Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, May 18, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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drollery
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| Article of the Day | |
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 ParasitoidsA parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant part of its life attached to or inside a single host, which it feeds on and ultimately kills. Parasitoid larvae are dependent on a host during development, but adult parasitoids are free-living insects. In a typical parasitic relationship, the parasite and host coexist without lethal damage to the host. However, in a parasitoid relationship, the host is killed, typically before it can produce offspring. What is a hyperparasite? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Mount Saint Helens Erupts (1980)Beginning in mid-March 1980, a series of earth tremors and steam explosions at Washington's Mount Saint Helens suggested that the volcano—dormant since 1857—was on the verge of erupting. Then, on May 18, the entire north side of the mountain exploded in a cloud of ash, rock, and fiery gases that collapsed a good part of it and carried debris for many miles. About 60 people were killed, and millions of tons of ash blanketed much of the American northwest. How far did the ash eventually spread? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Walter Adolph Gropius (1883)Gropius was the immensely influential director of the Bauhaus school of art and architecture in Germany. In 1937, he immigrated to America and became head of Harvard's architecture department. He was an early exponent of the International style and believed that all design—whether of a chair, a building, or a city—should focus on the particular needs and problems involved, without regard to old styles. His 1923 re-design of what everyday object is now considered an icon of 20th-century design? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.Charles Dickens (1812-1870) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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inch-perfect— Extremely accurate; very well placed or perfectly judged. (Used especially of maneuvers, moves, or shots in sport.) Primarily heard in UK. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Lilac Festival (Rochester, NY) (2017)The annual Lilac Festival in Rochester, New York celebrates the abundance of lilacs in the city's Highland Park. Horticulturalist John Dunbar began the garden in 1892; the festival began six years later as a one-day event for people to enjoy the recently adorned park. Today this is a ten-day festival during which visitors admire more than 1,200 lilac bushes of more than 500 varieties. In addition to viewing the flowers, visitors to the Lilac Festival can also sample a wide array of international foods and enjoy concerts, art shows, and other free festival events. More... | |
| In the News | |
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Indonesia "Sea Monster" Is Finally IdentifiedMonster of the deep? Or just a really funky dead whale? A monstrously huge creature that washed ashore on a remote Indonesian beach, oozing a mysterious red fluid, is probably a baleen whale in an advanced state of decomposition, experts said. The nearly ... More... | |