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from the no-word-on-the-ignobel-awards-yet dept.
Nobel Prize banquet cancelled over coronavirus: Nobel Foundation:
The Nobel Foundation, which manages the Nobel Prizes, on Tuesday cancelled its traditional December banquet due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though the award ceremonies will still be held in "new forms".
This is the first time since 1956 that the banquet has been cancelled, according to the foundation.
"The Nobel week will not be as it usually is due to the current pandemic. This is a very special year when everyone needs to make sacrifices and adapt to completely new circumstances," Lars Heikensten, director of the Nobel Foundation, said in a statement.
Heikensten added that the laureates would be highlighted in "different ways" along with "their discoveries and works".
[...] The Nobel banquet was last cancelled in 1956 to avoid inviting the Soviet ambassador because of the repression of the Hungarian Revolution, a Nobel Foundation spokeswoman said.
The banquet was also cancelled during the two world wars, and in 1907 and 1924.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Saturday July 25 2020, @09:23AM (7 children)
They canceled it over the Hungarian invasion of 1956 but had no problem with the Czechoslovakia invasion of 1968?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Saturday July 25 2020, @01:34PM (3 children)
I wouldn't be to surprised by that. Who they invite and what they cancel for is an ongoing topic of discussion. Such as that they invite representatives for all political parties in Sweden, except one -- that represents 17.5% of the population, cause they are "racists" but they have no problem inviting ambassadors from countries that abuse human rights and torture people. So who they invite and what they cancel for is so to speak more or less decided on moral grounds and feelings. I wouldn't be to concerned about it really.
It also seems to be a very dull and rigid event, it's not like it's a "fun" happening with the sharpest minds or anything of the sort. The food also seems somewhat special and probably not something that most people would prefer, looking at the menu I would rather go outside and eat a hotdog.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @01:54PM (1 child)
> looking at the menu I would rather go outside and eat a hotdog.
Maybe this is why Bob Dylan sent Patti Smith to the ceremony in his place?
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday July 25 2020, @02:05PM
To get the prize you are also supposed to hold a lecture, of sorts, within six months and I think Dylan waited as long as he possibly could to do that and even then delivered it as a pre-recorded audio. He never showed up in person for any events or anything as I recall it. I guess they where not exactly super happy about that, a lot of them had probably looked forward to somehow be in his presence and that just got shot down.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @08:06PM
No Noble Pizza Prize for Trump again this year. So sad. Maybe he needs to send his thugs to Stockholm.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @01:36PM (2 children)
Also note that they held it straight through the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 25 2020, @09:55PM (1 child)
Oh! My! God! It's the illuminati. Or lizards. Or the global conspiracy of scientists advancing China's climate fake news agenda.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Sunday July 26 2020, @03:45PM
It is Colonel Mustard with the revolver in the library.