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Significant Digits For Monday, Feb. 29, 2016

You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news. Big thanks to Oliver Roeder who took over last week while my desk overflowed with Oscars obligations.


1 Oscar

Leonardo DiCaprio is now the proud owner of one Oscar. It doesn’t mean he was the most deserving, but now perhaps he can make a movie that is fun. [ABC News]


4 for 6

FiveThirtyEight’s Oscar tracking model went four for six in the top categories, correctly calling the winners for best director, actress, actor and supporting actress but whiffing on best supporting actor and picture. Not a great night, but not terrible by any stretch. [FiveThirtyEight]


6 Oscar wins

Biggest winner of the night? “Mad Max: Fury Road,” which won six Oscars for sound editing, sound mixing, editing, production design, costumes, and hairstyling/makeup. It had the most wins of any one film. [The Verge]


7-6

A bill that would require unvaccinated children to be reported to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment passed through a committee in Colorado’s state legislature on a 7-6 vote. I mean, if I find a danger to society and public health, it’s generally a good policy to report that even if the public health danger is named Aiden or Sophia. [KLFY]


10 sets

When he was writing his opening monologue for the 88th Academy Awards, Chris Rock unconventionally workshopped it over the course of “about 10” sets at The Comedy Store in West Hollywood. The process appears to have worked wonderfully, because that monologue crushed expectations. [The Washington Post]


13 arrests

Three people were stabbed and 13 were arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim after a clash between Klan members and protesters. [Los Angeles Times]


14 percent

Hillary Clinton thrashed Bernie Sanders in South Carolina on Saturday, winning by about 50 percentage points. Black voters in particular went with Clinton, with Clinton pulling 86 percent of African-American voters to Bernie’s 14 percent. [FiveThirtyEight]


27 points

Donald Trump received the endorsements of two governors, one senator and two members of the House of Representatives in the past several days. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, Gov. Paul LePage of Maine and Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama have contributed most of Trump’s 27 recent endorsement points. [FiveThirtyEight]


31 inches

Sen. Chuck Schumer is trying to put the FAA in charge of airline seat space requirements. According to Schumer, the average space between two airline seats dropped from 35 inches in the 1970s to 31 inches today. [ABC News]


$835 million

Dow Chemical will settle an anti-trust case for $835 million that was potentially bound for the Supreme Court. Given Antonin Scalia’s death, it appears Dow thinks the court would be less sympathetic to their case, which may have led the company to drop the appeal. [Bloomberg BNA]


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Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

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