July 11
Better Than News
"Wendigo Girls" is a lost episode of the American television series "The Night Stalker" starring Darren McGavin. The episode features guest stars Richard Kiel, Amy Ray, and Emily Saliers.
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.
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.
Pulp Raisins is a 1994 animated musical crime drama film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and starring the California Raisins.
"Number '39 Dream" is a song by John Lennon and Queen.
Beyond Plausible
Software License Violation: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series about a starship (USS Entrerprise) which must fight a series of courtroom battles after conducting a five-year mission using unlicensed proprietary software.
"Worth What It's Born to Run For" is a song by Buffalo Springfield and Bruce Springsteen.
Networktown is an American neo-noir thriller drama film about a ruthless entrepreneur (Faye Dunaway) who uses her computer network company to track down "the man with the broken nose".
In Other Words
"Floor Vectors" is an episode of the American animated mathematical television series The Simpsons.
Armageddon Hard is a 1998 American planetary catastrophe heist film about a New York City detective (Bruce Willis) who must stop a rogue splinter asteroid (99942 Apophis-B) from destroying the earth.
"Rooster Cogburn/Admiral Halsey", often simply "Rooster Cogburn", is a song written by Paul and Linda McCartney from their lost album Arm.
Roommates is a 2022 comedy documentary film about root vegetables and their living arrangements.
Are You Sure
... that Blue Peacock was a British tactical nuclear weapon project in the 1950s which designed and built ten-kiloton nuclear mines for deployment in Germany; that cold weather presented technical challenges; and that live chickens were proposed as a heating system: the chickens would be sealed inside the casing, with a supply of food and water, remaining alive for a week or so, with the chickens' body heat keeping the mine's components at a working temperature?
... that "A Devil Sold Fruit" is an anagram of "David Otis Fuller"?
Selected Anniversaries
1732: Astronomer, freemason, and writer Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande born. As a lecturer and writer Lalande will help popularize astronomy. His planetary tables will be the best available up to the end of the 18th century.
1801: Astronomer Jean-Louis Pons makes his first comet discovery. In the next 27 years he discovers another 36 comets, more than any other person in history.
1812: Physicist and academic Petrus Leonardus Rijke born. He will explore the physics of electricity, and be known for the Rijke tube (which turns heat into sound, by creating a self-amplifying standing wave).
1931: Physicist and academic Tullio Regge born. He and G. Ponzano will develop a quantum version of Regge calculus in three space-time dimensions now known as the Ponzano-Regge model; this will be the first of a whole series of state sum models for quantum gravity known as spin foam models.
1958: EDSAC, the first practical electronic digital stored-program computer, is shut down, having been superseded by EDSAC 2.
Topic of the Day
Condoms
Talking Condoms is a brand of novelty condoms. When the foil packet is opened, it plays a pre-recorded message.
Kondom Kingdom is an American retail condom franchise.
The Condom Olympics are the leading international condom sporting events.
Always wear a condom while chiseling a mortice and tenon.
Cracker Jacks with condom prize inside.
Prophylacticon 2000.
