A recent article in the New York Times pondered that constant buzzing question, are Americans willfully stupid? Though it may seem asking this question is a favorite pastime of the popular rag, a recent profile on a bevy of books on the subject argues Americans are less willfully stupid than they are openly hostile towards the smarty-pantses of the nation. Author Susan Jacoby, whose book The Age of Unreason came out last week, says she......

33rd Annual Sci-Fi Film Festival Sunday, February 17, noon, until Monday, February 18, noon Somerville Theatre $55 in advance / $65 day of show More info on the festival The annual Sci-Fi Film Festival will kick off this weekend. Each year has a new theme, and the theme this time around is "The Future is Passe," in which "the future had been predicted, but that time has past." Bostonist asked Garen Daly, organizer of the......

Books --Self-described philosopher-comedians Tom Cathcart and Daniel Klein discuss Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington. Imagine Jon Stewart after he stops shouting "Whaaaa??" takes some time off for a philosophy PhD, and returns to TV. Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm, free. --Find out why Drew Gilpin Faust is the president of Harvard, and you're not. Faust will discuss her book This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War at the Harvard Coop......

Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints 1914-1939 Torf Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts January 30—June 1, 2008 In the collection of prints going on display tomorrow at the Museum of Fine Arts, humans are chiefly represented in clumps: anonymous crowds, armies, bocce players, orchestras, audiences, stick-figure Ballets Russes, eight men with oars forming a human motor, blurred passengers whirling around an ominous proto-Seussian merry-go-round—Oh, the places you (plural) will go. The exhibit highlights artists......

Human Rights International Film Festival at the MFA The Axe in the Attic: Review follows. Sunday, January 20, 2 pm Friday, January 25, 5:45 pm Saturday, January 26, 12:45 pm Thursday, January 31, 6 pm Hot House: A probing documentary that explores the emergence of a Palestinian national leadership within Israeli prisons. Screens Sunday, January 20, 2008, 10:30 am. White Light/Black Rain: A film exploring the threat of nuclear weapons today while looking at mistakes......

If you thought yesterday's snowstorm was rough, try thinking about the wave of molasses that poured through the North End on January 15, 1919. The molasses flood happened when a shoddily built tank burst at the seams, sending waves of molasses through the North End, knocking down homes and crushing people. The tank held molasses that would later be distilled into industrial alcohol for use in World War I. Twenty-one people died, and many people......

Nicolas Cage mopped up the competition this weekend with the National Treasure sequel, which looked a lot like a remake of the first one. It's basically expensive kids' movie stuff. However, a friend of ours who paid to see it pointed out that those who like the ladies will see a lot of Diane Kruger in skimpy, damp clothes. Julia Roberts is probably wishing she could beat a chipmunk with her Oscar right about now.......

The 2008 Golden Globe nominees were announced yesterday, and to nobody's surprise, they skewed heavily toward the period drama Atonement. Charlie Wilson's War, No Country for Old Men, American Gangster, and Sweeney Todd all emerged with at least 4 noms each. Local fave Casey Affleck was nominated for his (non-Jesse James) title role in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and though Gone Baby Gone didn't get a nod in the......

Last night WFNX radio put on their "Miracle on Tremont Street" Holiday concert at the Orpheum. The show featured recent alt-rock favorites Spoon, The Cold War Kids, Against Me!, and Mute Math. By the time Bostonist got there to check out the headliner Spoon, the crowd seemed to have thinned considerably. We're going to assume that the Tuesday night date and bitter cold helped to keep attendance lower than would be expected. The Orpheum's......

A Tribute to David Halberstam Tuesday, November 27, 7:00 pm Brattle Theatre (via Harvard Book Store and Powell's Books), $10 More info. With the holiday, this week wasn't going to have heaps of readings, but a big one is taking place on Tuesday as great minds gather to discuss the work of the late journalist David Halberstam. Out of the Book, a documentary series sponsored by Powell's Books that follows authors, has turned its gaze......

