MetaFilter posts tagged with awards

Best Science Fiction Related Metafilter Post

Artw — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:47:36 -0800

The finalists for the 2012 Nebula Awards have been announced (list with free fiction links here), but there's still another two weeks to get in nominations for the 2013 Hugo Awards. However, for those works not fiting the regular award categories Tim Pratt and other science fiction writers, fans and interested parties on Twitter have been suggesting #FakeHugoAwardCategories . io9 collects some of the best.

Awards don't mean a god damned thing

philip-random — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:35:14 -0800

Jerry Seinfeld accepts award for something-or-other, gets stuff off his chest about the nature of awards shows. Peaks about half-way through, runs out of gas from there.

Silent No More: Women In The Military Speak Out Against Sex Crimes

fantodstic — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 02:20:00 -0800

Sexual Assault In The U.S. Military is the focus of a serious contender for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Academy Awards. The Invisible War is a groundbreaking investigative doc that sheds light on the under-reported epidemic of sexual abuse against female members of the military, as well as the lack of punitive action in these crimes: of the 8 percent of sexual assault cases that are prosecuted in the military, only 2 percent result in convictions. A female soldier in a combat zone is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire.

By official estimates from The Department of Defense, 19,000 violent sexual crimes occurred in the military in 2011 alone. Sexual assault is grossly under-reported in the military. In 2011, 3,191 assaults were reported when its likely that somewhere between 19,000 and 22,000 assaults occurred. The women in the film speak about the physical and mental abuse they underwent while serving in the military - and about the the lawsuit they joined and the verdict in which their experiences were labeled "occupational hazards". The film is already garnering much attention, especially as front-running Oscar Nominee - and lawmakers are taking notice. The Invisible War has played an influential role in helping expose this ongoing epidemic. Shortly after seeing the film early last year, Leon Panetta held a press conference where he announced changes to military policy. The DoD shifted court martial authority to higher levels last year. Then, the General Jeff Sinclair incident: The former deputy commander of the elite 82nd Airborne Division, a decorated veteran of the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan, has been charged with forcible sodomy, wrongful sexual conduct and other violations of military law, the Army said. -from the NYT Article The Pentagon doesn't like this so much, and would much rather this all just go away quietly. Sinclair's wife even dropped a letter to the editor at the Washington Post. As the trial continued last month, with all the details surfacing, Sinclair hired MWW to come up with his personal website to perform damage control. Meanwhile, as the epidemic continues, victims have begun documenting their experiences via I Am One. It is estimated that over 500,000 women have been victims of sexual abuse in the U.S. military. Invisible War director Kirby Dick firmly believes the film can create even greater change: “This is the film that—if it does get an Academy Award—it will motivate Congress, it will motivate the [Defense Department], it will motivate the military to make even more changes. There will be a direct result from this winning the award and the reduction of rape. That will happen.” Film Trailer (youtube)

Rewarding The Poison Pen

zarq — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:57:32 -0800

The Omnivore's Hatchet Job of the Year rewards "the angriest, funniest, most trenchant book review of the past 12 months," with the winning critic taking home a golden hatchet and a year's supply of potted shrimp. 2013's winner: Camilla Long, for her devastating review of Rachel Cusk's divorce memoir, Aftermath. Among other things, she described it as a nasty, bizarre memoir written by a "brittle little dominatrix and peerless narcissist." (Via) More * The harshest book reviews of the year - in pictures * Hatchet jobs: Agony for the author but bliss for us to read. (John Walsh describes how he and his fellow judges chose a winner for the Hatchet Job of the Year Award) Honorable Mentions * Zoë Heller on Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie * Allan Massie on The Divine Comedy by Craig Raine * Suzanne Moore on Vagina by Naomi Wolf * Craig Brown on The Odd Couple by Richard Bradford * Ron Charles on Lionel Asbo by Martin Amis * Richard Evans on Hitler: A Short Biography by A.N. Wilson * Claire Harman on Silver: A Return to Treasure Island by Andrew Motion Previously on Mefi * The Omnivore * Last year's winners: 2012's Hatchet Job of the Year Awards. (Adam Mars-Jones took the award for his takedown of By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham.) Previously in The Guardian * Is Zoë Heller's review of Salman Rushdie's memoir the 'hatchet job of the year'? * From Franzen to Fieri, the five rules of the review as takedown * Hatchet Job of the Year shortlist lines up sharpest reviews

And the winner was...

crossoverman — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 17:30:19 -0800

Check out the official 85 Years of Oscar poster, commemorating every Best Picture winner for the last 85 years.

