nürnberger prozesse

The International Military Tribunal having officially started two days prior with precedent established by the Leipziger Prozesse in the aftermath of World War I which while under the jurisdiction of Germany’s own legal system informed the legal framework for prosecuting war crime despite no punishment possible rising to the occasion to fit the transgression, US Supreme Court associate justice, the Honourable Robert Houghwout Jackson (*1892 – †1954) delivered his opening remarks for the prosecution on this day in 1945, setting the stage over the course of a several hours’ long oration for the court and for the press covering proceedings and relaying them to the public. Rejecting the superior orders, Befehl est Befehl defence, the Tribunal fixed the notion that crimes against humanity are the culpability of individuals and not abstractions or an imposed collective and only through such judgment can international law be enforced, informing in turn the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the permanent International Criminal Court

meow, meow, meow

Whilst not much is known about the fifth century Cornish missionary and saint (see previously) venerated on this day who is often conflated with Saint Felicity or Felix of Dunwich, what is reputed to Felec of Cornwall, his miraculous ability to communicate with cats, lions and other felines more than makes up for his overall obscurity.  How would you limn out Saint Felec’s acta and vita?

20-n

A fateful date similar to Schicksalstag, the above is a symbolic abbreviation of employed to denote a range of events that occurred on this day for Spain. In the first year of the civil war, founder of the fascist party Falange Española José Antonio Primo de Rivera was put to death in Alicante on 20 November 1936 but was later idealised and venerated by the Francoist dictatorship. Thirty-nine years later to the day, in 1975, Generalísimo Francisco Franco (*1892). Like its German equivalent, the day is eschewed in the main to avoid associations but a 2011 general election fell on this date as did the assassination of Basque nationalists in 1984 and 1989.

8x8

vangelis: with ambient sounds and moments of dialogue interspersed, the soundtrack from Blade Runner is extended into a feature-length soundscape  

metaphorical portraits: deep and heartfelt images of table-scraps and toss-aways 

sessile by nature: a nice crafted series of time-lapse movies illustrate how houseplants move throughout the day—via Things Magzine  

adobe add-on: after the announcement that support for Flash Player will be discontinued, crippling huge swaths of the early web, the Internet Archive comes to the rescue again with a forever home to hundreds of files  

upton sinclair was an optimist: chicken processing plant executives place wagers on how many workers would get sick with COVID-19  

waiting in the wings: clear and present implications of delaying the trans—Dcccf Rex zzz. @#z@smaan anaNN—see also  

you deserve a break today: a detailed look at a bespoke Nintendo DS game created as a training tool for a fast food franchise—see also  

patch cord productions: the musical stylings of Moog maestro Mort Garson

o tannebaum

Much like that bellwether tree stood up in Rome four years ago, the poor sacrificial spruce (with stowaway, another climate refugee) left to slowly desiccate and die at Rockefeller Center, already bedraggled and reflective not only of this dreadful year but of our seemingly incipient and insurmountable toxic relationship with the environment, ought to be accorded the single dignity of being the last offering to this tradition born out of bleak austerity into this genuflexion before capitalism and conspicuous consumption. We could deck the place with a nice hologram instead.

parabolic

Bad Astronomy brings the sad news that the venerable, colossal radio telescope in the forests of Puerto Rico will be decommissioned after sustaining successive damage deemed irreparable. In operation since 1963 and achieving a range of observational accomplish-ments aside from being a cultural bulwark with many cameos Arecibo was moreover a representative, inspiring ambassador to the stars (beaming out one of our few missives to a neighbouring cluster of stars) as well as for aspirational Earthlings. We applaud efforts to improve and expand and appreciate the most noble of undertakings carried forward but it is nonetheless disappointing to be losing such an icon and engine of discovery and seeing this mantle disrobed—I have been a bit distraught in recent weeks over the character of this revamped Space Race, having known that the American and Russian sections of the ISS were separate physically and ideologically for some time, I thought nevertheless that the sense of cooperation rose above minor compatibility issues until pointed out to me that international is a misnomer and to the exclusion of China.

vin de primeur

Thanks to our faithful chronicler we are reminded that today—the third Thursday of November—has been set aside as the universal release date of the season’s Beaujolais nouveau, in a tradition among vintners of that region in Burgundy in the Saône Valley that dates back to Roman times with toasting another successful harvest first among the grape-growers formalised in the 1960s from a friendly competition among winemakers to get their vintage first to market. “Le Beaujolais est arrive!” giving the certified varietal (see also) a uniform time of first uncorking. The shelf life of these wines is only one to two years.