking out Alex Cora on his 112th pitch. The lefty, likely in his final season for the A's, escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth. He allowed eight hits and one run, struck out eight and walked two. Schilling (14-7) became the first pitcher to reach 3,000 strikeouts since Greg Maddux fanned San Francisco's Omar Vizquel for No. 3,000 on July 26, 2005. But Schilling lost his third straight decision and hasn't won in five starts since beating Tampa Bay on Aug. 4. The 39-year-old Schilling allowed a leadoff double to Jason Kendall before getting Swisher swinging for the milestone strikeout. His accomplishment was announced and Schilling received a lengthy ovation. He stepped off the mound and tipped his hat, his wife Shonda and children watching from nearby in the stands. He gave way to Mike Timlin after Kendall's RBI single in the sixth gave the Athletics a 5-1 lead. The right-hander struck out four over 5 1-3 innings, allowed 11 hits and six runs and walked one in a 108-pitch performance. Kielty connected for his seventh homer with two outs in the second to tie the game after Eric Hinske gave the Red Sox the lead in the top half of the inning on an RBI single. Ellis hit his 10th home run leading off the third and fell a single short of the cycle. He tripled in the sixth and doubled to start the eighth. Dustin Pedroia added an RBI groundout in the seventh for the Red Sox, who lost their sixth straight game and 12th in 14. They started the day 7 1/2 games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East, Boston's worst division deficit since being down 8 1/2 games on Aug. 19, 2004. Before the game, manager Terry Francona announced that slugger David Ortiz would remain at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston until Thursday as a precaution and for further tests on his heart. Ortiz felt heart palpitations earlier this month and again before Monday night's game in Oakland, where he was a late scratch from the lineup. He then returned to Boston for evaluation. The Red Sox had one bench player available — Javy Lopez — for Wednesday's game after scratching center fielder Coco Crisp less than an hour before the first pitch with an injured left shoulder. Crisp was hurt making a diving catch to rob Payton of a hit in the fourth inning of Tuesday night's 2-1 loss to the A's. Notes:@ Schilling's Boston teammate, Mike Lowell, was Randy Johnson's 3,000th strikeout victim on Sept. 10, 2000. ... The A's played without RF Milton Bradley, who fouled a ball off his right ankle Tuesday night and also had a sore side muscle. ... Swisher has struck out six times against Schilling, who has fanned 860 different batters in his 19-year big league career. IMO, he's a jag, but he's a great pitcher.

Lawyer charged with murdering neighbor JOHN CHRISTOFFERSEN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 42 minutes ago FAIRFIELD, Conn. - A lawyer climbed through a neighbor's bedroom window and stabbed him to death after being told by a family member that the man had molested his 2-year-old daughter, authorities say. Barry James, 58, was stabbed in the chest nearly a dozen times Monday. The lawyer, Jonathon Edington, 29, was charged with murder and burglary and was released on $1 million bail Wednesday. Capt. Gary MacNamara said that police had not received a complaint about the child being assaulted before the killing, and "we have no indication it's true or not true." Edington's attorney, Michael Sherman, said the information came from Edington's wife. "The daughter gave the mother information which was alarming and disturbing. The mom relayed it to her husband. That was the spark," Sherman said. James' 87-year-old mother discovered his body. When officers went to Edington's home, they found him standing by his kitchen sink with what appeared to be blood on him, and a large kitchen knife next to him on a counter, authorities said "He's in shock," Edington's attorney said. "This is the most unexpected turn of events one can imagine with this young man's background." Police had gone to the neighborhood before, when Edington called to complain that he could see James through a window, police said. "Either he was partly clothed or revealed parts of his anatomy that were inappropriate," MacNamara said. Edington, a graduate of Syracuse University and Fordham University Law School, has been practicing patent law, Sherman said. Police said Edington has no criminal record. Rita James declined to comment on her son's death. James served two days behind bars in 2001 on a drunken driving charge, according to the state Correction Department. "He had some bizarre behavior over the last month," said Darrell Maynard, a neighbor. "He drove his car through his garage, hit the other neighbor's building." Another time a neighbor found James intoxicated on the street, Maynard said. James shouted obscenities at children, he said. As for Edington, Maynard said: "Something had to happen that was terrible for this to have occurred." Edington "seemed like a computer geek or something. He was not anybody you would ever feel you were threatened by."

QUOTE(bmags @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 06:18 PM) accounting formulas are usually taught in stat and calc classes anyways. Calc was not a standard class when I was in HS. Is it now? Anything beyond algebra 1 and geom were not required. I had to apply to Calc and Trig and it was only for honor students. I did not have an actual accounting class until I got to college.

