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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Collective AdjectivesCollective adjectives are nominal adjectives (adjectives that act as nouns) used to refer to a group of people based on a characteristic that they share. What are some common collective adjectives? 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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 The World Health Organization Is Established (1948)World Health Day is observed every year on April 7 to mark the founding of the World Health Organization (WHO), a UN agency whose main objective is to promote "the highest possible level of health" in all people. Coordinating international efforts to prevent, control, and treat illness, it has worked to successfully eradicate smallpox and has made notable strides in checking polio, leprosy, cholera, and malaria. What steps has it taken to promote tobacco-free work environments? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Eleanora Fagan, AKA Billie Holiday (1915)Despite a deeply troubled upbringing, Holiday became one of the most celebrated and influential singers in jazz history. She was also one of its most tragic figures. She debuted in the 1930s and, after performing with Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw, embarked on a successful solo career. However, she suffered many personal setbacks, complicated by the drug addiction that eventually destroyed her career and hastened her death. How did she choose her stage name? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Clothes have more effect upon us than we imagine. Our deportment depends upon our dress.Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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have it large— To engage in or seek out pleasurable, hedonistic activities with great enthusiasm or intensity, especially dancing and drinking alcohol. Primarily heard in UK. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Chaitra Purnima (2020)In southern India, Caitra Purnima is a time for Hindus to worship Chitra Gupta, also known as "the scribe of the gods." Tradition holds that while Brahma was meditating, Chitra Gupta was brought into being. He serves as the scribe to Yama, the ruler and judge of the dead; some Hindus believe that Chitra Gupta maintains the accounts of their good and bad deeds in the Agrasamdhani (main records). At Kanchipuram, near Madras in Tamil Nadu State, the image of Chitra Gupta is taken out in a procession. Devotees bathe in the holy waters of the River Chitra, which flows from the nearby hills. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sedimentdecant - Means to pour wine, taking pains not to disturb any sediment at the bottom; decant comes from Latin de- and canthus, "angular lip of a jug." More... allogenic, allochthonous - Geological material that has been transported and then accumulates elsewhere is allochthonous, and sediment carried by a river is allogenic. More... lithification - The process of compaction of sediment into stone. More... | |