You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
5 Hugos
The 2015 Hugo Awards were given out over the weekend. Well, most of them were. No award was given out in five categories. The “no awards” were the result of a campaign to vote as a group for more white and male authors, and a counter-campaign — led by the likes of no less than George R.R. Martin. The “no award” in five categories is the same number of “no awards” given in the entire history of the Hugos. [The Guardian]
36 days
“Dismaland,” an apocalyptic art installation theme park from the mind of Banksy and 57 other artists, will be open in the U.K. from Aug. 22 to Sept. 27. The brochure claims the Disneyland pastiche “contains adult themes, distressing imagery, extended use of strobe lighting, smoke effects and swearing” — fun for the whole family! [Colossal]
218 Anakins
260 permits
Alligator hunting began last Thursday in Alabama, with 260 lucky permit holders hoping to kill a large and ancient reptile. Last year, Mandy Stokes killed a record-setting beast, 15 feet and 1,011.5 pounds. [The New York Times]
1,100 sources
One of the best cartographers of the Syrian civil war is a 19-year-old Dutch teen, Thomas van Linge, who started mapping the war for a school project. He’s since graduated but is still keeping up with the cartography, synthesizing some 1,100 sources with new data on the multiparty conflict. [Der Spiegel]
$8.9 million
Safeway, which owns the defunct supermarket Dominick’s, owes Michael Jordan $8.9 million for using his name and likeness to shill products without his authorization. Safeway was hoping to pay only about $126,900, and Jordan’s people wanted about $10 million, so this is a pretty clean win for Jordan. [ESPN]
$298.5 million
Estimated payroll of the Los Angeles Dodgers after the acquisition of Chase Utley from the Philadelphia Phillies. That puts the Dodgers $1.5 million short of being baseball’s first $300 million payroll, a figure that may very well be hit following end-of-season bonuses. [ESPN]
$578 million
One of what I imagine will be many class-action lawsuits against the group behind Ashley Madison was filed on behalf of Canadians implicated in the stolen data breach, with lawyers seeking $578 million. [The Guardian]
$738 million
That’s how much Elon Musk’s Tesla raised from a stock sale. The money is planned to fuel investments like a battery factory and a new car line. For the rest of us, this also means that Musk himself spent $20 million on stock, meaning he has $20 million less to spend on a super laser or volcano base or shark pit or whatever else potential supervillains are buying these days. [Fortune]
$182 billion
Global markets took a big hit last week, with the S&P 500 enduring its worst week since 2011. This took a bite out of the world’s 400 richest people, who lost a collective $182 billion. Still, I’m sure they’ll pull through: The top 400 still have about $3.98 trillion combined. [Bloomberg]