You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
10-year plan
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey yesterday unveiled plans for a “Green New Deal,” a goal of which is to “achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 10 years,” and to modernize transportation infrastructure, make homes more energy efficient and “de-carbonize” industries. “The green dream or whatever they call it, nobody knows what it is, but they’re for it right?” said Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. [Reuters, Politico]
321 million monthly users
Twitter’s monthly user count fell to 321 million last quarter, down from 326 million the quarter before and to its lowest level in two years. In fact, Twitter will now stop reporting its monthly-user figures, instead opting to disclose its daily users, of which the social network has 126 million, up from 115 million a year ago. [The Verge]
1.6 petabytes
The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System, a telescope in Maui, has released to the public 1.6 petabytes of data, an amount equal to half a million HD movies, captured with its 1.4-billion-pixel camera. You, yes you, are now invited to join in the search for, among other things, asteroids that could cause the extinction of our species. [Wired]
12 weapons a day
TSA screeners found a record 4,239 firearms in carry-on bags last year, at 249 of the 440 airports it screens. That works out to an average of about 12 guns found per day. The TSA credits “significant security enhancements.” [NBC News]
6th largest bank
A merger between BB&T and SunTrust will create the sixth largest bank in the U.S., and a combined company that will have $442 billion in assets. It’s the first major bank merger since the 2008 financial crisis. [Associated Press]
$68 million lawsuit
Woody Allen is suing Amazon Studios for $68 million for allegedly reneging on a four-movie deal and refusing to release his film titled “A Rainy Day in New York.” The suit claims Amazon is justifying its actions by “referencing a 25-year-old, baseless allegation.” Amazon representatives said that the decision was because of “supervening events, including renewed allegations against Mr. Allen, his own controversial comments, and the increasing refusal of top talent to work with or be associated with him in any way.” [Variety]
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