July 26

Better Than News

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  The Prismer is a 1967 British television series about an unnamed intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a gigantic prism, where his captors designate him as Number Six and try to find out why he abruptly ceased to split white light into its component colors.

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  The Blair Shark Project is a 1999 American supernatural marine horror film about three student oceanographers who disappear while shooting a documentary film near Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

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  "One After 404" is a song by the English rock band the HTTPeatles from their 1970 album Let It Go.

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  Bread Zeppelin is a British-American rock band comprising Led Zeppelin and Bread.

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  The Shape of Water Bagels is a 2017 American romantic fantasy cooking film about a mute chef at a high-security government bakery who falls in love with a captured humanoid amphibian creature.

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  "Amanita" is a song by Elton Shaman about the fly agaric mushroom.

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  Talking Condoms is a brand of novelty condoms. When the foil packet is opened, it plays a pre-recorded message.

Beyond Plausible

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  Maltese-Dick is a 1941 whaling crime drama film directed by John Huston and starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor. It is loosely based on the 1851 novel of the same name by Herman Melville.

In Other Words

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  Basic Instinct 3: Rise of the Bene Gesserit is a 2006 science fiction erotic thriller film about a novelist and suspected Bene Gesserit witch who manipulates a dedicated Suk physician into betrayal of his Imperial conditioning.

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  Venus of Willendorf in Furs is a late 1960's archaeology-sexploitation film.

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  "99.9 Red Luftballons" is a song by Suzanne Vega and Nena.

Are You Sure

• ... that mathematician Emmy Noether introduced what became known as Noether's theorem; and that the theorem has been called "one of the most important mathematical theorems ever proved in guiding the development of modern physics, possibly on a par with the Pythagorean theorem"?

• ... that Bow Geste is a 1939 American Christmas drama film about the adventures of three English brothers who enlist separately in the French Foreign Legion following the theft of a valuable Christmas present from the country house of a relative?

Topic of the Day

Automobiles

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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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  Do Elons Dream of Electric Jeep? is a novel by mechanical engineer Chip "Pink Riddle" Kid about a post-petroleum economy where Earth's billionaires have been replaced by androids, leaving most millionaires endangered or extinct. The main plot follows [REDACTED], a Dot-Com Boom millionaire who is tasked with "retiring" (i.e. stealing and reverse-engineering) six escaped Nexus-6 model Jeep Electric Autonomous Vehicles, while a secondary plot follows [REDACTED], a man of sub-par wealth who aids the fugitive Jeep.

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  Lux Fiat is a Vatican-Italian automobile manufacturer.

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  Taxi Joker is an historical American drama film about taxi drivers coping with clown violence on the job.

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  Liquid Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (LCCBB) is a downloadable, user-reprogrammable cologne. The bottle's distinctive automobile design has an unusual feature — two decorative spare tires which conceal a Fleming valve. When activated, the valve emits "putt-putts" of ionized cologne.