$175k: Now the highest price paid for a single-panel cartoon, set by the famous 1993 New Yorker cartoon featuring one dog in front of a computer telling another, “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” According to the auction house, the anonymous buyer had been wanting to own the comic since it was first published.
1.5k feet: How high LTA Research’s Pathfinder 1 airships may fly after receiving FAA clearance. The company, founded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, specializes in “lighter than air” ships, similar to blimps. This one is almost 400 feet long.
11%+: Percentage of billionaires who have run for or won an election, per a Northwestern University study. There are 2k+ billionaires globally, for whom dabbling in politics has become increasingly common. Even those who don’t run enjoy political sway, with billionaires donating a record $881m to US parties in the 2022 federal midterms.
$1.1B: Speaking of billionaires, Taylor Swift is now one of them and that’s her net worth. The pop star’s Eras Tour not only boosted her own wealth (last estimated at $740m in July) but added $4.3B to the US’s GDP.