Interesting Facts

According to the Office for National Statistics, we Brits are no longer that keen on going to night clubs or buying CDs and DVDs. (The inflation basket, which is used to calculate the cost of living in the UK, analyses the cost of 704 items.  It is an interesting look into trends in the UK, and seemingly many nightclubs in the UK are facing closure, and more and more people download their music and films online so these items have been removed. However, the inflation basket will now include coffee pods and downloaded software, along with women's leggings, and strangely, cream liquers like Baileys, which must be a sign of an ageing population with very little fashion sense.) Here is a list from the Guardian newspaper of what is "In" and what is "Out":- In: Pouches of microwave rice: Joins a range of prepared foods, emphasising our love of ready meals. Multipacks of meat: The ONS has spotted a boom in cooking cuts of meat and presenting them buffet...

According to research carried out at Saarland University in Germany, a short nap at the office or in school significantly improves recall, they found that a nap 'produces a five-fold improvement in information retrieval from memory'. (Participants in the study learned 90 single words and 120 unconnected word pairs.  Some students then watched a DVD while others slept.   When they were then retested, those who had slept remembered more word pairs. I'm just going to close my eyes for a few minutes now.)

Sales of games in the UK beat film and TV for the first time in 2011. (According to the Electronic Retailers Association (ERA) video game sales hit £1.93 billion in 2011, the biggest ever in the industry's history. By comparison DVDs and other video formats created just £1.80 billion in revenues and music just £1.07 billion. I love the way they say "just" - you know just a couple of billion.) Source

The price of every DVD disc sold includes a small royalty to Philips, the company that developed the format. (I wonder what their shares are worth?)

In the UK a giveaway DVD in a newspaper costs as little as 16p to produce, including rights, materials and manufacture. (These things are often given away in the Sunday newspaper. Recent titles have included East is East, Cabaret and even episodes of Fireman Sam.)