Daily Content Archive
(as of Tuesday, March 5, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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steadfast
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| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
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Question MarksQuestion marks ( ? ) are used to identify sentences that ask a question (technically known as interrogative sentences). What are indirect questions? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
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 The Space ElevatorA space elevator is a hypothetical megastructure capable of transporting material from Earth—or another celestial body—into space without the use of rockets. The concept was first conceived by Russian inventor Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1895. Many of today's proposed designs incorporate tensile towers built out of advanced materials like carbon nanotubes, which are very strong and lightweight. By 1978, technology had advanced enough that working space elevators could have been constructed where? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" Speech (1946)The phrase "Iron Curtain" refers to the political, military, and ideological barrier erected by the USSR after WWII to seal itself and its dependent eastern European allies off from contact with the West. Churchill's use of the phrase in a 1946 speech at a US college, though initially perceived as antagonistic, popularized the term. The Iron Curtain largely ceased to exist in 1990, when the communists of eastern Europe finally abandoned one-party rule. What are some earlier uses of the phrase? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Gerardus Mercator (1512)Mercator was a Flemish geographer, mathematician, and cartographer who perfected the first map using the Mercator projection, the translation of the spherical earth to a two-dimensional flat plane. In it, parallels and meridians are rendered as straight lines spaced to produce an accurate ratio of latitude to longitude at any point. It permits mariners to steer a course over long distances without continually adjusting compass readings. What map-related term was coined by Mercator? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove lid. She will never sit on a hot stove lid again and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.Mark Twain (1835-1910) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
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around Robin Hood's barn— A long, indirect route. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Pancake Day (2019)For the people of Olney, England, and Liberal, Kansas, Pancake Day is more than another name for Shrove Tuesday. The old custom of making pancakes on the Tuesday preceding Ash Wednesday has survived in the form of a Pancake Race. Ladies of both towns run a 450-yard course, and participants must wear a skirt, an apron, and a headscarf, and must toss their pancakes in the air three times as they run. The winner of the Kansas race is announced by a phone call to Olney immediately after it is over. The Olney race dates back to 1445; the Liberal, Kansas, race has been run since 1950. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
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Today's topic: tribelow man - On an actual totem pole, it is really the most important man in the tribe. More... tribe - From Latin tribus, it may refer to the three divisions of early Romans, the Latins, Sabines, and Etruscans. More... tribunal - Originally referred to a seat or raised platform for judges, from Latin tribunus, "head of a tribe." More... cannibal - When Columbus was trying to find the Spice Islands, he was told of a tribe of man-eating natives in Cuba and Haiti called Caribs (from which we get Caribbean) or Caniba (Columbus' rendition of the name); the word canib, meaning "brave and fierce," became cannibal, meaning "anthropophagite," a person who eats human flesh. More... | |