You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
$1 trillion company
Apple is the world’s first trillion-dollar company. With what I spent to repair my iPhone screen, this comes as no surprise. [Bloomberg, The New York Times]
A few hundred Google employees
Google (a lowly $850 billion company) is planning to launch a censored version of its search engine in China, a fact previously known only to “a few hundred” of its 88,000 employees. The project is code-named Dragonfly and will, according to The Intercept, block sites and searches related to “human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest.” [The Intercept]
No more than 30 percent women
For years, Tokyo Medical University altered the test scores of its female applicants to limit successful applicants to no more than 30 percent women. An unnamed official at the school called it a “necessary evil,” citing “worries that women will drop out of the workforce once they become pregnant.” The school reportedly wanted to make sure it had enough doctors staffing its affiliated hospital. [Quartz]
5 out of 9 House members
Time was that being a member of Congress gave a person a big advantage when running for other offices, like governor or senator. But that hasn’t really been the case lately. Only five out of nine such congressional representatives have been successful in their primaries this year, and three of those wins came against “unserious or nonexistent challengers.” Only three out of six such bids were successful in 2016. [FiveThirtyEight]
7 puppies
Who says nothing exciting ever happens on uninhabited northern Manitoba islands? Just this week, a litter of seven puppies was rescued from one such island after being discovered by boaters. They’ve been dubbed the “‘Gilligan’s Island’ crew.” “It’s not clear how the pups ended up on the island,” the CBC reports. [CBC]
$4,000 medal
Remember Wednesday when the Fields Medal winners were announced? Boy, that sure was fun while it lasted. Minutes after Caucher Birkar, a Cambridge mathematician, won his medal, that medal — a 14-karat gold, 2.5-inch-wide, $4,000 award — was stolen. Organizers said that “images recorded at the event are being analyzed” in the hunt for the thief. [The Washington Post]
If you see a significant digit in the wild, please send it to @ollie.