Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, April 21, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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turgid
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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NominalizationNominalization refers to the creation of a noun from verbs or adjectives. Most of the time, nouns are created from other parts of speech through the use of suffixes. In other cases, "conversion" or "zero derivation" are used. How do these methods work? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 DarkroomsA darkroom is a workspace for the processing of light-sensitive materials. Darkrooms have been used for black and white photography since the late 19th century, but their popularity has waned with the introduction of color, Polaroid, and digital photography. The most familiar black and white processes involve developing the image, stopping the development, fixing the image, then washing and drying it. Why is it safe to use red or amber lighting in a darkroom? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 The Principality of Hutt River Secedes from Australia (1970)In the late 1960s, Australian farmer Leonard Casley protested government wheat quotas he considered unfair. Unsuccessful, he turned to Commonwealth law and styled himself a monarch—His Majesty Prince Leonard I of Hutt—and founded The Principality of Hutt River. His pronouncement of sovereignty was never successfully challenged by the Australian government, and he is now considered a non-resident of Australia for income tax purposes. What legal quirks allowed him to start his own micronation? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Henry Wheeler Shaw, AKA Josh Billings (1818)Shaw studied at Hamilton College but was expelled for removing the clapper from the chapel bell. After a roving life as farmer, explorer, and coal miner, he settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, as an auctioneer and real estate dealer. In 1860, using the pseudonym Josh Billings, he began to write humorous sketches and homespun philosophies in rural dialect—often with intentionally crude misspellings—and soon became a popular lecturer. What are some of Shaw's best aphorisms? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Great vices are the proper objects of our detestation, smaller faults of our pity, but affectation appears to me the only true source of the ridiculous.Henry Fielding (1707-1754) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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a mother hen— A person who looks out for the welfare of others, especially to a fussy, intrusive, or overprotective degree. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Feast of Ridvan (2018)The Feast of Ridvan is a Baha'i celebration to commemorate a 12-day period in 1863 when the Baha'i founder, Baha'u'llah (which means "Glory of God"), made the declaration that he was God's messenger for this age. When he made his declaration, Baha'u'llah was staying outside Baghdad, Iraq, at a garden he called Ridvan, meaning "Paradise." The first, ninth, and 12th days of the period (April 21, 29, and May 2, respectively) are holy days when work is suspended. The celebration starts at sunset, April 20, the eve of Ridvan. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: quietcoy, quiet - Coy and quiet derive from Latin quietus, "at rest, in repose," with coy coming from the Old French form coi (earlier quei), and quiet coming straight from Latin; the original sense of coy was "quiet, still." More... conticent - If something is hushed or quiet, it is conticent. More... q.t. - An abbreviation for "quiet," as in, on the q.t. (or QT). More... wildtrack, room tone - The wildtrack or room tone consists of the barely audible noises that make up a background sense of quiet. More... | |
| In the News | |
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Scientists Discover How Octopuses Coordinate Their ArmsScientists have finally managed to discover how the octopus manages to coordinate all its eight arms and move without tangling them. The researchers discovered the answer to this mystery by performing a kinematic analysis of the arm coordination... More... | |