A glance at the week that was
Child Support
While the grown-ups are making a mess of the economy, environment and food chain, Irish kids did us proud this week. They are more active than children in 40 other countries, and fifth out of 29 on literacy skills. They also say that they are happy with their lives. The survey was conducted by the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, so let's hope it wasn't just a case of Irish parents thinking their children are the best at everything.
We now know
There is a massive black holeat the centre of our galaxy (pic), and we're 27,000 light years away from it
Ireland is the fourth most expensiveplace to live and shop, behind Norway, Denmark and France
A "leap second"will be added to the world's clocks at midnight on New Year's Eve
Voting rerun
There's nothing the Irish love more than a referendum, and we always prove this by replaying them at the nearest opportunity. Having had so much fun with the Lisbon vote, it seems as if we'll get another run at it before the end of October. There will be tweaks, including a commissioner for each state and specific legal guarantees for Ireland. But will that be enough to pass the referendum? And, if not, will we get a chance to make it three times a charm? All will be revealed.
The numbers
21%:of Irish people have used cannabis at some point in their life
90%:of cannabis users get the drug from family or friends
1bn:people go hungry every day, according to the UN Food Agency