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Jason Calacanis of Mahalo.com recently had an opportunity to test drive the new all electric Tesla roadster. It looks like it's a ton of fun to drive, complete with a 220 mile range.

Here's a live video he was broadcasting from his cell phone earlier today:

Despite all of the great safety technology modern automobiles have on board, over 40,000 American lives are lost on US roads each year.

Volvo has undertaken a very bold initiative to reduce the fatalities of drivers and occupants in their vehicles to zero. More from this Reuters video:

Let's hope this initiative will achieve its very ambitious goal.

The Young Democrats of America asked me to put together a short video for their Anaheim conference, incorporating some of the news footage they've generated on the youth vote. Enjoy!

You will need the latest version of Flash to play this as it is encoded in h.264.

Preventing bullying has thankfully become an important part of social development curriculum at all grade levels. This comes in the wake of the countless school shootings the nation has experienced over the last decade, each being largely preventable had instances of bullying been appropriately dealt with and warning signs in the perpetrators been identified and acted upon.

While YouTube and similar video sharing sites have given a new voice to millions of people around the globe, they have unfortunately also provided a new avenue for bullies to use to humiliate their victims. Sadly some of these assaults are becoming all the more brutal as we have unfortunately seen in the last month.

I'm sure by now that most have heard of the brutal Florida beating of a teenager by a band of her classmates. The entire incident was recorded by the assailants with the plan of posting it on the Internet. The victim was beaten so severely she sustained a concussion and an eye injury. The teens, one of which was bailed out of jail by none other than media opportunist Dr. Phil, will be facing very serious felony charges including kidnapping and false imprisonment.

The video, ironically enough, was released to the public by law enforcement who provided a tape to the media following the arrests. It's since made its way throughout the country and the world and is now sadly spawning copy cat attacks.

CNN reports today that another video, this time shot by twelve year old girls, documented a similar beating at an Indiana warehouse. Like the Florida incident, the victim was lured to the location and beaten while being recorded on a cell phone camera. She was taken to the hospital and treated for minor injuries. I am sure this won't be the last we'll hear of similar incidents.

It's unfortunate that CNN, Dr. Phil, and Florida law enforcement made the choices they did in these incidents. There is no doubt the seriousness of these crimes can be defined without the need to bring further humiliation to the victims of these attacks. Some responsibility also rests with sites like YouTube, where hundreds of videos of school yard and youth violence are readily available for all to see. YouTube should consider applying the same standards to these videos as they do to other objectionable content, especially as the victims did not give their consent to be videotaped and broadcast.

I spent a very long time researching small SD based high def cameras and ended up choosing the Vixia HF100. This after owning a Panasonic SD3 (now replaced by the SD9 ) for a brief period last year. After a full weekend playing with the HF100 I am quite pleased with my decision.

My motivation for choosing this camera over the competition was Canon's very wise decision to include a standard microphone input (and manual audio controls). Why other manufacturers are removing this feature from consumer camcorders baffles me since good audio is such an important part of making good video! Canon also includes a mini hot shoe on the top of the device, and there's already a mini shotgun mic available.

In many ways the HF100 is not much different from its competition. It's about soda can sized (although not as tiny as the new Panasonic SD9), has no view finder, and records video onto SDHC flash memory. Flash memory is so cheap right now that spending the extra money for the HF10 (with the on board storage) really isn't worth it.

VIDEO QUALITY & OPTIONS
Excellent and consistent with other cameras in its class. Color quality is rich and perhaps a little over-saturated (as most consumer cameras are) but there are settings to wind back the saturation a bit (like switching into cinema mode). Artifacts are minimal but remember that AVCHD is a highly compressed video format. Those looking for the absolute best quality in a consumer camera will want to look at an HDV tape based solution. There are settings for manual white balancing as well.

Low light performance is so-so.. Gets a bit grainy but you can make adjustments to compensate both in frame rate and shutter/aperture settings. There's also a mini-video light that can be turned on but it won't have room-filling range to it.

The camera has multiple video quality options but you'll want to select the highest quality as it's not on by default. I am getting about an hour of video on an 8 gig SD card in the highest quality mode.

The camera also includes three frame rate options: 60i, 30p, and 24p. All of these are processed at 60i so you'll need an editor that can remove the pulldown for true 24P.

BATTERY LIFE
Like every other camera in its class, the included battery is pretty lousy. It charges quickly but you'll only get about an hour or so of recording time. Canon does make an extended battery which I plan on purchasing soon.

