Some of the most recognizable quotes you hear are not really quotes. Abraham Lincoln never said, "You  can't believe everything you read on the internet," and Gandalf never said, "May the Force be with you," despite the ubiquitous memes. Honestly, those are pretty easy to spot as fake. But some catchphrases you've heard all your life actually never occurred in the context you think they did.

For example, when you hear "Elementary, my dear Watson," you think of Sherlock Holmes explaining to his assistant how easily he used deductive reasoning to solve a crime. You may have used the phrase to make the same point. But in all the Arthur Conan Doyle stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, he never said those exact words in that order. He came close in the short story “The Crooked Man,” but the entire phrase was just the word "elementary." Read about that and four other catchphrases that we know so well that only became famous after they were misread, misheard, or misremembered at Cracked.

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks are rife with illustrations of anatomy, physiology, inventions, and engineering sketches that show his observations and preoccupations on the subjects. But apart from those, he also wrote lists of things he needed to do, just like everyone else.

These to-do lists however, are not mere ordinary daily tasks life we often do. Many of them are larger in scope such as measuring the duke's palace and its courtyard, as well as measuring and drawing the city of Milan and its suburbs. Some of the notes he wrote actually showed the inquisitive mind of the artist.

In the note translated by NPR, da Vinci writes about asking certain professors and masters about their craft such as squaring a triangle, measuring the sun, and repairing a lock.

Even his more mundane to-do lists were quirky in their own way. He reminded himself to bring a bone saw, a scalpel, and some chalk on one occasion when he was going to dissect corpses. In that same note, he wrote that he must get a hold of a skull and nutmeg, as well as measuring the corpse using its finger as a unit. This and others on Flashbak.

(Image credit: Flashbak)

There are so many astounding feats that the 26th President of the United States is often cited for. Some of those include The Square Deal, the building of the Panama Canal, trust busting, railroad rate regulation, and the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in mediating between the two parties during the Russo-Japanese War. However, he also holds the record as the youngest ever to become president, at the age of 42.

Of course, he wasn't elected president. The youngest elected president record is still held by JFK, who was elected at 43. The story behind Roosevelt's presidency was also quite fascinating, as many of his party members didn't want him to become president. So, they had arranged for him to become vice president instead. What they didn't expect was the assassination of William McKinley, which ironically propelled Teddy Roosevelt to the presidency.

Not only this, but Roosevelt also holds the record as the youngest person to become a former president, at 50 years old. Despite his promise not to run for a third term, he did try again in 1912. That was also when somebody attempted to assassinate him, but his eyeglass case and speech papers had prevented the shot from being fatal.

(Image credit: American Press Association, Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)

A global collaboration of scientists from different countries including the US, the UK, Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Italy, have found paleontological hints that point to the major role of volcanic eruptions and climate change to the demise of the dinosaurs. To be clear, they're not saying that the mass extinction event brought about by an asteroid that struck the earth did not happen. Rather, it was the last nail on the coffin, which sealed the dinosaurs' fate.

The scientists have been studying a region in India called the Deccan Traps to piece together the events that led to the dinosaurs' extinction. Their studies have indicated that prior to the asteroid crashing into earth, volcanic eruptions around the Deccan Traps region triggered fluctuating global temperatures which placed incredible stress on the earth's ecosystems, beginning the impending doom of the dinosaurs.

These findings can also help in our understanding of the current climate crisis that the earth is in and how these phenomena are interconnected with the earth's geological and biological systems, according to the scientists.

(Image credit: Jon Butterworth/Unsplash)

Most of our computers and other devices use digital processors to transmit data. Throughout the decades, we have leaned toward digital because it's more flexible and much easier to program. However, the company Aspinity says that it has finally broken the code for programming analog processors.

But what exactly is the difference between digital and analog? Analog data can be thought of as a wave, smooth and continuous, while digital are like steps on a ladder, discrete and binary, filled with ones and zeros. Most of the data we have in the real world are analog, and so, those data are converted into digital signals which can be processed by our devices and computers.

If we have analog processors transmitting analog data, then it will be a lot faster. Moreover, Aspinity says that creating analog processors that can accurately transmit and convert data might be a breakthrough in the future of computing as these will consume far less energy, about one-thousandth of the digital ones we have today.

The company says that they do not expect analog processors to replace digital ones, but they can complement them, being the processors that will always be turned on, doing all the "behind-the-scenes" work in the background, while digital processors will be on an "as-needed" basis, which should theoretically save on energy.

They have developed the first few processors, but it would take time for these analog processors to be manufactured at scale, so if all goes according to plan, they expect that these analog processors will be able to power about 30 billion devices by 2040.

