Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, May 24, 2020)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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orison
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Pronunciation Changes with NominalizationWhen creating nouns, there are instances in which, instead of changing a word's spelling, we change where we pronounce a stress on the word's syllables to indicate a shift from a verb to a noun. What is this change known as? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 GalalithGalalith is a biodegradable, nonflammable plastic material made of the milk protein casein and formaldehyde. Called "milk stone," it was one of the first synthetic materials ever produced. It was used for Art-Deco jewelry, buttons, and pens and replaced ivory in piano keys. Though it could be easily dyed and cut, it could not be molded, and this drawback, along with milk rationing in WWII, led to its commercial demise. It can be easily produced at home with milk and what other common ingredient? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 USSR Begins Drilling World's Deepest Hole (1970)The Kola Superdeep Borehole project was an attempt to dig as far as possible into the Earth's crust. It began when, in 1970, following setbacks in the Space Race, Soviet scientists looked downward. Digging on the remote Kola Peninsula for some 20 years, they reached a depth of 40,230 feet (12,262 m)—about a third of the way through the Earth's crust—before being forced to stop due to higher-than-expected temperatures of 350° F (180° C). Surprisingly, water was found at what depth? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Helen Brooke Taussig (1898)Now regarded as the founder of pediatric cardiology, Taussig was an American physician who, among other things, revolutionized the diagnosis and treatment of "blue babies," babies whose heart malformations cause low blood oxygen content. She pioneered the use of fluoroscopy to identify defects in the heart and great vessels and devised a surgical treatment with Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas that saved thousands of infants. She also helped block the approval of what dangerous drug in the US? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 I always advise people never to give advice.P. G. Wodehouse (1881-1975) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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memory lane— A set or series of memories of one's past life, likened to a roadway that one may visit or take a tour of. (Used primarily in the phrase "stroll/take a trip/walk etc. down memory lane.") More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Bulgarian Culture Day (2025)This Bulgarian national holiday promotes Bulgarian culture and honors two brothers, St. Cyril (c. 827-869) and St. Methodius (c. 815-844), missionaries to Moravia. They are believed to have invented the Slavonic alphabet, also known as the Cyrillic alphabet. Special religious services, concerts, festivals, and student parades are held throughout Bulgaria on this day, which is also known as Saints Cyril and Methodius's Day, and Day of the Founders of the Slavonic Alphabet. An impressive liturgy, celebrated at the cathedral in Sofia, is one of the highlights. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: limbsashtanga - Sanskrit for "having eight parts"—referring to the eight limbs or sutras of yoga; ashtanga yoga is also known as power yoga. More... basket case - Originally slang denoting a soldier who had lost all four limbs, thus unable to move independently. More... stretch - Originally meant "lengthening the limbs" or making them stiffer by stretching. More... hurkle, hurple - To hurkle or hurple is to draw one's limbs in and scrunch up the shoulders in reaction to the cold or in a storm. More... | |