At least, this is one answer to the rash of laser targeting incidents involving aircraft that have occurred lately.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A man who initially claimed his daughter aimed a laser at a helicopter was charged after he told federal agents that he pointed the light beam at two aircraft, authorities said Tuesday.

David Banach of Parsippany faces charges of interfering with the operator of a mass transportation vehicle and making false statements to the FBI. He is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court on Tuesday afternoon.

The aircraft were targeted by the lasers near Teterboro Airport.

On Wednesday night, a pilot preparing to land a chartered jet with 13 people aboard reported seeing three green laser beams about 11 miles from the airport. On Friday, a helicopter carrying Port Authority detectives was hit by a beam as they surveyed the area in an attempt to pinpoint the origin of the original beams.

No motive was given – so based purely on speculation – I’ll chalk these incidents up to simple mischief. I’m guessing that the other events were copycats, or that he is simply a copycat himself.

UPDATE: Here’s a Reuters article, but still no word on why he did it.

Here are some details on the relief efforts of the American military.

So far, U.S. military personnel have delivered 430,000 pounds of supplies to the region.

Military officials discounted criticism of a slow U.S. start to relief efforts, saying they started moving help to the region as soon as they were called on to act.

Fourteen cargo planes were taking food, supplies and equipment to supply hubs in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, according to the U.S. military’s Pacific Command Web site, www.pacom.mil.

President Bush today called on his father – former president George Bush – and former President Bill Clinton to undertake a nationwide fundraising effort on behalf of the victims of the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami. Betsy Newmark wonders if anybody else noticed who was left out of ”the Ex-President Charity effort for the tsunami victims.”

I can’t say I noticed that omission, but Reuters did.

“The devastation in the region defies comprehension,” President Bush said in Washington, eight days after an earthquake drove huge waves across the Indian Ocean, killing 145,000 from Thailand to Somalia and leaving millions homeless, hungry or threatened by deadly diseases.

“I ask every American to contribute as they are able to do so,” said Bush, in a joint appeal with former presidents George Bush, his father, and Bill Clinton.

The scale of the disaster prompted Bush to put together the rare coalition of ex-presidents to mount the nationwide fund-raising drive.

Jimmy Carter, an ex-president with a long history in humanitarian efforts, and who was critical of Bush in last year’s presidential campaign, was not invited to participate.

Sandra Bullock has donated $1 million to the American Red Cross for the tsunami relief efforts. Plus, she’s done this before; she gave another million dollars to the American Red Cross after September 11. (From memeorandum)

“At this critical time, I am grateful to Sandra Bullock for, once again, demonstrating her leadership, compassion and belief in our global humanitarian mission,” says Marsha Evans, president and CEO of the American Red Cross. “Sandra continues to enable our lifesaving work and is a model for personal generosity.”

In 2001, the actress donated $1 million to the Red Cross in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

I wonder if any other Hollywood celebrities will step up and match her generous gift?

I have been following the progress of the Cassini-Huygens Mission (posting some spectacular images and posting about the launch of the Huygens probe). Jeff Harrell notes the passing of Cassini by Iapetus, one of Saturn’s moons, on New Year’s Eve as ”One of history’s great coincidences”.

Slate looks at how Ukraine celebrated the New Year. And then contrasts that celebration with the New Year in Moscow.

Dancing in Independence Square last night, my friends and I made a date to celebrate next New Year’s in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. When it turned out that the four young people with whom we were jumping around a leafless tree, holding hands and passing around a bottle of champagne, were also from Russia, one of my friends said: “It’s going to happen for us, too! In a couple of years!” The young people–they must have been college students–hesitated for a second, probably because this is not the sort of thing one would presume to say to strangers in Moscow, and then shouted, “Hooray!”

Back in Moscow, there was also a street party in Red Square. This morning I found out that only people with a Moscow registration stamp in their passports were allowed to enter the square. This means that not only visitors but even people living and working in Moscow but who are registered to live in other Russian cities could not take part in the celebration. That made me even happier that I had spent the holiday in Kiev, where the overwhelming sense was one of openness. Last night, I danced with Russian college students, very young Ukrainians, pretty old Ukrainians, a homeless Ukrainian man, and lots of other people I couldn’t identify. Some of them had dyed their hair orange, the color of the Ukrainian revolution. The music, of course, was not the important part, but in addition to the revolutionary rap, the undisputed hit of the night was “D.I.S.C.O.,” performed by a duo that may in fact have been N-Trance itself. We sang, “She is oh-ohhh-orange!”

