Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, November 21, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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menhir
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| Article of the Day | |
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 The Rosicrucian OrderIn the early 1600s, three manifestos were published describing an esoteric order founded by Christian Rosenkreuz. The Rosicrucian Order's secret teachings deal with the occult symbols of the rose and the cross and with mystical writings containing kabbalistic, Hermetic, and other doctrines. Practitioners claim occult powers and employ the terminology of alchemy to expound their mystical doctrines. According to the 17th century texts, Rosenkreutz was born in 1378 and lived for how many years? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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.jpg) First Manned, Untethered Hot Air Balloon Flight (1783)The pioneering ballooning efforts of the Montgolfier brothers of France made 1783 a noteworthy year in aviation history. That year, the pair developed the first practical hot-air balloon—and demonstrated its safety by sending aloft a sheep, a duck, and a rooster. Months later, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, made the first manned, untethered flight in a Montgolfier balloon, but they had not been the first choices to pilot the historic flight. Who were? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 René Magritte (1898)Before gaining the support of a Brussels art gallery and taking up painting full-time, Magritte earned a living designing wallpaper and advertisements. His early works were in the Cubist and Futurist styles, but he soon embraced Surrealism. Dislocations of space, time, and scale were common elements in his illogical paintings, and he used certain images—the sea, the female torso, the bourgeois "little man" in a bowler hat—repeatedly. Why did art thieves return a stolen Magritte painting in 2012? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The female of the genus homo is economically dependent on the male. He is her food supply.Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Surin Elephant Round-Up (2015)The Elephant Round-Up is an internationally famous show of 200 or more trained elephants held annually in the provincial capital of Surin, Thailand. A tug-of-war is staged in which elephants are pitted against Thai soldiers, and there are also log-pulling contests, a soccer game with two teams of elephants kicking a giant soccer ball, elephant basketball, and other sports. A highlight is the spectacular array of elephants rigged out to reenact a medieval war parade. Besides the elephant demonstrations, there are cultural performances and folk dancing. More... | |