Castaway Island, Fiji Cam
December 15, 2008
Fiji is an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean east of Vanuatu, west of Tonga and south of Tuvalu. The country occupies an archipelago of about 322 islands, of which 106 are permanently inhabited, and 522 islets.
Pottery excavated from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled before or around 1000 BC, although the question of Pacific migration still lingers. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman visited Fiji in 1643 while looking for the Great Southern Continent.
The population of Fiji is mostly made up of native Fijians, who are Melanesians , although a few also have Polynesian ancestry, and Indo-Fijians . There is also a small but significant group of descendants of indentured labourers from Solomon Islands.
Fijians were described by the Cook expedition as formidable warriors and ferocious cannibals, builders of the finest vessels in the Pacific, but not great sailors.
Mauna Kea Observatories
March 24, 2008
The 4,200 meter high summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii houses the world’s largest observatory for optical, infrared, and submillimeter astronomy. Over a dozen countries have scientific facilities on the summit of the mountain.
There is an amazing collection of twenty webcams at the top of this mountain. In addition to being a terrific collection of cameras, this site has an impressive amount of weather data and a wide range of satellite images of the Pacific Ocean region. Thumbnail below will be helpful in identifying the countries involved in this scientific work.
Coffee Gallery Webcam
February 21, 2008
Watch customers in a coffee shop located on the north shore in Oahu Hawaii. During daylight hours this shop is quite busy, with an unusual mix of people.
