The Night Note: 9/10/09

News you need to know

The following stories are brought to you by the fine folks on the News4 assignment desk.

SO... THAT DOESN'T CLEAR UP ANYTHING.
World 800-meter champion Caster Semenya of South Africa has male and female sexual organs, the Sydney Morning Herald said on Friday, posing an ethical and political quandary for athletics' ruling body.  The Herald said extensive physical examinations of 18-year-old Semenya ordered by the IAAF have shown she is technically a hermaphrodite.  Medical reports indicate she has no ovaries, but rather has internal male testes, which are producing large amounts of testosterone. (NBC Washington)

MYSTERY SPACE JUNK AVOIDED
The space shuttle Discovery dodged a mysterious piece of orbital trash Thursday as its astronaut crew prepared for a planned landing in Florida.   Shuttle commander Rick Sturckow and pilot Kevin Ford fired Discovery's engines at 12:02 p.m. EDT (1605 GMT) for 14 seconds to move the spacecraft clear of the space junk and continue on with their landing attempt today.   The "mystery orbital debris," as Mission Control called it, apparently came free from the shuttle or the International Space Station while both vehicles were linked during a spacewalk on Saturday. NASA engineers do not know what the object is or its size, but it has been creeping ever closer to Discovery since the shuttle fired its engines to leave the station's orbital neighborhood Tuesday.  (Space.com)

THIS KID BETTER PLAY THE LOTTERY
No doubt about it, the nines have it. Chuck Berendes of La Crosse said he will never forget the birthday of this third child, born Wednesday on the ninth day of the nine month in the year 2009.  Nor will Berendes and his wife, Polly, forget Henry Michael's arrival time — at 9:09 a.m. by Cesarean section at Franciscan Skemp Medical Center in La Crosse.  But they got the biggest laugh when the newborn was placed on the delivery room scale following his birth. (MSNBC)

BLOOD DONOR APPROACHES 40 GALLONS
A New York man is donating his 320th pint of blood this week, making him one of two people in the U.S. who has given 40 gallons. Seventy-five-year-old Al Fischer of Massapequa plans to reach the milestone Tuesday, 58 years after he started giving blood. According to a New York Blood Center official, only 83-year-old Maurice Wood has donated more blood than Fischer. Wood is a retired railroad inspector from St. Louis.  Fischer, a print shop operator, donates blood about six times a year. He says he and Wood are engaged in a friendly rivalry and last spoke to each other a few months ago. (USA Today)

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