sterbesurkunde (13. 918)

In the hopes of silencing conspiracy theories that had circulated since 1945 and would so for decades afterwards, on this day in 1956 the district court (Amtsgericht) of Berchtesgaden, with jurisdiction as the Führer’s home of record, declared Hitler officially dead. Following the capture of the Reich Chancellery during the Battle of Berlin, the Red Army secured the remains of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun and directed the NKVD (НКВД, the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the secret police and intelligence agency later responsible for carrying out the Great Purge) to carry out a comprehensive post-mortem. Fritz Echtmann, dental assistant, identified dentures and implants as belong to the deceased and collected testimony from other witnesses to the suicide.
At first publishing the details of this fact finding mission and initially sharing it with American counterparts, on orders from Josef Stalin, Soviet commander-in-chief Georgi Zhukov retracted the statements and launched a disinformation campaign, disappearing Echtmann and others present behind the Iron Curtain. In order to disabuse allies from the apparent confusion, MI5 conducted its own investigation, finding Hitler’s last will and testament, marriage certificate and generally corroborating the factual account, though doubts lingered due to the continued detention of important witnesses. The USSR was motivated to maintain these conspiracies in order to justify harsh crackdowns on those within their sphere of influence and suppress democratic reform through the legend of a useful boogeyman. Following their release and repatriation to West Germany, their narratives helped strengthen the case for remit of Hitler’s estate and assets to the state of Bavaria and the municipality of Linz—however, despite all this, the deliberate Soviet obfuscation fuelled alternative narratives well into the 1990s, championed by American tabloids positing notions that the couple were alive and well in Argentina or Colombia or Albania, only dispelled—mostly—with the collapse of the Soviet Union and release of the archives detailing the burial and reinterment of the remains of Hitler and Braun nine times in various locations in Berlin and Magdeburg before cremating them in 1970 with only a few fragments remaining, dentures and some pieces of skull as forensic evidence, with ashes scattered in a tributary of the Elbe.

lady attackpot (13. 913)

With the largeness of LLMs increasing exponentially to the detriment of their creativity and entertainment value, we had not appreciated that our trusty AI wrangler Janelle Shane (previously) could have possibly upheld the annual tradition of Botober, generative drawing prompts for humans to interpret. We learn, however, since 2023 when ChatGPT broke confinement and started scraping and scouring the internet, Shane has gone old-school with tiny, boutique neural nets from the past decade with limited training data—ie, the American registry of racehorse names from the Jockey Club. We especially liked the cues Expected Shoes, Power Noping, Speed Puddin, Qualitydance and Thunder Swan. How would you render them in your chosen media?

no puppet, no puppet—you’re the puppet (13. 899)

On this day a decade ago, during the third and final debate, in response to candidate Donald Trump’s assertion that the Russian leader has no respect for his rival and Democratic nominee, Hilary Clinton shot back: “That’s because [Putin would] rather have a puppet as president of the United States. You encouraged espionage against our people. You are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO—do whatever he wants to do. You continue to get help from him because he has a clear favourite in this race.” Clinton sought to blunt the fallout of the hacked cache of emails from the Democratic National committee posted online by Wikileaks—disclosing donors’ financial information and showing the party actively undermining the campaign of Bernie Sanders in favour of the former first lady, senator and Secretary of State, a theft that seventeen intelligence agencies concluded that was likely carried out at the behest of Moscow, though Trump rejected that US spy services knew who was behind it, repeating a line from the first presidential debate that it was probably some “four hundred pound hacker” in a basement somewhere that was responsible. The publications, released in separate tranches, also eventually included the controversial raw version of the Steele dossier, the unfinished political opposition report, of kompromat that the Russian government had on Trump.

