You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
+1.58 degrees
This past June was the hottest on record, 1.58 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the 20th century average. And if the current trend holds for the rest of the year, 2015 will be one of the hottest years ever recorded. A strong El Niño in the Pacific Ocean is getting stronger, which isn’t going to help. [Bloomberg]
3 movie studios
Sony Pictures Animation and director Anthony Leondis signed a “near seven-figure deal” for an emoji-themed comedy. Let me say that more clearly: Sony Pictures Animation paid someone about a million dollars for a movie about emoji. If that wasn’t absurd enough, know that Sony beat out two other studios in the auction for the movie. It’s been real, Western Civilization. [Deadline]
$7.75
Price of a small beer at the stadiums of the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs, the most expensive of the ballparks surveyed. However, a small beer in Boston is smaller than a small beer in Philly. Breaking it down by ounce, Boston definitively takes the prize as the worst ballpark to drink at, with booze costing $0.65 per ounce. Yet another reason to never go to Boston. [VinePair]
33 percent
Apple revenues rose 33 percent in the third quarter. It would be wonderful to say how much of that bump was due to the release of the Apple Watch, but the company is mum on how many watches were actually moved. [Wall Street Journal]
2 moons
As part of its Pluto flyby, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is also getting a closer look at some of the dwarf planet’s more offbeat moons, like the 26-mile-long, 22-mile-wide Nix and the 34-mile-long, 25-mile-wide Hydra. [The Verge]
600 visitors
Number of monthly visitors to Kisumu, Kenya, a city close to the ancestral village of U.S. President Barack Obama’s family. Obama is visiting Kenya this week, and he’s apparently considered a pretty big deal over there. [Wall Street Journal]
800 square miles
If you want to buy an 800 square mile Texas ranch that spans six counties and has upwards of 1,000 oil wells, the W.T. Waggoner Estate Ranch can be yours for the low, low price of $725 million. [Bloomberg]
1.1 million books
Sales of “Go Set a Watchman” passed 1.1 million, according to Harper Collins on Monday, making the conveniently found book the publisher’s hottest seller ever. I assume the publisher is sending a fleet of interns to Alabama to scour the property of the infirm Harper Lee, hoping to dredge up any other unpublished manuscripts squirreled away in the crawl space or backyard. [Associated Press]
65 million illegal streamers
Number of people who live outside of the United Kingdom who illicitly stream BBC shows through the network’s iPlayer, according to new research. Please don’t take my “Downton Abbey” from me, BBC, I need my stories. [The Guardian]
71.5 million square feet
There’s a Pentagon’s worth of vacant office space available in the Washington D.C. metro area. Preferences in working environments are moving away from office parks and to urban centers. If anyone has ideas on what to do with it, there’s 71.5 million square feet of space for you around Washington. [The Washington Post]
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.
If you see a significant digit in the wild, tweet it to me, @WaltHickey.