Mexican officers released video taken by a patrol of their drug interdiction aircraft that shows them chasing amorphous glowing lights. The pilots said that the lights surrounded them, some of which showed up on their radar. Wouldn't it be nice if they really were aliens who were making money on the side bringing up prime Colombian to fund their investigations on the human race. The scientist in this story calls it some kind of atmospheric "gas". More likely, it is the U.S. testing out some new aircraft. Robotic aircraft exhibiting flocking behaviour. Decide for yourself >>

The Toronto Star reports that world famous architect Frank Ghery unveiled one of his pet projects, the first trophy for the World Cup of Hockey (to be played this summer) but to stunned silence on the part of the media present. Decide for yourself >>

In the past two days the images of the death of the American Nicholas Berg on video by an al Qaeda cell and the ongoing description of the alleged tortures and humiliations of Iraqi prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan made me feel as bad as I have felt after viewing the news. I did not see the uncensored video of Berg, a young man not far from my age, who was decapitated on a video shown on TV news worldwide but just imagining it is enough. But then, realizing that the terror of that moment was only going to feed into the ongoing war is like stepping into a trough of despair for humanity. Savagery met by savagery. A U.S. senator complains that the human rights workers who tried to report the depridations in Abu Ghraib prison are "do-gooders" (since when are 'do-gooders' or 'humanitarians' now vilified?). Two more today called viewing more unreleased images of the treatment of prisoners a descent into one of the 'wings of hell'. Again today, more battles in the Occupied Territories as Israelis fought and died to retrieve body parts. This week has been an endless parade of the macabre. At some point yesterday I wanted to stop caring.

Slowly adding to my photo equipment. The shots below were taken with extremely long exposures with the camera on a tripod (my video tripod + a new 3D photo head) and a remote release. The exposures were between 6" to almost half a minute. With exposures less than 6" the stars can usually be seen but to achieve the glowing effect you have to expose longer and then the stars are blown out by the building lights. That bright flare in the photo on the right comes from a construction light. I really love the gold and the way the clouds show up in the night sky. Now Vancouver looks like Heaven or Las Vegas? Sometime this weekend I will start wandering to different spots downtown at night.

This is an incredible story of a U.S. paratrooper who was captured after parachuting in preparation of the D-Day invasion, was captured, escaped twice and then managed to hook up with a Soviet army brigade with whom he was wounded in action when they allowed him to fight alongside. Later he met with Marshal Zhukov and then had to convince the American embassy in Moscow that he wasn't dead. Read more here >>

Wired has an article about the Library of Congress' treasure of movies and other recorded media all housed in a former Cold War reinforced bunker in a Virginia mountain. Its previous use was to house over $3 billion in currency to get the U.S. economy going in the event of a 'nuclear holocaust' hahah. Read more here >>

One of the leading experts on computer security systems has called security for election voting machines poised for service in the upcoming November elections in the United States 'terrible'. Computer science professor Aviel D. Rubin of Johns Hopkins said that evoting companies had not implemented needed security and did not even make easy improvements to security to ensure that evoting machines could not be tampered with or made completely reliable. Read more here >>

Last week before Kill Bill I finally got to see the first signs of marketing for Zhang Yimou's Hero ("Ying Xiong") which was released nearly two years ago in Asia. The Quentin Tarantino Presents... trailer was terrible, as if edited by someone who hadn't even seen the film. There has been some backlash against Miramax who fans accuse of buying up hot Asian properties and then sitting on them. This trailer doesn't do their reputation any good. Anyway, in the mean-time, Zhang Yimou has just finished another martial arts epic, SHI MIAN MAI FU ("Attacks from Ten Directions") which is now being marketed in Japan under the English title "Lovers". Zhang Zi Yi from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a blind dancer who for some reason has to be protected by a policeman played by Japanese-Taiwanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro (Sleepless Town). There is lots of information on this in MonkeyPeaches.com a great resource for Asian film. Their page on the movie has lots of stills and information. There is also a link to the teaser but it is difficult to download and isn't very good besides.

This weekend has been dominated by news of the abuses of Iraqi POWs in Abu Ghrab prison (notorious during Saddam's reign for its abuses). The photos shown on CBS' 60 Minutes II programme started the news cycle and this has been further broken open by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker magazine and by allegations of abuses by British guards as well. There has never been a conquering army that hasn't had incidents such as this. Young soldiers in power, in a situation where their comrades are in a frustrating quagmire, are easily encouraged to cross the line. One incredible assertion by one soldier who had earlier reported the abuses was that they weren't instructed in the Geneva Conventions on the treatment of POWs. As if you need a set of regulations to tell you not to beat, humiliate or threaten to rape someone under your protection. Indeed, one of those accused seems to have already been a prison guard. Well, this is old hat for the psychologists studying abuses of authority (Milgram, Zimbardo et al).

In the New Yorker article, you will read that supporters of the guards are pointing the finger at shadowy 'civilian contractors' and military intelligence who allegedly promoted such behaviour. This leads to another problem. While the rank and file (and probably their commander) may be charged for these abuses, civilian contractors and other operators are likely to elude opprobium. With more and more paramilitary taking up the slack from the battered regular forces the harder it will be to guard against such abuses. One report states that military contractors are now the third largest western force in Iraq.

Even from a purely-western POV, there is nothing like images such as these to arouse already negative Arab and Muslim feelings and make eventual reconciliation harder. That is, if it was the intention of President Bush to truly affect positive change in the Middle East. After watching PBS' Frontline program on the younger Bush's evangelical beliefs (the Jesus Factor), it is hard not to come away thinking that the President is going to follow his vision all the way through with every setback (and opposing view) only a speedbump in his blessed campaign. If you are a believer in millenialism then this administration must truly be heaven on earth. If you are not, then you have a decision to make in the next election.

A followup to the future armour news. Apparently, the army labcoats are experimenting with 'hard particles' suspended in a thickening liquid: polyethylene glycol that instantly hardens when under strain but otherwise remains flexible in clothing. The researches say that it can harden under a millisecond in Kevlar reinforced material, enough to stop arrows, knives and perhaps even bullets. Read about it here >>