Nearly 100 million cats are kept as pets in the US.

My temperamental calico cat, Harlem, is one of them.

And while she's the only one I have, she embodies many of the most common, and most perplexing, cat stereotypes.

So why does she — and the tens of millions of cats like her — act that way?

Here are some explanations, backed by cat researchers, for why our feline friends behave the way they do.

UP NEXT: 5 reasons life is better for cat people

SEE ALSO: 9 science-backed reasons to own a dog

1. Why do cats sometimes suddenly bite or scratch the person who is petting them?

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It seems you missed the warning signs that your cat has had enough affection if you are suddenly nursing a scratch or bite on your hand.

According to cat expert Arden Moore's book "The Cat Behavior Answer Book," your cat is trying to say, "kindly stop petting me or I will bite harder."

"While some cats can tolerate being petted, others feel overstimulated by the sensation and automatically react by lashing out," Moore wrote.

According to "Cat Sense" author Dr. John Bradshaw, who specializes in anthrozoology (the study of interaction between humans and other animals), your cue to stop petting a cat may include, tail lashing, flattened ears, dilated pupils, and tense muscles.

Bradshaw also notes, that most cats like to be stroked on their heads and fewer than one in 10 cats like to be stroked on their belly or around their tail.

Source: Cat Sense, The Cat Behavior Answer Book, Scientific American Special Editions, September 2015

2. Why do cats intentionally knock objects off tables?

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While some cats are clumsy, most cats intentionally knock items off of surfaces as a ploy to get their owner's attention.

"Sometimes they seem to do it for their own entertainment or because they have learned that this is a game that their owner seems to enjoy," Bradshaw explained to Scientific American magazine.

Source: Scientific American Special Editions, September 2015

3. Why do cats look you straight in the eye and then slow blink?

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Even though cats are considered masters at concealing their thoughts and emotions, they do try to show affection to their owners by slow blinking at them. Researchers call these slow blinks, "kitty kisses."

The slow blinks are a cats' way of saying, "I like you and I trust you." Next time you notice that a cat is giving you this feline eye wink, try and slow blink back, more often than not, a cat will continue to slow blink with you.

"As for staring contests, cats save that intense look for when they are on alert or are feeling animosity toward someone or some situation, so it's best to avoid looking your cat directly in the eyes if you want to keep those happy feelings," Moore wrote in "The Cat Behavior Answer Book.

 Source: Cat Sense, The Cat Behavior Answer Book, Petful

The 2015 National Geographic Photography Contest is currently under way, and there have certainly been some gorgeous submissions so far.  

The committee will be accepting entries until November 16. Photos are being judged in three different categories: people, places, and nature.

The grand-prize-winning image will be published in the magazine. The photographer will receive $10,000 and a trip to the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, DC to participate in the annual National Geographic Photography Seminar.

Below are some of our favorite submissions so far.

Captions by the photographers themselves, edited by Jack Sommer.

SEE ALSO: A former National Geographic photographer shows what America was like in the 1970s and 1980s

In Hitachi Seaside Park in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, you'll find 4.5 million of these baby blue flowers. The best season to see them is usually from the end of April to the first week of May.

Bangladeshis sleep on the roof of a moving train as they rush home to their respective villages to be with their families, in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Here's a view of a storm moving through the Horsehoe Bend, which neighbors the Grand Canyon by just a few miles.

Two years after he broke his self-imposed social media ban by joining Twitter, Prince has set up another social media account.

It's time for Princestagram.

The musician posted his first photo on Instagram 4 days ago and he's kept up a steady schedule, posting an average of 22 photos — no joke — every day since.

Almost all of them are of him.

This breaks 2 cardinal rules of Instagram etiquette: don't exclusively post selfies and don't post too often.

But Prince, who eschews Spotify and YouTube in favor of traditional album sales, has never been one to go with the tide. Keep reading to check out how Prince's personal brand is shaping up on Instagram.

Prince's first post hit Instagram 4 days ago. It's a silhouette shot of him that looks to be from the '80s.

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The vintage concert photos continued, with this one showing a guitar shaped like the symbol Prince used to replace his name in the '90s.

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It only took a day for him to post a meme inspired by the Prince character on "Chappelle's Show."

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Game controllers are a dime a dozen. Even the official ones made by the likes of Sony and Microsoft are intended to be relatively expendable, to say nothing of the dozens of third-party gamepads destined for the dumpster of history. 

