One of the odd side effects of the digital age is the gradual loss of the acres and acres of handwritten or typed manuscripts that could be catalogued by archivists interested in following the career of an author. With “save” taking primacy over “save as,” those windows (no pun intended) into the process of an author stay shut. Probably there are a lot of writers who prefer it that way.

Like most smaller changes wrought by advancing technology these days, I find this more interesting than depressing or uplifting. However, it does mean that two hundred years from now, probably nobody is going to be bidding six figures for a copy of my Scrivener file.

The Altarian Dollar has recently collapsed, the Flainian Pobble Bead is only exchangeable for other Flainian Pobble Beads, and last weekend the World Economic Forum met in Davos, Switerland to discuss a single fact: the possible effect of finding life on other planets on the world economy.

Okay, the Altarian Dollar and Flainian Pobble Bead (to say nothing of the Ningi or Pu) are both currencies from The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and the WEF is actually about a lot of different issues, but past the colon in that sentence, everything is 100% true. One of the issues discussed by the WEF is the increasing likelihood of discovering life on other planets, and the effect such a discovery could have on the economy of Earth.

It turns out that the cost of being Batman is small potatoes compared to how much Tony Stark has to shell out as an adorable billionaire superhero.  Unfortunately I don’t think this informative infographic by Money Supermarket takes into account all the bottles of hard liquor that Tony goes through, but I suppose when you’re shelling out $10,000,000 for a Gold-titanium exoskeleton suit, the small expenses don’t matter as much. Hit the jump for the full infographic!

File under: somebody did this. H&R Block went straight for our nerd buttons by creating this infographic comparing the tax liability, income, and lifestyles of Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker. Probably the most interesting part for us? Despite his vast wealth, it would take Bruce Wayne almost twenty years to earn as much money as the Batman movie franchise has.

But it would take Peter Parker nearly fifty millennia to do the same for Spider-Man.

Forbes has put out their annual list of the highest-paid actors and actresses in Hollywood, and not only does Kristen Stewart top the list by half a million dollars, she’s also the youngest actress on it by sixteen years.

Which should come as no surprise to anyone who remembers the absolutely astronomical amounts of money the Twilight series has made. I haven’t read the Twilight books, because nobody has managed to say anything to me that makes me want to read them (this is a situation I’m also in with Lost and Game of Thrones, before you start telling me how I’ve made a good decision), but I have watched a couple of the movies recently. And what they left me with, after boring me to tears despite the comedy stylings of Rifftrax laid over them, was grudging respect. Yes, respect.

There’s a lot of currency being passed around (or stolen) in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series as well as HBO’s Game of Thrones. I’d be happy with almost any prop or replica from I could get my hands on and while I won’t be able to afford that Iron Throne they’re selling anytime soon, I could pick up a few of these coins from Shire Post. Hit the jump for a look at silver stags, Dothraki puli, brothel tokens, and yes, the unique coin of the Faceless Men. 

Do the Want Receptors of my brain care that this single ring costs between thirty-six and forty-two hundred dollars? Do they care that it’s on jewelrydesignsformen.com? No, in fact they’re suggesting that for that amount of money, an order customized for my child-sized hands should probably be included. Here’s what the ring is made of:

People love their supernatural monsters, and as we know, zombies are having a moment right now and have been for a couple of years. Some might even say that the vampire craze (given a Beatles-like tween boost by the success of the Twilight franchise) has fallen by the wayside just a little bit. But if you only knew how much bank vampires have been making in the past 20 years alone compared to zombies, you’d be the slightest bit blown away. Yes, zombies have pumped $5 billion into the economy over the past few decades, but vampires have made $10 billion — on movies alone. In just the past two decades. I guess it’s time to prepare for Occupy Transylvania, everyone!

Hahaha, just kidding. The remaining functions of the zombie brain don’t allow them to be offended by the financial disparity.