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BOSTON - Move over, Bucky Dent. Step aside, Bill Buckner. Make room, incredibly, for Jonathan Papelbon. The star closer is the stunned symbol of the latest Red Sox collapse. This one lasted a month and finally ended when there were no more games left to lose. Rays, Cardinals clinch playoff spots "This is just maybe the worst situation that I ever have been involved in my whole career," designated hitter David Ortiz said. "It's going to stay in a lot of people's minds for a while." No team has blown a bigger lead in September — a nine-game margin through...

Drama all around.

How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart DNAA new model of the way the THz waves interact with DNA explains how the damage is done and why evidence has been so hard to gather. Great things are expected of terahertz waves, the radiation that fills the slot in the electromagnetic spectrum between microwaves and the infrared. Terahertz waves pass through non-conducting materials such as clothes , paper, wood and brick and so cameras sensitive to them can peer inside envelopes, into living rooms and "frisk" people at distance. The way terahertz waves are absorbed and emitted can also be used to determine...

The New York Yankees this year had a payroll of $206 million. The San Diego Padres had a payroll of $37 million — and neither team won its division. So who had the better year? I think it was Paul McCartney who once said, “I don’t care too much for money ‘cause money can’t buy you a World Series championship, although it can pretty consistently get you into the playoffs.” He’s right. Lance Berkman is making $14.5 million this year. That’s more than the combined salaries of the Indians’ entire starting lineup in their last game of the season —...

Watch Charlie Crist throw out the first pitch before today's Rangers-Rays game (ALDS game 2). His throw is worse than Obama's.

Ambulances were called to La Jolla Wednesday afternoon after at least 30 people were stung by sting rays. The attacks happened at both La Jolla Shores and Blacks Beach up the coast to the north. Lifeguards said that at one point, they were treating 11 or 12 people at the same time. Paramedics were called in to assist with triage because of the abundance of victims. Most of the victims are treated by immersing the stung spot in hot water right away. However, they monitor the victims' vital signs. A lifeguard said that if you are allergic to bees, it's...

 East W L Pct GB Home Road East Cent West Streak L10 New York Yankees 50 31 .617 -- 28-13 22-18 20-11 10-7 9-6 Won 2 6-4 Boston Red Sox 49 33 .598 1.5 29-17 20-16 18-17 10-9 8-2 Lost 1 6-4 Tampa Bay Rays 48 33 .593 2.0 20-19 28-14 19-10 11-6 11-6 Won 2 6-4 Toronto Blue Jays 41 42 .494 10.0 21-19 20-23 13-14 11-9 10-8 Lost 2 2-8 Baltimore Orioles 25 57 .305 25.5 16-25 9-32 9-27 4-6 5-13 Lost 1 5-5  Central W L Pct GB Home Road East Cent West Streak L10 Detroit...

Are cosmic rays revealing the quantum nature of spacetime? Could theories of (not) everything help solve the puzzle of quantum gravity? The architect of doubly special relativity thinks so.In his youth, there were two things that regularly competed for Giovanni Amelino-Camelia’s attention: his favorite soccer team, Napoli, and "anything that came close to being scientific." And since Napoli was struggling in the Italian soccer league in the summer of 1978, Amelino-Camelia found himself watching a series of programs on special relativity instead of soccer. "That was really the point of no return for me," he remembers. "Although I was 13-years...

Washington, June 28: The sun, a star at the centre of the solar system, is known to provide ideal conditions for life to thrive on Earth. But, astronomers have claimed that it also leaves the planet wide open to harmful cosmic rays. A joint team from University of Arizona and University of Texas in the US has found that the sun periodically leaves Earth open to assaults from interstellar nasties in a way that most stars do not. The sun protects humans from cosmic rays and dust from beyond the solar system by enveloping in the heliosphere -- a bubble...

Data from several different space and ground based observatories imply the presence of a nearby object that is beaming cosmic rays our way. Scientists with the Fermi Space Telescope say an unknown pulsar may be close by, sending electrons and positrons towards Earth. Or another more exotic explanation is that the particles could come from the annihilation of dark matter. But whatever it is, the source is relatively close, surely in our galaxy. “If these particles were emitted far away, they’d have lost a lot of their energy by the time they reached us,” said Luca Baldini, a Fermi collaborator....

