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The BFD Word of the Day

The BFD Word of the Day

The word for today is… ovine (adjective): of, relating to, or resembling sheep Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Sheep belong to the same family of mammals as goats, antelope, bison, buffalo, and cows. The genus Ovis includes at least five species, including the domestic sheep. Some 12,000 years ago, in

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Meth and the Media

Remember how back in the day methamphetamine was everywhere? And remember Paul Holmes going on a campaign against meth after his daughter got hooked and how he got pseudoephedrine banned from chemists’ shelves? According to the media it was a full-on crisis. Well, here are some graphs. And remember how

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The Real Purpose of Pronouns

The Real Purpose of Pronouns

The Ponderer In all the current discussions about pronouns, it is easy to get caught up in the arguments and forget what a pronoun is actually for. A pronoun substitutes for a noun. It is used instead of a noun, to simplify speech. We substitute pronouns to avoid saying something

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The BFD Word of the Day

The BFD Word of the Day

The word for today is… fallacy (noun): 1a : a false or mistaken idea b : erroneous character 2a : deceptive appearance b obsolete : guile, trickery 3 : an often plausible argument using false or invalid inference Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Philosophers are constantly using the word fallacy. For them, a fallacy is reasoning

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How Stranger Things Revived the American Satanic Panic of the 80S

Michael David Barbezat Australian Catholic University Michael Barbezat is a Research Fellow in the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at the Australian Catholic University. His research on medieval intellectual and religious history examines the ideologies and assumptions that justified and encouraged persecution during the Middle Ages. From Kate Bush

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Hangover Pill Can Break Down up to 70% Of Alcohol in an Hour

Ashwin Dhanda University of Plymouth Dr Ashwin Dhanda is a Consultant Hepatologist at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust where he is lead for alcohol services. He is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Plymouth. A new anti-hangover supplement has just gone on sale in the UK. It is

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Houston Helps 25,000 People Exit Homelessness

Houston Helps 25,000 People Exit Homelessness

Ingo Geiger scoop.me Over the past 10 years, homelessness in Houston has dropped by 63%. Double the decrease seen anywhere else in the U.S. The city helped 25,000 people out of homelessness. So what does Houston do better than other major cities? The “housing first” concept gives

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Big Banker Is Watching You

Big Banker Is Watching You

There’s a meme doing the rounds: “The year is 2024. Your electric car won’t start for 48 hours because your status on social media was deemed too offensive.” What ridiculous, conspiracy theory nonsense! Except that, like too many “conspiracy theories” today, it’s just a few weeks at

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Challenging Common Arguments in Support of Abortion

Challenging Common Arguments in Support of Abortion

Colin Parkinson The recent overturning of Roe vs Wade has brought a lot of attention back to the issue of abortion here in New Zealand and I have noticed that there is still some confusion not only about our own laws here, but also around a few common arguments used

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How Many among Us Are Suckers?

Thomas Harrington brownstone.org Thomas Harrington, Senior Scholar at the Brownstone Institute, is an essayist and Professor Emeritus of Hispanic Studies at Trinity College in Hartford (USA) where he taught for 24 years. He specializes in Iberian movements of national identity Contemporary Catalan culture. Sucker! In early adolescence there are

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The BFD Word of the Day

The BFD Word of the Day

The word for today is… darling (noun): 1 : a dearly loved person 2 : favorite Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Darling comes from Old English deorling, which was formed by attaching the Old English suffix -ling (“one associated with or marked by a specified quality”) with the adjective deore, the ancestor of

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The BFD Word of the Day

The BFD Word of the Day

The word for today is… sagacious (adjective): 1a : of keen and farsighted penetration and judgment b : caused by or indicating acute discernment 2 obsolete : keen in sense perception Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : You might expect the root of sagacious to be sage, which, as an adjective, means “wise” or, as

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The BFD Word of the Day

The BFD Word of the Day

The word for today is… mollify (verb): 1 : to soothe in temper or disposition 2 : to reduce the rigidity of 3 : to reduce in intensity Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Mollify, like its synonyms pacify, appease, and placate, means “to ease the anger or disturbance of.” But mollify is particularly well-suited

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The BFD Word of the Day

The BFD Word of the Day

The word for today is… fractious (adjective): : tending to be troublesome Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : The Latin verb frangere means “to break or shatter” and is related to a few common words, which is evident in their meanings. Dishes that are fragile break easily. A person whose health is easily

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The BFD Word of the Day

The BFD Word of the Day

The word for today is… abeyance (noun): 1 : a state of temporary inactivity : suspension —used chiefly in the phrase in abeyance 2 : a lapse in succession during which there is no person in whom a title is vested Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Abeyance comes from Old French baer, meaning “to

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