Heck, if you bought a PlayStation 4 anywhere near the launch of the console, you got gamepads plagued by durability issues. Just look at this mess:

But there's good news! What happened to several of my PlayStation 4 gamepads and hundreds of thousand (or millions!) of others doesn't have to happen to you. The new, very expensive Xbox One gamepad is one solution. But it's a $150 solution. The real solution is companies like Microsoft and Sony taking one incredible aspect of that new Elite controller and applying it to all future gamepads.

This is the Xbox One "Elite" controller. It's very pretty!

But even more important than it being pretty, it's highly customizable. Here's how it looks normally:

And here's what happens when I decide I want a different thumbstick:

It's not easy to amass a cult following.

But some brands have managed to cultivate tremendous loyalty from their customers.

Bizarrely enough, others looking to emulate this sort of success look to actual cults for inspiration, cult expert Rick A. Ross told Business Insider.

Cults depend on strong ideologies, differentiating worldviews, and iconic leaders to hook their followers.

These brands have managed to figured all that out.

Danielle Schlanger and Kim Bhasin contributed to an earlier version of this story.

SEE ALSO: SoulCycle and Harley Davidson will always have this in common

SoulCycle

The brand got a shout-out on a Harvard Divinity School document called "How We Gather," crediting the brand for creating a strong community. 

SoulCycle acolytes wait until the clock strikes 12 on Mondays to sign up for classes. There's even an entire culture built around "earning" your way to the front row of the class.

"People talk about SoulCycle as a cult. My feeling is that SoulCycle makes you feel great," the fitness chain's founder, Julie Rice, told Los Angeles Magazine in an interview last year. "When we feel great, we become obsessed with what makes us feel great."

CrossFit

Founder Greg Glassman explained to Business Insider that the brand amassed the following and community incidentally. The fitness company was featured in Harvard Divinity School's "How We Gather" list, which pointed out notable groups that fostered strong communities. Glassman is even speaking at the Harvard Divinity School in November.

CrossFit's social aspect is very strong and is certainly crucial to its success. "The social level is a vital part of what's happened, and it is why you might think this is a cult — you might think it's a religion," CrossFit founder and CEO Greg Glassman said in an interview. "The values are simple though, and we believe they are salient lifestyle choices that will make a profound difference in your life."

Apple

You don't have to look much further than the hoopla surrounding every Apple product's release to recognize that Apple has a very loyal following.

One way to amass a loyal following is to create a demon which the community can unite against.

"If you paint a picture of a threat from the outside — you demonize a local god or you demonize a competitor like IBM — you create solidarity amongst your community because you have to unify to fight against an external threat," Douglas Atkin, author of "The Culting of Brands", explained to Business Insider. 

Automakers are going all out to showcase their most forward thinking vehicles at the Tokyo Motor Show this year. 

The event, which only happens once every two years, doesn't kick off until Thursday, but for the last few weeks automakers have been building hype by trickling out some details about their upcoming concept cars. 

From what we know so far,  a lot of automakers will be debuting self-driving technology and more fuel efficient vehicles.

But some car companies are using the show as an opportunity to debut some of their more odd-ball, high-tech vehicles. Think cars that can take selfies and vans that can turn into private lounges. 

Here's a look at the most futuristic cars that will be showcased at the Tokyo Motor Show this week.

Mitsubishi will unveil a car that looks like the Batmobile.

The Japanese car company will be debuting its new EMIRAI xDAS, which is packed with all kinds of high-tech safety features.

For starters, there’s a built-in camera that senses where the driver is looking so that it can provide predictive assistance and safe-driving support when the driver is not paying attention.

A 3D heads-up display shows the driver when objects are coming up and moves as the driver moves so that the display is always in sight.

The vehicle also features gesture control, so that the driver doesn’t get distracted by looking at the screen.

Mitsubishi will also show off its all-electric SUV.

Mitsubishi’s eX concept car is an all-electric SUV the company claims has a range of 248 miles on a single charge.

It also has semi-autonomous functions including an autonomous parking feature and a highway driving assistant.

Hi-def cameras replace the sideview and rearview mirrors and an augmented reality windshield displays shows the driver navigation instructions as well as safety information, including lane departure warnings and the distance between the car and other vehicles.

Nissan’s ‘Teatro for Dayz’ is built for the social generation.

