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EVERY WEEK, TheJournal.ie offers you a selection of statistics and numerical nuggets to help you digest the week that has just passed.
0 - The speed at which events will eventually occur on Earth, according to a novel theory put forward by Spanish physicists this week. They reckon the universe’s continual expansion means time is beginning to pass more slowly closer to its centre – meaning eventually all life will be stuck at a particular moment for all eternity.
£240.2 million - The 2011 annual profit of The Crown Estate, the property holding company of the Queen. Under a deal with the government, she gets to keep 15 per cent of its profits – meaning her pay next year will hit £36 million.
1 per cent - The apparent tax rate paid by comedian Jimmy Carr through a tax scheme which sees his earnings channelled through a company in Jersey. After the scheme was exposed by The Times on Thursday, Carr took to Twitter to apologise and end it. The company earns around £3.3m a year – with Carr only paying £33,000 tax.
Around 70 - The number of complaints received by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland over the anti-abortion billboards erected around the country by the Youth Defence campaigners. The ASAI says because the ads are not commercial, it does not have the authority to control them.
3 - The number of times the government was defeated in votes in the Seanad on Wednesday – the first times in the history of this government, and in recent memory, that the government has been so regularly defeated. The defeats came when opposition senators ganged up to force an amendment to the agenda, before three Labour members defected to support the opposition in their motion on Seanad reform.
94c - The price of each share in Aer Lingus on Tuesday evening, when Ryanair announced a new bid to take over the airline by paying €1.30 for each share.
€1.18 - The price of Aer Lingus shares within an hour of opening on Wednesday morning, though they had fallen back to €1.05 by Thursday afternoon.
29,040 - The average number of people to be represented by each member of the 32nd Dáil, whenever it’s elected. The next Dáil will have only 158 members – down from 166 – representing 40 constituencies, down from 43. That average will be the highest since the State was founded.
€100,000 - The fine dished out by UEFA to Danish striker Nicklas Bendtner, after he celebrated a goal in Denmark’s second Euro 2012 game by displaying ‘lucky underpants’ which included the name of bookmakers Paddy Power. The bookie has condemned the fine, but offered to pay it anyway.
0 - The number of group matches at Euro 2012 which ended 0-0. It’s also the number of penalties scored in the group stage – only one was awarded, in the opening match, but it was saved.
$12.5 million - The amount that Twilight star Kristen Stewart is now said to be able to command per movie, making her Hollywood’s best paid actress (by Forbes’ estimates, anyway).
$1,543,104 - The amount withdrawn by Detroit man Roland Page at ATMs in August 2009 – before Bank of America noticed his account balance was under $100 and asked for the cash back. Page, a gambler, doesn’t have it – and faces 15 months in jail.
920,000 - The estimated number of people who watched the entire broadcast of Ireland’s 2-0 defeat to Italy at Euro 2012. That was the lowest of any of Ireland’s group games, though an estimated 2,000,600 people did tune in to some of the broadcast.
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Do you think we could use numbers like the ones in the picture to show people how lanes on a motorway work?
And roundabouts
The Journal are probably using free Creative Commons licensed images from Flickr users. A sad sign of the modern press as the quality is generally poor and as you pointed out, images are often irreverent to the stories.
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