It seems that Trey Parker and Matt Stone may have been more accurate with their parody of the US military in the South Park movie than they probably intended. Terrifyingly, here in Iraq, Google Earth has uncovered that the US military might really have an Operation Human Shield.

Thanks to Stephen Johnson and Chris Holland.

Brand new on Google Maps/Earth this week is Fort Boyard, located between the Île d’Oléron and the Île-d’Aix in the Pertuis d’Antioche straits, on the west coast of France. It was designed to bridge the gap between the two islands, as the cannons of the time couldn’t protect such a large space.

Construction began under Napoleon in 1801, but unfortunately wasn’t finished until 1857 – by which time the range of cannons had increased, and the fort was utterly redundant.

Which is a bit like buying a PC that has become obsolete by the time Windows is finished installing. The parallels continue in fact – seemingly for lack of any better ideas, Fort Boyard eventually became a prison.

Fort Boyard is certainly a scary looking place – although these days mostly for the thought of the truly terrible TV show of the same name that’s now filmed there (the oil rig type structure on the west side was built for the TV crews).

Thanks to Yuri.

P.S. There’s loads of new stuff being uncovered by this week’s image update, so why not see if you can grab yourself an exclusive, and get submitting those sights!

Located in the North Pacific Ocean, Wake Island was an island of great strategic importance during World War II, and over the last few days it’s been in the news again, as is it was directly in the path of the oncoming Hurricane Ioke – the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Central Pacific.

Fortunately all 188 people who live here were evacuated safely by plane before the hurricane arrived, but at around 6am yesterday (August 31st) the island’s automated weather station seems to have stopped functioning just before the southwestern eyewall passed over the island.

Some of you PC gamers might well recognise this place, as it’s a map in both Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2! So perhaps those people can tell us what this strange thing is, or if in fact this really is a bridge which has been partially washed away?

Thanks to Reek of Putrefaction, Roy and Lee Bennett.

Quick, somebody fetch Neo, as it would appear that The Matrix is leaking into Canada.

Thanks to nousagi and Mark.

If I told you that this tall shadow in a car park in Berwyn, Illinois was cast by a huge sculpture made from eight real cars impaled on a massive metal spike, would you believe me? I know it sounds ridiculous, but if you’ve seen Wayne’s World you might remember this artwork, which was created by Dustin Shuler in 1989 and is entitled ‘Spindle’. If you look closely you can just make out the red Volkswagen Beetle at the top of the pile.

Thanks to Brian Schlosser and Joel Roller.