August 4, 2016
Word of the Day
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Definition:
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(noun) A person who is of equal standing with another in a group. |
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equal, peer, match
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He was a motivated and slightly competitive student who worked hard to distinguish himself from his compeers. |
Idiom of the Day
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Mistreated or abused; cheated; dejected. Often preceded by "feel.
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Article of the Day
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Accidentally discovered in 1934 while scientists were experimenting with sonar, sonoluminescence is the emission of short bursts of light from the implosion of bubbles formed in a liquid medium as sound waves pass through it. Scientists have since theorized that the temperatures inside the bubbles are hot enough to melt steel. In 2001, the first known instance of an animal producing light by sonoluminescence was reported. What creature exhibited such behavior?
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This Day in History
Greenwich Foot Tunnel Opens (1902)
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Discuss
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The Greenwich Foot Tunnel is a pedestrian tunnel beneath the River Thames in East London, linking Greenwich with the Isle of Dogs. Opened in 1902, the tunnel replaced an occasionally unreliable ferry service and was intended to allow workers living on the south side of the Thames to reach their workplaces in the London docks and shipyards. The tunnel is made of cast-iron rings lined with concrete and covered with some 200,000 white tiles. It is 1,215 ft (370 m) long and how deep underground?
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Today's Birthday
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Armstrong was an innovative trum and singer who strongly influenced the melodic development of jazz in the 1920s. He began playing in marching, riverboat, and cabaret bands as a youth in New Orleans and later joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band in Chicago and the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in New York City. Between 1925 and 1929, he made his classic Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings, which established the preeminence of the virtuoso jazz soloist. What style of singing did he popularize?
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Today's Holiday
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The Dog Days are known as the hottest days of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and usually occur in July and early August. In ancient times, the sultry weather in Rome during these months often made people sick, which they blamed on the fact that this was when Sirius, the Dog Star, rose at about the same time as the sun. There are many different ways of calculating which days in any given year are the dog days, but it is impossible to be precise; nowadays it is generally assumed that they fall between July 3 and August 11—slightly later than they occurred in ancient times.
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Quote of the Day
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It is a maxim among these lawyers that whatever has been done before, may legally be done again: and therefore they take special care to record all the decisions formerly made against common justice, and the general reason of mankind.
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
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In the News
As Trampoline Parks Jump in Popularity, So Do Injuries
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Discuss
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Heather Bottoms' two sons had been asking to go to a local indoor trampoline park for a while, so last September she took them. Her older son, then age 13, was jumping up and down when he bounced off the wall, fell and broke both the bones in one arm. The ...
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