Nissan’s concept car called the ‘Teatro for Dayz’ is basically like a giant smartphone.

The Japanese automaker revealed earlier this month that the futuristic looking vehicle will be decked out with LED screens on the interior so that the passengers never have to be disconnected. It even features an onboard camera so that passengers can take selfies.

Because so much of the inside — including the seats, dashboard, and headrests — are essentially a display, the entire interior can be changed instantly to match a certain theme.

The all-electric vehicle also uses voice-control for most of its functions inside the vehicle like controlling audio or air-conditioning.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been changing our lives for decades, but never has AI felt more ubiquitous than now.

It seems as though not a week passes without yet another AI system overcoming an unprecedented hurdle or outperforming humans.

But how the future of AI will pan out for humans remains to be seen. AI could either make all our dreams come true, or destroy society and the world as we know it.

To get an a realistic handle on what that future might look like, Tech Insider spoke to 18 artificial intelligence researchers, roboticists, and computer scientists about the single most profound change artificial intelligence could bring.

Scroll down to see their lightly edited responses.

Pieter Abbeel says robots will keep us safer, especially from disasters.

AI for robotics will allow us to address the challenges in taking care of an aging population and allow much longer independence.

It'll enable drastically reducing, maybe even bringing to zero, traffic accidents and deaths. And enable disaster response for dangerous situations, for example, the nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima power plant.

Commentary from Pieter Abbeel, a computer scientist at the University of California, Berkeley.

Shimon Whiteson says we will all become cyborgs.

I really think in the future we are all going to be cyborgs. I think this is something that people really underestimate about AI. They have a tendency to think, there's us and then there's computers. Maybe the computers will be our friends and maybe they'll be our enemies, but we'll be separate from them.

I think that's not true at all, I think the human and the computer are really, really quickly becoming one tightly-coupled cognitive unit.

Imagine how much more productive we would be if we could augment our brains with infallible memories and infallible calculators.

Society is already wrestling with difficult questions about privacy and security that have been raised by the internet. Imagine when the internet is in your brain, if the NSA can see into your brain, if hackers can hack into your brain.

Imagine if skills could just be downloaded — what's going to happen when we have this kind of AI but only the rich can afford to become cyborgs, what's that going to do to society?

Commentary from Shimon Whiteson, an associate professor at the Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam.

Yoky Matsuoka says these implants will make humans better at everything.

I think the way I have been promoting AI as well as the next big space aspect for AI is to become really an assistant for humans. So making humans better, making what humans want to do and what humans want to be, easier to achieve with the help from AI.

What if I lost a limb and I can't swim as fast, what if an AI can actually know how to control this robotic limb that's now attached to me to quickly and efficiently let me swim?

Those are the ways, my brain is doing control but to an extent, things that I can't do anymore or things I want to be, if that part can be intelligently handled that's really great. It's almost like a partnership.

Commentary from Yoky Matsuoka, former Vice President of Technology at Nest.

Taeyoon Choi and E. Roon Kang have a plan to disrupt time. More specifically, they want to ditch standard time in favor of a made-up alternative called "elsewhen." This imaginary time zone would measure each passing minute not by the rotation of the earth but by a person's perception of how much time has gone by. 

The idea first struck the duo during a video-chat with clients living on the other side of the world. In this virtual hangout, they existed in a unique timespace they created and shared only momentarily.

"It's almost like we were floating someplace else, between Seoul and New York, and not completely belonging to either," Kang, a TED Fellow, said on stage at one of the organization's retreats, where he recounted their journey.

Over the summer, Choi and Kang decided to make "elsewhen" a reality through a workshop they titled In Search of Personal Time. Here's how their time-traveling adventure played out.

First, Choi and Kang needed to create a clock that would reflect an individual's personal perception of time, rather than counting 86,400 seconds in a day.

This is the personal timekeeper. It's a numeric display powered by the microcomputer Raspberry Pi and encased in balsa wood, with a multipurpose button on top.

One afternoon at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, they handed out the timekeepers to a dozen study participants.

Jaimie Alexander will surprise you.

She currently stars as Jane Doe on the fall's No. 1 series, "Blindspot." When we first meet her, Jane Doe is covered in tattoos and has no memory of how she ended up that way. But as time goes by, the tattoos begin to tell a story and Jane begins to remember a high level of combat and investigation skills.

