❗Help close the gap: We still need to raise $40,000 by the end of March. Donate now
By The Numbers

The best part of waking up … is caffeine

Tony Wagner Jun 18, 2015
$10

The Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it will mint a new $10 bill in 2020. But this time around, the bills will feature the face of a yet-to-be-chosen woman. With recent campaigns to get a woman’s face on the $20 bill, we take a look at why it will be Hamilton, and not Jackson, who is replaced.

1.2 gigabytes

That’s how much wireless data American smartphone users consume each month, on average. That’s a lot more than anyone used back in 2007, Wired notes, when AT&T offered “unlimited data” plans to get customers in the door and trying out the then-new iPhone. Now those plans have come back to bite AT&T, which was hit with a $100 million fine from the FCC Wednesday for throttling data.

55 minutes

That’s how long it takes Phillip Thomas, a communications technician for the County of Marin, to drive to work … on a good day. That’s twice as long as the national-average for a one way commute, and Thomas says his drive can take as long as 80 minutes. His problem is not unique  many workers in Marin find themselves priced out of property ownership in an area where the median price for a single family home is $1 million. In fact, 40 to 60 percent of the workforce in Marin commute from elsewhere.

4.5 miles

That’s the gap between the 210 and 710 freeways in the Northeast Los Angeles suburbs. At some point the two roads were supposed to connect, and a tunnel linking them has been controversial for decades. It’s another case study in our series on infrastructure, “The Weak Link.”

$1.4 billion

That’s how much will potentially be spent on a new observatory located on the Big Island of Hawaii. But plans for the Thirty Meter Telescope are controversial, as the building site  the mountain of Mauna Kea  has deep cultural importance for native Hawaiian, not to mention its role as the main watershed for the island. But the team behind the telescope promise to be environmentally conscious, and some Hawaiians welcome the economic boost the project could bring to the area.

190 milligrams

That how much caffeine is in an iced coffee from Caribou, and it’s the strongest of the major chains — compare it to Seattle’s Best’s measly 45 milligrams. The Washington Post’s Wonk blog has gathered up everything you need to know about coffee in 19 charts. Need an even stronger coffee data buzz? Here’s a map of all the major coffee chains in the U.S.  

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.