SFist witnessed a new apartment building tszuj the skyline with spectacular, gaudy turquoise aplomb, the (informal) renaming of the Mission/SOMA neighborhood border, the return of the Maltese Falcon, the Mayor Gavin Newsom mea culpa-ing over his Hawaiian getaway during the oil spill, and double-decker buses hitting the streets of San Francisco. Oh, and some baseball player named Barry Bonds is a liar whose pants, it seems, are totally on fire. LAist continues to cover the......

-- 18 protesters were arrested during yesterday's Veterans Day ceremony at City Hall Plaza. They were members of Veterans for Peace, an organization of former soldiers opposed to the Iraq War. The American Legion had placed the group in the rear of the Veterans Day parade and told them that they could not carry signs protesting the war. The Veterans for Peace responded by blocking the official ceremony podium with gags in their mouths and......

The Heartbeat Detector France, 2007, 144 minutes, French/subtitled Boston Jewish Film Festival Saturday, November 10, 7:00 pm, ICA, $10 Official site for the BJFF Bostonist only started to plumb the depths of the offerings at the Boston Jewish Film Festival with last week's list of highlights. Another movie, The Heartbeat Detector, has also intrigued us, and it will make its New England debut tomorrow night. Also known as "La Question Humaine," this movie follows a......

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrap-up of readings around the city. Thursday, October 18 Joan Blades, 6:30 pm, Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library, Ford Hall Forum Series. Blades is the cofounder of moveon.org, and she's got a lot on her mind besides "General Betray-Us," which Congress gnawed on like they had nothing better to do. She'll be talking about momsrising.org, her organization that pushes for more rights for moms and families. Saturday, October 20 Frank, Mark,......

Married four times, detested by Aleister Crowley but friends with Howard Hughes, Preston Sturges should not be begrudged his mastery of the screwball comedy. He had a lot of material to work with. But his genius was to craft dialogue and pace his actors with such naturalism as to make the ridiculous seem inevitable. This genius is on display today at the Brattle Theatre, which is screening The Palm Beach Story (1942). Its reported......

--Suffolk District Attorney Dan Conley and police commissioner Ed Davis were able to be in the same room this weekend despite their ongoing public spat. But someone has BPD detectives have been distributing flyers around Government Center denouncing Conley's actions. The flyer pulls no punches and even likens Conley to a feudal lord: "Dan Conley is a politician who only wants to flex his political might over the serfs beneath him." Can everyone involved in......

"Authorial Intent" is Bostonist's attempt to bring you the best readings in the area, all tied up with a shiny bow. Diane Ackerman, Wednesday, September 19, 7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store. More info. In The Zookeeper's Wife, fiction writer, nonfiction writer, and poet Ackerman returns with the true story of zookeepers in Poland during World War II who hid Jews from the Nazis. The LA Times calls the novel "a shining book beyond category." Jonathan......

The Red Sox rotation needs no introduction. We already have three ten-game winners, a potential Hall-of-Famer on the injured list, and warhorse Julian Tavarez on the back end. But, with possible apologies to Curt Schilling's one-hitter in Oakland, none of them have come up with a gem like youngster Kason Gabbard threw last night. The 25-year-old lefty threw the Sox' third complete game and second shutout last night, bedazzling the Royals to the tune of......

Rescue Dawn is screening at several theaters in the area. Check the Brattle calendar for showtimes ofThe Mystery of Kaspar Hauser and Aguirre, the Wrath of God. The last two movies run through Monday. In a recent post, we suggested that summer wasn't the right time for heavy film fare. But Boston won't be able to ignore the physically and mentally demanding work of Werner Herzog, whose movies old and new are showing throughout the......

The bewhiskered gent at right is General William Tecumseh Sherman, who split the South in two during the Civil War with his famous march through Georgia. Last night may not have been as deeply psychologically scarring for residents of the Peach State, but it was a pretty good whuppin' just the same. The Red Sox pounded the Braves 11-0, behind a slew of home runs and another great outing by the astounding Julian Tavarez. J.D.......

