“The Polish resistance had been hearing horrific first- or second-hand accounts about the conditions inside Auschwitz. These early accounts came primarily from released prisoners, but also from casual observers like railway employees and residents of the nearby village of Oswiecim. The resistance decided they needed someone on the inside. It Read more…
Article” Why ‘Maus’ remains ‘the greatest graphic novel ever written,’ 30 years later. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/08/11/why-maus-remains-the-greatest-graphic-novel-ever-written-30-years-later/ Art Spiegelman’s WWII graphic novel Maus is important not just for its depiction of the Holocaust but also for the impact it had on views of graphic novels. Previous to Maus, graphic novels were often viewed as Read more…
Article: Riots erupt in Vancouver after Canucks loss “Riot police fired tear gas, pepper spray and flash bombs in downtown Vancouver Wednesday night to try to disperse angry rioters who set cars on fire, looted stores and taunted police officers after the Canucks’ 4-0 Stanley Cup final loss to the Boston Bruins. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/riots-erupt-in-vancouver-after-canucks-loss-1.993707 In the aftermath Read more…
The website Rejected Princesses focuses on underrepresented parts of history and uses a comic-style format: “”Well-behaved women seldom make history. Rejected Princesses celebrates those who did. Part art project, part standup routine, part book report, this site imagines what if we made animated musicals about the women of history and myth who refused to behave.” https://www.rejectedprincesses.com Read more…
Article: Banksy painting of chimpanzees as politicians back on display in time for Brexit “A Banksy painting that depicts politicians as chimpanzees in the House of Commons has returned to Bristol – just in time for the original Brexit date. The piece is the artist’s largest canvas and was first Read more…
Article: The Depths of Animal Grief “Elephants’ response to death has been called, “probably the strangest thing about them.” They almost always react to a dead elephant’s remains. Occasionally they react to a human’s. The remains or bones of other species, they ignore. Joyce Poole writes, “It is their silence Read more…
“Rote memorization has displaced critical thinking and driven young Japanese students away from the study of history, argues the author, who blames the universities’ own fact-driven entrance examinations for the crisis facing the humanities and social sciences in higher education.” https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/a05103/exam-hell-and-the-crisis-in-history-education.html The focus on “obvious facts” (i.e. basic rote memorization) is Read more…
Article: “Woman takes helm of Japanese Aegis destroyer for 1st time” “Capt. Miho Otani became the first woman to take the helm of a Japanese Aegis destroyer on Monday, pledging to set an example for other female sailors to follow. “I expect you to pursue our missions without hesitation,” Otani, Read more…
Article: Kintsugi: The Centuries-Old Art of Repairing Broken Pottery with Gold “Poetically translated to “golden joinery,” Kintsugi, or Kintsukuroi, is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery. Rather than rejoin ceramic pieces with a camouflaged adhesive, the Kintsugi technique employs a special tree sap lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Read more…
“Last weekend [April 2007] the Japanese Ministry of Education instructed publishers of school textbooks to alter descriptions of the mass suicide of Okinawa civilians during the battle. The order included eliminating all references to the Japanese military’s direct role in the tragedies, erasing accounts in earlier texts that claimed the Read more…