(Video credit: Freethink/Youtube)

I first watched the film The Blind Side while I was in university several years back. I had wondered why it was nominated for an Academy Award, and at the time, I was doing marathons of Oscar films, but this film caught my attention somehow. It was nominated for Best Picture and Best Actress, winning the Oscar for Sandra Bullock. It lost to The Hurt Locker.

After I watched it, I felt moved and inspired by it. It was definitely a heart-warming film that can restore our faith in humanity. It depicted the true-to-life story of Michael Oher and his foster family, the Tuohys, who had adopted him during his final year in high school. He later received a scholarship, graduated with a degree in criminal justice, and eventually, was drafted into the NFL.

What the film didn't show us however, were the events prior to his meeting with the Tuohys. Although it had been mentioned that Oher's mother had drug addiction, and that he bounced from one foster care to another, the movie never showed how Oher lived despite his circumstances.

We only see how he became a beneficiary of the goodwill shown to him by the Tuohys, but in the video above, he explains how he struggled and fought to escape the environment wherein he grew up. He shares how he was inspired by Michael Jordan to have aspirations and ambitions in life, and to work toward achieving those dreams. This is the untold story of Michael Oher.

(Video credit: Big Think/Youtube)

It started around 1839 in the small village of Efailwen in Pembrokeshire, when a local farmer had dressed up as a woman, called himself Rebecca or Beca, and demolished a tollgate. Thus began the Rebecca Riots.

Nobody knows exactly why the men dressed themselves up as women or why they called themselves 'Merched Beca' or Rebecca's daughters. Some have speculated that the name was a reference to the biblical Rebecca whose offspring were said to "possess the gates of their enemies". It's quite a convincing reason, but no confirmation about the origins of the name has been recorded. Perhaps, the most plausible one was to conceal the protesters' identities.

Although the Rebecca Riots, which was what the movement was later called, began with local farmers who protested and attacked tollgates, it wasn't just against taxes that they were battling. Rather, it was the dire situation in which Wales, specifically the western agricultural communities at the time, had found itself.

Many of these communities were in dire poverty because of poor harvests and the fluctuating prices of agricultural products, forcing farmers to use up what little capital they had just to feed their families and cattle. Later on, even non-agricultural laborers joined the protests.

In the end, due to a government inquiry into the matter as well as the emergence of criminal groups posing as Rebeccaites, the riots ceased. It didn't have an immediate effect on farmers, but it did lead to a reduction on rent levels and an improvement on the toll gates as well as an act that amended turnpike trust laws in Wales.

(Image credit: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)

If you've ever studied the saga of the Russian Revolution in the early 20th century, you know how important it was globally. But... actually reading the convoluted story of war and politics will make your eyes glaze over. The one character that stood out to make it downright entertaining was Rasputin, the "mad monk" who was plucked from central casting to play both the wizard and the villain. He was mysterious, outrageous, and polarizing, and his story had supernatural overtones that make him a fascinating study even today. You have to train your eye to recognize Tsar Nicholas II and his family in photographs, but Rasputin stood out as an archetype. YouTuber Antimatter tells the story of Rasputin, accompanied by hundreds of still images of Rasputin himself, the artworks he inspired, and the many movies that featured him.

In 1950, the new Northgate Mall in Seattle wanted a tall Christmas tree. At the time, public Christmas trees could get a community or company a lot of publicity by setting a record as the tallest ever. The administrators of Northgate Mall decided theirs would be so tall that no one would even try to top it, ever. And they got their wish.

The tree selected was a 212-foot Douglas fir, weighing about 50,000 pounds. It was cut 70 miles from the mall, and that delivery was anything but easy. A crane accompanied the split truck that carried it, to help in the spots it became stuck. In fact, they shaved off the tree's branches to move it! The branches were re-attached at the mall, which made it look downright artificial. The project ran up ten times its allotted budget.  

Read about the world record Christmas tree and see more pictures at Vintage Everyday. Read more details on the transport and erection of the tree here. -via Nag on the Lake

We make decisions every day, but we don't often think about the toll those decisions have on us. Deciding between too many options will drain our mental capacity, as will making momentous decisions that we might regret, or making too many small decisions. For people who make decisions for a living, this stress can cause problems for everyone. But we can do things to reduce that cognitive load, like recognizing the triviality of small decisions and not stressing about a decision after the fact.  

A household disaster led to the loss of my bedroom wallpaper. Just thinking about the difficulty of deciding on the perfect wallpaper to replace it, and the hassle of looking for it, made me decide to paint the walls instead, therefore simplifying everything. I can always paper later if I want.

This TED-Ed lesson on decision fatigue explains the concept and gives us more advice on how to reduce the stress of making decisions in our everyday lives.

