Cutaneous Horn or Cornu Cutaneum are skin tumors with the appearance of animal horns

Cutaneous horns, also known by the Latin name cornu cutaneum, are unusual keratinous skin tumors with the appearance of animal horns, or sometimes of wood or coral.

They are usually small and localized, but can in very rare cases be much larger.

Although often benign, they can also be malignant or premalignant.

The cause of cutaneous horns is still unknown, however it is believed that exposure to radiation can trigger the condition. This is evidenced by a higher rate of cases occurring on the face and hands, areas that are often exposed to sunlight. Other cases have reported cutaneous horns arising from burn scars.

Removal:
As the horn is composed of dead keratin, the same material found in fingernails, the horn can usually be removed with a sterile razor. However, the underlying condition will still need to be treated. Treatments vary, but they can include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.

Gregg Valentino has World's Biggest Biceps

Gregg Valentino is one of the most controversial yet popular bodybuilding icons. He started bodybuilding at the age of 13. After over 23 years of training naturally Gregg decided to experiment with steroids. During this time his arms grew from an impressive 100% natural 21" to an in-human 28". But after years of steroids injections, his body finally fought back; his bicep "exploded,".

Some readers (read joe specially) have commented: "Gregg Valentino did not abuse steroids to get those freakish arms, he literally injected oil, or synthol into his muscle, filled it with liquid. That is why they are disproportionate."

extreme biological cases of "Fetus in Fetu" & "Male Pregnancy"

Fetus in fetu (or fœtus in fœtu) is a developmental abnormality in which a mass of tissue, that more or less resembles a fetus, lives inside the body almost like a parasite.

NORMAL : Fetus in uterus

This abnormality caused by errors during morphogenesis, the biological process that causes an organism to develop its shape. There are two theories of origin concerning fetus in fetu. One theory is that the mass begins as a normal fetus but becomes enveloped inside its twin. The other theory is that the mass is a highly developed teratoma. Fetus in fetu is estimated to occur in 1 in 500,000 live births.

an aborted 9 weeks old fetus

Male pregnancy refers to the incubation of one or more embryos or fetuses by the male of any species. Almost all pregnancies in the animal kingdom are carried by female organisms. In all heterogamous species, the males produce the spermatozoa and rarely, if ever, host the zygote (the pipefish and seahorse are notable exceptions). Fetus in fetu is one of the reasons of the same apart from sex change being the other one.

an aborted 7 month old fetus

notable Cases of fetus in fetu:

• Alamjan Nematilaev was the surviving host of a fetus in fetu. In 2003, aged 7, his school physician in Kazakhstan referred him to hospital after movements were detected in the boy's enlarged stomach. An operation intended to remove a cyst uncovered the fetus of Alamjan's identical twin brother, which had lived as parasitic growth inside the boy throughout his entire life. The fetus was comparatively highly developed, with hair, arms, fingers, nails, legs, toes, genitals, a head, and a vague approximation of a face.

Alamjan Nematilaev

• In June 1999, the case of Sanju Bhagat a man from Nagpur, India attracted attention for the length of time (36 years) he had carried his parasitic "twin" inside his body, and the size of the growth. As Bhagat had no placenta the growth had connected directly to his blood supply.

Sanju Bhagat

• In March 2006, Doctors in Pakistan removed two fetuses from inside a two-month-old baby girl.
  

• In November 2006, a Chilean boy in Santiago was diagnosed with fetus in fetu shortly before birth.
  

• In August 2007, a two month old baby in Baguio from the Philippines named Eljie Millapes was diagnosed with fetus in fetu. The parents of Eljie Millapes were alarmed by the abnormal growth of the stomach of their two-month-old baby. Doctors later discovered that she was suffering from fetus in fetu.

• In January 2008, a two-month-old baby in Medan, Indonesia named Afiah Syafina was diagnosed with tumor in her stomach. After the operation was done at January 19, 2008, the results were startling enough. The suspected tumor was a five-month-old fetus.
  