You may not recognize her, but what if we told you she starred on ABC Family cult hit "Kyle XY"? Or that she plays a major role in the "Thor" film franchise?

How has the actress become such a force to reckcon with? Here's the fabulous life and career of Jaimie Alexander.

SEE ALSO: Meet Priyanka Chopra, the former Miss World winner who snagged the lead role on ABC's new hit show, 'Quantico'

SEE ALSO: Meet TV's new 'It' girl Emma Roberts — she's Hollywood royalty who plays a nightmare sorority girl on Fox's 'Scream Queens'

Alexander was born in Greenville, South Carolina but moved to Grapevine, Texas when she was about four years old. She has four brothers.

SOURCE

Alexander first joined theater in middle school as a fun hobby, but she ended up getting kicked out of her high school theater program due to her lack of singing talent. That's when she turned to sports.

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Alexander's return to acting was the result of serendipitous events at age 17. She filled in for a sick friend at a showcase. And her manager, Randy James, was attending in place of a friend who was giving birth. He still manages her to this day.

Halloween is right around the corner, which means that you're probably desperately searching for last-minute costume ideas. But that's no excuse for being unoriginal. 

Every year, there are those costumes that you can't seem to escape. How many Ice Queen Elsas and Star Lords did you see last year? Exactly. 

Here are 14 pop culture costumes to avoid if you don't want to look like everyone else.

SEE LAST YEAR'S: The 18 Most Cliché Halloween Costumes Of 2014

DON'T FORGET: Follow Business Insider's lifestyle page on Facebook!

"The dress" was easily the biggest viral sensation of 2015 — possibly ever. As a costume, it's pretty low maintenance: get the dress and call it a day.

Pizza rat is an easy costume based on an extremely viral video. New York will be infested with pizza rats this Halloween.

Too soon or not, there will be many Cecil the Lion costumes roaming your streets and parties.

Mulled wine, roasting chestnuts and spiced cookies — nothing quite heralds the Yuletide season like a Christmas market.

Here’s our round-up of the best Christmas markets you can visit in 2015.

SEE ALSO: 20 Bargain Beach Holidays In Europe

Prague, Czech Republic

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Prague is a prime destination for Christmas-market connoisseurs, with four in close proximity to each other. The star attractions are the markets in the Old Town Square – famous for its giant Christmas tree – and Wenceslas Square, which are just five minutes’ walk away from each other. There’s also a permanent market in Havelska Street, which takes a festive turn at this time of year, and there’s a small market in Republic Square as well.

Specialties: Czech beers and lagers are inevitably popular with tourists, or you could try the homemade mead and “svařák” (mulled wine) for something a little more festive. “Trdelník” – sugar-coated pastries – are a tasty treat to follow roast ham or barbecued sausages.

When to go: Nov. 28, 2015 – Jan. 1, 2016

How to get there: Search forcheap flights to Prague on Fly.com.

Vienna, Austria

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Vienna has one of the oldest Christmas market traditions in Europe, dating back to 1294 when King Albrecht I granted traders the right to hold a Krippenmarkt (crib market) in the city. Nowadays you can choose between more than 20 versions – we recommend the quaint Spittelberg Christmas Market, hidden in the cobbled streets near the Museums Quartier, for its friendly atmosphere and artisan craft stalls.

Specialties: Snack on chestnuts, flavoured punch and “vanillekipferl” (traditional crescent-shaped cookies dusted with vanilla sugar).

When to go: Nov. 13 – Dec. 26, 2015

How to get there: Search for cheap flights to Vienna on Fly.com.

Budapest, Hungary

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With its Art Nouveau buildings, cobbled streets and snowy climate, Budapest is a magical place to visit in the winter. The main Christmas market is on Vörösmarty Square (on the Pest side of the River Danube), which has around 100 wooden chalets selling handicrafts, “forralt bor” (mulled wine) and snacks. At 5pm, turn your attention to the Gerbeaud Café, which is transformed into a giant advent calendar every year, for the opening of the latest window. Visit on Dec. 6 from 3-4 p.m. for a sighting of Santa Claus.

Specialties: Sample Hungarian dishes, such as roast goose and stuffed cabbage, or pick up a traditional “kürtoskalács” (a sweet, chimney-shaped bread rolled in sugary cinnamon) to nibble whilst you wander.

When to go: Nov. 28 – Dec. 31, 2015

How to get there: Search for cheap flights to Budapest on Fly.com.

