Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, December 18, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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inanimate
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Human Eye ColorEye color is a genetic trait determined primarily by the amount and type of pigments present in the iris. There are three true colors in eyes—brown, yellow, and gray—that combine to produce a number of hues. Variations in color are attributed to varying ratios of melanin. Of the major eye colors, brown is the most common, followed by blue. The rarest, green, is possessed by just two percent of the human population. What condition can cause a person to have two different eye colors? 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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 Every man has his own courage, and is betrayed because he seeks in himself the courage of other persons.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| 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... | |