A Malaysian groom is suing his supposed-to-be bride for calling off the wedding on the last minute for $360k. This left him and his family embarrassed in front of their 1,200 guests.

According this report:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — A Malaysian man is suing his former fiancee for more than $360,000 for leaving him just six hours before their wedding.

Lawyer Latifah Ariffin says 32-year-old Masran Abdul Rahman and his family were distressed and deeply embarrassed when Norzuliyana Mat Hassan called off the June wedding at the last minute.

Latifah says Masran had invited 1,200 guests to the reception and was seeking compensation for damages and defamation from Norzuliyana and her father.

The suit was filed Monday in a court in northeast Kelantan state.

Latifah said Tuesday that Norzuliyana didn’t give any reason for backing out of the arranged marriage.

Norzuliyana could not immediately be reached for comment.

Dan Balilty - In this picture taken Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2011, Eli Shukron, an Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist cleans stones making part of an underground section of the Western Wall at the end of what archaeologists say is a 2,000-year-old drainage tunnel leading to Jerusalem's Old City. The excavation of an ancient drainage tunnel beneath Jerusalem has yielded new artifacts from a war here 2,000-years ago, archaeologists said Monday, Aug. 8, 2011, shedding light on a key episode of the past buried under today's politically combustible city.


JERUSALEM (AP) — The excavation of an ancient drainage tunnel beneath Jerusalem has yielded a sword, oil lamps, pots and coins abandoned during a war here 2,000 years ago, archaeologists said Monday, suggesting the finds were debris from a pivotal episode in the city's history when rebels hid from Roman soldiers crushing a Jewish revolt.

The tunnel was built two millennia ago underneath one of Roman-era Jerusalem's main streets, which today largely lies under an Arab neighborhood in the city's eastern sector. After a four-year excavation, the tunnel is part of a growing network of subterranean passages under the politically combustible modern city.

The tunnel was intended to drain rainwater, but is also thought to have been used as a hiding place for the rebels during the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. That temple was razed, along with much of the city, by Roman legionnaires putting down the Jewish uprising in 70 A.D.

On Monday, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority unveiled a sword found in the tunnel late last month, measuring 24 inches (60 centimeters) in length and with its leather sheath intact. The sword likely belonged to a member of the Roman garrison around the time of the revolt, the archaeologists said.

"We found many things that we assume are linked to the rebels who hid out here, like oil lamps, cooking pots, objects that people used and took with them, perhaps, as a souvenir in the hope that they would be going back," said Eli Shukron, the Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist in charge of the dig.

The archaeologists also found a bronze key from the same era, coins minted by rebels with the slogan "Freedom of Zion," and a crude carved depiction of a menorah, a seven-branched Jewish candelabra that was one of the central features of the Temple.

The flight of the rebels to tunnels like the one currently being excavated was described by the historian Josephus Flavius, a Jewish rebel general who shifted his allegiance to Rome during the revolt and penned the most important history of the uprising.

As the city burned, he wrote about five years afterward, the rebels decided their "last hope" lay in the tunnels. They planned to wait until the legions had departed and then emerge and escape.

"But this proved to be an idle dream, for they were not destined to escape from either God or the Romans," he wrote. The legionnaires tore up the paving stones above the drainage channels and exposed their hiding place.

"There too were found the bodies of more than two thousand, some slain by their own hands, some by another's; but most of them died by starvation," Josephus wrote. The victors proceeded to loot, he wrote, "for many precious objects were found in these passages."

The new tunnel, lit by fluorescent bulbs and smelling of damp earth, has been cleared for much of its length but has not yet been opened to the public. Earlier this month, a team from The Associated Press walked through the tunnel from the biblical Pool of Siloam, one of the city's original water sources, continuing for 600 yards (meters) under the Palestinian neighborhood named for the pool — Silwan — before climbing out onto a sunlit Roman-era street inside Jerusalem's Old City.

The tunnel is part of the expanding City of David excavation in Silwan, which sits above the oldest section of Jerusalem. The dig is named for the biblical monarch thought to have ruled from the site. It is funded by a group affiliated with the Jewish settlement movement and has drawn criticism from Palestinian residents who have charged that the work is disruptive and politically motivated.

