Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, November 11, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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vitriol
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Mayumba National ParkIn 2002, Gabon's president established a national park system that protects about 11% of the country's land and waters. Included is Mayumba National Park, located on the Atlantic coast of central Africa and dedicated to the protection of marine life. The park shelters a 60 km (37 mi.) strip of beach and coastal vegetation and extends another 15 km (9 mi.) out to sea. Dolphins and whales can often be found in the waters off the coast. What reptile uses the park's beach as its breeding ground? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Kaprun Disaster Leaves 155 Dead (2000)High above the Austrian ski resort of Kaprun, a funicular railway car carrying over 160 people to a glacier caught fire after a defective heater ignited hydraulic brake fluid in the rear of the car. Only partway through a 2-mi (3.2-km) tunnel, the car came to a sudden halt. As the fire grew, the passengers were plunged into darkness and trapped behind inoperable doors. Almost all who managed to escape the burning car suffocated in the tunnel. How did the 12 survivors manage to escape to safety? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922)An influential American writer, Vonnegut used wry, black humor to highlight the horrors of 20th-century civilization. His novels, which include Breakfast of Champions and Player Piano, are frequently satirical and pessimistic, yet morally urgent. The best-selling Slaughterhouse-Five was based on Vonnegut's experience of surviving the firebombing of Dresden. Which of Vonnegut's novels was accepted by the University of Chicago as his thesis for an anthropology degree? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Pathos, piety, courage,—they exist, but are identical, and so is filth. Everything exists, nothing has value.E. M. Forster (1879-1970) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Martin's Day (Portugal) (2020)On the Feast of São Martinho, people roast chestnuts, drink red Portuguese wine, and butcher a pig. There is a St. Martin's Day Fair at Golegã, in Ribatejo, that features a famous horse show at which some of the country's finest thoroughbreds are displayed. Another well-known St. Martin's Day Fair is held at Penafiel, in Trás-os-Montes. The parades and celebrations that are held in towns and villages throughout Portugal on this day are usually more secular than Christian in flavor. More... | |