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Significant Digits For Friday, May 15, 2015

You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news. To receive this as an email newsletter, please subscribe.

3.6 percent

After a report that showed many users of online dating applications may already be in relationships, mobile app Hinge did an internal review and found that 3.6 percent of profiles belonged to people who said they were married or in a relationship. “Sure,” a local lifestyle writer was heard assuring himself, “that’s why you’re not getting messages.” [Daily Dot]


13 percent

Annual growth rate of carbon emissions from powering data centers, according to Greenpeace. [Wired]

26 percent

Percentage of Americans who think the Iraq War was worth it. This may irk presumed GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who has been caught off guard with questions about how he would have handled the conflict. Let’s be real here: If your last name is “Bush,” you probably need to go into an election knowing people are going to bring up Iraq, just like if your last name is “Clinton” you know they’ll ask about the mighty sarlacc pit of your finances, or if your last name is “O’Malley” they’ll ask, “Who?” [FiveThirtyEight]


42.1 percent

Proportion of U.S. bee colonies that died off in the past year, according to a survey of beekeepers. That’s not great because we need bees to pollinate our food, produce honey, and tactfully aid in explaining sex with birds, or something. [Quartz]

150 kilograms

A Hong Kong man was arrested in Sydney Thursday after being caught smuggling 150 kilograms of methamphetamine into Australia. [Australian Broadcasting Company]

179 pounds

Former U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney weighed in at 179 pounds Thursday ahead of a charity boxing match against Evander Holyfield. [MSNBC]

$75,000

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos — who, full disclosure, also works for The Walt Disney Company, just like me — apologized for contributing $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation over three years and not disclosing the donations publicly. Stephanopoulos also pulled out of moderating any GOP presidential debates. [CNN Money]

More than 100,000 accounts

Upwards of 100,000 accounts suspected of automating gameplay on MMORPG World of Warcraft were banned, the company behind the game announced on Thursday. [PC Gamer]

$14 million

“The Simpsons” and Harry Shearer, who voices a number of characters on the show, were reportedly unable to ink a deal for a $14 million contract over two seasons. [CNN]


$49.3 million

That’s how much money Harvard University, a massive investment fund that is also known for providing education, paid six endowment managers last year. [Bloomberg]


I’m on vacation next week — in Ann Arbor, Michigan, if anyone wants to get a drink or whatever — so Oliver Roeder will be guest-hosting this feature! You’ll recognize him from his killer board game and Supreme Court coverage.

If you haven’t already, you really need to sign up for the Significant Digits newsletter — be the first to learn about the numbers behind the news.

And, as always, if you see a significant digit in the wild, tweet it to me @WaltHickey. Except next week. Next week tweet it @Ollie

Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

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