The wooden structure supporting…

The wooden structure supporting the 210 ton lead roof of Notre Dame, nicknamed “The Forest,” was made from an estimated 13,000 300-400 year old Oak trees from the 12th and 13th Century. It took 87 years to build Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, from 1163-1250.

During one scene in JAWS 2…

During one scene in JAWS 2 the teens’ fear and cries of shark were real, as they were being circled by a 15-foot shark. The production crew at a distance thought they were acting and just gave them a thumbs up.

In Halden prison in Norway…

In Halden prison in Norway, guards are encouraged to interact, play sports, and eat with the inmates. This is to prevent aggression and create a sense of family. Despite being a maximum security prison, every cell has a flatscreen TV, an en-suite shower and fluffy, white towels.

A beggar was caught outside…

A beggar was caught outside a mosque in Kuwait telling worshipers that he badly needed cash and that he had no home. Since it is illegal, he was arrested and police discovered he had over 500,000 Kuwaiti Dinars in his bank account ($1,650,000).

A team of economists at NYU…

A team of economists at NYU found that getting off Facebook appears to improve people’s lives. Users who deactivated their accounts for a month seemed to enjoy themselves more as a result, showing decreases in depression and anxiety and improvements in happiness and life satisfaction.

In the civil war, the commander…

In the civil war, the commander of the Union “lightning brigade” personally took out a loan to buy his soldiers advanced new repeating rifles because the government would not supply them. Using the firepower advantage afforded by the new rifles, his brigade proved extremely effective in combat.

In 1728, the philosopher Voltaire…

In 1728, the philosopher Voltaire got rich by outsmarting the lottery. The prize money was larger than the cost of all the tickets combined, so Voltaire and his friend formed a syndicate, bought all the tickets, and won several times.