I've been living in New York for about four months now. 

So I've tried Shake Shack and many of the other amazing burgers and fast food chains New York has to offer.

But every time I go to a new restaurant, I can't help but compare the food to my favorite chain back home in the Midwest: Culver's.

To get a good look at what makes this burger chain — dare I say it — more supreme than In-N-Out or Shake Shack, I headed up north to Wisconsin, where I had my first Culver's experience many years ago.

To start my culinary journey, I headed up to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, home of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Culver's CEO Craig Culver's alma mater.

We went around 4:30 p.m., and the place was already packed for the evening. It only got more crowded as we made our way through the meal.

After placing our orders, we went to fill up our soda. Culver's is known for its signature root beer, which tastes even better with a dollop of Culver's vanilla frozen custard.

Before I tell you about NBA Live 16, the latest entry in EA Sports' annual basketball franchise, let me tell you a true story about my pre-teen years.

One Saturday at my Jewish sleepover camp, it was decreed that we would all play a pickup game of basketball against another bunk. While wearing our Saturday synagogue finest. 

The referee, realizing after about three seconds that I literally had no idea what I was doing, excused me. Which was great, because I was halfway through Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein," and was super into finishing it.

Fast forward to this month, when EA Sports sent us a review copy of NBA Live 16.

These days, I still don't know much of anything about NBA basketball, except for what was in the movie "Space Jam," a movie where Michael Jordan helps Bugs Bunny defeat aliens at basketball.

(And yet, Donald Trump thinks Kareem Abdul-Jabaar is the loser. Makes you think.) 

But even with this lack of knowledge, I decided to tackle EA Sports' NBA Live 16 video game with the same open mind with which I found Madden NFL 16 football to be a lot of fun. After all, I do know video games, and a fun video game shouldn't require that much foreknowledge.

And so, I can't tell you if NBA Live 16 is an accurate representation of basketball. Or how it stacks up to its better-loved rival franchise, 2K Sports NBA 2K16 — though our friends at Tech Insider say that NBA 2K16 is great. 

What I can tell you is that NBA Live 16 made me wish I could be excused to go read Frankenstein. 

Here's why.

SEE ALSO: I’m a hardcore gamer who knows nothing about football — here’s what I thought playing Madden the first time

I decided the best way to dive in was with the game's "Learn 2 Live" mode, which is not actually a self-help seminar as I first assumed. It's actually distinctly unhelpful, given that I had no idea what a "layup" is. When it offered to help with my "post game," I thought I was going to learn how to nail chugging Gatorade.

One of NBA 16's most ballyhooed features is the "Rising Star" mode, which lets you take a player of your own design from being a rookie to, ideally, superstar status. I figured it was a good place to start, since I am, indeed, a rookie.

With the help of an attendant iPhone and Android app, you can even scan your face and upload it into NBA Live 16. The NBA Live version of Matt Weinberger is named "Lion Casablancas," the announcers have nicknamed him "Cannon," and he is a 6'7", 220-pound beast of a...of a...I'm not sure what position I picked for him. Basketball guy.

As a makeup artist in the adult film industry, Melissa Murphy has transformed hundreds of men and women into sex gods and bombshells.

She chronicles their remarkable transformations on Instagram, where she has over 109,000 followers.

Murphy describes her work as "liquid confidence." We prefer "cosmetic sorcery."

Over the summer, we spent the day with Murphy on set of a porn shoot in Calabasas, California, to see what it takes to get these actresses camera-ready and feeling their best.

On a cloudless morning in Porn Valley, a sun-drenched region of southern California where an estimated 90% of American sex films are made, workers file into a white stucco ranch house on a hill.

Source: USA Today

I figure I'm in the right place based on the boxes of burned candles by the door ...

... and the room of mattresses and bed frames I pass through.

As a makeup artist in the adult film industry, Melissa Murphy has transformed hundreds of men and women into sex gods and bombshells.

She chronicles their remarkable transformations on Instagram, where she has over 109,000 followers.

Murphy describes her work as "liquid confidence." We prefer "cosmetic sorcery."

Over the summer, we spent the day with Murphy on set of a porn shoot in Calabasas, California, to see what it takes to get these actresses camera-ready and feeling their best.

On a cloudless morning in Porn Valley, a sun-drenched region of southern California where an estimated 90% of American sex films are made, workers file into a white stucco ranch house on a hill.

