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Significant Digits For Tuesday, July 30, 2019

By Oliver Roeder

Filed under Significant Digits

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/significant-digits-for-tuesday-july-30-2019/

$460,000

Just as Alexander Hamilton surely envisioned it, President Trump’s reelection campaign has raised $460,000 in a week selling plastic straws. The campaign appears to be in reaction to some environmentalists’ efforts to move toward paper straws. Ten Trump-branded, “laser-engraved,” own-the-libs straws go for $15. [The Guardian]

1,022 nouns

Chaser, a Border collie known as the world’s smartest dog, has died of natural causes at the age of 15. Chaser’s owner, a psychology professor named John Pilley, used “800 cloth animal toys, 116 balls, 26 Frisbees and an assortment of plastic items” to teach Chaser 1,022 nouns.

Chaser is also said to have understood sentences including a prepositional object, verb and direct object. Rest in peace. I’m gonna go figure out how many nouns I know. [The New York Times]