The Antarctic Peninsula is the part of the continent that juts out the furthest to the north, toward Argentina. It is almost midsummer there now, and the snow is beginning to bloom a festive red and green. But those colors aren't for Christmas, and they aren't good news. The colors indicate the presence of a type of green algae that sometimes contains a red pigment. In order for the algae to thrive, temperatures have to be slightly above freezing, so that snow and ice is a watery slush. The algae bloom is occurring over a wider area every year, and affecting areas further south. meaning inland.

By some measures, average annual temperatures in Antarctica have risen by almost 3°C (5.4°F) since 1800, making it one of the areas most affected by climate change. While rising temperatures contribute to conditions that lead to algae bloom, the bloom itself is contributing to warmer temperatures. While the red and green snow may be pretty, it signals changes in the ecosystem that we may not be prepared for. Read about Antarctica's red and green snow at Atlas Obscura.

(Image credit: Jerzy Strzelecki)

A crew from the BBC TV series Planet Earth III went to Ellesmere Island, the northernmost part of Canada, to find Arctic wolves and film their everyday lives. The island is almost as large as Great Britain, though, so finding any wolves at all was not going to be easy- particularly if the wolves did not want to be found. That apparently was not the case, because suddenly, there were wolves, a whole family of them approaching curiously, wanting to make friends and then stealing the crew's supplies. It's hard to imagine wild creatures that are so unfamiliar with humans that they would approach like there's no danger. Once the wolf pack was found, filming could commence, but the crew learned how many ways life can be harsh in the Arctic. Enjoy this behind-the-scenes glimpse, but be aware that the wolves hunt for their food, which can be grisly.  -via Digg

After working our whole lives, we hope to retire somewhere nice and comfortable until the end of our days, but cost of living these days, especially in some of the most affluent cities in the world are unbearably high. Still, where exactly are the best places to retire? And how much would you need to have to live out your years in retirement there?

To make things easier for the rest of us, the team at Net Credit has done the grunt work of tallying up the different retirement costs all around the world as well as for each state in the US. They have also created several charts that summarize all that information for us. The one above shows costs of retirement for different countries.

Their research highlights the most expensive country to retire requires you to have at least $1 million over 15 years. If you think that place may be somewhere in Europe or one of the states, then you're wrong. It's actually found in Asia, and the second smallest country in Asia to boot.

The cheapest place to retire in is also in Asia, although I doubt you would want to retire there as it might be quite risky. On average, the cost of retirement in the US was around $700,000. Now, looking at the data for the US states, you can guess which one is the most expensive to retire in, and it's not on the East Coast or the West Coast. Meanwhile, the cheapest state is Mississippi. -via Digg

(Image credit: Net Credit)

On average, dogs live between 10 to 13 years, but it is said that smaller dogs can live longer than larger breeds, with some living for up to 20 years. For many people who own dogs, that's certainly a shorter span of time than what we'd hope, but that's just how nature runs its course.

Now, there might be a glimmer of hope as a biotech company has been working on a drug that extends the lives of dogs, and the FDA has found it to have a reasonable expectation of effectiveness, and is close to approving it. It might be the first anti-aging drug for dogs.

The biotech company Loyal produced LOY-001, which is a drug that targets IGF-1, a growth hormone in dogs, which they believe is responsible for the shorter lifespans of larger dogs. Not only does it lengthen the dogs' lives but the drug is also designed to increase their healthspan, the number of healthy years that a dog lives.

Although this drug is designed for dogs, Loyal hopes that the insights they gain from their studies into lifespan extension for dogs can carry over to humans as well. Currently, they have other drugs under development which could target human lifespans. For now, we can be satisfied with longer lives for dogs, once the drug gets approved.

(Image credit: FLOUFFY/Unsplash)

Apparently, an average annual income of $230,000, based on a survey conducted by researchers from Princeton University and the University of Barcelona. What the researchers wanted to find out was whether citizens from three countries - the US, France, and Brazil - would be willing to give up free elections for a price. To do so, they presented pairs of hypothetical societies and let the participants choose which society they preferred.

Apart from the fact that one society in each pair will have no free elections, they also differed in other factors such as personal monthly income, collective wealth, income inequality, and the presence of public health insurance.

They found that majority of the participants highly valued democracy, however, if they were to become part of an authoritarian society, they wanted a very high price in exchange. It should be noted that the distribution of personal incomes was randomized, so that not all authoritarian or democratic societies would have very high incomes.

The right to choose who will lead a country is fundamental to any democratic nation. No matter how much one earns, the policies and laws in a country will affect the way people live their lives, so it is understandable why it is so steep a price.

(Image credit: Element5 Digital/Unsplash)