Today's news

Top head says put performance before potential
The headmistress of the country's top school for A-level results has condemned universities that favour measuring potential over academic brilliance. Sarah Evans, of King Edward VI High School for Girls in Birmingham, said all admissions should be based on merit and achievement.
(Daily Mail)

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A-level rankings attacked
Teachers' leaders have dismissed delayed A-level performance tables - finally published today - as an "irrelevance" and "statistical nonsense" that will be of no help to parents in assessing their local secondary schools. The tables were to have been published at the end of last year but were postponed by the then education secretary Estelle Morris because the regarding crisis meant the data were unreliable.
(Independent, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Times)

Whopper squid find is priceless
A colossal squid caught by fishermen in Antarctic waters is the first example of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni retrieved virtually intact from the surface of the ocean, scientists from Auckland University of Technology claim. The squid's body, measures 2.5m. With its arms and tentacles stretched out its length is between 5m and 6m. Only six specimens of the so-called colossal squid have been found - five of them inside the stomachs of sperm whales.
(Guardian)

Scientists prove that elephants can run
Scientists have concluded that elephants are capable of running. Although an elephant's foot fall pattern remains the same at speed, and all four feet never leave the ground at the same time, it seems that the four-ton creatures probably do run. They adopt an unusual high speed gait dubbed "Groucho running" by the American team from Stanford University that reports the work today in the journal Nature .
(Daily Telegraph)