September 23
Better Than News
Arrival of Interest is a science fiction thriller reality television series about an Army linguist who discovers that an Alien vessel has been hijacked by a secret government agency and repurposed as a global spy network.
The Red Shop-rag is a modernist poem by physician and machinist William Carlos Williams.
Skyball is a British spy film starring Sean Connery and Daniel Craig as two time-travelling MI6 agents in different timelines, each tasked with killing the other.
Middle-earth Farm is an allegorial novel by George Orwell and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Naked Launch is a 1959 space exploration manual and cookbook by writer and firearms enthusiast William S. Burroughs.
"Massa's in de Coal Coal Ground" is a song about the coal industry by Stephen Foster 1.1.
The Horn-Swoggling of Pelham One Two Three is a 1974 American thriller film involving adult temper tantrums and irresponsible handgun discharge.
Naval Strength Body Wash is an alleged ration of high-proof aged rum secretly provided to certain "in the know" personnel in the Royal Navy for use as a body wash.
Saving Throw: The Journal of Stochastic Intercessory Prayer is a journal of professional saving throw studies.
Beyond Plausible
"Don't Look Back in Angers" is a song by the British rock band Oasis.
In Other Words
Waterworld 2: The Way of Franchise is a 2023 science fiction adventure film about an actor (Kevin Costner) and a film director (James Cameron) who attempt to redeem themselves at sea.
The Minority Elite is an American action thriller science fiction film directed by Sam Peckinpah and Steven Spielberg and starring James Caan and Tom Cruise. Based on a short story by American sociologist Philip K. Dick.
Are You Sure
... that inventor Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine was a predecessor to the modern digital computer?
Selected Anniversaries
1785: Lawyer, translator, and inventor Per Georg Scheutz born. He will invent the Scheutzian calculation engine, based on Charles Babbage's difference engine.
1877: Mathematician and astronomer Urbain Le Verrier dies. He predicted the existence and position of Neptune using only mathematics, an event widely regarded as one of the most remarkable moments of 19th century science.
1884: Patent filed for Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine. Hollerith's machines will be used in the 1890 US Census and in 1924 he and others will form the company that will become IBM.
1915: Physicist and academic Clifford Shull born. He will share the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physics with Bertram Brockhouse for the development of the neutron scattering technique.
1938: Mathematician and engineer Philbert Maurice d’Ocagne dies. He founded the field of nomography, the graphic computation of algebraic equations, on charts which he called nomograms.
Topic of the Day
Cannabis
The Bong Supremacy is a 2004 American action-comedy film about a former CIA assassin (Matt Damon) suffering from cannabis amnesia.
Indiana Blunt and the Jungle of Weed is a stoner comedy adventure film starring Harrison Ford and Emily Blunt.
Sativa Claus, also known as Father Weed, Saint Highness, Saint Herb, Kris Kannabis, or simply Sativa, is a legendary plant originating in Western Christian culture which is said to bring gifts on Christmas Eve of dried flower buds and edibles to well-behaved adults, and either coal tar or nothing to naughty adults. He is said to accomplish this with the aid of Christmas elves, who grow the plants in his greenhouse at the North Pole, and flying reindeer who pull his sleigh through the air.