Not pictured: British people

mightygodking — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:20:17 -0800

This year's BAFTA Awards are promoting themselves with gorgeous original illustrated posters.

One of these is not like the others.

thecjm — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:14:38 -0800

Four of the five songs nominated for the 2013 Grammy for Best Dance Recording are international hits. The fifth is so obscure it has raised questions about how it got there. I Can't Live Without You by Al Walser is one of the five nominees for Best Dance Recording. Walser's lack of popularity on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube when the nominations were announced, along with his previously claims to be a voting member of the Recording Acedemy, has led to accusations of foul play or vote manipulation. The music press is now asking, "Who the hell is Al Walser?"

South Wales, and Beyond the Infinite

Artw — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 09:51:56 -0800

What I wrote was unquestionably fiction — was fantasy. Among Others has magic and fairies. But I was writing fantasy about a science fiction reader who had a lot of the same things happen to her that happened to me. It’s set at the end of 1979 and the beginning of 1980, and it’s about a fifteen year old just when I was fifteen, and from a family like mine and in the time and place and context where I was. I was using a lot of my own experience and memories. But this is Mori, not me, and she lives in a world where magic is real. Jo Walton, who as editor for tor.com revisisted the Hugos 1953-2000, now has one of her own, taking home the 2012 Best Novel Award for Among Others. Other winners include Kij Johnson for her Novella The Man who Bridged the Mist (excerpt) and io9 regular Charlie Jane Anders for her novellete Six Months, Three Days. The Best Graphic Story award went to the webcomic Digger by Ursula Vernon. E Lily Yu took home the Bets New Writer award (technically not a Hugo) and was also nominated for her short story The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees. A couple of TV shows you have heard of also got awards. Links to many of the nominated stories here.

We Don't Pee!

The Whelk — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 17:39:58 -0800

The Tony Awards' 2012 Opening Number - What If Life Were More Like Theater? - with Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone, Amanda Seyfried, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson

The Last Full Measure of Devotion

disillusioned — Mon, 28 May 2012 14:15:19 -0800

"The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President in the name of Congress, and is conferred only upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through 'conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States.'" The U.S. Army Center of Military History lists every citation for a Medal of Honor award since they were first issued. Most are awarded posthumously, to those who "gave the last full measure of devotion", as Lincoln called it. It's Memorial Day in the U.S., and reflecting upon these is perhaps a reasonable way to spend a bit of it. Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, A-L, Vietnam, M-Z. A few to start with.

You can vote once per day per category

netbros — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 20:31:38 -0800

2012 Vimeo Awards Nominations — There are 13 categories including four new ones. The Experimental category is lots of fun. [previously]

2012 Hugo Award Nominees announced

rmd1023 — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 09:05:23 -0800

The nominees for the 2012 Hugo Award were announced over the weekend. Nominees include Metafilter's own jscalzi (who will also be the host for this year's Hugo Awards ceremony) for the beginning of his ~~epic fantasy trilogy~~ April Fool's joke The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City (Prologue). One record being set this year is Mira Grant's - aka Seanan McGuire's - nominations: she is the first woman to have four Hugo nominations in a single year. The award winners will be announced and the awards presented at the Chicon, the 2012 World Science Fiction Convention. Anyone with a supporting or attending membership can vote for the Hugo awards until voting closes on July 31, 2012. The voter packet includes generally electronic copies of (most of) the nominees in the fiction categories and often other nominated works as well, which makes the $50 Worldcon supporting membership a pretty good deal.

Hull 0, Scunthorpe 3

Hartster — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:02:55 -0800

How can one describe it? For fuck’s sake, it is a quest saga and it has a talking horse. There are puns on the word ‘neigh’. Christopher Priest on the 2012 Clarke Award shortlist, the self-described "most prestigious award for science fiction in Britain".

It's an honor just to be...you gave it to HER?!

graventy — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 11:15:45 -0800

Reaction shots of losing (and winning) an Academy Award. In .gif form.

