Is this real?

[Woogie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DStwXsmZ3OE

I`m confused, it looks fake but I don't want to be ignorant about such things!!

[Nadz1lla]

Wow!  :?

Well the amount of related videos would normally tell me that was legitimate, but it's kinda hard to believe. It's possible some kind of parasitic plant has invaded his body, maybe he has a natural weakness to something the rest of the human race have as standard.

Odd.

Like you, I'm not sure, but maybe because it's so extreme it's hard to take in.

[WezV]

read this.... it gets stranger!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/11/26/wtree126.xml

[MDV]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=ABPJQ25LXIPANQFIQMGSFFWAVCBQWIV0?xml=/news/2007/11/12/wtree112.xml

Linked from wez's link.

Wierd as hell, but it looks smells of 'real' to me.

Poor bar-steward. Hope he's getting better.

[38thBeatle]

Poor guy, I hope he gets some sort of treatment that helps him.

[blue]

i first saw this guy in Bizarre magazine a while back, maybe a year ago?  of course there it was an "ain't it cool!" reaction.  he's suddenly cropped up in a few newspapers and i think i saw him on BBC news.  i wonder why it took so long for the mainstream media to notice him?  he'll probably become a new cause celebre now, the new John Merrick.

[maverickf1jockey]

Don't see how he could possibly get any better from his current state. His condition, or the deterioration of which, can only be slowed down and not reversed as I think I heard it has to do with his DNA and cell reproduction. Going off what I heard the explanation is that his immune system was compromised and he got a sliver of wood from this tropical tree and so instead of killing the plant matter his body incorporated it into his genetic code. This has caused cancerous growths of wood/bark in his skin (this is probably the same for his hands but as there is so much growth there it is impossible to tell without proper examination whether his hands are all wood or 'bark' around human bone.
In short it's a form of cancer I'm guessing (much like Merrick as has been said not only in nature but also due to the uniqueness of the condition and the lack of sufficient explanation.). It could be an unexplained genetic mutation (as in proteas syndrome where the bones grow unevenly and endlessly until your death contorting your body like JM (JM's condition is believed by many to be proteas but there wasn't enough medical knowledge to aid him with or understand his symptoms)

Odd.

[horsehead]

Strange, the basic answer that I heard was that these are essentially warts that because of a flaw in his immune system he can't control & basically go nuts...this is what happens. Apparently there's a geneiasits(?) that he thinks he maybe able to cure him though

[sambo]

his immune system was compromised and he got a sliver of wood from this tropical tree and so instead of killing the plant matter his body incorporated it into his genetic code. This has caused cancerous growths of wood/bark in his skin (this is probably the same for his hands but as there is so much growth there it is impossible to tell without proper examination whether his hands are all wood or 'bark' around human bone.

Mate, I don't think he actually has tree in him.

It's a form of HPV (Human Papilloma Virus) according to everything I've read.

Very strange though either way.

[maverickf1jockey]

I'm going off of what I was told by 6th formers who's source was the internet so chances are that what I wrote has to be taken with a pinch of salt.

[Crazy_Joe]

I saw this guy in a magazine ages ago, it is definatley real, i just don't understand how it actually happened.