Ugh... no. QUOTE(kapkomet @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 04:27 PM) You fire people in a respectful way. Period. You leave people with their dignity. Unless you want a "postal" episode.

QUOTE(BHAMBARONS @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 03:47 PM) Yep, But I was just told about and I don't have a very good memory so I decided to post now so I wouldn't forget.

It's staple day... yay!!

Little early, no?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060830/ap_on_...ioshack_layoffs RadioShack lays off employees via e-mail FORT WORTH, Texas - RadioShack Corp. followed through on its announced plans to cut about 400 jobs, but the electronics retailer has been forced on the defensive about its method of notifying laid-off employees by e-mail. Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters received an e-mail Tuesday morning telling them they were being dismissed immediately. "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress," the notice stated. "Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated." Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, spokeswoman Kay Jackson said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site. Management experts expressed surprise at RadioShack's use of electronic notification instead of face-to-face meetings with supervisors. Derrick D'Souza, a management professor at the University of North Texas, said he had never heard of such a large number of terminated employees being notified electronically. He said it could be seen as dehumanizing to employees. "If I put myself in their shoes, I'd say, 'Didn't they have a few minutes to tell me?'" D'Souza said. Laid-off workers got one to three weeks pay for each year of service, up to 16 weeks for hourly employees and 36 weeks for those with base bay of at least $90,000, the company said. The company announced Aug. 10 that it would cut 400 to 450 jobs, mostly at headquarters, to cut expenses and "improve its long-term competitive position in the marketplace." RadioShack has also closed nearly 500 stores, consolidated distribution centers and liquidated slow-moving merchandise in an effort to shake out of a sales slump. Sales of cellular phones, a key item for RadioShack, have been disappointing. Last month, the company hired a former Kmart executive, Julian Day, as chief executive, replacing an interim leader who stepped in when the previous CEO quit after admitting lying on his resume. One of Day's first actions was to cancel conference calls with analysts to review RadioShack's financial results, an unusual step for public companies.

QUOTE(beautox @ Aug 28, 2006 -> 07:46 AM) That was amazing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060830/od_nm/...lia_brothels_dc SYDNEY (Reuters) - Hot and bothered by rising pump prices? Australian brothels are offering clients discounts based on their gas bills. Brothel owners claim the system works much the same way as supermarkets which offer shoppers discounted gas prices by presenting their grocery bills when they fill up their tanks. "If you come in and spend time with one of our lovely ladies, we'll give you a discount of 20 cents a liter," Kerry, manager of Sydney brothel The Site, told Reuters Wednesday. There is no link between brothels, petrol providers or supermarkets but brothels like The Site and Madame Kerry's say the system is simple. Once you've filled up your car, bring your receipt to the brothel and they'll discount the price of your visit. The bill for a full 50-liter tank at 126.9 cents per liter comes to A$63.45 ($48.22). With the offered 20c a liter discount, the petrol bill would have instead come to A$53.45. That A$10 difference is taken off the A$150 cost of a 30-minute session with one of the brothel's "service providers." The Site has taken out cut-out newspaper ads offering the service. "We're getting more media exposure, if you want to put it that way, than basically bums on beds," Kerry said. Brothels are legal across most of Australia, but states have strict laws against soliciting and running brothels in residential areas, and near churches or schools.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 01:37 PM) Try doing a little research next time...

QUOTE(NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 01:40 PM) My viewpoint on this has zero to do with art. Heck, I was big into music in high school. But frankly, no, I don't think a dress code is a social judgement. I find it to be the exact opposite - its both protecting kids FROM judgement, and further, allowing judgement to occur on more important factors like learning and art and music and the matters at hand. Ditto. QUOTE(BobDylan @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 01:41 PM) So you're for the arts, but against judgment? That's ridiculous. You misunderstood.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060830/ap_on_...ariners_soriano I can't believe his skull didn't fracture.

QUOTE(BobDylan @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 01:22 PM) Mom's and dad's can't do anything if a school won't promote change. Maybe if mommy and daddy taught their kid some self respect they wouldn't feel the need to "stand out" by showing their asses in public. It all starts at home.

QUOTE(BobDylan @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 01:20 PM) Reason? What reason? So people's asses, boob's, and f*** you's are not a common site in school. Did you even read the article that started this? QUOTE(BobDylan @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 01:21 PM) Don't you see that a dress code is a social judgment? Oh hell... You are kidding, right?

QUOTE(BobDylan @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 01:18 PM) Then why the f*** do schools sit back and not work to change this? Uhh.. did you mean why don't the mommies and daddies and the kids themselves work to change this...?

