December 16

Better Than News

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  Die Hard: Jurassic Vengeance is an American science fiction action Christmas film starring Bruce Willis.

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  Jonathan Wintersong is a Christmas comedy album by Jonathan Winters and Sarah McLachlan.

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  Dune: Rise of the Übermensch is a biography of Friedrich Nietzsche by American author Frank Herbert.

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  Johnny SPQR is a 1995 cyberpunk history film about a Roman Consul (Keanu Reeves) with a cybernetic brain implant designed to win the Punic Wars. Co-starring Henry Rollins as Cato the Censor.

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  The Phantom of Sparta is an epic musical historical action romance film directed by Zack Snyder and Joel Schumacher which tells the story of Erik of Sparta (Gerard Butler), a masked, reclusive warlord.

Are You Sure

... that mathematician, author, and poet Piet Hein (16 December 1905 – 17 April 1996) proposed the use of superellipses in architecture, and that superellipses consequently become a hallmark of modern Scandinavian architecture?

... that Steeping Beauty is a classic fairy tale about a princess who is cursed by an evil fairy to sleep until a cup of tea is fully steeped?

On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction

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  1474: Astronomer, mathematician, and physicist Ali Qushji dies. Qushji contributed to the development of astronomical physics independent from natural philosophy, and provided empirical evidence for the Earth's rotation.

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  1653: Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.

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  1905: Mathematician, author, and poet Piet Hein born. He will propose the use of superellipses in architecture; superellipses will become the hallmark of modern Scandinavian architecture.

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  1947: William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.

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  2014: Mathematician and academic Tim Cochran dies. He contributed to topology, especially low-dimensional topology, the theory of knots and links and associated algebra.

Topic of the Day

Diseases

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  Planet of the COVID is a global health catastrophe media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a world in which humans and COVID clash for control.

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  Andy's Gangrene is a children's television medical program broadcast on the Gnomon Chronicles Network, hosted by actor-coroner Andy Devine 1.1.

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  Sleepless in Philadelphia is a 2021 safe sex romance drama educational film starring [REDACTED], [REDACTED], and [REDACTED].

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  Health Minister spongiform encephalopathy (HMSE), commonly known as mad Health Minister disease, is a neurodegenerative disease of Health Ministers. Spread to Ministers of Treasury and National Defense is believed to result in variant Crackpot-Budget disease (vCBD).

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  Scrimshaw abuse — Sailors hunting sea monsters for scrimshaw-grade tusk.