Main Page

Combustion Bird.

The Gnomon Chronicles is a work of fiction and nonfiction by Karl Jones (nonfiction). Fresh content daily.
April 4

Better Than News

• 

  Tacky is an American sitcom about the employees of the fictional Sunshine Adhesives Company in Manhattan.

• 

  One Million Years Before Gilda is an adventure fantasy film about a paleolithic warrior (Rachel Welch) who finds a magic mirror which transforms her into Gilda (Rita Hayworth), a modern socialite.

• 

  Xena: X-Files Princess is an American science fiction television series about Xena (Lucy Lawless), an infamous warrior on a quest to seek redemption for her past sins against the innocent by using her formidable fighting skills to now help those who encounter paranormal phenomena.

• 

  Blood Diamond Vampire is am American political action horror film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, and Tom Cruise.

• 

  Ducks: How to Make Them Pay is an ornithological handbook comprising tales of greed and vengeance among the Anatidae.

Beyond Plausible

• 

  Ovaltine Plus is a brand of milk flavoring product made with malt extract (except in the blue packaging in the United States), sugar (except in Switzerland), whey, and opium.

In Other Words

• 

  Tentacle Date is a cephalopod-themed tentacle erotica dating board game for young adults.

Are You Sure ...

• ... that mathematician, logician, and philosopher Benjamin Peirce (4 April 1809 – 6 October 1880) famously said that "Mathematics is the science that draws necessary conclusions", and that Peirce was an apologist for slavery, opining that it should be condoned if it was used to allow an elite to pursue scientific inquiry?

• ... that astronomer, freemason, and writer Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande (11 July 1732 – 4 April 1807) helped popularize astronomy, and that his planetary tables were the best available up to the end of the 18th century?

• ... mathematician Édouard Lucas (4 April 1842 – 3 October 1891) studied the Fibonacci sequence, and that the related Lucas sequences and Lucas numbers are named after him?

• ... engineer and theorist Harry Nyquist (7 February 1889 – 4 April 1976) pioneering the determination the bandwidth requirements for transmitting information, laying the foundations for later advances by Claude Shannon, which led to the development of information theory?

Selected Anniversaries

• 

  1807: Astronomer, freemason, and writer Joseph Jérôme Lefrançois de Lalande dies. As a lecturer and writer Lalande helped popularize astronomy. His planetary tables were the best available up to the end of the 18th century.

• 

  1809: Mathematician Benjamin Peirce born. Peirce will make contributions to celestial mechanics, statistics, number theory, algebra, and the philosophy of mathematics; he will become known for the statement that "Mathematics is the science that draws necessary conclusions".

• 

  1826: Electrical engineer Zénobe Gramme born. Gramme will invent the first usefully powerful electric motor.

• 

  1842: Mathematician Édouard Lucas born. Lucas will study the Fibonacci sequence; the related Lucas sequences and Lucas numbers will be named after him.

• 

  1919: Chemist and physicist William Crookes dies. Crookes was a pioneer of vacuum tube technology, developing the partially evacuated Crookes tube circa 1869-1875.

• 

  1923: Mathematician and philosopher John Venn dies. Venn invented the Venn diagram, now widely used set theory, probability, logic, statistics, and computer science.

• 

  1941: Chemist Lazăr Edeleanu dies. Edeleanu invented the modern method of refining crude oil, was the first chemist to synthesize amphetamine.

• 

  1976: Engineer and theorist Harry Nyquist dies. Nyquist did early theoretical work on determining the bandwidth requirements for transmitting information, laying the foundations for later advances by Claude Shannon, which led to the development of information theory.

• 

  1977: Game designer, shop keeper, and outsider mathematician Dave the Gamer announces "Buy n, get n free" sale on all lucky dice in the store.

Topic of the Day

Architecture

• 

  Dubai Hard is a 2021 Emirati-American action-architecture film written and directed by architect Hayri Atak, and starring Bruce Willis as New York City police architectural engineer John McClane (Willis), who gets caught up in an armed interior designer takeover of a rotating turbine-style Dubai skyscraper while visiting his estranged robot spot-welder in a Dubai prison labor camp.

• 

  Saruman House is a fortress commissioned by the corrupt wizard Saruman.

Interview

INTERVIEW: "Gnomon Chronicles: An Interview With The Man Who Makes Up Movies - Meet the satirist blurring the line between entertainment and reality…" by Aaron Cowell for Tr!ll online magazine.

Favorites