Blackout

The Vatican, before and after.

The world's second Earth Hour happened last night from 20:30 to 21:30. Check out photos here and here. Hundreds of cities participated, darkening some of the planet's most-recognized monuments, including the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and, here in Mexico City, the Zocalo. The initiative started last year in Sydney. Its the creation of the planet-saving hopefuls at the World Wildlife Foundation. This year's goal was to reach 1 billion people. No word yet if it was met.
Edward Norton was the 2009 ambassador.

Ciudad Juarez

Over the weekend the federal government sent an additional 5,000 soldiers to its murder capital, the dusty, sprawling and (seemingly) hopeless border town across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, which is strikingly calm by comparison--the fourth-safest city in the United States.

Some of the soldiers will replace 2,500 going on relief. The total number of federal police and troops will hover around 10,000. They're taking over the municipal police forces and the prison and commerce departments, in effect they're militarizing Juarez. It's apparently the first time in post-Revolution history that a city has basically handed itself over to the army. Let's see how Calderon's gamble plays out.

Chapo Hits the Bigtime

Chapo Guzman Loera, aka Shorty, the most feared (and most wanted) drug lord in Mexico is now #701 on Forbes:

Net Worth:$1 billion
Fortune:self made
Source:Drug Trafficking
Age:54
Country Of Citizenship:Mexico
Residence:Sinaloa State
Industry:Shipping
Education:NA
Marital Status:NA

* Update: Calderon wasn't very happy about the inclusion: Now "magazines aren't simply attacking and lying about the situation in the country but exalting criminals and apologizing for crime," he said.

Perfect Imperfection

Public health activists in France are looking into curbing the promotion of negative body image, the New York Times reports in this video: Sex, Lies and Photoshop. Namely, they want to pass laws requiring magazines to disclose when photos have been retouched. Wouldn't it be awesome for millions of teenage girls to know the models they idolize aren't hot enough to appear in print, either? You can already hear private enterprise freaking out about government intrusion. But it's clear by now that private enterprise sucks at balancing profit and public good. After we do away with flawless models, maybe McDonalds can start paying taxes for promoting obesity and heart disease and the subsequent drain on public health resources.