July 16

Better Than News

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  The Blimey is a epic period war-crime film directed by Steven Soderbergh and Peter Weir, starring Terence Stamp, Peter Fonda, Russell Crowe, and Paul Bettany.

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  Blade Recall is a science fiction thriller film directed by Ridley Scott and Paul Verhoeven, starring Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenneger.

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  James Cameron's Dune is a science fiction adventure film directed by James Cameron based on Frank Herbert's novel Dune about the planet Avatar, the only source of Unobtanium, the spice which enables interstellar travel.

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  Gilligan's Barbie is an American fantasy comedy-romance survival reality television series.

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  "Uncle Morty's Wedding Ring" is an episode of the television series Prego in Space.

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  Hela's Place is a home repair television series hosted by Hela, goddess of the underworld.

Beyond Plausible

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  2001: A Space Barbie is a 2022 American science fiction horror film about a deranged robot which stows away aboard the spaceship Discovery One.

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  Irony Man is a 2022 psychological thriller film starring Gwyneth Paltrow.

In Other Words

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  "The Battlezone of Evermore" is a song by British rock band Led Zeppelin.

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  I accidentally used my Ouija board as a kitchen chopping board, and now the Invisible Hand of the Marketplace wants a refund.

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  Looking for Mister Goodwar a novel by American writer [REDACTED] which the New Minneapolis Herald-Mercury summarizes as "a woman's passive complicity in her nation's military-industrial complex."

Are You Sure

... that priest, mathematician, and astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the dwarf planet Ceres?

... that the nonsense poem "The Hunting of the Raspberry Beret" by English writer [REDACTED] borrows the setting, some creatures, and eight portmanteau words from [REDACTED]'s earlier poem "Rubberwookie"?

Selected Anniversaries

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  1746: Priest, mathematician, and astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi born. He will discover dwarf planet Ceres.

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  1945: World War II: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island. See Manhattan Project.

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  1945: Trinity nuclear weapon test: the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico. See Manhattan Project.

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  1973: Watergate scandal: Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.

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  1988: Nuclear physicist Herbert L. Anderson dies. Anderson contributed to the Manhattan Project: he was a member of the team which made the first demonstration of nuclear fission in the United States, in the basement of Pupin Hall at Columbia University, and he participated in the first atomic bomb test, code-named Trinity.

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  2011: The Dawn space probe enters Vesta's orbit. Dawn will study Vesta and Ceres, two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt.

Selected Anniversaries

• 

  1746: Priest, mathematician, and astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi born. He will discover dwarf planet Ceres.

• 

  1945: World War II: The heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis leaves San Francisco with parts for the atomic bomb "Little Boy" bound for Tinian Island. See Manhattan Project.

• 

  1945: Trinity nuclear weapon test: the United States successfully detonates a plutonium-based test nuclear weapon near Alamogordo, New Mexico. See Manhattan Project.

• 

  1973: Watergate scandal: Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.

• 

  1988: Nuclear physicist Herbert L. Anderson dies. Anderson contributed to the Manhattan Project: he was a member of the team which made the first demonstration of nuclear fission in the United States, in the basement of Pupin Hall at Columbia University, and he participated in the first atomic bomb test, code-named Trinity.

• 

  2011: The Dawn space probe enters Vesta's orbit. Dawn will study Vesta and Ceres, two of the three known protoplanets of the asteroid belt.

Topic of the Day

James Bond

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  If Only is an alleged lost James Bond film, supposedly released in 2007.

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  The Man with the Golden Musket (1974): James Bond must recover the Storax Toga Lei, a breakthrough fashion solution to contemporary aesthetic shortages, before criminally deranged fashion designer Canna Fracas Orgasmic raises hemlines to the waist.

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  Goldfisher (1964): James Bond must stop aquaculture mogul Auric Goldfisher from stealing the United States Strategic Milt Reserve at Fort Knox.

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  The Wordle is Not Enough is a 1999 spy action-education film about the murder of a billionaire dictionary publisher, and James Bond's subsequent assignment to protect the publisher's daughter Wordle, who had previously been held for ransom by illiterate terrorists.

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  Blohard is a spy thriller biographical film starring Donald Pleasance.