By The Numbers

Pour one out for William Hung, American Idol is over

Tobin Low May 11, 2015
$2 billion

The value of the agriculture investment fund between Russia and China, which will go towards developing arable land on both sides of the border. But as some analysts point out, $2 billion is kind of small potatoes when considering the agricultural output of each country—Russia’s is well over $100 billion, and China’s is closer to a trillion.

$4 million

That’s how much GlaxoSmithKline will give annually for the next five years to an institute aimed at finding a cure for H.I.V. and AIDS. Created in conjunction with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Qura Therapeutics will be co-owned by the pharmaceutical company and the school, and will have the right to commercialize any findings.

3 pounds

That’s about how many pounds of poop a single Canadian goose produces per day. And it’s a big problem for any place the geese call home. The grounds of the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., for example, have lately been suffering from the negative effects of Goose droppings. Enter the border collie. Companies like Geese Police DC are being hired to patrol the National Mall with the dogs, who happen to enjoy scaring off the Geese without actually physically harming them.

70 percent

That’s the percentage of domestic goods that are delivered by truck in the U.S. But as the number of trucks on the road has gone up in recent years, so has the number of accidents. It’s why attempts have been made to regulate the amount of rest truckers get before they are allowed to hit the road, as 13 percent of trucking accidents are attributed to fatigue. But the American Trucking Association argues that regulating sleep isn’t the answer, as allowing trucks to drive at night means clearer roads during the day.

10 minutes

That’s roughly the cumulative amount of commercial time you’ll watch during an hour-long episode of “Empire.” Fox’s smash hit set a new precedent for advertisers, as hour-long network TV shows generally have closer to 14 minutes of ads. The strategy makes ad time more valuable, and consequently, more expensive.

15 seasons

Speaking of shows on Fox, it was announced Monday that singing competition juggernaut American Idol will call it quits in 2016 after 15 seasons of star-making wins, celebrity judge feuds, and (lest we forget) William Hung.

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