Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, September 2, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
overabundance
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Interrogative Adjectives in QuestionsWhen interrogative adjectives appear in normal direct questions, they are placed at the beginning of the sentence and are immediately followed by the noun that they modify. What other types of questions can interrogative adjectives appear in? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Smeed's LawFirst proposed in 1949, Smeed's Law is an empirical rule relating traffic fatalities to motor vehicle registration and country population. According to this law, annually increasing traffic volume ironically leads to a decrease in accidents per vehicle. Though the law was revisited in the 1980s and 90s with data from more than 60 countries supporting its validity, it has been disputed by several scholars. What supposed truth about human psychology did Smeed say the law reveals? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 CBS Evening News Expands to Half Hour (1963)The CBS Evening News is the chief nightly news program of the American television network CBS. The network has broadcast the program since 1948, when it was called The CBS-TV News. Legendary journalist Walter Cronkite took over as the program's anchor in 1962, and the following year, the show was expanded from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, becoming network television's first half-hour nightly news program. When Cronkite retired in 1981, who replaced him as the show's anchor? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Louis Bonaparte (1778)Louis was the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, the first Emperor of France. He accompanied Napoleon on the Italian campaign and was his aide-de-camp in Egypt. At Napoleon's insistence, he married Hortense de Beauharnais, but the union did not last. Proclaimed king of Holland in 1806, he was criticized by Napoleon for being too easy on his subjects. His unwillingness to join the Continental System led him into conflict with Napoleon and to eventually flee his kingdom. Who was Louis's son? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 My last page is always latent in my first; but the intervening windings of the way become clear only as I write.Edith Wharton (1862-1937) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
bring a knife to a gunfight— To come poorly prepared or equipped for some task, goal, competition, or confrontation. Often used in the negative as a forewarning or piece of advice. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Ganesh Chathurthi (2019)Ganesh Chathurthi is a lively seven- to ten-day long festival to worship the elephant-headed Ganesh, the Hindu god of wisdom and success. The festival is especially colorful in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, and is the best-known event in Mumbai. Everyone pays homage to huge clay images of Ganesh, and he is also propitiated with street performances, competitions, processions, and yoga demonstrations. In Mumbai, at the end of the week of celebration, an image is taken to the sea and immersed to ensure prosperity for both land and water. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: poisonalexipharmic - Another word for an antidote, from Greek alexein, "ward off," and pharmakon, "poison." More... toxic - Comes from Greek toxikon pharmakon, "poison for arrows," from toxon, "bow." More... venom - Comes from Latin venenum, the love potion Venus used to attract people to each other—but later came to describe "poison." More... virus - A Latin word meaning "poison" or "slimy liquid," it first meant "venom of a snake." More... | |