White People Solve Racism

Artw — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:59:33 -0800

If 2012's Oscar-nominated movie posters told the truth

Tentacular

Artw — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:41:18 -0800

Arthur C. Clarke Award director Tom Hunter (previously) on the importance of science fiction Awards in elevating geek culture and The Kitschies, the highly praised new genre fiction award from pornokitsch.

Who voted for the tire from Rubber?

alexoscar — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:39:25 -0800

Christopher Plummer, playing a man who comes out of the closet in his 70s, might have won Best Supporting Performance, but at least four people voted for a dog. The results for the crazy free-for-all that is the Indiewire Annual Survey, which polled 168 critics this year, came out today. The Tree of Life swept Best Film and Best Director, but the choices that only got a handful of votes are often the most interesting, including three different cast members from The Three Musketeers for Best Supporting and a vote for Transformers: Dark of the Moon for Best Film. You can see the complete results and links to all of the critics ballots here. A few individual critic's ballots of note (I'd recommend also reading the critics' statements, if provided): Richard Brody, Jamie N. Christley, Alt Screen [previously] and Film Comment's Paul Brunick (who voted Justin Bieber: Never Say Never for Best Documentary and that honey badger video as Best Undistributed Film), Mike D'Angelo, Roger Ebert, Jim Emerson, Bilge Ebiri, J. Hoberman, Daniel Kasman, Gabe Klinger, Ryland Walker Knight, Robert Koehler, Karina Longworth, David Phelps , Jonathan Rosenbaum, Michael Sicinski, R. Emmet Sweeny, Amy Taubin, Gina Telaroli (who voted for a Rick Perry ad), and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. Also, the Best Undistributed Film category (won by Alex Ross Perry's The Color Wheel) is always a good list of things to watch out for in theaters next year.

Education For All

Bora Horza Gobuchul — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:56:17 -0800

The 2011 Edublog Awards are on. The nominee lists provide rich resources for everyone, perhaps most especially in the free web tool category. A personal selection: Online Convert (free online conversion of dozens of video formats), GeoTrio and TripLine (recorded tours around the world), CorkboardMe and LinoIt (online, shared pibboards), Cover It Live (online event presentation) and A Google A Day (daily questions and puzzles, presented by Google (previously)). For kids, there’s Artsonia (the world’s largest children’s arts museum) Tarheel Reader (illustrated readers for multiple platforms) and SweetSearch (a search engine for students),along with much, much more. Some of the nominated class blogs are pretty sweet too.

"Even if you ignore the embarrassing ceremony and clichéd platitudes, few of these awards actually reflected genuine quality or what is happening in mainstream genre publishing today."

Fizz — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:08:21 -0800

British Fantasy Award winner returns prize; Sam Stone hands back award after criticism of judging process. [The Guardian] "Controversy has riven the 40-year-old British Fantasy Awards, with the winner of the best novel prize handing her award back just three days after it was bestowed. But the organisation and presentation of the awards has been drawing criticism since then, culminating in Sam Stone, the winner of the best novel award – named after American writer and editor August Derleth – announcing yesterday that she is giving it back. The biggest attack on the awards was delivered by editor and anthologist Stephen Jones, who on Tuesday posted a lengthy blog decrying the organisation of the BFAs and making several allegations against awards co-ordinator and British Fantasy Society chairman David Howe."

Ig Nobel 2011

Orange Pamplemousse — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 07:40:14 -0800