Israel and the Palestinians have conflicting claims over Jerusalem that have scuttled peace efforts for decades. Both sides claim the Old City, which includes sites holy to Christians, Muslims and Jews.

The excavation of the tunnel began in 2007. Last month, a worker found a tiny golden bell that seemed to have been an ornament on the clothing of a rich man, or possibly a Temple priest, and which could still ring 2,000 years later.

When the tunnel opens to the public sometime in the coming months, underground passages totaling about a mile (1.6 kilometers) in length will be accessible beneath Jerusalem. The tunnels have become one of the city's biggest tourist draws and the number of visitors has risen in recent years to more than a million in 2010.

The tunnels remain, however, a sensitive political issue. While for Israelis they are proof of the extent of Jewish roots here, for many Palestinians, who reject Israel's sovereignty in the east Jerusalem, they are a threat to their own claims to the city and represent an exaggerated focus on Jewish history.

The 1996 opening of a new exit to a tunnel underneath the Old City's Muslim Quarter sparked rumors among Palestinians that Israel meant to damage the mosque compound, and dozens were killed in the ensuing riots. In recent years, however, criticism has been muted and work has largely gone ahead without incident.

Is earning a black belt on your life list? Then this elderly woman in San Francisco just might be your ultimate hero.

Just two years before her 100th birthday, Sensei Keiko Fukuda has become the first woman to ac a tenth-degree black belt—the highest rank in the martial art and combat sport Judo. Fukuda is now one of only four living people who've earned the tenth-degree (or dan) black belt. To put the accomplishment into better perspective, throughout history, only sixteen people have ever achieved this honor.



Fukuda began practicing Judo in 1935 and is the sole surviving student of its founder, Kano Jiguro. At her teacher's urging, she learned English to help spread Judo internationally.

During a time when getting married, building a family, and becoming a housewife was the norm, Fukudo bucked tradition, opting out of marriage to pursue the martial art.

"All I did was Judo...this was my marriage," Fukudo reflected tearfully to the San Francisco Chronicle. "This is when my life destiny was set. I just never imagined how long this road would be."

She described the Jiguro’s school, known as the Kodokan, as "old-fashioned and sexist about belts and ranks." In fact, an edict that prevented women from achieving any higher than a fifth-degree black belt kept Fukuda at that level for thirty years. She was finally elevated to sixth dan in 1972 when a woman's division was created.

Fukodo said she approached Judo and her life with the intent to "be gentle, kind and beautiful, yet firm and strong, both mentally and physically." Fukuda says this kind of beauty is decidedly not external "A compassionate soul is inner beauty," she explained to the paper. "I believe this is true beauty...All my life this has been my dream."

Dream realized, the 98-year-old Sensei Keiko Fukuda continues to teach Judo three times a week at a woman's dojo.

Watch incredible footage of Fukuda from 1951 and listen to more of her life story in the video below.

Standing off stage, with his moment about to arrive, he could hear the clamor of a thousand fans waiting. They had been this way for hours. Yet the local favorite wanted silence. He had a minute to bide. So he retreated. Through a side door and past a huge room fan, he found his solitude under a stairwell. No one could see him there. Quickly, he ran through his routine one last time. He knew the moves. The only thing left undecided was how -- not if -- he would execute his signature move.

Ready now, he returned to stage right. When his name was announced the crowd welcomed him with a thunderous roar. He strode forward. Then he grabbed hold of that adrenaline. And his air guitar.

With his long dark brown hair drenched like a sopping mop and fraying every which way, the barefoot, sweaty, hyper-charged air guitarist known as Nordic Thunder snapped the neck of his air guitar back and forth and flexed his muscles while feverishly plucking imaginary strings to the Motley Crue song "Kickstart My Heart."

The crowd at the Metro nightclub, packed tight, belonged to him. A four-time regional champion, Nordic Thunder, whose real name is Justin Howard, had seized a moment he had long waited for. Until this night, he had never reached the final round. But on this Saturday night in late July, he had, as they call it, achieved "airness."

