The War That Time Forgot: Medal For A Dinosaur!

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Star-Spangled War Stories #117 (Oct-Nov. 1964) © DC Comics

Robert Kanigher: Script; Ross Andru: Pencils; Mike Esposito: Inks.

Debuted This Day: The Lumieres' 1st Movie

In 1895, the first motion picture shown on a screen was presented by Auguste and Louis Lumière. An invited audience at 44 Rue de Rennes in Paris, France, viewed the film La Sortie des ouvriers de l'usine Lumière.

The film they shot specially for the occasion shows workers leaving the Lumières' own factory in Lyon, which made all kinds of photographic products. The workers streamed out, most on foot and some on bicycles.



Several more such screenings followed before the first public performance, at the Salon Indien of the Grand Café, 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris on 28th Dec 1895. The Lumières soon began opening cinemas in London, Brussels, Berlin and New York. From Today In Science History

Aquaman Vs. The Octopod From the Cretaceous!

Palaeontologists have just identified three new species of fossil octopus discovered in Cretaceous rocks in Lebanon. The five specimens, described are 95 million years old but, astonishingly, preserve the octopuses' eight arms with traces of muscles and those characteristic rows of suckers. Even traces of the ink and internal gills are present in some specimens.

What surprised the scientists most was how similar the specimens are to modern octopus: 'these things are 95 million years old, yet one of the fossils is almost indistinguishable from living species." This provides important evolutionary information. "The more primitive relatives of octopuses had fleshy fins along their bodies. The new fossils are so well preserved that they show, like living octopus, that they didn't have these structures.'

This pushes back the origins of modern octopus by tens of millions of years. link

Ref: New Octopods (Cephalopoda: Coleoidea) from the Late Cretaceous (Upper Cenomanian) of Hakel and Hadjoula, Lebanon. 2009. D. Fuchs, et al. Palaeontology

Aquaman © DC Comics
Adventure Comics #202 (1954); Art by Ralph Mayo

Plasma Bullets On Target

Art © Tom Bagley

Abstract [edit]. Recently several investigators reported on various means of generating cold plasma jets at atmospheric pressure. More interestingly, these jets turned out to be not continuous plasmas but trains of small high velocity plasma packets/bullets.

We show that their time of initiation, their velocity and the distance they travel are directly dependent on the value of the applied voltage. We also show that these bullets can be controlled by the application of an external electric field. Using an intensified charge coupled device camera we report on their geometrical shape, which was revealed to be 'donut' shaped, therefore giving an indication that solitary surface ionization waves may be responsible for the creation of these bullets.

In addition, using emission spectroscopy, we follow the evolution of various species along the trajectory of the bullets, in this way correlating the bullet propagation with the evolution of their chemical activity.

Ref.: Experimental investigations of plasma bullets. 2009. N. Mericam-Bourdet et al. J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 42 055207 (7pp)

This Day In History: Bikini Atoll Hydrogen Bomb Test

Miss Atom Bomb 1954

In 1954, the hydrogen bomb code-named Bravo was exploded in a test over the Bikini Atoll of the Pacific Ocean. With explosive power of about 20 megatons of TNT it was the most powerful of all U.S. thermonuclear bomb tests. Radioactivity made the islands an unsafe wasteland, preventing the evacuated indigenous people from returning for many decades to follow. link

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The 1st Adventure of Turok, Son of Stone (Pt 2)

Four Color #596, Dell, December 1954.
Script by Gaylord DuBois; Art by Rex Maxon
Turok © current copyright holders

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Dell maximized their page count so the second to last page was printed on the inside back cover which was always printed in B&W, while the final page was actually the back cover of the book.

Will wonders never cease? Apparently Dark Horse has started an archival collection of the original Turok stories starting with the very one presented here. You can order Turok: Son of Stone Archives Volume 1 from the usual on-line sites, or, better yet, buy it from your local comic shop.

The 1st Adventure of Turok, Son of Stone (Pt 1)

Turok © current copyright holders
Cover by Robert C. Susor
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Four Color #596, Dell, December 1954.
Script by Gaylord DuBois; Art by Rex Maxon