Hundreds of Nissan staff will be working while suspended from the ceiling following a new training scheme to improve maintenance.

Around 400 workers at the Sunderland plant will be trained to work on their machines while hanging several feet above the ground and in tight spaces.

Currently 20% of maintenance at the plant involves working at a height.

Providing more staff with the skills to maintain the suspended machinery will save time and money, Nissan said.

The training by Advanced Industrial Solutions, in North Shields, means less down time for maintenance work when a team can simply harness up and get to work.

Justin Huskisson, from Nissan, said: “A fifth of all our maintenance and repair jobs involve working at height issues as much of our plant is suspended above the ground.

“Currently there is a small team trained to handle these jobs but we wanted to increase the number of staff able to work at height.

“This will ultimately save on wasted down time as trained staff will be able to simply pull on some kit and scale the heights needed to complete the work. Even straightforward tasks such as changing a light bulb will be so much quicker.”

The maintenance team is responsible for the running of plant across all areas of the business including the body shop, press shop, trim and chassis and paint shop.

Organisers say the tower, which was made with 500,000 pieces and measured over 102ft, beat a previous record held in Chile.
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Rev Ambilikile “Babu” Mwasapile, 76, says he does not want any new arrivals until after Friday 1 April, to let the crowds die down.

Local media report that about 52 people have died while waiting to see him.

A BBC reporter says the queues to see him stretch for 26km (16 miles).

Belief in magic and the powers of traditional healers are widespread in Tanzania.

Some witchdoctors say that the body parts of people with albinism are effective when making magic charms, leading to the killing of dozens of albinos in recent years.

In 2009, the government outlawed all witchdoctors and traditional healers.

But on Monday, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda said he would not take any action to stop Mr Mwasapile’s activities.

‘Safe to drink’
Mr Mwasapile’s concoction is made from herbs and water, which he sells for 500 Tanzanian shillings (five cents; 3p).

When she visited Mr Mwasapile’s home near the northern Loliondo town recently, the BBC’s Caroline Karobia found 6,000 people waiting to see the retired Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) pastor.

They are waiting for days by the roadside and outside his home in Samunge village without shelter, clean water or toilets.

As word has spread in the past month of the pastor’s supposed ability to cure any ailments, some people have even been taken out of hospital by their relatives who believe they are more likely to be cured by Mr Mwasapile.

Some of these have died before seeing him, while others are reported to have died after taking his concoction.

Health Minister Haji Hussein Mponda told the BBC that tests had shown that the mixture was safe for human consumption.

He said tests were now being conducted to see if it has any medicinal properties.

Extra police have been deployed to the area to control the huge crowds, some of whom have travelled from neighbouring countries such as Kenya and even further afield.

Mr Mwasapile asked for the break following a meeting with local officials.

All candidates for teaching posts are asked to give a lesson, or part of one, in front of a class, on which students feed back.

And those seeking senior management posts are subjected to a tough interview by a student panel of pupils aged 13 and above, as well as by a number of adult panels.

Assistant head teacher Julie Stuart-Thompson says being a good teacher is not about having a wonderful CV and being good at talking to adults, they have to be skilful in the classroom.

“For someone who is doing a lot of teaching we need to have the pupils’ feedback and we do that as a matter of course,” she says.

And for those going for more senior posts, the interview by the student panel is no opportunity to rest in an already gruelling recruitment process, she says.

“It’s a poor candidate who comes to this school and thinks the student panel is a push-over and whose opinions aren’t taken into consideration.”

The student panel, chosen from a pool of trained members, meets before the interview with a teacher to decide on the questions they will ask.

“They are given a bit of training about body language and the way people speak and they are told not to ask any extra questions because they know that would be unfair to the other candidates,” she adds.

Mrs Stuart-Thompson, who was herself interviewed by members of the Student Council when she got her present job five years ago, says students can be very intuitive.

“They pick up things that adults don’t notice or comment upon.

“Sometimes it’s the way a candidate speaks about students, if they are patronising or if they think they are paying lip services to their questions – that really riles them.”

‘Market research’
The information gleaned by the students is fed back to the staff and governors in a number of different ways.

She says far from being out of their depth in the recruitment process, students often provide a great deal of insight and nearly always mirror what the adults are thinking.

She adds: “I think because they are our customers, we need to hear from them. If you were in a business we would not do anything important without market research.

“The more input we get from students the more likely we are to make a good decision.”

But she says there are wider benefits to involving students in staff recruitment than just finding the right candidate for the post.

Not only does it give the students a sense of leadership and responsibility, she says, but if they can see the strengths and the qualities of the teachers they will appreciate them more.

She adds: “We like to empower our students to do things. Children will rise to the bar – however high you raise it.”

The researchers say it is the first time that a neurotransmitter has been shown to play a role in sexual preference in mammals.

Experts have warned about the dangers of drawing conclusions about human sexuality.

The research team first bred male mice whose brains were not receptive to serotonin.

A series of experiments demonstrated that these mice had lost the preference for females shown by unmodified males.

When presented with a choice of partners, they showed no overall preference for either males or females.

When just a male was introduced into the cage, the modified males were far more likely to mount the male and emit a “mating call” normally given off when encountering females than unmodified males were.

