Daily Content Archive
(as of Wednesday, June 24, 2015)| Word of the Day | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
histrionics
| |||||||
| Daily Grammar Lesson | |
|---|---|
Imperative SentencesWe use imperative sentences to give orders, commands, and general instructions. Such sentences are said to be in the Imperative Mood. What happens to the subject in an imperative sentence? More... | |
| Article of the Day | |
|---|---|
 HorusIn Egyptian religion, Horus was the falcon-headed sky god whose eyes were the Sun and the Moon. One of the most important of the Egyptian deities, he was the son of Osiris, ruler of the underworld, and Isis, the principal goddess. In a famous myth, Horus avenged the murder of his father by defeating Set, the god of evil and darkness. According to the myth, what injury did Horus sustain in the fight? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
|---|---|
 One of the First Major Outbreaks of St. John's Dance (1374)Germany was the site of one of the first outbreaks of dancing mania, a phenomenon seen primarily in mainland Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. During such outbreaks, groups of up to thousands of people would dance uncontrollably, screaming, shouting, and claiming to have visions until they collapsed from exhaustion. Initially considered a curse sent by a saint, usually St. John the Baptist, it was called "St. John's Dance." To what do researchers now attribute the strange behavior? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
|---|---|
 Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795)Weber was a German physiologist who is known for his work on touch and for the formulation of Weber's law—which states that the increase in stimulus necessary to produce an increase in sensation is not fixed but depends on the strength of the preceding stimulus. Weber's law led to the discipline of psychophysics and serves as the basis of the scales used to measure the loudness of sounds. He is considered a founder of experimental psychology and is also known for what discoveries in anatomy? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
|---|---|
 Sleep is the best cure for waking troubles.Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) | |
| Idiom of the Day | |
|---|---|
not on my watch— That will not happen while I am in charge or on the lookout. More... | |
| Today's Holiday | |
|---|---|
 Inti Raymi Fiesta (2015)The Inti Raymi Festival is an ancient Winter Solstice festival celebrated by the Incas in Peru on June 24. The original Inti Raymi involved animal sacrifices performed at the top of La Marca when the sun reached its zenith. Today the main celebration takes place in Cuzco, where there is a special procession and mock sacrifice to the sun, followed by a week-long celebration involving folkloric dances and regional arts and crafts displays. Bonfires are still lit in the Andes Mountains to celebrate the rebirth of the sun, and people burn their old clothes as a way of marking the end of the harvest cycle. More... | |
| Word Trivia | |
|---|---|
Today's topic: sailingaloof - Comes from sailing, in which ships keep clear of coastal rocks by holding the vessel "luff"—"to the windward"; so, to hold "a-luff" means to "keep clear." More... jibe - Meaning "be compatible, consistent," it may come from the earlier jibe, "to shift a sail from side to side while sailing in the wind." More... plain sailing - Probably comes from plane sailing, a way of determining a ship's position based on its moving on a plane (flat surface). More... aback - Originated in sailing, as a ship was taken aback when a strong gust of wind suddenly blew the sails back against the mast, causing the ship to stop momentarily. More... | |