Photos from the war. A slideshow of photos taken by German soldier Werner Wiehe... vermisst in Russland, 1944. (While viewing the slideshow, might I suggest playing some appropriate musical accompaniment, arranged in sequential order?!)
posted by markkraft on Oct 17, 2009 - 18 comments

Imagine you're living in China, trying to work your way out of the family date farming business (which garners approximately $450 annually). You do all the right things. You apply for (and receive) Communist Party membership. You study literally to the point of collapse, and despite coming from coal-town origins, you score high on your gao kao ("high test," more-or-less the only thing that matters in getting into a Chinese university). Your already-poor family goes deep into debt to send you to college, and you even manage to come out with a degree. Classic rise-up-by-your-own-bootstraps tale, right? However, finally, when you go to apply for a job—your state-sanctioned educational, occupational, and political records are inexplicably, awfully gone. What has happened to that plain manila folder (!) that serves as your only legitimate, official history in Chinese society? Probably stolen and sold so a party official's child can get everything you worked so hard for. And then, of course, your family is detained by party officials when your parents demand to know where the hell your life went. Of course. [more inside]
posted by Keter on Jul 27, 2009 - 47 comments

Four hours after his start against Oakland, his first time beginning the year with a major league team, Los Angeles Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed in a hit and run by a van speeding through a red light.
posted by setanor on Apr 9, 2009 - 62 comments

In 1985, less than a week after the Palace of Justice siege in Bogota left 11 members of the Supreme Court dead, the ice-clad Nevada del Ruiz volcano erupted, wiping out the Colombian town of Armero in a huge wave of mud and water. Most links contain disturbing and NSFW images. [more inside]
posted by jontyjago on Mar 12, 2009 - 8 comments

This month marks both the birth and the death of Bobby Driscoll, child star, Peter Pan, "Walt Disney's golden boy." He was penniless, drug-addled and buried in an unmarked grave by the age of 31. [more inside]
posted by jbickers on Mar 10, 2009 - 26 comments

Paula Loyd, a 36 year old anthropologist and US Army reservist, is the third social scientist to be killed within the last 8 months while working for the US Army's controversial Human Terrain System project in Afghanistan. [more inside]
posted by fourcheesemac on Jan 9, 2009 - 63 comments

GenDisasters is a genealogy site, compiling information on the historic disasters, events, and tragic accidents of Canada and the U.S. that our ancestors endured, as well as, information about their life and death. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Dec 9, 2008 - 12 comments

Obama's grandmother, the woman who raised him, dies one day before the election. Madelyn Lee Payne "Toot" Dunham, 86, died of cancer, Obama and his sister say. The timing is ridiculous. He saw her last last week, knowing she was failing. [more inside]
posted by CunningLinguist on Nov 3, 2008 - 431 comments

A week in Burma after the storm is the second of two anonymous eyewitness reports at danwei.org of the impact and aftermath of Cyclone Nargis. It is the most gripping and tremendously sad report I have read yet on the human tragedy that is Nargis and the Myanmar Junta's non-response. [more inside]
posted by gen on May 14, 2008 - 24 comments

She is intelligent enough to understand what the world wanted of her: that she was created as a virgin to be deflowered before us, for our amusement and titillation. She is not ashamed of her new persona — she wants us to know what we did to her.
posted by dhammond on Feb 26, 2008 - 147 comments

"My first day on the job was the Amish school shooting at Nickel Mines in Lancaster County, Pa. in October of 2006. Here is some video of what I saw that day." Raw footage from that terrible day, recently posted to YouTube. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 [more inside]
posted by Toekneesan on Oct 7, 2007 - 28 comments

The sad story of Sœur Sourire, the Singing Nun. [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Sep 24, 2007 - 27 comments

Kinder Morgan oil pipeline ruptured near Vancouver, British Columbia Thick, black oil dripped from lampposts, splattered across suburban lawns and crept into Burrard Inlet after a geyser of crude spewed from a burst Kinder Morgan pipeline Tuesday. [google news] Work crews ripped into the TransMountain pipeline about 12:30 p.m., causing the oil to "explode," as one witness put it, from the ground and burble up from manholes, pouring down streets toward the ocean, according to witnesses. Kinder Morgan bought the pipeline from a Canadian utility in 2005, and is known as a "poster child for pipeline problems." More Kinder Morgan accidents.
posted by KokuRyu on Jul 24, 2007 - 38 comments

...The U.S. has probably not yet fully woken up to the appalling fact that, after a long period in which the first motto of its military was "no more Vietnams," it faces another Vietnam. There are many important differences, but the basic result is similar: The mightiest military in the world fails to achieve its strategic goals and is, in the end, politically defeated by an economically and technologically inferior adversary. Even if there are no scenes of helicopters evacuating Americans from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, there will surely be some totemic photographic image of national humiliation as the U.S. struggles to extract its troops. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo have done terrible damage to the U.S. reputation for being humane; this defeat will convince more people around the world that it is not even that powerful. And Bin Laden, still alive, will claim another victory over the death-fearing weaklings of the West.

