David Lidsky's Blog, page 3365
January 3, 2014
Is Ford's Solar Car The Holy Grail For Renewable Energy-Powered Transportation?
This concept version of the C-MAX plug-in hybrid uses solar power to go 21 miles before it switches to gasoline. The charging times might leave a little bit to be desired...
It's hard to feel completely virtuous using an electric vehicle when there's a high probability that at least some of the power going into your car comes from a coal-fired power plant or other dirty energy source.
This Levitating Tree Illusion Is Very Convincing
A couple of artists based in Germany created a street art installation that gives a tree on the side of a country road the appearance of floating.
Everybody wants to be on the inside of an inside joke. It's a fact. Nothing feels less inclusive than hanging around mutual friends who have somehow developed a running bit while you were off doing something else. Perhaps that's why it must be such a joy to discover single-point perspective art interventions out in the wild. It's like an inside joke just between the artist and you--unless it's really awesome, in which case it will most certainly end up on the Internet.
How Uber Conquered The World In 2013
In just over three years, Uber's expanded to dozens of cities, dragging taxi regulations into the 21st century.
Since its launch in mid-2010, transportation-on-demand startup Uber has grown from its San Francisco roots to more than 60 cities across six continents. And according to widely circulated internal documents published by Valleywag in early December, the company is on track to beat investor expectations and bring in more than $200 million in revenue by the end of 2013.
Facebook Faces Class Action Lawsuit For Alleged Scanning Private Messages
The claims are "without merit" and will be contested, asserts the social network.
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Facebook, alleging that the social media giant has been scanning private messages without the consent of its users, with the intent of using the data it finds for its own profit. Two men, Michael Hurley and Matthew Campbell, filed suit with the Northern District Court of California, accusing the firm of contravening the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
7 Secrets From People Who Kept Their New Year's Resolutions
Building new habits is hard, so is measuring success. If you're going to set a New Year's resolution that you can actually keep, you'll need these tips.
It's a sad and familiar tale: Each year, millions of us make New Year's resolutions to be better people. Then we give in to our regular selves by January 6. Yet some people do succeed in building good habits and making them stick. What do they know about resolutions that the rest of us don't?
January 2, 2014
23andMe's Anne Wojcicki On Accuracy Of Direct-To-Consumer DNA Tests
The latest scrutiny of genetic tests is familiar.
Direct-to-consumer DNA testing company 23andMe faced another round of criticism last week--this time the scrutiny was familiar. The New York Times ran a story by a writer who submitted her genetic material to several testing companies, including Anne Wojcicki's Google-funded service, and got wildly varying results.
BlackBerry Parts With Global Creative Director Alicia Keys
After just a year, the smartphone maker is ending its run with the singer/songwriter.
Alicia Keys is joining the ranks of thousands of BlackBerry employees leaving the company--well, kind of. The singer/songwriter is parting ways with the smartphone maker less than a year after being named its global creative director. She'll find other ways to keep herself busy, surely.
YouTube's New Year Resolution: Kill The Spinning Wheel of Death, And The H.264 Codec
Google's 4K video codec will let viewers stream high-definition videos at half the bandwidth.
People all over the world are celebrating the start of 2014 by pledging to lose weight, quit smoking, and spend less time waiting for YouTube videos to play.
GoPro Built Shaun White His Own Private Halfpipe
This custom training ground for the defending Olympic champ is also a content farm for the brand.
Snowboarder Shaun White has changed a few things since winning the halfpipe gold medal at the 2010 Vancouver Games. Among them, the 27-year-old chopped off his famously flowing "Flying Tomato" mane and has added the new slopestyle competition to his golden-hued aspirations. And while his private training regimen remains, the Red Bull logo is gone--this time the practice playground was built by GoPro.
Happy 75th Birthday To The Wizard Of Oz
A new exhibition considers the legacy of this quintessential hero story.
Happy Birthday, Dorothy and Toto! The Wizard of Oz, MGM's Technicolor masterpiece, celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. Maine's Farnsworth Museum pays homage to its emerald legacy with an extensive exhibition: The Wonderful World of Oz--Selections from the Willard Carroll/Tom Wilhite Collection.
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