synchronoptica 

one year ago: a selection of French horror movies (with synchronoptica), largest gold nugget discovered (1872) plus Stop Making Sense (1984)

two years ago: the Cin script, the British India Ocean Territory and the loss of its top-level domain plus images of passengers going through a car-wash

three years ago: Pomp & Circumstance (1901) 

four years ago:  St Frithuswith, Take on Me plus assorted links worth revisiting

five years ago: more links to enjoy

six years ago: font founder Ed Benguiat plus the Hochrhönstrasse

seven years ago: a coffee substitute,  Europe’s long distance walking trails, lizard people, the maps of Alexander von Humboldt, an unusual session of Parliament plus a corner office

eight years ago: more grammatical non-errors

sonnenobservatorium goseck und naumburg (13. 881)

Discovered through aerial photography of a wheat field whose cropmarks were particularly visible due to recent drought conditions in the 1990s and not disclosed to the public until archeological excavations were completed—having drawn the lesson from the nearby artefact, the Nebra Skydisk—in 2003, the Goseck Circle is a Neolithic enclosure, approaching seven thousand years in age and the oldest such solar observatory known in Europe. The reconstructed alignment just a few kilometres north of Naumburg near the confluence of the Unstrut and the Saale consists of wooden posts following the concentric rings of the structure’s foundations and has openings that mark sunrise and sunset on the summer and winter solstices. A tourism route, Himmelswege, links the circle to the Himmelsscheibe von Nebra and other astronomical archeological sites in Saxon-Anhalt.

The village also has an impressive eleventh century palace, built on the grounds of a secularised (previously here and here) Benedictine monastery, with the castle church dating back to its original founding.

On the way back to the campsite, we stopped at the main city of the region, Naumburg (previously), established in 1012 by the Margrave of Meissen at the crossroads of two important trade-routes, the Via Regia and the Regensburg Road and took in some more impressions of the Naumburger Dom Sts Peter und Paul and market square. The tenth century Late-Romanesque cathedral became the first see of a German Protestant bishop, remaining an evangelical parish to the present, in the course of the Reformation in 1542, whose later Gothic embellishments, including architectural and figural elements by an anonymous mason known only as the Master of Naumburg, have earned it a place on the UNESCO’s register of World Heritage.

synchronoptica

one year ago:  reprogramming government funding to dull the public pain of the US government shutdown (with synchronoptica), penmanship instruction plus more oblique strategies 

two years ago: university commas, Peabody visual aides, an out-of-season bloom plus Dungeons & Dragons as group therapy 

three years ago: assorted links to revisit plus unlucky thirteen  

four years ago: another MST3K classic,  the world’s first personal data protection law plus assorted links to revisit

five years ago: your daily demon: Focalor, The Style Council plus a psychedelic design collective

six years ago: a fashion show with puppets plus Witchtok community doing the Lord’s Work

seven years ago: the introduction of the Ampelmännchen (1961), more links to enjoy plus more mushroom finds

eight years ago: democracy by lottery, vintage Sainsbury’s packaging plus a music video from Bob Sinclar

 

aăâ (13. 863)

Originally started as a Spiritualist club (with the above cipher, the first three letters of the alphabet) by a group of clerks working for the colonial government to hold ouija sessions and practise mediumship, within a year, whilst conducting a séance, members received a revelatory message heralding a future universal religion, leading to the formal founding of Caodaism (Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ, The Great Faith for the Third Universal Religion) on this day in 1926—a syncretic movement that incorporates the ethical precepts of Confucianism, the belief of karma and transmigration of Buddhism, Taoist duality and the centralised hierarchy of Catholicism. The first disciple, named first pope Ngô Văn Chiêu for the Holy See in Tây Ninh, declined the role as spiritual leader, never intending for his interest and study in the occult to become a mass movement—retiring to the countryside for a life of seclusion and the first pontiff accepting the job only agreeing to do so provided he be referred to as the Acting Pope for the duration of his reign. The three saints and prophets of Đức Cao Đài are counted as Sun Yat-sen, physician and revolutionary who founded the Kuomintang and lead to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, sixteenth century poet and government administrator, later revered as the oracle of the splinter faction known as the School of Teaching Goodness and author Victor Hugo, whose turn to spiritism and deism after retiring from writing and self-imposed exile on the Channel Islands informed much of doctrines of Caodaism. Banned during the French-Indochina war and during Communism as subversive to the state, the church was finally allowed to reconstitute itself in 1997 in Vietnam, practised by the diaspora and numbering around six-million adherents.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: the dilemma of the video age (with synchronoptica) plus an iconic photo booth

