Daily Content Archive
(as of Monday, April 10, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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scissure
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| Article of the Day | |
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 The Shrine of the BookThe Shrine of the Book is the wing of Jerusalem's Israel Museum that houses the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of ancient documents found between 1947 and 1956 in caves on the Dead Sea's northwest shore, at Qumran. Funded by the family of David Samuel Gottesman, a philanthropist who purchased the scrolls as a gift to Israel, the shrine features an unusual white dome that covers an underground structure. How does the museum ensure that the fragile scrolls survive the rigors of being displayed? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Is Published (1925)Considered to be Fitzgerald's masterpiece, The Great Gatsby is a devastating critique of the American Dream and materialism at the height of the Roaring Twenties. It is the story of a bootlegger, Jay Gatsby, whose obsessive dream of wealth and lost love is destroyed by a corrupt reality. Today used as required reading in many high schools, the book has been cited as the paragon of the Great American Novel. Why did Fitzgerald dislike the title, and what did he want to call his novel? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Hugo Grotius (1583)Grotius was a Dutch jurist, philosopher, and writer. He enrolled at the University of Leiden at the age of 11 and became a lawyer at 15. Among his key legal treatises is the first definitive text on international law, On the Law of War and Peace, which prescribes rules for the conduct of war and advances the idea that nations are bound by natural law. In 1615, he became involved in a religious controversy that extended to politics and was eventually imprisoned. How did he escape? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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I'd say— In my opinion; it is my estimation that. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Passover (2017)Passover is an eight-day celebration (seven days in Israel and by Reform Jews) of the deliverance of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. Jewish families today eat a ceremonial dinner called the Seder at which they retell the story of the Exodus from Egypt and eat various symbolic foods—including meat of the Paschal Lamb, bitter herbs and wine (symbolizing the fruitfulness of the earth). The matzoh (unleavened bread) is meant to symbolize the haste with which the Jews left. In strictly religious Jewish homes today, all foods made with leavening are prohibited during this season. More... | |
| In the News | |
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Octopuses and Squids Can Rewrite Their RNA. Is That Why They're So Smart?When Inky the octopus escaped from his tank at New Zealand's National Aquarium in April 2016, he squirmed through a six-inch-wide drainpipe and stole away into the Pacific. He stole more than a few human hearts along the way, too. Inky fans celebrated ... More... | |