£6m boost to Scottish hi-tech alliance
A transatlantic alliance between two universities will be backed by a £6 million grant aimed at boosting Scotland’s high-tech competitive edge. The cash boost from Scottish Enterprise will fund a five-year collaboration between Edinburgh and Stanford universities on speech and language technology.
Nine-year anomaly creates pension windfall
Hundreds of retired academics are getting windfalls of up to £30,000 as the universities pensions scheme corrects an anomaly that had gone unnoticed for nine years. The Universities Superannuation Scheme is conducting an investigation of all members who retired on or after September 3 1993. So far it has made repayments to 6 retired academics.
Tossed to perfection
On the eve of Shrove Tuesday, pancake lovers have been urged to ditch their cookery books and put their faith in physics. Lecturer Garry Tungate of Birmingham University has been carrying out research for supermarket Safeway. His formula: flip the pancake into the air at 10 miles an hour, which will mean it takes less than 0.5 of a second to reach the top of its trajectory. The pancake should now have rotated 90 degrees at a rate of .55 revolutions per second. It should take 0.45 seconds on the downward journey completing the perfect toss with a 90 degree flip on the way down.
Student boycott closes Botswana University
The University of Botswana has been closed to students in the face of a boycott of classes by students demanding increased allowances and cheaper food in university refectories.
Montana professor target of firebomb attack
The Montana home of a psychology professor and her female partner has been firebombed days after they were identified as plaintiffs in a discrimination lawsuit against the Montana university system. Neither Carla Grayson and Adrianne Neff were seriously injured as they escaped the fire through a window with their infant child.