For good measure, he capped his performance with a power slide across the stage on his bare knees, the signature move. The crowd, which consisted of locals, roadies, fellow air guitarists, his mother and plenty of curious folks, thrust their fists in the air with index fingers and pinkies pointed upward to form the universal sign for "Rock On." Nordic Thunder’s knees had started to bleed. From the balcony, an awestruck judge exclaimed that he had "smoke and mist coming from (him)."

And just like that, the US Air Guitar National Finals had its crowning moment, nearly three hours after it had started, long after 21 other finalists from across the country had taken the stage in their flamboyant costumes and alter egos, had showered the crowd with free cans of cheap beer, confetti guns, smoke, candy, sweat, saliva and even one crowd surfer.

This was the Academy Awards, Fraggle Rock, Saturday Night Live, WWE and a Comedy Central roast all rolled into one evening. It was funny, competitive, vile, sexually charged and 18 to enter for a reason.
Nordic Thunder was the last guitarist standing as the newly minted US Air Guitar National Champion, a title that earned him a trip to compete in next month's Air Guitar World Championships in Oulu, Finland. It was a title that came with no money or endorsement deal but plenty of pride and admiration from his peers.

Howard describes his victory as such:

"To be on a stage at the Metro, one of the best venues in all of Chicago, is ecstasy at its finest. I mean, the energy from the crowd that I was receiving and giving back, it's just a joyous, awesome ... I don't know how to put it into words."

Howard, who turns 28 in early August, has a competitive spirit to him. Born and raised in Casper, Wyo., he grew up playing not organized sports but NES video games. He has 400 of them, and he played them all until he won.

Like many athletes, he always wanted to be the best at something. He cites Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan as being the best in their respective sports and wonders what it must feel like to make talent look so effortless. That’s what Howard strives for with air guitar.

"From the very beginning, my main goal was to be as technically perfect as possible," he says. "And I have no shame. I've been booed on stage and I have been laughed at, and I really don’t care about that. When I come on stage I really do feel completely natural and at home. I feel like I belong on the stage."

Doing sketch comedy in his free time, Howard knows how to work with a crowd. In air guitar, he calls crowd support his rocket fuel.

"The energy that you feel form the crowd is like a drug, man," Howard says. "And I feel like I'm sharing it with the audience. It's a mutual thing. I really love the feeling that you're connecting with a room full of strangers on a weird level because I'm playing an invisible guitar. Trying to wrap your head around that is like, 'How is this happening?'"

That's the way he felt the night of July 23 at the Metro, a 1,100-person capacity concert hall in the heart of Wrigleyville that has played host to artists like James Brown and the Ramones to R.E.M. and The Killers. On the night of the National Finals, it leant its stage to a group of people who do not consider themselves in the category of wannabes and washed up rockers, but instead celebrities in their own right, from the blue collars to artistic types that have earned cult status in their growing world of air guitar.

"You can look at it as theater of the absurd, you can look at it as comedy, you can look at it just as rock fans where the fan gets to be on stage instead, but more and more as we do it, a lot of the people we get on the stage we know them all really well, the crowd knows them well," says US Air Guitar co-founder Kriston Rucker. "Because I think at the beginning it was sort of like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe there’s an organization that takes this seriously.' But we've done it long enough now that that's not news in a way. And what's news is more about the stars, who’s going to win, the intrigue of what the routines are, which is better because it’s getting to be a little bit mature of a sport with the recognizable names. An unusual sport -- that’s the way we look at it."

Air Guitar is an unusual sport in the sense that anyone can do it and, let's be honest, everyone has done at one time or another, whether in the privacy of your own home, with friends or subconsciously. The only difference is that some enjoy it as a form of competition and camaraderie.