The 21st Annual Ig Nobel prizes were announced last night. The theme of the night was "Chemistry", with a promo video showcasing the power of lasers. The ceremony included the debut of a mini-opera, "Chemist in a Coffee Shop", a rendition of Tim Lehrer's "The Elements", and much, much more. Award Winners: PHYSIOLOGY PRIZE: Anna Wilkinson (of the UK), Natalie Sebanz (of NETHERLANDS, HUNGARY, and AUSTRIA), Isabella Mandl (of AUSTRIA) and Ludwig Huber (of AUSTRIA) for their study 'No Evidence of Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise." REFERENCE: 'No Evidence Of Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise Geochelone carbonaria," Anna Wilkinson, Natalie Sebanz, Isabella Mandl, Ludwig Huber, Current Zoology, vol. 57, no. 4, 2011. pp. 477-84. ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Ludwig Huber CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Makoto Imai, Naoki Urushihata, Hideki Tanemura, Yukinobu Tajima, Hideaki Goto, Koichiro Mizoguchi and Junichi Murakami of JAPAN, for determining the ideal density of airborne wasabi (pungent horseradish) to awaken sleeping people in case of a fire or other emergency, and for applying this knowledge to invent the wasabi alarm. REFERENCE: US patent application 2010/0308995 A1. Filing date: Feb 5, 2009. ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Makoto Imai, Hideki Tanemura, Yukinobu Tajima, Hideaki Goto, Koichiro Mizoguchi and Junichi Murakami MEDICINE PRIZE: Mirjam Tuk (of THE NETHERLANDS and the UK), Debra Trampe (of THE NETHERLANDS) and Luk Warlop (of BELGIUM). and jointly to Matthew Lewis, Peter Snyder and Robert Feldman (of the USA), Robert Pietrzak, David Darby, and Paul Maruff (of AUSTRALIA) for demonstrating that people make better decisions about some kinds of things — but worse decisions about other kinds of things‚ when they have a strong urge to urinate. REFERENCE: "Inhibitory spillover: Increased Urination Urgency Facilitates Impulse Control in Unrelated Domains," Mirjam A. Tuk, Debra Trampe and Luk Warlop, Psychological Science, vol. 22, no. 5, May 2011, pp. 627-633. REFERENCE: "The Effect of Acute Increase in Urge to Void on Cognitive Function in Healthy Adults," Matthew S. Lewis, Peter J. Snyder, Robert H. Pietrzak, David Darby, Robert A. Feldman, Paul T. Maruff, Neurology and Urodynamics, vol. 30, no. 1, January 2011, pp. 183-7. ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Mirjam Tuk, Luk Warlop, Peter Snyder, Robert Feldman, David Darby PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE: Karl Halvor Teigen of the University of Oslo, NORWAY, for trying to understand why, in everyday life, people sigh. REFERENCE: "Is a Sigh 'Just a Sigh'? Sighs as Emotional Signals and Responses to a Difficult Task," Karl Halvor Teigen, Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, vol. 49, no. 1, 2008, pp. 49–57. ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Karl Halvor Teigen LITERATURE PRIZE: John Perry of Stanford University, USA, for his Theory of Structured Procrastination, which says: To be a high achiever, always work on something important, using it as a way to avoid doing something that's even more important. REFERENCE: "How to Procrastinate and Still Get Things Done," John Perry, Chronicle of Higher Education, February 23, 1996. Later republished elsewhere under the title "Structured Procrastination." < http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~jperry> ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Colleague Deborah Wilkes accepted the prize on behalf of Professor Perry. BIOLOGY PRIZE: Darryl Gwynne (of CANADA and AUSTRALIA and the USA) and David Rentz (of AUSTRALIA and the USA) for discovering that a certain kind of beetle mates with a certain kind of Australian beer bottle REFERENCE: "Beetles on the Bottle: Male Buprestids Mistake Stubbies for Females (Coleoptera)," D.T. Gwynne, and D.C.F. Rentz, Journal of the Australian Entomological Society, vol. 22, 1983, pp. 79-80 REFERENCE: "Beetles on the Bottle," D.T. Gwynne and D.C.F. Rentz, Antenna: Proceedings (A) of the Royal Entomological Society London, vol. 8, no. 3, 1984, pp. 116-7. ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Darryl Gwynne and David Rentz PHYSICS PRIZE: Philippe Perrin, Cyril Perrot, Dominique Deviterne and Bruno Ragaru (of FRANCE), and Herman Kingma (of THE NETHERLANDS), for determining why discus throwers become dizzy, and why hammer throwers don't. REFERENCE: "Dizziness in Discus Throwers is Related to Motion Sickness Generated While Spinning," Philippe Perrin, Cyril Perrot, Dominique Deviterne, Bruno Ragaru and Herman Kingma, Acta Oto-laryngologica, vol. 120, no. 3, March 2000, pp. 390–5. ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: The winners accepted via recorded video. MATHEMATICS PRIZE: Dorothy Martin of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1954), Pat Robertson of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1982), Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the USA (who predicted the world would end in 1990), Lee Jang Rim of KOREA (who predicted the world would end in 1992), Credonia Mwerinde of UGANDA (who predicted the world would end in 1999), and Harold Camping of the USA (who predicted the world would end on September 6, 1994 and later predicted that the world will end on October 21, 2011), for teaching the world to be careful when making mathematical assumptions and calculations. PEACE PRIZE: Arturas Zuokas, the mayor of Vilnius, LITHUANIA, for demonstrating that the problem of illegally parked luxury cars can be solved by running them over with an armored tank. REFERENCE: VIDEO and OFFICIAL CITY INFO ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: Arturas Zuokas PUBLIC SAFETY PRIZE: John Senders of the University of Toronto, CANADA, for conducting a series of safety experiments in which a person drives an automobile on a major highway while a visor repeatedly flaps down over his face, blinding him. REFERENCE: "The Attentional Demand of Automobile Driving," John W. Senders, et al., Highway Research Record, vol. 195, 1967, pp. 15-33. VIDEO ATTENDING THE CEREMONY: John Senders

