The Week by the Numbers: September 1-7, 2013
By Matt Phifer
4th – Ranking of the Rim Fire in California
On September 1st, the Rim Fire was officially denoted as the fourth largest wildfire in California’s history as it reached a whopping 351 square miles, bigger than the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose combined. California starting ranking the size of wildfires in 1932. The fire started August 17 in Stanislaus National Forest and has also affected Yosemite National Park.
7 – Touchdowns thrown by Peyton Manning in an NFL Record Tying Performance
The new NFL season started with a bang Thursday as Peyton Manning threw an NFL record tying seven touchdown passes in the Denver Broncos’ 49-27 win over the Baltimore Ravens. Only six other quarterbacks in pro football history have thrown for seven touchdowns, the last one being the Minnesota Vikings’ Joe Kapp in 1969, making Manning the first to accomplish the feat since the NFL-AFL merger.
52 Hours, 54 Minutes and 18.6 Seconds – Diana Nyad’s time swimming between Cuba and Florida
On September 2nd 64-year-old long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad became the first person to ever complete the 111-mile swim between Cuba and the Florida Keys without a shark cage. It took her 52 hours, 54 minutes and 18.6 seconds to complete the swim. This was Nyad’s fifth attempt at the swim. Her previous attempts were cut short due to shoulder pain, an asthma attack and on more than one occasion, jellyfish stings. This time Nyad wore a mask to protect her from jellyfish stings. Nyad addressed the crowd gathered at the shore to greet her saying, “I’ve got three messages: One is, we should never, ever give up. Two is you never are too old to chase your dreams. Three is, it looks like it’s a solitary sport, but it’s a team.”
169,000 – Jobs added in the U.S. in August
Friday’s jobs report showed that the U.S. added 169,000 jobs in August and that the unemployment dropped from 7.4 percent in July to 7.3 percent. Part of the lower unemployment rate can be accredited to nearly 312,000 people who dropped out of the labor force.
$130 Billion – Amount Verizon Wireless will pay Vodafone for its U.S. wireless business
On September 2nd Verizon Wireless announced that it would buy Vodafone’s 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless for $130 billion, the third largest corporate deal in history. Vodafone will return $84 billion of the proceeds including stock to its shareholders and ramp up its investment in its networks.
The Week by the Numbers: August 18-24, 2013
By Matt Phifer
3 Hours – Roughly the time that the Nasdaq was down on August 22
The Nasdaq halted trading for nearly 3 hours on Thursday due to what the Nasdaq called a “connectivity issue.” Nasdaq OMX, which runs the Nasdaq Exchange has always tried to be innovative as the “high-tech” market, but the Nasdaq has been plagued by a number of problems, including Facebook stock opening late when it was to IPO in May 2012.
35 – Number of Years Bradley Manning has been sentenced to Prison
Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison, reduced a rank and dishonorably discharged from the military for leaking thousands of government documents to Wikileaks. Manning’s document release was the largest leak of classified documents in American history. Prosecutors originally requested that Manning be sentenced to 60 years in prison. The 25-year-old Manning will get credited for the time he served plus 112 days. Manning, who says he is a woman and asks to be referred to as Chelsea Manning, will be eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence.
40 – Number of Years After their Perfect Season that the ’72 Dolphins were honored at the White House
It had been 40 years since the 1972 Dolphins achieved a 17-0 record, the only time an NFL team has ever gone through a Super Bowl winning season unscathed. Finally, four decades later the team was recognized at the White House by President Obama. The tradition of honoring professional sports champions at the White House did not yet exist in 1972 and even if it had, the Nixon Administration was probably too preoccupied with Watergate to worry about sports champions.
300 – Metric Tons of Highly-Radioactive Water leaked from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant
Over 300 metric tons of highly radioactive water has recently leaked out of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The water is said to be radioactive enough that a person standing half a meter away would be exposed to five times the average annual global limit of radiation for nuclear workers.
340 – Hours of the Nixon Tapes Released
The final 340 hours of Nixon tapes were released by the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. These tapes include detailed conversations involving Watergate as well as conversations with future presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. The tapes also include a leadership summit with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in June 1973. The final release caps a 17-year release of about 3,700 secretly recorded interactions during the Nixon Administration.