Picture of the day for February 28, 2018

Male lion (Panthera leo) yawning in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Botswana, South Africa.. Learn more.

Picture of the day for February 27, 2018

Aerial photo of the Tauride Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia.. Learn more.

lust for power

Intense, insatiable desire to attain power and control. Watch the video

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The Schmidt Sting Pain Index

The Schmidt Sting Pain Index is a scale that rates the relative pain caused by the stings of nearly 80 species of insects in the Hymenoptera order, which includes wasps, bees, and ants. It is mainly the work of entomologist Justin O. Schmidt, who spent years subjecting himself to the stings, ranking them, and describing some of the experiences in colorful detail. Which insect's sting was described as producing "trembling in the form of a totally uncontrollable urge to shake the affected part"? Discuss


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The Buffalo Creek Flood (1972)

More than 100 people were killed and thousands more left injured or homeless when a dam in West Virginia's rural Buffalo Creek Valley gave way. It had been built out of sediment left over from coal mining and collapsed after a heavy rainfall, sweeping away two more dams in its path. The collapse unleashed approximately 130 million gallons of black waste water onto the residents of the valley below. A study done 17 years later found that residents still suffered what lasting psychological effect? Discuss


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Anna Sewell

Cruelty was the devil's own trade-mark, and if we saw any one who took pleasure in cruelty we might know who he belonged to ... On the other hand, where we saw people who loved their neighbors, and were kind to man and beast, we might know that was God's mark. Discuss


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Kuwait Liberation Day

After Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's troops invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, several countries in the United Nations formed a military coalition—including troops and equipment from the U.S., France, and Britain—to force them out. Operation Desert Storm began on January 17, 1991, and, for five weeks, U.S. and British air forces relentlessly bombed Baghdad. This was followed by four days of a ground war, which resulted in Hussein's troops leaving Kuwait. February 26 is a national holiday in Kuwait celebrating the end of Iraq's military presence in Kuwait. Discuss


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John Harvey Kellogg (1852)

Remembered today as the co-creator of corn flakes, Kellogg was a physician and food reformer. He founded a sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, based on the principles of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in conjunction with his own eccentric ideas about health. He and his brother invented a flaked breakfast cereal for patients, but a feud developed between the two over flake recipes and business rights. At the end of his life, he sent his brother an apology, but it was not received in time—why? Discuss


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Picture of the day for February 26, 2018

Observation tower on the Ram Mountain (Barania Gora), the second highest mountain in the Beskid Śląski. Silesia, Poland.. Learn more.

Black Pudding

Black pudding is a type of sausage made by cooking blood with a filler—often meat, fat, or bread—until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled. Called blood sausage in North America, the dish is prepared in many different ways throughout the world, often using pig or cattle blood. It can be eaten uncooked but is often grilled or boiled in its skin. Black pudding is usually served as part of a traditional full breakfast in the United Kingdom and Ireland, along with white pudding, which is what? Discuss


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Fiesta sa EDSA

The Fiesta sa EDSA is a commemoration of the bloodless People Power Revolution in the Philippines from Feb. 22-25, 1986, in which the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos was toppled. Two key government officers rebelled in protest of Marcos's oppression and demanded his resignation. Pro-Marcos forces threatened to annihilate them, but two million unarmed people, with offerings of flowers, food, and prayers, provided a human shield and overcame the military's firepower. The day is marked with ceremonies at the site of the revolution in Quezon City, a part of Manila. Discuss


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lust for life

Intense eagerness to experience all that life has to offer. Watch the video

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The Calaveras Skull Hoax Begins (1866)

What began as a practical joke became a famous, decades-long scientific hoax when a prominent geologist not only fell for it, but vigorously defended it as real. After miners in Calaveras County, California, claimed to have found a human skull deep within a mine, Harvard University Professor Josiah Whitney—then the State Geologist of California—announced that it was the earliest evidence of humans on the continent. Where might the miners who planted the skull have obtained it in the first place? Discuss


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embezzle

Definition: (verb) To take (money, for example) for one's own use in violation of a trust.
Synonyms: defalcate, malversate, misappropriate, peculate.
Usage: The director embezzled $34 million in company funds before he was caught.
Discuss

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Ida Noddack (1896)

One of the first prominent female chemists in Germany, Noddack was nominated several times for a Nobel Prize but never won. Still, she made a number of remarkable contributions to science, co-discovering the element rhenium with her future husband and proposing for the first time the idea of nuclear fission. She also participated in the discovery of another element, which her team named masurium, but they could not prove its existence. It was finally isolated by others in 1937 and named what? Discuss


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Picture of the day for February 25, 2018

Anděl metro station in Prague, Czech Republic.. Learn more.

