1) The CIA headquarters got a new gym that may have cost an estimated $15m-$25m. The “Langley Field House” was built on a parking lot, and an internal naming contest saw proposals like “Where The Parking Used to Be” and “Super Secret Spy Gym.”
2) Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctioned his Nobel Peace Prize to an anonymous buyer for a record $103.5m to raise money for Ukrainian refugees. Anonymous auctions always remind us of this “Curb Your Enthusiasm” scene.
3) As the price of Bitcoin has nose-dived, so has its energy usage. Between June 8 and June 25, Bitcoin’s annualized energy consumption dropped from 204.5 to 132.87 terawatt-hours. That new value reportedly equates to the annual power consumption of Argentina.
4) Disney, Apple, and Amazon all submitted bids — expected to be upwards of $2B — for the rights to the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package, which lets viewers watch live games from outside their region. The NFL was hoping for $3B bids, but that’s reportedly unlikely.
5) A ~2-foot-long hyperrealistic X-wing Fighter model used in fight scenes throughout Star Wars: A New Hope auctioned off for $2.3m last week, after being expected to sell for $500k-$1m. Here’s a clip about it.