The photoshoppers at Worth1000 have found some remarkably fertile territory in today's contest, to remix the Statue of Liberty -- see, for example, Lady Liberty on the Launching Pad, BFF with Jesus of Rio, Yee-HAW!, Window Washer and Evil Monster.

Cliche Hell 18 - Statue of Liberty

(Via Clippings.)

Gadling is reporting that we have now another 13 new sites on the list of World Heritage Sites. Glad to see two additional natural sites! Read more: 

The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee just wrapped up its 33rd annual conference in Seville, Spain, where they added 13 new sites to their list of amazing locations around the globe, and made the unusual move of dropping one. The new list of World Heritage Sites now stands at 890. 

Of the 13 new sites, 11 are cultural sites and 2 are natural. The two new natural sites are the Wadden Sea on the border between Germany and the Netherlands and the Dolomite Mountains in Italy. The cultural sites include such places as the Tower of Hercules in Spain, The Sacred City of Caral-Supe in Peru, and Sulamain-Too Sacred Mountain in Kyrgyzstan. For a complete list of the new sites, check out the official press release here. 

The former World Heritage Site that was dropped from the list was the Elbe Valley in Dresden, Germany. The committee expressed concern over the fact that a new four-lane bridge was being built through the Valley, and even attempted to give warning of this action, placing the site on the Danger List back in 2006. When construction proceeding anyway, they felt they had no other choice, but to drop the Valley from their list. 

Continue reading List of World Heritage Sites grows by 13

Openworld.com has a good story today about inexpensive places around the world where you can live for as little as $500 a month. At the same time, they are also some of the most beautiful and exotic destinations! It could be an excellent idea for long term vacations if you are planning taking a break any time soon. 

I have upgraded my MobileMe account today and cleaned up things like my Address Book and Calendar. Now everything is syncing beautifully across all machines... 

Best Buy Canada had an online sale yesterday for Canada Day so I picked up MobileMe for $89.99CAD (instead of the usual $109.CAD price tag), I set it up today and I was able to get my full name account (original account I set up last year during trial period). Just in time as Apple made a few little tweaks to MobileMe this week with a few improvements:

Apple has added a number of tweaks to its MobileMe Web services this week. Mail, Gallery, iDisk, account settings, push contacts and calenders, and Back to My Mac all got improved, and a new version of the MobileMe Control Panel for Windows enables syncing through a proxy.
In Mail, forwarding or replying to an HTML or rich text message with now retain that format instead of converting to plain text--while a number of people probably prefer this behavior, I can imagine there are some who won't be happy with the change. Unread message counts are displayed next to the inbox as well as each separate folder if you have them set up, just like Mail on Mac OS X. There's a tweak for e-mail aliases that on occasion did not show up properly in Mac OS X Mail, and those using iPhone OS 3.0 can search messages on the MobileMe server as well as those stored locally on the phone.
Click here to read the rest of this article

There is a party in my mouth right now, it is called Wasabi Coated Green Peas. Perfect snack to clear your sinuses - LOL

Gadling has a new review of the much drooled about Olympus E-P1 - the second in week. Frankly I would consider it myself now since all the hype online about this new camera seems to true: 

It has been two weeks since I first got my hands on the gorgeous Olympus E-P1, and I think the time has come to give my honest opinion of how this retro Micro Four Thirds camera performs in some day to day photo work.

As I mentioned in the previous reviews (Introduction and 'the basics'), the E-P1 shoots in 12.3MP and the version I have comes with the M.Zukio Digital 14-42mm lens. I also have the matching retro flash.

Continue reading Gadling gear review - Olympus E-P1 - the second week

Boing Boing is reporting today about the new service for photographers which could be very handy for some of us doing travel photography:

Tourist Remover photoshops stray tourists out of your snaps -- Boing Boing Gadgets: "Over on Boing Boing Gadgets, our Joel's spotted 'Tourist Remover,' a service that takes the stray tourists out of your shots of famous landmarks.


'Tourist Removed' is a web app that will remove other tourists from the photos you took of landmarks while on vacation as a tourist. All you have to do is take multiple shots of the same location, and Tourist Remover will only keep the bits that stay the same. It's like diff for photos!
'Tourist Remover' cleans up your vacation photos

We went this afternoon to see the new movie called Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.  

