News of the World

Muammar Qaddafi is dead. Being ghoulish, I clicked the link on the Los Angeles Times page promising photos of dead Qaddafi. Seeing is believing, etc. One immediately opened, filling my screen—a low-res, cell-phone image of Qaddafi's squashed, bloodied face—and just as quickly evaporated, leaving only a photo of triumphant rebels crowding atop a tank. I reloaded and it happened again: the triumphant rebels reappeared and right beneath them, dead Qaddafi. There was something awful and strangely fetal about the way his face had collapsed. You could just make out a hand beneath his left shoulder, dragging him perhaps. And then he was gone, the image was gone, and only the joyous rebels remained, their Kalashnikovs high in the air. Try it yourself: real-time haunting on the interweb.

In other news, this kind and thoughtful review of Ether from Zyzzyva.