UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

Dede, now 37, is an Indonesian who accidentally cut his knee while working as a builder at a building site at 15 years of age. It was only a small wound, but a few weeks later a small wart then developed on his lower leg, then spread uncontrollably throughout his body.

The condition manifested itself as horn-like extensions, or gnarled growths, so big and thick that they looked like “twisted tree roots growing out of his skin.”

It had caused him, over time, to be sacked from his job by his early 20s, left by his wife of 10 years and shunned by neighbours. His 2 children had to be taken care of by relatives.

He was nicknamed the “Tree Man”.

It’s not that he didn’t try to find a cure before: Indonesian doctors tried their best, even burning off some of his growths, but the growths simply came back a few weeks later, and the growth rate was even faster!

Then, it was only natural that Dede’s worst fear was that the warts would completely cover his face, making him blind and starving him to death.

It was diagnosed as an extremely rare severe Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection by Dr Anthony Gaspari, American dermatologist. In fact HPV is a “fairly common infection” where in normal cases, it only causes small warts to develop. However, in Dede’s case, he has a rare genetic fault that gets in the way of his immune system: his body cannot deal with the warts. Hence, the virus was able to:

hijack the cellular machinery of his skin cells, ordering them to produce massive amounts of the substance that caused the tree-like growths known as “cutaneous horns” on his hands and feet.

The condition became so bad that it became life-threatening, as the warts caused a lung infection which necessitated his hospitalisation in early 2008.

By the end of his 9-month stay in hospital, 6 kg of warts were surgically removed from his body. In all, 95% of the warts had been removed.

Finally on 26th August 2008 he was cleared to go home so that he could observe the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan with his family.

Before he went home, he showed journalists how he could now write for the first time in more than 10 years:

If you thought his condition is still bad, you should see his condition BEFORE being hospitalised.

Video of him being interviewed by The Telegraph UK before he was admitted to hospital:

Click here to see the video

UPDATE 9th Sept 2008

She’s sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. She was only spared the death penalty when the jury failed to reach a consensus.

Judge Mary Wiseman summed it up:

The crime was shocking and utterly abhorrent for a civilised society. No adjectives exist to adequately describe this heinous atrocity.

Still, Arnold has not given up. Her defence lawyers are appealing, saying there’s evidence that “somebody else was responsible for Paris Talley’s death, and that the cellmate had now changed her story.”

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China Arnold, 28 might not be as bad as Sabine Hilschenz, the German mother who murdered her own 8 newborn, but at least even Ms Hilschenz did not MICROWAVE her child to death.

On 29th August a US court in Ohio convicted Arnold of murdering Paris Talley, her one month old baby daughter for the unspeakable crime. The baby suffered “high-heat internal burns,” after she put her in the oven and switched it on.

When the verdict was announced, she showed no emotion, only lowering her gaze.

She killed Paris Talley in 2005 after fighting with her boyfriend about whether he was the biological father of the baby. Apparently she resorted to the microwave job because she feared he would leave her if he found out that he was not the baby’s father.

Source

Good reads

- The most controversial pictures of a medallist at the Bejing Olympics

- Probably the closest finish at an Olympics swimming final ever

- The most gruelling event of the Beijing Olympics

- The greatest displays of anger at the Beijing Olympics, the first by Ara Abrahamian who threw his bronze medal right after receiving it (he was later proven right), and the second by Cuban taekwondo exponent Angel Matos who kicked the referee [photo gallery].

Videos [see them while they last :-)]

Click here to see the videos

UPDATE 26th August 2008

The project has been suspended.

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Reverend Father Antonio Rungi is an Italian Roman Catholic priest, based in the southern city of Naples.

He wants to organise the world’s first beauty pageant for nuns, dubbed The Miss Sister Italy.

Why? In his own words:

I want to erase a stereotype of them as being old and dour. Nuns are above all women and beauty is a gift from God. This contest will be a way to show there isn’t just the beauty we see on television but also a more discreet charm. You really think all nuns are old, stunted and sad? This isn’t the case anymore. Plus, the idea of staging such a contest had been suggested by nuns themselves!

