David Lidsky's Blog, page 3005
April 17, 2015
As 3-D Printing Grows Up, MakerBot Slashes Its Workforce
MakerBot laid off 20% of its staff on Friday.
Friday was a rough day over at the MakerBot headquarters in Brooklyn. Less than two years after being acquired by 3-D printing giant Stratasys, the company has reportedly laid off 20% of its staff, according to Motherboard.
NASA Chief Says Mars One Does Not Stand A Chance Without NASA
During a Senate budget meeting, NASA chief administrator Charles Bolden said private companies will not reach Mars without NASA's help.
Mars One, the Netherlands-based nonprofit that wants to send human colonists to Mars using private-industry rockets, has been widely criticized for its unrealistic goals and timeline. This week, in a U.S. House Committee hearing for NASA's 2016 budget, NASA chief administrator Charles Bolden told the committee that "No commercial company without the support of NASA and government is going to get to Mars," reports Engadget. Bolden's statement, while not a direct reference to Mars One, certainly seems to support the skepticism surrounding the project.
The Open Publishing Revolution, Now Behind A Billion-Dollar Paywall
How the rebels behind scholarly publishing app Mendeley—once labeled sellouts—are growing their company after being acquired by Elsevier.
In 2013, when Victor Henning announced that his startup Mendeley would be acquired by one of the world's biggest media companies, he knew there would be blowback. He just couldn't have anticipated how bad it would get.
Verizon Has A New Slimmed-Down TV Package, But At $55 A Month, Who Will Subscribe?
Why spend $9 a month on Netflix when you can spend $55 on TV? No, really, why?
In what may be a too-little-too-late concession to the popularity of inexpensive streaming subscriptions, Verizon Communications has created a discounted TV package with just a few dozen channels. The package is still a TV plan, not a streaming subscription, but Verizon may be trying to stop the growing numbers of "cord cutters" from dropping monthly TV subscriptions entirely.
How Ben Burtt Designed The Sounds Of Star Wars
In this eminently watchable series of interviews, the Oscar winner explains how he created the sounds of R2-D2, lightsabers, and Chewbacca.
Star Wars is lauded for its visual effects, but the films' sound design is just as good if not better. What would a light saber be without its ominous hum in the air? How scary would Darth Vader really be without his strange, mechanical breath?
No More Expiration Dates: MIT Is Developing Sensors To Detect When Food Is Going Bad
Forget dubious dates on containers. These sensors could tell when food is starting to rot and reduce food waste.
One reason the U.S. wastes 40% of all the food it harvests is that we don't have a good handle on the status of that food. As consumers, we rely largely on best before and use by dates that are notoriously conservative, and often flat-out wrong. Actual food decays at variable rates that aren't reflected in that information.
Vincent Laforet's Aerial Shots Of Trains Look Like Abstract Art
From a helicopter, the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer captures industrial porn at its finest.
When General Electric debuted a new lower-emissions locomotive, the company commissioned Pulitzer Prize-winning aerial photographer Vincent Laforet to take some glamour shots. The results are industrial porn at its most artful.
Take The Fast Company News Quiz
Illegal "Game of Thrones" streaming, a new product from Reddit, and more. Here's our quiz for April 17, 2015.
What happened this week? Research says that one of the best ways to solidify new information is to be tested on it. Here's a chance to bolster your knowledge of current events—and earn a special emoji badge. 
The Last Oil Filter You'll Ever Have To Buy
The Hubb Lifetime Oil Filter solves a problem as old as automobiles themselves, and it'll save you money, too.
Strapped to the bottom of your car like a colostomy bag full of dinosaur goo, oil filters are disgusting. Worse? They're biohazards. Because they're disposable, Americans go through Americans throw out more than 400 million oil filters every year, each still containing between 4 and 8 ounces of dirty oil that can leech into the soil or bleed into our water supply. "Oil filters are just biological nightmares," says Dan Harden, president and principal designer of Whipsaw, a Silicon Valley-based industrial design and engineering firm.
3 Ways Embracing Curiosity Can Change Your Life
Ever wonder what curiosity can do for you? Author Warren Berger looks at how the tendency to wonder is a secret to success.
Brian Grazer is one of the most successful producers in Hollywood, with film credits that include Splash, A Beautiful Mind, and Apollo 13, along with TV hits such as "24," "Arrested Development," "Parenthood," and the currently red-hot "Empire." So what has helped Grazer climb to the top in one of the most competitive industries? Clearly, he has strong creative instincts and a great collaborative partner in Ron Howard, with whom Grazer co-founded Imagine Entertainment. But as Grazer sees it, one of his greatest assets—one that has fueled his success at every stage of his career—is his insatiable curiosity.
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