A glance at the week that was
3.3%Decline in the average industrial wage in the second quarter of 2012.
10%Proportion of Ireland that is forested, the second-lowest percentage in Europe.
230mAge in years of three fossilised bugs discovered preserved in amber in northeastern Italy, 100 million years older than the previous oldest example.
641Number of massage therapists who broke the world record for a mass-massage in Bangkok on Wednesday.
398Number of jobs lost when the haulage company Target Express ceased trading. It blamed the Revenue.
€75mAsking price for the Burlington Hotel, in Dublin, which sold for €288 million in 2007.
96km/hThe maximum wind speed of Hurricane Isaac as it battered Louisiana and Mississippi, causing floods.
We now know
Low-calorie diets, long thought to prolong life, may not do so, says a 23-year study of monkeys by the US National Institute on Aging.
The lion that was reported to be on the loose in Essex was in fact a large household cat.
The first song to be premiered on another planet was Reach for the Stars by will.i.am, broadcast from Nasa's Mars Curiosity Rover during the week.
Hit the bricks, 'Toy Story'
Everybody loves Lego, the toy that makes a budding architect of every child, but the Danish brand is not content to stick to the plastic-brick business. The company is making a CGI Lego movie – great news if the iconic little figures (left) have been a bit inanimate for your tastes. The film, slated for release in February 2014, will be called Lego: The Piece of Resistance. So Toy Story should at last have a worthy rival in the animated-toy-adventure genre.
