Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, December 18, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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free-spoken
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| Article of the Day | |
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 MasersA maser is a device that produces an intense and highly focused beam of electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range of the spectrum. Its name is an acronym for "microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." A wavelength produced by a maser is so constant and reproducible that it can be used to control a clock that remains accurate to one second over hundreds of years. Masers also make it possible to measure faint radio waves emitted by Venus. How do they differ from lasers? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Nutcracker Premieres (1892)Now a beloved Christmastime classic, The Nutcracker ballet premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, to fairly negative reviews. Even Tchaikovsky himself, the composer responsible for the score, found the ballet lacking. Despite its initial failure, the ballet about a girl who befriends a nutcracker that comes to life on Christmas Eve and battles the evil Mouse King has since become a holiday favorite. What helped turn things around for The Nutcracker? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Steven Spielberg (1946)Spielberg is a three-time Academy Award-winning director and one of the most commercially successful filmmakers in the history of US cinema. He began his career directing for television, but his major success came when he began directing movies. His 1975 film, Jaws, became one of the highest-grossing movies ever and made him a household name. Spielberg later surpassed this record with the films E.T. and Jurassic Park. What 1993 movie earned him his first Academy Award? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The properties of ink are peculiar and contradictory: it may be used to make reputations and unmake them; to blacken them and to make them white; but it is most generally and acceptably employed as a mortar to bind together the stones of an edifice of fame, and as a whitewash to conceal afterward the rascal quality of the material.Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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fine print— The details of a contract or other document that are important but easily overlooked (often due to very small size of the text.) More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Fiesta of Our Lady of Solitude (2022)The Virgen de la Soledad, or Our Lady of Solitude, is the patroness of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Preparations for her fiesta begin several days before December 18, when carnival rides and food booths are set up in the vicinity of the church. For several evenings there are calendas, processions of men and women carrying colored paper lanterns illuminated by candles. There are also floats and huge papier-mâché caricatures of well-known individuals. Thousands of pilgrims come from all over the state of Oaxaca to see the Virgin, who is dressed in velvet and satin gowns. More... | |