EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
12 – The number of humans who have ever walked on the moon. Neil Armstrong, the first of them to do so, died yesterday at 82.
$1.049 billion – The amount Samsung was ordered to pay in damages to Apple by a US court in the outcome of one of the world’s most-watched patent lawsuits ever. Analysts believe the damages could still rise higher, given how the court said Samsung had “wilfully” used Apple’s intellectual property. The South Korean firm, unsurprisingly, is appealing.
€3.5 billion – The total value of adjustments that the government will look to make in next year’s Budget – with €2.25 billion in spending cuts, and €1.25 billion in new taxes including a widening of the income tax net, a new property tax, and reform of motor tax. The figure, which had been included in Troika documents last year, remains in the latest draft – meaning it’s now almost a dead cert.
99.61 days – The minimum jail term, per fatality, that Anders Behring Breivik will serve in a Norwegian jail after being declared sane when he killed 77 people in attacks in Oslo and Utoya Island. Norway’s judicial system carries a maximum 21-year sentence for murder, though discretionary five-year extensions can also be added so it’s entirely possible that Breivik will never again be a free man.
77.8 per cent – The amount by which road deaths involving victims under 14 fell between 1997 and 2010. There was also a 100 per cent reduction in child cyclist fatalities, and a 81.8 per cent fall in child passenger deaths.
€46.04 – The amount, per second, lost by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation – the former Anglo Irish Bank – in the first six months of the year. The bank actually turned an operating profit of €359 million (€22.83 a second) but had to set aside over €1 billion to cover bad debts.
36 minutes, 31 seconds – If IBRC hadn’t had to set aside the €1 billion, its profits from 37 minutes would be enough to buy the world’s most expensive video game – a copy of Final Fantasy II for the NES.
817 – The number of days between Michael D Higgins taking Michael Graham to town over being ‘a w**ker whipping up fear’ and the video going viral worldwide. The video – of a Newstalk debate on May 28, 2010 – went viral on Wednesday after appearing on UpWorthy and gained a flurry of new fans for now-President Higgins, even though he’s not the only person ever to have attacked the Tea Party…
0 – The number of complaints lodged about the qualification mechanism of the Heineken Cup by the French and English rugby associations in the competition’s first decade. This week English and French clubs threatened to quit, complaining that the RaboDirect Pro12 makes it too easy for Celtic clubs to qualify – but funnily enough, that was never a problem when England and France won 9 of the first 10 tournaments, seven of which took place when Leinster, Munster and Ulster qualified simply by showing up.
£5,000 – The reputed cost of the photographs showing Prince Harry in his royal birthday suit.
32 per cent – Guinness’s share of the Irish ‘beer’ market. Its maker Diageo reported pre-tax profits of nearly €4 billion this week.
890,000 – The number of Irish people who either love, or have a masochistic loathing of, Lovely Girls. 890,000 people watched Luxembourg rose Nicola McEvoy named this year’s Rose of Tralee.
3.37 billion – Repak recycled the equivalent of 3.37 billion – billion! – cereal boxes last year. It oversaw the recycling of 652,000 tonnes of packaging in Ireland in 2011.
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