Picture of the day for February 24, 2018

Cassius blue butterfly (Leptotes cassius theonus), Artemisa, Cuba. On February 24 2008, Raúl Castro, was declared the new President, taking over from his brother Fidel Castro. Learn more.

Picture of the day for February 23, 2018

A Dutch Panzerhaubitze 2000 fires a round in Afghanistan.. Learn more.

lucky devil

Someone who has just experienced particularly good fortune, generally of whom the speaker is envious to some degree. Watch the video

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Picture of the day for February 22, 2018

A Black Brant IX sounding rocket launches from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska at 5:14 a.m. EST, Feb. 22, 2017. This is the first of two launches planned in NASA's In Situ and Groundbased Low Altitude StudieS (ISINGLASS) mission to study the structures of auroras.. Learn more.

Picture of the day for February 21, 2018

A worker installing a turbine blade on a steam turbine rotor being assembled in a Siemens factory in Germany. Learn more.

First week of Lent

It wasn't until the ninth century that the Lenten season, called the Great Lent in the East to differentiate it from the Advent fast called Little Lent, was fixed at 40 days (with Sundays omitted). For centuries the Lenten season has been observed with certain periods of strict fasting, as well as giving up something—a favorite food or other worldly pleasure—for the 40 days of Lent. Celebrations such as Carnival and Mardi Gras offered Christians their last opportunities to indulge before the rigorous Lenten restrictions. Discuss


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The Station Nightclub Fire (2003)

Moments after the band Great White took the stage at the Station nightclub in Rhode Island, sparks from one of the group's pyrotechnic devices—of which the nightclub was unaware—ignited the highly flammable sound insulation around the stage. The nightclub, which had no sprinklers, was engulfed in minutes, trapping many inside. One hundred people were killed, making it one of the deadliest nightclub fires in US history. How many people faced criminal charges in the aftermath of the tragedy? Discuss


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Picture of the day for February 20, 2018

Photo of a Sartuul woman from Tsagatuy village, Dzhidinsky District, Buryatia, Russia.. Learn more.

Shivaji (1630)

A devout Hindu, Shivaji grew up hating the Mughal Empire that controlled most of his native India. Around 1655, he began making guerrilla attacks on the Muslim kingdom of Bijapur, gradually carving out his own domain. He lured the Bijapur army to its destruction, becoming a formidable warlord overnight by taking the army's equipment. He then established the Maratha Empire, which was noted for its religious tolerance. How did he once make a daring escape from the Mughal emperor's palace? Discuss


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Former US Vice President Aaron Burr Arrested for Treason (1807)

Nearly three years after killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, former US Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested on unrelated charges of treason. Though the exact details of his plan were a mystery even then, he was accused of plotting to establish an independent country of his own, possibly in the American Southwest. He was treated well while imprisoned at Fort Stoddert and was eventually acquitted, but his political career was destroyed. Which of his co-conspirators turned on him? Discuss


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Washington's Birthday Celebration

Every year, Alexandria, Virginia, hosts an array of activities devoted to George Washington, including the nation's largest parade honoring the Father of the United States. The first parade to honor him was in 1798, when he came from his Mt. Vernon home to review the troops in front of Gadsby's Tavern. The present-day festivities get off to an elegant start over the weekend with a banquet followed by the George Washington Birthnight Ball in Gadsby's Tavern, a duplication of the birthday-eve parties held in Washington's lifetime. On Monday is the big parade. Discuss


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Father of the Deaf

Charles-Michel de l'Épée was born to a wealthy French family in 1712. He trained to be a Catholic priest but was denied ordination and went on to study law before returning to the Church. A chance encounter with two deaf sisters who communicated using a signed language inspired Épée to dedicate himself to the education and salvation of the deaf. In the 1750s, he founded a shelter that eventually became the world's first free school for the deaf. What are some criticisms of his signing system? Discuss


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fervency

Definition: (noun) Feelings of great warmth and intensity.
Synonyms: ardor, fire.
Usage: She spoke about the shelter with so much fervency that you could not help but develop a similar passion for the cause.
Discuss

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lubrication payment

A small sum of money or other gifts or services to be paid or given to government officials to expedite business operations in countries that do not prohibit such activity. Watch the video

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Picture of the day for February 19, 2018

Snow polo match between the teams of Cartier (in red) and Ralph Lauren (in black) at the 30th edition of the Snow Polo World Cup, celebrated in February 2014 in St. Moritz, Switzerland.. Learn more.