Iraq hasn't even begun (more within)
posted by y2karl on Jul 22, 2007 - 148 comments

In 1299, Osman I declared independence from the Seljuk Empire, thus beginning the rise of the Ottoman Empire. Over the centuries, The Last Caliphate stretched from Saudi Arabia to Austria, influencing architecture , music, and possibly the most beautiful textiles of the Middle Ages. It was not to last, however. Following a century of uprisings and war, the "Sick Man of Europe" finally succumbed to Turkish Nationalism and was constitutionally abolished by the emerging Turkish state on March 3, 1924. In the intervening 83 years, so much has changed. If the Empire was reinstated today, where would you find the last remaining heir to the Sultan's throne?
posted by quite unimportant on May 8, 2007 - 12 comments

Orpheus and Eurydice, the acid-tinged, animated music video version.
posted by Wolfdog on Apr 22, 2007 - 8 comments

Ryan Larkin [1943-2007]
posted by docgonzo on Feb 17, 2007 - 32 comments

Two stories of personal heroism, with 2 sadly different results.
posted by theora55 on Jan 3, 2007 - 53 comments

...Iraq may have started as a war of choice for the Bush administration, but it has become a war of great and unintended consequences. Immense risks lurk down every strategic road. Given the fractured state of the American body politic, it is almost certainly too late to rally the country behind an all-out war effort -- think tax increases; a war Cabinet; a full mobilization of the National Guard and the Reserves; a civilian reconstruction corps; a larger Army and Marine Corps; longer combat tours for troops; mandatory combat-zone deployments for U.S. diplomats and aid officials; a return to national service; and possibly even a limited draft. Yet absent a plan that puts the nation on either an all-out wartime footing or the firm path to retreat, the United States is largely condemned to some tweaked-around-the-edges variation of the administration's current approach on Iraq of "muddle through and hand over." And America, the experts agree, is already losing that war.

Endgame
posted by y2karl on Oct 21, 2006 - 60 comments

My Quonah. "My name is David C and I am the biggest idiot on this planet! Every girl I've ever met has done nothing except want me for what I had to offer them, the amount of cash I could throw their way and not for the person I was. One day that all changed when I meet a lady called Quonah..." Should she call him?
posted by feelinglistless on Sep 3, 2006 - 34 comments

More Shakespeare than you can shake a spear at.
posted by Mr. Six on Jul 17, 2006 - 19 comments

Sad -- such a sweet-looking kid, the smile on the face of a future suicide. Sad -- "If she only knew then how things would turn out…" Sad -- "I chose to kill her." Sad -- "You could see her personality break through the coma." Life is dukkha, said the Buddha -- a Pali term that means something like "suffering" or "the incapability of satisfaction." (Or as Mick Jagger put it, "I can't get no...") Here's the tangible evidence.
posted by digaman on May 3, 2006 - 39 comments

Drama is impossible today. I don't know of any. Drama used to be the belief in guilt, and in a higher order. This absolutely cruel didactic is impossible, unacceptable for us moderns. But melodrama has kept it. You are caged. In melodrama you have human, earthly prisons rather than godly creations. Every Greek tragedy ends with the chorus — "those are strange happenings. Those are the ways of the gods". And so it always is in melodrama.
His career as a film director lasted more than 40 years, but Douglas Sirk (1900-1987) is remembered for the melodramas he made for Universal in Hollywood between 1954 and 1959, his "divine wallow": Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955), Written on the Wind (1956), The Tarnished Angels (1958, William Faulkner considered it the best screen adaptation of one of his novels), Imitation of Life (1959) -- all considered for decades little more than a camp oddity. Now audiences are beginning to look deeper at the films of Douglas Sirk, at how, in megafan Todd Haynes' words, they are "almost spookily accurate about the emotional truths". Now, lucky Chicagoans can enjoy "Douglas Sirk at Universal", matinees at the Music Box. More inside.
posted by matteo on Apr 29, 2006 - 14 comments

