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Significant Digits For Monday, April 25, 2016

Welcome to Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.


2.3 MB

The average webpage requires a user to download 2.3 megabytes of data, which is slightly less than the 2.39 megabyte size of the original “Doom” shooter video game. Webpages are getting bigger and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. If only there was some sort of way to get a stripped-down version of a website you read every day delivered right to your inbox. [Wired]


9-3-2-6-2-5

The Chicago White Sox pulled off an extended triple play Friday against the Texas Rangers. It involved the right fielder (a position represented by “9” in baseball parlance) catching the fly ball, tossing it to first (3) where a runner was tagged out, the ball going to the catcher (2), then the shortstop (6), then the catcher again (2) and finally the third baseman (5) who tagged another runner out. As the announcer said, “Bases loaded, bases cleaned.” [Deadspin]


20-point margin

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is far back in the delegate count and is running out of races where he can close that gap. As of now, he’ll have to win the remaining contests by a 20-point margin over Hillary Clinton to erase the deficit. With many delegates up for grabs on Tuesday as part of several East Coast states’ primaries, losses there could lead to a tactical shift in how the Sanders campaign talks about Clinton. [NPR]


28 pages

Amid mounting pressure, the White House is considering whether to declassify all or portions of a 28-page section of the 9/11 congressional inquiry that some think may detail a connection between Saudi Arabia and the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. [The Associated Press]


57 delegates

Number of Republican delegates at stake in Indiana. The Ted Cruz and John Kasich campaigns announced Sunday night — right after “Game of Thrones” no less — that Kasich would leave Indiana to Cruz and Cruz would let Kasich campaign unimpeded in Oregon and New Mexico, all to help stop Donald Trump. #NeverTrump has finally learned that campaigns can talk to each other, it would appear. [POLITICO]


79 percent

With Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Connecticut holding primaries tomorrow, we’ve got forecasts for the latter three states based on current polling. Donald Trump has a 79 percent chance of winning Maryland, an 89 percent chance of winning Connecticut and a 98 percent chance of winning Pennsylvania. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is a strong favorite in each of those three states. And as for Delaware and Rhode Island … have you considered inviting more people to your states to make yourselves more appealing to pollsters? [FiveThirtyEight]


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Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

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