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11 days
Great job, everybody! People have kept it together in New York City and did not kill a fellow human since Feb. 1. In fairness, even if someone wanted to (and break the 11-day record-setting streak), it would probably be too much work with all this cold and ice. [New York Daily News]
62nd
Professional golfer Tiger Woods’s world ranking after a rough 2014 and a bad start to 2015. That’s his lowest since he went pro. [CNN]
53 percent of voters
For the first time, a majority of New Jersey voters have an unfavorable view of Republican Gov. Chris Christie. In my expert opinion as FiveThirtyEight’s New Jersey resident, the guy had it coming after that Dallas Cowboys crap. [Reuters]
$62.15 per barrel
A survey of economists by The Wall Street Journal found the consensus projection for the price of crude oil by December is $62.15 per barrel. Then again, the conventional wisdom isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. [The Wall Street Journal]
60,000 deaths per year
Smoking — which is, believe it or not, dangerous — was linked to five more diseases in a new study, specifically kidney, intestinal, heart and lung ailments. In the U.S., the diseases would add 60,000 people to smoking’s death toll annually. [The New York Times]
$3,327,757
A tabletop game based on the “Conan the Barbarian” series has just wrapped up the largest-ever Kickstarter funding round for a board game in the crowdfunder’s history. [The Escapist]
12.7 million metric tons
Humanity is not great at getting rid of garbage. The simplest solution is often to just dump it in the ocean. Scientists estimate that 12.7 million metric tons of plastic was dumped in the ocean in 2010, making for a lot of very sad dolphins (presumably). You know the Great Pyramid of Giza? That really big one? Those 12.7 million metric tons are double the weight of that thing. [Ars Technica]
21 million
The number of adults in the U.S. who practiced some form of yoga in 2012, double the number from 2002. [National Institutes of Health]
$44 million
Colorado scored $44 million in tax revenue from recreational marijuana last year, $25 million less than expected. The Colorado marijuana industry is basically like the college roommate who overpromises on rent: To make up for the shortfall, they’re definitely going to try to sell more weed. [The Daily Beast]
$40 billion
After intervention from France and Germany, there’s a new cease-fire scheduled for Sunday in Ukraine. Ukraine will also see a $40 billion aid package as part of the deal. [NPR]
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Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer. @WaltHickey
