Interesting Facts

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 study carried out by by Nivea skin care, Brits hug each other about 13 times a day. (The study found that in the UK, we typically devote 9.5 seconds to every embrace and spend an hour a month hugging. Hah! So much for the stiff upper lip and standoffish stereotypes. Now, give me a hug.)

Banana skins can take two years to biodegrade. (I'm not sure if this is good or bad news for clowns.

Tiny chemical differences in how our skin reacts to ultraviolet light could explain why redheads are more likely to suffer skin cancer. (Slap on that sunscreen!)