David Lidsky's Blog, page 4752

A Masterpiece on the Harbor: Plans to Create an Island Park Off Manhattan Move Forward

With $41.5 million already secured to build a park on Governors Island and $200 million more on the way, Michael Bloomberg aims to cap his legacy as the world's most design-friendly mayor. But what parts will actually be built?

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When New York's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, kicked in $50 million of city funds to create the High Line park, he was just getting started: Over the weekend, the City announced that it had secured go-ahead to develop Governors Island, a vacant, 172-acre island off the...

Dabbling with Electricity: Honda Introduces Lithium-Ion Powered Scooter

After shelving an early model of an all-electric motorcycle over a decade ago, Honda finally thinks that the market is ready for an electric motorbike. The EV-neo, unveiled this week in Tokyo, will be available for lease in Japan in December, according to a report from PhysOrg.

The mini motorbike features a lithium-ion battery that takes it for 19 miles on a single charge at a top speed of 19 mph. The bike's battery can be rapid-charged at up to 80 percent of capacity in 20 minutes. A normal...

Traveling Pants, Indeed: The Closet-Exchange Program thredUP Adds Kids' Clothes

In the average American closet, 25% of the clothing goes unworn. Meaning even as we venture out daily to malls, replenishing our stock with of-the-minute additions, a quarter of all our clothing nationwide is sitting idle and unused--sometimes with the tags still on. It was such a closet that confronted James Reinhart one November morning in 2008. Reinhart, a Harvard Business School graduate, suddenly saw his rows of clothes as a vast trove of opportunity. "There was tremendous waste...

The iPad of Home Energy Management

Describing Intel's new Home Energy device as an iPad might be a stretch. Sure, it's sleek and sexy, with a nice interface to boot, but its missing all the features we've come to expect since Apple's raised the bar (Even with Intel's Atom processor, it still runs on clunky Windows CE software, meaning no multitouch and laggy animations). However, it's absolutely as worthwhile an investment as an iPad. According to a study by Intel and Wipro last year, the management system, which connects to...

Pulp Fashion: Linda Filley Upcycles Paper Into Fancy Gowns

Upcycling paper into household products is simple enough. Turning newsprint, paper, and seed packets into red carpet-worthy gowns is a challenge even Project Runway contestants might find difficult. But that's exactly what "papier couturier" Linda Filley has done at Paper Trail, a paper shop in Rhinebeck, NY.

Ecouterre points us to Filley's dresses, which are made by covering headless wire mannequins with scraps of paper. The dresses have a number of practical problems--potentially...

Five Ways the New Google Docs Speeds Up Teamwork

Google Docs' latest upgrade makes the strongest case yet to skip Microsoft Office and collaborate with your group in your browser--especially when you're not in the same physical space. Here are five ways the new Google Docs helps your group get more done more efficiently, even when you're not in the same room together.

1. Reduce duplicate work and grow documents faster. GDocs' document editor now includes Etherpad/Google Wave-like character-by-character real-time updates by up to 50...

Paradise Recycled: Architects Dream of Turning Great Pacific Garbage Patch Into Habitable Island

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a jumble of plastic trash that spans hundreds of miles northwest of Hawaii, has gotten lots of attention ever since billionaire adventurer and environmentalist David de Rothschild announced his plans to visit the trash mass on the Plastiki, a boat constructed from recycled waste and webs of plastic. Now the Plastiki has launched, and a group of architects from Rotterdam have already come up with another way to draw attention to the plastic gyre: a...

High Stakes: Playing for the Ultimate Pot

Venture onto the top floor of many corporate HQs and the silence, the deference and the sense that the air is thinner can be disconcerting. Most Boards and C-Suites live in reality bubbles, which may--or may not--reflect existing or emergent realities. Exxon CEO Lee Raymond famously presided over the 'God Pod'--the bubble within which his executive office operated with near divine powers. More recently, one doesn't need to look further than what went on at the top of companies like Enron...

A Masterpiece on the Harbor: Plans to Create an Island Park off Manhattan Move Forward

With $41.5 million already secured to build a park on Governor's Island and $200 million more on the way, Michael Bloomberg aims to cap his legacy as the world's most design-friendly mayor. But what parts will actually be built?

[image error]

When New York's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, kicked in $50 million of city funds to create the High Line park, he was just getting started: Over the weekend, the City announced that it had secured go-ahead to develop Governor's Island, a vacant, 172-acre island off the...

National Tattoo Convention

The vast majority of tattooed people don't regret getting inked, according to recent data from Harris Interactive. But for the 16% that do, the cost of laser-removal treatments can run up to $10,000 -- a hefty price to pay for a one-off mistake. At the National Tattoo Association's gathering in Seattle, veteran tattoo artist Heide Unger will share strategies about a simpler alternative: the cover-up. "Anyone can mask a Wile E. Coyote with a whole back piece," she explains. "The key is to...