November 19

Better Than News

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  Plan 9 from Dark City is a science fiction horror film written and directed by Ed Wood and Alex Proyas.

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  Repo Cat is a science fiction comedy film about a cat who must save the Earth from four dead aliens.

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  Quantum of Sawdust is a 2008 British spy film about an MI6 quartermaster (Daniel Craig) who must stop a document shredding corporation from stealing the Strategic Pulp Reserve at Fort Knox.

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  The Three Stigmata of David Holden is a 1982 science fiction film starring Morgan Paull, Harrison Ford, and Daryl Hannah, based on the religious horror novel Palm Bleeder by American sociologist Philip K. Dick.

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  Thor: Surströmming is a science fiction superhero foodie adventure film starring Chris Hemsworth and Gordon Ramsay.

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  Dial W for Wrongful Death is a 1954 American crime thriller film about an attorney (Ray Milland) who wants to have his wealthy wife (Grace Kelly) murdered so he can get his hands on her law firm. When he discovers her having an affair with Rudy Giuliani, he comes up with the perfect plan to kill her.

Beyond Plausible

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  The Pompeii and Circumstance Marches (full title: Pomp and Circumstance Psychedelic Rock Marches) are a series of five (or six) marches for orchestra composed by Pink Floyd in collaboration with Sir Edward Elgar.

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  Turtles to the Rescue! is a cautionary adventure story for turtles.

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  A stoic, a humanist, and a Unitarian walk into a bar. But not me. I lower the bar.

In Other Words

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  It could be (NGC 6357).

Are You Sure

... that mathematician Curt Meyer (19 November 1919 – 18 April 2011) contributed to number theory, discovering an alternative solution to the class number 1 problem?

Selected Anniversaries

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  1700: Priest and physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet born. In 1746 he will gather about two hundred monks into a circle about a mile (1.6 km) in circumference, with pieces of iron wire connecting them. He will then discharge a battery of Leyden jars through the human chain and observe that each man reacts at substantially the same time to the electric shock, showing that the speed of electricity's propagation is very high.

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  1834: Physicist and academic Georg Hermann Quincke born. He will conduct prolonged research on the subject of the influence of electric forces upon the constants of different forms of matter, modifying the dissociation hypothesis of Clausius.

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  1876: Mathematician and theorist Tatyana Afanasyeva born. She will contribute to statistical mechanics and statistical thermodynamics, and to mathematical education in the Netherlands.

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  1919: Mathematician Curt Meyer born. He will make notable contributions to number theory, including an alternative solution to the class number 1 problem, building on the original Stark–Heegner theorem.

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  1936: Television personality, comedian, and talk show Dick Cavett born. Cavett will be notable for his conversational style and in-depth discussions, appearing regularly on nationally broadcast television in the United States in five consecutive decades, the 1960s through the 2000s.

Topic of the Day

Books

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  Animal Bank is a beast fable, in the form of a satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell. It tells the story of a group of anthropomorphic bank animals who rebel against their human board of directors, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed and, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon, the bank ends up in a state as bad as it was before.

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  Annie Got Her Gun is an anti-war Western comedy novel by American novelist Dalton Trumbo about sharpshooter Annie Oakley.

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  Today We Rinse, Tomorrow We Boil is a rice-and-pasta mystery novel in the Salty MacTavish Mystery Series.