 

two years ago: Suddenly plus more boating adventures 

 

three years ago: more hikes through the vineyards plus Hamas attacks Israel 

 

four years ago:  absinthe banned in Switzerland, the Feast of Sergius and Bacchus plus assorted links to revisit

five years ago: a cool ghoul and your ghost host, the Cyrus Charter, a bird wife plus a catalogue of invasive toys

 

six years ago: most senior US government officials in quarantine,  a typing tutor, a birdhouse apartment plus more historic maps

 

seven years ago: a minimum wage machine

 

eight years ago: more links to check out, East Germany’s Tag der Republik, a visit to an automotive and aviation museum plus himpathy and related neologisms

 

soroptimist international (13. 854)

Founded on this day in 1921 in Oakland, California, (SI, from the Latin soror, sister, and optima, the best) by Violet Richaradson, Eloise Cushing and Stuart Morrow, the first chapter of the movement has grown into a global volunteer organisation with nearly seventy thousand members advocating and championing women’s causes, providing educational grants, domestic violence shelters and healthcare. Richardson (pictured below—the shotgun was for dispatching with rattlesnakes for the hiking association she also started), as first president of the club, was an early pioneer of physical education for adolescents and established the Berkley Women’s Gymnasium for adult females whilst pursuing her master’s degree in general education. A chapter in London was founded in parallel and Madame Suzanne Blanche Gros Noël of Paris, the first female cosmetic surgeon who performed countless reconstructive operations for veterans disfigured in World War I and invented the face-lift, was instrumental in starting clubs in France and ten other European capitals, expansion of the movement interrupted by the outbreak of World War II when members shifted their efforts towards helping those fleeing the Nazis. Since the early 2000s, SI has garnered status as an NGO with consultative capacity with the United Nations and maintains official relations with the World Health Organisation. Other members of note include classics scholar Mary Creighton Bailey of Canterbury whom went on to join the British High Commission for Germany with the remit of de-nazifying school curriculum, teacher, conductor and composer Juliette Nadia Boulanger whose students included Aaron Copland, Quincy Jones and Philip Glass, Australian Mary Campbell Dawbarn, pioneering nutritionist and biochemist whose research on B-complex vitamins fundamentally shaped our understand of biochemistry and militant Scottish suffragette Flora Drummond.

hello ghosties (13. 851)

Once again a bit late to the party, we rediscover the pop-up newsletter from Laura E Hall that celebrates thirty-one days of Halloween, with daily vignettes for the month of October featuring art, anecdotes, decorating and nostalgic readings, like today’s feuilleton featuring our friend Basil Rathbone reciting some scary stories from Edgar Allen Poe, all for Spooky Season. If you miss a day like us, there’s a full archive but be sure to follow along, as comes the first of November, the newsletter returns to its crypt.

synchronoptica

one year ago: more Riquewihr (with synchronoptica) 

two years ago: a banger from Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, the Berlin Freedom and Unity monument plus thirty-one days of Halloween

three years ago: assorted links worth revisiting plus US congress without a speaker 

four years ago: more links to enjoy, Tree Talk plus Star Wars Cantina music as inspiration 

five years ago: your daily demon: Malphas plus der Tag der Deutsche Einheit

six years ago: a logical second plus a bit of seasonal decoration

seven years ago: East Germans flee to Czechoslovakia (1989),  Germany’s four corners, Trump in Europe, Banksy’s shop, Inland Printer plus East Berlin’s TV Tower

eight years ago: the 2008 financial crisis, reminders of a divided Germany, Plastic Love plus Trump-inspired cocktails

 

 

show dna (13. 834)

