EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ieoffers you a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
12,233 – The number of tweets posted, per second, at the end of last Sunday’s Super Bowl. Outside of Japan, that’s an all-time record for an event. The previous record had been set about an hour earlier, when there were 10,245 tweets-per-second posted during Madonna’s half-time show.
€3,100.05 - The amount received in expenses by Pat Moylan, the Fianna Fáil Cathaoirleach of the last Seanad, after the Seanad of which he was chairman had been dissolved. He received the expenses even though there was no role he could possibly have fulfilled.
20 years – The time since the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the X Case, when it said the Irish constitution permitted abortion in circumstances where the mother’s life was at risk, which included the threat of suicide. Protests this week noted that no government has passed legislation to this extent in the meantime.
6.32 million – The number of people in the UK who tuned in to watch last Saturday’s episode of Mrs Brown’s Boys on BBC1. That’s 2.4 million people more than tuned in to watch David Beckham’s appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show on the same evening. Truly, there is nothing the world loves more than an Irish mammy.
21,920 days – The length of time, as of today, that Queen Elizabeth has been on the throne of the United Kingdom and her other countries. During her reign – which completed its 60th year on Tuesday – has seen her serve as sovereign of 32 different nations.
2,263 – The number of workers stepping down from the health service before the end of this month, to reap the benefits from the government’s incentivised retirement deal. Under that, workers retiring before February 29 receive pensions based on their pre-cut salaries.
120 - The number of staff who have been replaced at one primary school in Los Angeles. Every single member of the staff at Miramonte Elementary School has been put on leave while police investigate accusations that two teachers sexually abused children there.
88 minutes – The amount of time spent in the air by Thomas Cook airlines flight CX8126, bound for Tenerife, before it returned to land at Belfast’s Aldergrove airport on Tuesday morning. A technical fault on the plane caused it to return to Belfast but the plane spent almost 90 minutes circling before it landed safely with 175 passengers on board.
0 – The number of previous cases in which whales have successfully sued a corporate entity. That’s a record which five killer whales – being represented by PETA – failed to amend in a case against SeaWorld. The whales/PETA said they deserve protection from slavery – but a federal judge disagreed, saying the US constitution’s provisions about slavery only applied to humans.
€1.9 billion - The amount of Irish government bonds held by Michael Hasenstab, of Franklin Templeton Investments. The New York Times reported this week that Hasenstab had hoovered up the bonds as investors tried to offload them last summer. Now, with the government pledging to honour its national debts, Hasenstab is in line for a tidy profit.
€1,330 – The average debt on each credit card in Ireland at the end of 2011, according to the Central Bank. That’s down (ever so slightly) from €1,350 each at the end of 2008, when the total debt on Irish cards was at €3 billion. Although the total debt is down to €2.6 billion now, the average remains higher because there are fewer credit cards in circulation.
€130 million – The amount being invested in Ireland by three US multinationals which are creating around 500 new jobs here. Hewlett Packard, Abbott and Big Fish Games are all putting more money into Ireland, with the assistance of the IDA.
€14,566,262 – How much the Gardaí have spent in the policing operation at Rossport in Co Mayo between 2006 and 2011, where protesters have been trying to stop the construction of the Corrib gas pipeline. The figures include overtime, travel and subsistence, and miscellaneous expenses – but don’t include the standard salary earned by each officer in the first place.
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