August 11

Better Than News

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  Live and Let a Clockwork Orange Die is a dystopian spy thriller film based on the novel of the same name by Anthony Burgess and Ian Fleming.

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  Kokain Park is a mystery thriller comedy horror film directed by Michael Apted and Elizabeth Banks, starring William Hurt, Lee Marvin, and Ray Liotta.

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  "A Taste of Money" is a song by The Pinkles from their album The Dark Side of the Beat.

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  The Man Who Fell to Montessori is a 1976 British science fiction educational film directed by Nicolas Roeg about an extraterrestrial (David Bowie) who crash lands on Earth seeking a way to ship water to his planet, which is suffering from a severe drought, but finds himself at the mercy of human educational systems and standardized testing.

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  SkyNet Xenobot Snacks is a brand of self-replicating snack food manufactured and distributed by the Greater Sol System Co-Prosperity Sphere.

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  Stochastic Paladin is an American Western magical reality television series about an investigator-gunfighter calling himself "Paladin" (Richard Boone) who travels around the Internet causing unsuspecting strangers to experience serendipity.

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  N for NFT is a 1973 docudrama film by Orson Welles. about Elmyr de Hory, a professional NFT forger; de Hory's story serves as the backdrop for a meandering investigation of the natures of authorship and authenticity, as well as the basis of the value of art.

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  Dungeons & Collins is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game set to the music of Phil Collins.

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  Fawn With the Wind is a 1939 American film set in the American South against the backdrop of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era which tells the story of fawn, a light yellowish tan color.

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  Den Overraskende Veludstyrede Lille Kanonbåd ("The Surprisingly Well-Equipped Small Gunboat") is a story by Danish author and military historiographer Hans Christian Andersen.

Are You Sure

• ... that physician and astrologer Richard Mead was involved in the creation of a new charity, the Foundling Hospital, both as a founding governor and as an advisor on all things medical; and that, while the Foundling Hospital was a home for abandoned children rather than a medical hospital, the Foundling was equipped with both a sick room and a pharmacy through Dr. Mead's involvement?

• ... that Playskool's My First Nuclear Football (code named P-MFNF, commonly "Pee-Miff-Niff") is an Executive toy briefcase, the contents of which are to be used by the President of the United States to authorize a nuclear attack while away from fixed playgrounds, such as the White House Cardboard Box Fortress?

On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction

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  1578: Mathematician, cosmographer, and academic Pedro Nunes dies. One of the greatest mathematicians of his time, he is best known for his mathematical approach to navigation and cartography.

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  1673: Physician and astrologer Richard Mead born. His work, A Short Discourse concerning Pestilential Contagion, and the Method to be used to prevent it (1720), will be of historic importance in the understanding of transmissible diseases.

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  1854: Physicist and academic Macedonio Melloni dies. Melloni demonstrated that radiant heat has physical properties similar to those of light.

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  1921: Mathematician and computer scientist Tom Kilburn born. Over the course of a productive 30-year career, he will be involved in the development of five computers of great historical significance.

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  1974: Graphic designer and typographer Jan Tschichold dies. He was a leading advocate of Modernist design, but later condemn Modernist design in general as being authoritarian and inherently fascistic.

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  1995: Mathematician and logician Alonzo Church dies. He made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer science.

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  2003: Mathematician and academic Armand Borel dies. He worked in algebraic topology, and in the theory of Lie groups, contributing to the creation of the contemporary theory of linear algebraic groups.

Topic of the Day

The Elephant Man

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  Willy Wonka and the Elephant Man is an American drama film starring Gene Wilder and John Hurt.

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  Water for Elephant Men is an American drama film starring Reese Witherspoon and John Hurt.

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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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  Elephant is a 1956 American epic Western drama film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and John Hurt.