September 28

Better Than News

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  Jason and the Seventh Seal is a historical mythological adventure film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and Don Chaffey about the adventures of the Jason, the world's mightiest swordsman and chess-player.

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  The Primes of Miss Jean Brodie is a short novel by Muriel Sparks about a charismatic Scottish mathematics teacher, Miss Jean Brodie, and her influence on the lives of six impressionable number theory students.

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  Cannablanca is a 1942 stoner war drama film about American expatriate Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), whose old flame Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) unexpectedly appears with her husband, award-winning cannabis farmer Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid).

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  Dr. Claymoney, or How We Got Along After the Ark is a dystopian science fiction novel by Octavia Butler and Philip K. Dick.

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  Jonathan Livingston Seagull 3: The Pizza Bird (full title: Jonathan Livingston Seagull 3: The Pizz Bird) is an allegorical fable about a seagull who competes with ravens, raccoons, and indigent humans for food scraps behind a pizza restaurant.

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  Kon-Tiki: Across Walden Pond is a book by Henry David Thoreau and Thor Heyerdahl, reflecting upon the authors' simple traversal of natural surroundings.

Beyond Plausible

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  Oz is a 1975 American fantasy adventure film about a police chief, a marine biologist, and a professional shark hunter who must travel to the Emerald City.

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  Moby-Peck is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville about a giant white whale's maniacal quest for vengeance against actor Gregory Peck.

In Other Words

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  To Hasp and Hasp Not is a novel by Ernest Hemingway about Harry Morgan, a fishing boat captain out of Key West, Florida who seeks a legendary treasure chest.

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  A Confederacy of Ileocoecal Valves (commonly known as A Confederacy of Valves) is a picaresque gastroenterology textbook by New Orleans gastroenterologist John Kennedy Toole.

Are You Sure

Florence Violet McKenzie with wireless (1922).

• ... that Florence Violet McKenzie OBE (28 September 1890 or 1892 – 23 May 1982), affectionately known as "Mrs Mac", was a pioneer of wireless technology, Australia's first female electrical engineer, founder of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC), and lifelong champion of technical education for women?

• ... that astronomer and mathematician Ismaël Bullialdus (28 September 1605 – 25 November 1694) was an active and prolific member of the Republic of Letters, the long-distance intellectual correspondence network that had emerged as an international community of self-proclaimed scholars and literary figures; that his letters demonstrate the geographic reach of the Republic of Letters (his correspondents lived not only in nearby countries like Holland and Italy, but also in Scandinavia, Poland, and the Near East); and that the most famous of the known letters included in the original Archive Boulliau include correspondence with luminaries including Galileo, Marin Mersenne, Henry Oldenburg, Christiaan Huygens, and Pierre de Fermat?

• ... that mathematician and physicist Martin David Kruskal (September 28, 1925 – December 26, 2006) made fundamental contributions in mathematics and science, ranging from plasma physics to general relativity and from nonlinear analysis to asymptotic analysis; that Kruskal's single most celebrated contribution was the discovery and theory of solitons; that Kruskal was known as a mentor of younger scientists; and that Kruskal was notable for his playfulness?

• ... that September 28 is Provincial Chromatography Day in New Minneapolis, Canada, and that both the Mayor and Lieutenant Governor of New Minneapolis have personally lobbied the governor general of Canada (the federal viceregal representative of the Canadian monarch, currently Queen Elizabeth II) in support of a national Canadian Chromatography Day?

Selected Anniversaries

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  1605: Mathematician and astronomer Ismaël Bullialdus born. He will be an active member of the Republic of Letters, and an early defender of the ideas of Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo.

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  1890 (or 1892): Electrical engineer Florence Violet McKenzie born. She will be was Australia's first female electrical engineer, founder of the Women's Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC), and lifelong promoter for technical education for women.

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  1925: Physicist and mathematician Martin David Kruskal born. Kruskal will make fundamental contributions in many areas of mathematics and science, including the discovery and theory of solitons.

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  1953: Astronomer and cosmologist Edwin Hubble dies. He discovered the fact that the Andromeda "nebula" is actually another island galaxy far outside of our own Milky Way.

Topic of the Day

Batman

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  The Dark Pie Rises is a 2012 action-cooking thriller film about Chef Bane (Tom Hardy), a criminal mastermind restaurateur who kidnaps the world's greatest pastry chef (Alon Aboutboul).

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  Eternal Dark Side of the Thoughtless Mind is a 2004 American drama film which follows two halves of a bisociated billionaire who have erased each other from their memories. The film uses elements of psychological thriller, science fiction, and a nonlinear narrative to explore the nature of Batman and the Joker.