Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, April 21, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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arduous
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Uncountable NounsNouns that cannot be divided or counted as individual elements or separate parts are called uncountable nouns (also known as mass nouns or non-count nouns). Why is it incorrect to use third-person plural pronouns with uncountable nouns? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Blood Eagle TortureReferenced in some Norse saga literature, the Blood Eagle is a form of torture and execution performed by cutting the victim's ribs by the spine, breaking them to resemble blood-stained wings, and pulling the lungs out through the gaping wound. Though some cite archaeological evidence of the practice, others argue that it never occurred and that accounts of the method are based on folklore or inaccurate translations. Which Viking Age rulers were reportedly victims of the gruesome torture? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Principality of Hutt River Secedes from Australia (1970)In the late 1960s, Australian farmer Leonard Casley protested government wheat quotas he considered unfair. Unsuccessful, he turned to Commonwealth law and styled himself a monarch—His Majesty Prince Leonard I of Hutt—and founded The Principality of Hutt River. His pronouncement of sovereignty was never successfully challenged by the Australian government, and he is now considered a non-resident of Australia for income tax purposes. What legal quirks allowed him to start his own micronation? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Henry Wheeler Shaw, AKA Josh Billings (1818)Shaw studied at Hamilton College but was expelled for removing the clapper from the chapel bell. After a roving life as farmer, explorer, and coal miner, he settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, as an auctioneer and real estate dealer. In 1860, using the pseudonym Josh Billings, he began to write humorous sketches and homespun philosophies in rural dialect—often with intentionally crude misspellings—and soon became a popular lecturer. What are some of Shaw's best aphorisms? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss.Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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bragging rights— The authority and freedom to boast or brag of one's achievements that comes from having won a contest or succeeded in some way, especially against a close rival. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 San Jacinto Day (2022)Fresh from his victory at the Alamo, General Antonio López de Santa Anna of Mexico proceeded eastward until he encountered the Texan army general, Samuel Houston, at San Jacinto, about 22 miles east of the present-day city of Houston. Houston's 900 soldiers defeated the Mexican force of nearly 1,600, in a battle that lasted only 18 minutes. A legal holiday in Texas, San Jacinto Day is celebrated throughout the state but particularly in San Antonio, where the highpoint of the 10-day San Antonio Fiesta is the huge Battle of Flowers parade winding through the city's downtown streets. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: religionnullifidian - Someone having no faith or religion; a disbeliever. More... apostasy - Abandonment or renunciation of one's religion or morals. More... renegade - First referred to a person who abandons one religion for another. More... secular - Has a root meaning of "temporal"—opposed to the eternity of the church—and means "not connected to a religion." More... | |