You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
5.51 seconds
Amount of time Todd Rogers, a purported speedgamer, claimed it took him to beat the video game “Dragster” in 1982. But now it appears Rogers lied about that score (though he denies it). The problem: the best possible Dragster game time would have to be longer than 5.51 seconds. The breach of trust prompted Twin Galaxies, the video game record keeper, to strip Rogers of the record, remove all of his scores and remove him from its leaderboards. [Polygon]
6 tobacco stocks
Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, the head of the CDC, resigned after it was revealed that she invested in Japan Tobacco, a company that sells the product that is the U.S.’s leading cause of preventable death. Besides Japan Tobacco, Fitzgerald also owned shares of Reynolds American, British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands, Philip Morris International and Altria Group, Inc. [POLITICO]
9 percent
Ah, crap: the Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook projects employment for “reporters, correspondents and broadcast news analysts” will drop 9 percent between 2016 and 2026. [The Seattle Times]
25 percent
Approximate percentage of presidential State of the Union policy demands that actually go on to become law within a year of the address, with a further 14 percent of proposals going on to be partial legislative successes. Generally speaking, 60.6 percent of the ideas you hear in a State of the Union never materialize. [FiveThirtyEight]
41 prisoners
There are still 41 people being held at Guantanamo Bay, to the cost of $440 million per year. President Trump signed an executive order to keep the prison open, a reversal of President Obama’s policy. [The Guardian]
99 percent
There’s a huge falloff for music streaming when comparing the top songs to all other songs. Data from BuzzAngle Music suggests that 99 percent of audio streaming is of the top 10 percent most-streamed tracks. The other 90 percent of music is just 1 percent of all streams. [Pitchfork]
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