Preserve us

The British Museum said it would stop referring to ‘mummies’ and call them ‘mummified persons’ instead, out of respect to their dignity. How did they come to be called mummies in the first place?

– The term has been traced back to 1615, and derived from the Latin Mumia, and the Arabic Mumiya, referring either to an embalmed body or the bituminous substance in which they were embalmed. The terms ‘mummified’ and ‘mummification’ did not come into use until the 19th century.

Spent

Has the Conservative government cut health and social care funding? NHS and social care funding in England at 2022/23 prices:

2008/09   £121.5 bn 
09/10   £129.7 bn
10/11   £130.2 bn
11/12   £130.9 bn
12/13   £131.7 bn
13/14   £134.6 bn
14/15   £137.4 bn
15/16   £141.4 bn
16/17   £142.2 bn
17/18   £145.2 bn
18/19   £148.4 bn
19/20   £156.0 bn
20/21   £201.4 bn
21/22   £199.0 bn
22/23   £180.2 bn

(Test and trace ceased on 24 February 2022.)

Source: King’s Fund

When the wind blows

In response to light winds and a lack of sun, National Grid launched a scheme to pay electricity customers to switch off appliances. How widely does wind generation vary from day to day? Average power generation from wind turbines on best and worst days in 2022 (in gigawatts):

BEST

30 Dec   15.6
10 Nov   14.7
26 Oct   14.5
7 Nov   14.4
8 Nov   14.3

WORST

24 Mar   0.77
29 Nov   0.85
14, 27 Aug   0.87
27 Mar   1.02
2 May   1.04

Source: Gridwatch.co.uk

Death count

Which European countries had the highest and lowest excess mortality between January 2020 and July 2022? Relative cumulative age-standardised mortality rate (relative to average of 2015-19):

LOWEST

Norway   -4.1%
Sweden   -4.0%
Iceland   -3.9%
Luxembourg   -3.4%
Denmark   -2.8%
Finland   –1.7%

HIGHEST

Bulgaria   +18.2%
Poland   +13.3%
Romania   +12.2%
Slovakia   +10.0%
Czech Rep.   +8.4%
Lithuania   +7.3%

i.e. in Norway, Sweden etc, fewer died during the pandemic than in the years before. The UK was 15th out of 29 countries, higher than France and Spain but lower than Italy. Data is not available for Germany.

Source: ONS