Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, May 28, 2024)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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nosegay
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Possessive Determiners vs. Possessive Personal PronounsPossessive determiners are often confused with possessive personal pronouns ("mine," "yours," "his," "hers," "its," "ours," "theirs") since some of the forms overlap. How do possessive pronouns differ from possessive determiners? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Art of Eating FireFire-eaters are entertainers who extinguish flaming objects and transfer flames using their mouths and other body parts. The tradition of fire-eating was embedded in the spiritual performances of Hindu ascetics, and by the late 1880s, these daring acts had become a standard element in sideshow productions. Extinguishing tricks are the traditional hallmark of fire-eating, and performers often use their mouths to snuff out 1, 2, or even 3 flaming torches. What is the “secret” to fire-eating? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 NASA Announces Discovery of Ice Deposits on Mars (2002)Launched in April 2001, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft was sent by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to look for evidence of water on Mars. A little over a year later, NASA announced that water had been detected there in the form of ice, suggesting the possibility of microbial life on the Red Planet. The Phoenix lander confirmed the presence of water in 2008. The presence of what element led NASA researchers to conclude that there was indeed water on Mars? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (1807)Agassiz was a Swiss-born naturalist and geologist. Noticing the presence of huge alpine boulders in areas of Switzerland where there are no glaciers, he hypothesized that glaciers had, at one time, been widespread in the area and had dragged the boulders there. This lent credence to his theory of a recent ice age. He was also a renowned teacher and did notable work with fossils. Agassiz was a lifelong opponent, on religious grounds, of what now-accepted scientific theory? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The history of every country begins in the heart of a man or a woman.Willa Cather (1873-1947) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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mind (one's) manners— To be well behaved and act appropriately. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Ethiopia National Day (2025)A military junta called the Derg brought an end to the Ethiopian Empire and Haile Selassie's rule on September 12, 1974. The Derg socialist military regime was overthrown by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 1991, commemorated by the May 28 holiday. A constitution was adopted in 1994 and Ethiopia's first multiparty elections were held in 1995. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: losingidiot strings - Refers to the strings that attach mittens to prevent a child from losing one. More... in hock - Can be traced to the card game faro, in which the last card in the box was called the hocketty card; when a player bet on a card that ended up in hock, he was at a disadvantage and was himself in hock and at risk of losing his bets. More... jeopardy - Comes from French ieu parti, "(evenly) divided game" (from Latin jocus partitus, "divided game"), referring originally to chess, in which the chances of winning and losing are balanced. More... pain - Originally meant punishment for a crime or offense—sometimes by losing one's head. More... | |