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.

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?

On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction

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  1494: Mathematician and cartographer Oronce Finé born. He will be imprisoned in 1524, probably for practicing judicial astrology.

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  1901: Physicist Robert J. Van de Graaff born. He will design design and construct high-voltage Van de Graaff generators.

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  1951: The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.

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  1962: Mathematician Emil Artin dies. He worked on algebraic number theory, contributing to class field theory and a new construction of L-functions. He also contributed to the pure theories of rings, groups and fields.

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  1989: Premier of License to Grill, a 1989 spy film about an MI6 agent (Timothy Dalton) who must stop a deranged grill manufacturer (George Foreman) from destroying the world's supply of propane.

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.