Two days before the finals, US Air Guitar threw a "secret show" Dark Horse invitational at Parlour Bar, a small gay joint in the Edgewater neighborhood. There, a dozen or so of the "best of the rest" air guitarists gathered to compete for the last spot in the finals. More than an hour before the competition, Seattle resident Chuck Mong was standing outside the bar practicing his routine, cigarette dangling from his mouth, in a cutoff Dead Kennedys black T-shirt and black Converse sneakers with a skull and bones covering the logo.

Inside the dimly lit bar, everyone seemed to know everyone and the scene played out like a bunch of old college pals reuniting for a night of partying and storytelling. Among the night’s hopefuls was Boston resident Matt Lebel, who goes by the stage name Captain Airhab, a moniker he had tattooed a year ago on his right arm that resembles the NBA logo. Lebel, a skinny soft spoken guy decked out in a white captain’s hat, Bermuda shirt, pink Converse sneakers and a curly red handlebar mustache that inched toward his eyelids, found air guitar while working in the receiving department of a bookstore when he came across the book "To Air Is Human" by Bjorn Turoque, probably the sport’s biggest celebrity.

When the lineup order was decided, Lebel retreated outside with his iPod so he could listen to the song he was about to perform one last time. Each air guitarist brings his or her own one-minute edit of a song of their choice, which means many if not all air guitarists have had countless hours of practice time to perfect their routine, from the plucking and strumming to their body language. They’re judged on three criteria: technical merit, stage presence and airness.

What makes a great song, of course, is subjective, although a majority of competitors opt for some type of 80s hair metal or new-age hardcore. Basically anything with heavy guitar.

"If you know your song you can just kind of figure it out, improvise," says Lebel, who plays guitar in a punk rock band.

Lebel drew the 10th slot out of 18, so there was time to kill. And he didn’t mind the wait one bit.

"The judges get a little looser with the scores," he says, "and going first kind of sucks."

What makes a good guitarist is subjective. Ideally it's someone who can bring it all together, although commanding a crowd, playing to the beat and baring your soul typically will win everyone over.

What makes a bad air guitarist? Ask most people on tour and gauge the vibe from the crowds, and that's more defined.

"Someone who's not supportive of their fellow competitors and doesn't fully appreciate being with such a fun, crazy, weird, wild group of people," Howard said. "Also, someone who's afraid of looking like a complete idiot in front of a massive crowd."

Howard, who arrived during the competition dressed in drag to support a drag queen friend of his, did not need the last-chance competition. He’s an old pro and has what would be considered a more regimented approach to his craft. He practices an hour a day, which includes a few breathers because of the amount of sweat he works up. He likes to choose technical songs -- ones where a lot of notes are hit and involve more picking than strumming.

"My routine is glued in my brain," Howard says. "I know every single move of every single second and where I will be on the stage at any given point. So if you want to come out and look like you’ve got your (stuff) together you've really got to have your (stuff) together, so I do my best to make sure that happens." The only person who gets to see Howard's routine prior to a competition is his girlfriend, who he calls "viciously, brutally honest."

Whether they're motivated by a drive to win or perfect their craft, talk to an air guitarist and, while the answers tend to be more colorful and less scripted, you will come across the same cliches as you would in a pro locker room.

Throughout the three days of festivities, it was common to hear phrases like "setting the tone," "leaving it all out on the stage," and "the bar keeps getting higher."

And, as was the case for Washington, D.C. winner Tommy Fretless, air guitarists were not immune to injuries. Fretless performed with a leg in a cast after breaking an ankle during a rehearsal. He wasn’t the first to suffer an air guitar related injury. A few years ago, a Minneapolis air guitarist broke both legs after jumping off a drum riser. And in 2008, a Brooklyn air guitarist had a toe amputated after dislocating and tearing all the tissue after it got caught and twisted in a metal chair.

"The way I've always described air guitar to people is it's one-third rock concert, one-third comedy show and one-third athletic event," Fretless says. "I think everyone has a different percentage they put into it -- some people focus more on the comedy aspect and I focus more on the athleticism -- but we all rock pretty (freakin') hard."

Four hours before the Finals were to start, all 22 competitors gathered on stage for a pre-competition press conference. Dressed in full costume and having transformed into their alter egos, the air guitarists' personalities, stage names and outfits - the whole schtick - looked ripe for a VH1 reality show.

