This photo retrieved October 13, 2009 is from schoolishard.com. The new dress code requires lecturers to wear professional dress, or they will be sent home.

It is normally students who are sent home for inappropriate attire, but one English college is threatening to send lecturers home for violating a dress code, which includes a ban on jeans.

Their union has accused Birmingham Metropolitan College of “acting like the fashion police.”

The newly re-issued dress code requires lecturers to wear a “business suit; smart jacket and co-ordinating trousers or skirt; smart shirt/top/blouse or smart dress.”

Scruffy trousers, jeans, ostentatious jewelry and outrageous hair styles and colors are strictly banned.

Earrings must not be excessive and are the only form of jewelry allowed in visible piercings. The policy also states that tattoos must be covered.

Nick Varney of the local University and College Union (UCU) branch said the policy “harks back to Victorian times.” He told Reuters he has never seen staff so angry.

“They are absolutely fuming. It’s about their professionalism and the notion that they haven’t got a clue about what to wear when they are teaching,” Varney said.

The guidelines are a far cry from the stereotypical image of a college lecturer as a slightly scruffy, chalk-dusted individual wearing corduroy jackets with torn leather elbow pads.

In the policy, the college says: “The College is a professional and business-like organization and staff have a responsibility to uphold and promote these values in their dress and appearance.”

The UCU accused the dress code of being possibly discriminatory and subjective.

“Has diversity and the celebration of cultural differences totally passed them by?” asked Varney.

Lecturers are due to meet with the college principal this week. The UCU is demanding the policy be withdrawn. By Manager Online/Reuters

the world’s ugliest boxer. Pabst, a boxer-mix, won the annual World's Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Northern California

A boxer with a prominent under-bite, scrunched face and floppy ears has been named the world’s ugliest dog.

Pabst, a boxer-mix, won the annual World’s Ugliest Dog contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair in Northern California.

The dog, who was rescued from a shelter by Miles Egstad of Citrus Heights, California, beat former champion Rascal, a pedigree Chinese Crested.

Mr Egstad said Pabst was rescued from an animal shelter as a puppy and named after an American beer for his “bitter beer face”.

He has a 2in underbite, a large scar from a burn on his stomach and nails which grow in odd directions.

Pabst received £1,000 in cash, a year-long modelling contract, a prize package of collars, leads, bowls and toys, and a professional photoshoot.

Miss Ellie, a blind 15-year-old Chinese Crested Hairless from Tennessee, won the pedigree category.

She is reported to be around 15 years old, has only a couple of back teeth, cataracts in both her eyes, several moles and pimples and limited hair.

Her owner Dawn Goehring said: “Her dream is to travel around to prove that ugly is just a word, and says nothing about how wonderful she is.”

Men take an escalator as a stock quotation board is reflected in a window in Tokyo

The euro held firm close to a nine-month high against the dollar in Asia on Wednesday as investors snapped up riskier assets, reflecting mounting hopes for a global economic recovery.

The euro stood at 1.4667 dollars in Tokyo midday trade, close to Tuesday’s peak of 1.4686, which was the highest since December 2008.

The dollar edged down to 90.97 yen, from 91.08 yen in New York late Tuesday. The euro was steady at 133.49 yen against 133.50.

The market was in dollar-selling mode, with a jump in US retail sales and steady commodity markets reducing the appeal of the safe-haven currency, said Masato Otsubo, currency analyst at Resona Bank.

US stocks hit their highest level of the year on Tuesday — the first anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said the US recession was “very likely over”.

“Cash had shifted from risk assets to the dollar after the Lehman shock but fund flows are now being reversed,” Otsubo said.

Traders were eyeing a historic change of power in Japan as a centre-left government replaces a conservative party that has ruled almost continuously for more than half a century.

Hirohisa Fujii, a 77-year-old former bureaucrat who has railed against wasteful public spending, said he had accepted the job of Japanese finance minister under incoming premier Yukio Hatoyama.

Traders are watching carefully for Fujii’s remarks on the yen, in particular how concerned he is about the currency’s recent strength.

Fujii has said that in principle the government should refrain from intervening in the currency market to curb the strength of the yen and protect the country’s exporters.

