January 16
Better Than News
The Creation of Angel Hair Pasta is a fresco painting by Italian artist Michelangelo, which forms part of the Sistine Chapel refectory's ceiling, painted c. 1508–1512. It illustrates the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God gives angel hair pasta to Adam, the first man.
"Fly Me to the Drone" is a song by Frank Sinatra about drone aviation.
"Emergency Tracheotomy" starring Popeye the Sailor Paramedic.
Walking Heads were an arctic rock band formed by a parasitic alien monster from the bodies of David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison. Described as "one of the most critically acclaimed nightmares of the '80s", the group helped to pioneer new horror music by integrating elements of isolation, freezing temperatures, and fear of a monstrous alien life form.
The Coital cosmos theory (sometimes know as "Playskool's My First Big Bang", "Playskool's My First Panspermia", "Do-Over cosmos", etc.) is a cosmological model of the observable universe from the earliest known periods of sexual arousal through its subsequent evolution into any of various sex acts.
The Alternating Current of Pelham One-Two-Three is a 1974 American thriller film loosely based on the life of Nikola Tesla.
Judge Dredd Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a film science fiction drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Diane Lane and Diane Ladd.
Beyond Plausible
Of Mice and Penguins is a 1939 American superhero film about two men, George (Burgess Meredith) and his mentally-challenged partner Lennie (Lon Chaney Jr.), trying to survive during the dustbowl of the 1930s and pursuing a dream of running their own crime gang instead of always working for the Joker.
The Leo Sayer Who Fell to Earth is a science fantasy musical drama film starring David Bowie and Leo Sayer.
Quest for Hellboy is a 1981 prehistoric fantasy adventure film about the struggle by early humans for control of supernatural demonic forces.
In Other Words
Misery Report is an American science fiction psychological thriller film starring Kathy Bates, James Caan, and Tom Cruise.
"Ray Pontoons" is an anagram of "Tony Soprano".
Are You Sure
• ... that the reverse engineering of cryptographic numina occasionally causes bursts of pink light, the nature of which has never been explained?
• ... that writer, humanist, and historian Pedro Mexía's Silva de varia lección ("A Miscellany of Several Lessons") (1540), an encyclopedic miscellany or mixture of subjects of interest across the diverse repertoire of humanistic knowledge of the time, became an early best seller across Europe?
• ... that mathematician and computer scientist Tom Kilburn led the development of a succession of innovative Manchester computers that incorporated a host of ground-breaking innovations and developments, including the Ferranti Mark 1, the world's first commercial computer, and the Atlas, one of the first time-sharing multiprocessing computers that incorporated job scheduling, spooling, interrupts, pipelining and paging?
Selected Anniversaries
1492: Mathematician Adam Ries born (uncertain). He will write textbooks for practical mathematics, promoting the advantages of Arabic/Indian numerals over Roman numerals.
1551: Writer, humanist, and historian Pedro Mexía dies. He wrote Silva de varia lección ("A Miscellany of Several Lessons"), which became an early best seller across Europe.
1574: Astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist and Rosicrucian apologist Robert Fludd born.
1647: Astronomer Elisabeth Hevelius born. One of the first female astronomers, Hevelius will be called "the mother of moon charts".
1706: Inventor, publisher, and statesman Benjamin Franklin born.
1834: Physicist and academic Giovanni Aldini dies. Aldini contributed to galvanism, anatomy and its medical applications, the construction and illumination of lighthouses, and the mitigation of the destructive effects of fire.
1903: The short film Electrocuting an Elephant is released. It documents the deliberate execution of an elephant named Topsy.
1911: Statistician, progressive, polymath, sociologist, psychologist, anthropologist, eugenicist, tropical explorer, geographer, inventor, meteorologist, proto-geneticist, and psychometrician Francis Galton dies.
1949: Computer scientist Anita Borg born. She will found the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.
1961: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military–industrial complex."
1966: Palomares incident: A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, killing seven airmen, and dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.
1997: Astronomer and academic Clyde Tombaugh dies. He discovered Pluto, as well as many asteroids.
2001: Mathematician and computer scientist Tom Kilburn dies. Over the course of a productive 30-year career, he was involved in the development of five computers of great historical significance.
Topic of the Day
Sound
Say Nothing is an American horror-comedy film starring John Cusack and Emily Blunt.
Project Darkwhistle (also Project Darkwhistle, DARK WHISTLE, etc.) is an orbital wind tunnel.
Tintinitus is the perception of Tintin when no actual external Tintin is present.