Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, February 15, 2020)Word of the Day | |||||||
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paterfamilias
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Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Demonstrative Pronoun UsageDemonstrative pronouns always represent nouns, typically things, places, events, ideas, and animals. In certain cases, however, some of these pronouns may also be used to describe what? More... |
Article of the Day | |
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The WheelPerhaps the most important invention in history, the wheel was—and remains—essential to the development of human civilization. The first wheels appeared in the 4th millennium BCE and were solid wooden disks. Spoked wheels were developed about 1,000 years later in Asia Minor and were used in the chariots of Caucasian horse cultures, which then penetrated into the Greek peninsula and laid the foundation for classical Greece. The spoked wheel remained in use without major modifications until when? More... |
This Day in History | |
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Ocean Ranger Drilling Rig Sinks (1982)The Ocean Ranger was a semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling unit that sank in Canadian waters on February 15, 1982, killing all 84 men on board. The crew had been drilling an exploration well in the Grand Banks area, 166 miles (267 km) east of St. John's, Newfoundland, for Mobil Oil of Canada, Ltd., when a sudden storm struck the rig. Rescue attempts were thwarted by the severe weather. After a two-year investigation into the disaster, what did a Canadian Royal Commission conclude? More... |
Today's Birthday | |
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Galileo Galilei (1564)Galileo was a Tuscan astronomer, philosopher, and physicist whose technological advances and scientific investigations greatly enhanced humanity's knowledge of the universe. Though his work is today considered crucial to the development of the modern scientific method, the Catholic Church of the 17th century tried him for heresy and forced him to abjure his findings. When did the Catholic Church finally reverse its position on Galileo and publicly declare that it had been in the wrong? More... |
Quotation of the Day | |
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No animal ever invented anything so bad as drunkenness—or so good as drink. Gilbert Chesterton (1874-1936) |
Idiom of the Day | |
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the bigger they come, the harder they fall— Those who are exceptionally large, powerful, or influential will have more to lose when they fail, and their failure will be all the more dramatic or spectacular because of it. More... |
Today's Holiday | |
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Susan B. Anthony Day (2023)Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906) devoted her life to the temperance, anti-slavery, and women's suffrage movements. After the Civil War, she focused all of her energies on getting women the right to vote, which was achieved in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Tributes to Anthony take place on her birthday, February 15, in various parts of the country, and ceremonies honoring Anthony are often held at her grave in Rochester, New York. More... |
Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: inflammationpleuritis, pleurisy - Greek pleura, "side" or "rib," came to be used for the "inner lining of the chest; lungs," and pleuritis or pleurisy is the inflammation of this area. More... intertrigo - Inflammation caused by the rubbing of one area of skin on another. More... phlegm - Comes from Latin phlegma, "clammy moisture," and Greek phlegma, "inflammation." More... polio - An abbreviation of poliomyelitis, from Greek polios, "gray," and muelos, "marrow," meaning "inflammation of the gray matter of the spinal cord." More... |