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Significant Digits For Friday, Aug. 14, 2015

You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.

6 years

Jimmy Fallon is going to be on “The Tonight Show” through 2021. The host recently re-upped with NBC, signing a six-year deal. [Associated Press]


10 staffers

Donald Trump is investing in the ground game in Iowa: The campaign has 10 full-time paid staffers in the state. For what it’s worth, Jeb Bush has about a dozen. [Washington Post]


$40 per month

Apple has reportedly pushed back a plan to become a TV provider after failing to reach an agreement with content producers. Apple was rumored to be trying to offer a TV package for about $40 per month, undercutting the price people pay for cable. [Bloomberg]


54 percent

Tough news on the home front for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: According to a new poll, 54 percent of New Jersey voters want the governor to step down if he’s going to continue his run for president. [NJ.com]


70.1 percent

The latest data on commuting in America is out from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, and it shows that Americans still really love driving. In 2013, 70.1 percent of Americans 16 to 24 drove alone on their commute. And while that’s lower than the rest of the age groups — 76.4 percent of Americans overall drive alone on their commute — it’s still pretty high. The New York City metropolitan area — where I live — has only 56.9 percent of workers commuting by private automobile, the lowest rate in the country. [Census.gov]


$5,000

When it comes to foolproof ways to win in a casino, “fake chips” are a pretty good option. But best not to flush them down a toilet. A man recently admitted to using millions in fake Borgata chips in Atlantic City, but only after being discovered because he tried to flush $5,000 worth of them. In fairness, this is likely the least illegal thing surreptitiously flushed down an Atlantic City casino toilet in years. [Yahoo News]

$225,000

About $225,000 worth of cocaine was smuggled into Harlem and Brooklyn through Puerto Rico in stuffed toys. Some of the toys were from the Minions franchise, that movie that has been ruining your Facebook feed. [Brooklyn Magazine]


$2.1 million

Ted Wells, who was in charge of the Deflategate investigation, is buying an apartment in midtown Manhattan from tennis siblings Venus and Serena Williams. [The Washington Post]


$536.6 million

That’s how much Michael Jordan has made from sponsorships from 2000 to 2012. According to Jordan, the vast majority of it came from shoe retailer Nike. This kind of data very rarely hits the public eye: Jordan is suing a defunct grocery story for trading upon his name, and the data came out through financial disclosures released as part of the lawsuit. [Bloomberg]


£1.85 billion

Estimated cost of building a life-size replica of Minas Tirith, a Lord of the Rings locale, in the U.K., according to a group of architects trying to raise the ludicrous amount of money through a crowdfunding campaign. If you know a rich Tolkien nerd, please alert them to this endeavor. We have to do this before the Welsh finish their life-size replica of Minas Morgul. [The Telegraph]


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Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

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