Numbers in the News

DAYS that a 19-year-old Indonesian recently spent drifting on a wooden raft in the Pacific. Aldi Novel Adilang had been fishing when he got caught in heavy winds. He survived by eating fish and filtering salt water through his shirt.  

Source: The Guardian

NUMBER of insects, spiders, and lizards stolen from an insect museum in Philadelphia in late August.  

Source: The Washington Post

MILES PER HOUR that Denise Mueller-Korenek rode a custom bicycle across the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah last month—the fastest-ever bicycle ride over open ground.

Source: NPR

AGE of a drawing discovered last month on a stone in a cave in South Africa. Archaeologists believe it’s the earliest drawing in history, predating the previous earliest known cave art by 30,000 years.

Source: National Geographic