A couple of items from Victor Davis Hanson.

First, a warning to the left to avoid the fate of the dinosaurs. It is too good to excerpt, so you should just read the whole thing.

And secondly, check out his predictions for 2005.

UPDATE: Here’s a better (more permanent) link to Hanson’s predictions along with the predictions of other contributors to National Review Online.

Arthur Chrenkoff has posted another round in his Good News from Iraq series. Particularly compelling is a part about the return of Iraqi refugees and exiles.

In the run-up to military action in March 2003, many anti-war activists were predicting that the Coalition invasion will lead to a humanitarian and a refugee disaster. In reality, not only have the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of refugees did not materialize, but ever since, the old Iraqi refugee problem has been gradually solving itself:

“Until the spring of 2003, the Islamic Republic of Iran hosted over 202,000 Iraqi refugees, by far the largest registered refugee population from Iraq in the world. The majority were living in Iranian cities and settlements. About 50,000 of them, like Mohammed, stayed for many years in the 22 camps scattered across Iran’s western provinces.

“Since last year, more than half of all Iraqi refugees in Iran - an estimated 107,000 people - have returned to their homeland. Most of them have gone back of their own accord, some 12,500 with UNHCR assistance. The rate of departure has been even higher among refugees staying in camps, with more than 80 percent of them choosing to repatriate. This has led to a drastic fall in the overall camp population to 8,000 from 50,000. Six out of 22 camps are now empty, another two are expected to be closed by the end of the year. Of the remaining 14 camps, many are already near empty.”

As Iraqi refugees and exiles are coming back, many areas of their homeland don’t resemble the chaotic picture seen every night on the news. Kuridstan remains peaceful and buzzing with activity; an example of what the rest of the country could aspire to: “Western businessmen move freely around the region’s capital, Irbil, and American soldiers eat in restaurants without their body armour. In the crowded foyer of the Sheraton, Kurdish businessmen and politicians discuss reconstruction work.” It’s not just peace and growing prosperity, but also free intellectual climate which is attracting people to Kurdistan:

“Kurdish students living in Iraq’s neighbours are flocking to universities in the Kurdish areas to escape repression at home and to benefit from the opportunities they say the region offers.

“The University of Sulaimaniyah alone has so far accepted more than 110 Kurdish students from neighbouring countries, mainly Iran and Syria, under a programme that reserves five per cent of all places at Iraqi Kurdish universities for high school graduates educated elsewhere.

“The foreign students receive free tuition and accommodation and a 100 US dollar allowance each term.

“Thirty-year old Farzeen, a first year student at Sulaimaniyah’s media college from the Iranian town of Saqiz, said education in Iran is expensive in Iran and freedom of speech limited. ‘You can’t express any political beliefs or air your views freely or you end up in jail, especially if you are a Kurd,’ said Farzeen.”

Happy New Year!

I have made a few changes to my template. Something new for the new year. The photo in my header was taken September 2004 in Sequoia National Park. Over time, I plan to rotate other photos in its place.

Hope you like the new look.

UPDATE: I’ve gone ahead and added some javascript code to rotate the various header images I’ve created. These images are from a variety of photographs I took while visiting several different places in 2004. Each of the images is posted (and linked to the larger version) below with a short blurb about where and when the original photo was taken.

Looking down the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse stairs, April 2004

Sunset in the Smoky Mountains, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, July 2004

Flower, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, July 2004

San Andreas Fault taken from Keys View, Joshua Tree National Park, September 2004

Lake Mead, September 2004

Scenery at Red Rock Canyon, September 2004

Blue sky over Red Rock Canyon, September 2004

View of Las Vegas Strip from Red Rock Canyon, September 2004

Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas Strip, September 2004

Giant sequoias, Sequoia National Park, September 2004

View from Morro Rock, Sequoia National Park, September 2004

UPDATED January 18, 2005:

I’ve added two new images to the header photo rotation. Both are from the set of photographs I took in the Florida Everglades over Thanksgiving weekend.

Up close and personal with an alligator, Big Cypress National Preserve, November 2004

American Alligator, Big Cypress National Preserve, November 2004

Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker champion, also known as “Fossilman” knows how to take care of himself.

Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker champion, apparently knows how to wield more than a stack of chips when everything is riding on it.

The soft-spoken patent attorney from Stonington, Conn., fought off a pair of attackers Dec. 20 at the Bellagio hotel-casino after he had finished playing a cash game of poker, according to a Las Vegas police report.

You can listen to the NPR story on the attempted robbery.