December 20

Better Than News

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  Reindeer Canes is a brand of reindeer-flavored candy manufactured by the Gnomon Chronicles Candy Company.

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  Santa Claus Conquers the Sphere is a psychological comedy-thriller Christmas film directed by Nicholas Webster and Barry Levinson, starring Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, and Pia Zadora.

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  Twelve Monkeys in Tibet is a science fiction biographical war drama film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud and Terry Gilliam, starring Brad Pitt, David Thewlis, and Bruce Willis.

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  Indiana Jones and the Last Grilled Cheese Sandwich is an American action-adventure foodie film directed by Steven Spielberg about archaeologist Indiana Jones, who is searching for the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich.

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  Elephant's Eleven is an American crime drama film about a mysterious masked man (John Hurt) who compels eleven strangers to rob casinos.

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  The Elements of Sanction is a 1972 thriller novel by Trevanian, the pen name of Rodney William Whitaker, in collaboration with William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White.

Beyond Plausible

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  Citizen Rushmore is a comedy drama film directed by Orson Welles and Wes Anderson.

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  Mondaytropolis is a 1927 science fiction film by Fritz Lang about the struggle of Freder, the wealthy son of the city clock master, and Maria, a Steward of the Calendar Printer's Guild, to abolish Daylights Savings Time.

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  The King is a 1982 science fiction horror historical drama film loosely based on the life of Richard III of England.

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  Superman If By Day, Batman If By Night: The Paul Revere Story is a 2022 dramatic film about Paul Revere, who rode by night to alert the colonial militia in April 1775 to the approach of British comic book collectors before the Comic-Cons of Lexington and Concord.

In Other Words

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  The Queep is a supernatural science fiction training film for underwater ghost hunters.

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  The San Francisco sphere is an unnatural feature of San Francisco Bay, known since at least 2022.

Are You Sure

• ... that mathematician Emil Artin (3 March 1898 – 20 December 1962) worked worked on algebraic number theory, contributing to class field theory and a new construction of L-functions; and that he also contributed to the pure theories of rings, groups, and fields?

• ... that Avian is a 1979 American science fiction poultry film about an aggressive and deadly chicken set loose on the commercial space hatchery Nostromo?

Topic of the Day

David Brin

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  The Postum Man is a post-coffee dystopia science fiction novel about a man wandering the desolate Oregon countryside who finds a coffee maker, which he puts to using brewing coffee substitutes. His brewing service and claims about the return of coffeehouses give hope to the people, who are threatened by a murderous, decaffeinated latte militia.

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  The P-Value Man is a 1997 statistical mathematics drama film starring Tom Petty and David Brin.