August 25

Angus (25 August 2023).

Better Than News

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  Rapunzel: Warrior Princess is a German-American fantasy television series about Rapunzel (Lucy Lawless), an infamous barber-warrior on a quest to seek redemption for her past sins against the innocent by using her formidable battle-hair skills to now help those who are unable to defend themselves.

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  "This Zimmerman Note's For You" is a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 which was later decrypted and popularized by Neil Young. The message proposes a military alliance between Germany and Mexico if the United States entered World War I against Germany.

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  The Vitamin King is a 1994 American animated musical health education film about Simba (Swahili for lion), a young lion who is manipulated into thinking he was responsible for his father's malnutrition.

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  Gwangiworld is an American science fiction Western adventure thriller film directed by A film by Jim O'Connolly and Michael Crichton, and starring James Franciscus, Gila Golan, Richard Benjamin, and James Brolin.

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  America's Got Talents is a televised American weights and measures competition.

Beyond Plausible

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  Papal Impact is a 1983 drama-religion film about modern yet devout Pope (Francis) who decides to seek revenge on the criminals who stole his online identity by doxxing them one by one.

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  Sea-Hulk is a 2022 American animated television series about a young marine biologist (SpongeBob SquarePants) who — due to the bite of a radioactive moray eel — transforms into Sea-Hulk when he becomes sexually aroused.

In Other Words

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  Tire Fires of the Rich and Famous is an American television series featuring the extravagant tire fires of wealthy entertainers, athletes, socialites, and magnates.

Are You Sure

... that biochemist Hedley Ralph Marston 's research into fallout from the British nuclear tests at Maralinga proved that significant radiation hazards existed at many of the Maralinga sites long after the tests?

Selected Anniversaries

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  1609: Galileo Galilei demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.

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  1699: Mathematician and mechanician Charles Étienne Louis Camus born. He will be the author of Cours de mathématiques (Paris, 1766), along with a number of essays on mathematical and mechanical subjects.

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  1819: inventor, engineer, and chemist James Watt dies. He made major improvements to the steam engine.

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  1934: Inventor Philo Farnsworth demonstrates his electronic television system to the public at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

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  1948: The House Un-American Activities Committee holds first-ever televised congressional hearing: "Confrontation Day" between Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss.

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  1965: Biochemist Hedley Ralph Marston dies. Marston's research into fallout from the British nuclear tests at Maralinga proved that significant radiation hazards existed at many of the Maralinga sites long after the tests.

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  2012: Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause to become the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space and study the interstellar medium.

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  2016: Polymath George Spencer-Brown dies. Spencer-Brown wrote the unorthodox and influential Laws of Form, calling it the "primary algebra" and the "calculus of indications".

Topic of the Day

Stomach Oil Exporting Petrels

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  SOEP cartel demands apology, reparations over "Hot Pastry Featherlet" diplomatic crisis.