You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
2 years and 1 month
Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt. The couple separated on September 15, which was a little more than two years after they married. “Is this really a significant digit?” you may ask, to which I say: In the past 10 years, these people have been on magazine covers more often than the damn barcode, Brad Pitt became national poster boy for my “When Good Beards Go Bad” campaign, and Jolie is such a great actress she made “Beowulf” watchable. So yeah, it’s germane to the national conversation. [CNN]
29 percent
Share of those making more than $150,000 per year who have less than $1,000 in savings, according to a study from GoBankingRates. For those who make $100,000 to $149,999, it’s closer to half. [Bloomberg]
58.6 percent
The probability that Democrats will control the U.S. Senate after this year’s election, according to the just-launched FiveThirtyEight Senate model. So just in case the presidential ever starts looking like a blowout in either direction, we’ve got you covered for your next source of political panic. [FiveThirtyEight]
242 home runs
The Cincinnati Reds have set a new baseball record, but it’s the bad kind: After allowing their 242nd home run in the eight inning of Monday’s game against the Cubs, they beat out the 1996 Tigers for most home runs allowed in a season. [NBC Sports]
179,015 Canadian dollars
An employee of the Royal Canadian Mint is alleged to have stolen CA$179,015 (about $136,0000) in gold from the mint. The state’s case claims the man removed the gold, er, the old fashioned way: 7.4 ounces at a time, in his anus. [The Ottawa Citizen]
$258,000
Donald Trump’s charity on four occasions spent a combined $258,000 to settle lawsuits that involved the candidate’s businesses. This may violate laws against “self-dealing.” [The Washington Post]
You really need to sign up for the Significant Digits newsletter.
If you see a significant digit in the wild, send it to @WaltHickey.