Two Morrisons stores could be responsible for an E coli outbreak in Scotland which has left one person dead and two seriously ill. It is thought the outbreak is linked to meat brought from the cold meat counter of two Morrisons shops in Paisley. The health board has warned people not to eat meat brought from the Lonend and Falside Road store in the past few weeks.

I have been looking forward to the release of Run, Fatboy, Run a new British comedy that stars Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran. The story is about a guy who leave his fiancée on the wedding day and then discovers ten years later that she is his true love. In order to win her back he needs to finish his first marathon and make her see her new man is the wrong guy for her. You can check out Run Fat Boy Run teaser starring Simon Pegg, it looks great.

It has recently been reported that the Top Shop chain is profiting from Asian workers who are paid less than £4 a day. The factories that supply Sir Philips Green’s stores employ hundreds of Sri Lankan, Indian and Bangladeshi workers who work 12 hours a day up to six days a week. The workers receive as little as 22p an hour, that’s around 40% less than the local average wage. Sir Philip Green is currently ranked seventh in The Sunday Times Rich List.

If you dabble in the stock market you might want to have a look at Wizetrade. They have an interesting blog that has some useful tips on the stock market and securities. The blog covers issues you might come across such as creating a trading plan. Much of the blog is focused towards helping you get the most out of their Wizetrade stock trading software. Looking at the blog the software seems like a really useful tool. The programme allows you to conduct stock market analysis and chart potential entry and exit signals on any stock symbol. They also provide a Wizetrade Trading Workshop in a city near you, so you can find out how to get the most out of their software.

Japanese researchers have developed a table and chairs set that can change colour. The furniture has sensors embedded in and can work out the colour of items that are placed on it. They work by bouncing red, green and blue off of objects and recording which hues are reflected. An Apple Mac inside the table then sends wireless messages to the stool which project light to match the colour of the object on top.

MyWeigh sell weighing scales including pocket scales, shipping scales and bathroom scales. They have scales that handle weights from a fraction of a gram right up to hundreds of pounds. I found the site because I was looking for some new parcel scales. Their digital postal scales weigh things up to 75lbs and also weigh in pounds, ounces, kilograms and grams. The scales have a detachable face so that you can weigh even large boxes and still read the screen. You can even meet the face on a wall for easy access. All their scales come with a lifetime warranty in the US.

This is one of my favourite wines for drinking on a hot summer’s day. The fact that it’s a rose and only 10% volume means that it is very light. Its one of those wines that once you open it its very hard to put the cork back in the bottle. The wine is from California and this particular one in from 2006. The blurb on the bottle promises you strawberries and watermelon and for once the blurb does not disappoint. I don’t usually drink rose but this wine is really good and at only £4.98 its one of the best wines I have had this summer. At this price its worth getting a case, because it won’t last long.

It can be hard to organise your business cards, and if you are anything like me, I often find I have piles of them lying around and can never find contact details when I need them. That’s where a business card scanner could come in useful. Basically what it does is scans the business card and provides you with an images of the card as well as the text information. The scanned image can be saved in several formats including JPG, TIFF and BMP. The extracted text can then be saved or exported to other applications such as email and the web.

You can also use it to scan photos and cheques and it takes media up to A6 size. The scanner is portable and requires no power supply. One useful feature is that you can fully integrate the scanner with Microsoft outlook so that it automatically creates a new contact record for you with the scanned information. It also features a Live Update feature so that when you are connected to the internet it scans for updated software and update automatically with the most recent version. It comes with a 30 day money back guarantee and free technical support is also available.

PC2Paper, the website that allows you send real letters from the internet has just been named one of the top 100 travel websites on The Times website. The website was highlighted in the travel essentials category.

A tearoom in Brighton has taken a firm line on biscuit dunkers. The Tea Cosy has started throwing customers out if they are silly enough to dunk their biscuits in their cup. Resting elbows on the table, clinking your spoon on the side of the cup and using a mobile phone are also likely to get you thrown out.

Dieselpowermag.com is currently running a competition where you can win a T-Shirt and you could also be featured in an article about your ride. All you need to do id submit a photo and entry about your ride to diesel power and they will choose the top three entries to be featured. You can view the current entries on the website and can participate in the online voting from 17.30 on the 22nd August till 17.00 on the 31st August. 

It’s interesting that wrapping something in a different wrapper can make it more appealing and can even make you think it tastes better. Researchers have found that children find food wrapped in McDonald’s packaging than an identical snack wrapped in another wrapper. The study was carried out to try and gauge the power that advertising has on children. In the study which was carried out in the US children were given two identical samples of food, one in McDonalds packaging and one in a plain wrapper. Despite the snacks being identical the ones wrapped in the McDonalds packaging were found to be the tastiest by six times as many children as found the plain snacks most tasty. This study certainly shows the power of advertising.

Shop4Silver are a UK based jewellery store specialising in silver jewellery. They have a very nice range of silver Celtic jewellery including bangles, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and pendants. I found a lovely pair of amethyst Celtic knot earrings for a very reasonable £26.95 and a pair of Lavender shell drop earrings for £17.95 (see below), this is a website I could quite easily spend a lot of money on. After I had found the earrings I noticed they also have matching necklaces. Luckily they offer free delivery within the UK on orders over £60 and with such great products you are very likely to spend that amount.

 

The heat wave in Italy is taking its toll on the local crops especially grapes. A poor grape harvest is predicted for this year meaning we could see a shortage of Italian wine. The heat means that the vines flower too early leading to small grapes. The expected production for this year is expected to be done by around 10%.

If you suffer form Psoriasis you might want to want to try a treatment at the Blue Lagoon - Clinic. Based in Iceland they offer a natural treatment of the condition using the seawater from the Blue Lagoon and its unique ingredients. The waters of the Blue Lagoon deep cleanse the skin, stimulating blood circulation as well as exfoliating the skin. After bathing you then apply the Blue Lagoon skin care products and you can also take advantage of the latest in UNV light therapy which works well in conjunction with the other treatment. After a three to four week therapy you should start to see signs of healing on the skin.

PC2Paper allows you to send real letters from the internet to anywhere in the world. They have recently added a new feature to the website that allows you to upload your contacts as a spreadsheet file. They also have a useful mailbox service where they give you a postal address to send your mail to and any letters received are scanned and made available for you to read online. A great service to use whilst travelling.

After the smoking ban it was widely believed that pubs would begin to smell more pleasant. The lack of smoke, however, has had a different effect. The smell of smoke used to mask other unpleasant odours in the pub, such as stale beer and sweat. A pub chain is now investigating new ways to mask the smell and is trying out different perfumes that could be used. Among the scents being tried are leather, cut grass and sea breeze. We should soon see a much more fragrant drinking environment.