double indemnity

Premiering in Baltimore on this day in 1944 before nation-wide release three days later, Billy Wilder’s (see previously) noir masterwork starred Fred MacMurray as an life insurance salesman and Barbara Stanwyck as a provocative housewife who conspire to murder the latter’s husband for the survivor benefit of his insurance policy, which has a clause that doubles the pay-out for freak accidents. Told in flashback, the score by Miklós Rószsa has a leitmotif of a running string tremolo to introduce the criminal activities of the partners against the husband.

dies caniculares

A calque, a near word-for-word translation of “the puppy days”—from today through mid-month in the northern hemisphere mark the beginning of the hottest, sultriest period in the summer and a time for extreme heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms as well as the maladies of lethargy, mad dogs and poor luck and is heralded by the annual reappearance of the brightest star in the night sky α Canis Majoris, called Sirius, “the Scorcher” in the Greek tradition and Sopdet in Egypt and venerated as the precursor to the flooding of the Nile. Lasting through mid-August, the waning of this oppressive, uncomfortable time of high summer is marked by the Feast of Roch, patron saint of dogs.

6x6

a$ap pocky: Ardnira Putra creates immersive, nostalgic Nintendo 64 vapour wave landscapes  

clean air act: the US Supreme Court curtails the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate carbon emissions, pollutants 

kopen op afstand: the auction clock of royal FloraHolland—and how it was victim of its own popularity  

forty text-tone compilation: a duo expressively dances to all the iPhone alerts  

tpv: researchers develop thermophotovoltaic cells that passively converts white hot heat into electricity—via Slashdot 

biaoqingbao: the lexicon of emoji and memes are being admitted as evidence in more and more lawsuits in China—see previously

riaghaltas na h-alba

Coming into effect on this day in 1999 following a 1997 referendum, devolution meant that legislative powers for the constituent nation within the United Kingdom were transferred from the old Scottish Office in London (where the Lord Advocate had been responsible for many of the executive decisions of Scotland) officially to St Andrew’s House in Edinburgh where a cabinet of ministers accountable to the Scottish Parliament (previously here, here, here and here) are responsible for domestic policy and administration. While legislatively foreign and economic policy, consumer rights, pensions and trade are reserved matters for the UK parliament, major aspects regarding healthcare, education, justice, environment, policing and housing are devolved. That inaugural session of Parliament opened by Queen Elizabeth II also falls on the anniversary of the 1543 that united the kingdoms—though not before the terms were ultimately rejected by Scotland, leading to eight years of conflict known as the Rough Wooing.

creeping normality

Arrested on this day in 1937 accused of activities against the Nazi regime, theologian and Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller had initially supported the ascent of Adolf Hitler for his stance against communism and assurances of no interference in church matters (the Weimar Republic supposedly had a secularist agenda that including abolishing church subsidies, confiscating church property and banning mandatory religious education), embracing nationalism and acknowledged having harboured past prejudice and anti-Semitic views. Renouncing his old ways and narrowly escaping with his life after imprisonment in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps, Niemöller was deeply remorseful that he was not able to do more to more to help victims of the Nazis and devoted the rest of his life towards championing peace and disarmament. The confessional poem “First they came…” was penned by Niemöller and adapted from a sermon delivered in January of 1945 to speak to the collected inaction and silence of much of the clergy and general population—himself included. “Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

7x7

stare decisis: the phrase “to stand by things decided,” the doctrine of affording preference to precedent is post-Classical Legal Latin  

day at the beach: Ludwig Favre immerses himself at Brooklyn’s Coney Island—via Nag on the Lake 

kunst und keksdose: the art vintage German biscuit tins 

tubeway army: Are ‘Friends’ Electric? by Gary Numan climbs to the top of the charts on this day in 1979   

merrily, merrily, merrily: distinguishing dreams from waking  

full-stop: Gertrude Stein and others on punctuation  

hallux: Latin’s lack of distinction for fingers and toes—see also here and here

a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition

Curated and organized under the supervision of art director Harald Szeemann, the fifth edition of documenta (see previously), opening on this day in 1972 and running through October (a hundred days) in Kassel, West Germany, with the theme of “Questioning Reality—Pictorial Worlds of Today” (Befragung der Realität – Bildwelten heute) established the exhibition’s reputation as the most important, post war modern art show and set the model for future biennials. Wanting to liberate art and artefact from the museum setting, it strove to recontextualise work in politically critical and the provocative milieu that inspired them. documenta 5 also showcased Fluxus and happening art, which had not yet appeared by the last iteration. In all, there were over two hundred thousand visitors and dozens of participating artists and collectives including Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Adolf Wölfli, Marcel Duchamp and Yoko Ono.

ꦉ

Co-founded by Stephen Hawking, Queen guitarist and astrophysicist Brian May and other former astronauts and technologists with the sanction of the United Nations, International Asteroid Day is an annual observance meant to promote awareness about the minor planets of the inner Solar System and the threats that these near-Earth objects can pose for cataclysm and ways to mitigate the vulnerability through close monitoring. 30 June was chosen as the date as it marks the anniversary of the 1908 Tunguska Event in the Eastern Siberia Taiga, an estimated twelve megaton explosion that flattened two thousand square kilometers of forest caused by the air burst of a meteoroid, devastating for local wildlife but spared greater catastrophe by dint of the region being sparsely populated by humans.