Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, November 30, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
unreasoning
| |||||||
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Ice-NineIce-nine is a fictional material conceived by author Kurt Vonnegut in his novel Cat's Cradle. Described as an alternate solid form of water that is more stable than common ice, it is said to melt at 114.4° Fahrenheit (45.8° Celsius) rather than at 32° Fahrenheit (0° Celsius). When ice-nine comes into contact with liquid water, it causes the entire body of water to crystallize as ice-nine—with obvious far-reaching consequences. How did Vonnegut supposedly get the idea for the substance? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 The Battle of Narva (1700)Sweden's power and influence in the Baltic region was growing when the young and inexperienced Charles XII came to the throne in 1697. Seeing their chance to end Swedish domination of the area, Charles's neighbors—Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark, and Augustus II of Poland—formed an alliance and attacked. At Narva, the first major battle of the Great Northern War, Charles's army soundly defeated the superior Russian forces. A few years later, Peter returned to Narva. What happened? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Jonathan Swift (1667)Known as one of the greatest satirists in the English language, Swift was an ordained Anglican priest who devoted himself to exposing England's unfair treatment of his native Ireland. In his ironic 1729 tract "A Modest Proposal," he suggested that the Irish escape poverty by selling their children to by eaten by the English. His classic Gulliver's Travels is a ruthless satire of human follies. Swift once mocked a publisher of astrological predictions by making what prediction of his own? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Bonn Om Tuk (Festival of the Reversing Current) (2020)The Festival of the Reversing Current is a festival and national holiday to celebrate a natural phenomenon in Cambodia. Tonlé Sap, a lake, is connected to the Mekong River by the Tonle Sap River, which normally flows south from the lake. But during the rainy season, the flood-swollen Mekong backs up and flows backward through the Tonle Sap River into the lake. The normal southward flow returns when the dry season starts. The festival, held at the time when the Tonle Sap returns to its normal direction, is a time of fireworks, merrymaking, and races of pirogues, or long canoes, at Phnom Penh. More... | |