• In May 2008, a two-inch (5 cm) embryo was removed from the belly of a 9-year-old girl at Larissa General Hospital in Athens after she was diagnosed with a tumor on the right side of her belly. The embryo was a fetus with a head, hair and eyes, but no brain or umbilical cord.

• In October, 2008, a doctor in the USA removed a brain tumor that consisted of a foot and other body parts. This may have been a case of fetus in fetu or it may have been a teratoma.

• At some date during 2005 to 2008, an 8-pound, 13-inch baby, Waylan Kleinman, was born with a small abdominal mass. Two days after he was born, Waylan was operated on. Surgeons soon discovered a small orange-sized fetus that was documented as actually showing movement on ultrasound, a first for a fetus in fetu.

A fetus in fetu can be considered alive, but only in the sense that its component tissues have not yet died or been eliminated. Thus, the life of a fetus in fetu is inherently limited to that of an invasive tumor. In principle, its cells must have some degree of normal metabolic activity to have remained viable. However, without the gestational conditions in utero with the amnion and placenta, a fetus in fetu can develop into, at best, an especially well differentiated teratoma; or, at worst, a high-grade metastatic teratocarcinoma. In terms of physical maturation, its organs have a working blood supply from the host, but all cases of fetus in fetu present critical defects, such as no functional brain, heart, lungs, gastrointestinal tract, or urinary tract. Accordingly, while a fetus in fetu can share select morphological features with a normal fetus, it has no prospect of any life outside of the host twin. Moreover, it poses clear threats to the life of the host twin on whom its own life depends.

Guinness World Records for longest fingernails - Lee Redmond & Shridhar Chillal

Lee Redmond (born February 2, 1941) holds the record in the Guinness World Records for longest fingernails on both hands.

She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Enquirer features her every few years and keeps track of the progress of her nails. Redmond started growing her nails in late 1978 - early 1979 and although she had originally planned to have them cut off on November 22, 2006 (as she said on her guest appearances on a couple of talk shows), she chose to keep her nails after all. She has recently made appearances on CBS News as well as the Ripley's Believe It or Not! museum. Her most recent appearance was for a fundraiser for the local Salt Lake City fire department, where it was reported her nails were an average of 34–35 inches in length.

She states that while certain activities such as putting on a heavy coat can be troublesome, she manages her daily life without much difficulty. On the Guinness TV feature, she has been shown driving a car, vacuuming, doing dishes, and giving haircuts to her grandchildren. She adds that her long nails don't even interfere with her care of her husband, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.

On February 10, 2009, her record-setting nails were broken off when she was ejected from a car in a four-car pile-up in Holladay, Utah. Her injuries were serious, but not life threatening.

Shridhar Chillal from poona, INDIA holds the world record for the longest fingernails ever reached on a single hand.

his nails measure 6.15 meters (20 feet 2.25 inches).

Chillal's longest nail is 4.25 feet.

He started growing his nails in 1952. Although Chillal is quite proud of his record breaking nails, he had increasing difficulties with their weight, which already caused his left fingers to become forever disfigured (and more or less useless). Due to nerve damage caused from the nails' immense weight, Chillal is permanently deaf in the left ear (for he grew his fingernails on his left hand).

He finally cut off his nails in late 2000. However, he may make the odd appearance with his finger nails in tow. He appeared with his nails attached in the movie Jackass 2.5.

Cessna 150 Airplane eaten up by "Michel Lotito" or "Mister Eat Everything". He can eat undigestables like metal, glass, rubber etc.

Michel Lotito i.e. Monsieur Mangetout (June 15, 1950 - June 25, 2007) known as Mister Eat Everything . a French entertainer. Lotito, who was born in Grenoble, was famous for eating undigestables like metal, glass, rubber, and so on, in items such as bicycles, televisions, a Cessna 150, and smaller items that were disassembled, cut up, and swallowed. When performing he consumed around a kilogram of material daily, preceding it with mineral oil and drinking considerable quantities of water during the 'meal'. It is estimated that between 1959–1997 Lotito had eaten around 9 tons of metal.

