November 23, 2015
Word of the Day
Article of the Day
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Light is any wavelength of electromagnetic radiation, though the word is commonly used to refer to the visible light spectrum. The human eye typically perceives electromagnetic wavelengths between 400 and 700 nanometers, interpreting them as a range of colors from red to violet. Light is understood to exhibit both particle and wave properties, and the fundamental particle, or quantum, of light is called the photon. What is the scientific study of light called?
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This Day in History
John Milton Publishes Areopagitica (1644)
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Discuss
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Best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost, Milton, a 17th-century English poet, was also a writer of several political and moral pamphlets. More than two decades before his poetic masterpiece was published, Milton wrote Areopagitica, his best known prose work. One of the great arguments in favor of the freedom of the press, it was published in 1644 in response to his dissatisfaction with the strict censorship of the press exercised by Parliament. For what is the pamphlet named?
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Today's Birthday
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London native William Henry Pratt adopted the stage name Boris Karloff while touring as an actor in Canada. After settling in Hollywood in 1919, he began acting in silent films and achieved stardom playing the monster in Frankenstein (1931). Thereafter typecast as a horror movie villain, Karloff went on to appear in more than 100 films. His most famous television performance was in the 1966 animated special How the Grinch Stole Christmas, in which he voiced which characters?
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Today's Holiday
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Zwiebelmarkt is a great celebration of onions in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. The onion market is said to date back to the great fire of 1405, after which farmers of Fribourg were given the right to sell their products in Bern because they helped rebuild the city (though the first documented mention of onions came in the middle of the 19th century). Farmers at hundreds of stalls offer for sale more than 100 tons of strings of onions, as well as other winter vegetables and nuts. There are confetti battles, people dressed in disguises, and jesters doing satires of the year's events.
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Quote of the Day
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Tolerance is a very dull virtue. It is boring. Unlike love, it has always had a bad press. It is negative. It merely means putting up with people, being able to stand things.
E. M. Forster (1879-1970)
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In the News
This Parasitic Worm Appears to Boost Female Fertility
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The Tsimane women of Bolivia are often revered as among the most fertile in the world — on average having 10 children in their lifetimes — but some are even more fertile than others. While collecting information from nearly 1,000 women in this ...
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