That Pic Sure Makes Your Email Scam More Believable, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

I just got this email in my in box. It's obvious scam mail, of course, but I love how they've added a stock photo of global office workers to make it more convincing that a "British finance security company" needs my assistance in processing $35.5 million.

Video I shot today of the Swedish royal ship Vasa, which sunk off Stockholm during its maiden voyage in 1628. It was salvaged in 1961 and was processed for years using water and preservative chemicals until it was given a new home at Stockholm's Vasa Museum. It's the best preserved 17th century ships in the world, and one of my all-time favorite museums.

Was this children's book inspired by the Twitter fail whale?, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

I was at a bookstore in Pittsburgh a few days ago and saw a book called Billy Twitters And His Blue Whale Problem in the children's section. Given that Twitter shows a picture of a whale being lifted up by birds - The Fail Whale - whenever it crashes, I wonder if this book was inspired by that art. The book was published in June 2009, well after the Fail Whale was well established as an Internet meme. Anyone got the scoop on this one? Alas, I was too busy chasing Kayleigh up and down the aisles to get her to sit down and read it with me. :-)

Why Did CNN Use This Pic of Madonna Giving the Bird?, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

I wonder what CNN.com was going for when they selected this photo of Madonna to accompany their story about someone getting killed in a concert stage construction accident. -andy

Our Dear Sweet Winnie, 1999-2009, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

This morning, we had to put Winston, our dear sweet orange tabby, to sleep.

Not long after we adopted him at the age of two, they told us he had an enlarged heart and would probably never make it to five years old. That was eight years ago.

We came very close to losing Winnie a year ago and knew we were on borrowed time, so the last year has truly been a blessing. That doesn't make it any easier, though; when we woke up this morning we thought it was going to be just another day. But at it turned out, it wasn't.

This picture was taken about three weeks ago. It was the very last picture we took of him at home. It really captures how sweet and loving a kitty he was. We'll always remember him like this.

Right now we are simply devastated, but know we've been blessed to have him a part of our family for the last eight years. He was, and will forever remain, a member of our family. He was one of our boys.

Goodbye Winnie; we love you.

Dizzy and Winnie, Best Buddies, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

It took us eight years to get a really good dual portrait of the cats, but we finally got it.

Shriner on a Segway, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

The Shriners were in full force at the 2009 Alexandria St. Patrick's Day Parade today. Some of them were in little cars, but I wasn't expecting to see any of them to be riding a Segway. If the Dead Kennedys ever get back together, they'll have to use this one for an album cover. :-)

And yeah, I know it's not St. Patrick's Day yet. I think they do the parade the first Saturday in March. -andy

The entire photo is nearly 1.5 gigapixels in size. Be sure to zoom in closer and closer to experience the full effect. Learn more about how David took it on his blog or check out the full screen version on the Gigapan website.

Congratulations on getting the photo, David. I'd really hoped to do it myself so I'm glad at least one other Gigapanner got to do it. -andy

First, here's a map of Gaza and Israel. Gaza is in the bottom left corner of the map, surrounded by the small red border, and Jerusalem is near the top right. The larger red border on the right side represents the demarcation between Israel and the West Bank. The image was taken in Google Earth at an altitude of 125.19 kilometers.

Next, let's look at the DC-Baltimore area at the same scale. DC is near the center of the map, while Baltimore is near the top right of the picture.

Last, we've got the greater New York City area, also taken at the exact same scale of the Gaza and DC maps. Manhattan is in the center left, while the western end of Long Island dominates the rest of the image.