You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
12 years
At least 22 people were killed and dozens more were injured when an apparent suicide bomber attacked a crowd leaving an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Many of the victims were children and teenagers. It was Britain’s deadliest terrorist attack in 12 years. [The Guardian]
2 weeks
Approximate amount of time on the show gained by a contestant who wins a rose on a date on “The Bachelorette” or “The Bachelor,” according to a ridiculous-even-by-our-own-standards historical statistical analysis of the television programs. [FiveThirtyEight]
5th
Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser to President Trump, will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights and refuse to comply with a U.S. Senate subpoena for documents relating to Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. [ABC News]
9/20/2019
You’re getting another Angry Birds movie. You probably didn’t want it, but whatever, you’re getting another feature length-film based on an app designed to extract microtransactions from the momentarily bored. So mark your calendars, or probably don’t, because on September 20, 2019, our society once again gets exactly what it deserves. [Venturebeat]
17 years
Fox News ranked third in prime time for five straight days behind CNN and MSNBC, the latter of which was the No. 1 cable news network in both the target 25-54 demographic and in total viewers for a full week. But back to Fox News: This is its longest stretch in third place in 17 years. [Variety]
22.8 million
Lyft rides in February 2017. That’s a 137 percent jump over February 2016, suggesting the company is profiting from the public embarrassments and scandals at rival Uber. [Bloomberg]
$627 billion
President Trump’s budget proposal is out Tuesday. It’s far from the final product, but it is a good road map to the administration’s priorities, which evidently include massive cuts to health and social safety net programs. Over 10 years the plan would cut $627 billion from Medicaid, $56 billion from Medicare, and $3.6 trillion overall. [The Washington Post]
If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.