Here we have a story of "arms races," rent exhaustion, and outright cheating...
Using microscopic earphones and wireless devices, Chinese students upped the ante in the high-tech battle to counter cheating during university entrance exams this month, putting some in hospital as a result.
With 9.5 million students competing for only 2.6 million vacancies, some universities installed cameras and mobile-phone blocking technology at exam halls to foil the cheats.
But students "racked their brains" and in some cases injured themselves with "low-quality devices" to come up with new ways to cheat, state media reported Tuesday, underlining the highly competitive nature of education in China.
A student in Wuhan, capital of China’s central province of Hubei, used earphones so small that they slipped into his aural canal and perforated his eardrum, the China Daily newspaper said.
Another student’s earphones required an operation for their removal, the paper said, while an electronic device connected to headphones and strapped to a third student’s body exploded, leaving a bleeding hole in his abdomen.
Supervisors at an exam hall in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province, found over 100 "cheating tools" including earphones hidden in vests, wallets and waistbands, the paper said.
Here is the story. For the pointer, thanks to Tony Vallencourt, an economist who blogs on baseball.
Kind of interesting, but I do not see why the bloggers here keep posting these sensational and tabloid like factoids about China. It’s a big country, and I am sure if you dig deep enough you can find all sorts of “interesting fact.” It’s like someone in China was blogging about “USA Story of the Day” and it’s all about some crazy guy executing girls in elementary school or paris hilton getting punched in a club.
Esteemed academics, please leave this sort of garbage to tabloids. Thanks.
Pavel-
According to you, the same intelligent reader might also take away that jewish people are generally money-hungry and ruthless due to their thousands of years of persecution after reading the merchant of venice.
if you’re introducing “facts” about a certain group that the audience knows very little about, you should be careful about reporting facts that are out of norm.
To ‘A visitor’:
Is it your assertion that only positive, non-controversial and comprehensive facts about China should be presented? This is a weblog, not a Journal of Chinese Anthropology.
Snarkiness aside, I agree with Pavel. This is an interesting little window into China, the tip of the iceberg, if you will.
“That would be a good opening for a novel.”
There are heaps of non-zombie possibilities. (Though Corpse Bride was what I thought of first.)
Meanwhile, back in reality, if there is a shortage of live women, then there should be a shortage of dead women too. Which leads to disputes over who gets the dead women. The rest of the book writes itself…
this ought to be a ‘markets in everything’ post.
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