Callil's complaint

mrgrimm — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:02:15 -0800

"[H]e goes on and on and on about the same subject in almost every single book. It's as though he's sitting on your face and you can't breathe." As expected, Philip Roth (bibliography) won the Man Booker International Prize today. Perhaps not unexpectedly, one of the judges quit rather than award it to him. Was she so wrong? Should they give Roth the Nobel Prize already?

Renovation

Artw — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 19:06:26 -0800

Blogging the Hugos: Decline (part 1, part 2, part 3), is a series of blog posts covering some dystopian trends in recent Hugo nominees and itself winner of the of the BSFA award for non fiction. Meanwhile the 2011 Hugo finalists have been announced, with Mefi favorites featuring strongly: In Best Novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang (previously), In Best Short Story The Things by Peter Watts (previously). Doctor who features heavily under Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form (too many posts to mention), but has strong competition from Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury.

Music and Modern Media Archive

netbros — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:07:24 -0800

The CBC Radio 3 Digital Magazine ran from November 2002 until March 2005, garnering numerous accolades in Canada and abroad with its unique blend of music, journalism, literature and photography. Here is the complete archive of 105 issues. Over the course of its brief run, the magazine won over 20 awards, including one Art Directors Club award, two New York Festival Awards and three Communication Arts Awards, and was featured in several web and design books. In 2003, the groundbreaking website won three Webby Awards in a single year: Best Broadband Site, Best Radio Site and the People's Voice Award for Best Broadband Site. [previously on MeFi]

Based on a True Story

Artw — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 22:59:09 -0800

The King's Speech is an extremely well-made film with a seductive human interest plot, very prettily calculated to appeal to the smarter filmgoer and the latent Anglophile. But it perpetrates a gross falsification of history. - Christopher Hitchens on the historical revisionism of The King's Speech. The LA times suggests that this, along with the History Channel digging up footage of King George VI not really stuttering all that badly at all, might be the beginning of a backlash against the film, which has been gaining Oscar momentum since it's SAG Award wins. With The Social Network, 127 Hours and The Fighter also having a basis in reality, is today's film making too hung up on the "true" story?

Advance Market Commitments

kliuless — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 08:42:20 -0800

Inducement Prizes -- Best known for the Ansari X Prize, the DARPA Grand Challenge and the Clay Mathematics Millennium Problems, inducement prizes have a long history, but their recent successes have led to increased government interest, viz. challenge.gov, and resulted in the development of vaccines, thanks in large part to the work of Michael Kremer.^* In 2001 Brad DeLong and Larry Summers wrote:

New institutions and new kinds of institutions -- perhaps even some that have been tried before, like the French government's purchase and placing in the public domain of the first photographic patents in the early nineteenth century (see Kremer (1998)) -- may well be necessary to achieve the fourfold objectives of (a) price equal to marginal cost, (b) entrepreneurial energy, (c) accelerating the cumulative process of research, and (d) providing appropriate financial incentives for research and development. The work of Harvard economist Michael Kremer (1998, 2000), both with respect to the possibility of public purchase of patents at auction and of shifting some public research and development funding from effort-oriented to result-oriented processes (that is, holding contests for private companies to develop vaccines instead of funding research directly), is especially intriguing in its attempts to develop institutions that have all the advantages of market competition, natural monopoly, and public provision.

cf. work being done by E. Glen Weyl (Hermann was his great uncle) --- ^*coincidentally there's a prize named after another Kremer