David Lidsky's Blog, page 3421
October 25, 2013
A Wireless Electric Bus That Charges Instantly At Every Stop
Back in September, we told you about electric buses in Geneva that are flash–charged––which means they rapidly powered up via a laser–directed arm––when the approach a bus stop. Now, researchers at the Utah State University have tested an electric bus that does away with the arm and charges wirelessly through induction. The technology was designed by Utah State University's Wireless Power Transfer Team and the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative's Advanced Transportation Institute.
[image error]Here's how it works: on the ground at every bus stop is a plate that recharges the battery–powered bus each time it drives over it. The charging plate doesn't have to charge the battery completely. Instead, it gives just enough of a boost to get the bus to the next stop on the route. The advantages are obvious: zero air pollution and increased fuel savings.
The system is now being commercialized by the Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification (WAVE), a Utah State University startup, according to Wired. Prototypes are only in Utah for now, but WAVE is reportedly in discussions with New York, Seattle, and Monterey, California, to introduce the buses by the end of 2014.
Ew, A Chair 3–D Printed Out Of Fungus
In children's storybooks, mushrooms often make great furniture for tiny creatures like fairies, gnomes, and toads (hence "toadstools"). In real–world design advances, the meeting of fungi and furniture is a, uh, fast–growing trend.
It was only a matter of time before the mushrooms met the other Great Promise of Future Products, 3–D printing. Dutch designer Erik Klarenbeek has 3–D printed an incredible sculptural chair from a mixture of straw, water, and mycelium, a threadlike network of fungus that lives underground. Klarenbeek tells Co.Design, "We were experimenting in our studio for some time with 3–D printers, and I asked this team of scientists at the University of Wageningen, 'We'd like to 3–D print living plant cells, can you help us out?'"
[image error]Image: Sjoerd SijsmaKlarenbeek and his team connected with the Mushroom Research Group of Plant Breeding at the university, and were immediately bewitched by the plant's power. "The longer we work with it, the more fascinated and inspired we are by the potential of mycelium," says Klarenbeek. Together, the designers and scientists experimented with breeding printed material with mycelium, a threadlike fungal network that lives underground. "Our team started making pastes and mixtures out of water and compostable materials, such as straw––materials that we could 3–D print, and that mycelium likes to grow on."
Want To See Who Watches You Online? This Browser Add–On Lets You
Let's say you're wary of being tracked online, but aren't willing to take drastic measures to prevent it from happening. A new browser add–on might be for you.
The popular web browser, Firefox Mozilla, has launched a tool that lets you see which companies are monitoring your online activity. "Using interactive visualizations, Lightbeam shows you the relationships between these third parties and the sites you visit," Mozilla says.
Mozilla's goal with Lightbeam is to "illuminate the inner workings of the web" by examining how online tracking works, and the interconnectivity of third–party sites. Yes, you know those third parties. The ones that so coincidentally paste an ad in your Google news search for hair transplant facilities right after you searched for "how do I know if I'm balding?" Much of web tracking is used for advertising purposes and market research, so companies can turn your online activity into profit. Of course, if you want a piece of that action, you could always stalk your online self and then sell the data, like this guy.
How We'll Eat After The Ecopocalypse, When Sushi And Chocolate Are No More
Think of some of your favorites foods, the kinds you routinely crave, dream about. Can you feel the unctuous texture of otoro (fatty tuna belly) or taste the complex notes of a dark chocolate truffle? Are you nursing the phantom pizza burn on the roof of your mouth, creamy burrata still clinging to your palate? Now imagine that you'll never eat any of these things ever again.
All you're left with are the brief traces of an irretrievable culinary experience, a rich but fading sense of smell. That's the premise behind GhostFood, an art project recently performed outside the Robert Rauschenberg Project Space in New York, that poses a bleak future expunged of ecologically threatened foods. Meaning no more sashimi or sushi, no chocolate–laden desserts, no imported ingredients––though pizza should still be around, lest the world be truly lost.
[image error]Conceived by artists Miriam Simun and Miriam Songster, GhostFood reengineers the act of eating by amplifying the olfactory dimensions of each extinct food. The project, says Simun, "imagines how we might continue to taste foods" once their production has been rendered unsustainable by environmental disaster. It does so through a technological appendage, a minimal headgear that extends the senses.
Artists Pay Tribute To The Endangered Gray Wolf, With Robot Arms And Hacked Blueberries
The wolf might be the rockingest animal, at least if you consider the number of bands whose names pay it tribute: There's Wolf Parade, AIDS Wolf, Wolfmother, Wolf Eyes, We Are Wolves, Steppenwolf, Howlin' Wolf, Guitar Wolf, and just Wolf (a Swedish heavy metal band). But as a threatened species, the gray wolf may not always be as "in" as it is now.
