Significant Digits For Monday, Feb. 12, 2018 Y

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Significant Digits For Monday, Feb. 12, 2018

You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the numbers tucked inside the news.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/signific...cid=SigDig

0.34 percent
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, has settled its lawsuit against Uber alleging the lifting of self-driving car technology. Uber is paying Alphabet 0.34 percent of its latest funding series, about $245 million in equity. [Recode]

15 percent
L.L. Bean’s lifetime guarantee is coming to an end. It will be replaced by a one-year guarantee. The problem: Lots of people interpreted the policy, shall we say, broadly — i.e. using it as a free-new-boots-for-life guarantee. L.L. Bean said about 15 percent of recent returns abused the policy. Those included items that had been used for decades or bought from a third party like Goodwill. [Bloomberg]

4,064 influenza-related deaths
This has been a super bad flu season. Influenza and pneumonia — which are linked during the winter — were responsible for one out of every 10 deaths during the third week of 2018 (the most recent data available), according to the CDC. That week, 40,414 died in the U.S., with 4,064 related to pneumonia and influenza. [Bloomberg]

38.66 million gallons
Amount of orange juice sold in the four weeks ending Jan. 20, an increase of 0.9 percent over the same period a year ago. The main cause is that awful flu season I just mentioned. It’s the first time since 2013 — another year with a nasty flu — that monthly sales of OJ went up year over year. [The Wall Street Journal]

$38.8 million
“Fifty Shades Freed” pulled in $38.8 million this past weekend, topping the North American box office just as the movie industry is about to pull out of its annual two-month doldrums period. Clint Eastwood’s “The 15:17 to Paris” came in third place but still beat forecasts. [Variety]

$550 million
Jimmy Buffet’s reported net worth in 2016. Buffet had one top 10 song, “Margaritaville.” Contrast that with contemporary Bruce Springsteen, who was worth $460 million. Buffett is so wealthy, in part, because he’s parlayed his drunk beachgoer vibe into an international commercial merchandising juggernaut, one which continues now with the forthcoming Broadway musical, “Escape to Margaritaville.” [The New York Times]

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