The seven pages worth of bios handed out prior to the presser, which were written by the contestants themselves, details how one air guitarist has a medical marijuana license, another is the son of a trapeze artist for a traveling circus and another is a gun-toting ultra liberal who was raised on a diet of classic rock and Jack Daniels.

The air guitarist Thundergland joked about how his mother made his costume, which consisted of black tight underwear with a strategically placed battery powered lightning bolt. New York regional champion Aristotle said his goal was to lose his virginity on tour. And Houston native Brock McRock, a husky man who enjoys strutting around shirtless in a pair of oversized chaps that have mustaches on either side, called his exercise routine a blend of playing Xbox and eating Ben & Jerry’s and chocolate covered pretzels.

There were serious answers and back and forth dialogue with the media, but there was no breaking character for anyone. The most serious answer came from co-founder Cedric Devitt, who said that the goal for the US Air Guitar Association is to win the World Championships.

"That's pretty much all we care about," he says. "The only thing we care about is winning."

Winning and some corporate sponsorship would be nice.

Devitt and Rucker, who both have a background in advertising and brand management, are currently funding this year’s tour out of their own pockets at a cost they chose not to make public. They have to pay for each venue, airfare for competitors who reach the National Finals and airfare and lodging for the national champ’s trip to Finland.

"It's not cheap and it doesn’t entirely pay for itself just from ticket sales," Rucker says. "But we’re mostly trying to not lose a ton of money and have fun. That’s sort of the main purpose."

There’s been no shortage of fun since the association’s inception in 2003, when it hosted two regionals, one in Los Angeles and another in New York. Air guitar has since grown in popularity, as the tour has had as many as 22 regional competitions, which typically run through March to July, and wrapped with 18 regionals in 17 cities this year. (San Francisco had such a large turnout that a second show was added.)

US Air Guitar has had its share of sponsors in the past, from Sabrett hot dogs and Boone’s Farm to TouchTunes digital jukeboxes and Cuervo Black, which even sponsored a tour bus one year.

"We're always trying and sometimes succeeding,” said Rucker, 40, who with Devitt runs US Air Guitar remotely in New York. "We'll see. I think at some point it would be good to find a brand that would fit and be willing to do it more than one year."

Bjorn Turoque, a former world champion and author, is the Master of Airemonies for the National Finals. He’s charismatic, handsome, engaging and the anti-Ryan Seacrest. And he has a way about him that keeps everyone attuned to what’s happening on stage.

The opening act is a choreographed parody of the Bonnie Tyler hit "Total Eclipse of the Heart" that Turoque and one of the judges, Hot Lixx Hulahan, himself a retired air guitarist, rock out to while switching the hook to "Total Eclipse of the Guitar."

After each guitarist performs, Turoque gives his two cents before bringing the contestant before the judges, whose comments included "You're my mom’s favorite," "I wonder what Jay Cutler would have done if he had your heart," and "That was a classic dirtball performance."

Flipping off and cursing the judges were common sights and did not get you removed from the premises.
But the camaraderie amongst the guitarists was undeniable and front and center. Howard opened up his one-bedroom apartment to seven other air guitarists, guys traveling all the way from Colorado Springs to New York City. He’d never met several of them before the weekend but it didn’t stop him from leaving a spare key under his doormat so they could make themselves at home before he got off of work.

Howard described air guitar competitions as a fraternity of men and women who share the same bizarre interest. It perfectly put into context the final moment of the night. After Nordic Thunder was crowned champion and strapped on a championship belt, he was mobbed by each of his 21 competitors. They gave hugs, back slaps and rubbed his head in congratulations. Then they lifted him on their shoulders and gave him a bottle of champagne. Soon, Howard’s mother, Pam, who traveled from Wyoming, joined him on stage for an embrace.

Howard had taken the National Finals seriously from the start, calling it an honor and a responsibility to represent his country overseas. He even has an eagle tattooed on his chest. And US Air Guitar prides itself on world peace, as it’s common to hear those involved use the line, "You can't hold a gun if you're holding an air guitar."

