December 31

Better Than News

Running Skerritt is a 1986 American biographical action comedy film loosely based on the life of Tom Skerritt, starring Billy Crystal, Gregory Hines, and Tom Skerritt.
Goldschläger is a 1964 spy film about liquor smuggling by gold magnate Auric Goldfinger, who plans to make Barry Goldwater President of the United States.
I Got Spaces I got spaces / I got vectors / I got metrics / Who could ask for anything more?"
Night Courtship is an American television sitcom set in the night shift of a Manhattan couples counselling clinic presided over by a young, unorthodox psychologist, Harold "Harry" T. Stone (portrayed by Harry Anderson).
"Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?"—Robert Browning

Are You Sure

• ... that mathematician Thomas Joannes Stieltjes' pioneering work on the analytic theory of continued fractions was an important early step towards the theory of Hilbert spaces?

• ... that Episcopal priest Hannibal Goodwin invented and patented a method for making rolled photographic film because he wanted a clear, non-breakable substance on which he could place the images he utilized in his Biblical teachings?

• ... that the reality television show Dennis Paulson of Mars was the first manned interplanetary mission funded entire by social media campaigns?

On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction

1610: Mathematician and fencer Ludolph van Ceulen dies. He spent a major part of his life calculating the numerical value of the mathematical constant π.
1679: Physiologist, physicist, and mathematician Giovanni Alfonso Borelli dies. He contributed to the modern principle of scientific investigation by continuing Galileo's practice of testing hypotheses against observation.
1853: Banquet held in the mould of the Crystal Palace Iguanodon.
1879: Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
$1894: Mathematician Thomas Joannes Stieltjes dies. He worked on almost all branches of analysis, continued fractions and number theory, and was called "the father of the analytic theory of continued fractions."$

1894: Mathematician Thomas Joannes Stieltjes dies. He worked on almost all branches of analysis, continued fractions and number theory, and was called "the father of the analytic theory of continued fractions."
1900: Priest and inventor Hannibal Goodwin dies. He invented and patented rolled celluloid photographic film.
1980: Professor of English and philosopher of communication theory Marshall McLuhan dies. He coined the expressions "the medium is the message" and "global village".
2007: The Deep Impact spacecraft flies by Earth on an extended mission to study extrasolar planets and comet Hartley 2 (103P/Hartley).
2016: Reality television show Dennis Paulson of Mars fully funded by Kickstarter.