July 31

Better Than News

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  Fifty Shades of Maul is a neo-erotic science fiction thriller film about a young Senator who begins a sadomasochistic relationship with a Sith business magnate.

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  Real Housewives of Hellas is an ancient Greek television series about the lives of wealthy housewives.

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  Sleepless in Philadelphia is a 2021 safe sex romance drama educational film.

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  Here Come the Brides: The Tick-Check Years is a historical fiction television series loosely based on the Mercer Girls.

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  On Golden Bond is a 1981 drama thriller film about a cantankerous retiree (Henry Fonda), his compliant wife (Katharine Hepburn), and their adult daughter (Jane Fonda), find their lives irrevocably changed by the arrival of a suave British spy (Sean Connery).

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  Tucker Carlson, Mammoth Hunter is an American comedy television series about a lost time-traveler (Tucker Carlson) must persuade a wooly mammoth to vote for Donald Trump. Co-starring Donald Trump Jr. as Wooly the wooly mammoth.

Beyond Plausible

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  Bad Men is an American period drama television series. (S1 E1: "Code of Silence")

In Other Words

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  Camille & Seymour is a comedy detective television series starring academic Camille Paglia and elementary school principal Seymour Skinner.

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  Ben Wa Kenobi is a science fiction sex toy instructional video.

Are You Sure

... that philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist Hilary Putnam argued for the reality of mathematical entities, later espousing the view that mathematics is not purely logical, but "quasi-empirical"?

... that most crimes against astronomical constants, crimes against chemical constants, and crimes against physical constants are provably reducible to crimes against mathematical constants; and that most of those crimes which cannot be reduced to mathematics are murders of human beings?

Selected Anniversaries

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  1669: Isaac Newton becomes known. Lucasian professor Isaac Barrow sent John Collins a manuscript of Newton's De analysi and thereby Newton's anonymity began to dissolve. Although this manuscript was not published until 1704, it led to Newton's appointment as Lucasian professor on 29 October 1669.

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  1704: Mathematician and physicist Gabriel Cramer born. He will publish Cramer's rule, giving a general formula for the solution for any unknown in a linear equation system having a unique solution, in terms of determinants implied by the system.

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  1784: Philosopher, art critic, and writer Denis Diderot dies. He was a prominent figure during the Enlightenment, serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert.

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  1926: Philosopher, mathematician, and computer scientist Hilary Putnam born. He will argue for the reality of mathematical entities, later espousing the view that mathematics is not purely logical, but "quasi-empirical".

Topic of the Day

Wesley Snipes

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  Edge of Blade is an American science fiction horror film about an immortal vampire (Wesley Snipes) is trapped in a time-loop war between humans and aliens.

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  Slake is a 1998 American superhero drinking game film about an alcoholic with vampire powers (Wesley Snipes) who must confront his inner demons.

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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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  Rising Strain is a science fiction buddy cop biological warfare crime thriller film directed by Robert Wise and Philip Kaufman, starring Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Arthur Hill, and James Olson.