May 27

Better Than News

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  You Can Count on Hulk is an American superhero drama film directed by Kenneth Lonergan and Joss Whedon, starring Mark Ruffalo, Laura Linney, Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansson.

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  Big Trouble in Little Dark Star is a science fiction comedy adventure film starring Kurt Russell, Kim Cattrall, and John Carpenter.

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  The Annihilation of Oz is a 2018 American science fiction musical fantasy horror film starring Margaret Hamilton and Natalie Portman.

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  Gnomes: El Mariachis is a documentary film which explores the lives and music of gnomes in Mariachi bands, in Mexico and around the world. Shown here: the Victory Song.

Are You Sure

• ... that physicist John Douglas Cockcroft (1897–1967) shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 for splitting the atomic nucleus with Ernest Walton, and that Cockcroft was instrumental in the development of nuclear power?

On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction

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  1610: Factotum and regicide François Ravaillac executed.

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  1897: Physicist, academic, and Nobel Prize laureate John Cockcroft born. He will be instrumental in the development of nuclear power.

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  1931: Physicist and explorer Auguste Piccard and his assistant Paul Kipfer take off from Augsburg, Germany in their high-altitude balloon, reaching a record altitude of 15,781 m (51,775 ft). During the flight, Piccard gathers data on the upper atmosphere, including cosmic ray measurements.

Topic of the Day

Office supplies

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  The Dark Office Space is a 2008 thriller-comedy film about a deranged office worker (Stephen Root) who threatens to burn down Gotham City.

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  Cretaceous Office Supplies is an unlicensed transdimensional corporation which provides office supplies and associated support services to the Cretaceous period (the longest geological period of the entire Phanerozoic). Now offering "It's Nearly K–Pg Boundary Time!" rush delivery within a half-million years — Guaranteed.

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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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  Altered Carbon Paper is an American cyberpunk television series about a former soldier turned investigator (Joel Kinnaman) who is embedded in carbon paper in order to solve a murder.

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  Mars Tacks! is a 1996 American comic science fiction film directed by Tim Burton based on red thumb tacks.

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  Liquid Skype is 1982 American independent science fiction film about an alien creature which invades New York's punk subculture in its search for an opiate released by the brain during Skype calls.

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  Glue Your Own Staple Strips is a short nonfiction book describing how and why to glue individual staples into strips.

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  The Final Pencil is an educational standardized testing horror film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.