You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
65 yards
Two teams played a football game yesterday. It was widely televised. In it, a man named Johnny Hekker, a punter for the Los Angeles Rams, kicked a 65-yard punt — a Super Bowl record. [Los Angeles Times]
3,750 additional U.S. forces
The Pentagon is sending 3,750 additional U.S. forces to the Mexican border to support border agents, bringing the total deployment there to some 4,350. Some of the additional troops will install 150 more miles of concertina wire at the border, while others will operate mobile surveillance cameras in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. [Reuters]
10s of millions of viewers
No, not the Super Bowl. On Saturday, an electronic dance music producer who calls himself Marshmello [sic] performed a live concert inside of the battle royale video game Fortnite [sic]. “Likely tens of millions” of players watched the concert. All weapons were disabled for the entirety of the 10-minute event. [The Verge]
80* strokes
President Trump, who golfed with legends of the sport Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods over the weekend, is, per the Washington Post, a talented golfer, “usually breaking 80.” That is, however, but for the fact that “he sometimes takes mulligans.” In other words, he’s a talented golfer but for the fact that he’s not. “When it comes to cheating, he’s an 11 on a scale of one to 10,” the sportswriter Rick Reilly has said. Trump has denied this. [The Washington Post]
2 hand grenades
A three-inch-wide undetonated German hand grenade from World War I was discovered in a delivery of potatoes to a potato chip factory in Hong Kong, the second such discovery in a week. They are thought to have been accidentally dug up in potato fields in France. [BBC]
9 tons of pangolin scales
Hong Kong customs officials last month seized nine tons of pangolin scales, a record amount there, they say. There are rich markets for pangolins in China and Vietnam, where their scales are used in traditional medicine and their meat is served in restaurants. There are eight species of pangolin, all of which are protected by trafficking laws and two of which are critically endangered. [The New York Times]
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