A logo I was asked to design by my Illustration teacher. For an alphabet book.

After the volcano: Earthly powers

The Economist on our relationship to our planet:

There is no technology to plug volcanoes which pierce the earth’s crust, or to bind the faults which cause earthquakes. There is not yet even a science for predicting when faults and volcanoes will let loose. To that extent, mankind is still vulnerable to the vagaries of the planet. But the story of human development is one of becoming better at coping with them.

Death by disaster is in many ways a symptom of economic underdevelopment: witness the very different consequences of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. In general, richer places and richer people are better able to survive and rebound. More interconnections provide more ways to mobilise resources and explore alternatives when things go wrong. If the Eyjafjallajokull plume had been as risky as it first appeared and long-lived to boot, such interconnectedness would undoubtedly have provided ways to keep Europe supplied, though probably at substantial cost and with a fair bit of lasting disruption. The apparently sublime power of the volcano was largely the result of an initially supine reaction.

Another tasty bit:

This is worth applying to climate change. Many of Burke’s descendants find it difficult to believe that something as big as the earth’s climate could really be at risk from human activity, and even harder to think you could do something about it. But the risk, if not full certainty about its consequences, is there. Moreover, the idea of a counterbalancing, “geoengineered” cooling to counteract some aspects of climate change is worthy of study and discussion. Large volcanic eruptions spread cooling palls through the stratosphere. Techniques for doing something similar in a less dramatic way are plausible.

Originally, I had a 500-word response to this article, and while trying to safe as draft, chrome crashed. Suffice to say, it’s a very insightful article on our relationship to our home planet.

The USA has long had one of the strictest alcohol policy of the world. While countries like China or Italy have no age limit on alcohol, and most of the rest of the world sets the limit at 16 to 18 years of age, the US maintains a 21 year old drinking age.

Some people argue that all alcohol is inherently bad. This sentiment is what brought about prohibition in the 20’s, and as history has taught us, it was an utter and total disaster. Alcohol consumption actually increased, a majority of American citizens were turned into criminals (spreading the notion that crime is okay) and organized crime rose up to fill the demand.

Alcohol diminishes your social inhibitions, and some people grow into a pattern of chronic drinking and become aggressive and unpleasant to be around. We have to realize that this is only a small subset of the much larger drinking population. Should everybody be punished, prohibition-style, for the few people who abuse alcohol? I don’t see the governments banning knives because some use them to stab people…

So then, what makes 21 a fair age to let people consume alcohol? The most common response is “Kids shouldn’t be drinking… under 21s aren’t mature enough to drink responsibly.” Yet, they consider us mature enough to get a job, live by ourselves, go to jail, pay taxes, or even enroll in the army to fight and die for our country.

The most sensible argument for the 21 age limit states that the law saves lives, citing statistics from the brief time in the 70’s when some states lowered the drinking age as a response to the Vietnam War, and alcohol-related fatalities went up. However, it’s a biased interpretation. The vast majority of deaths were because of drunk driving, and the solution to the problem is not to prohibit drinking (which, by the way, most people are going to do regardless of the law), but rather to educate people that they should never drive under the influence.

This brings up the parallel of sex and condoms. The argument used to be that one should not have sex before marriage, period. Of course, people would still engage in premarital sex, and with the growing spread of HIV and teen pregnancy, it became an issue much like drunk driving still is today. However, we moved past our moral block, and told people “If you’re gonna have sex, use a condom!” Through education, most people today now use condoms when they have sex outside of a serious relationship.

When we look at European countries where alcohol is much more accepted (I would drink wine with my family during meals, for example), we don’t see the delinquent apocalypse that nay-sayers predict for America, should we ever lower the restrictions. In fact, the alcohol-abuse situation is much worse in the USA, with the law, than in restriction-less Italy, or the rest of Europe. Prohibiting alcohol just adds extra incentive for youngsters wanting to rebel.

On the other hand, there are many disadvantages to the strict American laws, first of which is that it turns a great many teens into criminals, and prevents us from enjoying a drink or a party legally. Not only that, but it also makes it extra difficult for us to enjoy nightlife in great urban areas, to go out and enjoy our favorite bands or djs. Even for adults, other annoying laws force all alcohol sales to stop at a certain time, meaning that most venues will close at that time, cutting our night short at 2am, or whatever the time restriction I’d in your particular county / state.

I really think the US would do well to lower its drinking age to 18 and start to educate people on alcohol, rather than blindly prohibit its consumption.

iLaugh Premium is now available for the iPad.

When running on an iPad, it features a new interface thought out specifically for the iPad.
This version also fixes Facebook Share, for both iPhone and iPad.

Only the Premium edition has iPad support. There currently are no plans to bring the Lite edition to the iPad. So if you’ve been holding out for some great new features to buy the Premium edition, now is the time.

Check your updates, or if you don’t have iLaugh Premium yet, download it now!

Apple rejects iPad app for pinch-to-expand

An iPad app called Web Albums HD has reportedly been rejected from the App Store for including a pinch-to-expand feature in its Picasa albums viewing functionality. The developers allegedly hand-coded a pinch-to-expand feature for their galleries to match Apple’s official photo app, but were told by App Store editors that the feature was “associated solely with Apple applications.”

This is what scares me about developing for Apple’s closed App Store. I’ve experienced some nasty rejections, and there’s definitely no worse feeling than having to throw away your hard work because of Apple’s whim.

(via TUAW)

Relax, We'll Be Fine

David Brooks:

In sum, the U.S. is on the verge of a demographic, economic and social revival, built on its historic strengths. The U.S. has always been good at disruptive change. It’s always excelled at decentralized community-building. It’s always had that moral materialism that creates meaning-rich products. Surely a country with this much going for it is not going to wait around passively and let a rotten political culture drag it down.

Some optimism, at last!

The whole column is worth a read, and does a great job of illustrating what made me decide to move to the United States. This culture of entrepreneurship, innovation and community is what makes America the most successful country on earth. Of course, many will disagree, and I don’t deny that the US has many issues and drawbacks, but it also has a great foundation and spirit giving it immense potential.

Tethering your iPad to your iPhone

So you bought a WiFi iPad, and you already have an iPhone. You don’t want to pay extra for yet another monthly 3G subscription, and/or you don’t want to wait for the 3G iPad to come out later this month. Thankfully, you can use your iPhone’s 3G connection on your iPad using the following magic recipe.

You will need:
- A jailbroken iPhone. (Google for “blackra1n” if you need help with this)
- $9.99
- Optional ingredient: an extra battery pack for your iPhone, because this is pretty draining on the iPhone.
- A pinch of fairy dust to make things go extra smooth. (Just kidding about that one)

Search for the app MyWi on Cydia and install it. That’ll also install another package manager called Rock. You will have to create a Rock ID. This will allow you to have a free 10-day trial of MyWi, and then to purchase it using your credit card or PayPal account.

Using MyWi, create a WiFi network from your iPhone. You may want to give it a password, to prevent strangers from leeching off your connection. Connect from your iPad, and watch the magic happen. Don’t forget to turn MyWi off on your phone when you aren’t using it, or it’ll drain your its battery dry in no time.

Here’s what iLaugh for iPad looks like. Currently in review.