December 1

Better Than News

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  Litany against Minnesotan is a prayer used in Minnesota as a psychological defense against the hazards of winter.

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  Scarfries is a 1983 American crime drama foodie film directed by Oliver Stone, starring Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Gordon Ramsay.

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  "Short Regals" is a song by Randy Newman about Pepin the Short and several other nobles.

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  Miracle Whip is a 1981 action-cooking film about an archaeologist (Indiana Jones) seeking a legendary jar of miraculous mayonnaise.

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  God Creates Pigs and Sausages is a painting by an anonymous Renaissance-era artificial intelligence.

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  World's Fair is a 2022 novel by the pseudonymous "Doctorow Strange", believed to be the spirit of deceased author E.L. Doctorow.

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  Divergent: Rise of the Citrus is an American dystopian science fiction action film about a dystopian and post-apocalyptic Chicago where people are divided into distinct factions based on citrus fruits.

Beyond Plausible

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  Briefs and the City is a British-American romantic comedy-drama film about four friends, one of whom has an affair with a stranger.

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  The Multi-Species Home Pregnancy Test Kit is a consumer-grade build-it-yourself pregnancy test kit which is safe and effective for all higher primates, most vertebrates, and some invertebrates.

In Other Words

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  Law Abiding Bounty Hunter is a dramatic thriller film starring Gerard Butler, Jennifer Aniston, and Jamie Foxx.

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  Citizen Cocaine is a 1941 American drama film directed by, produced by, and starring Orson Welles.

Are You Sure

• ... that mathematician and geneticist G. H. Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947) preferred his work to be considered pure mathematics, perhaps because of his detestation of war and the military uses to which mathematics had been applied?

Selected Anniversaries

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  1750: Mathematician, astronomer, and cartographer Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr dies. He published works on mathematics and astronomy, including sundials, spherical trigonometry, and celestial maps and globes, along with biographical information on several hundred mathematicians and instrument makers.

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  1910: Physicist Louis Slotin born. He will be fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the "demon core" at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

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  1947: Magician and author Aleister Crowley dies. He gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime, as a recreational drug experimenter, bisexual, and an individualist social critic; the popular press denounced him as "the wickedest man in the world" and a Satanist.

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  1948: Tamam Shud case: an unidentified man is found dead at 6:30 am, 1 December 1948, on Somerton beach, Glenelg, just south of Adelaide, South Australia. Public interest in the case remains significant for several reasons: the death occurred at a time of heightened international tensions following the beginning of the Cold War; the apparent involvement of a secret code; the possible use of an undetectable poison; and the inability of authorities to identify the dead man.

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  1967: First known occurence of Stellated Octahedron Day (December 1) celebrating the stellated octahedron, the only stellation of the octahedron.

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  1969: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.

Topic of the Day

Star Trek

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  "The Entertainer Within": A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into David Bowie and Bing Crosby. (Star Trek: Forbidden Episodes.)

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  The Bounty Hunter is one of the "Forbidden Episodes" of the television series Star Trek.