"Americans talk about institutions that are 'too big to fail.' In parts of Europe, it's more apt to speak of those 'too big to be saved.'" Last Man Standing by Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution fame.
posted by wittgenstein on Apr 11, 2009 - 5 comments

"American air superiority has been so complete for so long that we take it for granted. For more than half a century, we’ve made only rare use of the aerial-combat skills of a man like Cesar Rodriguez, who retired two years ago with more air-to-air kills than any other active-duty fighter pilot. But our technological edge is eroding. ... Now we have a choice. We can stock the Air Force with the expensive, cutting-edge F‑22—maintaining our technological superiority at great expense to our Treasury. Or we can go back to a time when the cost of air supremacy was paid in the blood of men like Rodriguez." - The Last Ace, a feature article in this month's The Atlantic by author Mark Bowden.
posted by billysumday on Feb 15, 2009 - 63 comments

Last Guy - input a website, any website, and save the survivors. [more inside]
posted by knowles on Aug 25, 2008 - 12 comments

William Rodriguez gave a captivating presentation in Seattle on 11/07/07. William is believed to be the "Last Man Out" of the north tower of the World Trade Center alive, but not before reentering three times with the master key after the first plane impacted the north tower to help rescue a countless number of people. Here is an interview with William after the presentation. His Ricky Ricardo impersonation at the end is pretty good.
posted by augustweed on Nov 13, 2007 - 31 comments

The Last Supper is now available in high definition at the click of a button. Feel free to take a gander and then cross it off your list.
posted by nixerman on Oct 29, 2007 - 37 comments

Read the last statements of executed Texas death row inmates. Texas now publishes the last statements online in a extremely well organised database. Search through offender name, offender information (scanned OCR with pics and crime description). If that's a bit too heavy, why not just browse through some last meals on death row?
posted by Funmonkey1 on Sep 18, 2006 - 135 comments

The Last Post, a military bugle call marking the end of the day, was originally sounded to call off-duty soldiers to barracks; later it was also incorporated into British and Commonwealth military funeral services (analogous to the playing of Taps for US military dead) and "symbolises that the duty of the dead is over and that they can rest in peace." It's perhaps as fitting as "Auld Lang Syne" at the close of year 2005.
posted by orthogonality on Dec 31, 2005 - 16 comments

Last words of fictional characters. [cached]
posted by Ljubljana on Aug 28, 2003 - 23 comments