September 30
Better Than News
The Turing Completeness of Tutankhamun is a made-for-television movie which explores the question: Was the Pharaoh Tutankhamun Turing complete? And if so, can we make valid computations today based on Tutankhamun's grave goods?
Frankenstein is a murder mystery novel by Agatha Christie, the first in her Mary Shelley Mystery Series.
Three Days of El Condor Pasa is a 1975 political musical film about a bookish CIA researcher (Robert Redford) who returns to his childhood home in the Andes, only to discover that all of the miners of the village, and many of their wives and children, have been murdered or disappeared by Operation Condor.
RoboMountie is a science fiction slapstick comedy action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and Hugh Wilson, starring Peter Weller and Brendan Fraser.
Queerosmith is a theoretical rock band comprising Queen and Aerosmith.
The beer can-can dance is a high-energy, physically demanding dance that became a popular beer-hall dance in the 1940s, continuing in popularity in French cabaret to this day.
Astronaut Farm is a 1954 aerospace political animal husbandry film set aboard the Eric Arthur Blair Memorial Space Station.
Are You Sure
... that the first known calculation of the golden ratio, expressed inversely as a decimal of "about 0.6180340", was written in 1597 by astronomer and mathematician Maestlin in a letter to Johannes Kepler?
On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction
1550: Astronomer and mathematician Michael Maestlin born. He will be a mentor to Johannes Kepler, and play a sizable part in his adoption of the Copernican system.
1882: Thomas Edison's first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States.
1913: Mathematician Samuel Eilenberg born. He will co-found category theory with Saunders Mac Lane, and propose the Eilenberg swindle (a construction applying the telescoping cancellation idea to projective modules).
Topic of the Day
Philip K. Dick
Cop Has Fearsome Wild Mentality is an anagram of "Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said".
"Did you step on a butterfly in Texas during a tornado while watching Jurassic Park in Brazil under the influence of JJ-180?" is a question which if you answer Yes you are probably a very confused unintentional time traveler under the influence of a fictional yet illegal drug such as Clandestiphrine.
"I've seen people you things wouldn't believe." —Roy Batty
The Gnomon Chronicles Society for the Advancement of VALIS (SAV) reminds you — With enough redheads, we can project a beam of pink VALIS light into space, so other worlds know that we have redheads too.
The Gnomon in the High Castle is a 1962 alternative history novel by Philip K. Dick in which the United States is ruled by sundials.