You’re reading Significant Digits, a daily digest of the telling numbers tucked inside the news.
1st place
Ryan Catalfu of North Carolina on Wednesday won the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship event for PowerPoint 2013, which is seriously a real competition. Certiport, the company that certifies people in Microsoft Office proficiency, holds the annual international competition and got an honest-to-god astronaut to talk at the shindig. [Atlas Obscura]
19 percent
Percentage of registered Republicans in a Reuters/Ipsos poll who said they think Donald Trump should drop out of the presidential race. Typically, the whole point of a convention and campaign is to, er, get that number a fair bit lower than this. [Reuters]
21st floor
A person tried to climb Trump Tower in New York City using suction cups Wednesday. He got to the 21st floor, where police had removed window panes to cut the climber off, and that’s where police hauled him in. I would love to make a joke here, but Twitter got all the good ones Wednesday. [ABC News]
41 percent
Percentage of Republicans who disagreed with the statement “Barack Obama was born in the United States” in an NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll. [NBC News]
150 pounds
A tortoise named Elwood that made a mad dash to freedom from its owner’s home in York County, Virginia, was captured by authorities and turned over to a holding cell at the Peninsula SPCA & Petting Zoo in Newport News. It is 17 years old and weighs 150 pounds. Listen, people, it was either this or another Trump item, so we’re just going to stick with the tortoise, all right? [The Virginia Gazette]
2,168 years
U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps won his 12th individual Olympic gold medal this week, tying a record set 2,168 years ago by Leonidas of Rhodes. [Deadspin]
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