Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, August 29, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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petrolatum
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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ApostrophesAn apostrophe is a punctuation mark that primarily serves to indicate either grammatical possession or the contraction of two words. What is a proclitic? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 Doughnuts or Donuts?Regardless of how you spell this sweet, deep-fried treat—doughnut or donut—its origins remain a mystery. Some claim that Dutch settlers brought it to North America. Others maintain that a Danish sea captain impaled a fried cake on a wheel spoke to free his hands during a storm and, thus, invented the doughnut's hole. The two most common types are ring-shaped doughnuts and filled doughnuts, flattened spheres injected with a sweet filling. In what countries can you get a meat-filled doughnut? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Brazilian Runner Attacked by Spectator during Olympic Marathon (2004)At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, Vanderlei de Lima was on track to become the first Brazilian to win an Olympic gold medal in the marathon, leading the pack in the last miles of the race, when he was pushed into the crowd by a spectator named Cornelius Horan, a defrocked Irish priest. De Lima lost about 10 seconds in the incident and finished third. Brazil appealed for de Lima to be awarded a gold medal but was denied. What other sporting event had Horan previously disrupted? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Vivien Theodore Thomas (1910)When the Great Depression hit, Thomas was forced to set aside his dreams of becoming a doctor and instead found work as a laboratory assistant to American surgeon Alfred Blalock. He spent the next 34 years working with Blalock and was instrumental in developing a pioneering surgical treatment for tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart malformation. Despite his groundbreaking work, he went unrecognized for many years due to racial prejudices. What honorary degree was conferred upon him in 1976? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Man is by nature a political animal.Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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make fast work of (someone or something)— To deal with, finish, or dispose of someone or something very quickly or handily; (of an object) to consume something quickly. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Mobile-Phone Throwing World Championship (2021)The Mobile-Phone Throwing World Championship takes place in August in Savonlinna, Finland. The light-hearted event offers several categories for men, women, and teams: original, which is based on distance; freestyle, based on distance, style, aesthetics, and creativity; and juniors, which is limited to children 12 years old and under. First-place winners get a new mobile phone. Since the inaugural competition in 2000, several European countries—including Norway, Switzerland, and Germany—have introduced their own national championships. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: paddlepaddle - An aquatic animal's flipper can also be called a paddle—as can the foot of a duck or the wing of a penguin. More... patrol - Comes from a French word meaning "paddle about in the mud." More... rudder - First meant "paddle" or "oar." More... float - The boards and paddle of a waterwheel or paddlewheel are the floats. More... | |