PHILADELPHIA -- Game 5 of the 2008 World Series will not resume Tuesday due to inclement weather, Major League Baseball announced. Game 5 is now tentatively scheduled to resume on Wednesday evening at 8:37 p.m. ET, weather permitting. In a statement, Commissioner Bud Selig said: "While obviously we want to finish Game Five as soon as possible, the forecast for today does not allow for us to continue the game this evening. "We are closely monitoring tomorrow's forecast and will continue to monitor the weather on an hourly basis. We will advise fans as soon as we are able to...

Phillies lead series 3-1 Tampa Bay 97-65 (Road: 40-41) 8:29pm ET Philadelphia 92-70 (Home: 48-33) TV: FOX TB: S. Kazmir (0-1, 4.50) PHI: C. Hamels (1-0, 2.57) >>Come Monday night, the team of 10,000 losses could give title-starved Philadelphia its first champion in any of the four big sports since the NBA’s 76ers in 1983. The Phillies’ only Series victory came in 1980.

Tampa Bay 97-65 (Road: 40-41) Philadelphia 92-70 (Home: 48-33) 8:29 pm ET TV: FOX TB: A. Sonnanstine (0-0, NA) PHI: J. Blanton (0-0, NA) Phillies lead series 2-1

Game 3 (weather permitting) live thread; I know I'm posting it pretty early but I'll be away from comp. most of the day Rain could wash out Game 3 of World Series PHILADELPHIA (AP)—Ready, set, rainout? Brad Lidge and almost everyone else in Philadelphia is geared up for the city’s first World Series game in 15 years Saturday night. Trouble is, it might be a washout. According to weather.com on Friday evening, the forecast called for a 70-80 percent chance of rain Saturday afternoon—though it was only about 30 percent by 7 p.m. Game 3 between the Phillies and Tampa...

Phillies lead series 1-0. 8:29 pm ET TV: FOX PHI: B. Myers (0-0, NA) TB: J. Shields (0-0, NA) ----------------------------------------- Rain in Philly could alter World Series schedule ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)—Rain in Philadelphia’s forecast this weekend could alter the World Series schedule—and pitching plans for both teams. Game 3 between the Tampa Bay Rays and Phillies is slated for Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park, but there is a 70 percent chance of rain in Philadelphia that day, according to weather.com. Baseball spokesman Pat Courtney said if the game is postponed, it would be pushed back to Sunday and...

I'll at least start a WS Game 1 thread (anyone got a ping list, ping it here). Rays-Phillies at Tampa. btw, had the Red Sox won on Sunday night, tonight's game 1 would have been at Fenway park; weather.com predicts lows in the 30s tonight in Boston (what could have been...) Instead, More Cowbell in St. Petersburg. Inside. Philadelphia 92-70 (Road: 44-37) 8:35pm ET Tampa Bay 97-65 (Home: 57-24) TV: FOX PHI: C. Hamels (0-0, NA) TB: S. Kazmir (0-0, NA)

The Politico is reporting that Sen. Barack Obama told a crowd in Tampa Florida that he was “showing some love for the Rays,” as several members of which joined him onstage. Politico says the only problem with that is that earlier this month Obama declared his love for the Philadelphia Phillies. In baseball you can’t have it both ways – ask Gov. Bill Richardson when he declared his allegiance to the Red Sox and the Yankees, Richardson joked to NBC’s late great Tim Russert on the Meet the Press: "This is the thing about me: I can bring people together....

The last 2 years the World Series has seen expansion teams from Colorado and Florida.

Tampa Bay has just defeated the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox in Game 7, by the score of 3-1. The Rays had led 3 games to 1, and 7-0 in the 7th inning of Game 5, before the Sox won that game, and the next, to force tonight's Game 7. The Rays, by virtue of the AL's win in the All Star Game, will have home field advantage against the Philadelphia Phillies, who eliminated the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games, last Wednesday. Game 1 of the World Series will be Wednesday night, October 22, on FOX. The...

The Boston Red Sox, down 7-0 in the 7th inning, score 4 in the 7th, 3 in the 8th inning, and one in the bottom of the ninth to survive in their series against the Tampa Bay Rays. The series now switches to Tampa for Game 6 on Saturday, and - if necessary - Game 7 on Sunday. Tampa now leads 3-2.