Though suspect of the network presently as a tool of state propaganda, we were intrigued by this gala group photo staged for the fiftieth anniversary of the Columbia Broadcasting System to spot the cross-overs and continuity of retained actors in recurring roles and cameos plus producers, directors and anchors.
The key was a bit morose, prompting one to consider the talents we have lost, though many are still with us, like Bill Macy, Dick Van Dyke, Carol Burnett, Lynda Carter, Julie Kavner (as Rhoda’s sister) and Ran Rather from CBS News. The last one made me wonder if one could use AI to generate a Sgt Pepper’s type template for any group photo (one can apparently, which takes away from the encomium) or if it was just a typo.  How many celebrities do you recognise?

international day of peace (13. 819)

Originally declared back in 1981 to occur on the third Tuesday in September, marking the opening session of the United Nations’ General Assembly, then amended from a moveable feast to a fixed date on 2001 when the UNGA was scheduled to begin early, Secretary General Kofi Annan issuing the annual decree on 10. September: “The International Day of Peace started with such a dream. It was proclaimed 20 years ago by the United Nations General Assembly, at the initiative of Costa Rica. This year, at the initiative of Costa Rica and the United Kingdom, the Assembly decided to go one step further. It declared that the International Day of Peace should be a day of global ceasefire and non-violence. This step promises to be more than symbolic. Where respected, it will have practical effect. Where truces are observed, medical and developmental agencies can provide vital services to civilian victims in safety. And even a one-day pause in the fighting gives us something to build on in the work to end conflict. On this International Day of Peace, let us dare to imagine a world free of conflict and violence. And let us seize the opportunity for peace to take hold, day by day, year by year, until every day is a day of peace,” the day prior to assembly’s start on 11. September, preempted by the 9/11 terror attacks just blocks away from UN headquarters. To inaugurate the occasion, the Peace Bell is rung, a bonsho donated to the infra-national body by Japan in 1954, cast from coins and medals contributed by world citizens, melted down and tolled for peace on 21. September, and on 21. March, Earth Day, in hopes of better stewardship of our shared home. Both observances ring a bit hollow right now. The belfry is in the style of a traditional Buddhist blossom temple. Alloy includes bullets, military badges and nine gold pieces given by Pope Pius XII. The foundation which originally proposed the forging of such a symbol presented a replica to San Marino in 2019 in recognition of its history of being the oldest republic in the world and pacifism. Honorary bell-ringers include Margaret Mead, NYC mayor David Dinkins, Aye Aye Thant as well as secretaries-general and presidents of the assemblies.

you got to know how to pony, like bony moronie (13. 805)

As our faith chronicler reminds, on this day in 1966, Wilson Pickett’s cover version of the “Land of a Thousand Dances” topped the US Billboard Charts on this day in 1966. Originally recorded by R&B performer Chris Kenner in 1962, mentioning sixteen moves including the Mashed Potato, the Jerk, the Tango plus the Slop and the Bop, it featured the gospel introduction: “Children go where I send you,” with the call and response, “Where will you send me?” “I’m gonna send you to that land—the land of a thousand dances.” For the sake of airplay on the radio, the invocation was left off and the title (along with the invocation) was never mentioned in any version afterwards—though later hooks like the na-na-na chorus (later borrowed for the 1994 “Here Comes the Hotstepper”) were added. Though knowing the song beforehand, I think that the John Candy, Dan Akroid vehicle The Great Outdoors, Dirty Dancing with camping holidays in Upstate New York conflated with a certain brand of margarine made me think the song was referring to a specific geographical location. Pickett’s cover only mentions six dances.

stabat mater (13. 798)

The devotion to the dolours beginning at the end of the eleventh century with the Servites of Florence—the Order of Servants of Mary, founded by a group of sons of wealth patrician families who eschewed their claim to textile fortunes and bonded in spiritual friendship started a community dedicated to mediating on this particular aspect of the Holy Mother—the feast of Our Lady is celebrated on this day. The Seven Sorrows are traditionally the Presentation of Jesus, the Flight into Egypt, the Disputation in the Temple, Encountering Jesus on the Via Dolorosa, the Crucifixion, the Disposition of Christ and the Burial. Patronage of this Marian aspect include Slovakia, Poland, Mississippi, Molise and people and places named Dolores, Dolorita, Lola and Pia. The title refers to a thirteenth century hymn, from the incipit “the mother stans” performed during the liturgy of the memorial, worth an indulgence of one hundred days each time it is sung.

