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Article Submitted by master911. A quiet round of golf is a popular way to relax for many Australians, but experts warn the sport can be so loud it could leave players deaf. Doctors in the United Kingdom say modern titanium clubs create a "sonic boom" when they connect with the ball, which is so loud it could shatter golfers' eardrums. Some believe the risk of going deaf is so great they have advised golfers to wear earplugs to tee off. Experts have identified at least one case of a golfer they believe has hearing damage as a result of using a titanium driver. But Pete's Golf PGA professional Peter Radford said manufacturers were working on making titanium drivers quieter. "When titanium first came out they were trying to make a big head so they stretched the metal further and further . . . and the early ones did make a lot of noise," he said. "But every generation of clubs is quieter." Most golfers associate a satisfying impact noise with a good shot, so manufacturers strive to produce clubs with a sound that is music to a golfer's ears. "The new Callaway FITQ's big selling point is that it's quieter than the Callaway FIT," Radford said. Doctors at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in the UK conducted tests on titanium and stainless steel drivers after a 55-year-old golfer complained of unexplained ringing and reduced hearing in his right ear. He'd been playing golf with a King Cobra LD titanium driver three times a week for 18 months and said the noise was "like a gun going off" and had become so unpleasant he had discarded the club. The doctors could find no other physical explanation for the golfer's hearing loss. When tested, the titanium drivers made a much louder sound than the steel-headed clubs. The doctors' report, published in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal, concluded "caution should be exercised by golfers who play regularly with thin-faced titanium drivers". Report co-author Dr Malcolm Buchanan said the sound from thin-faced titanium drivers could induce temporary or permanent cochlear damage. "Wearing earplugs is a possibility, although it might be a bit too radical for some," he said. Source
MINNEAPOLIS — Organizers of the Twin Cities Marathon said they won't disqualify an 81-year-old runner who won his age group after using a borrowed catheter. Jerry Johncock of Shelbyville, Mich., was sidelined at an aid station about 21 miles into Sunday's race because a blood clot prevented him from urinating. The aid station had no catheter, but a spectator stepped forward to offer Johncock a catheter he had in his car. Aides helped insert the catheter and Johncock went on to finish in a little over 5 hours 22 minutes. Race officials considered disqualifying Johncock because of a rule against improper assistance. But executive director Virginia Brophy Achman said they decided Johncock didn't break the rule. She called Johncock "a great role model and example of what you can do as a runner." Johncock's wife, Dorlene, said her husband was cheered by the ruling. She said he found the whole situation a little humorous. Source
COPENHAGEN: Rio de Janeiro was chosen as the host city for the 2016 Olympic Games after an International Olympic Committee vote in Copenhagen on Friday. The Brazilian city beat Madrid for the right to host the Summer Games after Chicago and Tokyo were eliminated in earlier rounds. The result was announced in a presentation due to start at 1630 GMT. Rio de Janeiro and Madrid go through to a final round of voting, after Chicago were eliminated in the first round. Tokyo were eliminated after the second round of voting for the 2016 Olympics host city. It was a stunning defeat for Chicago, which was expected to be one of the two finalists. Not even the presence of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama — nor a long list of celebrities — was enough to help the United States' third-largest city. Chicago had seemed to pick up momentum in the last few days, with many International Olympic Committee members seemingly charmed by Mrs. Obama. But when IOC president Jacques Rogge announced the results of the first vote, Chicago's name was announced. Hoping to persuade the IOC to award Chicago the 2016 Olympics, Obama and his wife led a heartfelt and, at times, very personal plea Friday. Source 1) The world is ending in 2012 anyway. 2) 75% of Chicago didn't want this drama to begin with. Thank. Gawd
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Thai soccer referee was beaten up by an entire team after sending off three of their players during a match to decide promotion to country's second division, local media reported on Friday. Referee Prakong Sukguamala needed 50 stitches and also broke a finger after being attacked by the Kuiburi FC squad, furious at being shown three red cards during a 4-1 loss to Kasem Bundit on Thursday, the Thai-language Thai Rath newspaper said. The angry players charged into Prakong's dressing room at the stadium in Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok, and started to kick and punch him. They dispersed after police fired gunshots into the air. The players then chased Prakong into the stadium's office, where the hapless official ran into a mirror, leaving him with cuts all over his body. Prakong told Channel 3 television he was forced to lock himself in the room to escape his attackers. In the same interview, Kuiburi's coach accused Prakong of biased refereeing but said he had urged his players to show restraint when tempers flared. Prakong, covered in bruises, insisted he had refereed the game fairly and had been told by Thailand's soccer federation to press charges against the Kuiburi team. Source
