Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, June 23, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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extirpate
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Finite and Non-finite VerbsFinite verbs have subjects and indicate grammatical tense, person, and number. Non-finite verbs do not have tenses or subjects that they correspond to. What are some examples of non-finite verbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 ChatterbotsIf you had a recent conversation with ELIZA, PARRY, A.L.I.C.E., or ELLA, you were talking to a chatterbot, a computer program designed to simulate an intelligent conversation with human users through auditory or textual prompts. Though many appear to be interpreting human input before providing a response, most chatterbots simply scan for keywords and pull a similar reply from a database. Some people find these sorts of conversations engaging. What book was allegedly written by a chatterbot? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 College Board Administers the First SAT Exam (1926)The SAT is a standardized test used in college admissions in the US. Developed by Carl Brigham, a Princeton psychologist who worked on the US Army's IQ test, the first Scholastic Aptitude Test was administered in 1926 to over 8,000 test-takers—60% of whom were male. Criticized as being biased toward whites, males, and the middle class, the exam has been modified over the years to improve fairness. Still, its value as a predictor of success in college is debated. What does "SAT" stand for today? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Alan Mathison Turing (1912)Turing was a groundbreaking English mathematician and logician who worked on artificial intelligence (AI), among other things. He created the Turing test to determine whether a computer is capable of humanlike thought. His papers on the subject are widely acknowledged as the foundation of research in AI. He also did valuable work in cryptography during WWII, helping to break the German Enigma code. In the midst of his pioneering work, Turing committed suicide after being convicted of what crime? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The rain fell alike upon the just and upon the unjust, and for nothing was there a why and a wherefore.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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high-handed— Haughtily presumptuous; arrogantly or inconsiderately overbearing. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Windjammer Days (2020)The annual Windjammer Days Festival in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, celebrates the U.S. Coast Guard's 200 years of service to coastal Maine. The festival is also a salute to the large sailing merchant ships that once carried trade along the New England coast. There is an antique boat parade as well as tours of Navy and Coast Guard ships. Band concerts, seafood, and fireworks add to the merrymaking. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: silenceobmutescence, obmutescent - Obmutescence is the act of becoming mute or silent—usually a stubborn, willful act; if you are inclined to silence, you are obmutescent. More... oyez - Meaning a call for silence and attention, it descends from Anglo-Norman oyez/oiez, "to hear" or "hear ye." More... silential - Describing something performed in silence. More... omerta - The code of silence in the Mafia, from the Italian word for "humility." More... | |