You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news. Walt Hickey is traveling for an adult kickball tournament, so Kyle Wagner is filling in today.
Six of 58
According to Sen. Martin Heinrich, who has sent a letter to President-elect Donald Trump pleading for continuity of leadership at the Pentagon and National Nuclear Security Administration, Trump has requested that just six of 58 appointed officials at the Pentagon stay in their positions until they can be replaced. The incoming administration has so far preferred to purge President Obama’s appointees as quickly as possible. [Gizmodo]
“an additional dozen or so”
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page is attended to by a “handful” of company employees; a “dozen or so” others who are responsible for keeping spam, harassment and rude memes off of his page; and a fleet of professional photographers to snap the photos. The result is about as anodyne as you might expect from a few dozen Silicon Valley employees reverse-engineering authentic human interaction: This actually is my first rodeo, reads one post just above a set of photos of Zuckerberg looking a lot like a glad-handing gubernatorial candidate. But the real reason to swing by the Zuckerberg profile is to gape at the collection of comments and commenters that populate a tech CEO’s troll-proofed Facebook profile — it’s a perplexing species of celebrity social media account interaction. [Bloomberg]
48 percent
The prices commanded by marijuana on wholesale markets have fallen as legalization and decriminalization have spread. New investors are helping to cut production costs, leading to steep drops, such as a 48 percent drop in Colorado (now down to $1,300 per pound) since legal marijuana sales began in January 2014. [Bloomberg]
53.8 percent
Barry Bonds, the greatest baseball player of all time, received a vote on 238 Hall of Fame ballots this year, or 53.8 percent of all ballots submitted, leaving him short of the 75 percent share needed to be inducted. Roger Clemens received 239 votes. Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Pudge Rodriguez each surpassed the 75 percent threshold. Vlad Guerrero, a cool superstar who drank from puddles as a child because he didn’t have access to running water, received 317 votes, good for 71.7 percent, and most baseball people seem to think he will get in next year. Can it, Trevor Hoffman. [ESPN]
266
Hickey went around and counted the “for your consideration” ads running in the major entertainment rags ahead of Oscars voting season and then converted the ad space into square inches for easy comparison. “Manchester by the Sea” was advertised in 5,155 square inches, second only to “Loving,” which was in 5,156. “Kubo and the Two Strings,” the most broadly advertised animated film of the season, appeared in 2,540 square inches. And a good deal further down the list were two films with 266 square inches apiece: “Moonlight,” which won the Golden Globe for best picture, drama, and “Kung Fu Panda 3,” which features voice acting from Jack Black. [FiveThirtyEight]
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