You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
2.7 percent
That’s the average level of support New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie earned in three Republican primary polls conducted during July. That’s low enough that Christie is in danger of missing the first GOP debate on Aug. 6. [FiveThirtyEight]
3rd place
NASA had a big week last week, mostly because they managed to take lots of pictures of dwarf planet Pluto, but also because they got a lot of people interested in seeing those images. NASA.gov was the third-highest trafficked government-run domain last week. Who could have ever guessed that people were still interested in space? [The Washington Post]
54 years
The U.S. embassy in Cuba reopened Monday after 54 years of being shuttered. [CNN]
71 percent
There’s an avian flu outbreak among U.S. chickens, and lots of birds are being killed to contain the virus. About 71 percent of the 48 million culled chickens were egg-laying or related to the egg-layers. This has driven prices of eggs up, to the point that eggs are “more expensive on a protein-per-dollar basis than chicken breasts for the first time on record.” [Quartz]
$93
Google stock exploded Friday for some reason, jumping $93 to close at $672.93. This means that, over the course of a single day, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each added $4 billion to their net worths. [Bloomberg]
3,500 acres
A huge fire consuming 3,500 acres broke out around I-15 in California on Friday, destroying 20 vehicles and four homes. [Los Angeles Times]
278,000
“Joe Dirt 2” is not getting rave reviews, precisely, but the direct-to-streaming film starring David Spade reportedly garnered 278,000 viewers on Crackle in its first 24 hours. [AV Club]
$58 million
“Ant-Man” won the weekend at the box office with $58 million, edging out “Minions” and “Trainwreck.” [CNN]
$160 million
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into potential wrongdoing by FIFA sponsors. The SEC is investigating a $160 million deal involving “Sportswear Company A.” The description of the sportswear company suggests it’s Nike, Reuters reported, although Nike is not named in any investigation at the moment. [Reuters]
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