You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
14-month ban
Ryan Lochte, the 12-time Olympic swimming medalist, has been suspended from the sport for 14 months. Lochte was suspended for getting an intravenous injection of a legal substance but in excess of the legal limit of 100 milliliters. One of Lochte’s social media accounts posted a picture of the swimmer getting the injection, with the hashtag “#ivdrip.” Lochte was previously suspended for 10 months following a drunken incident at the 2016 Olympics. [NBC Sports]
50 percent staff cut
The staff of the New York Daily News, the renowned tabloid which has called itself New York City’s “hometown paper,” was cut by 50 percent yesterday. The Daily News is owned by the most stupidly named and capitalized company in the history of companies — tronc. [Huffington Post]
60 tons of garbage
Since just last week, 60 tons of garbage have been removed from a beach in the capital of the Dominican Republic. There are thousands of tons of manmade plastic floating far out in the oceans — including the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch. But out of sight, out of mind can quickly become “pikes, shovels and excavators” following a heavy storm. [The New York Times]
106 degrees Fahrenheit
Japan set a dubious record on Monday, recording the country’s highest ever temperature — 41.1 degrees Celsius, or 106 degrees Fahrenheit — in a city northwest of Tokyo called Kumagaya. More than 40 people have died in Japan in an unprecedented heatwave that has lasted for nearly two weeks. [AP]
14,000 more suicides
Climate change has tragic — and unexpected — effects. One of those is its effect on the suicide rate. Suicide is more common on unusually hot days. And the authors of a recent Nature study estimate that, by 2050, climate change will cause an additional 14,020 suicides in the United States. The magnitude of this change is on par with “the estimated impact of economic recessions, suicide-prevention programs, or gun-restriction laws.” [The Atlantic]
$30 million tunnel
In a city constantly subjected to the torturous and sweltering whims of a broken public transit system, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered the agency in charge of that system to spend $30 million on an utterly useless “vanity project.” Specifically, to retile two New York City tunnels in “the state’s blue-and-gold color scheme.” First of all, I didn’t even know we had such a state color scheme. And second, fix the damn subway. Please. [New York Post]
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