Words About Things

If, like me, you have an old scanner laying around somewhere you might be about to find a new use for it. Back in the day everyone had a scanner but now they don’t seem quite so useful. If you use a digital camera and don’t work from home, what use are they? Sure you can scan your face but that is only fun for the first 100 times.

First there was ‘Face Your Pockets‘ a site where people scanned and sent in the contents of their pockets surrounding their faces. It’s a lot more interesting than it sounds. Now there is a site call Scanwiches which combines scanning with sandwiches, a winning combination. The scans are actually really well done resulting in nice hi-res images that wouldn’t look completely out of place on a gallery wall. Click on the image below to visit the site.

It’s a well know fact that we should try to drink eight glasses of water a day. Like a lot of well know facts it isn’t correct.

If we actually drank what was recomended we might well have to spend half of the day on the toilet. We would spend the other half of the day completely confused. As well as 8 glasses of water we have been told that a glass of wine a day is good for us. We have also been warned about the dangers of one glass of wine a day.

We are told that too much cafine is bad for us yet Drinking two cups of coffee a day cuts stroke risk by 20%. What is too much coffee? Three cups? Five cups? When my eye starts twitching and I am unable to focus on one thing for more than one minute have I had too much or not enough coffee?

The eight glasses of water a day myth was busted by Snopes years ago but how important is water? An Independant article from last year says:

The review of research by Dan Negoianu and Stanley Goldfarb, from the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, found not a single study included the recommendation to drink eight 8oz glasses of water a day.

Although one small study suggested that drinking water could result in fewer headaches, the results were not statistically significant.

The benefits of drinking a pint of water before bed after a night’s drinking to ward off a hangover are, separately, well established.

No studies showed any benefit to skin tone as a result of increased water intake. Dehydration can make skin less plump, but there was no solid evidence to back up the claim water helps people maintain a youthful appearance.

The authors also found no evidence that drinking lots of water benefits the body’s organs.

It’s worth pointing out that 8 cups of black coffee a day (which i’m farely certain is an unhealthy amount) would contain the same amount of liquid as 8 cups of water. Beer and Wine are also hydrating even if the alcohol content can have a slight dehydrating effect.

The English drink Tea in vast quantities, infact i’m sure some of the elder members of my family drink nothing but. Perhaps the best plan is just to drink everything in moderation although if we were meant to drink Beer in moderation it wouldn’t be served by the pint would it?

Whilst most of us like our chocolate plain or with nuts and fruit over the years it has been combined with a variety of ingredients. The Aztecs used to add chilli to enhance theirs and mint, orange and a range of liquors are also popular additions. Now the king of all foods, the vegetarian converting delight, bacon is available combined with chocolate.

Mo’s Bacon Bar which contains chunks of applewood smoked bacon combined with smoked salt and milk chocolate is proving to be very popular. The bar which costs £5.99 per 3oz at Selfridges sold out within 48 hours.

“There has been a real revolution in luxury chocolate, as there was with wine a few years ago. People are much more knowledgeable about it and there is a growing demand for these high quality, exotic products instead of a box of Milk Tray.”

Ewan Venters, food director of Selfridges.

The bar is available to buy online from Vosges Chocolate.