You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
2 countries
On Tuesday a federal judge in Hawaii blocked the Trump administration from implementing a ban on travelers from the countries of Syria, Libya, Iran, Yemen, Chad and Somalia that was set to go into effect today. The granting of Hawaii’s request for a temporary restraining order nationwide does not effect the ban on North Korea and Venezuelan citizens’ travel. [The Washington Post]
2 firings
Two Chicago law enforcement officers were fired, one resigned, and a fourth received a five-day suspension (shortened on appeal to two days) for the incident at O’Hare International Airport in April in which 69-year-old Dr. David Dao was taken off an overbooked United Airlines flight. The report from Chicago’s Inspector General on the “violent forcible removal” indicates that the officers made misleading statements when describing the events. [NBC News]
3 hours, 35 minutes
Awful news: There’s more baseball than there was last year. The average time for a nine-inning playoff game is up 10 minutes from last year and up 21 minutes from two years ago. As a person who on the whole would enjoy less baseball — not no baseball, just a little bit less of it — this is very much a move in the wrong direction as far as I’m concerned. [ESPN]
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$1
Last night Manny Abell won on Jeopardy! with but a single dollar to his name. He beat out two other contestants who were tied and far ahead going into Final Jeopardy. Winning with only a dollar is an event that has happened only one other time in the history of the program, way back in 1993, a time that video evidence indicates was in the period when Alex Trebek still enjoyed his job. [www.Jeopardy.com]
$300 million
The U.S. mattress market is about $14 billion. Two years ago, about $300 million of that was online. With an explosion of players in the online mattress space, this year online sales could reach $1.2 billion. [Fast Company]
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