December 19
Better Than News
"The Gift of the Jedi" is a short story by O. Henry about Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, a young husband and wife who deal with the challenge of buying secret Imperial gifts for each other with very few Midi-chlorians.
Tom Crudités is a 2022 action-hors d'oeuvres film starring Tom Cruise.
Flying Fondue is a brand of consumer home personal fondue helicopters.
Maws is an American epic science fiction thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Rebecca Ferguson.
The Bullitt is a 1958 neo-noir action horror film about a police detective (Steve McQueen) who investigates a crashed space ship after an amoeboid alien assassin dissolves the witness he was protecting.
Mysterion: Far From Home is a 2021 buddy adventure film about a custom car genius (Ed Roth) who teams up with actor and alleged time-traveler Jake Gyllenhaal to restore the legendary Mysterion to mint condition.
Dude, Where's Mitochondria? is a biochemistry comedy stoner film about a molecular biologist (Ashton Kutcher), who finds himself unable to remember how ATP synthesis works after a night of reckless glycolysis.
"The Real Domain Knowledge" is a poem by American physician and information theory poet William Carlos Williams (1883–1963).
Beyond Plausible
Breaking Pastrami is an American foodie comedy-crime television series created by The Pastrami King and starring Bryan Cranston and Gordon Ramsay.
In Other Words
Dude, Where's My Carbs? is a 2000 American stoner comedy film about two best friends (Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott) who find themselves unable to remember how they gained two hundred pounds each after a night of recklessness dining.
Are You Sure
• ... that physicist Robert Andrews Millikan (22 March 1868 – 19 December 1953) won the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physics for the measurement of the elementary electronic charge and for his work on the photoelectric effect?
• ... that if you give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day; but if you give him a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft over the eastern Mediterranean Sea, he'll chart a flight path which resembles a penis pointing at a Russian military base?
• ... that Replicant Vice is a reality television series starring Harrison Ford and Roy Batty?
Selected Anniversaries
1714: Mathematician, physicist, and astronomer John Winthrop born. He will be one of the foremost men of science in America during the 18th century.
1901: Inventor and engineer Rudolf Hell born. Hell will invent the Hellschreiber, a pioneering teleprinter system. Shown here: Hell's Wetterkartenschreiber ("weather chart recorder").
1953: Physicist Robert Andrews Millikan dies. He won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 for the measurement of the elementary electronic charge and for his work on the photoelectric effect.
1956: Physician, confidence trickster, and suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually he is convicted only of minor charges.
2021: Premier of The Woke and the Furious, a 2021 political action film about an undercover liberal who is tasked with discovering the identities of a group of insurrectionists led by Donald Trump.
January 6 United States Capitol attack
• 2022: US House Jan. 6 committee votes to refer criminal charges to Justice Department for Donald Trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election and encourage a mob to attack the US Capitol.
• 2023: Colorado's Supreme Court rules Donald Trump is ineligible to run for President after participating in an insurrection, under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
Topic of the Day
Books
"The Gift of the Jedi" is a short story by O. Henry about Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, a young husband and wife who deal with the challenge of buying secret Imperial gifts for each other with very few Midi-chlorians.
Always Looping Home is a 2023 science fiction anthropology film starring Emily Blunt. It is loosely based on the novel of the same name by Ursula K. LeGuin.
