A glance at the week that was
The numbers
10% - Percentage of the Irish population living in food poverty.
273 - Combined age of the four remaining Rolling Stones, who announced a series of concerts to mark the band’s 50th anniversary.
€400m - Amount the State will save over the next three years after agreeing price cuts with pharmaceutical companies.
39km - Height above Earth from which Felix Baumgartner began his record-breaking skydive last Sunday. On his way down he became the first skydiver to break the sound barrier.
177% - Increase in the price of potatoes in the 12 months to August, according to the CSO.
7 - Number of masterpieces stolen from a Rotterdam museum.
We now know
Greek censors cut a gay kiss, featuring Rob James-Collier, from Downton Abbey.
French president Francois Hollande has proposed a ban on homework as part of education reform.
Francesco Schettino, captain of the Costa Concordia when it sank with the loss of 32 lives, is suing the ship’s owner for wrongful dismissal.
Binder blooper
A simple question about pay equality shouldn’t have caused any problems for US presidential candidate Mitt Romney, but his “binders full of women” remark in Tuesday’s debate has taken on a life of its own. Twitter accounts mocking the phrase sprang up almost immediately, and a “Binders Full of Women” blog went up on Tumblr within minutes of Romney’s bungled response. If Romney loses the November 6th election, he might have this meme to blame.
Most read on irishtimes.com
1 ‘We are the silent poverty class . . . there is absolutely no help’
2 Cardboard bicycle ‘could change world’
3 Girl gets 60 lashes for speaking to men
4 ‘There are weeks I can’t put food on the table’
5 Woman (81) to lose family home after court order
6 Media the new villains as Quinns change tack
7 Humiliated, hammered and caught in a Trap
8 ‘Binders full of women’ remark goes viral
9 Jobseekers to sign ‘contract’
10 Famine! Plague! Tsunami! The one thing Ireland won’t do is . . . panic
* Figures calculated for October 12th-19th
Next week you need to know about . . . The digital switchover
We’ve been bombarded with ads for months, with the ghosts of Gay Byrne past, and the comforting face of Gay Byrne present, beseeching viewers to prepare for the TV apocalypse. Hold on to your hats – and your remote controls – because it’s happening on Wednesday. Our analogue TV channels are being switched off.
After decades of free-to-air TV appearing on our screens through aerials on our chimneys, the analogue signal is being replaced by a digital equivalent, Saorview.
To watch domestic TV you will now need a Saorview box, or a television set that’s capable of receiving a digital signal, and a digital-capable aerial. The EU has said that all analogue TV signals need to be switched off by the end of the year, so in some ways we’re cutting it tight: the signal was turned off in parts of the UK more than a year ago.
“Digital television is the biggest change in broadcasting since the move from black-and-white to colour,” says the Saorview website. “For viewers, digital TV can offer more channels, high-definition pictures and sound, on-screen programme guides and new interactive services.”
That sounds like a lot of benefits, and it doesn't end there: Saorview claims that the Irish economy will benefit to the tune of €500 million over the next decade. All that analogue TV was taking up a huge part of the spectrum reserved for transmitting information, and that can now be auctioned off to the increasingly spectrum-hungry mobile-phone industry.
DAVIN O'DWYER
saorview.ie, goingdigital.ie. See Shane Hegarty, back page
