FEELING stressed because of an exam – then hug a pig!
The Daily Star says that students at Nottingham Trent University are being encouraged to cuddle the animals as part of a new project to reduce stress before exams and final hand-ins.
Jeremiah Anson, vice-president of services for the Students' Union, said: “The pigs have gone down really, really well among the students.
“I think everyone comes to university to get good grades. You wouldn't be here if you didn't achieve that and that need to achieve can lead to stress.”
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A world speed record has been broken in the UK – by a bus powered by manure!
The Daily Express tells us that the 'Bus Hound' which runs on methane generated by liquefied cow manure hit a world record 80.73 miles per hour on a race circuit in Bedford.
The Reading Buses vehicle is normally speed-limited to 56mph on public roads.
The Express quotes chief engineer John Bickerton as saying that the company wanted the world's first service bus speed record to highlight the 'viability, power and credibility' of buses fuelled by cow poo.
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A jellyfish alert has been published in the Daily Mirror. Apparently tens of thousands of giant jellyfish are swarming off the coast. The paper says that the '5ft monsters' are invading our shores after warm weather sent sea temperatures soaring.
Diver Todd Palmer, who saw one off the coast at Plymouth, Devon, said: “It’s the biggest one I’ve seen. It’s usually a sign of a good summer.”
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There was a narrow escape for two abandoned kittens, says the Mirror, when they were saved after being found in a bonfire pile just seconds before it was lit.
The three-week-old kittens were taking shelter in a pile of leaves and wood in Southampton, Hampshire that was moments away from being put on an already-lit bonfire.
But a workman who was in charge of the bonfire heard one of the cats let out a small ‘meow’ just before he put the pile on the fire.
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According to the Daily Express, the grave of the real life Alice in Wonderland is being restored to mark the 150th anniversary of the book by Lewis Carroll.
Alice Hargreaves, who died in 1934 aged 82 and was buried at Lyndhurst, Hampshire, was said to have inspired Carroll to write about a girl who fell down a rabbit hole to entertain her and her sisters when she was a child.
Ann Rogers, warden at St Michael and All Angels Church where the grave is, said: “We get lots of visitors to see Alice’s grave - every day there’s a family struggling to find it in the church grounds.
“We want to do something for the anniversary but we don’t know how much it may cost yet until we hear from the stonemasons. The whole thing could do with a clean-up.”
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We all know that dogs and cats like chewing but it seems that they have developed a taste for gadgets, reports the Daily Mirror.
A study by Square Trade, showed that Britain's dogs and cats have chewed their way through an estimated £358million worth of gadgets – including phones, tablets and laptops - over the past five years.A spokesman for the firm commented: “Pet owners are wasting extraordinary amounts of money on repairing phones, tablets and other handheld devices that have inadvertently become luxury doggy chews.
“The rhyming slang for phone in Britain is ‘dog and bone’ and part of me wonders whether our pets might be picking up on this a bit literally - at our cost.”
Reference list:
The Express (www.express.co.uk)
Daily Mirror (www.mirror.co.uk)
Daily Star (www.daily star.co.uk)