“The market consensus is that the DPJ will tolerate a strong yen,” Otsubo said.

The euro found some support after Germany’s closely watched ZEW survey, which measures the mood of financial market players, rose in September to 57.7 — its highest level since April 2006 — from 56.1 in August. Manager Online

This photo retrieved September 10, 2009 shows a person was drinking wine. At the annual Penfolds Wine Auction this weekend, the Penfolds 1957 Shiraz St. Henri was hammered off for A$8,110 ($6,991) a bottle, the highest price ever paid for a St. Henri. Reuters photo.

An Australian wine that was once considered a non-collectable item has sold at a record price, surpassing the country’s most acclaimed vintage as wine lovers target rare bottles from the last century.

At the annual Penfolds Wine Auction this weekend, the Penfolds 1957 Shiraz St. Henri was hammered off for A$8,110 ($6,991) a bottle, the highest price ever paid for a St. Henri.

Bottles of 1955, 1959 and 1971 St. Henri also beat the records for the same vintages of the famous Penfolds Grange, widely recognized as Australia’s most coveted and expensive wine.

“The result is extraordinary, probably ten times what they expected to bring, we don’t see that very often,” Stewart Langton of Langton’s wine auction house told Reuters.

“I don’t think any wine is intrinsically worth A$8,000 a bottle and basically people who spend that on a bottle aren’t going to drink that wine, they put it away, it’s a trophy,” said Winsor Dobbin of “Food and Wine” magazine.

While Penfolds Grange was seen as a collectable wine, St. Henri was usually drunk, making older bottles of it quite rare.

St. Henri’s first commercial vintage was 1957 and it gained a new lease of life in the 1990s as wine connoisseurs started to appreciate its distinctive style.

“People are focusing on those hard to find rare bottles that occasionally come up, so we are seeing price rises across the board from the wines from the 50s and early 60s,” Langton said.

Penfolds, one of Australia’s oldest wineries with an extensive product range, was founded in 1844 by British physician Christopher Rawson Penfold. The winery is now part of the beverage giant Foster’s Group.:manager online

This photo is retrieved September 10, 2009. British women women earned an average of 2,875 pounds ($4,712) a year in performance pay compared to 14,550 pounds for men. Reuters photo.

Women in some of Britain’s leading financial companies receive around 80 percent less in bonus and performance-linked pay than their male colleagues, the country’s equality watchdog said on Monday.

A survey of 50 finance firms found that women earned an average of 2,875 pounds ($4,712) a year in performance pay compared to 14,550 pounds for men, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said.

There was also a 39 percent gap between women and men in annual basic pay, rising to 47 percent when bonuses and other additional payments were added.

“The finance sector has one of the highest overall gender pay gaps in the UK economy,” the commission said.

It said women working full-time in the finance firms surveyed earned 55 percent less annual gross salary than men, compared to a pay gap of 28 percent for the economy generally.

“The financial sector has the potential to play a central role in Britain’s recovery. But it has to address this shocking disparity of rewards,” said EHRC Chairman Trevor Phillips.

The sector’s age profile could be a factor in holding back women, the commission said.

“An unusually high proportion of workers in the sector fall into the 25-39 age group — the age at which women tend to have childcare responsibilities.”

The British Bankers’ Association said big payouts were made to a relatively small number of people and that part of the gender pay gap in finance was due to lifestyle choices made by women.

“In general, women tend to be attracted to areas such as retail banking, fund management, insurance and other functions where people skills are at a premium — these, traditionally, do not attract the higher bonuses,” the BBA said.

“Women also often make different choices when it comes to balancing work and home life. The industry employs proportionately quite young people and this too can have an impact on salaries as it clashes with those years when more women than men take time out to look after children.” : manager online

This photo retrieved on September 12, 2009 is from thaioverlander.com. Cutting down trees to make prayer flags is considered a threat to the country’s happiness. Reuters photo.

Bhutan has warned its citizens over cutting down thousands of young trees every year to make prayer flags, a threat to the tiny kingdom’s lush scenery and the government’s duty to bring “Gross National Happiness.”