Similar results were achieved when a different set of mice were bred. These lacked the tryptonphan hydroxylase 2 gene, which is needed to produce serotonin.

However, a preference for females could be “restored” by injecting serotonin into the brain.

The report concludes: “Serotonergic signalling is crucial for male sexual preference in mice. This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a neurotransmitter in the brain has been demonstrated to be important in mammalian sexual preference.”

Humans
Sexual behaviour in mice is thought to be driven by their sense of smell.

Professor Keith Kendrick, a neuroscientist at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, said: “In terms of having potential relevance to understanding human sexual preference/orientation, we are of course far less influenced by odour cues in this context than mice are.

“There is some very limited evidence for altered responses to selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in the brains of homosexuals, but we have been using psychoactive drugs which either increase or decrease serotonin function for quite some time now, and while effects on sexual arousal, impulsivity and aggression have often been reported, no effects on sexual preference/orientation have.

“At this time therefore any potential links between serotonin and human sexual preferences must be considered somewhat tenuous.”

It beggars belief. Their players told the ref not to send me off and their chairman even offered to take a player off to even things up,” said the Magpies boss.
“In hindsight I perhaps shouldn’t have done it but hindsight is a wonderful thing. I’m sure people will crucify me for this but I have broad shoulders.”
The Havant & Waterlooville fan, who has been identified as Alan Young, admitted he ran onto the pitch for a bet and the club have since been charged with supporter misconduct by the Football Association.
Young told BBC Radio Solent: “It was only a bit of a joke, we all agreed at my local pub on Sunday I’d do it as a bet.
“The security there were too slow but Vickers caught me quite well. He should be a rugby player.
“He hit me quite hard so by the time I had got up I didn’t know where I was on the pitch because I hadn’t expected the tackle.
“The security did ask me afterwards if I was OK but to be honest I enjoyed myself so much I didn’t really care what happened at the time.”

Havant boss Shaun Gayle told BBC Radio Solent: “The person I feel sorry for is Ashley Vickers, all he tried to do was deal with it and the referee has sent him off.
“If he had just grabbed him and held onto the lad then the ref might not have sent him off. He [Vickers] was obviously wound up with the situation, his side had just conceded a goal.
“That’s the thing that goes against him a little bit, but that’s up to the powers that be and of course we’ll do everything we can to help him.”
This is not the first time a sportsman has clashed with a pitch invader. A similar incident happened during cricket’s 1982-83 Ashes series in Perth when Australian pace bowler Terry Alderman captured an England fan who had run onto the pitch and slapped him.
Alderman dislocated his shoulder as a result and was consequently sidelined for 18 months.

Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds escaped punishment in 2008 after he had tackled a nude streaker during an international match against India.
The International Cricket Council decided Symonds had not breached section 4.2 of the players’ code of conduct relating to physical assault on a player, official or spectator.
It is yet to be confirmed whether or not Dorchester will appeal against Vickers’ ban.

Reid, who had allegedly escaped from another court in 2008, tried to flee after giving evidence in his trial, jurors were told.

The 34-year-old, who had been jailed for two years for indecent assault, denies escape and attempted escape.

In December 2008, Reid was given an indeterminate sentence, with a minimum term of two years, at Inner London Crown Court.

‘Slipped handcuff’
He was taken to Brixton Prison but returned to the same court 10 days later for an ancillary matter.

As he left the court he managed to escape from the security officer by slipping the handcuff off his wrist and running out of a fire escape.

He was recaptured but made a second escape bid at a hearing at Woolwich Crown Court last August, the court heard.
The main door to the court was locked for security reasons but the doors to the judge’s corridor and jury room were unlocked for safety reasons.

Rupert Gregory, prosecuting, said: “The jury were just leaving when the defendant jumped up and ran across the clerk’s bench to get to the judge’s door.

“As he went through the door his honour Judge Marks Moore grabbed him round the throat to try to bring him down.”

After falling down three steps together Reid broke free but the judge gave chase.

As Reid was about to open a push-handle fire door, Judge Moore rugby-tackled him around the waist and brought him crashing to the ground, landing on top of him.

Mr Gregory told the court: “There is only one reason why a Crown Court judge would rugby-tackle a defendant to the ground – because he is trying to escape and the judge is the only person in any position to prevent that escape.

“The only thing preventing Paul Reid from pushing that fire door to the outside world was a judge in a wig and full robes.”

When interviewed by police Reid told officers the judge told him he could go home, the court heard.

The case continues.

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/news/856586-bank-robber-sues-police-after-being-arrested-with-his-underpants-on-show#ixzz1FKP5xOqW

The elephant, called Amarula, at first rubbed itself up against the car, perhaps mistaking it for a female mate.
But then the beast, pumped full of hormones, became aggressive and flipped the car on its roof as the terrified occupants clung on for dear life inside.

This brush with death wasn’t on the pair’s itinerary, but luckily they suffered only minor cuts and bruises from the incident.
The snaps were taken by photographer Riaan van Wyk, who was watching from a safe distance!

Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/856611-elephant-gets-trunk-road-rage-and-flips-car-caught-on-camera#ixzz1FKOk293H