Earth Day is tomorrow April 22. If you’ve been haphazard in your conservation efforts you may be interested to know that you can do something to ease your conscience help the environment just by opening your wallet. Carbon Offsets are an unregulated market whose providers take your donations and pledge to fund and support various types of projects including reforestation, renewable energy initiatives (solar, wind and hydro power). How do you find a reputable Carbon Offset provider? How much carbon are you emitting each year? Keep reading!

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Pope Benedict is scheduled to end his U.S. visit today with an outdoor Mass at Yankee Stadium. In order to meet the expected high demand for cellular service, Verizon Wireless is one of the carriers who will make extensive use of COWS - a.k.a - Cellular On Wheels. If you attend any large gathering these devices are common ways to boost the cellular capacity of nearby towers. You’ll frequently seen them in use at NASCAR events where an extra 100,000 fans gather for the big races - and simultaneously are calling their buddies back home to ask if the TV camera caught their shirtless sweating image in the stands.

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I like the idea of RFID technology - being able to quickly pass an embedded item near a reader for immediate access or payment, but there are certain uses that make me nervous - like having an RFID embedded in my passport or other ID that contains most if not all of my personal documentation. These documents can then be easily read by anyone with the proper equipment.

I recently received information about a new product that will block RFID readers from being able to scan the new embedded passports and other documents.

Okay, so this picture doesn’t make the product look fashionable at all, but the function is truly what matters here.

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The HTC Excalibur, AKA T-Mobile Dash has been announced today; Engadget already has a review. 

Photo from Engadget

Pricing will be set at $199.99 with a two-year contract, $249.99 with a one year contract, and $349 with no contract - quite reasonable!

If any of you pick one up - be sure to post your impressions.

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Michael Hess with RoadWired wrote and told me that their Skooba Skin is one of “the top-ten finalists for the Cooper-Hewitt (Smithsonian) People’s Design Award, and with only a week left in the voting we are unashamedly telling everyone we know and asking for all the votes we can get (assuming we are deemed worthy, of course). If you feel like taking 30 seconds to give us your vote (it is anonymous), or just to check it out the direct link is here. This is very exciting for us, especially considering the hundreds of very famous, outstanding products we are up against.”

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**This contest closed on October 20th, 2006 - Kismet was the lucky winner!** 

I should have the review for the HTC Hermes / Dopod 838Pro ready on October 20th, if all goes according to plan.

Even if I decide that it is “all that and a bag of chips”, I have decided that it would make a very nice first give-away for Gear Diary. It comes with the original box, all the original packaging goodies, and a custom Mobius edition Vaja pouch - which I’ll also need to review, come to think of it. ;-) 

Pretty slick, huh?!

Provided that you don’t have an objection to winning a very gently “pre-owned” Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC Phone, you are very welcome to take a chance to win. If you live outside of the United States you are still welcome to enter…and I’ll even pay for shipping. It may be the slowest method possible depending on where you live, but I don’t want to exclude anyone.

So how do you enter? Simple…just register right here. If you’ve already registered, then you are already entered. I am not going to make you jump through any crazy hoops or have you write a post about why you should win over the next guy. I’m simply giving away the PDA Phone and case to one lucky reader.

Added later: Poo! I was just told by a friend with a law degree that I might get in trouble if this little contest was construed as a game of chance…so just to be safe - if you would like to win the pair, post a short comment telling me “hi”. That will be your entry!

So sign up, leave me a message, and shortly after I post my reviews I will decide upon a winner.

Also added later: So there is no confusion…if you have never posted here before, don’t fret if your first post doesn’t immediately appear. I have to approve all first postings to guard against spam. Yes, I am already receiving it! So check back later and you should see your post, okay? Okay!

Added MUCH later: If you are in the US, this phone will work on either Cingular or T-mobile. It’s quad-band, so it should work well anywhere with GSM/GPRS coverage; it will not work with Sprint or Verizon, as they are CDMA based.

Added Much MUCH later: If this is won by someone living outside the US, you will be responsible for all customs, fees, duties or other taxes.