Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, March 28, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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stoicism
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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The Past ParticipleUnlike the present participle, the past participle form changes depending on the verb. The past participle of regular verbs ends in "-ed," and is generally the same as the simple past tense of the verb. What is the past participle of the regular verb "close"? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Fatal Familial InsomniaFatal familial insomnia is a rare genetic disease that interferes with sleep and eventually leads to death. The disease is the result of mutations in a certain protein, which cause plaques to build up in the thalamus, the brain region responsible for sleep regulation. Patients initially suffer from insomnia and progressively develop more serious problems—including hallucinations, rapid weight loss, and dementia—before dying. In how many families has the gene that causes the disease been found? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 US Supreme Court Decides Stump v. Sparkman (1978)Stump v. Sparkman is a leading US Supreme Court decision on judicial immunity. It involves a young woman who was suing a judge who had previously ordered her to be sterilized. The Supreme Court, in a 5-3 decision, reversed a prior Court of Appeals ruling, deciding that two criteria must be examined when determining whether an act warrants judicial immunity and holding that the judge could not be sued because he had acted within his jurisdiction. What were the circumstances of the case? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Henry Schoolcraft (1793)Schoolcraft was a geologist, geographer, and ethnologist noted for his studies of Native American cultures as well as for his discovery of the source of the Mississippi River in 1832. His extensive relations with Native Americans—including his marriage to an Ojibwa woman—led to his appointment as an Indian agent, and he negotiated a treaty with the Ojibwa in 1836 that ceded much of their land to the US. Upon discovering the lake that feeds the Mississippi River, what did Schoolcraft name it? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss ... What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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shotgun house— (chiefly Southern United States slang) A one-story house in which each room is in a straight alignment with the others, connected by a continuous hallway running from the front to the back of the residence. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Teachers' Day in the Czech Republic (2022)March 28 is the birthday of Jan Amos Komensky (or John Comenius; 1592-1670), a noted educational reformer and theologian in the former Czechoslovakia. Komensky was the first person to write an illustrated textbook for children, used for teaching Latin words; he was also a proponent of compulsory education. It has been traditional for children to honor him on Teachers' Day, or Komensky Day, by bringing flowers and gifts to their teachers. The day is also observed with lectures, music, and educational activities. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: thighham, hamstring - Originally, the part of the leg behind the knee was called the ham, and then the tendon near the ham was the hamstring; by extension, the ham became the thigh and buttock together. More... haunch - The buttock and thigh together. More... hockshin, gambrel - The underside of the thigh is the hockshin or gambrel. More... thigh - Etymologically, the "plump" part of the leg, from an Indo-European base meaning "swell" or "fat." More... | |