Pupils urged to attack dummy teachers

Pupils at a Chinese school are being encouraged to attack punch bag dummies of their teachers to relieve stress. Lichang 1st Middle School in Jinan attached pictures of teachers to sandbags and gave pupils boxing gloves to work off their frustrations. Vice principal Meng Fanxiang said: "Adolescent students may have a lot of problems and be under great pressure from studies. It's better for them to release it within the school than other places."Meng's own picture, as well as those of other teachers and admin staff has been attached to the sandbags, but the vice principal told the Qilu Evening Post: "I don't care if they beat up my dummy."The 'physical release' room is part of a new programme of support services for students which also include a private chat room and a consultation room. The school says that most boys prefer the physical release room for the release of stress, while the majority of girls prefer the private chat room.

Little old lady' robs bank

Police are hunting for a crook who got away clean with more than £10,000 after robbing a bank dressed as a little old lady. The bandit shuffled into the bank in Hamburg, Germany, wearing a headscarf, thick glasses and a long coat before pulling a gun on cashiers. More than 100 police officers took part in a chaotic city-wide search for the cross-dressing blagger - and arrested five real-life old ladies as suspects before letting them go. A police spokesman said: "A cashier said they saw a smiling little old lady come up to the cash desk, but then she suddenly whipped out a gun, roared in a deep male voice to hand over the cash and then fled like as quickly as an Olympic athlete."A lot of bank robbers just put a balaclava over their heads to hide their face, but this particular disguise was very well thought out and makes catching them especially hard."

Robot teacher has human touch

The world's first robot teacher proved a hit with pupils on her first day at a Japanese primary school. One pupil described Saya as "pretty" another said that she was a bit "scary but fun" while another said that he "couldn't believe he was getting taught by a robot”. First, she called the name of each child before asking the pupils to carry out tasks from a text book for the pilot project in Kudan Primary School, next to Tokyo University. Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi, of Tokyo's University of Science, who has been developing the robot for 15 years, said: "The children were not fazed by Saya at all."They don't see her as a humanoid but human. They were very happy and surprised when she was able to call their names. They treated Saya like a real teacher."Saya's steel skull is covered with fine latex cast from a female university student. Underneath, a system of 18 motors works like muscles to give her facial expressions including surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness. The robot is able to talk, potentially in any language, move her head and respond to questions. She currently speaks around 300 phrases and has a vocabulary of 700 words and is programmed to respond to words and questions. It is planned that the first robot teachers will be used in several classrooms where they will be operated by 'controller' teachers operating from a control centre. Each teacher robot has a price tag up to £25,000. They are claimed to be the first economically viable robot and aim to make back their money in a couple of years."The aim is to develop something that is useful to society and humans in daily life. The robot teacher is the perfect application for a robot," added Professor Kobayashi.

Snake on a plate

A New York man regretted changing his side order from chips to vegetables after finding a snake's head in his broccoli. Jack Pendleton first thought the thumb-sized object was a mushroom, until he turned it over, reports the Albany Times Union."I see this gray-green patch," he said. "I could see these black, rotted eye sockets on the top. I stopped eating. I told my girlfriend, 'I think this is a head'."Mr. Pendleton, 28, an art director, took a photo with his phone camera, and then summoned the waiter. He covered the dish with his hand and described his find."He thought I was joking until I took my hand away," he said. "The manager came over white as a sheet. He explained in five years he'd never run into anything like this."Mr. Pendleton says he has no plans to sue the restaurant, a TGI Friday in Clifton Park, which said it “regretted” the mistake. The couple was given their meals without charge. Amy Freshwater, a spokeswoman for the chain, said: "We are taking this situation very seriously."We immediately pulled the broccoli from this restaurant and began an extensive investigation. As a precautionary measure, we pulled broccoli from all restaurants that received product from this supplier.""We are sending the object to an independent laboratory for testing. We have very strict and thorough safety and sanitation procedures and regret that this situation occurred in one of our restaurants."

'My interests include cooking dogs'

A survey of CV blunders reveals that job applicants are blowing their chances with gaffes such as listing their interests as "cooking dogs”. Experts found that 94% of job hunters risked missing out on vacancies through CV blunders such as poor spelling, grammar or presentation on their CVs. Failure to use the comma led to embarrassing disclosures such as: "My interests include cooking dogs and interesting people."In some cases, applicants' attempts to impress potential employers failed through the odd missed word, with phrases such as: "I was responsible for dissatisfied customers."For others, the omission of a single letter consigned their CV to the dustbin: "I am a pubic relations officer."From a sample of 450 CVs, researchers found that 81% were laden with spelling and grammatical errors, while nearly half were poorly laid out. A mere six per cent were error-free, the study by career advisers Personal Career Management (PCM) concluded. Mistakes were not confined to applicants for menial roles either - many of the CVs riddled with errors were drafted by CEOs, professionals and recent graduates, researchers said. Corinne Mills, managing director of PCM, said: "Many of the people whose CVs end up in the waste paper bin are perfectly capable of doing the job. However, a poor CV means they will not get the opportunity to prove it.
"Why would anyone want to employ a lawyer or a secretary who makes spelling mistakes or errors? If they can't pay attention to their own CV, why would you trust them to work on any of your documents?"