Mr. Smarty Pants Knows

Fully 7% of global CO2 emissions are due to cement production.

Legend has it that the Queen Mary was supposed to be named the Queen Victoria, but when a Cunard executive told George V that their latest ocean liner was to be named for "the greatest English queen," the king assumed they were speaking of his wife, Mary.

Between 70,000 and 100,000 years ago, the Near Eastern wildcat that was common in deserts of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East gave rise to the genetic lineage that eventually produced all modern domesticated cats.

TMZ stands for "Thirty-Mile Zone" – the area within 30 minutes of the "studio zone" centered at the intersection of Beverly and La Cienega boulevards in Los Angeles.

In 1885, the artist Edgar Degas went 55 times to the still-new Palais Garnier opera house. He saw one opera, the now-forgotten Sigurd by Ernest Reyer, at least 37 times.