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Significant Digits For Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015

You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.

5 pounds per day

America is sending garbage to landfills at a clip of 5 pounds per person per day, according to a new study by researchers at Yale. [Associated Press]


2 months

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo fractured his collarbone Sunday in a game against the Eagles and is expected to be out for at least two months. Dallas is down both Romo and star receiver Dez Bryant, the Eagles are a sinking ship of Theseus, New York is incapable of understanding the finite nature of time, and Washington is 1-1. I hate to consider this, but this may well be D.C.’s year in the NFC East. [Associated Press]


27 seconds

At the San Diego Senior Olympics, Don Pellmann, who recently turned 100 years old, became the first centenarian to run the 100-meter dash in less than 27 seconds. Don’t skip leg day, friends. [The New York Times]


30 percent

Increase in the amount of federal funding going to states from fiscal year 2008 to 2015, the vast majority of it related to health-care spending. [Pew Charitable Trusts]


52 percent

Potatoes and tomatoes account for 52 percent of America’s vegetable consumption, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. About 70 percent of potatoes and 77 percent of tomatoes that Americans consume are frozen or processed. Essentially, America gets lots of its vegetables from ketchup and fries. [The Washington Post]


70 days

Scott Walker called it quits Monday, suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination after only 70 days. For some perspective, Kim Kardashian was married to Kris Humphries for 72 days. [The Week]


$750

The company that recently acquired Daraprim — a drug used to treat a life-threatening parasitic infection — raised the price of the medication overnight, from $13.50 per tablet to $750. [The New York Times]


$30 million

Headspace, a startup that sells guided meditation sessions, raised $30 million from several venture capital firms and celebrities, just the latest example of the growing power of the Meditation Industrial Complex. [TechCrunch]


$30 billion

How much revenue mobile games are expected to book in 2015. The highest-grossing game of last year, Clash of Clans, pulled in $1.8 billion alone. The medium is running laps around traditional console gaming, and Apple is hoping to capture some of these casual gamers with its redesigned TV product, which will have gaming options. [NPR]


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Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer.

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