You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.
4 hot spells
The North Pole is in the dead of winter, but temperatures may have nonetheless soared above 35 degrees Fahrenheit there, which is above freezing. At the North Pole. In winter. This kind of event is becoming more common; it happened four times from 1980 to 2010, but has now occurred in four of the past five winters. [The Washington Post]
20 states
Twenty Republican-controlled states filed a lawsuit Monday against the Trump administration that claimed the Affordable Care Act is now invalid since the GOP tax bill repealed the individual mandate’s tax penalty. [POLITICO]
75 percent
Hey, America. Feeling down? Unhappy that the average global approval rating of the current U.S. administration is 30 percent, an all-time low? Well chin up, because someone loves you: Kosovo. Kosovo loves the U.S. Its residents give the current U.S. administration a 75 percent approval rating, largely because Kosovo still remembers the time the United States led NATO airstrikes that stopped Slobodan Milosevic’s army. [NPR]
91 percent
“Somewhere Over The Rainbow” is the best of all of the Academy Awards’ best original song winners, based on a series of 50,000 matchups against its peers. It was selected as the better song 91 percent of the time, head and shoulders above its closest competition, “When You Wish Upon A Star,” which won 80 percent of its matchups. [FiveThirtyEight]
96.5 percent
If you or someone you drive to school are interested in quitting it all and going pro on YouTube, there are some stark numbers out there that may convince you otherwise. A study conducted by an Offenburg University of Applied Sciences professor found that only the top 3 percent of most-viewed channels on YouTube hauled in advertising revenue above $16,800 a year. That, for those counting at home, is only mildly above the U.S. poverty line. [Bloomberg]
$53 million
An anonymous donor going only by “Pine” has donated over $53 million to nearly 60 charitable organizations. Pine’s wealth was gained through a bit of cryptocurrency luck, and Pine now says “I have far more money than I can ever spend.” [The Chronicle of Philanthropy]
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