A high school classroom in Hubei province where students cramming for their Gaokao (national college entrance exams) are hooked up to IV drips of amino acids.

Mr. Xia, director of Office of Academic Affairs, said that what is delivered to the students intravenously is nothing but amino acids to restore their health.

“The state grants a 10-yuan subsidy for amino acids to each graduating senior that will participate in the gao kao (National College Entrance Exam). Any student that feels not well can go to the infirmary and take amino acids on the IV drip,” Mr. Xia explained. He said that some students had been below par recently due to the sudden weather changes in the city of Xiaogan, and the school infirmary had been packed with students. In order to spare students the trouble of running back and forth between the infirmary and the classroom and save their time, the school decided to arrange IV drip sessions right in the classroom.

You think you have your study technique down? You got nothing. Nothing.

An entire class of high school students receive IV drips while cramming for exams (Ministry of Tofu)

boingboing


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FntD3KgIaY#!

Come for the maw-tay intencey-tay, stay for the tuff-nayce.

You may even watch the whole thing. We did. A Reddit commenter sums up the audio thus:

It sounds like a melting radio.

reddit/highdefinite

The far-right Golden Dawn party [above: Golden Dawn candidate Giorgos Germanis] is set to win 7% of the parliamentary vote, according to early projections, as Greeks punished the traditionally dominant parties who backed harsh austerity measures tied to debt-relief agreements.

Golden Dawn. Aw. That sounds hopeful.

The party’s supporters, routinely seen intimidating immigrants in run-down parts of the capital, wear black shirts, and its emblems resemble Nazi insignia. But [Golden Dawn leader Nikolaos] Michaloliakos has rejected the neo-Nazi label widely used for his party, stressing that it is staunchly nationalist.

Referring to immigrants, Golden Dawn’s campaign slogan in television ads was “let’s rid this country of the stench”.

Oh.

Golden Dawn: leader of far-right party lashes out at Greece’s ‘traitors’ (Guardian)

Godwin?

pic

François Hollande remporte le second tour de l’élection présidentielle française avec 52 ou 53,3 % des voix, d’après les estimations des instituts de sondages

 

François Hollande élu Président de la République (lesoir.be)

Socialist Francois Hollande ‘wins French presidency’ (BBCNews)

Scenes from last night’s Festival of the Fires on the Hill of Uisneach, Co Westmeath.

…a mix of music, fire performance, art, culture, heritage and pageantry. The festival culminated with the ignition of a massive signal bonfire on Uisneach which is the catalyst for fires to be lit on over 100 hills visible from the summit and was preceded by an illuminated night-time fire parade.

Burning Man?

(Laura Hutton, Photocall Ireland)

Broadsheet.ie