You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
4th candidate
In what is quickly becoming a regular and dirgeful drumbeat, another Democratic presidential candidate dropped out of the 2020 primary race. Late last week, it was Boston-area Rep. Seth Moulton’s turn, and he joins California Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on the sidelines. Don’t worry, there’s still some 20 Democrats left in the game, and many more such Significant Digits entries to come. [CNN]
362 runs
In a Test cricket match at Headingley Cricket Ground yesterday — one full of “astounding melodrama” and featuring “the innings of a lifetime” per The Guardian — England defeated Australia to keep the Ashes series alive. England scored 362 for nine, its highest-ever winning score. The English cricketer Ben Stokes led the team to victory scoring 135, including eight sixes (think, like, home runs), which is a lot of sixes. (I warned you this was a cricket column now.) [The Guardian]
44,000 troops
Some 44,000 troops have prepared to deploy in the Amazon rainforest, which is burning. They are part of an “unprecedented” operation to fight the wildfires, which will begin with a deployment of 700 troops and will see troops deployed to six Brazilian states. Fires in the rainforest are up 85 percent from the same time last year. [CBS News]
6 people injured
Six spectators were injured over the weekend when lightning struck at the PGA’s Tour Championship, shattering a pine tree’s bark and sending debris into the crowd. The injured were treated and released. The golf play was halted at the time, and the players and many spectators had already cleared the course. [ESPN]
79 AV
The Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is retiring, reportedly because he is “mentally worn down.” Luck, 29, has little historical company in retiring so young and so good. He is second all-time in AV — that’s Approximate Value, a method for capturing a player’s value in a single number — among quarterbacks who didn’t play again after their age-29 seasons, barely trailing Neil Lomax, who was forced to retire because of an arthritic hip. [FiveThirtyEight]
60 square miles
Earlier this month, sailors discovered a “huge raft” made of pumice floating toward Australia. Created by an underwater volcano, the raft is some 60 square miles in size, or about the size of Washington, D.C. As it drifts, it will become the new home for countless marine organisms, and there is hope that it will bring a needed, healthy injection of life to the Great Barrier Reef. [The Weather Channel]
From ABC News:
SigDigs: Aug. 23, 2019
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