Yesterday Google released the beta version of its newest project: Web Designer.

Announced earlier this year, Web Designer is a visual tool for building HTML5 adverts; although one suspects Google’s ambitions for the application are much wider, given that it’s not named ‘Google Ad Builder’.

Web Designer is, at first glance, a promising piece of software, but I question whether we really need yet another tool for building HTML5 content.

All HTML5 applications — and there are already some great apps for coding HTML5, Hype for example — create an environment in which we, as designers, are separated from the source code that we’re working with; there is always an extra layer between us. It’s true that most tools — including Google Web Designer — allow you to edit code with a built-in editor of some kind, but in my experience good coding practices are usually sidelined when a deadline is looming and it’s simply faster to drag and drop.

If we want a truly open, standards-compliant web, don’t we need to learn the underlying technologies for ourselves? Is HTML5 really so complex that we can’t learn it? Is CSS3 so difficult to master we’d rather tweak a properties panel?

The creation of these tools, from Apple’s iAd to Google’s Web Designer has been enabled by the collapse of the Flash industry. According to Google there are already more HTML5-capable devices than Flash-capable devices (which makes sense given the iPhone’s nonplussed reaction to SWF files) and the market is expected to grow by over 40% by the end of the year. In fact the only surprising thing is that the market isn’t growing faster and that any Flash content is still produced at all.

However whilst Adobe have apparently sought to distance themselves from Flash (Adobe Edge Animate does not feel like a Flash interface), Google have no such compunction, and Web Designer has a distinctly Flash MX 2004 feel about it.

How much of Web Designer is new and how much is, as suggested by certain sources, simply a fork of the Motorola Mobility project Ninja (which Google now own) is difficult to say without looking under the hood. What we can be sure of is that whatever its origins, Web Designer is a natural step for Google, it makes absolute sense that having cornered the market in advertising, Google should produce a tool for building those adverts. Already tied into DoubleClick and AdMob, the option to publish for other networks is included, but is unlikely to be widely used.

Déjà vu for Actionscript programmers.

Probably the biggest blow to Adobe, and to all rival applications is that Google Web Designer is free, at least for now. It’s very hard to justify a Flash CC subscription when there’s a free alternative — albeit one that is a little more basic. Google has beaten Microsoft office into submission by delivering basic rivals free of charge, why not Adobe CC too?

In many ways Google Web Designer is inventing a role for itself. But whilst it’s free, is there any chance it won’t be successful? And if it is extended over the next year or two to include full site builds, will it reach the stage of replacing an in-depth knowledge of HTML5? It will be bad news for the Web if it does.

Have you downloaded Google Web Designer yet? Do you think Google will expand its remit in the near future? Let us know in the comments.

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Paul Karason, had an odd drinking problem that left him blue in the face.

Over a decade ago, Karason attempted to treat his facial dermatitis by coating his face with colloidal silver and…drinking it, too. Gross?

However, the silver concoction wasn’t prescribed – Karason practiced self-medication, drinking nearly 10 ounces per day for fifteen years.

Not a good plan for Karason as as the liquid diet may have adversely affected the a 62-year-old who recently died of a heart attack. 

Silver was replaced as a treatment by penicillin in the 1930s after the FDA discovered it caused argyria (a buildup in the skin and organs). Karason noted his financial troubles in a 2008 interview, as “people are reluctant to hire blue people.”

The moral of the story? Don’t drink liquid metal.

Seven months ago during the State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called for the increase of the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour, calling it “a wage you can live on.”

Lawmakers in California took that to heart.  Governor Jerry Brown (D) recently signed a bill that will raise California’s minimum wage to $10 an hour.  The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour.

 The increase will occur over the next three years and be implemented in two phases: 

-$9 an hour, July 1, 2014

-$10 an hour, January 1, 2016

While Governor Brown hailed the move as a “matter of justice,” it will certainly shake things up a bit.  

Many have been quick to criticize the legislation, claiming that the new minimum wage will unfairly burden employers.  Numerous Los Angeles-area businesses labeled the act as “obscene” and maintain that consumer prices will rise, and companies will leave the state.

Since the last time Congress decided to raise the federal minimum wage in 2008, 19 states have chosen to bump their minimum wage even higher.  

Who’s getting it right?

When it was finalized that Qatar would host the 2022 World Cup, many people were skeptical about the timing and playing conditions. Nobody expected a death toll.  

Organizers for the World Cup are appalled by the atrocious and slave-like treatment of migrant workers, most coming from Nepal. Within the span of a month, 44 people have died due to poor conditions, and workers are reporting not receiving salaries or fresh water. The international community loves the World Cup, but at what cost?

Watch a video on it here. 

Does the idea of eating bugs freak you out?

You’re not alone in the good ol’ U.S.A… but across the world it’s no biggie.

The U.N. is basically begging people to give it a try, and cited earlier this year that over 2 billion people already engage in the sustainable practice.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that last week a group of students from McGill University got a huge endorsement to feed the world with the protein packed creepy crawlies. It came in the form of the Hult Prize, a $1,000,000 start-up that goes to university students with the best idea for a social enterprise.

First, the group will take their business model to Mexico, where grasshoppers are harvested by hand in rural areas. Since grasshoppers are traditionally available to harvest for only a few months out of the year, the start-up, called Aspire, will sell affordable cricket-farming kits that the group claims will be able to produce 11 pounds of crickets every two months.

The hope is that rural and semi-rural farmers will use the kits to produce grasshoppers and then sell the yields back to Aspire, which will then find processors and distributors to bring the food source to the slums of Mexico City and other major cities.

Mohammad Ashour, group leader, explained the next step for Aspire.

In our first year, we’ll be launching in Mexico — which is home to Neza-Chalco-Itza, the world’s largest slum. We’ve already found a distribution partner there and farmers who are ready to go.

The most controversial part of the plan includes the creation of insect enriched flour to add a boost of protein and iron to the diet of malnourished populations. Zev Thompson, a member of the team pictured above, described the idea.

We’re proposing a factory to grind cricket-flour with corn, wheat, or rice, whatever is local, and then creating very normal looking food that has an additional boost to it.

The team hopes to expand and adapt this model to fit diets across the world including palm weevils in Ghana or caterpillars in Botswana.

 The local Montrealers even tried some of the squirmy delights for themselves. Apparently, the team “tried everything from worms to water beetles.”

  This comes as no surprise since Hult Prize partner and former President Bill Clinton made health a major talking point at his annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting. For more information on competing for next year’s prize click here.

What do you think of the McGill team’s model? Would you use cricket-enriched flour to give Grandma’s famous cookies that extra nutritious boost?