Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, August 23, 2016)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Defining the Future TenseGrammatically speaking, there are no future tenses in the English language; verbs do not inflect (conjugate) a certain way to reflect future actions. For that reason, we use different sentence constructions to achieve a future point of view. How is this is most often accomplished? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 SurvivalismIn the 1970s, widespread fear of imminent natural and artificial disasters and societal collapse led to the development of survivalism, a subculture based on the anticipation of catastrophic events and the preparations involved in surviving disaster. The movement is still popular today. Survivalists stockpile food and water, build shelters, and learn skills that they believe will help them live through apocalyptic chaos. In survivalist terminology, what is a "BOB"? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Gossamer Condor Wins First Kremer Prize (1977)British industrialist Henry Kremer set up the Kremer Prize in 1959, offering £50,000 to the first group that could fly a human-powered aircraft over a 1-mile (1.6-km) figure-eight course. The aircraft also had to clear a 10-foot (3-m) pole at the start and finish line. Early attempts with heavy aircraft failed, so engineer Paul MacCready took a radically different approach in designing the Gossamer Condor, and his team won the first Kremer Prize in 1977. What was their inspiration? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Henry Lee Lucas (1936)Lucas had an abusive upbringing and began exhibiting violent behavior at an early age—even killing his own mother when he was 23. Little did officers know when they arrested him in 1983 on a weapons charge that they were taking a serial killer—perhaps the most prolific one in US history—off the streets. Lucas eventually claimed responsibility for over 600 murders, but many of his confessions are suspect, and the true number of his victims remains a mystery. Who spared him from execution and why? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 To seek to extinguish anger utterly is but a bravery of the Stoics.Francis Bacon (1561-1626) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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poetry in motion— Something that is very elegant, graceful, and/or beautiful to observe, especially dance or the performing arts. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Moreška Sword Dance (2018)The Moreška Sword Dance is a ritual dance of medieval knights that has been performed for centuries. The dance takes place in Korcula, the main town of the island of Korcula off the coast of the former Yugoslavia (now within Croatia), in honor of the town's patron saint, Theodore. The dance-cum-pageant, with many clashes of steel, symbolizes the battle against the Turks when Korcula was under the control of the kings of Bosnia in the late 14th century. Korcula has hosted the dance since 1997 to celebrate and preserve the 400-year-old tradition of sword dancing. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: witchtroll - Originally a witch or sorceress. More... fly-by-night - Said to be an old term of reproach to a woman signifying that she was a witch, and was extended to "anyone who departs hastily from a recent activity," especially while owing money. More... hag - First meant "witch." More... witch - In Old English, it was actually wicca and originally (c. 890) was a man who practiced magic or sorcery, who we now call a wizard; by the year 1000, witch came to be defined as "a female magician or sorceress." More... | |
| In the News | |
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Surprising Find at the Smithsonian: An Ancient Dolphin SkullSometimes, the most fascinating scientific discoveries happen not out in the field, but in dusty archives and museum boxes. Smithsonian paleontologists have identified a cetacean skull, which had been left to the museum more than half a century ago, as ... More... | |