Most of the Maldives lie less than three feet above sea level, which puts them much more at risk if global sea levels keep rising. Some scientists have warned that the islands could even be uninhabitable within 100 years (provided a rise of 7-24 inches), and the Maldives government has been vocal in the campaign to battle rising sea levels. Eleven of the 14 cabinet members attended the meeting, conducted with whiteboards and microphones 20 feet underwater, and all signed their wetsuits, to be auctioned off for the cause. [Telegraph, image from AP via CBC]

While Liquid Image Scuba Series HD320 is a huge jump over their previous toy-mask–reaching 35 metres and capable of capturing 720p video and 5 megapixel photos–didn’t anyone tell these people that one of the first rules of scuba diving is not to have objects protruding out of your personal space beyond your tank and BCD?

Apparently not. Even if the lamps get off easily in case your mask gets stuck in the coral or some underwater plant, it still looks dangerous and complicated. You can use it without lamps, but then you won’t be able to use its features to its full potential. Light and colour quickly disappear when you go down. In addition to that, in terms of function you will be limited to the movements of your head as far as angles go.

In other words, if you are serious about getting good video or photographs underwater, forget about gimmicks like this and get external equipment. It will be more flexible and safe. [CES Show]

Head to Wired to see the whole video and read more about the KM57. [Kirby Morgan via Wired]

• There’s a full-colour 220×176-pixel LCD screen—which I’ve got to admit is quite cool, but a bit redundant, given that the lower you go, the less colours you see. Good for impressing people in a bar though, as long as they’re not divers, because they’ll think you’re a cretin.
• It weighs 150 grams—and that’s before you’ve even strapped the slightly fug-esque Biformeter to your wrist.
• 128MB flash memory is useful if you have your dives computerised (surprise, mine are still on paper) and wireless-upgradeable software.
• Internal temperature sensor, in-water sensor, light sensor. Yeah, nice features, but they’re standard on loads of dive computers already.
• Water-resistant to 1,000 metres. All very well, but do you honestly think I’m going to go down that far, given that I don’t even use a wetsuit?
• Rechargeable Li-Ion battery gives you five days on standby, 28 hours’ non-stop diving.
• USB charger.
• Price is US$3,000 for the steel version, and US$46,000 if you want one in gold. Don’t forget the only way the Sea Instrument works is if you clip it to the Biformeter, which costs US$5,000.

So, to answer my question, that’s a no, then. [Lind Werdelin via Luxist]

Available in 3.1-Megapixel and 5-Megapixel models, you shoot your subject by lining it up in the crosshairs on the mask. LED lights on the glass indicate whether you’re in video or stills mode. A USB port allows you to download from its 16MB internal memory, and there’s an SD card slot allowing you to bump that up so you can shoot your swimming-pool version of Jaws. Price of the Liquid Image Camera-Mask hasn’t been finalized yet, but we think that the smaller version will cost $US99. [Liquid Image via Krunker]