day one hundred eighty-nine (13. 784)

Russian army returns to bases in Syria, contradicting claims that facilities at the port of Tartus would be transferred to Damascus. Houthis seize Red Sea coast as the Saudi East-West oil pipeline shuts down following an Iranian drone attack, pushing oil to a four-month high. A quarter of a century after the attacks that shook the world, Americans reflect on 9/11, including retrospective reevaluations of mistakes that were made in the immediate aftermath. The Clintons, the Bushes, the Obamas and the Bidens attended a remembrance ceremony in Lower Manhattan, flanked by current and former New York City mayors, while Trump—told he would not be allowed to make a political speech, was in attendance at a ceremony at the Pentagon, sleeping through most of it, only to wake up in time to make his push for the justification of his war of choice with the Israelis in Iran, backed up by Hegseth, who frames both today’s fight and the fight from twenty-five years ago as a continuum, “The struggle against evil continued and it continues now. It will continue until Judgment Day. Our only answer here on Earth is eternal vigilance.” Forever wars carry a dark legacy—with the US president having recently weaponised the Department of Homeland Security, created directly to prevent future attacks, to embark on a weeks’ long campaign to purge voters from rolls as part of a broader plan for intimidation and disenfranchisement ahead of the upcoming elections, which might be suspended anyway over some manufactured crisis, and the blood and treasure of a generation squandered, unaccountable trillions wasted in pursuit of a few terrorist, toppling regimes, fighting the resultant insurgencies to make the world a more dangerous place, the nation ceding its industrial, technological, diplomatic and economic edge in the process, particularly now with allies alienated by unending hostilities, which would have been better spent on education, outreach and universal healthcare, reversing climate change at a crucial juncture—opportunities lost to pandering to insecurity and illusionary exceptionalism.

aal11 (13. 782)

Shortly after taking office in January of this year, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s staff found a tranche of documents, sixty-four boxes, never released that suggest that residents of Lower Manhattan were misled about the safety and air quality in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks and for years following. The mayor directed his staff to upload these documents and make them available on a portal that anyone can search, coming online earlier this week. One can see environmental surveys for any given neighbourhood and learn more about the actual risk, exposure with resources about filing a claim for compensation. In a rush to get businesses in New York running again and to not “let the terrorist win”—reminiscent of the resistance to social-distancing schemes, shuttered shops and restricted gatherings and the push by some for a return to normality that was premature and had far-reaching consequences—public officials at the city, state and federal levels assured that the air was safe to breathe and the water safe to drink for those living next to ‘the Pile’—rescue workers avoiding the term ground zero favoured by the media, the rubble of the Twin Towers, burning concrete, lead, asbestos as well as hazards from the some two thousand automobiles buried in the underground parking. Three times the number of individuals, not only first responders, who died that day a quarter of century ago have now died as a result of illnesses caused by living with the toxic debris. The terror attacks were declared an act of war to limit the city’s legal liability. The resource, courtesy of Web Curios, also includes a wealth of information documenting the social impact, search and recovery efforts and perhaps most importantly how institutions respond to something so unimaginably of world-changing magnitude and violence.

synchronoptica

one year ago: a 1970 documentary on Kenneth Anger (with synchronoptica) plus artist Ivan Aivazovsky

two years ago: search engine optimisation, transcribing presidential debates plus tales of Chemical Romance 

three years ago: the Hoover Dam comes online (1936), an actual flying car from 1973, bird photograph of the year plus a manliness calibrator

four years ago: an important battle in the Scottish War of Independence (1297)

five years ago: 80s automotive dashboards, avian photograph of the year, the Dead Internet conspiracy theory plus Mid-Century Modern home-entertainment consoles

six years ago: a memorable, perfectly timed photograph, Disintegration Loops, fiery skies plus assorted links to revisit

 

illiterate boyfriend test (13. 775)