But forget about your fantasies of nuns parading in bathing suits, the furthest they’re expected to go is uncover their heads.

Of course we can always look forward to nuns who look like actress Sophia Loren who played a nun in the movie White Sister (1972) which incidentally is Fr Rungi’s “feminine ideal.”

Rev Fr Rungi’s modus operandi:

1. Ask nuns to send their photos to him, complete with the nun’s own account of her life, personality, daily activities and spiritual development. He expects at least 1,000 nuns to respond, many of them non-Italian. He said there were nuns from Africa and Latin America who were “really very, very pretty. The Brazilian girls above all.” However, contestants must be between the ages of 18 and 40. They can be either full members of an order or novices.

2. Conduct the contest entirely online via his blog (currently down), starting September 2008, then ask internet users to choose the winner.

Source
The BBC
The Times UK

George Eyser

The first person ever to do so was George Eyser (b 1871), an American gymnast at the 1904 St Louis Olympics, and amazingly, getting 3 golds! He had a wooden prosthesis installed for his left leg. He lost his real leg after it was run over by a train.

Natalie du Toit

The next person to do so would only come more than 100 years later: at the 2008 Beijing Olympics South African Natalie du Toit, 24, qualified for, and competed in the 10,000m open swimming event, where she timed 2 hours & 49.9 seconds and finished 16th out of 24 participants, 82.2 seconds behind the gold medallist.

Of that result, she said: “I tried my best. I’m not too happy with it, but I’ll be back for 2012.”

She continued with a truly inspiring message:

My message isn’t just to disabled people. It’s to everyone out there that you have to work hard. I’ve been through a lot of ups and downs … but I’ve seen a lot of good things along the way. I was able to use the negativism in a good light and say after my accident, ‘I can still do it if I work hard.’ You have to set dreams, set goals and never give up.

By finishing 16th, she defeated 9 others. One of them was Chloe Sutton, who after finishing broke down in tears, and every part of her body cramping and aching, then said:

I was swimming next to her and she beat me—and she has one leg. It’s incredible she was able to do that.

She qualified for the 2008 Olympics by finishing fourth in the 10km open water race at the Open Water World Championships. She was only 5.1 seconds behind the winner of that race.

She’s the first female amputee swimmer ever to qualify for the Olympics although when she swims, she does so without the aid of any prosthetic limb.

At age 17 her left leg was amputated at the knee due to a scooter accident. She was on her way back to school after swimming practice. 3 months later, before she had even started walking again, she was back in the pool.

Natalia Partyka

Then there is Ms Partyka, 19 of Poland who also competed at Beijing 2008 in table tennis. She lacks her right forearm.

4 days after the stunning 100m performance, he’s done it again, or as some people said: “lightning bolt struck twice at the same spot.”

If ever there was a Michael Phelps of track and field, it must be Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, 22, who at current form is totally untouchable.

When he really stomps on the accelerator, everyone else’s fighting for mere silver.

Leading all the way from the start, he was already practically miles ahead at the bend.

19.30 seconds. Bolt is the first man ever to break world records in both the 100 and 200 at the same Olympics.

Even more amazingly, he was running into a headwind of about two miles per hour!

Nobody else, apart from living legend Michael Johnson had even broken 19.60 seconds!

Miles ahead of the rest, this time he was not clowning around at the tape

Ironically, Johnson was reported to have said, hours before the start that he didn’t think Bolt would be able to break his record in Beijing:

I don’t think his training has been geared to that part yet. But in a few years it will be, and then I will be ready to kiss my record goodbye.

Well he did

Silver medalist Churandy Martina clocked 19.82, more than half a second behind. In an event where usually hundredths of seconds separate winners and losers, this is absolutely mind-boggling. In fact, it was the largest ever margin of victory in a modern Olympics 200m race.

