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Kalki Koechlin

Margarita with a Straw is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Shonali Bose. It stars Kalki Koechlin (pictured) as an Indian teenager with cerebral palsy who relocates to America for her undergraduate education and comes of age following her complex relationship with a blind girl, played by Sayani Gupta. Revathi, Kuljeet Singh, and William Moseley play supporting roles. Produced by Bose in partnership with Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Margarita with a Straw was co-written by Bose and Nilesh Maniyar. The film deals with the concepts of sexuality, inclusion, self-love, and self-acceptance. Bose conceived the idea for the film in January 2011, during a conversation with Malini Chib—her cousin and a disability rights activist—about the latter's desire to have a normal sex life. After winning Sundance Institute's Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award for the draft, she modified the script to reflect her own perspective, incorporating several personal experiences into the narrative. (Full article...)

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Did you know ...

"Open tube" event at Waterlooplein metro station

... that a 1975 "open tube" event (pictured) at Waterlooplein station gave the citizens of Amsterdam their first look at the city's metro system?
... that the Central American government voted for annexation to the First Mexican Empire after a request from Regent Agustín de Iturbide?
... that Craig Greenberg was shot at while running in the 2022 Louisville mayoral election?
... that Through the Darkest of Times was the first video game published in Germany to use swastikas?
... that Elisabeth Griffith's sweeping 100-year history of the American equal-rights movement has been compared to listening to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire"?
... that although Baeoentedon bouceki was collected from China in 1983, it was not formally described as a new species until 2014?
... that the Vatican selected Mary Milligan in 1987 to be one of only three U.S. experts to assist the International Synod of Bishops on the Laity in Rome?
... that a British filmmaker forced the British Board of Film Classification to watch paint drying for ten hours?

In the news

Jiang Zemin

Jiang Zemin (pictured), former general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, dies at the age of 96.
A deadly fire in Ürümqi escalates ongoing protests across China in response to the government's zero-COVID policy.
Anwar Ibrahim of the Pakatan Harapan coalition becomes Prime Minister of Malaysia after the general election produces the nation's first hung parliament.
An earthquake centred near Cianjur in Indonesia's West Java kills at least 323 people and injures more than 7,000 others.

On this day

December 3

Freda Du Faur

1800 – War of the Second Coalition: French forces defeated Austrian and Bavarian troops at the Battle of Hohenlinden, eventually resulting in the Austrians signing the Treaty of Lunéville.
1910 – Freda Du Faur (pictured) became the first woman to climb Aoraki / Mount Cook, the highest peak in New Zealand.
1968 – American singer Elvis Presley's first television special and first live performance in seven years, Singer Presents ... Elvis, was broadcast by NBC.
1976 – Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley survived an assassination attempt by seven gunmen in Kingston.
1994 – Sony released the PlayStation, the first computer entertainment platform to ship 100 million units.

Birinus (d. 649 or 650)
Louisa Susannah Cheves McCord (b. 1810)
Paul J. Crutzen (b. 1933)

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Today's featured picture

The New Mexico Territory was an organized incorporated territory of the United States from September 9, 1850, until January 6, 1912. This illustration, created by Henry Mitchell for State Arms of the Union, published by Louis Prang in 1876, depicts the territory's coat of arms, adopted by legislation in 1887: "The coat of arms of the territory of New Mexico shall be the Mexican Eagle grasping a serpent in its beak, the cactus in its talons, shielded by the American eagle with outspread wings, and grasping arrows in its talons." The year 1850, representing the territory's organization, appears in Roman numerals under the eagles, and below the shield is the Latin motto Crescit eundo ('It grows as it goes').

Illustration credit: Henry Mitchell; restored by Andrew Shiva

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