QUOTE(BobDylan @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 01:08 PM) I'm saying, which it has become apparent people are missing, that clothes don't make people smart. They don't prepare them for anything but the way other people expect things to be. Nobody should have to wear a suit to work if they don't want to. Getting the job done is the point of a job. That's the point I'm trying to get across. And if schools will promote CHANGE, then the way people dress will eventually be a non-factor. Sure if I want a job in a cubicle, chances are I'll have to dress in a suit and tie if I want that job. But if we start with the kids and teach them that appearance is moot, the word "professionalism" will have a whole new meaning, a meaning that is more fitting. What you're missing is that these rules are there for a reason. Maybe you don't have an issue with your kid going to school and reading "f*** you" on a tshirt, or seeing Tom's ass crack, or Sue's boobs.. but I, and I would guess many others, do.

QUOTE(BobDylan @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 01:02 PM) I understand that. I also recognize that I should be hired by my qualifications, not by the shirt I wear. If you look at some of the richest people in the world, they got there by doing something different, not by conforming. If anyone would take a second and realize that difference is good (and it's a bit shocking that nobody wants to see it from this perspective as Chicago has a HUGE artist community, and not to mention one of the biggest art schools in the country, Columbia College -- a school that promotes difference and does a damn good job doing it) then perhaps the "real world" wouldn't be about "professionalism". Baseball players get contracts on account of how well they play baseball. This is the way it should be everywhere else. And about 10 times out of 10, they are the boss. Become the boss, dress like a slob - and risk your professional career cause IMO you are hurting your credibility if you look like s***. Until then we all must follow rules. And no one is saying difference is not good. They are saying dress how you want just as long as your ass is covered, your boobs are not hanging out, and profanity is not visable.

QUOTE(BobDylan @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 12:54 PM) I do not see inconsistency. And I fail to see how you do. The clothes people wear is a form of expression, it's also a telling of their background. What's wrong with a kid wearing $200 pants and another kid wearing $10 pants in the same classroom? Should we also frown on kids growing up and seeing different cultures? I think you're missing the point. It's not about how much their clothes cost. It's the design of them, how they are wearing them, and what is appropriate in the learning atmosphere. I'm guessing that the main issue here is that if classmates see someone walking around with their boxers hanging out they are talking about that and not concerned with learning.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 12:47 PM) It sure looks like it, and can you blame them one bit? But I thought read somewhere that they were in better shape than the White Sox...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060830/ap_on_...gamist_arrested This guy is sick and his followers are freaks.