He began eating unusual material as a child and performed publicly from 1966. Lotito did not often suffer from ill effects due to his diet, even after the consumption of materials usually considered poisonous.

He said, however, that bananas and hard-boiled eggs made him sick. Michel died of natural causes on June 25, 2007, ten days after his 57th birthday.

He also ate Cessna 150 by breaking it into parts and then eating all of it in 2 years 1978 - 1980. Cessna 150 is a two-seat tricycle gear general aviation airplane, that was designed for flight training, touring and personal use.

decoding the mystery of human behaviour, human brain, addiction, love, friendship, cravings, sexual satiation etc.

The organ called brain is largely the same in all mammals. It has been around for well over 100,000,000 years, lurking right beneath your large, rational neo-cortex. Thanks to your limbic system, you cannot will your feelings, emotions, falling in love, or staying in love, anymore than you can will your heart to beat, or yourself to digest a meal or sleep.

Human Brain's side view

*The Limbic System encompasses structures that are critical for forming memories and experiencing pleasure, as well as for various motivational and emotional activities. In evolutionary terms, the limbic system is more recent than the central core and is fully developed only in mammals. The limbic system includes the hippocampus and amygdala, as well as other structures. It appears to play a central role in times of stress.

Limbic System

In one sense the findings appear to confirm what is already known, that women cannot enjoy sex unless they are relaxed and free from worries and distractions. "Fear and anxiety levels have to go down for orgasm. From an evolutionary point of view, it could be that the brain switches off the emotions during sex because at such times the chance to produce offspring becomes more important than the survival risk to the individual. Gert Holstege of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands points to the extraordinary behavior seen in some animals during the breeding season, such as March hares, when the urge to mate seems to override the usual fear of predators. "At the moment of orgasm, women do not have any emotional feelings," says Gert.

The most important factor in falling in - and out - of love is dopamine. Dopamine is the neurochemical that activates your reward circuitry. The reward circuit or reward center or reward system is a small portion of the limbic system, but it drives nearly all of your behaviors.

Dopamine

This center is activated when you engage in activities that further your survival, or the continuation of your genes. Whether it’s sex, eating, taking risks, achieving goals, or drinking water, all increase dopamine, and dopamine turns on your reward circuit. You can think of dopamine as the "I’ve got to have it" neurochemical, whatever "it" is. It’s the "craving" neurochemical. The more dopamine you release and the more your reward circuit is activated, the more "reward" you experience. A good example is food. We get a much bigger blast of dopamine eating high-calorie foods than we do low-calorie foods. It’s why we choose chocolate cake over Brussels sprouts. Our reward circuit is programmed so that "calories equal survival." You’re not actually craving ice cream, or a winning lotto ticket, or even a romp in the sack. You’re craving the dopamine that is released with these activities. Dopamine is your major motivation, not the item or activity. Addiction mechanisms are complex, yet the one aspect they share is dopamine. All addictive drugs and all addictions increase dopamine; that is why they are addictive. Porn, accumulating money, gaining power over others, gambling, compulsive shopping, video games…if something really boosts your dopamine, then it’s potentially addictive for you. Why did Martha Stewart risk everything for more money? She got a thrill from a stock market gamble, and that gave her more dopamine. She didn’t need the money.

Meg Ryan in film "When Harry Met Sally..." getting orgasm

Orgasms and addictions have two things in common. They both produce an initial pleasurable experience, and both are followed by an unpleasant hangover. The sexual satiation (orgasm) hangover is innate. It can be such a subtle part of you that you do not connect the dots - unless you switch to making love without it for several weeks, and then go back to sex with orgasm. "What goes up must come down." It’s simple biology; body systems must return to balance, or homeostasis. What goes up and down in this case is your dopamine. That can play havoc with your mood and the way in which you perceive, and treat, your partner. At orgasm, dopamine drops like a lead balloon, and we lose interest, at least temporarily. However, if dopamine’s not kept in check, it could rapidly shoot up again and we’d be back in the sack. Biology’s mission is now to stop us from screwing around and place our attention elsewhere - like on hunting and gathering, feeding the babies, going to our job, taking out the trash and so forth.

