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By The Numbers

She’s got a really expensive ticket to ride

Tony Wagner Dec 4, 2014
$70 million

The U.S. Space Program now pays Russia over $70 million each time an astronaut catches a ride in the country’s Soyuz craft to the International Space Station.

0.05%

On Thursday morning, the European Central Bank announced it would keep its main interest rate at 0.05%, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The announcement keeps the interest rate at a record low.

9

The number of notable deaths involving New York City police, of the 12 since 1990 examined by the New York Times, in which officers were cleared of all charges. One of those cases involved Eric Garner. A Staten Island grand jury declined Wednesday to charge the officer who put Garner in the chokehold that lead to his death, spurring protests throughout the city.

$200 million

That’s how much funding the Peterson Center on Healthcare, which launches Thursday, has received from its parent organization. With healthcare costs on the rise, the center believes the solution might be pretty simple. Its goal is to find high-quality/low-cost best practices, and then adopt their usage across the country.

41 percent

The portion of Staten Islanders who supported criminal charges in Garner’s death, compared to 64 percent in the rest of New York City. That’s according to a survey featured on FiveThirtyEight, which also found Staten Island residents were more supportive of police overall, and about 60 percent of those surveyed felt officers treated people of all races equally. Just 31 percent of people from the other four boroughs agreed.

$.10

That’s about what charitable organizations pay for about a pound of surplus food, compared to $2 for the same food at retail, Slate reported. That’s one of many efficiencies in holiday food drives: sorting and inspecting all those cans consumes more resources than the food itself saves, and a lot of the food ends up going uneaten anyway. Overall, you might be better off donating money. 

1

That’s the number of people in North Korea allowed to have the name “Jong-un,” according to the New York Times. Anyone with that given name has had to give it up since Kim Jong-un came to power in 2011.

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