Henry David Thoreau

Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Discuss


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Winged Cats

Since Henry David Thoreau first recorded the details of his encounter with a "winged cat" in 1842, there have been over 138 reported sightings of such creatures. Some explain the phenomenon as the result of improper grooming, which can lead cats to develop winglike mats of fur, but there are also a few medical conditions that can give cats a winged appearance. One is feline cutaneous asthenia, a skin deformity characterized by abnormal elasticity and stretching of the skin. What is the other? Discuss


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begrime

Definition: (verb) Make soiled, filthy, or dirty.
Synonyms: bemire, colly, dirty, soil.
Usage: Mother warned me not to begrime my clothes while playing outside.
Discuss

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The Age of Kali Yuga Begins (3102 BCE)

In Hindu scripture, the age of Kali Yuga is the last of the four cyclic stages of the world and is currently ongoing. It is thought to have begun on the same day that Krishna left the Earth and is said to be marked by greed and murder. The scriptures predict that during Kali Yuga, unreasonable rulers will impose burdensome taxes and people will migrate to wheat-producing countries, become addicted to alcohol, and exhibit flexible morals. How long is the age expected to last? Discuss


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Nepal Democracy Day

Also known as Rashtriya Prajatantra Divas, this holiday commemorates the introduction of a democratic system of government in Nepal, which had been ruled by the Rana family since the mid-19th century. Two other national holidays in Nepal are Unity Day, January 11—celebrating the unification of the various principalities into one country more than 200 years ago—and Constitution Day, November 8—observing the adoption of a new Nepalese constitution in 1990. Discuss


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Helen Gurley Brown (1922)

Propelled to fame by her 1962 bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, Brown became editor-in-chief of the struggling Cosmopolitan magazine. By directing the magazine toward single, young career women and by being an outspoken advocate of women's sexual freedom, she not only revived the publication but also played a part in the sexual revolution. By the end of her 32-year tenure with Cosmopolitan, the magazine ranked sixth at the newsstand but first in what other kind of store? Discuss


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lower the bar

To lower the standards of quality that are expected of or required for something. Watch the video

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Picture of the day for February 18, 2018

Highlight Towers in Munich, Germany, is a twin tower office skyscraper complex planned by Murphy/Jahn and completed in 2004.. Learn more.

Picture of the day for February 17, 2018

Emil Jönsson (Sweden) and Alexey Petukhov (Russia) at the Quebec City Sprint Cross-country Skiing World Cup 2012–2013. Free Team Sprint Final.. Learn more.

Picture of the day for February 16, 2018

Coyote (Canis latrans lestes) walking in snow in the Yosemite National Park, California, USA.. Learn more.

Picture of the day for February 15, 2018

Students from Yogyakarta State University put on a fashion show on Sudirman Street, Yogyakarta, to celebrate Chinese New Year. They are taking advantage of the car-free day policies.. Learn more.

Picture of the day for February 14, 2018

Bottle of Ron Zacapa XO.. Learn more.

Picture of the day for February 13, 2018

Small red damselflies (Ceriagrion tenellum) mating; Remember it's Valentine's Day tomorrow.... Learn more.

George Meredith (1828)

One of the great English novelists, Meredith wrote complex, often comic yet highly cerebral works that contain striking psychological character studies. Though he ostensibly launched a law career at age 18, he focused instead on journalism, poetry writing, and translation. Unable to earn a living this way, he began writing novels and eventually became a critical and popular success. In one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tales, Sherlock Holmes asks Dr. Watson to talk about Meredith instead of what? Discuss


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loss of face

The state or circumstance of having lost the respect of other people, as due to having done something improper or unacceptable. Watch the video

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The Battle of the Herrings (1429)

The meatless days of Lent were approaching when Sir John Fastolf set off from Paris with hundreds of wagons laden with weapons and barrels of herring to resupply the English troops that had been laying siege to the French town of Orléans for months. Engaged by thousands of French troops attempting to sever his supply route, Fastolf made a defensive formation with his wagons, lending the battle its name. What group's poorly timed attempt to help the French may have caused them to lose the battle? Discuss


