Late winners
The Nobel Prize is not usually given posthumously; but an exception was made this week for Ralph Steinman, a cancer scientist who, unknown to the Nobel committee, had died three days before being awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine. He is in good company in being honoured posthumously. Peter Finch, George Gershwin and Heath Ledger all won Academy Awards after their deaths. Alexander McQueen last year won an ‘outstanding achievement award’ following his suicide. Unlike in Britain, where elections are suspended if a candidate dies, US politicians are occasionally elected after their deaths. In 2000 Mel Carnahan of Missouri won election to the US Senate after dying in a plane crash. Last November Jenny Oropeza was elected to California’s state senate three weeks after her death.
The quick and the dead
The government has proposed increasing the motorway speed limit to 80 mph. How does that compare with the rest of Europe?
| Speed limit in miles per hour | Deaths on motorway per billion miles driven | |
|---|---|---|
| 68/81 | Denmark | 2.4 |
| 62/75 | Netherlands | 2.7 |
| 70 | Britain | 3.1 |
| 68 | Sweden | 3.4 |
| 68/81 | France | 3.9 |
| 75 | Belgium | 7.9 |
| 81 | Italy | 8.9 |
| 75 | Spain | 11.3 |
The price of vice
Denmark introduced a tax on saturated fat. Should we have one here?
| Tax raised | Cost to NHS | |
|---|---|---|
| £9.3bn | Tobacco | £2.7bn |
| £8.3bn | Alcohol | £3bn |
Obesity costs the NHS £4.2bn a year; VAT on biscuits raises £400m.
Crowned towns
Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire will hold a ceremony later this year when the title ‘Royal’ is appended to its name in honour of its role in receiving war dead from Iraq and Afghanistan. Some other royal places, and the monarchs who honoured them:
— Lyme Regis (Edward I, 1284) Honoured as one of Britain’s largest ports
— Beeston Regis (Henry IV, 1399) Honoured on becoming part of Duchy of Lancaster
— Royal Leamington Spa (Victoria, 1838) Honoured in memory of Victoria’s visit at age 11
— Royal Tunbridge Wells (Edward VII, 1909) Honoured in memory of several royal visits
— Bognor Regis (George V, 1929) Honoured after king’s period of convalescence there
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