Welcome to Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
0
The NSA and FBI sent 1,457 electronic surveillance order requests to the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2015. Of those, zero were denied. The secret court did modify 80 of them, up from 19 in 2014, so we have that going for us. [Reuters]
1st place
Leicester City F.C. — which I’ve come to understand is essentially the Chicago Cubs of Premier League soccer, yet somehow worse? — has clinched the title! This was considered a delirious long shot by oddsmakers at the beginning of the season — some gambling houses were offering 5,000-to-1 odds on them winning the title — which means that fans are thrilled and bookies are very screwed. [Digg]
25 alarms
Do you want to be more like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson? I know how many of you read our stories about his obscene cod-focused diet, so I know the answer is “god, absolutely, get on with it, Walt, how do I be more like Dwayne”The Rock” Johnson?” Well, besides being a known triple threat — actor, wrestler, flexer — it turns out Johnson is a mobile application entrepreneur and has announced The Rock Clock, an alarm clock app that has 25 hand-crafted ringtones from the creator imploring you to wake up. It is free, because we do not deserve Dwayne Johnson. It is on my phone, because I am the worst at waking up. [The Verge]
83 percent
The Indiana primary is today, and it’s in many ways the beginning of the end — one way or the other — of the #NeverTrump campaign. A clean win for Cruz in the state is a win for the anti-Trump forces within the GOP, and a win for Donald J. Trump is a massive setback and potential death knell for the forces opposing the real estate magnate. According to our polls-plus forecast based on nine polls, Trump has an 83 percent chance of winning the statewide vote. [FiveThirtyEight]
97.6 percent
Federal criminal cases rarely go to court these days — last year 97.6 percent of defendants in federal criminal cases simply pleaded guilty, and there were 40 percent fewer trials than in 2009. That may explain the fight-em-in-the-papers prosecutorial style of Preet Bharara — the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York who has gone to war with Wall Street and New York state officials — as he has fewer opportunities to make noise in the courtroom. [The New Yorker]
170 pounds
Since his retirement, American Pharoah has gained 170 pounds and gotten hella laid. He is a horse and a Triple Crown winner, so it is not that weird. American Pharaoh’s racing success — which is a sport that has the interesting economic side effect of making normally worthless horse spermatozoa a wildly expensive commodity among rich people with weird hobbies — means that his owners get $200,000 every time a mare he mates with produces a foal that can stand. Capitalism is weird. [CNBC]
Correction: An earlier version of the last item in this article misspelled the name of the horse that won the Triple Crown. It is American Pharoah, not American Pharaoh.
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