February 8

Are You Sure ...

• ... that Steely Kubrick was an American rock band and film production company comprising Steely Dan and film director Stanley Kubrick?

• ... that polymath John von Neumann was concerned that the Soviet Union would achieve nuclear superiority over the United States, and that von Neumann designed and promoted the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction with the intention of limiting the arms race?

• ... that the so-called "carnivorous dirigible" (Dirigible horribilis) is a species of grazing ruminant airship, neither carnivorous nor horrible, and that it evolved from early experiments in artificial intelligence?

On This Day in History and Fiction

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  1700: Mathematician and physicist Daniel Bernoulli born. Bernoulli will be particularly remembered for his applications of mathematics to mechanics, especially fluid mechanics, and for his pioneering work in probability and statistics.

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  1866: Chemist Moses Gomberg born. Gomberg will identify the triphenylmethyl radical, the first persistent radical to be discovered, and will thus be known as the founder of radical chemistry.

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  1879: Engineer and inventor Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.

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  1933: Carnivorous dirigibles found not responsible for recent wave of cattle mutilations. The so-called "carnivorous" digible (Dirigible horribilis) is in fact a grazing ruminant autonomous airship, neither carnivorous nor horrible.

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  1936: Mathematician and academic Emilie Martin dies. Martin researched primitive substitution groups of degree 15 and primitive substitution groups of degree 18.

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  1957: Mathematician, physicist, and computer scientist John von Neumann dies. Von Neumann was a key figure in the development of the digital computer, and developed mathematical models of both nuclear and thermonuclear weapons.