October 24
Better Than News
Julia Child the 13th is a 1980 American horror cooking film starring celebrity chef and Office of Strategic Services (OSS) researcher Julia Child.
The Day the Balloon Cried is an unfinished and unreleased 1972 horror film directed by and starring Jerry Lewis.
"You Are the Shining of My Life" is a song by Stevie Wonder and Scatman Crothers.
Ocean's NFTs is a 2001 American NFT heist film about NFT broker Danny Ocean (George Clooney), who plans to delete $160 million in ape NFTs belonging to zoo-themed casino owner Terry Benedict (Andy García).
The Screwtape Candies is a Christian apologetic satire horror novel by C. S. Lewis.
Martian Pixy-Stix is a science fiction novel by American sociologist Philip K. Dick 1.1 about mental illness, the physics of time, and the dangers of sugar addiction.
Dune Girls is a 1997 British musical drama film about a Bene Gesserit girl group who go on tour across Arrakis.
Are You Sure
• ... that Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) wrote, in a letter to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (via Henry Oldenburg): "the basis of these operations, sufficiently obvious (since now I cannot continue my explanation) I have thus rather concealed 6a 2c d æ13e 2f 7i 3l 9n 4o 4q 2r 4s 9t 12v x."; and that the decoded sentence was later published by Wallis as Data Æquatione quotcumque, fluentes quantitates involvente, fluxiones invenire, et vice versa ("Given any equation, involving fluent quantities, to find the fluxions, and vice versa"); and that fluentes in the work of Newton are changing quantities, and fluxions their rates of change?
• ... that minister, scholar, astronomer, mathematician, cartographer, and inventor Wilhelm Schickard (22 April 1592 – 24 October 1635) designed and built calculating machines; and that he also invented techniques for producing improved maps?
• ... that physicist, inventor, and crime-fighter Galileo Galilei uses Tycho Brahe's observatory to detect and prevent crimes against astronomical constants?
On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction
1601: Astronomer Tycho Brahe dies. Brahe made astronomical observations some five times more accurate than the best available observations at the time.
1635: Minister, scholar, astronomer, mathematician, cartographer, and inventor Wilhelm Schickard dies. Schickard designed and built calculating machines, and invented techniques for producing improved maps.
1602: Physicist, inventor, and crime-fighter Galileo Galilei uses Tycho Brahe's observatory to detect and prevent crimes against astronomical constants.
1655: Mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and priest Pierre Gassendi dies. Gassendi clashed with his contemporary Descartes on the possibility of certain knowledge.
1676: Isaac Newton summarized the state of development of his method of fluxions and power series in the "Epistola posterior," which he sent to Oldenburg to transmit to Leibniz.
1861: The first transcontinental telegraph line across the United States is completed.
1920: Mathematician and Doctor of Medicine Marcel-Paul Schützenberger born. Schützenberger will contribute to the fields of formal language, combinatorics, and information theory.
1960: Nedelin catastrophe: An R-16 ballistic missile explodes on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100. Among the dead is Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death is reported to have occurred in a plane crash.
Topic of the Day
Star Wars
The Empire Breaks Up is a 1978 science fiction drama film about a Hollywood couple (Marcia and George Lucas) who experience marital strife after making the world's most popular film.
Sky Friar is a 1968 song by Eric Burdon and the Caterers.
Who's Afraid of Jar Jar Binks? is a 1966 American science fiction comedy film about a late-night gathering at the home of George, a college history professor on Naboo, and his wife Martha, the daughter of the university's president.