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Lincoln's Birthday

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born on Feb. 12, 1809. A wreath-laying ceremony and reading of the Gettysburg Address at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., are traditional on Feb. 12. Lincoln's actual birthday is a legal holiday in 11 states: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and West Virginia. In most other states, Lincoln's and George Washington's birthdays are combined for a legal holiday on the third Monday in February called Presidents' Day. Discuss


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Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus is a famous road junction and public space in London. Built in 1819 to connect Regent Street with the major shopping street of Piccadilly, the "great thoroughfare," as Charles Dickens called it, has since become a popular meeting place and tourist destination. In the late 19th century, a commemorative fountain was erected there featuring a nude, winged figure often mistakenly identified as Eros, the Greek god of love. Who did the sculptor actually intend to depict? Discuss


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cannular

Definition: (adjective) Constituting a tube; having hollow tubes (as for the passage of fluids).
Synonyms: tubelike, tubular, vasiform.
Usage: The nurse inserted the cannular needle in my arm and started giving me intravenous fluids.
Discuss

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Picture of the day for February 12, 2018

Building of the Irons Museum in Pereslavl-Zalessky, Russia.. Learn more.

Tewodros II Crowned Emperor of Ethiopia (1855)

Often called Ethiopia's first modern ruler, Tewodros was a bold and clever warrior who came to the throne through the conquest of other chiefs, reunifying the various Ethiopian kingdoms into one empire. He attempted to modernize the country, abolish feudalism and slavery, and focus loyalty around the government rather than the church but failed to achieve this during his reign. His later years were marked with instability and cruelty. Why did he assume the name Tewodros upon taking the throne? Discuss


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meager

Definition: (adjective) Deficient in amount or quality or extent.
Synonyms: scrimpy, stingy.
Usage: So meager were their trappings that they were practically naked; a fact that was in no way remarkable among the tillers of the fields of Mars.
Discuss

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lose the number of (one's) mess

obsolete military and naval To die or be killed. Watch the video

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Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

The Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes commemorates the first of 18 appearances of the Virgin Mary to a 14-year-old French peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous. The young girl's visions occurred between February 11 and July 16, 1858, near the town of Lourdes. The Virgin led her to a nearby grotto, and the miraculous spring that appeared there has been associated ever since with the power to heal. Some five million people a year make the pilgrimage to Lourdes, making it one of the world's major pilgrimage sites. Discuss


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Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (1380)

An Italian humanist and calligrapher, Poggio Bracciolini is remembered today for two reasons. As a secretary, historian, and copyist, he uncovered many forgotten and neglected Latin manuscripts—including works by Cicero and Lucretius—that might otherwise have been lost to history. He is also famous for his extraordinarily beautiful and legible handwriting, which was later developed into roman type, the predecessor of almost all non-italic fonts. Whose handwriting was the basis for italic fonts? Discuss


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Lycanthropy

The ancient belief in lycanthropy, the magical ability of a human to assume the form and characteristics of a wolf, still exists in many parts of the world. In the Middle Ages, the church went so far as to condemn lycanthropy as a form of sorcery and often ruthlessly punished suspected offenders. One of the most widely held superstitions relating to lycanthropy is the belief in the werewolf. According to folk beliefs, what are the various methods for becoming a werewolf? Discuss


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Picture of the day for February 11, 2018

Groomed skirun from mount Seceda in Gröden. Learn more.

Picture of the day for February 10, 2018

Snowboard figure at the 2008 Shakedown. Saint-Sauveur, Quebec (Canada).. Learn more.

Carnival (Rio de Janeiro)

Carnival is the largest popular festival in Brazil, and the most extravagant celebration takes place in Rio de Janeiro, where, since the 1930s, the parades, pageants, and costume balls go on for four days, all accompanied by the distinctive rhythm of the samba. The whole city is decorated with colored lights and streamers, and impromptu bands play on every street corner. The high point of the Carioca (as the natives of Rio are known) Carnival is the parade of the samba schools (Escola de Samba), which begins on Carnival Sunday and ends about midday on Monday. Discuss


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Picture of the day for February 9, 2018

The primary mirror of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.. Learn more.

Hari-Kuyo

Hari-Kuyo is a requiem service for needles held throughout Japan. The services are attended not only by tailors and dressmakers but also by people who sew at home. Traditionally, a shrine is set up in the Shinto style. On the top tier are offerings of cake and fruit, on the second tier there is a pan of tofu, and the bottom tier is for placing scissors and thimbles. People insert their broken or bent needles in the tofu while offering prayers of thanks to the needles for their years of service. A hari-kuyo is also held in Kyoto on Dec. 8. Discuss


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