You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
45-minute press conference
In a surreal 45-minute joint press conference with President Vladimir Putin of Russia in Finland yesterday, President Trump rejected his own intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 American election, instead favoring Putin’s apparent denial and refusing to condemn the Kremlin. “[Putin] just said it’s not Russia,” Trump said. “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.” [Politico]
20 percent
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85 percent uptick in signups
Yesterday was Prime Day, Amazon’s Black Friday-esque sales event for subscribers to its Prime service. But beyond a gimmick, the event is key to Amazon’s future. Last year, signups to its premium Prime service jumped 85 percent on Prime Day compared to the average day, and Prime is “the main defensive moat for the company’s retail business.” [Recode]
292 crocodiles
In an Indonesian village, a man was killed by a crocodile. In response, some 600 of his fellow countrymen gathered shovels, hammers, clubs, ropes, machetes and hoes and went out and killed 292 crocodiles, amassing them in a bloody pile. It’s unclear whether the crocodile that killed the man was among the dead. [The Washington Post]
14,400-year-old bread
14,400-year-old evidence of bread-making was discovered in northeastern Jordan recently. It was previously thought that, historically speaking, the making of bread followed the development of agriculture. But a new discovery shows that bread actually predates agriculture by about 4,000 years. These ancient bakers are thought to have used “wild einkorn and club-rush tubers to make flatbread-like food products.” Countdown to the introduction of $18 wild einkorn flatbreads on the menus of Brooklyn eateries in 5, 4, 3, 2, … [Gizmodo]
$155 million
Over the past three years, the family firm of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, sold apartments in one building in Brooklyn for a total of $155 million. These apartments had been rent stabilized, but nearly 75 percent of the building was sold or emptied in an effort to turn it into luxury condos. This was accomplished, current and former residents told the Associated Press, through a relentless campaign of construction and rent hikes meant to drive out residents. The construction drowned out conversation, rattled pictures off walls, and gave an invitation for rats to enter through holes in walls, according to a lawsuit filed by tenants. They also allege carcinogenic dust flowed into apartments and coated beds and clothes. [AP]
1 quadrillion tons of diamond
There may be more than a quadrillion (with a q) tons of diamond buried more than 100 miles below the Earth’s surface, a fact discovered thanks to a quirk in seismic data. But in the absence of a Technodrome Krang drill or some new Elon Musk fever dream, these diamonds are buried too deep to be reached anytime soon. [MIT]
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