December 31

Better Than News

Running Skerritt is a 1986 American biographical action comedy film loosely based on the life of Tom Skerritt, starring Billy Crystal, Gregory Hines, and Tom Skerritt.
Goldschläger is a 1964 spy film about liquor smuggling by gold magnate Auric Goldfinger, who plans to make Barry Goldwater President of the United States.
I Got Spaces I got spaces / I got vectors / I got metrics / Who could ask for anything more?"
Night Courtship is an American television sitcom set in the night shift of a Manhattan couples counselling clinic presided over by a young, unorthodox psychologist, Harold "Harry" T. Stone (portrayed by Harry Anderson).
"Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?"—Robert Browning

Beyond Plausible

Jungle Book: Kama Sutra Nights is an American animated erotic musical adventure film loosely based on Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem "The White Man's Burden".
A Star is Dying is a 1976 American musical romantic drama film a young singer (Barbra Streisand) who meets and falls in love with a dying dancer, choreographer and director (Roy Scheider).

In Other Words

Golden Girls Quest is an American animated science fiction adventure television series voiced by Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty.
The Limousines (/ˈlɪməziːn/ or /lɪməˈziːn/) paradox (often expressed as How many limousines make up a heap?) is a paradox that results from vague predicates.
The Dyson Sphere War is an ongoing military and paradigmatic conflict between Earth-based civilizations and Dyson sphere civilizations.
"Salty MacTavish Homesick Blues" is a lost song by Bob Dylan, known only from a handful of YouTube videos and social media posts.
The Falling Man is a 1982 romantic thriller novel by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) about a man who participates in a reality TV show in which contestants, allowed to go anywhere in the world, are chased by the general public, who get a huge bounty if he falls in love with them.

Are You Sure

• ... that mathematician Thomas Joannes Stieltjes' pioneering work on the analytic theory of continued fractions was an important early step towards the theory of Hilbert spaces?

• ... that Episcopal priest Hannibal Goodwin invented and patented a method for making rolled photographic film because he wanted a clear, non-breakable substance on which he could place the images he utilized in his Biblical teachings?

• ... that the reality television show Dennis Paulson of Mars was the first manned interplanetary mission funded entire by social media campaigns?

Selected Anniversaries

1610: Mathematician and fencer Ludolph van Ceulen dies. He spent a major part of his life calculating the numerical value of the mathematical constant π.
1679: Physiologist, physicist, and mathematician Giovanni Alfonso Borelli dies. He contributed to the modern principle of scientific investigation by continuing Galileo's practice of testing hypotheses against observation.
1853: Banquet held in the mould of the Crystal Palace Iguanodon.
1879: Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
$1894: Mathematician Thomas Joannes Stieltjes dies. He worked on almost all branches of analysis, continued fractions and number theory, and was called "the father of the analytic theory of continued fractions."$

1894: Mathematician Thomas Joannes Stieltjes dies. He worked on almost all branches of analysis, continued fractions and number theory, and was called "the father of the analytic theory of continued fractions."
1900: Priest and inventor Hannibal Goodwin dies. He invented and patented rolled celluloid photographic film.
1980: Professor of English and philosopher of communication theory Marshall McLuhan dies. He coined the expressions "the medium is the message" and "global village".
2007: The Deep Impact spacecraft flies by Earth on an extended mission to study extrasolar planets and comet Hartley 2 (103P/Hartley).
2016: Reality television show Dennis Paulson of Mars fully funded by Kickstarter.