Daily Content Archive
(as of Friday, June 15, 2018)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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baseless
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Oil LampsThe use of oil lamps—simple vessels that use fuel sources such as olive oil to produce light—extends from prehistory to the present day, though they have been largely replaced by electric lighting and are now generally used for mood lighting or as an alternative to candles during power outages. The first oil lamps were made of naturally occurring objects, such as coconuts, shells, and stones. Later advances led to the production of clay and metal lamps. How do various religions use oil lamps? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Charles Goodyear Granted Patent for Vulcanization (1844)Goodyear was the inventor of vulcanization, a process that makes rubber harder, less soluble, and more durable. Previously, rubber products were sticky and volatile, often melting in heat or hardening in cold. He obtained a patent for vulcanization in 1844 but was still badly in debt at the time of his death. Goodyear had no official connection to the famed Goodyear Tire Company, which was founded decades later and named in his honor. Why was he in prison when he began experimenting with rubber? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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_by_Erling_Mandelmann_-_2.jpg) Hugo Pratt (1927)Italian comic book author Hugo Pratt spent his early childhood in Venice and moved with his parents to Ethiopia when he was 10. Following WWII, he returned to Italy, but he did not remain there for long. Pratt traveled widely, and his wanderlust is mirrored in his best-known character, Corto Maltese, a roving sea captain and adventurer. A meticulous researcher, Pratt often incorporated actual historic figures and events into Maltese's fictional adventures. Where was Pratt imprisoned as a child? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind, and when the same thought occurs to another man, it is the key to that era.Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Sanno Matsuri (2020)Held in Tokyo at the Hie Shrine, the Sanno Matsuri is held every two years. People in special holiday outfits jam into the shrine complex. On June 15, the shrine's mikoshi (portable shrines) and gilded lions' heads are brought out for the main parade, accompanied by about 400 participants dressed in costumes of the Heian Era. The shrine maidens perform kagura—sacred dance and music in honor of the gods. A good-luck ceremony known as the Chi-no-Wa Shinji involves passing through a big circle woven together with chigaya (a kind of grass) attached to a bamboo frame. More... | |