Article Submitted by Cipher. There's the "agony of defeat." And then there's this women's ice hockey score from the European Olympic pre-qualifying tournament: Slovakia 82, Bulgaria 0. That's correct: 82 goals for Slovakia, none for Bulgaria. The International Ice Hockey Federation said the result, from a game played Saturday at the tournament in Liepaja, Latvia, set a record score for a women's IIHF-sanctioned event. It was not the all-time record for futility, however; that is still held by Thailand, which lost 92-0 to South Korea in the 1998 Asia-Oceania U18 Championship. Slovakia, which won all four of its games at the tournament, outshot Bulgaria 139-0, scoring on 58.9 percent of its shots on goal. Slovakia averaged one goal every 44 seconds. "We took it as training," Slovakia coach Miroslav Karafiat said after Saturday's game. Bulgaria trailed 7-0 after 5 minutes, 19-0 after 10 and 31-0 at the end of the first period. The drubbing capped a woeful showing for the Bulgarian women, who also lost 30-1 to Croatia and 41-0 to Italy in earlier games. Janka Culikova led Slovakia with 10 goals, while Martina Velickova scored nine. Fourteen different players scored at least one goal. Slovakia, which also beat Croatia, Latvia and Italy, advanced to another qualifying group with Germany, Kazakhstan and France. The winner will secure a spot at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Bulgaria was eliminated after scoring one goal and giving up conceding 192 in the tournament. The Slovakian men's team clinched its biggest ever victory against the Bulgarians 14 years ago when they won 20-0. Source, Source
Olympic-themed condom adverts have been released in China to coincide with the start of the 2008 Beijing Games. The cheeky adverts, which depict stick-man athletes using condoms as apparatus in Olympic events, have become a viral sensation in China. The contraceptives prove themselves remarkably versatile, standing in as bicycle wheels, basketball nets, archery targets and gymnastic rings. A ribbed condom is also used to illustrate choppy water in the swimming version of the campaign. The adverts were made for Chinese condom-maker Elasun, with the broken English slogan “Sports make you health”. The firm is by no means first to make the connection between the Games and sex, with Olympic villages reputed to be hotbeds of after-hours indulgence. Earlier this week it emerged that the 16,000 competitors staying in the Beijing village will be able to purchase a wide variety of soft pornography, including erotic books featuring provocative pictures of naked women with titles such as "Drawing book for the Nude". At the 2004 Athens Olympics 130,000 free condoms were made available to athletes and officials. In the Sydney 2000 Games, each competing athlete was given 51 condoms on arrival at the Olympic Village, but another 20,000 had to be shipped in when supplies began to run low. Source
Article Submitted by ug7344. Ultimate Fighting Championship star Evan Tanner has died in the desert east of San Diego, possibly of heat exposure. Sheriff's Lt. George Moreno said the 37-year-old Tanner was found Monday about two miles from his campsite in a remote area of the Palo Verdes Mountains, where temperatures had reached 110 degrees. Moreno said a preliminary coroner's report suggests Tanner died of heat exposure. Tanner left for the desert last week to go camping and motorcycle riding. His agent, John Hayner, said Tanner called a friend on Wednesday to say the dirt bike had run out of gas. He was about 100 miles from the nearest town. "As an extreme ultimate fighter, practicing mixed martial arts, he really didn't define himself as being a fighter," Hayner told FOXNews.com. "He defined himself as being an adventurer, and he would fund his adventures through fighting." And Tanner has been thinking about risky adventures in recent months. "This summer he wanted to go kayaking from Alaska to California, and I said, 'Evan, that's incredibly dangerous; you could die out there," Hayner told FOXNews.com. "And he goes, 'Well, you could die anywhere.' "He always had this kind of concept [of], well, it sharpens your senses by being on a razor's edge with your life actually on the line." Tanner, 37, had blogged ominously about his trip into the desert to "cleanse." "I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life," he wrote on his journal for Spike TV. Tanner is a former UFC champion middleweight. He lost his last bout in June. Tanner made his MMA debut in April 1997, winning three fights in one night, including a win over Paul Buentello. His biggest fight came in February 2001 when he challenged then-UFC Light Heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz in the main event of UFC 30 but was knocked out in just 32 seconds. Tanner later moved down to 185 pounds and won the vacant UFC Middleweight Championship over David Terrell, but then lost the title in June 2005 to Rich Franklin in a fight where the winner would also become one of the coaches for the second season of "The Ultimate Fighter." The UFC signed Tanner to a four-fight contract last November with the first fight of that contract taking place earlier this year in March at UFC 82 in Columbus, Ohio. He lost by KO to Yushin Okami and then suffered another loss in June to Kendall Grove by split decision on the TUF 7 Finale show in Las Vegas.