You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
2 live rounds
An actor and a bystander were shot after a mock Old West gunfight in Tombstone, Arizona, turned real: Live rounds were somehow placed in one of the guns. [The New York Post]
6.5 years
A DEA agent who helped bring down the Silk Road, the bitcoin-fueled Amazon.com of illegal drugs, was sentenced to six and a half years behind bars after pleading guilty to extortion, money laundering and obstruction of justice. The agent “used his position in the investigation to swindle his way to a payout of more $700,000 in Bitcoin and a Hollywood contract.” [Mother Jones]
7 turnovers
Monday Night Football was grim last night, with the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants combining for seven turnovers, including Eli Manning’s pick-six. The Giants lost 27-7. On the other hand, we got the new Star Wars trailer at halftime, so the evening was an emotional wash for me. [Sports Illustrated]
24 percent
Toymaker Hasbro saw 24 percent growth in its boys division in the third quarter, largely thanks to the release of new “Star Wars” merchandise. Revenues from girls toys — for some reason Hasbro separates the two, which is so 2005 — were down 28 percent. [Quartz]
44 percent
Tough break for Jeb Bush in a new Wall Street Journal/CBS News poll: 44 percent of GOP primary voters said they couldn’t even imagine themselves supporting his candidacy. [The Wall Street Journal]
184 seats
Still, not all is lost for the political progeny of prominent world leaders: Justin Trudeau, son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, led the Liberal Party to a decisive win in Canada’s elections yesterday. The Liberals took 184 seats and scored a decisive majority over the incumbent Conservatives, led by current Prime Minister Stephen Harper. [CBC]
$250,000
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel will announce a $250,000 gun buyback program. But it’s unclear whether buyback programs really reduce the availability of firearms in an area. [The Christian Science Monitor]
15 million users
Reported user count for Apple Music, Apple’s new streaming service. The catch: 8.5 million of those users are still on a free trial, leaving only about 6.5 million paying customers. For comparison, competitor Spotify had about 20 million paying subscribers as of June. [Engadget]
$43 million
Oprah Winfrey dropped $43 million to buy 10 percent of Weight Watchers, which sent the company’s stock shooting up. Weight Watchers has had a rough several years, with increased competition from other fitness services. [Forbes]
$6 billion
My favorite kind of mistake on Wall Street are “fat-finger” errors, which basically means someone pushed the wrong button at a critical moment and put a bunch of money in a place they would otherwise have preferred not to put it. I like these because I get to imagine a banker with disproportionately massive fingers. My delight aside, these mistakes are probably a gigantic headache for places like Deutsche Bank, where a junior foreign exchange trader accidentally transferred $6 billion to a U.S. hedge fund. [The Wall Street Journal]
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