Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, October 19, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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ragbag
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Future Perfect Continuous TenseWe use the future perfect continuous tense to indicate how long something has been happening once a future moment in time is reached. How is the future perfect continuous tense most commonly formed? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 ChulalongkornChulalongkorn was the king of Siam—now Thailand—from 1868 to 1910. Educated in part by a British governess, Anna Leonowens, he greatly advanced the Westernization that was begun by his father, King Mongkut. He departed from tradition by traveling abroad—to Singapore, Java, and India in 1871 and to Europe in 1897. He abolished slavery and introduced numerous reforms, which, along with his foreign policy, kept Siam from being colonized for decades. How many children did Chulalongkorn have? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Streptomycin Is First Isolated (1943)After coining the word "antibiotic" for bacteria-killing chemicals derived from micro-organisms, American microbiologist Selman A. Waksman, working with Albert Schatz, isolated streptomycin—the fourth antibiotic ever discovered. Waksman won the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery. Streptomycin acts by inhibiting protein synthesis and damaging cell membranes. Produced by soil bacteria, it was the first specific agent effective in the treatment of what disease? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Carlo Urbani (1956)In February 2003, Urbani, an Italian physician employed by the World Health Organization (WHO), was called to examine a man hospitalized in Hanoi, Vietnam, with what was initially thought to be the flu or pneumonia. Recognizing that it was in fact a new and highly contagious disease, Urbani immediately notified the WHO, prompting a rapid global response that ultimately saved many lives, though sadly not his own. The doctor himself soon succumbed to the disease he had identified. What was it? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Human nature is so well disposed towards those who are in interesting situations, that a young person, who either marries or dies, is sure of being kindly spoken of.Jane Austen (1775-1817) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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a game of musical chairs— A situation in which people or things are moved, shuffled, or rearranged from one position to another. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Bettara-Ichi (2021)The annual Pickle Market, or Sticky-Sticky Fair, is held near the Ebisu Shrine in Tokyo, Japan, to supply people with what they will need to observe the Ebisu Festival on the following day, October 20. People buy wooden images of Ebisu, good-luck tokens, and most importantly, the white, pickled radish known as bettara that is so closely identified with the fair. The Sticky-Sticky Fair was named after the way the pickled radishes were sold. Stall keepers used to dangle them from a rope so the buyer wouldn't get his hands sticky from the malted rice in which the radishes had been pickled. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: shotshot - Referring to a fluid dram of liquor, the term is fairly new, dating to 1928 (PG Wodehouse). More... deadline - Originally a Civil War term for a line that marked the distance a prisoner could go before being shot on sight. More... schuss - A straight downhill ski run, it is literally German for "a shot." More... beside the point - The expression is from ancient archery, and literally means one's shot is wide of the target. More... | |