Have you ever had one of those times where you lose your job, then your VA benefits are cut (even though you were wounded seven times in Vietnam), then your son dies in Iraq and homophobic protesters hold up a sign at his funeral that says “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” then just after Christmas the candle you light for your dead child burns your house down and your family (including your grandchildren) is homeless, and your wife needs surgery for gallstones?
Yeah, that’s tough when that happens.
But sometimes people come through for you.
posted by Smedleyman on Jan 31, 2006 - 154 comments

NewsFlashFilter: Hundreds killed in Hajj stampede in what is known as the Stoning of the Devil ritual earlier today. Sadly, this type of tragedy at a Muslim hajj is quite common given the huge crowds.
posted by OpinioNate on Jan 12, 2006 - 117 comments

"Tell all I see them on the other side JR; I love you; It wasn't bad just went to sleep"
Sad, powerful and touching scribble.
posted by jikel_morten on Jan 6, 2006 - 50 comments

Master Manole built the Curtea de Arges Monastery. According to legend, he couldn't complete the work without sacrificing someone dear to him, and his hubris upon completing the work lead him to a tragic end. It's a touching story, and now you can play the game.
posted by empath on Dec 18, 2005 - 6 comments

For 45 minutes on Dec. 6, 1989 an enraged gunman roamed the corridors of Montreal's École Polytechnique and killed 14 women. Marc Lepine, 25, separated the men from the women and before opening fire on the classroom of female engineering students he screamed, "I hate feminists."
posted by aclevername on Dec 6, 2005 - 152 comments

Love that can't be withstood,
Love that scatters fortunes,
Love like a green fern shading
The cheek of a sleeping girl.
Seamus Heaney's search for the soul of Antigone.
(more inside, with Christopher Logue)
posted by matteo on Nov 4, 2005 - 15 comments

...After the raid, an Iraqi informer walked among detainees, pointing them out to U.S. troops. Despite being disguised with a bag over his head, the informer was recognized by his fellow villagers by his yellow sandals and his amputated thumb. His name was Sabah. ...The next day, his father and brother, carrying AK-47s, entered his room before dawn and took him behind the house. With trembling hands, the father fired twice... Sabah's brother then fired three times, once at his brother's head, killing him. Sitting with the father later, Shadid found himself unable to ask the question he knew that as a journalist he had to ask: Had he killed his son? "In a moment so tragic, so wretched, there still had to be decency. I didn't want to hear him say yes. I didn't want to humiliate him any further. In the end, I didn't have to." "'I have the heart of a father, and he's my son,' he told me, his eyes cast to the ground. 'Even the prophet Abraham didn't have to kill his son.' He stopped, steadying his voice. 'There was no other choice.'"

What went wrong That's from the Salon review of Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War by Anthony Shadid [+]
posted by y2karl on Sep 16, 2005 - 15 comments

More than 600 people have died in a stampede on a bridge over the Tigris River in Iraq. Set off by rumors of a suicide bomber, hundreds of Shi'ite Muslims taking a memorial pilgrimage to a Baghdad shrine panicked, leaping over the bridge and trampling others to escape.
posted by grrarrgh00 on Aug 31, 2005 - 139 comments

Witness "I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated." -James Nachtwey- (First post, I don't know if this is a re-post, if so--sorry!)
posted by countzen on Mar 24, 2005 - 30 comments

"Mayday, mayday, Estonia, please." 10 years ago tonight, 852 people lost their lives in the cold dark waters of the Baltic Sea. In the middle of the night the ferry M/S Estonia, headed from Tallinn to Stockholm, suddenly capsized and sank. Only 137 people survived Europe's worst maritime disaster since World War II. (more inside)
posted by mr.marx on Sep 27, 2004 - 8 comments

Russian Plane Crashes, Another Missing.
posted by johnnydark on Aug 24, 2004 - 41 comments

One hundred years ago today, 1,358 members of the Kleindeutschland, the German neighborhood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, boarded a chartered ferry named the General Slocum for a picnic excursion to Long Island. A fire broke out in the ship's hold while it cruised up the East River, the captain ran the vessel aground on the rocky shores of North Brother Island amid the swift currents of Hell Gate, and when it was all over 1,021 people (mainly women and children) had perished by drowning or from the fire, and it remained the worst single-day New York City disaster until 9/11.
posted by Vidiot on Jun 15, 2004 - 16 comments

