Daily Content Archive

Word of the Day
compensable Definition: (adjective) Being such as to entitle or warrant compensation. Synonyms: remunerative, paying, salaried, stipendiary Usage: Once I traded my unpaid internship for a compensable job, I was able to move out of my parents' house into a place of my own.

Article of the Day

Andrianampoinimerina In the 16th century, the Merina people—a Malagasy ethnic group—founded the kingdom of Imerina on the central plateau of Madagascar, but it disintegrated in the early 18th century. In 1787, Andrianampoinimerina became king of one of the four continually warring Merina provinces and embarked on a campaign to reunify the kingdom. Having accomplished this, he moved on to conquer neighboring lands and peoples in an effort to become sole king of Madagascar. How did he express this political ambition? More...

This Day in History

USSR Begins Drilling World's Deepest Hole (1970) The Kola Superdeep Borehole project was an attempt to dig as far as possible into the Earth's crust. It began when, in 1970, following setbacks in the Space Race, Soviet scientists looked downward. Digging on the remote Kola Peninsula for some 20 years, they reached a depth of 40,230 feet (12,262 m)—about a third of the way through the Earth's crust—before being forced to stop due to higher-than-expected temperatures of 350° F (180° C). Surprisingly, water was found at what depth? More...

Today's Birthday

Joseph Brodsky (1940) Soon after Brodsky began writing poetry in the USSR in the 1950s, he was accused by the government of "social parasitism" and sentenced to hard labor. Exiled in 1972, he settled in New York and began writing in English. He was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1987 and was poet laureate of the US for a time. His poetry, with its themes of loss and exile, is highly regarded for its intensity, depth, and wit. What was his retort when a Soviet judge once asked him, "Who enrolled you in the ranks of poets?" More...

Quotation of the Day
The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly. Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Idiom of the Day
memory lane — A set or series of memories of one's past life, likened to a roadway that one may visit or take a tour of. (Used primarily in the phrase "stroll/take a trip/walk etc. down memory lane.") More...

Today's Holiday

Bulgarian Culture Day (2025) This Bulgarian national holiday promotes Bulgarian culture and honors two brothers, St. Cyril (c. 827-869) and St. Methodius (c. 815-844), missionaries to Moravia. They are believed to have invented the Slavonic alphabet, also known as the Cyrillic alphabet. Special religious services, concerts, festivals, and student parades are held throughout Bulgaria on this day, which is also known as Saints Cyril and Methodius's Day, and Day of the Founders of the Slavonic Alphabet. An impressive liturgy, celebrated at the cathedral in Sofia, is one of the highlights. More...