--More details have emerged about the stabbing death of Adam Rich at The 6 House Bar in South Boston. The fatal fight started over spilled beer. A witness, the victim's best friend, said someone spilled beer on the victim, and the fight got out of control. The victim's best friend is also an Iraq War vet, and he saved some choice words for the murderer: “Whoever did this is the new breed of scumbag who......

Michael Beschloss will read from Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America, 1789-1989 tomorrow, Tuesday, June 19, at 6:00 pm at Coolidge Corner Theatre. Tickets are $5 and available at Brookline Booksmith. When a president dies, who are the networks gonna call? Historian and brainy talking head Michael Beschloss. Beschloss' latest book evaluates the moments when a president made a lonely, unpopular, and ultimately correct choice. Many of the leaders we admire were......

American troops keep dying in Iraq, and that includes several troops from Massachusetts. A Lawrence family is left wondering if their son is dead or captured, and a well-known BU professor who spoke out against the war lost his son. Alex Jimenez of Lawrence is one of three soldiers who are missing after an ambush in Mahmoudiya that left four soldiers and a translator dead. One soldier who has died has not been identified, which......

No one has a more distinctive documentary style than Ken Burns. You know you're watching Burns when the screen goes sepia, when you hear period music, when you see long, slow pans of the camera over still photographs, and when you listen to famous actors squeeze every last emotion out of old letters. Burns, who already covered the Civil War, is back with "The War," a 14-hour documentary on how World War II affected the......

Bank of America wants you to get cultured. Or it wants more cultured people to open bank accounts with them. Whatever. They're continuing the tradition of free admission to Massachusetts Bank of America cardholders during the month of May. The Old State House Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Science, and the Museum of African American History are participating in the promotion. We didn't see any fine print, so it looks like......

Michael Chabon will read from The Yiddish Policemen's Union on Thursday, May 3, at 6:30 pm at First Parish Church. Tickets can be purchased for $5 from Harvard Book Store. Pulitzer winner Michael Chabon's new book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, is beyond ambitious – it describes a colony of European Jews that was established during World War II in Sitka, Alaska. It could have happened. Such a plan was under discussion within the FDR administration.......

It started with comic books flying from the stage. Some people need eBay or Craigslist or a recycle bin to offload their Arion: Lord of Atlantis collection; Humanwine's Holly Brewer needs an audience. Friday night's crowd at the Paradise had come to celebrate the release of the first Humanwine album, Fighting Naked, and to catch airborne back issues. When M@ McNiss* and the rest of Humanwine appeared, they launched into "Big Brother," a defiant......

-- Who would have thought the Red Sox would be happy to leave Fenway? And after a series with Toronto, no less? The orange of Camden Yards will seem heavenly after a groaner of a loss at Fenway Park on Tuesday night. The Jays knocked around the Sox, 10-3, in front of the largest crowd at Fenway since World War II. Ouch. As the Globe's Nick Cardafo summed up post-game, it was awful. True, the......

"The art of war" usually refers to Sun Tzu's military treatise from the 6th century BC, sometimes refers to Machiavelli's book, a fim starring Wesley Snipes released in 2000, or even a Bone Thugs albubm. The MFA isn't using the recognizable term (and obvious pun) for the exhibition that opened today, they're taking a little different approach to the art they're presenting and the title it has been given: War and Discontent. The new installation......

The Hoax could have been a terrific movie. Whether or not you know anything about Howard "The Aviator" Hughes or Clifford Irving, the man who tried to pass off a fake autobiography of Hughes, the plot is riveting and familiar. In the light of recent publishing and journalism faux-pas, ranging from Jayson Blair to the sudden squelching of OJ Simpson's "confession," Clifford Irving's desperate drive for fame makes sense. Richard Gere stars as Clifford Irving,......