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1.7 percent
When Patricia Arquette won her Oscar for supporting actress Sunday night, she called for wage equality in her acceptance speech. From 2004 to 2013, the gap between what men make and what women make closed by only 1.7 percent. [Fusion]
4 Oscars
“Birdman” took home the Academy Award for best picture last night, and it won other trophies for original screenplay, direction and cinematography. It won the most Oscars on the night, but tied with “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which won four prizes in score, costume design, production design and makeup/hairstyling. [USA Today]
4.6 percent
Percentage of major studio films directed by women in 2014 [Los Angeles Times]
62 cases
There’s been substantial scrutiny of policies at the Rikers Island correctional facility, which was the subject of a U.S. attorney’s report about brutality there this past summer. Since the release of that report in August, there have been 62 cases of inmates sustaining serious injuries from corrections officers, The New York Times found. [The New York Times]
68 percent female
While a lot of the original web “culture” was formed by white dudes, that’s changed since new mobile technology has opened up the space to other groups. Instagram users, for instance, are reportedly 68 percent female. [Kernel Magazine]
$105
Cost for a day pass to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando as of Sunday, up from $99. It’s thought to be the first place in the theme park biz to jump above a hundred. Fun fact/full disclosure: this website is owned by Disney, which does, indeed, own Disney World. [Reuters]
400 mg per day
Drinking five cups of coffee per day (or about 400 milligrams) has been linked to lower risk of heart disease and diabetes. People who drink more see more health benefits. In related news, that makes me immortal. [Washington Post]
219,382 backers
A card game called “Exploding Kittens” has become the most popular Kickstarter project ever, accumulating more than $8.7 million from over 200,000 backers. [Wired]
$1 billion
While Massachusetts’s snow removal budget has already been increased to $125 million from $50 million, all of its snow may cost the state $1 billion in lost economic activity when all is said and done. [Washington Post]
$6.04 billion
Apple’s annual R&D costs. The company has a mighty war chest of $178 billion in cash, which may be prompting the smartphone juggernaut to move into the automotive space. [Bloomberg Business]
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Walt Hickey was FiveThirtyEight’s chief culture writer. @WaltHickey
