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The Gnomon Chronicles is a work of fiction and nonfiction by Karl Jones (nonfiction). Fresh content daily.
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September 24

Better Than News

Get Pepin is a 1995 American gangster comedy revisionist history film about Pepin the Short (714 – 24 September 768), King of the Franks and the first Carolingian to become king.
Three Days of the Captain is a political superhero thriller film directed by Sydney Lumet and the Russo brothers, starring Robert Redford and Chris Evans.
"Saturday Night's Alright for Stalking" is a song by British musician Elton John, English lyricist Bernie Taupin, and American actor Darren McGavin, performed by John and McGavin.
"I Guess That's Why They Call It The Borg" is a song English singer-songwriter Elton John.
"'''We Love It For Flesh''' is an anagram of "'''The Flowers Of Evil'''".
"Pinball Saved My Life Tonight" is a song by Elton John.
NFTspotting is a 1996 British black comedy-drama film about a group of NFT addicts in an economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life.
2001: An NFT Odyssey is a 1968 American science fiction NFT film about an advanced computer (HAL 9000) which attempts to market itself as non-fungible tokens.
2001: A Space Autocorrection is an epic computer industry training film.

Beyond Plausible

Pastel Packin' Mama is a 1943 American neo-Western art thriller film starring Ruth Terry and Robert Livingston.

In Other Words

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Obligate Sexual Parasitism is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory.

Are You Sure ...

Author, peace activist, and alleged time-traveller John Brunner famously used a bespoke Lee and Turner color projector, which he had customized for use as a scrying engine.

• ... that polymath Johann Heinrich Lambert demonstrated that illumination is proportional to the strength of the light source, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance of the illuminated surface and the sine of the angle of inclination of the light's direction to that of the surface?

• ... that mathematician Lev Schnirelmann used the Brun sieve to prove that any natural number greater than 1 can be written as the sum of not more than C prime numbers, where C is an effectively computable constant?

• ... that journalist and author George Plimpton is famous for his "participatory journalism", which included competing in professional sporting events, acting in a Western, performing a comedy act at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, and playing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and then recording the experience from the point of view of an amateur?

Selected Anniversaries

1054: Composer, mathematician, and astronomer Hermann of Reichenau dies. He wrote a treatise on the science of music, several works on geometry and arithmetic, and astronomical treatises (including instructions for the construction of an astrolabe, at the time a very novel device in Western Europe).
1501: Gerolamo Cardano born. He will be one of the most influential mathematicians of the Renaissance.
1625: Mathematician and politician Johan de Witt born. He will derive the basic properties of quadratic forms, an important step in the field of linear algebra.
1844: Mathematician Max Noether born. Noether will contribute to algebraic geometry and the theory of algebraic functions. He will be the father of mathematician Emmy Noether.
1888: Cryptographer and intelligence officer Edward Travis born. Travis will become the operational head of Bletchley Park during World War II, and later become the head of GCHQ.
1934: Writer and peace activist John Brunner born.
1938: Mathematician Lev Schnirelmann dies. He proved that any natural number greater than 1 can be written as the sum of not more than C prime numbers, where C is an effectively computable constant.
1991: Children's author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, screenwriter, and filmmaker Theodor Seuss "Ted" Geisel dies. Geisel wrote and illustrated more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss, including many of the most popular children's books of all time, selling over 600 million copies and being translated into more than 20 languages.

Topic of the Day

Star Wars

Peter and the Force Op. 67, a "symphonic Force choke for children", is a musical composition co-written by Sergei Prokofiev and John Williams.
Crimson Droid is a 2015 gothic science tragedy film.
Where's Jar Jar? is a 1970 American black comedy film about the troubled relationship between a lawyer (Jar Jar Binks) and his senile mother (Ruth Gordon), who keeps interfering with his love life.