In a new installation titled And Nowhere A Shadow, London–based studio Cohen Van Balen showcases both the supreme coolness and the endangerment of the gray wolf. The concept sounds too bizarre to be true: In an effort to protect the species from extinction, light–up metal prongs reach out and massage live wolves to encourage them to eat genetically modified blueberries filled with rabies vaccines. Wolf movements also generate electricity to power the contraptions and an infrared camera. The whole process is filmed and broadcast on a live–stream over the Internet, turning conservation into entertainment.
[image error]But it is true––this is exactly what happens in And Nowhere A Shadow, featured at the Lisbon Architecture Trienalle. And apparently wolves actually like massages by metal robot arms so much that they stick around for more and snack on the vaccine–delivering fruits.
October 24, 2013
A Leak of Their Own: Arcade Fire Respond To Leak, Putting Entire New Album On This Lyric Video
From the moment Arcade Fire announced the impending arrival of a new album, Reflektor, the band has been hard at work, stoking feverish anticipation for the thing. An interactive stunner of an introductory video gave way to secret(–ish) shows in Brooklyn, performing as The Reflektors. And now, unsurprisingly, the new album has leaked.
Pretty much every high–profile album leaks these days––actually, since roughly the year 2002––it's just a matter of when it will leak. Another variable, though, is how creatively said band respond to the leak. In the case, of Arcade Fire, the answer is "very."
[image error]A video went up on Youtube October 24th, just days ahead of the scheduled October 28th release date, bearing the entire new album, set to scenes from the 1959 Brazilian flick, Black Orpheus. Labeled as "Arcade Fire – Reflektor (Full Album Teaser – Official)," the video has lyrics for every song on what is by far the most danceable album that the highly populated Canadian Grammy–winners have recorded thus far. And the dancing footage serves the music well. In fact, if you're a fan of Arcade Fire, there's absolutely no reason you should still be reading these words instead of listening.
Instagram Unveils Sponsored Ads From Adidas, Burberry, GE
Soon, if you're a user of Instagram in the U.S., you might see a sponsored ad from Ben & Jerry's appear in your photo stream uninvited. The photo is of a bucket full of the Vermont company's ice cream, next to a fishing rod, with a caption below that reads, "Shark bait." Does that feel like spam to you?
[image error]Ad ExampleThat's the bar set by Emily White, Instagram's director of business operations, last May, when Fast Company interviewed her for our recent profile of the company's CEO Kevin Systrom. At the time, Systrom and White were considering how to bring advertising to the platform without upsetting its 150 million users. The pair wasn't sure what the ads would look like then but they were certain what they wouldn't look like. "All I can tell you is that I've failed if it's something that doesn't feel like Instagram," White explained, drawing a line in the sand. "If people see super spammy ads in their feeds, it's going to be destructive to the experience."
Today, the company had its first real test of that standard as it unveiled a string of ads that will soon come to the platform. In a blog post, the Instagram team reassured its community that its photo and video ads would not only be "creative and engaging" but also relevant, tailored to your interests based on "information about what you do on Instagram and Facebook." The company will roll out the program slowly, and acknowledges that not all ads will be of interest––partly why the team is giving users the option of hiding them. It's also a reason why the company is curating its early brand partners, which include Adidas, Burberry, and GE. The question now is whether users will find the ads destructive, enjoyable, or simply bearable and necessary.
Twitter Plans To Sell Shares For $17 To $20 Each
Twitter plans to price its IPO at $17 to $20 per share, the company disclosed Thursday. At the midpoint of its price range, it would raise $1.3 billion.
The social network plans to initially sell 70 million shares in a deal that values the company at up to $11.1 billion.
Twitter is expected to set a final price for the offering on Nov. 6, according to Wall Street Journal sources cited as "people familiar with the company's thinking."
Stage A Thunderstorm In Your Living Room With This Weird Lamp
People see things in clouds. We seem predisposed to find meaning in things, especially those things we can't quite grasp or wholly experience. Clouds fit the bill: They're neither sufficiently material nor close enough for us to really engage with. Unless, of course, you have them in your living room.
Designer Richard Clarkson's Cloud Lamp adds to the atmosphere at home. A heap of down fluff impregnated with a battery of electrical wires, the lamp gives you your very own cumulonimbus cloud. Not only does it approximate the gust–like shape that hovers in stormy skies, but it also produces a phantasmagoric play of lights––call it lightning design.
[image error]Even so, verisimilitude is not Clarkson's goal. Unlike the cloud–doubles artist Berndnau Smilde coaxes out of a smoke machine––an admittedly simple process––the Cloud Lamp is high–tech. Clarkson, a masters candidate at School of Visual Arts in New York, tells Co.Design, "The ability to digitally control, read, and interact with the physical world is fast becoming a key skill in the design world." With the Cloud Lamp, which is powered by an Arduino circuit that makes it interactive, Clarkson wanted to make an object that demonstrated these features in an appealingly domestic application.
David Lidsky's Blog
- David Lidsky's profile
- 3 followers
