Ten things which raised an eyebrow 06-09-13
Ten things which raised an eyebrow this week
EP brings you a brief round-up of some of the news items which were perhaps as surprising as they were enlightening
- Canadian PM Stephen Harper has written a book about ice hockey in his “spare time”
- As civil war in Syria continues “app technology” has been introduced using crowd-sourced information to warn of ongoing gun battles, danger spots and suspicious articles on road sides
- Lung disease is responsible for 1 in 10 deaths in Europe with an associated cost of €400 billion
- The royal mint has issued 250,000 limited edition £20 Bededetto Pistrucci-designed coins
- Such is the anticipated growth of the hospitality sector in Africa that there are 40,000 hotel rooms planned for construction between now and 2017
- Did you know Google was originally named “BackRub” or that the first tweet from the search engine giant was written in binary code and read “I’m feeling lucky”? 15 things you never knew about Google
- London’s famous Chinatown restaurants are being forced out by a slew of new betting shops
- As many as 43% of adults in the UK skip lunch at least once a week, with 2 in ten admitting to missing lunch more than 3 times per week
- Fifty years ago Birmingham was lauded as “the workshop of the world” and boasted higher average incomes than London. In a serious change of fortune for the city, last year more than ¼ of households with adults of working age had no one in employment
- More than 300 local councils have earned over £250,000 from the sale of electoral register details to fast-food outlets, estate agents, Churches, dentists, Universities and mortgage brokers.