September 21, 2017
Word of the Day
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Definition:
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(noun) Dense vegetation consisting of stunted trees or bushes. |
Synonyms: |
chaparral, bush
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Usage: |
The hikers slowly made their way through the dense scrub and reached the campsite by nightfall. |
Idiom of the Day
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To be left unsupervised or uncontrolled; to be allowed to do as one pleases.
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Article of the Day
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Though not officially recognized as a disease, Morgellons is a condition associated with a range of cutaneous symptoms, including crawling, biting, and stinging sensations, persistent skin lesions, and the presence of fibers on or under the skin. Most health professionals consider Morgellons a manifestation of other known medical conditions, including delusional parasitosis, a form of psychosis in which sufferers believe they are infested with parasites. What is known about the unusual fibers?
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Daily Grammar Lesson
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The so-called middle voice is an approximate type of grammatical voice in which the subject both performs and receives the action expressed by the verb. Because the agent is also the receiver of the action in the middle voice, what can we do to clarify this connection?
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This Day in History
"Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus" Editorial Is Published (1897)
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Discuss
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In 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon of New York City asked her father if Santa Claus was real. When he suggested that "if you see it in The Sun, it's so," she wrote to the newspaper and asked. Editor Francis Pharcellus Church's lengthy, touching reply became one of the most reprinted newspaper editorials in US history. "Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias," wrote Church. What happened to Virginia?
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Today's Birthday
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853)
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Discuss
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A Dutch physicist and professor at the University of Leiden, Onnes founded in 1884 a cryogenic laboratory that would become a renowned research center for low-temperature physics. He was the first to produce liquid helium, and in the process produced a temperature within a degree of absolute zero. He also discovered superconductivity—the abnormally high electrical conductivity of certain materials at very low temperatures. When did he receive the Nobel Prize in Physics?
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Today's Holiday
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Malta Independence Day is a nationwide celebration of Malta's independence, achieved on this day in 1964. Malta was under the control of various political entities from its earliest days. In the early 19th century, the Maltese acknowledged Great Britain's sovereignty. Malta's heroic stand against the Axis in World War II won a declaration that self-government would be restored at the end of the war. Self-rule was revoked in 1959 and restored again in 1962, and independence was finally granted in 1964. Independence Day is celebrated with parades and festivities throughout the country.
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Quote of the Day
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So the days pass, and I ask myself sometimes whether one is not hypnotized, as a child by a silver globe, by life, and whether this is living.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
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In the News
Nerf guns can lead to serious eye injuries, doctors warn
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Discuss
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Bullets from Nerf guns can cause serious eye injuries, doctors from a London eye hospital are warning. They treated three people with internal bleeding around the eye, pain and blurred vision after they were shot with the toy guns by children. Writing ...
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