Welcome to Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news. Huge thanks to Blythe Terrell for subbing for me yesterday.
1 year probation
Joshua James, who for a day was the appointed Florida Man after tossing an alligator through a Wendy’s drive-thru window as part of a prank, has been sentenced to one year probation. A quick programming note: This is the first of two stories involving men from Florida and adjacent alligators today. [WPTV]
7th largest series comeback
In the third quarter of Game 6 between the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder, the Warriors’ probability of winning the best-of-seven series was about 4.2 percent. Two subsequent victories make it the seventh-largest comeback in a best-of-seven series since 1984. [FiveThirtyEight]
15 feet long
A 15-foot long gator was spotted at Buffalo Creek Golf Course in Palmetto, Florida. This new data forced me to reconsider my mental ranking of sports, so I suppose golf is now the fourth-most dangerous game after Jumanji, Full-Contact Clue and hunting human beings for sport. [ESPN]
$287,858.44
Selling ice cream out of trucks in New York City is apparently a violent and disturbing business, as laid out in a frankly absurd article describing the difficulties facing the Mister Softee company due to a new competitor. And while Dimitrios Tsirkos of New York Ice Cream was ordered by a court to pay Mister Softee $287,858.44 in legal fees, and more than $767,000 overall, the real battle for ice cream is on the streets. “Every truck has a bat inside,” is a serious line from an article about ice cream trucks. [The New York Times]
1.2 million people
According to Amnesty International, that’s how many Afghans have left their homes following strife between the government and the Taliban. Many of those who have fled are moving from the country to the major cities, which is putting financial strain on some localities. [The Washington Post]
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