CONNECTIVITY & EDITING
I am a Mac guy so those of you using Windows will have to comment below on your success with it. On the Mac side both iMovie'08 and Apple Final Cut Pro recognize video from this camera even if I'm just popping the SD card into my USB card reader.

If you're coming from the HDV tape-based world, capturing video from an AVCHD camera takes a little longer than you'll be used to. I've found multiplying the original video length times two is usually about the length of time it takes to capture with iMovie on my Mac Pro (I haven't timed Final Cut's conversion yet but will update this review soon). I'm sure this will improve over time as computers and software get faster, but don't expect instant gratification when you're ready to bring some video over to edit.

CONCLUSION
I bought this camera to supplement some of the work I do shooting HDV video on a 'prosumer' Sony HDV camera. If you're serious about producing HD video you might still want to consider an HDV tape based camcorder like the Canon HV20 or HV30. You'll get better and more consistent quality along with nearly universal editing compatibility. Those cameras transfer video back to the PC or Mac over firewire, a standard that's been around for over a decade. The HDV cameras can also run live video back to the PC for editing or webcasting, something you can't do currently with an AVCHD cam.

If, however, you're in the market for a small flash based camera look no further. The inclusion of a mic port along with the multitude of shooting options make this a great choice for beginners and enthusiasts alike.

Melissa and I went back to Hawaii last week for a business trip. Tough assignment! But we were able to get a few of the things in we missed on the honeymoon, including a helicopter tour! I'll post some photos shortly but in the meantime enjoy this video I shot with my little Sony point and shoot:

In case you're wondering, the music is from Airwolf, one of my favorite shows when I was a kid.

Every once and awhile in southern Connecticut we get a minor earthquake. The last one I remembered was back in '91 or '92 when my house shook when I was on the phone with a friend a few miles away who also experienced it. Last night was not as strong as that one, but it was still enough to rattle the walls and the crystal. It registered 2.0 on the richter scale. Melissa, as usual, slept right through it!

Here are the details from the US Geological Survey:

Monday, March 10, 2008 at 11:10:30 PM at epicenter Location 41.438°N, 72.484°W Depth 2.9 km (1.8 miles) Region SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND Distances

• 5 km (3 miles) NW (326°) from Chester Center, CT
• 7 km (4 miles) NNW (327°) from Deep River Center, CT
• 8 km (5 miles) SSW (201°) from Moodus, CT
• 28 km (18 miles) ESE (112°) from Meriden, CT
• 39 km (24 miles) ENE (69°) from New Haven, CT
• 145 km (90 miles) NE (55°) from New York, NY

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 0.9 km (0.6 miles); depth +/- 1.1 km (0.7 miles) Parameters NST= 12, Nph= 24, Dmin=94 km, Rmss=0.18 sec, Gp=230°,
M-type="Nuttli" surface wave magnitude (MLg), Version=a Source

• New England Seismic Network (NESN):
  
  Weston Observatory of Boston College

So if you're an aspiring amateur photographer take a listen to the new "This Week in Photography" podcast. It's very informative and the hosts have already gone through the expense of buying all of these neat toys - so you don't have to!

Check them out at http://www.twipphoto.com.

I thought I saw it all until I read this today:

In a sign of desperation, the Clinton camp floated the idea of poaching delegates that Obama earned via elections. While allowable under Democratic National Committee rules, the tactic would likely divide Democrats along racial lines and set the party back decades.

It would be the ultimate act of selfishness and foolishness. Even Clinton must realize there is little she can do to win the nomination. She can only help Obama lose it.

Hopefully after March 4th she can see the handwriting on the wall and exit gracefully. We have the best shot of winning the presidency in over a decade, here's hoping we as a party can come together sooner rather than later and win it.

This article on Time Magazine's website brings yet more evidence of Obama's cross-party support:

The results also show the ways in which Obama is exerting a huge gravitational pull on both races. Obama is drawing so many moderates and independents to the Democratic race from what would normally be the ranks of the Republican electorate that 1) he's rolling up large margins and stitching together a broader coalition, and 2) he's making the Republican electorate comparatively smaller, and more conservative.

Exit polls noted that one half of Virginia's voters were evangelicals; one third were self-described as "very conservative" while only a quarter were independents. As a result, Mike Huckabee was able to take 41% of the state's Republican vote.

Fair or not, the "love her/hate her" response of most voters to Hillary Clinton is a liability for Democrats. A Clinton/McCain matchup is going to send these moderates to McCain, with the Republican base energized (something they may not ordinarily be for McCain) to keep Hillary Clinton out of office. Can we afford that?