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Semenya, 18, came to the world's attention on July 30 after winning the African Junior Championships in Mauritius. There, she posted 1:56.72, the fastest 800-meter run of the year - even when including senior-level competitors. Competing in her first senior championship on Wednesday, Semenya once again clocked the fastest time of the year - 1:55.45 - and finished a whopping two seconds ahead of the defending world champion. (Read "A Brief History of the World's Fastest Human...
That astonishing margin of victory only added to the speculation that had started after Semenya's win in July - could the women's 800-meter world champion be a man? Ahead of the Aug. 19 final, officials from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), track and field's governing body, confirmed that Semenya had agreed to a gender-testing process that began in South Africa and was ongoing in Germany. Officials wouldn't give details of the testing, but did say that it involves an endocrinologist, a gynecologist, a psychologist, and both internal and external examinations...
Seme's suggested test may seem crude, but there's a precedent for it in the world of athletics. At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, in the very same stadium where Semenya won her world title, rumors swirled that 100-meter runners Stella Walsh (nicknamed "Stella the Fella") and her rival Helen Stephens were men. After Stephens took the gold metal, the Olympics committee performed a manual check on her external genitals - and concluded that she was, in fact, a woman. And prior to the 1966 European athletics championships, female competitors were made to walk in so-called nude parades...
...days. Among the best tipsters, they say, are electricians paid big money by growers to wire the sophisticated network of lights and air conditioners used to cool plants and subject them to round-the-clock illumination. The energy-chugging networks require an expert's touch to bypass the electric meter and tap straight into the grid. A sharp increase in electricity used to be a telltale sign of a grow house. Some growers have caught on, however, and are learning to mask their energy profile...
...Using a mattress, a coin meter and a clip-on vibrating device, in 1958 inventor John Houghtaling, 92, created his most famous product: the Magic Fingers Vibrating Bed. Billed as a sleep aid, the machine was a staple of U.S. motels in the 1960s...