flying invisible camera anyone?

The New York Times Magazine has "explored human ingenuity" in its 2006 edition of the year in ideas. Most of the contraptions presented in the feature haven't actually been realized yet, but there are a few interesting ones...

The Boomerang Drone

When the Phantom Sentinel takes flight, it looks like an awkward boomerang — a set of three small blades. It spins in a circle, faster and faster as it ascends into the sky. Then, when it reaches about 50 feet, it whirls so fast that something remarkable happens: it vanishes right before your very eyes.

The Sentinel is still there, but you can’t see it. It is the world’s first “invisible spy drone,” a new class of remote-controlled stealth aircraft. Driven by electric-engine propellers on two of its blades, the Sentinel also moves in virtual silence. “You could fly it 75 feet above the Macy’s parade, and nobody would know it was there at all,” says Dean Tangren, president of VeraTech Aero Corporation, which received a patent for the invention this summer.

I am a little aporetic — but does the idea of a spinning-blade camera that is invisible strike anyone else as, say, extremely dangerous?

* * *

This is unquestionably one of the more bizarre news stories I've ever read.

The world's tallest man has saved two dolphins by using his long arms to reach into their stomachs and pull out dangerous plastic shards.

* * *

Thoughts on Senate reform? Simple: it's about time. There is a legitimate argument floating about out there that says elected politicians should take caution when f*&^king up the political apparatus that has served this country since 1867 -- especially when a hit from the batting box has constitutional implications.

Then again, the Canadian political identity is no stranger to major reform, de jure or de facto (read: fancy words for on paper and in practice. Yes, I am a fop). When Canada was birthed under John A. MacDonald's drunken watch in 1867, our country was better characterized as "unitary" than "federalist." Forget "two nations," "just society," or anything remotely multicultural. Canada was centralized, and run by white Anglo ex-Brits who often had obvious penchants for the perverse. Today, Canada's provinces are almost as independent as the states below our border.

Yep, in the spectrum of federalism, only Spain -- home to three separatist territories; a staunchly multilingual and multinational culture; a history encumbered by a debilitating civil war and decades of fascist oppression; and a terrorist organization -- is worse.

Modern politicians do all sorts of things that aren't constitutionally enshrined -- try, say, free voting. Or the fact our Governor General, contrary to the Constitution, is really nothing more than a rubber stamp for an ultra-powerful PMO. None of this was imagined as such when the wigged lot of the House of Lords passed the BNA almost 150 years ago.

Instituting permanent Senate reform through a constitutional amendment should be the ultimate goal of Parliament. But taking baby steps up front isn't a bad idea. So yeah, elect 'em, make 'em accountable, and see what happens.