Interesting Facts

According to a report from the Department of Transport, the slowest road in England is the A306 Northbound at Richmond, which has a rush hour speed of just 3.5 mph. (We are slowing down: In the year ending to December 2015, average speeds on local ‘A’ roads in England during the weekday morning peak were a measly 23.4 mph. The actual speed limit on a dual carriageway can vary from 40mph and 70mph, but you'll be lucky to get the chance.  One theory is that roads are getting congested by all the online shopping deliveries. Outside of London Nottingham is home to the slowest road: The A6005 Eastbound with rush hour speeds of just 6.4 mph.  This shouldn't come as a surprise to Amatsu.)

According to Fixr.com, the Google autocomplete function can tell you the top searches for the cost of something by geographic area. (They have created an eye-opening infographic that shows what the most pressing concerns of an area are.  Some of their results were amusing, some sad, others worrying. “Camel” was the top search for Saudi Arabia “Croissant” came top in France "Passport and patent" were neck and neck in North America “BMW” in Germany "Prostitute" in Ukraine, Hong Kong, Latvia and Brazil "Slave” in Mauritania "Kidney" in Iran I decided to do a couple of tests, so I started with a simple "cost of * in ..." search for Nottingham. The results were:- ... living / parking / taxi Then I did the "How much does a * cost in ...". The results were:- IVF / the tram / to hire a limo Good old Nottingham. Then I did a "How much does a * cost in ..." search for England:- The results were:- divo...

Health researchers are blaming Shakespeare for promoting a negative attitudes towards imperfect skin. (Seemingly the language used in his plays has helped cause social stigmas linked to skin conditions.  A research paper from dermatologists  [PDF]   in Nottingham, Leicester and Derby "Shakespeare may be to blame for the negative connotations of skin disease".  They mentioned phrases such as "Thou art a boil, a plague sore, an embossed carbuncle",  "a pox upon him" and "patch'd with foul moles and eye-offending marks". The fact is, Shakespeare used language in a creative way: Take what is probably the best (worst) insult ever written, from King Lear:- "A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson, glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue; one-trunk-inheritin...

According to a paper published in the journal Biological Reviews, men's faces evolved to cope with fist fights. (The beefier facial features of men developed as a defense, so the bones most commonly broken in a fist fight gained the most strength, a sort of defensive armour. This explains the average look of those involved in a Saturday night punch-up in Nottingham.)

According to official police crime data 1.8 million people in the UK were victims of street crime. (As more and more people are carrying expensive gadgets like phones and iPads, criminals are now targeting victims in the street. Surprisingly one in five of all incidents occur early on a Saturday afternoon. London, Leeds and Nottingham are the street crime hotspots.)

According to figures compiled by local councils, London is the most expensive place to die in the UK. (It costs up to 60x more for a basic burial or cremation in London than some other parts of the UK. The borough of Lambeth is the most expensive place at a whopping £5,329. But if you want to be buried or cremated in Nottingham, it costs just £87.)

Research by moneysupermarket.com has shown that people living in London and Nottingham are most likely to be victims of burglary. (Five of the top 20 postcode districts in which people have made claims for theft or burglary on their home insurance during the past five years are in London and four are in Nottingham. I was burgled four times, but I was living in Bristol at the time. It doesn't really matter where you live in the UK, there is always the risk that someone will decide they deserve what you've got.)