As the memory of high school may cast a lingering shadow on later lives, so “A Brighter Summer Day,” Edward Yang’s magisterial four-hour drama of Taipei teenagers, looms over the landscape of Taiwanese cinema. American recognition has been slower. Completed in 1991 but released in the United States 20 years later, the film is now out on disc from Criterion.

杨德昌长达四小时的巨作《牯岭街少年杀人事件》描绘了台北青少年的生活，它在台湾电影世界中像一座恒久耸立的高峰，正如中学时代的记忆会给一个人以后的人生投下长久的阴影。美国对这部片子的认可来得有些缓慢——它于1991年摄制完成，直到20年后才在美国上映。如今这部片子将出光碟版，由美国公司标准收藏(Criterion)发行。

Maggots and Modern Medicine
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Maggots crawl around in a jar.

Over the past few years modern medicine has been turning its attention to medieval practices to see whether those therapies can fit into today’s healthcare requirements.

A study by a team of doctors published in the Science Journal lends support to the use of maggots in high-tech healthcare. The team, led by Prof. Nicky Cullum of the University of York, carried out a study comparing maggots with a standard “hydrogel” in treating leg ulcers. Surprisingly enough, there have been two – widely differing – interpretations of the study in the media. One says that maggots can clean wounds that fail to heal five times faster than conventional treatments, while the other says that there’s little difference really between maggots and hydrogel. So…what exactly did the scientists conclude in their study? Rajiv Sharma put the question to Professor Nicky Cullum.

Major Earthquake Devastates Central Italy
A powerful earthquake shook the medieval Italian town of L'Aquila, killing at least 150 people and damaging centuries-old monuments.

The comparison to God, like the use of the third person, was deliberate, of course. As John Richardson reminds us in the third installment of his magisterial and definitive biography, Picasso not only worshiped the gods Dionysius, Priapus and Mithra (the god of light and wisdom), but also regarded himself as their confrère — an artist so prodigally talented, so daring and so virtuosic that he could reinvent the universe.

In addition I interviewed lawyers, magistrates and especially the crime reporters on the Paris newspapers, who were invariably generous about sharing their vivid recollections with un confrère americain. Some historic executioners had left behind ..."

"In his magisterial new history of the antebellum United States, What Hath God Wrought, Daniel Walker Howe shows that religious divisions and the rise of evangelical Protestantism were defining characteristics of the party system built by the Whigs and the Jacksonian Democrats."--E.J. Dionne, Jr., The Washington Post