You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
1 Twitter account
Edward Snowden, who leaked documents from the National Security Agency two years ago before fleeing to Russia, has set up a Twitter account. He follows one other account: the NSA. [The Washington Post]
17 roster transactions
Life in the NFL can be tough; players get bounced around from team to team, and signed and released over and over again. One such player — Julian Vandervelde, currently an offensive lineman for the Philadelphia Eagles — has seen 17 such transactions since he was drafted in 2011. Most of those were with the Eagles in some way, shape or form. [Philly Voice]
23 endorsements
Number of endorsements Jeb Bush has accumulated from members of congress. That’s great and all, but they’re mostly a bunch of moderates, which doesn’t really help him build a broad base in the modern GOP. [FiveThirtyEight]
24 geniuses
On Tuesday, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation — you know, the people who brought you NPR — announced the 24 recipients of the MacArthur “genius grant,” a $625,000 no-strings-attached stipend. Winners include Ta-Nehisi Coates (“Between The World And Me“) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton“). [The New York Times]
$670.44
The most expensive Google ad keyword in the U.S. is “San Antonio car wreck attorney,” costing $670.44 each time someone on Google clicks the ad. The most expensive advertisements are for legal issues, as a given client can be worth a whole bunch of money for an attorney, and it’s a crowded market. [Quartz]
700,993 arrests
Number of marijuana-related arrests in 2014, up for the first time since 2009. [Motherboard]
1 million UAVs
The FAA expects that one million consumer-use drones will be sold during the holidays this year. That’s pretty terrifying when you consider the inevitable black-out-the-sun possibilities of armies of untrained aviators hitting the beaches and parks next summer. Then again, free drones if you can catch them with a butterfly net, right? [Popular Mechanics]
$2.5 million
San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York wanted to pave over youth soccer fields in order to build the football team’s new stadium, and during the construction process promised to rebuild them. Now, shiny new stadium in hand, York does not want to pay the $2.5 million to rebuild those soccer fields. [San Jose Mercury News]
$343 million
German media conglomerate Axel Springer has purchased a controlling stake in Business Insider, that Web site I used to work for and all of my friends either work at or used to work at. Axel Springer bought all but 3 percent of the shares, spending $343 million to crank up its stake from 9 percent to 97 percent. This is fantastic news, mostly because I heard Pam has equity and she owes me a drink. [The New York Times]
$732 million
ComScore purchased rival audience measurement company Rentrak on Tuesday in a stock deal, valuing the latter company at $732 million. The combined company is still an order of magnitude smaller than the biggest player in the game, Nielsen, which has a market cap of about $16.7 billion. [The Wall Street Journal]
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