Keeping English orthography being what it is and the profusion of loan-words, established or trendy, and the sage prescription not to judge a person’s pronunciation as they may be saying it aloud for the first time—and elocution is not monolithic, as I am reminded often by H when he recalls how a server at a Chipotle’s in Washington DC had the gall to correct his ordering Shiraz (ʃɪˈɹɑːz from širâz, a city in Iran) with how it’s apparently said in American English (that waiter probably does not shop at Targét)we found this apparently popular quiz making the rounds on the internet, supposedly underscoring a reversal in the intellect gap between the genders (and it is coded very hetero-normative, like the earlier profusion of the “Alpine Divorce”—which is disappointingly somehow less sinister than such a term could be, an interesting cultural artefact and signifier. The vocabulary of the more widespread versions include: thyme, epitome, challah, gnocchi, fuchsia, colonel, queue, niche, pseudonym and hyperbole. Such shibboleths (maybe that word should have been part of the test) ought not to be highlighted as some sort of relationship red flag and strikes one as performative leverage for embarrassing patrons in restaurants and making the table feel uncomfortable and schooled, or for an excuse for a dating off-ramp.  Coming across this on UNESCO’s International Day of Literacy, the phenomenon also seems to capitalise on the worrying prognosis that people no longer read.

happy blogoversary to us: street legal (13. 712)

As PfRC turns eighteen years old we wanted to pause once again extend our gratitude to our readership and to the members of the wider blogosphere (many of those fellow caretakers are listed under our Smøgåsblog) and new ones discovered for their serendipity, sustainment and inspiration that keeps the internet curious, entertaining, engrossing and engaging. Since hitting our last milestone, here’s a round-up of some of our most popular posts with a few honourable mentions from the past year. Then it’s birthdays all the way down:  

10. Affordability Hoax  

 

9.  Clearcode words for communication transcription

 

8. Boating on the Müritz 

 

 

 

7.  Some superlative links

 

6. More adventures on the Mecklenburg basin  

5. Malchow on the Müritz 

4. Waren on the Müritz 

 

 

3. Trump’s pitch for the Nobel Prize 

 

 

2. Markkleeburger See in the Leipziger New Sealand 

 

 

 

1. A return to the Störmthaler See 

 

 synchronoptica

one year ago: blogoversaries all the way down (with synchronoptica) plus the Putin-Trump meeting in Alaska

two years ago: PfRC turns sixteen, the People’s Crusade, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, a defector to North Korea, quibbling over possessive apostrophes plus assorted links worth the revisit

three years ago: PfRC turns fifteen, Trump charged with racketeering and conspiracy, the first Bauhaus exhibit (1923) plus the Feast of the Assumption

four years ago: PfRC turns fourteen, another Roman holiday, the scourge private equity plus more links to enjoy

five years ago: PfRC turns thirteen, the end of the Bretton-Woods system (1971), Eternal World Television network plus a geometrical proof solved after millennia

six years ago: PfRC turns twelve, high-brow potty humour, gachapon culture plus US postal service under assault

there will come soft rains (13. 687)

Notwithstanding a 1997 retcon of the author’s canon that advanced the future time settings by thirty-one years, unconvinced of his prescience, the title of Ray Bradbury’s 1950 short story is taken from a poem by Sarah Teasdale published at the end of World War I and the beginning of the influenza pandemic of 1918, takes place on this day. It chronicles a lone automated home that by chance survived the destruction of Allendale California in a nuclear attack. Daily routines continue with robots attending to household chores and meal preparation, acknowledging their former residents and masters though they mistake their presence for silhouettes burnt on to the walls by the atomic blast. The absent family’s pet dog, starving is blocked from entering the kitchen whilst the systems are whirring away, eventually dying of hunger and exhaustion before being unceremoniously incinerated by the clean-up module. The house recites a selection of the hostess’ favourite poetry, choosing the above. Later an errant wind gust blows a branch through the kitchen windows, causing a fire that the robots are unable to extinguish with the house itself consumed, save for a single wall and an automated clock, registering the date and time.