So for Howard to have his mother see him succeed was a momentous occasion.

"To see my mother be proud of something I'm doing -- even if it's something as ridiculous as being the best at playing an invisible guitar," he says, "is pretty awesome."

Bugging Out

In the mid-1900s, health experts said the U.S. had won the war on infectious diseases, thanks in part to vaccination and stepped-up sanitation.

Don't relax just yet. Climate changes, uneven vaccination, globe-trotting travelers, and other factors have contributed to a resurgence of some types of bacteria, viruses, and disease-carrying insects.

Here are 10 U.S. states that have experienced outbreaks of a rare or exotic disease. Some, like West Nile, are relative newcomers; others, like dengue fever, are old scourges making a comeback.

Arizona

Few states have escaped West Nile, a mosquito-borne virus that has infected more than 30,000 people and killed countless crows and other birds since entering the U.S. in 1999.

But lately Arizona is catching the worst of it. In 2010, it had 107 cases of an especially virulent form of the disease that can cause seizures, nerve damage, and even death.

Although the virus spreads to the brain in less than 1% of cases, people over 50 are at the highest risk. Arizona, a favorite retirement destination, is reminding residents to wear insect repellent and eliminate standing water in a "Fight the Bite" campaign.

California

Every few years, whooping cough (or pertussis) resurfaces in the U.S. In 2010, California reported 9,477 cases of this highly contagious, potentially deadly bacterial infection, the largest outbreak since the 1940s. (Health officials say a falloff in vaccines, including the Tdap booster shot for teens and adults, is to blame.)

As if that weren't enough, California also has a disproportionately high number of cases of typhoid fever, an infection spread through contaminated food and water that causes stomach pain, weakness, and a sky-high fever. In 2009, California accounted for 90 of the 400-odd cases in the U.S.

Colorado

In the early 1990s, an unusual respiratory disease struck dozens of healthy adults in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah, killing half of them. The "Four Corners outbreak" was eventually pinned on hantavirus, which spreads via mouse waste. (Humans can be exposed by drinking from dirty cans or inhaling dust in rodent-infested buildings.)

Although the virus was lurking in the U.S. for decades, unusually heavy rainfall in the 1990s is blamed for driving up rodent, and thus virus, numbers. Since 1993, Colorado has had 75 of the country's 568 cases of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a deadly respiratory complication.

Delaware

Although it takes its name from the bucolic Connecticut town where a mysterious outbreak of arthritis-like symptoms was first described in 1975, Lyme disease is now most common in Delaware. The First State reported 111 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants in 2009—a rate 42% higher than in Connecticut.

Clusters of Lyme cases can also be found as far south as Maryland and as far west as Minnesota. The ticks that shuttle the Lyme disease-causing bacteria between deer, mice, and men have a wide foothold—and thanks to warming winters that fuel the tick population, it could be getting wider.

Florida

The Sunshine State's heat and humidity create an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes—and the diseases they carry, like malaria and dengue fever. While insect control efforts in the mid-1900s helped stamp out these diseases, dengue virus could be making a comeback.

The epicenter is Key West. In 2010, 66 people there were infected with dengue, known as breakbone fever for the excruciating joint pain it causes. As with Lyme-carrying ticks, many experts fear that the warming climate in the U.S. will allow dengue-carrying mosquitoes to spread.

Massachusetts

Nearly all cases of malaria in the U.S. are imported from abroad, but a related disease called babesiosis ("bab-EE-see-OH-sis") has been indigenous to the coastal northeast for decades.

The first person known to have contracted the Babesia parasite was bitten by a rodent tick in 1968 while vacationing on Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts. The disease remains prevalent on the island, where 60% of rodents are estimated to carry Babesia and 16 of the state's 78 cases in 2009 occurred. The disease damages red blood cells and can lead to severe anemia, especially in the elderly or people with weak immune systems.

New Mexico

In the past year, two men, both from Santa Fe, fell sick with a disease that wiped out millions in the Middle Ages and is now synonymous with "scourge": plague.

