Sites of interest

Yes all. Sorry for the ultra late entry. I have found some really good sites that you may want to have a look at. They are http://www.ted.com/- this is a website full of videos showing a wide range of people giving presentations on a wide range of subjects. The other is http://www.howstuffworks.com/- this is the website from the series called "How stuff works" which is on Discovery. Its got a range of videos explaining why things happen and how things are made.

Packaging

Packaging is a huge industry. Almost all of the products we use come in some sort of packaging. These items might be something simple and small like an apple or something complicated and large like a wide screen T.V. Packaging can have a huge impact on how well an item sells and every consideration is put into how a piece of packaging looks.

There is however a need to reduce the amount of packaging we use. The most annoying waste of packaging I can think of is when apples (normally 4 of them and of a *Finest variety) in supermarkets are placed in a polystyrene base and then wrapped in plastic. To be fair, most companies have made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of packaging they use. The picture above gives some examples of companies who have tried to reduce the amount of packaging they use and the drastic benifits this has had for the environment.

Clockwise from top-left:

1) Coca-Cola 8-ounce bottle: A smaller and lighter bottle (while retaining the same capacity), resulting in reduction in materials used: savings on the material as well as transport costs.

2) Arrowhead Mineral Water bottle: Nestle redesigned the bottle and cap to make it lighter and more recyclable, while narrowing the label by half an inch. This result in a 30% reduction in plastics used (while featuring the extra recess as handle), and less paper for the label.

3) Big Mac packaging: This is a familiar one - The Styrofoam clam shell burger packaging's were switched to the current paper-based ones, making them biodegradable.

4) Crest Toothpaste: P&G introduced a standalone rigid tube for Crest toothpaste, so that there wouldn’t be a need for individual paper-based boxes that most toothpastes now still come in.

Products I dislike.... the Future!!!

However, there is a good alternative. In the occasional toilet (normally in airports), those clever people from Dyson have provided an answer- the "Dyson Airblade". It blows the air horizontally at high speed. This allows you to 'dunk' your hands into the drier and after a couple of passes your hands are dry!!! Genius.

Products I dislike....

... hand dryers!!!! Found in nearly all public toilets, hand dryers are a total waste of time. They are either too weak, so that you'd need to stand there for 2 weeks for your hands to dry, or they have got some amount of power, but just blow the water on your hand from one area to another!!! Total waste of time.

"I should of never have bought..."

... The Fratellis latest album, Here We Stand. Having heard the 'new' single Mistress Mable on the radio a number of times and having enjoyed their previous album, Costello Music, I thought their new album would be well worth purchasing.
How wrong I was. Where as the first album was a good listen, having plenty of catchy numbers and generally very enjoyable, the second album was a huge let down. Mistress Mabel was the highlight of the the 12 songs, with only Acid Drag Singer being worth another listen. They often say the second album is the most difficult. This proved to be the case for our friends from up north and I won't be buying the third attempt (if it ever gets released!!).

I wish I was....

....at the reading festival this weekend just gone. At the festival were so many great bands, Metallica, The Killers, The Automatic, Biffy Clyro, Bloc Party, Dizzee Rascal, Editors, The last Shadow Puppets, Less Than Jake, Pennywise, Queens of the Stone Age, Rage Against the Machine, Pendulum, The Ting Tings, the list goes on and on!! Of all the bands there at the weekend I would of loved to have seen Less Than Jake, Pennywise and Rage Against the Machine in particular. I grew up listening to these bands and there albums were all I ever listened to on my old Sony CD player. I used to listen to that thing whenever I went anywhere,on the bus to school, on the bus into town, cycling to a friends house. Brilliant. Rage have only recently got back together after a number of years apart and I was absolutely gutted when I learnt they were playing because there may not be another chance to see them. Boooo!!!! Instead of being at Reading reliving the old days I was stuck at home doing school work- awesome. That's it for now, whinge and moan over with.

herewego

After Jenner was reported to not understand the complicated issue of "Blog" spaces, Thomas decided to to have a crack. Jenner was insistant that creating a blog was the hardest thing he had ever done!! Within around 5 minutes I had successfully managed to create my own blog and add this message. Awwwww, bless those old people.