You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
1-6
After starting the season 1-6, the Detroit Lions fired offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi and promoted quarterbacks coach Jim Bob Cooter, which is a real name of a real person, to OC. [CBS Sports]
18 percent
The percentage of Kansas residents who said they were “very” or “somewhat” satisfied with Gov. Sam Brownback in a new statewide survey. That’s a very low approval rating of a GOP governor in a very red state. President Obama got higher ratings in the survey than Brownback. [The Kansas City Star]
25th album
David Bowie’s 25th studio album, “Blackstar,” is scheduled to drop on the singer’s 69th birthday, in January. [Rolling Stone]
50 grams
A new study boldly claims that consuming an additional 50 grams of processed meat per day increases the (already rather low) risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent. But screw it: I’m willing to roll those dice. [Bloomberg]
10,000 guns
A man arrested on drug-trafficking charges in South Carolina was found to be in possession of as many as 10,000 stolen guns, according to police. That is a big enough arsenal to arm every man who fought under George Washington in the Battle of Brooklyn, the largest battle of the Revolutionary War. [New York Daily News]
11,000 patients
The largest clinical study ever is kicking off in the United Kingdom. Researchers will follow 11,000 patients over 12 years to try to find out how aspirin affects different types of cancer. I look forward to learning the results at the end of Donald Trump’s third term. [Motherboard]
127,000
The number of Christian missionaries the United States sent out to the rest of the world in 2010, by far the most of any nation. The International Mission Board, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention, is scaling back its efforts because of funding problems. [Wall Street Journal]
2.36 million
The average number of viewers per minute of Sunday’s Yahoo-streamed NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars. While that’s not up to television viewership levels enjoyed by most afternoon and late games, it’s still a huge number for an Internet stream. [CNN Money]
$100 million
The estimated amount that Microsoft spent developing “Halo 5,” which dropped last night at midnight. Usually I’m the only one up at midnight in my apartment as my roommates are adults who have self-control with their bed times and sleep schedules and I am not, but they were nonetheless up to mainline the game as soon as it became available and report good things. [USA Today]
$26.5 billion
The size of the market for financial data. The IntercontinentalExchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, announced that it will buy the Interactive Data Corp., a financial data company that controls roughly 3.5 percent of that market. [New York Times]
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