It was a sparkling morning in Bristol, in the United Kingdom, when a series of eyewitness social-media postings announced the end of the world. Was it a giant cephalopod? A flying saucer? The chatter and retweets put a funhouse spin on the spreading confusion, but the flames and destruction are decidedly non-virtual.
Read MoreIt has been years since I last made this journey. I am slower and more easily tired. My footfall is not as sure as it used to be, but nor is it as bitter, as sad, as resigned. Up the slope, near the edge of the rock, they stand along the ridge. Waiting, without conversation, silhouetted against the late-afternoon sky.
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