"Hubert Selby died often. But he always came back, smiling that beautiful smile of his, and those blue eyes of his... This time he will not be back. My saints have always come from hell, and now, with his passing, there are no more saints". Selby is the author of Last Exit to Brooklyn, (tried for obscenity in England and supported by, among many others, Samuel Beckett and Anthony Burgess), Requiem For a Dream, Song of the Silent Snow. He is being eulogized in the USA and UK, but also, massively (I've just watched a fantastic TV special) in France, where he is much more popular than in his native land (Selby's death was the cover story -- plus pages 2, 3 and 4 -- in the daily Libération today -- .pdf file): Dernière sortie vers la rédemption, L'extase de la dévastation. What makes all this kind of ironic -- in a very Selbyesque way -- is that Selby himself used to say, "I started to die 36 hours before I was born..." (more inside)
posted by matteo on Apr 28, 2004 - 16 comments

Columbia's Final Minutes A fascinating (if horrifying) account of the shuttle's destruction.
posted by jpoulos on Jan 27, 2004 - 12 comments

Fatal Shooting at New Orleans High School. Another violent high school death. Bush should send troops to liberate New Orleans.
posted by The Jesse Helms on Apr 14, 2003 - 24 comments

More senseless killing, boys and girls: an Arson in a South Korean subway. "With 135 people injured, many seriously, and at least 90 people listed as missing, officials say they expect the death toll to rise much higher." This will, no doubt, help in stabilizing the region.
posted by antimarx on Feb 18, 2003 - 10 comments

Doing some research on the submarine Thresher,I found a song written by Phil Ochs about the tragedy. I don't think it hit the charts like Gordon Lightfoots' song regarding the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It then occurred to me that there probably will not be a song about the space shuttle Columbia. Why not?
posted by JohnR on Feb 12, 2003 - 17 comments

A Heartbreaking National Tragedy
It happened one morning, on your drive to work, or while channel surfing on your 400-channel cable-satellite or whatever-mind-numbing-media outlet you feed the desires lurking in your mental cage. The Heartbreaking National Tragedy.
So sudden. So devastating. No one saw it coming. And who could believe it happened? "Honey, did you hear? It's devastating!" Even the Dr. Pill show is interrupted. Little Cousin (the incestuous child of Big Brother) comes on with pancake-makeup face and shellacked hair carefully arranged to hide his receding hairline....
posted by Mwongozi on Feb 4, 2003 - 44 comments

in nineteen hundred and twenty eight
disturbed by an increase in the property tax rate
andrew kehoe, a deranged man,
blew up the school in bath, michigan

Suprisingly, not many people know about the worst school related attack in US history. Do you?
posted by Degaz on Oct 24, 2002 - 29 comments

Comedy and tragedy: a paper looking at "the role of humor in constructing a global response to disaster." Credit to Polo Mr. Polo for finding the above link (the original post was removed for reasons unrelated to the content of the link).
posted by KiloHeavy on Sep 9, 2002 - 37 comments

What's that about "tragedy plus time" Comedy that is.... Another one for the NZers
posted by johnny7 on May 15, 2002 - 2 comments

Did the earth move for you? Encouraging to see good things coming from bad. Suddenly bickering with a partner doesn't seem so clever. Hugging and - yes - sex might just be the right response. Relationships stronger after 9.11? How's yours?
posted by grahamwell on Sep 29, 2001 - 16 comments

MIT re:constructions has been doing an excellent job of analyzing the world media after the tragedy. If you're in the MIT area, check out the scheduled and ongoing events.
posted by jakd on Sep 18, 2001 - 2 comments

One World Ribbon Project. This past week we have witnessed human destruction on a level never imagined. This is not just an American problem, it is a world problem. We are one species on one planet.

With this in mind, I have put together the "One World Ribbon Project" (please excuse this self-referring post) to emphasize that this is a human tragedy that affects each and every one of us on Earth.

I have created a ribbon icon that incorporates the colors of all nations on Earth. If you feel so inclined please display this ribbon on your web site as a reminder of the work that lays ahead for all of us.
posted by Taken Outtacontext on Sep 16, 2001 - 43 comments

UEFA postpone all European Champions League ties. The European soccer community postpones its soccer matches as a mark of respect to the US tragedy. Good move, I would think. After all, everything else seems so trivial now.
posted by arrowhead on Sep 12, 2001 - 4 comments

Photos of tragedy - Warning, may be distressing to some. Tragedies like this always provide for very dramatic photos. What are some of the ones you've seen today that made you gasp? This one made me think "all these people are now dead." Any more?
posted by bondcliff on Sep 11, 2001 - 39 comments

What makes people feel the need to capitalize on this? Tragedy brings the best and worst out in people.
posted by da5id on Sep 11, 2001 - 22 comments