drug addiction

Suppressing dopamine is so important that nature uses an additional neurochemical to curtail our sexual desire. It’s called prolactin. If dopamine is the "foot on the gas," then prolactin is the "foot on the brake." Although research hasn’t shown how long prolactin surges continue in humans after sex, in female rats, twice daily surges of prolactin continue for up to two weeks. This may help to explain how great sex last week could lead to relationship friction now. And it’s no wonder we don’t make the link between cause and effect.

To summarize thus far, orgasm leads to a drop in dopamine and a rise in prolactin. Both of these lead to multiple behavioral and emotional symptoms, which, in our experience, can arise over the next two weeks. During this time, behavior may change for the worse. More importantly, lovers' perception of each other can shift dramatically for the worse. If we feel depleted, our partner will seem overly demanding; if we feel needy, our partner will seem selfish and uncaring. Bickering and emotional separation then lead to further friction. Of course, few people ever avoid orgasm for two weeks. Most of us ride this roller coaster over and over, never really experiencing balanced brain chemistry - or the easy harmony that accompanies it.

love

Orgasm’s high dopamine/low dopamine pattern actually encourages addictions of many kinds because people attempt to use artificial means to manipulate their dopamine levels. Think about it. Most addictions kick in during teen years, when we become sexually active. A recent Columbia University study found that sexually active teens use more drugs. One might think social factors alone lead to this correlation between drugs and sex, but when scientists studied hamsters, they found that sexually-active hamsters were much more susceptible to amphetamine addiction than their virgin counterparts. This research brings us to another observation. Children, or pre-teens have yet to activate this dopamine roller coaster, and they possess a cheerful, optimistic enthusiasm for the simplest activities. Perhaps this is due to balanced dopamine.

friendship

Falling in love is associated with a soup of neurochemicals - like adrenaline, which makes your heart race, and, as we have mentioned, dopamine, which makes you crave your beloved. But the heartwarming, loving, "gushy" aspects of love are due to oxytocin. It is the "unconditional love" hormone associated with nurturing and generous affection. Oxytocin's main evolutionary function is to bond us to our children for life. It also serves to bond us to our mate…at least long enough to produce a child and (if we're lucky) get it on its feet.

Friendships are also built on oxytocin, and can be quite deep bonds. If scientists block either oxytocin or dopamine, mothers will ignore their pups. As sexual satiation plays havoc with dopamine, lovers can end up with negative effect on their precious emotional bonds. Low dopamine alone interferes with feelings of love, and it may reduce oxytocin levels or the brain's sensitivity to oxytocin. As things go sour, something interferes with oxytocin's bonding effects. It's likely that it's low dopamine.

making love

The good news is that making love while avoiding sexual satiation is the loophole in biology’s plan for our love lives. This is the secret that the ancient sacred-sexuality sages stumbled upon. Making love with lots of affection, without the dopamine-driven highs and lows of conventional sex, seems to keep neurochemical levels balanced. The more oxytocin you produce, the more receptive you are to it. This is the opposite of dopamine. Addicts need more and more of a drug, which, of course, actually means they need more and more dopamine. Luckily you don’t need an ever-increasing "fix" of oxytocin to maintain the same gushy feeling. In fact, your partner just looks better and better - at least to you. This is why this practice can strengthen your bond with your mate.

