Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, August 10, 2021)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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cantankerous
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Relative PronounsA relative pronoun is a type of pronoun used to connect a relative clause (also known as an adjective clause) to the main clause in a sentence. What are restrictive relative clauses? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Dunbar's NumberBefore there was Facebook, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed a cognitive limit to the number of meaningful social relationships one can have. Through his research on primates and ancient hunter-gatherer societies, he concluded that brain size, specifically the size of the neocortex, dictates the maximum size of one's social group. Primates create intimacy by picking parasites off each other, while humans rely on language. How many social relationships does Dunbar believe one can have? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 European Heat Wave: UK's Hottest Day on Record (2003)The European heat wave of 2003 resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 people. In France, where summers are usually very mild and many homes do not have air conditioning, nearly 15,000 people died from heat-related issues—at a time when many physicians were on summer holiday. So many died that undertakers ran out of room in their own facilities and had to keep corpses in off-site warehouses. The UK, meanwhile, suffered through violent storms and experienced what record high temperature? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender (1909)Few people in recent history have transformed popular music—rock and roll in particular—the way Leo Fender did. A self-taught radio repairman, Fender began inventing electronic instruments in the 1940s and is responsible for the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar, the first widely used electric bass, and many other revolutionary instruments. His Fender Musical Instruments Corporation remains a leading manufacturer of electronic instruments and amplifiers. What are Fender "Nocasters"? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 To the boy of twenty it seems impossible that he will not love as wildly at sixty as he does then ... His love will never fall, whoever else's may. Nobody ever loved as he loves, and so, of course, the rest of the world's experience can be no guide in his case.Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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lubrication payment— A small sum of money or other gifts or services to be paid or given to government officials to expedite business operations in countries that do not prohibit such activity. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Puck Fair (2021)A traditional gathering that dates back hundreds of years, Puck Fair is a three-day event held in Killorglin in County Kerry, Ireland. A large male goat is decorated with ribbons and paraded through the streets on the first day, which is known as Gathering Day. The goat, known as King Puck, presides over the fair from his "throne," an enclosure on a three-story platform in the town square. The main event of the second day, known as Puck's Fair Day, is a livestock show. On the third day, known as Scattering Day, King Puck is led out of town to the accompaniment of traditional Irish music. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: proteinalbumen, albumin - Albumen is the white of an egg, from Latin albus, "white"; albumin is a protein within the albumen. More... protein - Pronounced PRO-teen or PRO-tee-un, it comes from Greek proteios, "primary," as these compounds are essential to all living organisms. More... protoplasm - A mixture of organic and inorganic substances, such as protein and water, it is regarded as the physical basis of life. More... textured vegetable protein - A protein obtained from soy beans and made to resemble minced meat. More... | |