You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
$7.99
12 arrests
Twelve people have been arrested in connection with the explosion in the Chinese port city of Tianjin that killed at least 139 people. Several managers of the company storing the chemicals believed to have triggered the inferno were among those arrested. [NPR]
99 percent
According to a new survey from the CDC, that’s the percentage of contact lens users who reported at least one unsafe habit, ranging from sleeping while still wearing contacts to showering or swimming with them. Today I learned: I should stop showering and swimming in contacts. Also, apparently water with a splash of vodka is not a legitimate substitute for contact lens solution, so I may have bigger problems. [Minneapolis Post]
3,318 years
James Holmes, who was found guilty last month of killing 12 people and wounding 70 in the Colorado movie theater mass shooting in 2012, was sentenced on Wednesday to 12 life sentences and the maximum 3,318 years in prison. [Reuters]
12,000 profiles
There’s been a lot of hoopla about the hacking and leak of Ashley Madison membership rolls. But an investigation found only about 12,000 active, real women on the site. [Gizmodo]
33,000 inboxes
Thomson Reuters suffered a reply-all apocalypse on Wednesday, when an employee named Vince accidentally sent an email that wound its way, through a catastrophic series of reply-alls, to 33,000 inboxes across the company. Remember, “please remove me from this email chain” only makes the problem worse, or from a one perspective (mine) vastly more interesting. [The Wall Street Journal]
2 million
Jorge Ramos, the anchor of Noticiero Univision, was thrown out of a Donald Trump press conference Tuesday after asking the real estate developer about his immigration policies. On Wednesday, Joe Scarborough — another foe of Trump — said Ramos was seeking 15 minutes of fame. Why is this hilarious? Scarborough helms MSNBC’s Morning Joe, which averages between 400,000 and 500,000 viewers. Noticiero Univision has, on average, about 2 million viewers. [@alexweprin]
9.9 million
Number of people worldwide who develop dementia every year, according to a report from Alzheimer’s Disease International. Globally, an estimated 46.8 million people suffer from Alzheimer’s, with a projected 131.5 million having the disease in 2050. [The Washington Post]
75 million
Number of devices currently running Windows 10, according to Microsoft. The company is aiming for 1 billion devices with the OS in the next several years. [NPR]
$47 billion
Syngenta, a Swiss agricultural company, turned down a $47 billion takeover bid from Monsanto. The resulting union would have been the largest agrochemical company on the planet. [The Guardian]