September 17
Better Than News
The Last Temptation of Spice is an epic religious science fiction drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and David Lynch, starring Kyle MacLachlan and Willem Dafoe.
Shirley Partridge, Mafia Lawyer is a crime drama television series starring Shirley Jones, reprising her role as Shirley Partridge of the Partridge Family.
The Dark Side of Doctor Robert is an an album by Pink Floyd and the Beatles.
Thunderbird 2, Where Are You? is a British science-fiction reality television series in which participants must outwit Thunderbird 2, a rogue Supermarionation heavy-duty transporter aircraft.
Monk versus Alf is a science fiction buddy comedy-drama television series starring Tony Shalhoub and Alf.
Terminator of the North Pole is a science fiction drama film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lee Marvin.
Fresh Squeeze is a lost album by the English rock band Squeeze.
Are You Sure
... that chemist Friedrich August Kekulé discovered the ring shape of the benzene molecule after having a reverie or day-dream of a snake seizing its own tail?
... that A Monk's Price is a historical drama film about a supernatural chess set which seeks out the world's strongest chess player, and then possesses the second-strongest player?
On This Day in Fiction and Nonfiction
1743: Philosopher, mathematician, and early political scientist Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet born. His ideas and writings will be said to embody the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment and rationalism, and remain influential to this day.
1826: Mathematician and academic Bernhard Riemann born. He will make contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry.
1857: Scientist and engineer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky born. He will be one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry and astronautics.
1877: Scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot dies. Talbot invented the salted paper and calotype processes, precursors to photographic processes of the later 19th and 20th centuries. His work, in the 1840s on photomechanical reproduction, led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure.
1994: Philosopher and academic Karl Popper dies. He is known for his rejection of the classical inductivist views on the scientific method, in favour of empirical falsification: A theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can and should be scrutinized by decisive experiments.
2017: Dennis Paulson of Mars credits scientist and engineer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky with "inspiring generations of astronauts."
Topic of the Day
Ingmar Bergman
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.
"Memories as Fragrance" is an anagram of "Scenes From a Marriage".
The Seventh Strawberries is an allegorical drama film directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Max von Sydow and Bibi Andersson.
The Seventh Mayo is a 1957 film by Ingmar Bergman about disillusioned Swedish chef Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), who vows to evade Death long enough to manufacture and distribute the world's best mayonnaise.