May 17
Better Than News
The Nixie Economy: How black market Nixie tubes fuel the underground economy is a study of the economic and historical significance of Nixie tubes, with an emphasis on the underground and semi-illicit computational activities carried out by a self-organizing network of Nixie manufacturers, dealers, and users.
Citizen Palpatine is an epic quasi-biographical science fiction film directed by Orson Welles and George Lucas.
Exorcist of Steel is a superhero horror film directed by William Friedkin, based on the novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty.
No Country for Old Mimics is a science fiction crime thriller film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Joel and Ethan Coen.
It Takes a Chief is an American soap opera buddy comedy television series starring Malachi Throne as Noah Bain, a U.S. government bureaucrat, and Robert Wagner as his willful subordinate.
Beyond Plausible
Menu in Black is a 1997 science fiction cooking comedy film starring Will Smith and Gordon Ramsay.
Steganographic analysis of Confessions of a Quantum Artist-Engineer (1) unexpectedly reveals "at least two-hundred and fifty-six kilobytes" of previously unknown Gnomon algorithm functions.
In Other Words
The Rock 2: Lethal Conception is a 1996 American action-romance thriller film about a biochemical warfare engineer (Nicolas) and his lover (Vanessa Marcil), who must break into Alcatraz and stop a gang of terrorists from detonating their baby.
Are You Sure
• ... that throughout his career, mathematician Jacques-Louis Lions insisted on the use of mathematics in industry, with a particular involvement in the French space program, as well as in domains such as energy and the environment; and that Lions was appointed director of the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) from 1984 to 1992?
• ... that Strainer in a Strained Land is a 1961 science fiction guide to kitchenware by Robert Heinlein?
• ... that "Celestial Airfield Seer" is an anagram of "Eric Alfred Leslie Satie"?
Selected Anniversaries
1765: Mathematician, astronomer, and geophysicist Alexis Clairaut dies. His work helped to establish the validity of the principles and results that Sir Isaac Newton had outlined in the Principia of 1687.
1902: Greek archaeologist Valerios Stais discovers the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient mechanical analog computer.
1973: Watergate scandal (nonfiction): Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.
2001: Mathematician Jacques-Louis Lions dies. He made contributions to the theory of partial differential equations and to stochastic control.
Topic of the Day
Sharon Stone
Raging Casino is an American biographical sports gambling film written and directed by Martin Scorsese.
Basic Aspic is a 1992 neo-noir erotic cooking film about a San Francisco police culinary detective (Michael Douglas) who investigates the brutal recipes of an enigmatic caterer (Sharon Stone).
Fatal Recall is a 2021 automotive industry training film about the hidden costs of recalling vehicles. Narration: Sharon Stone, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Basic Instinct 3: Rise of the Bene Gesserit is a 2006 science fiction erotic thriller film about a novelist and suspected Bene Gesserit witch who manipulates a dedicated Suk physician into betrayal of his Imperial conditioning.
Fetal Recall is a science fiction action drama film based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick and Frank Herbert.