Himalayan Buddhists put up prayer flags for good luck or to help the dead find the right path to their next life. The more flag poles put up for the departed the better, and Buddhist monks say fresh poles must be used each time.

Having failed to convince its citizens to switch from wood to steel for prayer flags, the government of the Himalayas’ last Buddhist kingdom is growing bamboo, which it hopes will be an attractive alternative.

“The pressure on forest is from all sides — from flagposts to hydropower. We are discussing this every day,” Agriculture Secretary Sherub Gyaltshen, said.

Bhutan’s constitution, which emphasises the importance of Gross National Happiness over Gross Domestic Product, stipulates the country must have at least 60 percent forest cover.

Himalayan Buddhists believe winds will carry positive vibrations of tantric symbols written on the prayer flags in yellow, green, red, white and blue to represent the five elements, and 108 prayer flags are put up when someone dies.

“If you re-use an old flagpole, you aren’t putting in effort, which means the merit earned is compromised,” explained Lopon Gyem Tshering, a monk who teaches at a religious school.

Bhutan felled around 60,000 trees between June 2007 and June 2008 just for flag poles, according to official data, and per capita consumption is rising in the country of around 700,000.: manager online

German anatomists plan a new show dedicated solely to dead bodies having sex as part of the Body Worlds exhibitions.

Gunther von Hagens and his wife Angelina Whalley show corpses prepared using a technique invented by von Hagens called “plastination,” that removes water from specimens and preserves them with silicon rubber or epoxy resin.

“It’s not my intention to show certain sexual poses. My goal is really to show the anatomy and the function,” Body Worlds creative director Whalley told Reuters in an interview, adding the sex exhibition may open next year.

Body Worlds exhibitions, visited by 27 million people across the world, have been criticized for presenting entire corpses, stripped of skin to reveal the muscles and organs underneath, in lifelike and often theatrical positions.

Von Hagens has already triggered uproar with a new exhibit which shows just two copulating corpses.

German politicians called the current “Cycle of Life” show charting conception to old age “revolting” and “unacceptable” when it showed in Berlin earlier this year because it included copulating cadavers.

This photo retrieved September 14 shows the external and internal part of human body. The way a plastinate is exhibited can vary from country to country to reflect local sensibilities. Reuters photo.

The way a plastinate is exhibited can vary from country to country to reflect local sensibilities. A vote of local employees decided that one of the copulating female cadavers should wear fewer clothes in Zurich than was the case in Berlin.

“Switzerland is the first country that already said from the outset that we could show whatever we wanted,” said von Hagens.

“Zurich is ready … but it’s maybe not so easy in every other town,” he said. “We have discussed whether it is proper to show homosexuality and in what way. This is a very delicate subject.”

Von Hagens and Whalley said they both intended to donate their bodies for plastination, but would not leave instructions about how to display them, dismissing this as vanity.

“I find it a great opportunity to give something to others by donating my body, namely self-awareness,” said Whalley.

Von Hagens said he and some other body donors even saw plastination as an alternative to burial or cremation, giving them more certainty about would happen to their bodies after death.

“Cremation for me is hell,” he said. : manager online

This photo is retrieved on September 14. In the United States, parents were poor role models for their teenagers when it came to driving. Reuters photo.

Parents in the United States are setting a poor example behind the wheel for their teenaged children by talking and texting on cell phones and speeding.

Nearly 60 percent of 500 parents with teenage children questioned in an online survey admitted that they chatted on their cells while driving. Forty-two percent said they were guilty of speeding and 17 percent sent a text or email.

Another 40 percent listened to loud music while driving.
“Teens get safe driving examples and advice from many sources — television ads, driving instructors, friends and family members, but no one more than Mom or Dad,” Dave Melton, a driving safety expert with the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, said in a statement.

“And if they grow up watching their Mom or Dad speed, talk on their cell phone, text and email, or pay more attention to what’s on the radio than their driving, they are going to think it’s okay to do the same thing.

Despite bans on driving-while-texting, or DWT, in 14 states and high-profile accidents that resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of people, a quarter of Americans who use cell phone admitted to driving while texting, according to a recent report.