 

synchronoptica

one year ago: a UFO sighting in Scotland (with synchronoptica), UNESCO status for Neapolitan pizza, battling gerrymandering with gerrymandering plus a celebrity sea anemone 

 

two years ago: Trump refuses to debate Harris plus assorted links to revisit

 

three years ago: more links to enjoy plus Sir Arthur Conan Doyle channels a dead president

 

four years ago: the invention of champagne, the Zone of Avoidance plus even more links worth revisiting

 

five years ago: an ingenious Cold War bugging device, the Lady of Elx, a series of tubes plus con-man affiliates

 

six years ago: the Feast of Saint Sezni, more miniatures from Tatsuya Tanaka plus White House press corps journalist Helen Thomas

i feel clean—my whole body is a’quiver with cleanness (13. 663)

Going into general release on this day in 1955 after its premiere in the producer Paul Gregory’s hometown of Des Moines Iowa as a fundraiser for the local YMCA, as our faithful chronicler reminds, the genre-setting Southern Gothic thriller directed by Charles Laughton, his first and last cinematic work preferring the stage to the screen, was received unfavourably by critics and audience as being too avant-garde and abstract, but upon reevaluation has been named among the best films ever made, ranked second only to Citizen Kane. Adapted from the 1953 novel of the same name by Davis Grubb and drawing from the true-crime story of Harry F Powers, Dutch-born Harm Drenth who immigrated to West Virginia—a serial-killer who lured his victims through “lonely hearts” classifieds, Harry Powell, portrayed by Robert Mitchum, is arrested during the Great Depression, apprehended for driving a car registered as stolen, and serves his sentence with inmates of a botched bank robbery however with the pilfered ten-thousand dollars still missing. The heist’s architect hanged for the killing of murder of two police during its execution, once released, his cellmate—posing as an itinerant preacher, travels to the robbers’ hometown, charismatically wedding the executed’s widow (Willa, played by Shelly Winters—previously) and ingratiating himself on his step-children to learn the location of the cache. Wanting to restore the attentiveness and atmosphere of silent movies, the director studied the blocking and lighting of films from that era and employed techniques, like not shooting with traditional takes but rather leaving the cameras rolling and sound equipment on until the reels ran out with editors and engineers on the set, how directing was done before talkies, and used nitrate prints—though the studio had urged Laughton to make a colour film.

meta incognita (13. 612)

On this day in 1576, having weighed anchor around a month earlier with Queen Elizabeth’s financial backing, explorer and privateer Martin Frobisher, whilst on the first of three voyages to the New World, in search of the Northwest Passage to Cathay and the East Indies, spotted the coast of Greenland, although assuming it was the non-existent phantom island Frisland (also called Fixland or Portlandia) that appeared appeared on virtually all maps of the North Atlantic for a century, dissuaded from claiming it for the Crown as chartered territory. Landing in the eponymous bay on Baffin Island in the present day Qikiqtaaluk region of Nunavut (it was that then too), Canada, Frobisher failed to find a new route but was encouraged and petitioned for follow-on excursions, having brought back an interesting rock specimen and influenced during his service in Africa’s Gold Coast, having managed to seize a lode of precious specie that the Portuguese had procured. Although metallurgical experts told Frobisher that his souvenir was hornblende, not classed as a specific composition, like Fools’ Gold, but a category of otherwise worthless rubble that appears like ore-bearing substrate. Dissatisfied with this assessment from the assayers, Frobisher brought the sample to a Venetian alchemist living in London, one Giovannia Battista Agnello, whom had previously convinced Elizabeth to debase small coinage with a teston of lead plated with copper (see previously), whom, arguing that one must know how to flatter nature—“Bisogna sapere adulare la natura”—claimed there was gold in it. For his second voyage, the queen lent Frobisher additional ships with a compliment of Cornish miners, which was more devoted to collecting rather than discovery. The expedition returned to Milford Haven in September of 1577, carrying two-hundred short tonnes of valueless rock. Despite the disappointment, Elizabeth retained a strong faith in the potential of the new colonies and authorised a third trip to this Unknown Shore, which she named herself. The territory of Nunavut’s was also named after Frobisher from devolution in 1942 until 1987 when it was renamed ᐃᖃᓗᐃᑦ (Iqaluit, place of many fish).