December 23
Better Than News
Scroogebusters is a 1984 American supernatural Christmas film about a cynical and selfish parapsychologist who is haunted by a succession of ghosts on Christmas Eve intent on possessing Santa Claus.
The World According to Gort is a 1982 American science fiction comedy-drama about an eccentric writer (Robin Williams) who befriends an alien robot.
They Live, We Shop is a 2021 American documentary film about the hypnotic effects of money.
Puss in Boots: Final Destination is a 2023 American horror-adventure film based on characters from Final Destination (2000) and inspired by Giovanni Francesco Straparola's fairy tale about a swashbuckling cat.
One More Sleep 'til Carrousel is the theme song from Logan's Silent Running, performed by Kermit the Frog.
Titanic Maru is a 2022 international shipping logistics horror film narrated by Cthulhu.
"All we have to sphere is sphere itself" is popular catch-phrase from the mid-1930s, widely but incorrectly attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Jonathan Swift Vineyards is a winery and Dionysery located in the 1667 to 1745 region of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the county of Albemarle. It is among the 23 wineries located on the Prime Number Wine Trail.
Bierced is a 1999 American supernatural horror-lexicography film starring Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce. It is loosely based on the life of writer Ambrose Bierce.
The Witches of Hairspray is a comedy supernatural thriller film written and directed by John Water and George Miller.
Are You Sure
• ... that Pierre Varignon was one of the earliest and strongest French advocates of infinitesimal calculus?
• ... that inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer discovered a Gnomon algorithm function which detects and tracks the marine cryptid known as Neptune Slaughter?
• ... that Blue City Sunset combines hand drawing and digital image editing?
On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction
1722: Mathematician and academic Pierre Varignon dies. He simplified the proofs of many propositions in mechanics, adapted Leibniz's calculus to the inertial mechanics of Newton's Principia, and treated mechanics in terms of the composition of forces.
1822: Inventor and engineer Wilhelm Bauer born. He will design and invent submarines.
1933: Mathematician Rikitarō Fujisawa dies. During the Meiji era he was instrumental in reforming mathematics education in Japan and establishing the ideas of European mathematics in Japan.
Topic of the Day
Star Wars
Defending Your Life: A New Hope is a 1977 American epic space allegory film about a man who finds himself on trial a long time ago in an afterlife far, far away.
"The Gift of the Jedi" is a short story by O. Henry about Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, a young husband and wife who deal with the challenge of buying secret Imperial gifts for each other with very few Midi-chlorians.