I recently ordered a WP-DC13 camera housing (above left) so I can bring my SD1000 diving next time I’m in the Philippines. When it arrived, the Amazon box included a little plastic sleeve marked “Cellphones for Soldiers” (above right), an interesting little project started by a pair of teenagers to recycle people’s old cellphones by donating them to military personnel in need of phones to contact loved ones back home. Putting aside questions of war and Iraq, I’m wondering if this doesn’t have security implications — soldiers calling family via prepaid cards in the Middle East?

Note from reading the FAQ that most of the cellphones donated don’t actually go to soldiers since they’re not GSM, and instead are sold to a recycler who pays for prepaid cards to send to the soldiers.

As for the housing, it looks great and fits the camera well, but I still need to take it on two test dives in the bathtub sometime — one “unmanned” safety dive without a camera and one “manned” dive with the camera. Then we’ll see how it works. With photos of me in the tub! Bet you’re looking forward to that, eh?