lightcastle

From Balloon Juice, a story of WWI and one of the last men to die in it, a Canadian named George Price.

There was one incident that captured the essence of war on the western front, the distillation of its arbitrary violence. At two minutes to eleven in the vicinity of Mons a Canadian private named George Price was hit by a sniper’s bullet. He died instantly. The man who killed him remains unknown. That man made a choice. He was a marksman, a skilled soldier. He had just moments remaining in which it was legal for him to kill. There was no need to fire, no purpose, and some risk at least to himself and any comrades near him. If he waited until eleven, and then put his gun down, the only consequence would be that a young stranger would go home. Instead, the shot rang out. Two minutes ticked past. The war ended. George Price lay dead.

From the tragic to the tragic in another sense:

A video of a China-USA rap battle about economic issues in honour of the G20 in South Korea.
I can't decide if I think it's so terrible it's good.