You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
2 television episodes about Amish murder victims
In the criminal justice television show system, plagiarism based offenses are considered especially heinous. On Tumblr, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious appropriations are members of an elite squad known as the Procedural Victims Unit. These are their stories.
A Tumblr user has found that the third episode of the CBS police procedural television show “Instinct” bears overwhelming similarities with a 2009 episode of the Fox police procedural television show “Bones.” They both tell the story of a murdered Amish teenager who left a clue that leads to a piano teacher, not to mention several similar lines of dialogue. [Quartzy]
$82
Amount of money Facebook collected in advertising for each North American member of its social network in 2017. Globally, that figure is around $20 per member. [Washington Post]
309 women
It’s official; the number of women running for Congress from the two major parties numbers 309, which is higher already than the previous high water mark in 2012, when 298 women ran for Congress. There is still yet time for new candidates to register to run. [The Associated Press]
$1 billion
That is the purported overall cost of a forthcoming Amazon series that will adapt the “Lord of the Rings” books to television. The company spent $250 million on the rights alone, and has to get something into production within two years, so the clock is ticking. [The Hollywood Reporter]
$100 billion
President Trump is considering adding an additional $100 billion worth of tariffs on trade with China on top of the $50 billion his administration authorized. [The New York Times]
$1.17 trillion
That’s how much China held in U.S. treasuries as of the end of January, and selling them is a potential nuclear option should a trade war get out of hand. They are the second largest owner of U.S. government bonds after the Federal Reserve. [Reuters]
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