You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news. Today also marks the fourth edition of the Significant Digits newsletter! If you’d rather not click on a website to read this, sign up here.
2.3 years
Average age difference for an American heterosexual couple. [FiveThirtyEight]
3.5 hours
Apple is working on meeting battery expectations for its forthcoming Apple Watch. Reports indicate that the watch battery can handle up to 3.5 hours of standard app use and up to 2.5 hours of heavy application use, like gameplay. [9to5mac]
4 casinos
Atlantic City saw four casinos close and 8,000 people lose their jobs last year, an economic mess that could lead to the city’s property tax base falling from $11.3 billion to $8 billion by 2016. As a result of this, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed an executive order to install an emergency management team for the city. [
NJ.com]
63 months
Barrett Brown, a former journalist and member of the Anonymous hacktivist movement, was sentenced to 63 months in prison for linking to stolen data from intelligence contractor Stratfor in 2011. [
The Guardian]
328 televison shows
In 2014, at least 328 original television shows aired on broadcast, cable or streaming networks, according to FX Networks’ research department. The breakdown: 124 aired on broadcast televsion, 180 on cable and 24 on streaming networks. [
Vulture]
500 jobs
DreamWorks Animation will cut 500 jobs and restructure its film business after an underwhelming 2014. They intend to produce two films — one a sequel to an existing franchise, another an original film — per year, down from three per year. I hope you like animals who are also good at Kung Fu. [MarketWatch]
$700,000 in bribes and kickbacks
Prosecutors have outlined the allegations against New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, alleging that he accepted $700,000 in bribes and kickbacks from a real estate law firm and that he illegitimately made more than $5.3 million in salary and referral fees from law firm Weitz & Luxenberg. Silver was arrested on corruption charges Thursday. [
The New York Times]
$4.5 million
This year there will be 15 first-time advertisers during the Super Bowl, a prestigious but expensive television platform for #brands looking to make an impression on consumers. The average price of a 30-second ad this year is $4.5 million. [
The Wall Street Journal]
1.9 billion pounds
The U.S. is all about avocados these days, with 1.9 billion pounds of Hass avocados sold in the U.S. in 2014. That’s about 4.5 billion avocados, more than double the amount consumed on 2005. The moral of this story is that if you want Americans to eat a fruit or a vegetable, you first have to find one that actually has saturated fat in it. [The Washington Post]
$8.7 billion
An $8.7 billion buyout offer from Dollar Tree has been approved by Family Dollar shareholders. For some perspective, that’s the equivalent of about 8.7 billion products from Dollar Tree or Family Dollar. [
The Wall Street Journal]
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