Other Stories - 23rd February 2018

Britain’s favourite supermarket, chicken shortages, the old £10 note, calorie counting and other stories that caught Thrings' eye this week.

Aldi is now Britain’s favourite supermarket. A survey conducted by Which? has revealed that shoppers are increasingly choosing the German discount retailer over previous favourite Waitrose, which held the title for three years. In contrast to Aldi’s five-star reviews, Waitrose received a two-star rating in terms of value for money, while Marks & Spencer came in second, followed by Lidl in third place. The likes of Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s all came in at the bottom end of the ranking. The Independent

KFC temporarily runs out of chicken. When your main function is to sell chicken, things don’t exactly bode well when you run out of it. That’s the bizarre situation a handful of KFC outlets found themselves in last week when issues with a new supplier meant that regular deliveries were disrupted. Closures were subsequently reported in London, the South East, the Midlands, East Anglia, the North East and Wales. The company later joked on Twitter that “the chicken crossed the road, just not to our restaurants”. BBC News

Could a new tech tool block extremist content? The Government has unveiled plans for a new tool that could be used to detect extremist content and block Internet users from viewing it. The software, which tech firms could be forced to implement, has been trained to spot offending material after processing thousands of hours of content posted by the Islamic State group, which it can then effectively identify. ASI Data Science, who created the software, have reported that it can be configured to detect 94% of IS video uploads. Open internet advocates have expressed concern that it could lead to innocent content being flagged and blocked. TechCrunch

The hottest new style is… recycled plastic? The London Fashion Week catwalk always raises eyebrows and this year was no exception. Designer duo Vin and Omi showcased designs created from plastic bottles and sustainable wool, which they hope will start a conversation about fashion waste. They have developed eleven ‘eco-textiles’, including leather alternatives made from chestnut skins, and wool-like fabrics, which can be weaved like conventional materials. The pair are also experimenting with a scheme that would see customers able to return items of clothing which could then be reused in future collections. BBC Newsbeat

January saw a record increase in organ donations. The NHS has reported that a record 170 donations took place last month, resulting in more than 400 life-saving transplants. The news follows a public consultation held by the NHS to decide whether England should introduce an opt-out donation scheme similar to the one in Wales. Introduced in December 2015, it regarded adults as having consented to organ donation unless they opt out. Of 600,000 people who died between April 2016 and March 2017, just 5,681 were eligible donors, with just 1,413 becoming donors after donation requests were made to families. BBC News

The deadline for exchanging the old £10 note is looming. March 1st will see the old £10 no longer accepted as legal tender. But while many of us are already used to the new note, which was launched in September last year, it is estimated that more than £2 billion worth of old-style notes remain in circulation. Those who are too late to spend their old notes needn’t panic though. Anyone with old notes after the deadline can exchange them for the new note at the Bank of England. Metro

Angry ambulance note leads to arrest. A woman who left an aggressive note on a parked ambulance attending a 999 call has been arrested on suspicion of public order offences. Staffordshire Police explained that although the incident was not reported, they chose to take action after they saw details of the note on Twitter. West Midlands Ambulance Service also reported that the paramedics received verbal abuse in addition to the note, which complained that the ambulance had “no right” to be parked there. Sky News

David Bowie funded a short film in exchange for a space suit. An independent filmmaker has revealed that the late David Bowie offered to fund his short film in exchange for a NASA spacesuit he needed for a music video. “I’d hired a special astronaut suit, only for the props company to phone me saying a ‘big star’ also wanted it, and would I mind letting them have it first,” Ben Barton explained. “To compensate… this celebrity had agreed to fund my little film. I’m short of money so of course I agreed.” Barton’s short film, Stella Erratica, debuted at the Cheriton Light Festival in Kent last weekend, featuring a ‘Special Thanks’ credit for Bowie. iNews

The norovirus strikes at the Winter Olympics. Two Swiss freestyle skiers were separated from the rest of the team last week after being diagnosed with the virus. Fabian Boesch and Elias Ambuehl were told to rest, but a spokesman for the Swiss team has since announced that most of their symptoms have subsided and that they could potentially still compete. Their illness follows the news that approximately 1,200 security guards were withdrawn from Olympic sites due to the norovirus outbreak, with them being replaced by 900 soldiers. TIME

Are you eating more calories than you think? New data published by the Office for National Statistics, suggests that men estimated that they consumed about 2,100 calories, and women 1,600. However, when scientists carried out more accurate assessments of what participants had consumed, it became clear that the calorie counts were considerably higher than first thought, with men consuming an average of 3,119 calories every day, and women 2,393. It is thought that the difficulty in being able to accurately assess calorie intake is directly affecting the UK’s steady increase in obesity figures. Sky News

Stat of the week

Snapchat is stealing the youth away from Facebook. More than 3 million under 25s in the UK and the US are expected to ditch the social media service this year and it’s thought that an influx of older users is the reason why. Instagram, which Facebook owns, has managed to retain a portion of the site’s disaffected young users, but rival service Snapchat’s popularity is increasingly encroaching on that market. Approximately 44% of Snapchat users are aged 18 to 24, while Facebook’s users in the same age group amount to just 20%. The Guardian