According to this article there has been a record number of dumped and unwanted pet rabbits this Spring. That’s according to the Blue Cross which last week warned people not to buy their children rabbits for Easter. They have also called upon on rabbit owners to have their pets neutered to stop them producing unwanted litters. It seems owners often get the sex of rabbits wrong and end up with unexpected litters. This coupled with the fact that many people are finding it hard to make ends meet and taking pets into rescue centres has led to a 69% increase in the numbers of unwanted rabbits. I’m not really sure why someone would buy a pet rabbit for Easter, surely taking on a pet requires a little more thought. I think chocolate rabbits are a much more appropriate gift.

That’s the message from the health experts who say that hand cleaning gels do not kill some dangerous germs. The article looks mainly at petting zoos and the farm germs that are carried by the animals. It seems that many people simply rely on hand cleaning gels to protect them rather than washing their hands properly with soap and water. Whereas hand sanitising gels can be useful, they do not kill germs such as E coli which can be picked up from sheep and goats. I find it laughable that people may not understand the need to properly wash their hands after touching animals. It was drilled into me from a young age, to always wash my hands after touching any animals at petting zoos, and this is something I also apply to my household pets.

This is an interesting video regarding colour blindness and the impact it can have on video gamers. Personally I aware of the issues as my husband is colour blind, however, it seems many people have trouble distinguishing between different colours on screen. Whilst I can only imagine, how this can affect daily life, with video games opposing terms are often distinguished by using colour. This in many cases can lead to a colour blind gamer shooting his team mates by mistake because he cannot see the difference between the red and green labels for example. Some games appear to be moving to correct the problem by giving their games a colour blind friendly option but it would be good to see this more widely available amongst the popular game titles.

As someone who is terrified of spiders, for me this is something out of a nightmare. It is the largest ever spider fossil ever found. Thought be around 165 million years old the spider would have had a six inch leg span. The fossil was a Golden Orb Weaver spider named Nephila jurassica and would have lived in the forests of northern China. The spiders still thrive today and it is common for them to reach a length of two inches and a leg span of six inches. Eeek.

Jesus appears in some odd places with one of the more recent being discovered on a sock. James Henderson was surprised to find this image of Jesus on his sock after spilling bleach on it. Naturally he was astonished to find such clear likeness and is now keeping the sock as he feels it would be disrespectful to throw it away.

Personally I wait for the first sign of sun and feel it’s time to get the BBQ out. It’s just really nice to be able to eat in the garden in the fresh air. It never fails to amaze me, however, how many people fail to do a BBQ correctly. I have been to many where the food is blackened and over done or the other extreme where it is crispy on the outside and raw in the middle and at best if the food is cooked it is often very bland. If you struggle with any of these issues then this article might be worth a read. The trick is to get the BBQ really hot, at the point where the coals are grey before adding any meat. Marinade any meat such as chicken overnight if possible to give it extra flavour and baste it whilst cooking. Burgers and sausages do not need to be black before they are done, in fact they need very little cooking time, just cut into the middle and check they are no longer pink. My personal favourite so far this year has been grilled prawn skewers but watch this space there is still plenty of the summer left.

According to this article insurance costs have shot up by 40% in the past 12 months. Perhaps, then I shouldn’t have been surprised when receiving my car insurance renewal, the quote was double what I am currently paying. It seems the average annual premium for a comprehensive car policy is now in the region of £892, not far off the £809 my insurer has quoted me for my 1.6 Ford Focus. Still, it seems a little steep and shopping around rather than just renewing with the same company I finally fixed on a annual premium of around half that amount, coming it at just £417. It will probably mean I will to switch again in a years time as it seems these cheaper deals are only available for new customers, but I think I would rather do than pay double the amount for the service.

This is interesting it’s an iPhone app that looks at a picture of food and calculates how many calories you have consumed. According to the article you take a picture of your meal with your iPhone and the app then gives you a calorie reading almost instantly. Called MealSnap it has been developed by a fitness social network called DailyBurn. It works by matching the meal to it’s database of around 500,000 food items. It also provides information on the protein, fat, carbs and vitamins in the food. It’s an interesting idea and one which I’m sure would be useful to those following a calories controlled diet.

That’s according to this article which suggests ministers are considering scrapping them in order to try and cut down on food waste. Under the plans “sell by” labels and “display until” labels would also be scrapped. Instead products would only contain a “use by” date which tells you when the food is no longer safe to eat. Products such as fish, prawn and eggs may still carry special warnings are they are more at risk of food poisoning. Research by Morrisons has found that 55% of people throw away food that is past its best before date, even though it is still safe to eat and the waste-reduction organisation (Wrap) estimates we throw out five million tons of edible food a year . Personally I tend to use the best before date as a guide only, a more reliable test is to use a Willow (my cat). If she doesn’t eat the food then it is no longer good.

According to this article the number of penguins has halved in the 30 years. The problem is that climate change has been responsible for a decline in the the number of krill, the penguins main source of food. The huge reduction in numbers of the penguins main prey appears to be having a direct affect on the numbers of penguins. Krill density has dropped by as much as 80% due to rising temperatures and increased competition from marine mammals. It was previously thought that melting sea ice was behind the decline in the penguin populations, however, the new evidence reported in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests it is mainly due to krill loss.