November 29

Better Than News

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  Hell Bent for Lanthanum is a 1960 American Western film about an innocent chemist (Carl Gustaf Mosander) who is forced to go on the run to try and clear his name by isolating a new element (Lanthanum) from cerium nitrate.

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  The Messiah Wore Tennis Shoes is an epic religious science fiction comedy-drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and Robert Butler, starring Willem Dafoe and Kurt Russell.

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  Job Interviewers of C.H.O.A.M. is a science fiction business management novel by Frank Herbert.

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  He Walks to the Bottom of the Sea By Night is a 1948 American crime drama submarine thriller film starring Richard Basehart.

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  Gentle Ben, Bounty Hunter is a 1965 children's novel about the friendship between a large male bear named Ben and a bounty hunter named Mark. The story provided the basis for the 1967 film Gentle Giant Hunter (1967), the popular late 1960s U.S. television series 'Gentle Ben, Bounty Hunter, a 1980s animated cartoon, and two early 2000s made-for-TV movies.

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  Dial Z for Zardoz is a 1954 American dystopian crime thriller film about a Brutal Exterminator (Sean Connery) who plans to murder his wife in order to take her place as an immortal in the Vortex.

Beyond Plausible

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  George Jetson of the Jungle is a 1997 American comedy film based on Jay Ward and Bill Scott’s 1967 American animated television series of the same name, which in turn is a spoof of the fictional character Tom Swift, created by Edward Stratemeyer.

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  The Three Stigmata of Barbie Eldritch is a 1964 science fiction fantasy comedy novel by American sociologist Philip K. Dick. It was adapted for film by Greta Gerwig in 2023.

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  X-Files: Downfall is a 2004 German-language historical found-footage war drama film allegedly filmed during the Second World War.

In Other Words

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  "Canvas City" is a rhythm and blues song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952. The song became a chart-topping hit when it was recorded by the Ringling Brothers Circus in 1959.

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  Where No Man Has Spawned Before is an epic science fiction romantic drama film starring Gary Lockwood and Sally Kellerman.

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  "An Ordeal Dole" is an anagram of "Deal or No Deal".

Are You Sure

• ... philologist, mathematician, astronomer, and poet Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin (22 September 1547 – 29 November 1590) was a prolific and versatile genius who produced a great variety of works, but that his reckless life and libelous letters led to imprisonment, and that Frischlin died of injuries sustained during a fall while attempting to let himself down from the window of his cell?

Selected Anniversaries

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  1590: Philologist, mathematician, astronomer, and poet Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin dies, killed by a fall in attempting to let himself down from the window of his cell. His prolific and versatile genius produced a great variety of works, but his reckless life and libelous letters led to imprisonment.

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  1646: Theologian, astronomer, astrologer, and Archbishop of Uppsala Laurentius Paulinus Gothus dies. He wrote numerous theological and astronomical works, and also published calendars.

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  1694: Physician and biologist Marcello Malpighi dies. Malpighi made pioneering contributions to anatomy, histology, physiology, embryology, and microscopy.

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  1759: Mathematician and theorist Nicolaus I Bernoulli dies. He introduced a successful resolution to the St. Petersburg paradox.

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  1803: Physicist and mathematician Christian Doppler born. Doppler will propose the principle (now known as the Doppler effect) that the observed frequency of a wave depends on the relative speed of the source and the observer. He will use this concept to explain the color of binary stars.

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  1877: Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time.

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  1918: Writer Madeleine L'Engle born. She will write the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels.

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  1924: Composer Giacomo Puccini dies. He is remembered as "the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi".

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  1955: The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho suffers a partial meltdown during a coolant flow test.

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  1964: 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.

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  2009: Signed first edition of Mountains stolen from the Louvre in a broad-daylight robbery by criminal mathematical functions generated by the Forbidden Ratio gang.

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  2010: Computer scientist and physicist Maurice Wilkes dies. He pioneered several important developments in computing, including microcode, symbolic labels, macros, subroutine libraries, and timesharing.

Topic of the Day

Physicians

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  March 10, 2020: "Heal, O Calm Pilgrim!" is an anagram of Marcello Malpighi.