Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, December 29, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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finagle
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Adjectives of OpinionAdjectives of opinion always come first before any other factual descriptions of the noun. There are two types of opinion adjectives. What are they? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Bone-Eating Snot FlowerOsedax is a genus of polychaete—sea worm—that feeds on the bones of whale carcasses. Possessing neither stomachs nor mouths, members of the Osedax genus rely on symbiotic species of bacteria to digest whale fat and oils and to release nutrients that they can absorb through unusual root-like structures. One species is known as the "bone-eating snot flower" after its scientific name, Osedax mucofloris. When were these strange creatures first discovered? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster (1876)As the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway train plowed ahead through deep snow on December 29, 1876, a bridge over Ohio's Ashtabula River fractured with a loud crack, plunging every train car except the lead engine into the river about 70 ft (21 m) below. The wooden cars, equipped with kerosene lamps and stoves, became an inferno. Ninety-two people died, many burned beyond recognition. The accident initiated the standardization of bridge inspection. What became of the bridge's designers? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Venustiano Carranza (1859)After Mexican leader Porfirio Díaz was deposed in 1911, a protracted power struggle ensued. Carranza was the third person in as many years to assume executive power after Díaz's ouster, but revolutionary leaders Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata objected and responded with force. Carranza prevailed, but his failure to implement key provisions of the liberal constitution of 1917 led to further unrest, and he was killed in 1920. What does carrancear, coined during Carranza's tenure, mean? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 It seems to me a hard case to make slaves of those whom God and nature have made free.Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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not a peep from/out of (someone)— Not a single word or sound from someone. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Fiesta of the Black St. Benito (2021)This fiesta is celebrated by a number of locales in the state of Zulia, Venezuela, and is especially popular in Bobures. After early morning mass, the chimbángueles, or vassals of the saint, put St. Benito's statue on a litter and surround it with flowers. They then carry it through the streets while performing an unusual bouncing kind of dance, in which they continually move forward and backward to the accompaniment of seven drums. Throughout the long procession, St. Benito's image is sprinkled with perfumes and presented with drinks of homemade whiskey. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: loafbread bag - A plastic wrapper in which a loaf of bread is sold, intended to keep the bread fresh for longer than it would be if unwrapped. More... loaf - A head on a cabbage. More... bread - In Old English, it meant "piece, morsel," while actual bread was known as "loaf." More... crumb - The soft inner part of a bread roll, slice, or loaf. More... | |