Welcome to Dailypedia

DEFINITION: (noun) A hardy cabbage with coarse curly leaves that do not form a head. SYNONYMS: kale, Brassica oleracea acephala, colewort. USAGE: The aristocrats did not enjoy the health benefits of borecole because they considered it a peasant's food.

Isabella d'Este was one of the leading women of the Italian Renaissance and a major cultural and political figure. Known as "The First Lady of the Renaissance," she was well-educated in her youth and was a keen musician and collector of Roman sculpture. Under her auspices, the court of Mantua became one of the most cultured in Europe, drawing many important artists, writers, and thinkers. The portrait of her that hangs at the Louvre in Paris was painted by what famous artist and scientist?

In this case, the US Supreme Court upheld an 1890 Louisiana statute mandating racially segregated railroad carriages, ruling that the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment dealt with political and not social equality. This provided constitutional sanction for the adoption of the Jim Crow laws. Justice Henry Billings Brown wrote the majority opinion, stating that "separate but equal" laws did not imply one race's inferiority to another. What case effectively overturned Plessy?

Thermopylae is a narrow coastal passage between Locris and Thessaly in Greece that has been the site of several battles. There in 480 BCE, Leonidas with his Spartans and their allies lost a heroic battle to the Persians under Xerxes. At the pass in 279 BCE, the Greeks held back the Gauls under Brennus, who ultimately broke through, and, in 191 BCE, Antiochus III of Syria was defeated there by the Romans. What does "Thermopylae" mean in Greek?

A group of Japanese scientists have genetically engineered silkworms to produce a specific color, according to a new study. In nature, silkworm cocoon colors vary from white, yellow, straw, salmon, pink, and green; these colors are from natural pigments absorbed when the silkworms eat mulberry leaves. The new research may eventually limit or eliminate the need to dye silks in order to obtain desired colors.