Daily Content Archive
(as of Thursday, December 21, 2017)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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extempore
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| Article of the Day | |
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.JPG) Faraday CagesIn 1836, scientist Michael Faraday observed that a charge on a conductor resides only on its surface and does not impact anything enclosed within. To demonstrate this, he coated a room with metal foil, had high-voltage discharges strike its exterior, and showed with an electroscope that no electric charge reached the interior. Today, any container made of a conductor that shields its interior from electric fields is called a Faraday cage. What common modes of transportation act as Faraday cages? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Marie and Pierre Curie Discover Radium (1898)Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie were working with pitchblende, a heavy mineral known to contain the radioactive element uranium, when they noticed something unusual. Somehow, the pitchblende was more radioactive than the uranium it contained. The culprit was radium, a previously unknown element present in pitchblende only in trace amounts—yet more than a million times more radioactive than uranium. What common household products contained radium until it was discovered to be dangerous? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Cicely Isabel Fairfield, AKA Dame Rebecca West (1892)One of the most highly regarded British prose writers of the 20th century, West began her career as a journalist for feminist and suffragist publications. She then served as a literary critic and political writer for American and British journals. Her admired reports on the Nuremberg Trials were collected in A Train of Powder, and her history of Yugoslavia, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, is a classic work of travel literature. Why did West have to be evacuated from her home in 1980? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The latter part of a wise man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and false opinions he had contracted in the former.Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Dongji (2020)In Korea, the Winter Solstice falls during the 11th lunar month. Red bean stew with glutinous rice flour balls is a favorite seasonal dish, particularly on Dongji. This food is not only eaten as a means of warding off disease, but is also offered to the family ancestors, spread around the front door or gate of the house, and, throughout the year, prepared and taken to people who are in mourning. The color red is traditionally thought to repel evil spirits and all misfortune. More... | |