October 11

Better Than News

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  Hellraiser: Open Source is a 1987 British software horror film about a copylefted code base which summons the Cenobites, a group of extra-dimensional, sadomasochistic software developers who cannot differentiate licensed and unlicensed intellectual properties.

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  The Sorrows of Young Leonardo is a 2006 American mystery thriller film about a professor of religious symbology (Tom Hanks) who is the prime suspect in the Sturm und Drang period in German literature.

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  Days of Leveling is a 1978 American romantic fantasy adventure film written and directed by Terrence Malick, and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard, and Linda Manz.

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  Rotary Phone Rescue Service is an international service organization which promotes rotary phone technology, and provides resources for combatting the scourge of Touch-Tone™ services.

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  "If Eiffel" is a song by the British rock group The Beatles about the Eiffel Tower.

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  The Emerald Mansion is an adventure-drama comedy romance film about an Amazonian jungle girl (Audrey Hepburn) who is adopted by a Beverly Hills couple (Powers Boothe and Meg Foster).

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  Lightning does not dream of fireflies.

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  "One does not simply 'cold fuse' hydrogen atoms." (Boromir of Gondor on cold fusion.)

Are You Sure

• ... that mathematician and academic Andrey Kolmogorov made pioneering contributions to the mathematics of probability theory, topology, intuitionistic logic, turbulence, classical mechanics, algorithmic information theory, and computational complexity?

On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction

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  1631: Astronomer and mathematician Michael Maestlin dies. He was a mentor to Johannes Kepler, and played a sizable part in his adoption of the Copernican system.

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  1947: The House Un-American Activities Committee begins its investigation into Communist infiltration of the cinema of the United States, resulting in a blacklist that prevents some from working in the industry for years.

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  1947: Mathematician and Gnomon algorithm theorist Alice Beta publicly denounces the House Un-American Activities Committee as "an intolerable blight on free association, free speech, free thought, and freedom itself."

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  1955: Saruman House, a fortress commissioned by the corrupt wizard Saruman, opens for business as a conference center and secret lair.

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  1987: Mathematician and academic Andrey Kolmogorov dies. Kolmogorov made pioneering contributions to the mathematics of probability theory, topology, intuitionistic logic, turbulence, classical mechanics, algorithmic information theory, and computational complexity.

Topic of the Day

Willie Nelson

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  "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Gremlins" is a country music song about the perils of raising children to be AMC Gremlin automobiles.

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  "Don't Get Aroma Much Anymore" is a jazz standard written by composer Duke Ellington.

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  Tweet is a 1981 film by Michael Mann 1.1 about a thief and retired Twitter influencer (James Caan) who is forced to post one last tweet.