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In the Year of the Pig is a documentary on the Vietnam war, produced and originally released in 1968 as the war raged. It begins with some background on the end of the French colonial period, then moves on to the American involvement. It features gripping historical footage from the war itself and from leading political players of the time. At the time of its release, a New York Times review said "There are no frills and few ifs, ands or buts about the stinging, graphic and often frighteningly penetrating movie". It is highly recommended for anyone seeking to understand more of the history of the war. Viewable in its entirety here.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:17 PM PST - 27 comments

Gamera II is the University of Maryland's Human-Powered Helicopter. So far it has remained aloft for 65.1 seconds and reached an altitude of 9.4 feet, not quite enough to win the AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter competition. [more inside]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 8:46 PM PST - 49 comments

The Origins Project at ASU presents the final night in the Origins Stories weekend, focusing on the science of storytelling and the storytelling of science.The Storytelling of Science. Part 2. [more inside]
posted by lazaruslong at 8:37 PM PST - 3 comments

The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are prizes given for creative achievement in American comic books since 1988. The digital comic category was added in 2005. Some say the category could be expanded, given the abundance of digital creations. Regardless, there are 42 different titles nominated in the past 8 years. The 2013 nominations have been made: Ant Comic, by Michael DeForge (previously, twice) | Bandette, by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover | It Will All Hurt, by Farel Dalrymple (previously) | Our Bloodstained Roof, by Ryan Andrews (previously) | Oyster War, by Ben Towle. Nominations and winners from prior years inside. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief at 7:25 PM PST - 31 comments

Jun Togawa is sort of like what you'd get if you crossed Kate Bush and Mike Patton. Togawa, who became known in Japanese culture after appearing in a bidet commercial, was half of the electro-cabaret band Guernica, which sometimes sounded very classical and sometimes sounded very new wave and sometimes much stranger. Somewhat more straightforward is her rock outfit Yapoos, which similarly varies quite a bit in sound and style. Her solo work, unsurprisingly, is quite melodramatic, with some very interesting arrangements, both parodically poppy and funky. I particularly like her covers of All Tomorrow's Parties by the Velvet Underground, Brigitte Fontaine's Comme à la Radio, and – weirdly – Pachelbel's Canon.
posted by Rory Marinich at 7:21 PM PST - 14 comments

"Students are told, reassuringly, that there is no such thing as failing the Accuplacer or the COMPASS. But there is: students who score below a certain number, or “cut score,” flunk the test for credit-bearing work." The consequences can be dramatic.
posted by eotvos at 6:56 PM PST - 55 comments

The Best Skills of Ronaldinho: a flip book. Previously.
posted by Rumple at 5:58 PM PST - 7 comments

"“It just felt really good, when this all started, to have the sexy sports celebrity from Boston who seemed to like Rhode Island and showed up in Rhode Island, and who built this exotic new business, even though no one knew what it was,” says the historian Ted Widmer, who grew up in Providence and works at Brown. “It seemed like the digital economy, or biotech, or whatever. But then it turned out that it wasn’t the new digital economy. It was some 13-year-old’s medieval fantasy.” "Curt Schilling, Rhode Island, and the Fall of 38 Studios.
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:09 PM PST - 67 comments

It is an apocalypse tale with no doomsday, a punk movie with no concert, a science fiction story with less than ten seconds of aliens - Repo Man: A Lattice of Coincidence, a look back at the 1984 classic film by cult director Alex Cox, whose current project is a crowdfunded adaptation of Harry Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero.
posted by Artw at 3:36 PM PST - 84 comments

Like 1930s Germany': Greek Far Right Gains Ground
Golden Dawn, with it's growing presence in public high schools is now targeting pupils at primary schools. Its official website recently hosted pictures of neatly-dressed 6 to ten-year-olds, accompanied by parents, at a “national awakening” session held at a branch office outside Athens.
Recently 28 migrant workers working at a strawberry production farm in Manolada, Greece were shot because they demanded to get paid.
From one tweet about the incident: Modern Greece has many things in common with Ancient Greece. For example slaves.
An anti-foreign nurse swoop on a Peloponnese hospital exploded in violence as Roma patient's friends confronted the neo-nazis.
The Greek government needs to take action against the extreme right, including the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, says the Council of Europe’s human rights commissioner, Nils Muiznieks. This could even involve outlawing the party.
posted by adamvasco at 1:36 PM PST - 69 comments

How Mercedes Benz sells cars in Japan: anime car chases against legendary food trucks (slyt).
posted by MartinWisse at 1:09 PM PST - 36 comments

Hans Christian Andersen: research, adventure, life & works This website hosts the center of research and study for Hans Christian Andersen (HCA). So you may find biographies, papers, poems, letters relevant to this worldly acknowledged author, who wrote for children and adults. For example, there were several conferences about HCA studies: "Hans Christian Andersen Center held the fourth international HCA conference at University of Southern Denmark in Odense 1st-5th August 2005. The theme was Hans Christian Andersen between children's and adult literature. Read more here . The contributions from the international HCA conferences are articles of high quality. They are valuable for HCA research and studies and is still often requested - but can be difficult to obtain. Therefore, we have published the speeches from the first two of the preliminary three international HCA conferences, Andersen and the World and A Poet in Time ."
posted by caladesi at 1:09 PM PST - 4 comments

Dan Goodbaum edits together selected excerpts from Elvis Mitchell's interview with Quentin Tarantino about the role of food as a indicator of power in his movies (full interview here). Grantland's 20 Best Tarantino Food Scenes
posted by The Whelk at 9:06 AM PST - 13 comments

Last summer, the Museum of Modern Art took one of its best-known paintings off the wall, Jackson Pollock's One: Number 31, 1950, so that it could be conserved. They've been blogging about the process of restoring this dense, multi-layered work, including closeup photos that reveal an earlier restoration in the mid-60s before it came to MOMA.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 8:59 AM PST - 26 comments

The upcoming inauguration of Willem-Alexander as King of the Netherlands has united his people in their hatred of the Koningslied, especially the lyrics written by committee.
posted by saucysault at 8:07 AM PST - 54 comments

“When I was doing my Post-Doc at UCL I used to go to the British Museum to relax, and work in the beautiful library there, so I chose the space for the mix. I wanted to capture the ambient atmosphere in the central courtyard, so I did some binaural recording to include in the mix. I also wanted to make the mix something of an exploration through history and ideas in line with the contents of the museum, so I brought in lots of disparate music spanning the centuries and continents. I also mixed it in a way to be like a journey though the museum, turning corners and regularly coming across something totally different and unexpected, with each track being like a different exhibit. Hence the name of the mix, in that, each piece of music almost has a visual content.” -- Max Cooper & The British Museum [more inside]
posted by empath at 6:59 AM PST - 11 comments

That is all (SLYT)
posted by lawrencium at 3:30 AM PST - 12 comments