Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, April 7, 2018)Word of the Day | |||||||
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quondam
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Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Generic "You"The second-person pronouns are also often used to indicate an unspecified person. This is sometimes referred to as "generic you," "impersonal you," or "indefinite you." This is less formal than its counterpart, the pronoun "one," but it is sometimes preferred. Why? More... |
Article of the Day | |
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![]() Water MemoryThe idea that water can retain a "memory" of a substance dissolved in it even after heavy dilution was proposed by French immunologist Jacques Benveniste to explain the alleged therapeutic powers of homeopathic remedies, which are prepared by serially diluting aqueous solutions to such a degree that even a single molecule of the original solute is unlikely to remain in each final preparation. He successfully tested his theory in 1988, but attempts to reproduce his results have failed. Why? More... |
This Day in History | |
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![]() Japanese Battleship Yamato Sunk (1945)The largest battleship ever constructed, the Yamato was the lead ship of the Yamato class of battleships that served with the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II. After taking part in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Yamato was sunk during Operation Ten-Go, the last major Japanese naval operation in the Pacific Theater, while on its way to face the Allied fleet at Okinawa. How did the Allies know about the planned attack? More... |
Today's Birthday | |
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![]() Charles Fourier (1772)Fourier was a French social philosopher who developed a form of utopian socialism known as Fourierism. He proposed the idea that the natural passions of humans would, if properly channeled, result in social harmony. The social organization for such development was to be based on an economic unit composed of 1,620 people living in a single community building and dividing work according to their interests and desires. Why did he designate 1,620 as the ideal number of persons in a phalanx? More... |
Quotation of the Day | |
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![]() Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) |
Idiom of the Day | |
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sounding board— A person or group with whom one discusses an idea, plan, or suggestion in order to evaluate its strengths, acceptability, feasibility, practicality, etc. More... |
Today's Holiday | |
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![]() Armenia Motherhood and Beauty Day (2022)This is a national holiday in Armenia, celebrated each year on April 7. It comes not long after another national holiday, Women's Day, which is celebrated on March 8. Women's Day is meant to honor all women, but Motherhood and Beauty Day is dedicated especially to those who have become mothers. Children and adults alike show their affection for their mothers with special visits, cards, and gifts. Sending flowers to one's mother is an especially popular way to mark this holiday. Another tradition associated with the day is the gift of a twig that has fresh sprouts on it. More... |
Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: treasurehamper - A food basket for a picnic, it is a phonetic reduction of the word hanaper, "plate basket," or "repository for treasure." More... garrison - At first, it meant "store, treasure." More... treasure - Based on Greek thesauros. More... treasure trove - From French, literally meaning "found treasure." More... |