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Once every 4 days
The U.S. power grid experiences a physical or digital attack about once every four days, a USA Today investigation of federal records has found. Please note that I used “digital” rather than “cyber.” That is because the word “cyber” is dumb and must be destroyed. [USA Today]
23 years
Debra Milke was convicted in the 1989 killing of her 4-year-old son and then spent 23 years on death row in Arizona. The charges against her were formally dismissed Monday. [Arizona Republic]
36 percent
75 days
Costa Rica derived its electricity from renewable sources for 75 days straight, a trend facilitated by heavy rain and power generation from, conveniently, hydroelectric plants fueled by the rains. [IFL Science]
250 miles
Scientists in Australia have discovered what they are describing as the largest asteroid impact area ever. The area, which is 250 miles wide, was found during drilling for a geothermal research project. The asteroid is thought to have hit at least 300 million years ago. [BBC]
470 delicious, savory calories
Taco Bell is out with a new biscuit taco, combining my two favorite words in the English language. It has a maximum of 470 calories. It sounds amazing. God bless America. [Christian Science Monitor]
$20,000 per year
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s wife is taking a leave of absence from her job at Goldman Sachs to help him campaign for president, meaning that the couple is losing their $20,000 per year health insurance policy. [Bloomberg Politics]
4.6 million
Through a records request, tech blog Ars Technica obtained a data set of 4.6 million license plate scans taken by the Oakland Police Department’s automated readers between Dec. 23, 2010, and May 31, 2014. The data can be used to approximate where people live with some degree of accuracy. [Ars Technica]
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