by Fern Shaw | Jan 21, 2014 | Health and Hydration, Water
Colour me amazed! I was watching a programme and this info blurb popped up. One of those ‘Did you know?’ thingies. It said that penguins can convert salt water to fresh water.
This led to some serious research – ‘just imagine,’ thought I, ‘there are sufficient penguins that each water drinking person could have their very own penguin water cooler + penguins are rather terrific and always sufficiently well dressed for a night on the town’- bonus!
The facts:
The supraorbital gland is a type of lateral nasal gland found in penguins, which removes sodium chloride from the bloodstream. The gland’s function is similar to that of the kidneys, though it is much more efficient at removing salt, allowing penguins to survive without access to fresh water. Contrary to popular belief, the gland does not directly convert saltwater to freshwater.
Living in saltwater environments would naturally pose a large problem for penguins because the ingestion of saltwater would be detrimental to a penguin’s health. Although penguins do not directly drink water, it is taken in when they engulf prey. As a result, saltwater enters their system and must be effectively excreted. The supraorbital gland has thus enabled the penguins’ survival in such environments due to its water-filtering capability. The penguin excretes the salt by-product as a brine through its bill.
Right then, so perhaps not your very own penguin water cooler, but what about your very own brine producer? No?
Oh, alright then! As you can see from the photo on the right, my pitch to the penguins was not well received – they left in rather a hurry.
As it turns out, there are two bits of good news stemming from this blog.
1) Hopefully you’ve learnt something new (I most certainly have) about nature and the animals in it and;
2) although, sadly, you can’t have your very own penguin water cooler converter you can, of course, contact AquAid for any super-duper water cooler requirements.
Our water coolers don’t smell of fish and don’t leave guano all over your workspace. Bonus.
by Fern Shaw | Dec 18, 2013 | Health and Hydration
Many people mistakenly believe that wine, spirits and even beer, for example, contain no kilojoules and that this is reserved solely for food. Not true according to the below comparisons.
So you may see a lot of people who will eat sparingly, but sip away at the wine and spirits (and even beer) and wonder why they’re not losing weight.
Here are a few examples of wines vs. spirits in the kilojoules department:
- 225ml glass of white wine = 659 kilojoules
- 225ml glass of red wine = 641 kilojoules
- 225ml glass of full strength beer = 341 kilojoules
- 225ml glass of vodka (30ml tot) and soda = 266 kilojoules
- 225ml glass of gin (30ml) and tonic = 545 kilojoules
Two large glasses (450ml) of white wine (1 318 kJ) are equivalent to:
- Five chocolate chip biscuits – 1245 kJ
- Seven jelly snakes – 1 292 kJ
- Four medium apples – 1 354 kJ
- Twelve squares of milk chocolate – 1 350 kJ
- Five large, hard boiled eggs – 1 283 kJ
- Seven chicken nuggets – 1 353 kJ
- One toasted ham and cheese sandwich – 1 244 kJ
225ml glass of soda water = 0 kJ
225ml glass of water = 0 kJ
Doubtful though that anyone would want to spend the rest of their weight conscious lives calculating kilojoule content per mm of lettuce or dollop of mayonnaise (lots!), however these comparisons should give one pause when embarking on a liquid diet in the hopes of staving off the pounds from eating.
Rather chug-a-lug the soda or spring water with your next packet of jelly snakes. J
And if you don’t already have a water cooler in your office, speak nicely to the office manager and perhaps they’ll get one in for you (ask them to speak to us to arrange this). Then you can chug-a-lug as much water as you like!
Perhaps you can even join us in our Drink Water Daily Challenge and really see the results. We’d love to have you on board with us.
by Fern Shaw | Nov 25, 2013 | Charity, water cooler, Water Coolers
The Bupa Great Birmingham Run is the biggest half marathon in the Midlands.
‘Formerly known as the Birmingham Half Marathon the event was first staged in staged in 2008 and in 2009 also incorporated the World Half Marathon Championships.
England’s second city is the perfect stage for the event which attracts competitors from across the UK and around the world.
In 2012 Kenyan Micah Kogo won a thrilling sprint for the line ahead of Abera Kuma to set a new course record. Kogo, who dominated the race almost from the start, breasted the tape in a time of one hour and 17 seconds to deny his Ethiopian rival victory by two seconds with World record holder and pre-race favourite Zersenay Tadese third in 1:01:06.
On a very misty morning, Kogo – after losing the previous month’s Bupa Great North Run by a second – made amends by smashing the course record of 1:01:29 set a year ago by the legendary Ethiopian, Haile Gebrselassie.
The women’s race saw Sara Moreira taking total control in the last three miles to notch a runaway victory ahead of Ethiopia’s former World Half Marathon champion Berhane Adere.
The course takes in some of the city’s most iconic sights including the Bullring, the Cadbury’s factory in Bournville and Edgbaston cricket ground. Live music from ‘bands on the run’ keep you motivated every step of the way and thousands of supporters turn out to cheer finishers across the line on Broad Street in the heart of the city centre. ‘
Our Scott Barnbrook, of AquAid Birmingham, is quite the individual when it comes to participating in events for charity and/or improving his health. A recap here.
Good on yer, Scott, for competing in and finishing this rather marvellous and historical marathon!