Watch out sushi lovers.. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/...story?track=rss Tribune staff report Published August 30, 2006, 12:02 PM CDT Some of the tuna served in Chicago's top sushi restaurants contains so much mercury that it shouldn't be eaten by anyone — man, woman or child — according to a study released today by the group Environment Illinois. "Mercury contamination is a toxic threat to food safety in Illinois," said Max Muller, an advocate for the nonpartisan environmental advocacy group, in a news release announcing the study, called Toxic Tuna. More at link.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060830/ap_on_...by_a_cell_phone WASHINGTON - Don't tell your cell phone any secrets. It might not keep them. Second-hand phones purchased over the Internet surrendered credit card numbers and bank account passwords, business secrets and even evidence of adultery. One married man's girlfriend sent a text message to his cell phone: His wife was getting suspicious. Perhaps they should cool it for a few days. "So," she wrote, "I'll talk to u next week." "You want a break from me? Then fine," he wrote back. Later, the married man bought a new phone. He sold his old one on eBay, at Internet auction, for $290. The guys who bought it now know his secret. The married man had followed the directions in his phone's manual to erase all his information, including lurid exchanges with his lover. But it wasn't enough. A company, Trust Digital of McLean, Va., bought 10 different phones on eBay this summer to test phone-security tools it sells for businesses. The phones all were fairly sophisticated models capable of working with corporate e-mail systems. Curious software experts at Trust Digital resurrected information on nearly all the used phones, including the racy exchanges between guarded lovers. The other phones contained: _One company's plans to win a multimillion-dollar federal transportation contract. _E-mails about another firm's $50,000 payment for a software license. _Bank accounts and passwords. _Details of prescriptions and receipts for one worker's utility payments. The recovered information was equal to 27,000 pages — a stack of printouts 8 feet high. "We found just a mountain of personal and corporate data," said Nick Magliato, Trust Digital's chief executive. Many of the phones were owned personally by the sellers but crammed with sensitive corporate information, underscoring the blurring of work and home. "They don't come with a warning label that says, 'Be careful.' The data on these phones is very important," Magliato said. One phone surrendered the secrets of a chief executive at a small technology company in Silicon Valley. It included details of a pending deal with Adobe Systems Inc., and e-mail proposals from a potential Japanese partner: "If we want to be exclusive distributor in Japan, what kind of business terms you want?" asked the executive in Japan. Trust Digital surmised that the U.S. chief executive gave his old phone to a former roommate, who used it briefly then sold it for $400 on eBay. Researchers found e-mails covering different periods for both men, who used the same address until recently. Experts said giving away an old phone is commonplace. Consumers upgrade their cell phones on average about every 18 months. "Most people toss their phones after they're done; a lot of them give their old phones to family members or friends," said Miro Kazakoff, a researcher at Compete Inc. of Boston who follows mobile phone sales and trends. He said selling a used phone — which sometimes can fetch hundreds of dollars — is increasingly popular. The 10 phones Trust Digital studied represented popular models from leading manufacturers. All the phones stored information on "flash" memory chips, the same technology found in digital cameras and some music players. Flash memory is inexpensive and durable. But it is slow to erase information in ways that make it impossible to recover. So manufacturers compensate with methods that erase data less completely but don't make a phone seem sluggish. Phone manufacturers usually provide instructions for safely deleting a customer's information, but it's not always convenient or easy to find. Research in Motion Ltd. has built into newer Blackberry phones an easy-to-use wipe program. Palm Inc., which makes the popular Treo phones, puts directions deep within its Web site for what it calls a "zero out reset." It involves holding down three buttons simultaneously while pressing a fourth tiny button on the back of the phone. But it's so awkward to do that even Palm says it may take two people. A Palm executive, Joe Fabris, said the company made the process deliberately clumsy because it doesn't want customers accidentally erasing their information. Trust Digital resurrected erased e-mails and other information from a used Treo phone provided by The Associated Press for a demonstration after it was reset and appeared empty. Once the phone was reset using Palm's awkward "zero-out" technique, no information could be recovered. The AP already used that technique to protect data on its reporters' phones. "The tools are out there" for hackers and thieves to rummage through deleted data on used phones, Trust Digital's chief technology officer, Norm Laudermilch, said. "It definitely does not take a Ph.D." Fabris, Palm's director of wireless solutions, said the company may warn customers in an upcoming newsletter about the risks of selling their used phones after AP's inquiries. "It might behoove us to raise this issue," Fabris said. Dean Olmstead of Fresno, Calif., sold his Treo phone on eBay after using it six months. He didn't know about Palm's instructions to safely delete all his personal information. Now, he's worried. "I probably should have done that," Olmstead said. "Folks need to know this. I'm hoping my phone goes to a nice person." Guy Martin of Albuquerque, N.M., wasn't as concerned someone will snoop on his secrets. He also sold his Treo phone on eBay and didn't delete his information completely. "I'm not that kind of valuable person, so I'm not really worried," said Martin, who runs the http://www.imusteat.com Web site. "I guarantee that three-quarters of the people who buy these phones don't think about this." Trust Digital found no evidence thieves or corporate spies are routinely buying used phones to mine them for secrets, Magliato said. "I don't think the bad guys have figured this out yet." President Bush's former cybersecurity adviser, Howard Schmidt, carried up to four phones and e-mail devices — and said he was always careful with them. To sanitize his older Blackberry devices, Schmidt would deliberately type his password incorrectly 11 times, which caused data on them to self-destruct. "People are just not aware how much they're exposing themselves," Schmidt said. "This is more than something you pick up and talk on. This is your identity. There are people really looking to exploit this." Executives at Trust Digital agreed to review with AP the information extracted from the used phones on the condition AP would not identify the sellers or their employers. They also showed AP receipts from the Internet auctions in which they bought the 10 phones over the summer for prices between $192 and $400 each. Trust Digital said it intends to return all the phones to their original owners, and said it kept the recovered personal information on a single computer under lock and disconnected from its corporate network at its headquarters in northern Virginia. Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, a respected computer security expert, said phone owners should decide whether to auction their used equipment for a few hundred dollars — and risk revealing their secrets — or effectively toss their old phones under a large truck to dispose of them. What about a case like the Lothario whose affair Trust Digital discovered? "I'd run over the phone," Zatko said. "Maybe give it an acid bath."

QUOTE(BobDylan @ Aug 30, 2006 -> 12:35 PM) You're not looking at it from my perspective. Difference in a classroom is good. The public school system has never understood this. But if there is a dresscode problem it distracts from the teaching element. You are right... focus should be on the teaching. Right now it's on what designer label is on your ass.

Guilty verdict in N.D. student's death FARGO, N.D. - A federal jury found a convicted sex offender guilty Wednesday in the kidnapping and killing of college student Dru Sjodin, whose body was found abandoned in Minnesota a ravine. The verdict clears the way for the first death penalty deliberations in North Dakota in more than a century. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060830/ap_on_...n_student_trial