As we all know there are many types of dashes. There's the hyphen, the figure dash, the em dash, and the en dash. But it's a bit of a stretch to mistake the apostrophe for one of these.

President Trump isn't known for an expansive vocabulary or great English writing skills. But last Friday, Merriam-Webster had to take a bit of a jab at him for confusing his punctuations. His spelling, on the other hand, is another matter entirely.

“For those looking up punctuation early on a Friday morning: A hyphen is a mark – used to divide or to compound words. An apostrophe is a mark ‘ used to indicate the omission of letters or figures,” the Merriam-Webster tweet read.

(Image credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

In designing a house, there are many aspects to consider from the use of space to the different colors and accents for the walls and furniture to the types of materials needed.

But in this particular project called House Bras done by DDM Architectuur, they thought about incorporating the sun's movement as well as the view toward the panoramic garden.

[DDM Architectuur] meticulously studied the sun’s movement and natural light qualities in the lush site, before designing house bras. 

[L]ocated in brasschaat, belgium, in the greenery between a small lake and an old plot division, the project’s layout was designed to maximize daylight hours with the change of seasons, and open views towards the panoramic garden.

[C]overed entirely in natural stone slabs, the residence’s roof and facade allow the building’s raw exterior to blend completely into the landscape.

(Image credit: DDM Architectuur)

The former French president Jacques Chirac was a man with rustic tastes and a love for local delicacies. So as a tribute to him, the people of Paris dined on one of his favorite dishes: the tete de veau or calf's head.

There are several places which Chirac frequented and one such place where he would eat tete de veau was the bistro Le Pere Claude.

Dining at Le Pere Claude, close to the Eiffel Tower, has become a rite of passage for French politicians. But with a whiff of nostalgia for the Chirac era, Perraudin lamented how the modern-day politician had become too straight-laced.

“Sometimes Chirac would have a little pastis with a mint syrup, or a Corona beer. Now, the politicians who come here order roast chicken and a glass of water,” Perraudin continued. “It’s sad”.

(Image credit: Instagram via Deccan Chronicle)

Critically-acclaimed actor Joaquin Phoenix actually belongs to a family of entertainers. Most of his brothers and sisters have been part of the entertainment industry since they were kids but the one who left the biggest impression on them and inspired them to pursue a career in entertainment was their eldest brother, River Phoenix.

However, as many would know, River tragically died at a young age. But his memory still lives on in the films he played in as well as in his family's and fans' hearts. Here are some facts about River Phoenix from Looper. -via ZergNet

(Image credit: Alan Light/Flickr; Wikimedia Commons)

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Won't you be Captain America's neighbor? His friends, H the Owl, Scarlet Henrietta, and Iron Trolley would like to sing a song. Do you want to join them? They welcome you and like you just the way you are in this cosplay by @psy_phi.

Photo: Cosplay in America

A real penguin “interned” at our book distribution center! Thanks to @MarylandZoo for letting us borrow one of their animal ambassadors. pic.twitter.com/uIwFrb5FHg

— Penguin Random House (@penguinrandom) September 19, 2019

A real penguin was spotted at the book distribution center of Penguin Random House, all thanks to Maryland Zoo for making this possible!

The two companies collaborated and Penguin Random House donated to the conservation efforts to protect African penguin habitats. Apparently, it turned out that the African penguin population has declined by 90% in the last 100 years

The post was generally well-accepted by the netizens, though there were some who showed dismay why the penguin was used for publicity, like, "Should we be using wild animals as props? Something wrong about this, I think."

What do you think about it?

Video Credit: penguinrandom / Twitter

North Korea is the most isolated and shunned nation in the world, but it manages to do a little international trade through its Pyongyang Restaurants. You won't find one near you, most likely, because they haven't quite made it to America, or any nation that relies on the English language. Half as Interesting tells us why.

Jill Hicks of Chattanooga, Tennessee, saw a kitten running across a road and captured it for its own safety, as one does. When she showed the rescued kitten off to a neighbor, she was informed that she had actually picked up a bobcat kitten! Hicks then took the bobkitten to For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue. The organization posted the story and a picture of the bobkitten, now named Arwen, and some of the responses were rather strange.

On September 26, For Fox Sake mentioned that they had received a lot of requests about people wanting to adopt Arwen. "There is a 0 percent chance that Arwen, or any other bobkitten, will grow up to be a suitable house pet,” they wrote. “Even when raised by humans, bobcats are unpredictable, territorial wild animals with a powerful prey drive and no desire to please human beings.”

In other words: Sorry, but you won’t be able to adopt a bobkitten. And if for some reason Arwen won’t be able to be re-released into the wild, the rescue said she would go to a zoo or a nature center.

For future reference, "Wildlife Rescue" is very different from "Animal Shelter." You can read that story at Mental Floss. You can keep up with Arwen, who is battling anemia, in daily updates at Facebook.

