Palangkaraya Post News

Success in college football can be just as dependent on opponents avoided as opponents defeated. Hey, the road with fewer potholes is the road more easily traveled.

Creative scheduling can ensure three or four non-conference victories, but once league play begins, championship aspirations and bowl appearances can be enhanced by the luck of the draw.

That’s not an issue in the Big East and Pac-10, which play round-robin conference schedules. But in the Big 12, Big Ten, ACC and SEC, the schedule can be a distinct advantage.
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Usain Bolt of Jamaica broke the world record by winning the 200 meters in 19.30 seconds Wednesday night, becoming the first man since Carl Lewis in 1984 to sweep the 100 and 200 gold medals at an Olympics.

Bolt is the first man ever to break the world marks in both sprints at an Olympics. Not even Lewis or Jesse Owens managed that.

Showing what he can do when he runs at full speed all the way through the finish—something he hadn’t done yet in the Beijing Games—Bolt eclipsed the old record of 19.32 seconds set by Michael Johnson in Atlanta in 1996.

Bolt was an astonishing 0.52 seconds ahead of Churandy Martina of Netherlands Antilles, who was second across the finish line but later was disqualified after a U.S. team protest that he had run out of his lane. The third man across the line, Wallace Spearmon of the United States, also was disqualified for leaving his lane. Read more…

The baby, weighing only 600 grams at birth, spent at least five hours inside one of the hospital’s refrigerated storage units, before her parents, who had taken her to be buried, began noticing some movement.

“We unwrapped her and felt she was moving. We didn’t believe it at first. Then she began holding my mother’s hand, and then we saw her open her mouth,” said 26-year-old Faiza Magdoub, the baby’s mother.

The baby was pronounced dead several hours earlier, after doctors at Western Galilee hospital in northern Israel were forced to abort her mother’s pregnancy because of internal bleeding. Magdoub was 23 weeks into her pregnancy.

“We don’t know how to explain this, so when we don’t know how to explain things in the medical world we call it a miracle, and this is probably what happened,” hospital deputy director Moshe Daniel said. Read more…

Morning train commuters in Tokyo were joined on their way to work by an unusual companion Wednesday: a wild monkey. A security guard spotted the monkey near ticket gates in Shibuya Station, said Norihiru Masui, a spokesman for train operator Tokyu Corp.

The monkey climbed to a perch high atop a departure board, and around 30 policemen surrounded the area and attempted to snare it with a variety of nets, as commuters crowded around and snapped pictures with their cell phones.

The standoff ended when the monkey climbed down and dashed out of the station, with several policeman and local TV crews in tow. News reports said the monkey was last seen heading in the direction of nearby Yoyogi Park.

The animal appeared to be a Japanese monkey, which are native to the country, and was about 27 inches (70 centimeters) long from head to the tip of the tail. No one was injured and no trains were delayed in the incident. Read more…

A 61-year-old Japanese woman has given birth to a surrogate child, an obstetrician in central Japan said on Wednesday. She is believed to be the oldest surrogate mother yet recorded in Japan.

The woman became pregnant with an embryo created from the egg of her daughter, who has no uterus, and sperm from the daughter’s husband, the maternity clinic involved said in a statement.

The clinic is run by Yahiro Netsu, who has defied longstanding opposition to surrogate births from Japanese obstetricians.

The clinic declined to confirm when the woman gave birth or to give her name, citing privacy concerns.
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BILL SANDERS, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt sat out the Yellow Jackets’ afternoon practice after hurting his shoulder during the morning drills.

“It was just a little stinger after a pitch,” Nesbitt said. “This is football. I’ve never worn another color jersey, I’m used to getting hit.”

Tech spokesman Dean Buchan said Nesbitt’s status is day-to-day.

Nesbitt donned a red jersey for the afternoon practice, meaning he did not actively participate. Johnson said, “We’re two weeks out [from the Aug. 28 season opener against Jacksonville State]. I’m not going to push it. There’s no need.”

Asked if Nesbitt would practice Thursday, when the Jackets are scheduled to go once, at 3 p.m., the coach said, “We’ll see. It’s day to day.” Read more…

So it was only fitting that his last at-bat at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago on Wednesday night was also left the ballpark.

“Maybe I’m starting a trend here,” Beckham said.

OK, so it was just batting practice. That couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the Bulldogs’ former all-star shortstop was feeling Wednesday. Earlier in the day Beckham, who was picked eighth overall in the baseball draft in June, signed a minor-league contract with the Chicago White Sox.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but signing bonuses in the neighborhood of $2.5 million have been common around that draft position the past couple of seasons.

The initial reward for Beckham was being whisked to Chicago in time to join the major-league club for its game against the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night. Beckham got to go through batting practice and shag balls with the likes of Ken Griffey Jr. and Carlos Quentin.
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