Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, February 5, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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discourtesy
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| Article of the Day | |
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 EntropyIn popular, nontechnical use, entropy is regarded as a measure of the chaos or randomness of a system. In thermodynamics, it is the measure of a system's energy that is unavailable for work or of the degree of a system's disorder. Entropy increases during irreversible processes, such as the spontaneous mixing of hot and cold gases. The concept, first proposed in 1850 by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius, is sometimes presented as the second law of thermodynamics, which states what? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Morecambe Bay Cockling Disaster (2004)At low tide, the sand flats of England's Morecambe Bay are rich in cockles, or edible saltwater clams. However, gathering them can be dangerous, as the bay is subject to treacherous, fast-moving tides. In 2004, 23 Chinese immigrants who had been at work collecting cockles on the sand flats drowned after becoming trapped by the incoming tide. The leader of the group was later convicted of manslaughter for failing to warn them about the tide. Whose attempt to warn them unfortunately went unheeded? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Belle Starr (1848)Though her only criminal conviction was for the theft of a horse, Starr associated with numerous criminals throughout her life and was portrayed after her death as a notorious American outlaw, earning the nickname "the Bandit Queen." Two of her husbands were killed in the course of their respective criminal careers, and days before her 41st birthday, Starr herself was ambushed and shot in the back as she returned to her Oklahoma ranch. Her murder was never solved. Who were some of the suspects? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Towns are excrescences, gray fluxions, where men, hurrying to find one another, have lost themselves.E. M. Forster (1879-1970) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Birthday of Runeberg (2021)Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877) is widely regarded as Finland's greatest poet. Schools throughout Finland are closed on Runeberg's birthday. Busts and pictures of him are displayed in shop windows, particularly in Helsinki. A special ceremony is observed at Runeberg's monument in the Esplanade, where his statue is decorated with garlands of pine and spruce, suspended between four huge torches. At night the torches are lit, and lighted candles burn in the windows of houses and apartments. More... | |