Macworld has a good review of Flickr iPhone App called Flickit. I have used for about a year now another App called Airme which does awesome job when it comes to uploading photos to the Flickr photo-sharing service directly from your iPhone or iPod touch. But my moblogging photos now will be hosted on my MobileMe account so I doubt I will use neither at the moment. However it can be handy to have either or both of these Apps on your iPhone just in case if you need them. Click here to learn more about Flickit App!

Here is a tribute to Michael Jackson on the streets of Toronto, Canada. Right in the heart of the city at Yonge and Dundas Square local artist painted it on the sidewalk for everyone to see...

When Mobile Me came out I have given it a try at the time, but since it was plague with so many problems at the time I decided not to pay for the service. Plus I did not see much value for the money. Times and functionality has changed, having an iPhone and thinking about getting the new MacBook Pro soon, I think it will complement my iMac at home. The ability to Sync all info over the air between all three of them is a big plus. With the latest iPhone OS 3.0 feature called Find My iPhone, MobileMe now make a lot more sense. I signed up for another trial today and test it out. MobileMe was able to locate very accurately my iPhone location and I was able to send a remote a test message to it (something you would do in case if the phone is lost or stolen). I did not try the remote wipe to remove all data from the iPhone yet but I guess it will work equally well. Glad to see Apple came up with this new, potentially very important feature for iPhone owners and worked out all the previous issues with MobileMe. Most Apple product owners should take a second look at MobileMe... it may make more sense to have it now.

How do the batteries in the new MacBook Pro laptops measure up? Walt Mossberg (ptech.allthingsd.com) wanted to know, so 'using my own harsh tests" he established that new MacBook Pro laptops offer 'excellent' battery results close to similar claims made by Apple itself. Here is the full story

It has been a long time since I checked my Flickr stats, today I noticed that I am approaching 1,000,000 views of my photography on the site (as of the moment I am writing it - the count stands at 946,932). Pretty impressive... and surprising at the same time. I know I could never dream of the same if I had put my photos on my blog alone. As of today I have uploded 12,999 photos to Flickr, which means by tomorrow I will break the 13,000 mark as well. 

For all of my digital photography and to view each photograph in a larger format, please visit my Flickr or Photoblog. If you are interested in using any of my photographs, please e-mail me for more information. You may also order prints of each photograph by clicking the link above the image

In this video, senior editor Roman Loyola will show you how to create an SD card startup disk for the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros. It could be a very handy thing to have when needed, especially when you travel and don't have your OS X installation CD.

(Via Macworld.)

Smashing Magazine features today some 35 Examples Of Stunning Macro Photography, which are worth checking out.

(Via Smashing Magazine.)

We made it to Costco finally for the big monthly shopping spree :)

 

I notices them while walking my dog in the park today, it looks like they were planted there by accident in the corner of gross area by someone... So beautiful!

 

I love almost all photographs taken from Space. They offer a unique and very beautiful point of view which nobody (unless you are an astronaut) can see or take.

Above is a photo taken from the International Space Station of Sarychev Volcano, Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan, erupting earlier this month. From NASA:

Prior to June 12, the last explosive eruption occurred in 1989, with eruptions in 1986, 1976, 1954, and 1946 also producing lava flows. Ash from the multi-day eruption has been detected 2,407 kilometers east-southeast and 926 kilometers west-northwest of the volcano, and commercial airline flights are being diverted away from the region to minimize the danger of engine failures from ash intake.

This detailed astronaut photograph is exciting to volcanologists because it captures several phenomena that occur during the earliest stages of an explosive volcanic eruption.

Sarychev Peak Eruption, Kuril Islands

(Via Boing Boing.)

Fascinating...

Rare mp3s of Weegee and Henri Cartier-Bresson talking about photography.

Below you can hear Weegee talk about picture-making. It's interesting to hear his voice, which is one of those accents you don't hear so much in New York anymore: part Austro-Hungarian immigrant by way of the Lower East Side and part Elmer Fudd. Peter Sellers based his accent in Dr. Strangelove on Weegee's voice after Weegee visited Kubrick's set one day.

Yep, that's Strangelove, alright. (via conscientious)

(Via Clippings.)