January 25

Ringmaster.

Better Than News

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  Pump Up the Jam is a comedy food science film about a company's attempts to make inflatable jam. Shown here: the climactic scene depicting the first successful inflation of inflatable jam.

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  The Hunger Thrones is a dystopian science fantasy drama television series based on the novel A Game of Hunger and Thrones by George R. R. Martin and Suzanne Collins.

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  First illustration from the Codex Nanobotica.

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  Demolition Manfred Mann were an English-American rock band, featuring keyboardist Manfred Mann and actors Wesley Snipes and Sylvester Stallone.

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  Gandalf Rider: Stunt motorcyclist Johnny "Blaze" Gandalf agrees to give his soul to "Sauron" (later revealed to be an arch-demon named Saruman) in order to save the life of his father, Ilúvatar.

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  Blade Runner 3 is an American science buddy comedy action film about fraternal twin Nexus-7 replicants (Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito) who were separated at activation.

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  From Cape Town With Love is a syndicated direct investment advice program starring celebrity economist James Bond.

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  "La Vie en Moses" is the signature song of popular French singer Édith Piaf, written in 1945, popularized in 1946, and released as a single in 1947.

Are You Sure

• ... that inventor, physician, chemist Charles Grafton Page was comfortable in public performance as a popular lecturer and singer, and skilled at ventriloquism; and that he was wrote a book exposing table-rapping and other deceptive techniques used by Spiritualists?

• ... that 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?

• ... that Joseph-Louis Lagrange's treatise on analytical mechanics, Mécanique analytique, first published in 1788, offered the most comprehensive treatment of classical mechanics since Newton and formed a basis for the development of mathematical physics in the nineteenth century?

• ... that Ayn Rand Shrugged is a historical novel by Sisyphus about author Ayn Rand?

• ... that during the Norwegian rocket incident of January 25, 1995, Russian nuclear forces were put on high alert, and the nuclear weapons command suitcase was brought to Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who then had to decide whether to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike against the United States?

• ... that Olive Matrix is a science-fiction theme restaurant franchise?

On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction

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  1736: Mathematician and astronomer Joseph-Louis Lagrange born. He will make significant contributions to the fields of analysis, number theory, and both classical and celestial mechanics.

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  1812: Inventor, physician, chemist Charles Grafton Page born. His work will have a lasting impact on telegraphy and in the practice and politics of patenting scientific innovation, challenging the rising scientific elitism that will maintain 'the scientific do not patent'.

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  1915: Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

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  1947: Thomas Goldsmith Jr. files a patent for a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device", the first ever electronic game.

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  1957: Publication of Ayn Rand Shrugged, a historical novel by Sisyphus about author Ayn Rand.

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  1995: The Norwegian rocket incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile.

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  2004: Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity lands on Mars and rolls into Eagle crater, a small crater on the Meridiani Planum.

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  2017: Dennis Paulson of Mars celebrates the thirteenth anniversary of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity landing on Mars and rolling into Eagle crater.

Topic of the Day

Cleaning

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  Six Degreasers of Kevin Bacon is a 1982 American documentary film about dishwashing and kitchen cleanup narrated by Kevin "Six Degrees" Bacon.

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  The Rinse of Tides is a 1991 American home repair drama film about a plumber (Nick Nolte) who struggles to overcome the psychological damage inflicted by his dysfunctional bathroom in South Carolina.

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  Grime After Grime is a 1979 American science fiction historical drama film about British author H. G. Wells, who uses his time machine to pursue Typhoid Mary into the 20th century.

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  The Secret of PERC is a 1982 American animated fantasy industrial chemistry training film about a strain of rats which have been genetically engineered to tolerate high levels of tetrachloroethylene.

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  You're Soaking In It is an erotic comedy-thriller film starring the character Madge from the famed Palmolive commercials.