Remember though, whether you’re running or exerting yourself in any kind of strenuous activity, you need to keep hydrated. This means drinking water. If you’re just zooming around your cubicle at 36 revolutions p/m, that also counts.
For any water cooler requirements, contact Scott at AquAid Birmingham, he or his team will be happy to help.
by Fern Shaw | Nov 13, 2013 | water cooler, Water Coolers
Even though AquAid have ensured from Day 1 that the water coolers that we supply are of tip top quality and are supplied to the customer in a manner that is most practical to the customer’s requirements, life is such that water coolers can have off days.
As we know, anything that has a mechanism can play up and they do. While researching water cooler fails, I happened upon some accidents of the more unusual variety. As you may by now know, I’m all for the slightly off the beaten track incidents – they just really appeal to my sense of funny. Be warned, some of these are not for the faint of heart:
Molasses spill
A molasses pipeline in Honolulu Harbour, Hawaii, was pumping the syrupy substance onto a ship when it sprung a leak, dumping hundreds of thousands of gallons of the goo into the ocean. The sugary fluid, which sunk to the bottom, killed thousands of fish, attracting sharks and other scavengers.
The Hawaii spill is not the first molasses mishap. A truck in Wagontire, Oregon, swerved to avoid a deer in 2008, spilling hundreds of gallons of molasses over the highway. And in 1919, during the Boston Molasses Disaster, a tank carrying 2.5 million gallons of molasses burst, flooding the city’s streets and killing 21 people.
Whale guts
In 2004, a whale carcass exploded while being transported from a beach where it died to a laboratory in the Taiwanese city of Tainan, according to BBC News. Gas build-up inside the decomposing cetacean was thought to be responsible for the explosion, which took 13 hours and 50 workers to clean up.
Rubber ducks
In 1992, 29,000 rubber duck toys, being shipped from China to the U.S. company The First Years Inc., washed overboard in the Pacific Ocean, the Daily Mail reported. Some 10,000 of the duckies floated northward, while the remainder took a southerly route. They have washed up in Hawaii, Australia and even the Arctic.
Honeybees
In the past few years, honeybees have spilled onto highways in Montana, Canada and California, where 10 million to 16 million angry buzzers responded by stinging fire fighters, police and drivers. Honeybee hives are regularly shipped to farms around the country to pollinate crops, since colony collapse disorder has decimated local bee populations.
I suppose, in this sea of rather grisly and sticky accounts of spills and mishaps, it’s nice to know that should your water cooler malfunction to such a degree, the worst thing spilling will be water – really not hard to clean up and no sticky, messy residue.
Just remember to keep that weird worker in IT from trying to suck the water from the carpets – it’s just really not done.
by Fern Shaw | Nov 13, 2013 | water cooler, Water Coolers
Well, feed me nails and call me Rusty!
Trying to untangle the meaning of the water cooler effect, I came across this little gem on Wiki: ‘A water cooler effect is a phenomenon, occurring when employees at a workplace gather around the office water cooler and chat. It is a synonym for gathering and connecting people in a certain environment (e.g. the office). When a television program, like a soap-opera or series, is talked about among many people (mostly related to guessing what will happen in the next episode) it can be said that the program has a water cooler effect.
See also: Scuttlebutt ‘.
So, I leapt onto my trusty mouse and galloped across to scuttlebutt-land. This is what Wiki had to say:
Scuttlebutt in slang usage means rumour or gossip, deriving from the nautical term for the cask used to serve water (or, later, an indoor water fountain).
The term corresponds to the colloquial concept of a water cooler in an office setting, which at times becomes the focus of congregation and casual discussion. Water for immediate consumption on a sailing ship was conventionally stored in a scuttled butt: a butt (cask) which had been scuttled by making a hole in it so the water could be withdrawn. Since sailors exchanged gossip when they gathered at the scuttlebutt for a drink of water, scuttlebutt became Navy slang for gossip or rumours.
Competition
Hoisting the scuttlebutt is an event that Sea Scouts participate in during regattas such as the Old Salts Regatta. In the event a 50-gallon drum of water is lifted 3 feet off the ground using a block and tackle and a tripod. The tripod is constructed from three spars, which are tied together by “head-lashing.” The block and tackle is suspended from the top of the tripod, which is then erected by the crew. A barrel hitch is tied around the drum, which is then lifted off the ground. It must then be lowered and the equipment “broken down” back to its original condition. Time stops when all crew members are back in line and called to attention by the coxswain. There are three runs per crew, and the crew with the fastest time wins. Disqualification can occur when water is spilled – lash them! or if crew other than the coxswain (and sometimes the barrel hitchers) talk (count me out then). A run under a minute is generally considered good, though times much lower than this have been seen in competition.
History
This event is based on activities that crews used to have to perform on ships very frequently. Water or other goods such as cargo would be stored below deck. A tripod would be put up on the deck over a hole, and the cargo lifted up out of the stores. The modern event is based on this practice.
All I can say at this sweat inducing stage is, how lucky we all are that nowadays should you need drinking water, you just contact us. Us being AquAid. We’ll get your cool, fresh drinking water to you toot suit. If you want to scuttlebutt afterwards around the water cooler, that’s entirely up to you.