Source: USA Today

I figure I'm in the right place based on the boxes of burned candles by the door ...

... and the room of mattresses and bed frames I pass through.

If you want to build a fortune, the biggest, most glamorous cities in the US might not be your best bet — rather than San Francisco and New York City, you may want to consider Houston, Cleveland, or Detroit.

That's what Bankrate found in a new report that ranked the 18 largest US metro areas according to how strong of an environment they provide for making and saving money. To determine the rankings, Bankrate analyzed after-tax savable income, the job market, human capital (indicating available educational opportunities for career advancement), access to financial services, participation in retirement savings plans, and the local housing market in each city.

Read the full methodology.

Here, we've highlighted the top 13 big cities for building wealth. We also included the median home value in each metro area and the median household income, from the US Census Bureau's 2014 American Community Survey:

SEE ALSO: The most expensive zip codes in 15 major US cities

13. San Francisco

Population: 4,594,060

Median home value: $657,300

Median household income: $83,222

12. Seattle

Population: 3,671,478

Median home value: $334,700

Median household income: $71,273

11. Boston

Population: 4,732,161

Median home value: $373,200

Median household income: $75,667

New York's Financial District is the economic center of the entire US — but it's also one of the city's most historically gruesome, gory, and bloody neighborhoods.

Although its cobblestone streets might seem innocent, the next time you're in the area just remind yourself: More than 120,000 bodies have been buried on top of each other in the famous Trinity Church cemetery. City Hall Park is said to still be haunted to this day from all of the public hangings and lynchings that happened there in the 1800s.

Boroughs of the Dead, founded by Andrea Janes in 2013, leads unconventional walking tours that explore New York's dark, strange, and downright chilling nooks and crannies.

Just in time for Halloween, the company is running on double time, with multiple tours happening throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. I chose to take a tour through the Financial District with Janes herself. 

Although Janes made it clear that she doesn't claim to be "clairvoyant by any means" there were several stops on the "Forgotten Dark Histories of Lower Manhattan" tour that she promised were "nauseating, intense, and overwhelming" due to their history. Below, a few highlights from our two-hour tour.

SEE ALSO: This haunted house takes photos of people's reactions to getting scared — and it's hilarious

We began our tour outside the National Museum of the American Indian, where Janes shares the gruesome story of the massacre of the Algonquian Indian tribe. Led by Willem Kieft, the director general of New Amsterdam in the 1640s, the bloody battle began at the very site where the museum can be found today. 

When the tribe refused to pay taxes that Kieft had attempted to enforce, Kieft was more than a little upset. He decided to kill every man, woman, and child of the Algonquin tribe, focusing on the women and children. Fort Amsterdam was decorated with the heads of the slain American Indians.

To this day, there are tales of the ghost of a Native American woman wandering through the Bowling Green area.

If you work near the intersection of Pearl and Broad Streets, you might frequent Fraunces Tavern for happy hour. The tavern is well known for its rich history: George Washington and the Sons of Liberty would come to the Tavern before the start of the Revolutionary War, and Washington held his extremely emotional farewell banquet on the third floor after the War was over. There was also reportedly a murder, and a suicide occurred on the premises in 1712.

Many unverified reports of "paranormal instances" have been said to occur in this tavern. People have reported feeling a slight pressure on their back as though they're being pushed, doors have mysteriously slammed shut, keys have been seen gently swaying as though someone — or something — had brushed their finger along them. Janes also told the group a bartender's tale of both a night porter and a bouncer who once quit mid-shift for undisclosed reasons.

As Janes led us to Federal Hall on Wall Street, she told the group, "If you are a tour guide who loves 18th-century history, you will think of Wall Street not as a place where money was traded, but where human flesh was bought and sold."

In 1736, at the foot of Wall Street closer to the water, she explained, you would find a slave market. In fact, after Charleston, North Carolina, New York was the single largest slave-owning port city in the British colonies.

Back in 1741, Federal Hall was known as British City Hall. On the top floor was a jail, and in the basement, a dungeon. During the slave rebellion of that year, more than 100 men were captured and imprisoned in the dungeon and kept for the entire summer. Many of the prisoners were killed without warrant.

Suffering from photo overload on your iPhone?

An app called Gallery Doctor uses algorithms to scan your camera roll and present you with photos you may want to delete. It's incredibly useful for freeing up precious storage space.

Here's how it works:

If this message is all too real for you...