Fortunately, the U.S. has only a handful of cases a year of plague, which is now a treatable bacterial infection spread by the fleas on rodents and animals like squirrels, cats, and dogs.

And while there are pockets of infected rodents all across the western U.S., New Mexico seems to bear the brunt of it: In 2009, it saw six of the eight cases nationwide. (The others were in Utah and Illinois.)

New York

Thanks to the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, the number of measles cases in the U.S. plummeted from 3 to 4 million a year in the early 1960s to a few dozen in the early 2000s.

But the highly contagious viral infection is creeping back among unvaccinated children and adults. In the first half of 2011, there were 118 cases, 13 of them in New York City. Although experts attribute most cases to travel (especially to Europe), several cases were contracted locally.

There has also been a bump in mumps; roughly 1,500 of the country's nearly 2,000 cases occurred in the Empire State.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma is "where the wind comes sweeping down the plain" (according to Oscar Hammerstein). It's also where the ticks that carry the bacteria responsible for Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) thrive.

Despite its name, the fever's hot zones are actually scattered across the South. In 2009, a third of the nation's 1,815 cases were in Oklahoma (342) and North Carolina (255).

While less well-known than Lyme disease, RMSF is the most lethal tick-borne disease in the U.S. The infection, signaled by a distinctive spotted rash, kills within two weeks in 10% to 25% of cases if not treated with antibiotics.

Texas

About 150 cases of leprosy—that stigmatized disease of antiquity—pop up in the U.S. each year. In states with the highest incidence, California and Hawaii, many cases are due to travel from areas like Asia, where leprosy (now called Hansen's disease) is common.

Not so for the Lone Star State, which sees a dozen or more cases each year. Texans face a leprosy hazard besides travel: contact with armadillos. In parts of Texas and other Gulf states, up to 20% of armadillos carry leprosy. It's believed that people can contract the disease, which is treatable with antibiotics, by hunting and wrestling these animals, and even gardening in soil where they dig.

One advantage women have in the dating world is that men often let us choose what we want to do on dates. They’ll either run date ideas past us, or flat-out let us decide where to go. But some still try to rock our world with unpleasant surprises or talk us into experiences we end up dreading. Guys, here are some tips on places we’re never interested in visiting.

Sports-Themed Places
When we’re with you, we don’t want to compete with the big game or struggle to hear you over a crowd of screaming sports fans. We’d rather be in a place where people are less likely to bump into our chair or spill something on the cute outfit we put too much time into selecting. Likewise, we don’t want to feel ignored by our date because he’s watching his favorite team or can’t hear us because of that old 50 Cent song blaring from the speaker by our heads. The Buffalo wings are pretty much the best part of this experience, and they better be freakin’ outstanding.

Theme Parks
In life, there are rollercoaster people and there are those who get queasy looking at the merry-go-round. Find out which one your date is before you take her to the nearest Six Flags to ride the Mind-Eraser. We know you’re eager to be the manly man as we clench your arm in terror while spinning upside down in a quadruple loop. It’s just that some of us are not aching to toss our cookies in the bushes next to the churros stand while you watch. Sure, we might get to know you better while waiting in those long lines, but we’ll probably have other things on our minds if our stomachs are filled with knots and our hearts are racing in anxious anticipation — like avoiding the next date.

Chain Restaurants
We love a guy who wants to feed us and perhaps even more so a man who wants to pay to feed us. But if you take us to a place we can find in every major city where the interior always looks the same, you might as well feed us lattes at Starbucks. Fast-food joints obviously rank as the worst dinner choices, but corporate restaurants (oh, don’t make me name names… you know the ones I mean!) also lack originality and thoughtfulness. As a general rule, don’t take us to a place where we know what we’re going to order before we walk in. We’d rather be taken somewhere off the beaten path — where there are candles instead of fluorescent lights and we don’t have to listen to Top 40 songs blaring from a speaker overhead. If you have no idea where those places are, remember — the Zagat Guide was created for a reason.

