Daily Content Archive

Word of the Day
refulgent Definition: (adjective) Shining radiantly; resplendent. Synonyms: effulgent, radiant, beaming Usage: Standing by the edge of the sea, they witnessed a refulgent sunset.

Article of the Day

Buckypaper Scientists have applied inventor Buckminster Fuller's name not only to the 60-carbon molecule—the "buckyball"—whose arrangement of atoms resembles his geodesic dome, but to various other objects. Buckypaper, for instance, is a thin sheet made of carbon nanotubes—"buckytubes"—that are approximately 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Buckypaper is one tenth the weight yet potentially 500 times stronger than steel when its sheets are stacked to form a composite. What are its possible uses? More...

This Day in History

Donald Duck Debuts in The Little Wise Hen (1934) Clad in his signature sailor shirt and cap, the perennially pants-less cartoon character Donald Duck made his debut in Disney's The Wise Little Hen. His comically short temper and distinct voice quickly endeared him to audiences, and he became a regular character in Mickey Mouse cartoons. Donald remains quite popular in Scandinavia, as evidenced by the Christmas Eve tradition of watching a TV special featuring him. What Academy Award-winning 1943 cartoon showed Donald saluting Hitler? More...

Today's Birthday

Cole Porter (1891) Though pushed by his grandfather to pursue law, Porter studied music at Harvard and in Paris. A gifted composer and witty lyricist, he wrote a dazzling series of successful film scores and Broadway musicals from the 1920s to the 1950s, including the musicals Anything Goes and Kiss Me, Kate. His most popular songs include "Night and Day" and "Let's Do It." A 1937 accident required him to undergo more than 30 operations, but he continued composing until 1958. Why did he stop? More...

Quotation of the Day
Death is not the end. There remains the litigation over the estate. Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

Idiom of the Day
mooch off (of) (someone or something) — To ask for or obtain (something) through the charity of someone or something; to sponge off someone or something else. More...

Today's Holiday

Ravinia Festival (2024) Chicago's 12-week festival of classical music, theater, and dance takes place in Highland Park, one of the city's northern suburbs. Although today the festival can boast performances by some of the world's most distinguished conductors, soloists, symphony orchestras, and dance companies, its history since 1904 has been punctuated by periodic financial crises and, in the 1940s, a fire that destroyed the Ravinia Park pavilion. But since that time the festival has rebounded, expanding to include pop, jazz, and folk music as well as several weeks of theater performances. More...