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0 percent
Percentage of Republicans who said they would vote for former New York governor George Pataki for president. He intends to announce his candidacy for the presidency Thursday. [Fox News Poll]
2 seasons
Serial, the hit podcast from This American Life’s Sarah Koenig, is recording not one, but two seasons simultaneously to follow up on its acclaimed first season. Time to fire up the ol’ FiveThirtyEight Serial insanity wall again. [The AV Club]
4 turtles
Only 4 Yangtze giant softshell turtles remain in the world — all in captivity, and all but one male. In a last-ditch effort scientists are resorting to artificially inseminating the 100-year-old female in order to save the species. No pressure or anything. [San Diego Zoo Blog]
21 pages
California has released the new standards it will enforce for workplace safety at pornographic film production sites. It’s 21 pages long and the basic gist is that now certain things are going to require goggles. Do the hirsute plumbers that the comely homeowner never ordered also now need to be licensed and insured? [Boing Boing]
28 percent decline
That’s how much the U.S. consumption of beef has dropped in the past three decades. One side effect of this? Leather is getting a lot more expensive, and U.S. businesses are feeling the squeeze. [Bloomberg]
30-19
A bill to abolish the death penalty in Nebraska has become law after the Nebraska senate overrode a gubernatorial veto 30-19. [KETV]
38 percent
A new survey from the Federal Reserve found that 31 percent of working adults have no retirement savings, and 38 percent have no intention to retire. Proving once again that it’s the baby boomers who are the irresponsible generation, a quarter of workers 45 and older have not planned pensions or retirement savings. [Reuters]
79 percent
Syphilis cases in Rhode Island are up 79 percent between 2013 and 2014, and officials are blaming hook-up apps. [The Huffington Post]
118 degrees
A major heat wave is hitting India right now, claiming more than a thousand lives and melting asphalt in the hottest areas. Temperatures hit 118 degrees Fahrenheit in Balangir District. [The Atlantic]
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Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer. @WaltHickey