Gross-Out Comedies
We know you think the whole dinner-and-a-movie idea is infallible, but not if the movie completely grosses us out. You might find it funny when Sacha Baron Cohen is channeling one of his alter egos or when Johnny Knoxville jumps into a vat of plastic balls filled with venomous snakes — we don’t. Men and women have different senses of humor. Various studies have proven this, so try to respect this biological fact and refrain from making us indulge your Three Stooges sensibility for two hours. Your buddies may laugh, but we’ll simply be rolling our eyes.

Paintball
Yes, some women are members of the National Rifle Association. No, most of us don’t want to be moving targets on a date. We know you might have an urgent need to explore your inner hunter, but we’re gatherers — and those little pellets sting and leave bruises. Being shot by your date isn’t fodder for a romantic afternoon; it’s warfare.

Meeting Your Mother
True, it might happen eventually, but casually hanging out with your mother — wonderful as she may be — is not our idea of a relaxing time. Neither is getting tips from her on how to find a better hairstylist or job. Sure, she might make the best fried chicken or pasta primavera on the planet, but her long, loving gaze might make us feel less like family and more like we’re on the wrong end of a long microscope — especially if you take us to meet her on the second or third date. If you want to see your mom, that’s cool. Just don’t make us a permanent fixture in her house too early in the relationship or we’ll start wondering why you’re so busy showing us off, or worse — why her opinion of us matters more than your own.

Guys, if you really like us, you should be eager to sacrifice a few testosterone-driven activities to demonstrate your thoughtfulness and consideration. Nothing reveals those qualities more than respecting our dislikes instead of trying to railroad through them. That’s not too much of a chore, is it? Show us a nice date or two and chances are we’ll be more than happy to share those Buffalo wings with you…

This season has been one constant reminder of not only how dangerous the game of baseball can be, but how dangerous the entire ballpark experience can be. We really didn't need another example, but unfortunately we got one on Friday night when Juan Nicasio(notes), a 25-year-old rookie right-hander for the Colorado Rockies, was stretchered off the field with a neck injury after being struck in the head by a line drive comebacker.

On Saturday, Nicasio had neck surgery to "stabilize a fracture" in his C-1 vertebrae. At last official word, Nicasio was resting comfortably at a Denver hospital.

The scary injury occurred on the second pitch of the second inning when Washington Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond(notes) reached out and smacked one sharply right back up the middle. With no time to react, Nicasio took the liner flush on the right side of his head. He then immediately crumpled to the ground after taking the hit, which by itself was vicious and cringe-worthy, but it appears the neck injury was actually sustained on the fall.

Replays seem to confirm this. When Nicasio went to the ground, he went down head first, jamming his unprotected head and neck before rolling over on his back.

For roughly five minutes Nicasio laid mostly still with some limited hand and arm movement. He was then cautiously placed in a neck brace. As he was being move to the cart there was finally some more animated arm movement and the first signs of leg movement.

A clearly shaken Troy Tulowitzki(notes) stood close by as all of this unfolded. He spoke about Nicasio's injury after the game.

From MLB.com:

"Our main focus in that locker room right now is Juan," Tulowitzki said. "We're obviously very worried. Our thoughts and prayers are with him, and it's scary. We come out here and play baseball every day, and sometimes some crazy things can happen. It puts it in perspective."

Nicasio has been one of the few bright spots for Colorado this season since debuting on May 28. Amazingly, he's been very effective at Coors Field, posting a 4-0 mark with a 1.58 ERA. Pretty impressive for any rookie, but especially one that had never pitched above the Double-A level like Nicasio.

Of course Nicasio's injury is sure to spark another debate about pitcher safety in baseball. I honestly don't know what could be done to ensure that safety. A helmet? Maybe. But there are still going to be exposed areas on the face, the neck, and there's no way you can prevent a guy from a taking a bad fall like Nicasio's. Even with a helmet, you're going to be jarred, lose your balance, and be at risk.

There's always going to be something. The risks will never go away. It's just one of those things where you know the risks when you sign up. You just hope you're not the one the odds catch up with.