I recently purchased and tested out the Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 (I love Amazon’s Free Shipping!) waterproof camcorder to determine if it was going to be a workable solution for snorkeling around a coral reef on an upcoming trip to Hawaii.

In playing with the camera at home I determined that the video quality was much better than I expected, and photos were decent quality for a 6.37 MP camera. I guess I had been expecting to give up some quality in order to gain a waterproof form factor, but apparently Sanyo didn’t think that was necessary!
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Our buddy WebUrbanist has tirelessly researched and assembled four different articles to compliment the traditional 7 Wonders of the World that we’re already familiar with. Now we’ve also got:

• 7 Underground Wonders of the World
• 7 Submerged Wonders of the World
• 7 Deserted Wonders of the World
• and the 7 More Deserted Wonders of the World

I highly recommend checking them out, and if you’ve got 30 seconds please show some support by Digging this one (I did!).

This is definitely one of the strangest natural phenomenon I’ve ever read about.

Just imagine dumping enough dish-washing liquid into the ocean to turn all the waves into light and fluffy soap bubbles that are soft enough to blow out of your hand into the air…

Well, that’s basically what happened off the coast of Yamba in New South Wales!

Here we see kids frolicking and playing in the wonderful ocean foam, oblivious to the fact that it is comprised of dead plants, decomposed fish, and seaweed excretions!
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This week’s Links of the Week theme is… pictures.

• Bush’s Historical Approval Ratings
• Toys manufacture in China
• Awesome Military Photos of the Twin Towers
• Pictures of Walls
• US Poverty Map

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You don’t ever want to be sitting on a beach and see this heading your way… unless they are coming to rescue you!

This weekend while roaming around Minneapolis, MN on vacation (a complete review later) I came across the following R2D2 wrapped official USPS mailbox.

All I have to say is… Awesome! (Make sure and select the image for a full sized version!)

I later learned that these mailboxes are to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, and they have only recently begun appearing so I was quite lucky to capture this one.
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Hold on, hold on. Before everyone goes and gets all upset with me, this is not a jab at Christianity. It’s actually an illusion that features Jesus!

You might need to stare at the lines for a few minutes, but after a little while you’ll begin to see the outline of a figure. I found it helpful to actually step away from the monitor to really see the image pop out.
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Sorry I’ve been pretty vacant for the last few days, but on Monday evening I got a call that my brother and his fiance were in a terrible car wreck down in Houston. My wife packed my stuff in about 20 minutes while I prepared and then headed out for the 4 hour drive.

It turns out that a woman ran a red light and plowed into the side of my brother’s Toyota 4Runner as he was crossing the intersection. She hit his SUV on the side in the rear, causing the vehicle to spin and then roll multiple times. The police officer later informed us that she admitted she was talking on her cell phone and not paying attention.
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I scoured the Internet tubes for an entire day just to assemble this collection of fantastic billboards. They are from all over the place, and it wasn’t until after I assembled them that I realized I didn’t keep track of where most originated (if anyone knew in the first place). So sorry about that.

Anyway, for Thursday the 13th here is a crop of 13 freshly prepared humorous, cool and witty billboards. (Hmmm… Humorous. Cool. Witty. Remind you of anyone?) So, enjoy the fruits of my cheap Greek-American labor. Oh, and Warning: This article is Not kid safe!
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Here in the US we have laws governed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which are meant to protect workers from unsafe conditions. But apparently OSHA is on holiday right now. Meanwhile the rest of the world needs to be adopting some safety standards too, or they are going to be ending up headlining the Darwin Awards.

Take this photo for example: “Let me just drive this forklift off the dock… while carrying a bomb!”

This review of the Canon XH A1 Camcorder is going to be a little different from any other you might read for one primary reason, this is the first camcorder I’ve ever owned. That’s right folks, my first camcorder was a high-dollar Prosumer model because if I can’t do it right I don’t want to do it at all.

I had some difficulty with actually purchasing this camcorder. First, I couldn’t find a local retailer anywhere in Dallas. So, I had to turn to the Web.

I tried Abes of Maine with disastrous results, then I ordered it from Amazon and got free next day shipping (yeah!), but it turns out I got a defective one with a documented Iris ring problem (boo!), but a 5 minute discussion with an Amazon rep resulted in them shipping me a new one along with an RMA to send the defective one back (yeah!).
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This is one of the most stunning and beautiful nature photographs I’ve ever seen. (Select the thumbnail image to see the full size version.) Considering that it also took first place in the Smithsonian’s National Wildlife Awards, I guess I’m not surprised.

The image was captured off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii and here is what the photographer, Lori Mazzuca, had to say:

“I was observing a strange interaction between a pair of bottlenose dolphins and a humpback whale, when it became apparent that the two species were collaborating in some way. The dolphin was lying on a humpback whale’s head while it was slowly swimming along. Looking through my camera lens the stunt appeared to be orchestrated by mutual “agreement.”

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