And we thought Johnson’s 12-year old record would never be broken, at least not in this century.

If it’s even possible to add more superlatives to the historic feat, the win completed the first Olympic golden sprint double in a quarter of a century. He’s the ninth man ever to do so.

It really makes one wonder what could’ve been if he really pushed himself during the 100? The world’s first sub 9-second 100m?

At the same time, this was the greatest 200m of all time: 5 men dipped below 20 seconds, although 2nd placed Churandy Martina and 3rd placed American Wallace Spearmon were later disqualified for leaving their lanes.

Video of the race:

Click here to read the rest of the post

By far, the worst one must be the one endured by Hungarian weightlifter Janos Baranyai, 24, who was competing in the 77 kilo divison on the 13th of August. It was his first Olympics.

He was attempting to snatch 148 kg (326lbs) during his third lift when his right elbow popped out of its socket (some reports said he “tore his right elbow joint”). That resulted in his right arm no longer able to support the weight of the barbell, causing it to be bent backwards. He then fell to the floor in shock, trembling and crying out in pain while people rushed to his aid.

All videos about the incident on youtube have been taken down, so only photo montages are available, but some people say the photos made it seem much worse.

So, watch at your own discretion.

Click here to see more

It’s a photograph of water polo player Christina Tsoukala of Greece in their first group match, which was against Australia, fighting for the ball with rival Gemma Beadsworth on 11th August.

Somehow she had a case of “wardrobe malfunction” which resulted in her left breast being unintentionally exposed.

At the end Australia defeated Greece 8-6. Greece went on to lose their other 2 group matches, hence finishing last in their group.

I first saw this at chilipaddy.blogspot.com posted on 14th August. Apparently he got it from yahoo.com. When I checked just now i.e. 4 days after the fact, amazingly the photo’s still there at yahoo’s website!

Finally, after 17 years it was done. The greatest 100m race in the world is no longer the century dash at the 1991 World Championships, previously the first and only time 6 men clocked below 10 seconds.

At the Beijing Olympics, the feat was repeated, of course with much quicker times.

At the 1991 World Championships, the result was:

1. Carl Lewis (USA) 9.86 s (World Record)
2. Leroy Burrell (USA) 9.88 s
3. Dennis Mitchell (USA) 9.91 s
4. Linford Christie (Great Britain) 9.92 s
5. Frank Fredericks (Namibia) 9.95 s
6. Ray Stewart (Jamaica) 9.96 s
7. Robson Da Silva (Brazil) 10.12 s
8. Bruny Surin (Canada) 10.14 s

Video:

Click here to see the rest of the post

Men’s 100m

Asafa Powell (Jamaica), 25. Dominated the 100m since 2004 with world records of 9.77 (June 2005) and 9.74 (September 2007). Has 39 sub-10 seconds, a record only bettered by Maurice Greene. Only 2 men have ever run legally under 9.80 seconds more than once, and one of them is Powell, having done so on 5 occasions. Powell is the only man to have run under 9.80 without any wind assistance, at 9.78s in September 2007, and that run remains the fastest ever 100m after correction for wind and altitude.

vs

Usain Bolt (Jamaica), 22, broke Powell’s world record with a time of 9.72 on 31st May 2008. Amazingly, this was only his 5th senior run over the 100m. He has 5 sub-10 seconds in 100m. Apart from Powell, he’s the only athlete to have run legal sub-9.80s more than once: twice in fact.

vs

Tyson Gay (USA), 24 is the reigning world champion at the 100 metres in which Powell finished 3rd. He set his personal best of 9.77s on 28th June during the US Olympics trials. It was an American record and 3rd fastest legal 100m ever. Then the next day he ran the fastest 100m sprint ever timed, at 9.68s but it’s not officially recognized due to a windspeed which exceeded the IAAF legal limit. That time bettered Obadele Thompson’s 9.69s which had stood for 12 years.

Final: 16th August, 10.30pm (local time)

Result:
Video of the race taken by a spectator at the stadium