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi soccer fan shot dead a player of the opposing team as he tried to score an equalizing goal in the final minutes of a match, police said on Monday. The shooting on Saturday in Hilla, 100 km (60 miles) south of Baghdad, during a match between local teams, underscored the country's propensity to lawlessness even as violence by militant groups falls to lows not seen since mid-2003. "As soon as Haider Kadhim (the player) was alone in front of the goalkeeper and close to equalizing, a fan in the crowd fired a pistol at him," a senior police officer in Hilla, who declined to be named, told Reuters. "We arrested this fan immediately but unfortunately the player died." Iraqis love soccer and have often expressed hope the game would help reconcile warring ethnic groups and sects. Iraq's surprise victory in the 2007 Asian Cup brought rare joy and unity to the shattered nation, with Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds pouring into the streets to celebrate their team's 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia in the Jakarta final. Source
A controversial summer hockey camp that teaches youth how to scrap on skates is attracting censure from critics who fear the youngsters are being groomed for hockey mayhem. Organizers defend the fight camp, saying it teaches players to protect themselves. Trevor Lakness, GM of Puckmasters, says they're not trying to make more fights in hockey. "What we're doing is if kids get into fights, they're not going to get hurt, they're going to know how to protect themselves." A Hockey Canada spokesman calls the program unnecessary. The Regina camp is the brainchild of Lakness and Minnesota Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard, who has had 26 fights in 113 games during his first two seasons with the team. The two-hour lesson, which is held at the Puckmasters training facility and costs $40, instructs players from ages 12 to 18 on the art of on-ice fighting. "Kids now go out on the rink and now they have the confidence that 'If I do get into a fight, I'm not going to get my butt kicked'," Lakness said. Instructor Derek Parker said the mandate of the school is not to teach kids how to become teenaged bruisers, but to avoid black eyes themselves. "To get the most out of your players, you have to take the fear away so at least they can protect each other," he said. The camp includes a fight tape that is a compilation of Derek Boogaard and his brother Aaron's junior and professional fights as well as television play-by-play that breaks down the science of the on-ice brawl. The tape also shows the Boogaard brothers demonstrating the hockey fight "code," where they are seen easing up and skating away once their opponents fall to the ice. After the film, students undergo a strenuous workout that includes cardio and crunches. Finally, they get on their equipment, a full-face shield and one boxing glove as instructors demonstrate proper technique. When the program first began, concerned parents began spoke out against it, some describing it as "barbaric" and a "goon school." Lakness defends the school from those critics, saying it's for the benefit of the young players. "It's no different than karate -- why do people put their kids in karate? It's protection, it's an art." Despite the controversy, organizers say they want to run a similar camp next off-season. "We'll keep doing this clinic as long as there's a demand for it. As long as there's fighting in the NHL," Lakness said. "If they're there teaching kids at the ages of 12, 13, 14 to defend themselves, that's fine," said Wayne Gretzky. "I took boxing classes when I was 10. It didn't pay off for me."
Local historians in Surrey (South East of England) have confirmed evidence that baseball was played in the UK more than 20 years before American independence. A diary that documents a game being played in Guildford in 1755 has been verified by Surrey History Centre. William Bray, a Surrey diarist and historian from Shere, wrote about the game when he was still a teenager. Major League Baseball, the governing body of the game in the US, has been informed of the discovery. Julian Pooley, Surrey History Centre manager and William Bray expert, said the diary showed the game was a well-established sport in the 18th Century and was played by men and women. Tricia St John Barry, who owns the diary, dug out the documents last year after watching a report on BBC South Today which said the sport began in the 1790s. Ms St John Barry remembered the old manuscript, which she had had for many years, and responded to an appeal to viewers for more information on the subject. William Bray lived from 1736 to 1832 and worked as a solicitor, a steward of Surrey manors and a Surrey historian. Mr Pooley said: "He kept lots and lots of diaries that we have in the Surrey History Centre but last year a new one was discovered in a garden shed and it contains his diary from 1754 to 1755. "It contains a reference to him playing baseball. What intrigued me is he is playing it with a load of young ladies." The diary states they had tea after the game on Easter Monday and also played cricket. Kevin Sullivan, the Washington Post's London bureau correspondent and an avid Boston Red Sox fan, told BBC Radio Four's Today Programme: "It's a great American tradition to take things from other places and improve them. "We've always known that baseball evolved - it wasn't invented like basketball." There was a later historical reference to the game being played in England in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, written between 1797 and 1798. Source I... don't know why I found this interesting. I hope at least one other person does too :/
