And now for something completely different. Good news for a change! Yea.

On 11 September 2001, the biggest maritime evacuation in history occurred off the south coast of Manhatten. In nine hours, over 500,000 people were shipped to safety.

And it was all the fruit of spontaneous acts of generosity and ad hoc leadership.

This is a ten minute video, but if you’ve got the time (and the bandwidth) it’s worth the investment: