You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
26 percent
That’s the drop in Jimmy Fallon’s viewership among 18- to 49-year-olds since the fall season of “The Tonight Show” began. Compare that to rival Stephen Colbert, whose overall viewership is up 23 percent this year. The NBC flagship late night show is now at risk of losing its No. 2 ranking to ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel. [The New York Times]
$10,025.96
One bitcoin is now worth over $10,000, up 933 percent from the start of 2017 when it was worth $968.23 per bitcoin. Call it a bubble, call it a hot commodity, call it pointless as a medium of commerce given the wild fluctuations in price that limit its uses as a practical currency, but people who bit the bait months ago have been on a heck of a ride. [The Wall Street Journal]
10,073
Number of books banned in Texas prisons, compared to 248,281 that are on the approved list. Books get banned for all sorts of reasons, from the practical (hey, I am pretty far on the first amendment extremism scale, but I get why books describing the manufacture of drugs and weapons are banned in prisons) to the questionable, like mild sexual content or stuff the mailroom staff doesn’t care for. [The Dallas Morning News]
31,801
That’s the number of snake-removal calls the Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department has fielded this year, which is about three times higher than the figure in 2012. They hang out in toilets and attack the people who use them. The snakes, not the Bangkok Fire and Rescue Department. Should have been more specific there. [The New York Times]
$535,800
A movie poster for the 1931 film “Dracula” has sold for $535,800, now the most expensive poster ever sold at auction. A poster of “Metropolis” once sold at a gallery sale for more, $690,000, in 2005. I have no idea why you people are spending your money on this. [It’s Nice That]
$2.9 billion
Arby’s has purchased Buffalo Wild Wings for $2.9 billion. This effectively corners the market of someone who wants to spend a day watching football games and retreat to roast beef after the Giants screw it up and lose in a humiliating fashion on national television. [NJ.com]
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If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.