craving for chocolate

This quality of oxytocin explains why companionship can increase longevity - even among those who are HIV positive. Or speed recovery: wounded hamsters heal twice as fast when they are paired with a sibling, rather than left in isolation. It may also explain why, among various species of primates, care-giving parents (whether male or female) live significantly longer. Oxytocin increases sexual receptivity and counteracts impotence, which may be one reason why this other way of making love remains pleasurable. Again, notice that oxytocin reduces cravings and increases sexual receptivity. This allows making love without orgasm to be surprisingly satisfying. The affection is always there, flowing between you and your partner. When we tiptoe around dopamine’s highs and lows, we encourage balance and clear perception of each other. We see each other as sources of safety and pleasure, not as sources of stress. The real magic of love happens at a neurochemical level - and we can choose balance in order to foil the extremes of Mother Nature's plan. Sex is only an addiction when it causes problems similar to those found in any other type of addiction, whether it be gambling, drugs, skydiving, etc. For example, if the desire to have sex takes up so much time that you don't do things you have to do - you get fired from your job, you neglect the kids, etc. It also may be an addiction if you have sex in risky ways (unprotected, in semi-public areas) that you KNOW are harmful but do anyway. "An addiction is a recurring compulsion to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individual's health, mental state or social life. The term is often reserved for drug, alcohol and nicotine addictions but is also applied to other compulsions such as compulsive overeating or sex with orgasm. "

As per Wikipedia:

*Prolactin (PRL) or Luteotropic hormone (LTH) is a peptide hormone discovered by Dr. Henry Friesen, primarily associated with lactation. In breastfeeding, the act of an infant suckling the nipple stimulates the production of prolactin, which fills the breast with milk via a process called lactogenesis, in preparation for the next feed. Oxytocin, another hormone, is also released, which triggers milk let-down.

**Oxytocin (sold as Pitocin, Syntocinon) is a mammalian hormone that also acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain.It is best known for its roles in female reproduction: it is released in large amounts after distension of the cervix and vagina during labor, and after stimulation of the nipples, facilitating birth and breastfeeding, respectively. Recent studies have begun to investigate oxytocin's role in various behaviors, including orgasm, social recognition, pair bonding, anxiety, trust, love, and maternal behaviors.

***Dopamine is a neurotransmitter occurring in a wide variety of animals, including both vertebrates and invertebrates. In the brain, this phenethylamine functions as a neurotransmitter, activating the five types of dopamine receptors — D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5, and their variants. Dopamine is produced in several areas of the brain, including the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area.[1] Dopamine is also a neurohormone released by the hypothalamus. Its main function as a hormone is to inhibit the release of prolactin from the anterior lobe of the pituitary.Dopamine can be supplied as a medication that acts on the sympathetic nervous system, producing effects such as increased heart rate and blood pressure. However, because dopamine cannot cross the blood-brain barrier, dopamine given as a drug does not directly affect the central nervous system. To increase the amount of dopamine in the brains of patients with diseases such as Parkinson's disease and dopa-responsive dystonia, L-DOPA, which is the precursor of dopamine, can be given because it can cross the blood-brain barrier.

Thai Ngoc or Hai Ngoc did not sleep for 33 years

Thai Ngoc or Hai Ngoc (born 1942) is a Vietnamese insomniac. According to Vietnamese news organization Thanh Nien, he is best known for his claim of being awake for 33 years. Thanh Nien also claimed that Ngoc acquired the ability to go without sleep after a bout of fever in 1973, but according to Vietnam Investment Review, there was no apparent cause. At the time of the Thanh Nien report, Ngoc suffered from no apparent ill effect (other than being unable to sleep). He was mentally sound and was able to carry 50 kg of pig feed down a 4km road.

In October 2006, however, Ngoc reported that he was beginning to feel "like a plant without water" due to the lack of sleep.

Human Pappiloma Virus made Dede Koswara a Tree Man

After a severe Human Pappiloma Virus (HPV) infection, Dede Koswara, a 35-year-old Indonesian fisherman, was dubbed the "Tree man" because of the gnarled warts all over his body.

He first noticed the warts on his body after cutting his knee as a teenager. Over time, Dede was sacked from his job, deserted by his wife and shunned by neighbors as the horn-like extensions covered much of his body and stopped him working. He has two children.

after treatment

After his case received widespread publicity, donations from the public and government help allowed him to get treatment, and in 2008, six kilos of warts were surgically removed from his body.