(Image credit: For Fox Sake Wildlife Rescue)

The Panama Canal was one of the largest engineering projects undertaken during its time. It stretches from the Port of Balboa which borders the Pacific Ocean to the Port of Colon on the other side, connecting the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

It shortened the time it took for ships to cross South America without having to pass through the notoriously hazardous Cape Horn on the southernmost tip via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan. And since it's been almost 40 years since the process to transfer ownership of the Panama Canal took place, it's time to test our knowledge on it.

Check out the quiz on Inside Sources and see how well you do.

(Image credit: MrPanyGoff/Flickr; Wikimedia Commons)

The standard distance between the rails on a railroad in the United States is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. It seems like an incredibly odd measurement to have. It probably would have been easier to simply make it 5 feet or 4.5 feet. But why is the standard that way and how did it happen?

Bill Holohan explains the history of the US standard railroad gauge in this Twitter thread. It's intriguing to say the least and the answer at the end is interesting, if not a little surprising though if there's one thing we should know by now, it is that history matters. A lot.

(Image credit: Tom Barrett/Unsplash)

Apart from emissions from fossil fuels, other ways we contribute to global warming and climate change is through the food we eat. In particular, the way we produce our food. There have been several initiatives proposed and undertaken to manage food production such that it would reduce the greenhouse gases being emitted during the process. But will it be enough?

"Balanced diets featuring plant-based foods, such as coarse grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables, and animal-sourced food produced sustainably in low greenhouse gas emission systems, present major opportunities for adaptation to and limiting climate change," Debra Roberts, co-chair of IPCC Working Group II, said in a press release.

But how much difference can such choices really make? A wealth of research supports the idea that adopting a low- or no-meat diet is a significant way to lower an individual's greenhouse gas footprint. The IPCC report cites data showing that livestock production accounts for the greatest portion of ice-free land on Earth's surface, and contributed to over half of anthropogenic nitrous oxide emissions in 2014.

(Image credit: ja ma/Unsplash)

Vanesssa Mckeown's Instagram posts are the kind of photos that will make you stop scrolling and look again.

Once I had a few pictures, I shared them on Instagram and it sort of took off quite quickly and I haven’t stopped… thankfully !

I’ve always loved to create things and make colorful stuffs. I love products that people make, just stuffs that I find visually fun. I could just take pictures of objects and that’s it, but annoyingly, it doesn’t fill with me as much as put a barbie shoe on a cigarette or fill a bag with beans !

Vanessa studied graphic design communication at Chelsea College of Art of London, and she had practiced graphic design, illustration, video editing and a bit of animation, but there wasn't a connection with her. It’s only when, during her weekends, she loved to realize simple still life at home. 

Photo Credits: Vanessa Mckeown / Instagram

By the standards of aircraft carriers, that's quite cheap!

The São Paulo began its career in 1963 in the French navy. The French sold it to the Brazilians in 2000, where it became that nation's flagship.

It was mostly a disappointing experience for the Brazilians, as the ship required very expensive and repeated upgrades and overhauls. The Drive explains that the Brazilians grew weary of this incessant work that prevented the ship from sailing actively most of the time. In 2017, they decommissioned the carrier.

It's now up for auction. You (or, perhaps, the State of Wyoming) can become its next owner. So start digging through the couch cushions for loose change.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Rob Schleiffert

It's been ten years since we had the story of the 6-year-old boy who floated away in a flying saucer-shaped hot air balloon by himself. The whole USA was on edge until we found out Falcon Heene was in the attic of his home the whole time. Was it a mistake or an elaborate hoax? Officials began to suspect it was a publicity stunt for Richard Heene's reality TV plans.

Today, the Heenes live in a camper trailer parked on the side of a twisting country road. A 160-year-old farmhouse slumps just a few yards away, a spray of mold running up the white siding. The house is a renovation project the Heenes are working on for an investor in Florida, where the family had been living since Richard pleaded guilty to one felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant in relation to what came to be known as the Balloon Boy Hoax. Richard served 30 days in jail and 60 nights of work release, and in August 2010 he moved his family 1,900 miles from Colorado to Florida. Now in the New York countryside for the summer and fall, the Heenes were, in all likelihood, the most famous people in their zip code.

Robert Sanchez visited the family, and also combed through documents from the balloon boy saga to find the truth. Whether he found it or not, the story is a compelling read at 5280 magazine. -via Digg 

(Image credit: Sgt. Benjamin Crane)

Paul Krapivsky and Sidney Redner crunched the numbers and published a paper on the optimum strategy for choosing a parking space in a parking lot. Since the paper is paywalled, the Santa Fe Institute give us an overview in a short video. However, the study makes a lot of assumptions, the first of which is that walking is something you want to minimize. Honestly, I don't care about parking far out, since I'll probably walk twice as far inside the store anyway. And sometimes it's worth walking further to get a space in the shade. -via Metafilter