A Amur tiger cub (Panthera tigris altaica), also known as the Siberian tiger, looks out of a basket during weighing in the Leipzig Zoo in Leipzig, central Germany. Two Amur tiger babies were born on July 20, 2012. The still nameless tigers have achieved a weight of about 9 kilogram in the meantime. The Amur tiger is the largest living felid. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)

HERE ARE THE things you need to know as we round off the day in three easy steps…

THINGS WE LEARNED

#ECONOMY: Good and bad news on the economic front today as gross domestic product was flat for the second quarter of this year due primarily to a fall in consumer spending but the domestic economy did grow by 4.3 per cent, ahead of expectations.

#HEALTH: Health Minister James Reilly has defended his handling of the health service as new figures from the HSE have disclosed that a number of hospitals are in financial difficulties while the number of people waiting to be seen at outpatient clinics has doubled in a year.

#MORTGAGES: A fifth of Irish mortgages will default by 2013 according to a report from the ratings agency Moody’s. It published data for each of the 26 counties in the State showing that Cavan and Laois have the highest rate of defaults.

#ARRESTS: It has been a busy day for Gardaí who have arrested 21 people as part of a major operation targeting organised crime in Dublin. Operation Wireless has seen more than 50 searches carried out today.

#DÁIL: Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore challenged left-wing TD Richard Boyd-Barrett to come up with an alternative to the property tax as there were more fiery exchanges in the Dáil today.

#MARRIAGES: There are now over 1.7 million married people in Ireland as new data from the CSO indicated a 10 per cent increase in marriages since 2006. You can play around with all the data here.

THINGS WE LOVED

• We like the honesty of Britain’s deputy prime minister Nick Clegg for apologising for pledging to abolish student fees before he was elected and then tripled them in government but we love his musical apology.
• Some of us in the office love this West Wing reunion video but golly how old have they got?
• These two fellas are new additions to Dublin Zoo. Aren’t they cute? More of them and their cuteness here.

THINGS WE SHARED

• A lot of you have been sharing the shocking mistakes that Apple have made in their new map software for various Irish locations, so much so that the Justice Minister has had to intervene. Keep your errors coming.
• Mad Magazine has noted some striking similarities between the words of Simpsons’ character Mr Burns and US presidential candidate Mitt Romney. But can you tell who said what?
• The late Don ‘Mr Wizard’ Herbert was known for educating the young folk about science on TV for decades but he wasn’t always nice to them as this video shows:

YouTube: Mike Schuster