Daily Content Archive
(as of Saturday, March 19, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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declination
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Antivenin: The AntidoteAntivenin is a biological material used to neutralize the venom of poisonous creatures like snakes, scorpions, spiders, and other insects. The antitoxins are created by injecting a small amount of venom into a serum-producing animal such as a horse, sheep, goat, or rabbit. The subject animal then suffers an immune response to the venom and produces antibodies which can be harvested from its blood and used to treat envenomation in others. What is mithridatism, and why is it so named? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Nevada Legalizes Gambling (1931)Though unregulated gambling had been common in early Nevada mining towns, it was outlawed in 1909, and for many years, the state's economy was carried by mining. However, with the mining industry in decline amid the Great Depression, state lawmakers agreed to re-legalize gambling in order to strengthen the state's finances. Today, the state economy is dominated by tourism and gaming. Nevada has the unusually high ratio of approximately one hotel room to how many state residents? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Wyatt Earp (1848)Earp was an American frontiersman. In the 1870s, he worked as a police officer in Wichita and Dodge City, Kansas, where he befriended gunmen Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson. He later worked as a guard for Wells, Fargo & Company. By 1881, he had moved to Tombstone, Arizona, living as a gambler and a saloon guard. His brother Virgil became town marshal, and his other brothers bought real estate and businesses. A feud with the Clanton gang ended in a shootout at the O.K. Corral, where what happened? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription molders from the tablet; the statue falls from the pedestal. Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand—and their epitaphs, but characters written in the dust?Washington Irving (1783-1859) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 St. Joseph's Day (2018)In Valencia, Spain, the feast of the foster-father of Jesus is a week-long festival called Fallas de San Jose (Bonfires of St. Joseph). On St. Joseph's Eve, March 18, fallas—huge floats of intricate scenes made of wood and papier-mâché, satirizing everything from the high cost of living to political personalities—parade through the streets. At midnight on March 19, the celebration ends with the spectacular ceremony known as the crema, when all the fallas are set on fire. The festival is said to reflect the happy and satirical nature of the Valencians. More... | |