Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, March 28, 2018)Word of the Day | |||||||
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stoicism
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Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Noun Phrases of Varying LengthNoun phrases can be as short as two words, or they can be longer and have many words. The number of words in a phrase does not affect its status as a noun phrase, so long as it functions as what? More... |
Article of the Day | |
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Fatal Familial InsomniaFatal familial insomnia is a rare genetic disease that interferes with sleep and eventually leads to death. The disease is the result of mutations in a certain protein, which cause plaques to build up in the thalamus, the brain region responsible for sleep regulation. Patients initially suffer from insomnia and progressively develop more serious problems—including hallucinations, rapid weight loss, and dementia—before dying. In how many families has the gene that causes the disease been found? More... |
This Day in History | |
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Constantinople Becomes Istanbul (1930)The city now known as Istanbul was founded as the Greek colony of Byzantium in the 8th century BCE. Eventually passing to Alexander the Great, it became a free city under the Romans in the 1st century CE. Emperor Constantine I made the city the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire in 330, later naming it Constantinople. It remained the capital of the subsequent Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome in the late 5th century and then changed hands several times. Why was it renamed Istanbul in 1930? More... |
Today's Birthday | |
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Henry Schoolcraft (1793)Schoolcraft was a geologist, geographer, and ethnologist noted for his studies of Native American cultures as well as for his discovery of the source of the Mississippi River in 1832. His extensive relations with Native Americans—including his marriage to an Ojibwa woman—led to his appointment as an Indian agent, and he negotiated a treaty with the Ojibwa in 1836 that ceded much of their land to the US. Upon discovering the lake that feeds the Mississippi River, what did Schoolcraft name it? More... |
Quotation of the Day | |
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Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss ... What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) |
Idiom of the Day | |
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in all truthfulness— In one's sincere opinion; without any disingenuousness. More... |
Today's Holiday | |
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Teachers' Day in the Czech Republic (2024)March 28 is the birthday of Jan Amos Komensky (or John Comenius; 1592-1670), a noted educational reformer and theologian in the former Czechoslovakia. Komensky was the first person to write an illustrated textbook for children, used for teaching Latin words; he was also a proponent of compulsory education. It has been traditional for children to honor him on Teachers' Day, or Komensky Day, by bringing flowers and gifts to their teachers. The day is also observed with lectures, music, and educational activities. More... |
Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: unluckydismal - Comes from French dies mali, "evil days," and first meant the 24 evil or unlucky days of the medieval calendar (two per month). More... infaust, infausting - Infaust is "unlucky" and infausting is "making unlucky." More... left-handed - Had a meaning of "unlucky" or "unseasonable." More... widdershins - Means "in a direction opposite of the usual one," but can also mean "unlucky." More... |