Significant Digits For Tuesday, March 10, 2015

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2 lethal injections

Here’s a sentence I never expected to write: Texas is almost out of lethal-injection drugs and is desperately trying to find someone to sell it more. The state only has enough for two more state-sanctioned killings, yet has seven scheduled through May 12. [Houston Chronicle]

9 percent

Percentage of American adults who never have sent an email. Presumably they’re all on Snapchat. [FiveThirtyEight]

29 percent

A modest plurality of Americans surveyed by Quinnipiac University said they trusted Fox News the most among network- and cable-news channels. [Politico]

32 percent

About one in three Americans own a firearm or live with someone who does. That, oddly enough, ties for the lowest level in the history of the General Social Survey, which started in the ’70s. [AP]

43 percent

According to the National Association of Realtors — which has an obvious interest in housing sales that has to be acknowledged — only 9 percent of buyers found their home at an open house, down from 16 percent in 2004. As in all things, the internet ruined it: 43 percent of buyers looked online first. Open houses, one realtor suggested, are really just opportunities to recruit clients. [Realtor.com]

72-61

The College of William & Mary, one of only 5 original Division I teams that never have made the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, had its dreams of a bid ruthlessly shredded Monday night when it lost to Northeastern University in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game. Northeastern will go on to March Madness. William & Mary will go on to Paul’s Deli to drink away the loss. This presumably will be the last mention of the school on an ESPN-affiliated website until a similar heartbreak about this time next year. Every effing year. Damn. [ESPN]

189.5 seconds

How long a McDonald’s drive-through order takes today, up from 152 seconds a decade ago, according to an analyst. Those extra 37.5 seconds — due in part to a more-complicated menu — can severely impact sales. [The New York Times]

$17,000

Cost of the most expensive iteration of the Apple Watch, made of gold. Several features of the watch were announced Monday, including Uber integration, 18-hour battery life, and, implicitly, the user’s right to be first against the wall when the revolution comes. [Re/code]

200,000 square feet

Malls, the desiccated temples of a dead consumerist god, have found second lives as companies sell once-fecund retail space to buyers ranging from doctors’ offices to city governments. Austin Community College converted a former JC Penney into 200,000 square feet of instructional space. [The Atlantic]

$300,000 to $600,000

Former Yankee Reggie Jackson will auction the letters that spelled “Yankee Stadium” on the former home of the New York Yankees for an expected total haul of between $300,000 and $600,000. No word on whether Sotheby’s is following the commonly accepted “Wheel of Fortune” rule by charging only for the six vowels. [The New York Times]

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And, as always, if you see a significant digit in the wild, tweet it to me @WaltHickey.