Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, August 7, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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embolden
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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CommasCommas are used to connect two or more elements in a sentence, but the way in which they do this varies widely, depending on what these elements are. What is a comma splice? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Three Gorges DamThe largest hydroelectric dam in the world, China's Three Gorges Dam stretches 1.4 miles (2.3 km) across the Yangtze River. Begun in 1993 and largely completed by 2006, the controversial project displaced more than a million people and inundated huge tracts of land. However, it increased the river's shipping capacity, reduced the threat of flooding, and will eventually generate nearly 85 billion kilowatts a year. How much electricity will the dam have to generate to recoup building costs? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Hermine Braunsteiner Becomes First Nazi Extradited from the US (1973)Nicknamed the "Stomping Mare" for her violent kicking of prisoners, Braunsteiner was a Nazi concentration camp guard during WWII. After the war, she spent a brief period in jail for war crimes before marrying an American and becoming a US citizen. In 1964, she was confronted at her home in New York by a reporter tipped off about her past by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. When her role in the war came to light, she was stripped of her citizenship and extradited to West Germany. What became of her? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 John Heathcoat (1783)Heathcoat was not the first person to invent a lacemaking machine, but his apparatus was the first to produce an exact imitation of handmade pillow lace. Patented in 1809, it was the most complex textile machine then in existence. Heathcoat decided to capitalize on his invention by opening a lace mill, but textile workers, angry that they were being replaced by machines, attacked and destroyed it in 1816. Undeterred, he opened a new mill elsewhere. What happened to the steam plough he invented? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Every man is as heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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low man on the ladder— The person (not necessarily male) with the least amount of experience, authority, and/or influence in a social or corporate hierarchy. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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.svg.png) Zambia Farmers Day (2021)Farmers Day celebrates the country of Zambia's agricultural sector, praises their efforts in providing crops to feed the country, and gives them a day to relax from their labors. Governmental officials normally give speeches outlining the advances in the harvest of crops, particularly maize. But average citizens enjoy a variety of sporting events that are held on the Farmers Day weekend, including soccer championships. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tableswaitron - A person, male or female, who waits on tables at a restaurant. More... backgammon - Appears to literally mean "back game," and was first called tables; gammon is the ancestor of game. More... busboy - A person who clears the dirty dishes from diners' tables, so called from his "bus" or trolley. More... turn the tables - May come from backgammon, as the game itself was once called tables, and the two halves of the playing board are still called tables. More... | |