QUIRKY WORLD... A daily look at some of the world's stranger stories
The unnamed teacher was visiting a beer festival with pupils when the bench toppled and the woman suffered back injuries that kept her off work for a month.
A regional court in Stuttgart sided with the teacher against her employer, the south-western German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, which claimed what she did was not part of her job.
The court argued that it was “normal and socially appropriate” for beer tent visitors to dance on the benches and the teacher would have unduly distanced herself from her students if she had refused to participate.
A hi-tech collar attachment that will allow pet owners to monitor their dogs at a distance, checking how much they sleep and how many calories they are burning, has been unveiled.
NTT Docomo, the country’s largest mobile phone operator, said the gadget would give smartphone users peace of mind about their animals’ health and whereabouts at all times.
The Petfit tag, complete with a satellite positioning system, sends information to a designated mobile phone on whether a dog is sleeping, walking or running.
It also monitors how many steps a hound has taken, what the ambient temperature is, and whether or not it’s getting enough shut-eye.
“The number of dog owners [in Japan] is estimated at 11m and it is regarded as a sizeable market,” a company spokesman said.
“In addition, dogs’ presence is quite important to their families. This is part of our proposal for a smart life with mobile phones.”
The Petfit goes on sale in March priced at 25,900 yen (€185), including data transmission fees for the first year.
Two Florida women are back in possession of their own wedding dresses nine years after a mix-up got them switched.
Marie Keeney was planning a ceremony to renew her vows with her husband of nine years, but when she took the wedding dress out of a storage box, she realised that it was not hers, the Tampa Bay Times has reported.
She was devastated and cancelled the ceremony, but began investigating.
Keeney contacted the dry cleaners who did the initial preservation and was told the task had been outsourced to a New York company, which eventually found her dress in storage. The invoice showed that the other dress belonged to a Katherine Stephenson.
The newspaper then tracked down Stephenson, who had long accepted that her dress had been lost.
A secret underground emergency bunker built to protect essential services in the event of a nuclear war is to go under the hammer.
The bunker was constructed in 1978 in Coswarth, Newquay, Cornwall, during the Cold War so experts at the then South West Water Authority could maintain water and sewerage operations after a nuclear holocaust.
The 3,000sq ft bunker was designed for 16 people — seven in the operations room, six in the communications room, and three in the control room. The rooms are deep underground and the bunker is on the market with a £50,000 (€60,835) guide price.
One in five young adults expects to be left a hi-tech gadget in a will such as a laptop, tablet computer, television or digital camera, according to research.
Co-operative Legal Services found 18- to 24-year-olds are three times as likely to expect to be left some sort of digital asset as those aged over 65.
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