Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, March 15, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
snigger
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Conjugating "Be"The verb "be" is known as a highly irregular verb due to the huge variation in how it conjugates for tense and person. How many conjugations does "be" have? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Cymothoa ExiguaCymothoa exigua is a parasitic crustacean that attaches itself to the tongue of the spotted rose snapper and feeds on its blood. Eventually, the organ atrophies, and then something remarkable happens: C. exigua replaces the fish's tongue with its own body by attaching to the muscles of the tongue stub. The fish is able to use the parasite just like a normal tongue, apparently without any further damage. Are there any other cases of a parasite functionally replacing a host organ? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 Beware the Ides of March (44 BCE)Now used as a metaphor for impending doom, the "Ides of March" was originally simply a name for March 15th. In the ancient Roman calendar, the term "ides" referred to the 15th day of the months of March, May, July, and October and the 13th of all other months. The Ides of March was a festive day dedicated to the god of Mars and often marked with a military parade. However, when Julius Caesar was assassinated on that day in 44 BCE, the phrase took on an entirely new meaning. Who killed Caesar? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933)Nicknamed the "Thurgood Marshall of women's rights," Ruth Bader Ginsburg graduated at the top of her class at Columbia Law School in 1959. During the 1970s, she became the first tenured female professor at Columbia, led the Women's Rights Project, and won several important Supreme Court cases before she was appointed to the US Court of Appeals in 1980. Confirmed as a justice of the Supreme Court in 1993, she was the second woman to sit on the nation's highest bench. Who was the first? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Clothes alter our very nature. A man could not help being fierce and daring with a plume in his bonnet, a dagger in his belt, and a lot of puffy white things all down his sleeves.Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
corporate ladder— The hierarchy of authority and earning power within a large business or corporation, likened to the rungs of a ladder. Usually used with some variable verb or phrase referring to ascension. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Anna Parenna Festival (2023)Anna Perenna was a Roman goddess who represented the circle or ring of the year—Anna being the feminine form of annus (meaning "year") and March, the month her festival was observed, being the first month of the Roman calendar. On the day of her festival, the plebs of Rome went to the Campus Martius, a large field outside the walls of the city, and lay about on the grass, often constructing simple huts out of stakes and branches with togas stretched across the top. They spent the day drinking, dancing, and singing, returning to the city at night in a state of deep intoxication. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: mammalamniocentesis, amnion - Amniocentesis is formed by amnion, the innermost membrane enclosing a fetus, and Greek kentesis, "pricking." More... endoskeleton - Contained entirely within the body of an animal, like that of mammals. More... pelage - The fur, hair, wool, etc. of a mammal. More... rhinarium - The hairless, habitually moist nose of some mammals, such as the antelope. More... | |