Last year 25 people were killed in a train crash in California and nearly 50 people were injured in a trolley crash in Boston earlier this year. Drivers in both accidents were found to be texting just before the crashes.

Fathers were the worst culprits for setting a bad example behind the wheel in the poll commissioned by insurance group Liberty Mutual, with 75 percent admitting to at least two dangerous driving behaviors, compared to 63 percent of mothers.

Men were also less likely than women to discuss safe driving with their children.

“Safe driving goes beyond learning a skill set, it’s a two-way street and requires daily precautions and parental enforcement with clear rewards and consequences,” said Stephen Wallace, the chairman of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) a national education, prevention and activism group.

“While Moms are more likely to continue to treat safe teen driving as a priority after their teens pass their driving tests, Dads tend to let driving enforcement slip,” he added.: manager online

This photo retrieved September 14, 2009 shows a person eating an insect. Trying unusual foods is one of the new experiences among travelers. Reuters photo.

While much of the fun of traveling revolves around new experiences, even the most adventurous explorers may draw the line at trying certain foods.

Proving that one man’s winged rat is another man’s pricey appetizer, members and editors of travel website VirtualTourist.com have come up with a list of 10 of the world’s most unusual foods. Reuters has not endorsed this list:

1. Pig’s Blood Cake; Taiwan
In Taiwan, pig’s blood cake is sold on a wooden stick and eaten like ice cream. Easily found at street markets, it’s a sweet treat generally made from pig’s blood and rice.

2. Live Octopus; South Korea
Unlike calamari which is dead and still, octopus in South Korea often arrives at the table alive and moving. Connoisseurs of the dish say it’s best to eat quickly.

3. Grasshopper; Uganda
Caught during the rainy season and eaten cooked or raw, these are a perennial favorite. Sold with or without wings and legs, they are easily found at the local markets.

4. Pigeon; France
While considered a dirty street animal by many, this poultry dish is an expensive and much-loved delicacy that graces the plates of some of the country’s finest restaurants. Considered to have a robust flavor, it still struggles to gain culinary acceptance in much of the world.

5. Durian; Malaysia
Some Malaysian hotels put up signs banning the durian. The ultra-strong aroma of this spiky fruit may turn off tourists, but many Malaysians love its doughy taste.

6. Lutefisk; Norway
Marinated in lye, this gummy fish takes days to prepare and is described as one of the most vile-tasting foodstuffs ever created. In spite of this less-than-tasty reputation, it remains hugely popular in this part of the world.

7. Grubs; Australia
These white, high-in-protein snacks are actually the larvae of moths and an important insect food of the desert, once a staple in the diets of some Aborigines.

8. Snake Wine; Vietnam
Said to have medicinal properties, this strong cocktail is best downed quickly. Not only is it made from snake blood, it’s bottled with a snake inside and occasionally other creatures, like scorpions.

9. Donkey; Italy
Sliced and eaten much like prosciutto, this sandwich meat can be found — and accidentally ordered — fairly easily in the country’s bars.

10. Ostrich; South Africa
Low in cholesterol and considered healthier than other meats, the ostrich is becoming more and more popular all over the world. Everything from ostrich burgers to omelettes made from the bird’s eggs are turning up on menus. : Manager Online

Robot snake is new spy Ananova web

Israeli military scientists have reportedly designed a robotic snake which can spy on enemies and plant bombs.

The robotic snake can even stand up vertically to peer over obstacles, reports Sky News.

The remote-controlled reptile is able to sneak through cracks in buildings to gather information on enemy combatants, according to Israel’s Channel 2 TV.

Researchers studied the movements of snakes to ensure that the robotic equivalent mimics them correctly.

A soldier controls the snake from a remote laptop and can follow what it sees via video cameras.

Footage posted online shows the six-foot long snake in camouflage gear, winding its way through rocks and tree stumps.

The video is getting thousands of hits on YouTube after a user called ‘Korozzz’ posted it.

The Israel Defence Forces plan to equip combat units with the models, which could also be used to find survivors trapped in collapsed buildings.

A TV report said the snake is in the experimental stage and the cost of producing multiple versions is as yet unknown.

Researchers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University inspired the design after undertaking a robotic animals project.