Iceland In the News

All it takes is one volcano with enough nerve to put the world's airline industry into a death roll and wahla! Iceland is back in the news. Not that long ago Iceland was making headlines for an entirely different reason; the small island country was one of the worst affected by the banking industry's collapse. It turns out that they were extremely over leveraged and will be paying for that for quite a while. It didn't help that the U.K. used anti-terror laws to keep all of Iceland's assets and further poor salt into an already gaping wound. But oh how sweet revenge is when mother nature comes to your side! When Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced ay-yah-FYAH-lah-yer-kuhl) erupted on April 14th, the entire European airline industry was shut down for 5 whole days and cost them billions of dollars. Its not really something to be proud of I suppose. But you know what they say, there is no such thing as bad publicity. So with that in mind I invite all of you to take a look at some photos from one of my Icelandic vacations I've taken (check the slideshow on the home page). If you love nature, you will absolutely go nuts over Iceland. It is truly a geological wonderland. Volcanoes, hot springs, geysers, glaciers, icebergs and much, much more. The best time of year to go is in mid-summer. At that time you have the added benefit of nearly 24 hours of daylight, nearly doubling the amount of time your can do things in. Nothing beats a midnight hike with the sun to light your way! So check it out. I promise you won't regret it.
(Image by Ragnar Sigurdsson / www.arctic-images.com)

The future is now! (for mobile merchant accounts)

Meet Square, the newest way to accept credit card payments from anywhere you want to be. All you need is a device with an audio input jack and an internet connection. For those of you who have smart phone with a data plan, that means you're good to go! Square allows the entrepreneur in all of us to accept payments and provide receipts the way that the 21st century intended. Got a garage sale you would like to accept credit cards with? Done and done.

Other countries (like Japan) have already decided that mobile tech should be the way that the 'everyman' does his banking. Using your smart phone is the most logical method of doing so, considering more people have cell phones than access to clean water. With Square, we are no longer dependent on pricey merchant accounts that take a percentage of our sales. I hope this kind of thing really takes off.

May Skies!

For those of you interested in looking up into the night sky, this month has some visual treats lined up. Saturn will be visible high in the south with its rings as edge-on as they will appear for the next 15 years! Also visible this month is Arcturus, sometimes referred to as the 'Spring Star'. Arcturus is a red giant, many times larger than our own sun and vastly more powerful. Look due east to find it. For more information on Arcturus look here.

What is this blog about?

The digital revolution has arrived, and blogs are a dime a dozen these days. Where once blogging was limited to those who knew how to use html code, we now find a vast field of do-it-yourself journalists taking advantage of easy to use templates. Everyone has their own digital soapbox that they can express themselves with. And so you find my blog among the masses. Here you will find articles and commentary on what I find to be most interesting in our world as we know it. Art, culture, science and tech...all of it meshes into a kaleidoscope of color and thought on an LCD canopy.

I have been inspired by a couple of blogs that I am not ashamed to admit I am addicted to, namely Boing Boing and Gizmodo. Both of these web sites can be described as a 'directory of wonderful things', and so it is my hope that this blog emulates their example. I would not call myself a writer by any means, however I do have opinions and I do plan to share them with you, my enraptured readers. I believe that an engaging dialogue between reader and editor is key to a successful blog. Toward that end I hope you choose to be an active participant in this experiment, and I would ask you to respect the boundaries of common courtesy. Please accept my thank you in advance for your cooperation!

I think it is fascinating that people have taken to becoming professional bloggers. This is a relatively new career option and one that is still being ferreted out. None the less, there are many people who have taken to their keyboards and now make considerable sums of money doing exactly what I am doing right now (only better). Another contribution of the blogosphere is the creation of a platform in which individuals can gain a respectable amount of fame or influence, sometimes competing head to head with national news organizations or media programs. I am loathe to point out Perez Hilton as a prime example, but would be remiss if my girlfriend found out otherwise. Perhaps Matthew Drudge of The Drudge Report is a better example, as he was the blogger to first break the story on the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal. Michael Geist, a law professor involved in fighting for our collective digital rights, is another example. He is a person that I respect immensely and would not know about otherwise save for his blog and the other blogs that follow him.

The way that we view the world and how we learn about it has never changed so much so fast in all of history. I think this is mostly because we have all of the world's knowledge right at our finger tips just a few clicks away. We can all use the internet to better ourselves, entertain ourselves, enrich ourselves, or cause harm to ourselves. It is still a free medium and we are still free to pick our pleasure (though for how much longer it remains free is a topic of much debate). It is my hope that with this blog you will find coverage on a little bit of all the above and at the same time find yourself engaged enough to contribute to it.