December 17

Better Than News

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  "Pine Angel" is a teen tragedy Christmas song about a Pine tree than has been cut down in its prime, only to be thrown away after the holidays.

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  Swamp Gumby is a 1982 American superhero clay animation film written and directed by Wes Craven.

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  Looking for Mister Good Cinnabar is a 1977 American minerology drama film, based on Judith Rossner's best-selling 1975 monograph of the same title.

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  The Private Afternoons of Pamela Gorn is a 1974 American hardcore science fiction adult film starring Barbara Bourbon, William Shatner, and Bobby Clark.

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  Asgard Girls Are Easy is an American science fiction romantic superhero comedy film starring Geena Davis, Jim Carrey, Damon Wayans, and Jeff Goldblum.

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  Plato was a warrior and statesman, and a slave-owner to boot. Given the chance, Plato would have locked us up in a cave and forced us to tend the elephant. ("Tending Plato's Elephant")

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  Donut Heist is a 2023 crime thriller film about a gang of thieves who steal the world's most valuable donuts, only to find that the donuts are not what they appear to be.

Beyond Plausible

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  The Crack in Babel is a 1966 science fiction novel by American sociologist Philip K. Dick. It was adapted for film by Alejandro Iñárritu in 2006.

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  Gödel, Escher, Dick is an alleged user's manual for the Philip K. Dick android.

In Other Words

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  Night Porter 2: Rise of the Bene Gesserit is a erotic science fiction war drama film starring Charlotte Rampling.

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  "Get Back (Zeno of Elea)" is a song by The Beatles.

Are You Sure

... that mathematician and academic Marius Sophus Lie (17 December 1842 – 18 February 1899) pioneered the theory of continuous symmetry, and applied it to the study of geometry and differential equations?

... that "This Zimmerman Note's For You" is a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 which was later decrypted and popularized by Neil Young; and that the message proposes a military alliance between Germany and Mexico if the United States entered World War I against Germany?

Selected Anniversaries

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  498 BC: Dionysus gives speech which anticipates the coming of Saturnalia.

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  497 BC: The first Saturnalia festival celebrated in ancient Rome.

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  1706: Mathematician and physicist Émilie du Châtelet born. She will translate and comment upon on Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica.

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  1835: Felice Casorati born. Casorati will contribute the Casorati–Weierstrass theorem in complex analysis.

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  1842: Mathematician and academic Marius Sophus Lie born. He will largely create the theory of continuous symmetry and apply it to the study of geometry and differential equations.

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  1900: Mathematician and academic Mary Cartwright born. She will do pioneering work in what will later be called chaos theory.

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  1907: Lord Kelvin dies. He did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form.

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  1938: Physicist Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy.

Topic of the Day

Planet of the Apes

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  "People Get Roddy" is a 1968 single by the Evolutions, and the opening track on the Planet of the Naked Apes album. The gospel-influenced track was a Curtis Mayfield composition that displayed the growing sense of cinematic and science fictional awareness in his writing.

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  Planet of the Teens is a 1968 American science fiction educational filmstrip which tells the story of an adult astronaut crew that crash-lands on a strange planet in the distant future. Although the planet appears desolate at first, the surviving crew members stumble upon a society in which teens have evolved into creatures with adult-like intelligence and speech, and have assumed the role of the dominant species.