~$454m: Price of Chateau d’Armainvilliers, a sprawling 12th-century French castle once owned by King Hassan II of Morocco. Located ~30 miles from Paris, this beauty is replete with 17 bedrooms, a salon, and a 50-horse stable, among other amenities. It’s so big that sellers say it’s possible that a developer could turn the castle and its expansive grounds into “a new city.”
75%: Share of Americans who’d like to live close to their mothers, per a Realtor.com survey. Additionally, 47% said that either they or their maternal figure have moved or plan to move to be closer to one another. The survey did not say how many Americans, if any, plan to move further away from their mother, but we did note 18% of respondents said they disagreed with the notion that “in an ideal world,” they’d live close by.
8,064: Number of Intel Xeon E5-2697 v4 processors purchased in the US government’s Cheyenne supercomputer auction. The processors went to one buyer who paid $480k+ for the lot, which also included 313TB of RAM and other components. Tom’s Hardware estimates the buyer, if savvy with eBay, could resell the processors and RAM for ~$700k. The Cheyenne supercomputer was the 20th most powerful in the world in 2016 and, throughout its seven years of service, supported 80+ university courses and training events. However, the repairs it needed would have cost too much time and money, hence the auction of its components.
3.2m: Number of times people have watched “The Most Boring Video Ever Made” on YouTube. It’s a nearly two-hour-long tutorial on how to use Microsoft Word, recorded by former motivational speaker Randy Smith in 1989. Apparently, the dull subject matter and Smith’s smooth voice have made this video popular with people looking for something soothing to fall asleep to. While Smith’s video is an unintentional sleep aid, several people have turned making relaxing, boring videos and podcasts into a side hustle.
