Significant Digits For Wednesday, April 1, 2015

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$1

Cablevision plans to offer to buy the New York Daily News for $1, Reuters reports. The daily loses $30 million annually. The New York Post is going to have a field day with this. [Reuters]

4 witnesses

The defense of alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev rested Tuesday after calling only four witnesses. He has admitted guilt in the attacks, but his attorneys are trying to avoid the death penalty for the 21 year-old. [Associated Press]

6, 7, 8 or 9

College basketball players are not allowed to wear the numerals 6, 7, 8 or 9 on their jersey. That leaves a crunch for uniform numbers, since 40 percent of numbers less than 60 aren’t allowed, and every number 60 and above might as well not exist. [The New York Times]

20 percent down

Viewership of MSNBC was down 20 percent from the first quarter of last year. The 9 to 11 a.m. hours had the worst ratings since 1999. [AdWeek]

22 drug sentences

Barack Obama commuted 22 drug sentences. Eight of the inmates were serving life sentences, and this more than doubles the number of commuted sentences the president has issued during his presidency. He’s now given a commutation to 0.3 percent of all prisoners who’ve sought one. [FiveThirtyEight]

25 years

Robin Williams, who died last year, forbade the use of his likeness for 25 years following his death. There will be no hologram Mrs. Doubtfire. [The Hollywood Reporter]

66 percent

Women are working through their first pregnancies more than they did before the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. 66 percent of mothers who gave birth to their first child from 2006 and 2008 worked while pregnant, versus 44 percent in the early 1960s. [Pew Research Center]

3,208.916 feet

An artist stole the top 1-inch of England’s tallest mountain — Scafell Pike, previously 3,209 feet tall, presumably slightly less now — and people are really upset about it. The small rock fragment is on display in London. [The Telegraph via Boing Boing]

$418 million

Domain-name sales site GoDaddy will have its initial public offering Tuesday and it’s looking to raise $418 million. “www.GoDaddyIPO.com” redirects to GoDaddy, so they’re at least well-prepared. [Bloomberg Business]

7.745 billion bushels

America has so much corn. We have 11 percent more corn stockpiled compared to this time last year, meaning the country has its most bushels — 7.745 billion — since 1987. Prices are down as a result. Now if you’ll excuse me, have to go eat some frosted corn flakes now. They just changed the frosting recipe. Two times the corn syrup, same great taste! [Bloomberg Business]

See you tomorrow, when it’s not April Fools and the internet is back to usual levels of trying to lie to you. If you haven’t already, you really need to sign up for the Significant Digits newsletter — be the first to learn about the numbers behind the news.

And, as always, if you see a significant digit in the wild, tweet it to me @WaltHickey.

$1