Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, June 7, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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diminution
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Ambitransitive VerbsSome action verbs can be both transitive and intransitive, depending on the context of the sentence or what information the speaker wishes to include. These are sometimes known as "ambitransitive verbs." What are some examples of ambitransitive verbs? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 IgloosAn igloo, which means "house" in the Inuit language, is a traditional, dome-shaped Eskimo dwelling with a low tunnel entrance constructed of blocks of snow placed in an ascending spiral. Although igloos are commonly associated with the Inuit, they were predominantly constructed by people of Canada's Central Arctic and Greenland's Thule area. What is a kudlik, and how did it help strengthen the structural integrity of igloos? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 First Ascent of Mt. McKinley's South Peak (1913)With a summit elevation of 20,320 ft (6,194 m), Alaska's Mt. McKinley is the tallest mountain in North America. James Wickersham led the first recorded climbing attempt in 1903 but turned back at 8,000 ft (2,438 m). In 1910, a group known as the Sourdough expedition claimed to have summited its lower, northern peak. Three years later, explorer Hudson Stuck and three others made the first successful ascent of the South Summit—its true summit. How did Stuck's ascent verify the Sourdough climb? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Sylvanus Griswold Morley (1883)Morley was an American archaeologist who studied pre-Columbian Maya civilization throughout Central America, including at Copán, Honduras, Petén, Guatemala, and Chichén Itzá, Mexico. Though his archaeological work was widely recognized during his lifetime, it was only after his death that his other career was revealed—Morley worked as a spy for the US during World War I by searching for German submarine bases in Central America. His adventurous life may have inspired what famous film character? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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on (one's) tod— Without or not near to anyone else; on one's own; all alone. A shortening of the Cockney rhyming slang "on one's Tod Sloan," referring to a once-famous American horse jockey who fell into disrepute in the early 20th century and died penniless and alone. Primarily heard in UK. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 International Carillon Festival (2018)The International Carillon Festival in Springfield, Illinois, attracts carillonneurs from France, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, New Zealand, and the Netherlands as well as from the United States. The centerpiece of the festival is the Rees Memorial Carillon. The festival, instituted in 1962, features the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Edvard Grieg, and other compositions arranged for the carillon. The performances take place in Springfield's Washington Park, where listeners can sit the recommended 300 or more feet away. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: sakeeristic - Means "enjoying argument for its own sake," or "of or pertaining to controversy." More... fine art, commercial artwork - Fine art is any art created for its own sake, as opposed to commercial artwork. More... heaven's sake - It is heaven's sake (not heavens' sake, heaven's sakes, etc.). More... sensuous, sensual - Sensuous usually implies gratification of the senses for the sake of aesthetic pleasure; sensual usually describes gratification of the senses or physical appetites as an end in itself. More... | |
| In the News | |
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The Science Behind NASA's "Flying Saucer" TestIf humans are ever going to visit Mars, NASA must consider how it will transport astronauts across millions of miles of space. But the final few miles of that journey may be the most volatile. “Anytime we land on Mars, there's a lot of really complicated ... More... | |