You probably have too many photos on your iPhone.

Go to the App Store and search for Gallery Doctor. It costs $2.99.

There's an Android version too that is free to download.

Every region of the country has its own unique phrases, but they have nothing on the complex lexicon that people in the US military share. 

Members of the military serve together in close-knit groups that must fully trust each other. Potentially serving in dangerous areas, service members must be able to communicate as efficiently as possible while still being understood. 

This need for quick communication, coupled with the strict uniformity of the military, has produced an amazing range of slang terms and acronyms that only military members can understand — "I was on the FOB when the IDP hit, so I radioed the TOC" doesn't mean much in the civilian world, after all.

Scroll down to learn 25 of the most interesting military slang terms. 

Geoffrey Ingersoll wrote the original version of this post.

SEE ALSO: 13 signs that you grew up in a military family

1. "15 minutes prior to 15 minutes prior"

Military people are taught that they must show up to everything (especially an official formation) at least 15 minutes early.

The 15 minutes to 15 minutes arises as the order filters down through the ranks. The captain wants everyone to meet at 0600, so the master sergeant wants folks to arrive at 0545 — and when the order finally finally hits the corporal-level people are told to show up at midnight.

2. "A good piece of gear" (in reference to people)

Only in the service is it OK to refer to one of your coworkers or (worse yet and most frequently) a person working for you in a section you manage as "a good piece of gear."

3. "Blue falcon"

A Blue Falcon is someone who blatantly throws another Marine/soldier/sailor/airman under the bus. You don't want to be called a Blue Falcon.

Among the generally acceptable topics of adult cocktail-party conversation is how awful today's young people really are.

So it's no surprise that Gen X-ers and Boomers are positively peeved by those pesky 20-somethings, a group of generally miserable, selfish, and entitled-seeming creeps.

The problem is that research hardly bears out — and in many cases disproves — these generalizations.

To learn more about the myths surrounding 20-somethings, we spoke with Jeffrey Arnett, Ph.D., a psychologist at Clark University who coined the term "emerging adulthood" to describe the period between ages 18 and 29. 

We asked Arnett to outline some of the most common misconceptions about emerging adults — and to tell us what his research has found instead. Here's what we learned. 

SEE ALSO: A psychologist says there are 2 simple strategies for surviving anxiety in your 20s

Misconception No. 1: They're stressed and miserable.

Today's 20-somethings graduated into one of the worst economies in history. Many have massive debt loads, and it'll be years before they can afford to buy property. 

Meanwhile, they've got some big decisions to make, like whether and whom to marry, if and when to have kids, where to live, and what career path to pursue. 

So it's no surprise that, in a 2012 Clark University poll, nearly three-quarters of emerging adults agreed that "This time of my life is stressful," while 56% said they often feel anxious. 

Yet a whopping 83% agreed that "This time of my life is fun and exciting."

In other words, misconception No. 1 is really only a half-truth. Yes, 20-somethings are struggling, but they're also enjoying this time of freedom and possibility.

Arnett turns to Taylor Swift's "22" to explain: "We're happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time / It's miserable and magical."

"That's the truth of it," he said. "It's not one or the other; it's both."

Misconception No. 2: They're pessimistic when it comes to relationships.

The divorce rate may be declining in the US, but as of 2014, 53% of marriages broke up.

One would expect that a generation who grew up in a world where most marriages were unlikely to last would be relatively jaded when it comes to romance. 

But that same 2012 Clark poll found that 86% of emerging adults said they expect to have a marriage that lasts a lifetime. 

These findings suggest that 20-somethings are "really traditional in some ways," Arnett said. "This ideal of a lifelong marriage is still alive." 

Misconception No. 3: Women are more concerned than men with balancing work and family.

Though we've made significant progress on gender equality, work/life balance is often mistakenly construed as a women's problem exclusively. 

Research suggests that young people perceive the situation differently.

In the 2012 Clark poll, 60% of emerging adults said they expect to give up some career goals in order to have the family life that they want. The most fascinating finding? Equal numbers of men and women responded this way. 

"It shows how much things have changed," Arnett said, "and how much young men care about being close to their kids in a way their fathers were not." 

And while it remains to be seen how work/life balance issues will play out among today's emerging adults, "they at least are going into [adulthood] with that expectation, that aspiration that they'll be able to balance family and work commitments successfully," Arnett said.