You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
1 day
The U.K. saw its first full day of coal-free electricity since its first coal-fired generator came online in 1882 last Thursday. The longest Britain had gone without burning coal to keep the lights on was a 19 hour stint last year. [BBC]
20 percent
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced new tariffs averaging 20 percent on Canadian softwood lumber. The move escalates a trade dispute with Canada, which according to Ross accounts for about 31.5 percent of the U.S. lumber market. [Yahoo Finance]
43 percent
Share of Americans who approve of President Trump’s handling of the economy, according to a new Marketplace-Edison Research poll. [Marketplace]
1,300 kilometers
A 12-year-old boy who was trying to drive (alone) across Australia made it 1,300 kilometers before being stopped by police. [9News]
$3 million
According to reports, Square Inc. bought up the remaining engineering team of the app Yik Yak for the fire-sale price of less than $3 million. The once-hot social network was built on the idea that people would enjoy having anonymous conversations with people close by. That’s a fantastic concept until you remember that “anonymous internet person” and “by definition near you” are scary as hell in practice. [Bloomberg]
$729.6 billion
Contribution of arts and culture to the U.S. economy, if you’re the kind of boring stiff who needs the spice of life boiled down to an economic figure. That’s 4.2 percent of the economy, you ruthless automaton. [Arts.gov]
If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.