Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, December 13, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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welter
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| Article of the Day | |
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 The DonSir Donald "The Don" George Bradman's 20-year cricket career began in 1928, when he joined the Australian national team. He is widely considered the sport's greatest player and one of the world's most outstanding athletes. Bradman's career batting average was 99.94 runs per inning, a record that still stands at 30 runs higher than his nearest competitor. In 1934, acute appendicitis and peritonitis nearly cost Bradman his life. Who famously asked to be kept apprised of his condition? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Chinese River Dolphin Declared Functionally Extinct (2006)Found only in China's Yangtze River, the baiji was a pale, nearly blind freshwater dolphin species nicknamed the "Goddess of the Yangtze." Though it had lived there for millennia, its population declined precipitously in the late 20th century as an industrialized China made heavy use of the river. Many were injured by fishing gear and boat propellers. The species was finally declared functionally extinct after a six-week search failed to locate any baiji. When was the last baiji caught on film? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Emily Carr (1871)Now considered an icon of Canadian art, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in life. She primarily painted indigenous-themed or landscape scenes, and she was relatively unknown until her work was featured in a 1927 exhibition at the National Gallery, when she was in her 50s. Carr continued to paint thereafter but had to reduce her artistic output in her 70s due to health concerns. Instead, Carr began to pursue what other talent for which she is also remembered? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation. It is the policeman in all our hearts, set there to watch that we do not break its laws. It is the spy seated in the central stronghold of the ego.W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Susuharai (2015)In Japan, many people choose to give their houses a thorough cleaning at year's end. Worn or broken furniture and utensils and items that have been lost are replaced. New tatami mats, the thick straw mats on which people sit and sleep, are brought in, and damage to the paper sliding doors in traditional Japanese houses is repaired. In some areas, it is customary to tie pounded rice cakes (mochi-bana, "rice-cake flowers") to the branches of willow trees as an offering to the gods. Friends and co-workers may also throw "year-end forgetting parties" known as bonen-kai. More... | |