Tesco has recalled its White Rabbit Creamy Candies after they were found to contain melamine. Melamine has recently been found in formula milk in China and is thought to have caused the death of four babies and made around 53,000 children ill. Although the sweets are not thought to have made anyone ill, Tesco are withdrawing them as a precaution.

This is interesting, its a firm that allows companies to produce pictures of their advertising in space. What the company called JP Aerospace does, is launch a billboard into space that contains the advertisers logo and message and then take pictures of it. They use specially constructed balloons to send the billboard 20 miles into the air. Then they take hundreds of pictures of it and return it to Earth by parachute. The result is something like the picture on the left.

According to the Royal Mint there are now around 30 million fake £1 coins in circulation meaning that one in 50 is now counterfeit. The question is, how do spot a fake one? This article should help. It contains this diagram which compares a fake and a real coin. Signs that you have a fake are a poorly defined ribbed edge, the wrong typeface and an indistinct or blurred design.

A dental surgery has opened in a supermarket in Manchester. The surgery has been opened at the Sale branch of Sainsbury's becoming the first dentist clinic to open in a UK supermarket. It will be open seven days a week and follows a similar initiative to open a GP surgery in a supermarket. The dental surgery will charge £16 for a check up which is slightly less than the current NHS charge of £16. It is hoped that it will make dental treatment more accessible and convenient for the patients. 

A leading expert has said that everyone should have at least one meat free a week to help save the planet. He says that meat farming produces enormous amounts of greenhouse gases and that if every ate vegetables just once a week it would be more beneficial than other measures such as cutting car journeys.

I have noticed recently that the economy bin bags I usually buy in Sainsbury's seem thinner. Whilst they look the same I have found that they appear to more prone to spitting and tearing often resulting in my rubbish ending up all over the floor. To combat the problem I have stopped buying the economy bags and have now started to buy premium sacks which cost more. Whilst I have no proof that the sacks have been made thinner this article made me wonder whether I am right. It highlights the fact that Sevenoaks District Council have started using thinner bags because of rising oil costs. They have reduced the thickness of the bags by one micron in order to save £17,000 from their budget.

A rise in the sales of canned food has been put down to the fact that that consumers are looking for cheaper options as food costs go up. Sales of baked beans increased by 12% over the past year with sales of other canned foods also booming. Figures also show that shoppers are starting to buy cheaper cuts of meat such as choosing chicken thighs rather than breast meat.

If you still haven’t secured a university or college place for the current year then you might want to check out the University of Bedfordshire’s clearing service. They still have places available through their clearing system and can offer you advice even if you are not sure what course you want to apply for. They have a dedicated University of Bedfordshire - Clearing 2008 team who are on hand to offer advice and talk through the options with you. You can give them a call on 0800 013 0925 and can also check out the list of available courses online before hand to see if there is something to suit you.