January 19
Better Than News
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.
The Lord of the Sprinkles is an epic high-fantasy film about a baker (Sauron) who creates the One Sprinkled Donut to rule the appetites of Men, Dwarves, and Elves.
"The Battlezone of Evermore" is a song by British rock band Led Zeppelin.
Shaft of the Archer is a 2022 action-bromance fantasy adventure film starring Viggo Mortensen and Orlando Bloom.
Barbie 2049 is a fantasy comedy science fiction thriller film directed by Greta Gerwig and Denis Villeneuve, and starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, and Ana de Armas.
Alderaan Croutons from Grand Chef Tarkin. They're not for Seasoning. They're for Sending a Message.
The Three Stigmata of R2D2 is a science fiction novel by American sociologist Philip K. Dick.
Are You Sure ...
• ... that James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young NFT is a nichtfungibletokenroman written in a modernist style about the intellectual and financial awakening of young Stephen Dataloss, Joyce's fictional alter-NFT ego, whose surname alludes to the loss of data, which undermines the non-fungible token economy?
• ... that chemist and physicist Henri Victor Regnault studied the thermal properties of matter; that he designed sensitive thermometers, hygrometers, hypsometers and calorimeters, and measured the specific heats of many substances and the coefficient of thermal expansion of gases; and that in the course of this work, he discovered that not all gases expand equally when heated and that Boyle's Law is only an approximation, especially at temperatures near a substance's boiling point?
• ... that Dee Ring, the home-repair superspy played by Patrick McGoohan in the television series D-Ring: Agent of Suspense, also appears in a crossover episode of Secret Reagent Man starring McGoohan and Johnny Rivers?
• ... that astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn studied the proper motions of stars, reporting in 1904 that these were not random, as it was believed in that time; stars could be divided into two streams, moving in nearly opposite directions; and that it was later realized that Kapteyn's data had been the first evidence of the rotation of our Galaxy, which ultimately led to the finding of galactic rotation by Bertil Lindblad and Jan Oort?
• ... that The Man From K.E.S.S.E.L. is an American science fiction buddy television series about a pair of space pilots (Robert Vaughn and David McCallum) who work for K.E.S.S.E.L., a secret interplanetary smuggling ring?
On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction
1755: Physicist, mathematician, and astronomer Jean-Pierre Christin dies. He invented the Celsius thermometer.
1833: Mathematician and academic Alfred Clebsch born. Clebsch will make important contributions to algebraic geometry and invariant theory.
1851: Astronomer and academic Jacobus Kapteyn born. Kapteyn will conduct extensive studies of the Milky Way using photography and statistical methods to determine the motions and distribution of stars, discovering evidence for galactic rotation.
1878: Chemist and physicist Henri Victor Regnault dies. He was an early thermodynamicist, best known for his careful measurements of the thermal properties of gases, and for mentoring William Thomson in the late 1840s.
1883: The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.
1915: Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
1917: Mathematician Graham Higman born. In mathematics, Higman will contribute to group theory. During the Second World War hill be a conscientious objector, working at the Meteorological Office in Northern Ireland and Gibraltar.
1937: Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.
1966: Debut of The Man From K.E.S.S.E.L., an American science fiction buddy television series about a pair of space pilots (Robert Vaughn and David McCallum) who work for K.E.S.S.E.L., a secret interplanetary smuggling ring.
2015: Engineer and inventor Justin Capră dies. He designed fuel-efficient cars, unconventional engines, aircraft, and jet backpacks.
Topic of the Day
Books
Strainer in a Strained Land is a 1961 science fiction guide to kitchenware by celebrity chef and author Robert Heinlein.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Tweets? is a 1968 social media novel by American sociologist Philip K. Dick.
Down to the Quick is an erotic lunchbox fetish novel for young adults in the Salty MacTavish After-Lunch Mystery series.