April 27

Ecosystem 5.

Better Than News

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  Dial H for High Noon is a 1954 American crime thriller film about a small town Marshal (Gary Gooper) who wants to have his wealthy wife (Grace Kelly) murdered so he can get his hands on her cattle ranch. When he discovers her branding cattle with another man (Robert Cummings), he comes up with the perfect plan to kill her.

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  Happy Trails Gilmore is an American Western sports comedy film directed by Dennis Dugan, starring Adam Sandler, Dale Evans, and Roy Rogers.

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  Monumental Barkitecture is a canine modern dance company famed for their imitations of monuments, ziggurats, and other large-scale sculptural works.

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  Tarzan: Lord of the Apiary is a 1984 adventure film loosely based on the beekeeping instructional manual of the same name by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

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  Diamonds Only Live Forever is a spy film starring Charles Gray as two enemy agents locked in a deadly game of wits.

Beyond Plausible

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  The Secret of PERC is a 1982 American animated fantasy industrial chemistry training film about a strain of rats which have been genetically engineered to tolerate high levels of tetrachloroethylene (also known as PERC).

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  The Molecule of Discord was a molecule of tetrachloroethylene (PERC) dropped by Eris, the goddess of dry cleaning, at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis in the Greek myth of the Judgement of Paris. It sparked a vanity-fueled dispute among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite that eventually led to the Trojan War.

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  PFAS are Forever is an advertising campaign slogan promoting gem-grade per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

In Other Words

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  Dune: House Ferret is a 2021 science fiction animal adventure film based on the best-selling autobiography of animal trainer Frank Herbert.

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  Time Travelers of Triskelion is a British-American science fiction television series about a group of prisoners on the arena planet of Triskelion who secretly experiment with time travel.

Are You Sure

• ... that painter and inventor Samuel Morse (1791–1872) met artist and pioneering photographer Louis Daguerre in 1839 while visiting Paris, and that Morse become interested in the daguerreotype (the first practical means of photography), writing a letter to the New York Observer describing the invention; and that Mathew Brady, one of the earliest photographers in American history, famous for his depictions of the American Civil War, studied under Morse and later took photographs of him?

• ... that mathematician Paul Gordan (1837–1912) encouraged fellow mathematician David Hilbert and used Hilbert's results and methods, and the widespread story that Gordon opposed David Hilbert's work on invariant theory is a myth, although Gordon did correctly point out in a referee's report that some of the reasoning in Hilbert's paper was incomplete; and that Gordon is famously quoted (or misquoted — it is not clear if Gordan really said this, nor is it clear whether the quote was intended as criticism, or praise, or a subtle joke) as saying of Hilbert's proof of Hilbert's basis theorem: "This is not mathematics; this is theology."?

• ... that the Fugu squash is a genetically engineered hybrid of the fugu fish and any of various types of squash, and that it was created as a vegan delicacy for high-end sushi restaurants?

• ... that author, mathematician, scientist, political activist, and educator Irving Adler (1913–2012) turned his attention, in the late 1970s, to the question of phyllotaxis, specifically to the arrangement of plant spirals according to the Fibonacci sequence, and that his papers in the Journal of Theoretical Biology stimulated a revival of interest in the subject?

Topic of the Day

Beverages

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  Simply Slugs is a brand of beverages made primarily from slugs.

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  Postum Scorchin BBQ is a barbeque-flavored version of the instant coffee substitute Postum.

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  Intravenous clam juice drip is a means of ingesting clam juice without tasting it.

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  Steeping Beauty is a classic fairy tale about a princess who is cursed by an evil fairy to sleep until a cup of tea is fully steeped.

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  Goodbye, Mr. Pibb is a 1969 soft drink comedy film starring Peter O'Toole, Petula Clark, and Dr. Pepper.

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  I'd Have a Beer With Richard Dawson is a game show which challenges players to have a beer with actor, comedian, and game-show host Richard Dawson.

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  F5 is an artificial beverage derived from illegal mathematical functions.