Pick of the day: Soldiers and YouTube

Late at night, when it's still evening back home, the Internet cafes at U.S. military bases in Iraq are packed. Soldiers email home, videochat, catch up on the news, and have recently been uploading videos to YouTube -- some of which have gone viral. In an insightful New York magazine piece, Lisa Taddeo explores the phenomenon and gives us a too-rare glimpse into the culture of soldiering. Half a world away, fighting a war the American public wishes would just go away, it can be a lonely existence. And so, as Taddeo explains, the videos are a way of connecting, of telling society: "Hey, we're still here". Or as one of the soldiers said after a video about gays in the military took off: "It was like we actually mattered.”