i read this post - "mysteries of a nazi photo album" - before leaving for europe, and was totally consumed by it.  the BEAUTIFUL photos, the mystery surrounding who had taken them, the horrible (and intriguing) things they depict, the desire of their current owner to sell them to avoid bankruptcy.  you should know that all these elements put together got me HOOKED.  the new york times published them to try to find information about the photographer and gain publicity so the current owner might be able to sell them.

and within 3 hours online readers had identified the photographer.

this is what is incredible to me, as you probably know - how the internet can connect people all around the world, and not just in trivial (facebook, perhaps) ways...how our collective knowledge is greater than anything you can look up in a book or online.  people solved this mystery, not a search engine.  i'm blown away by all this.  "mystery...solved..."  all of this is worth reading and worth following, i think.