David Lidsky's Blog, page 4769

The Tokyo Baby Cafe Is a Mommy-Baby Wonderland

Tokyo Baby Cafe--a mother-and-baby shop set to open in Japan--is somewhat redolent of Lewis Carroll's Alice in
Wonderland, with its pale blue-and-gray color scheme. Add the fact
that it caters for both adults and children, and all that's missing is a
cake labeled "Eat Me" and a bottle marked "Drink Me."

Everything in the space works for both adults and kids. The nursing sofa doubles as a playroom and diaper-changing table, and there are
even paintings on the undersides of the tables...

Behind the Scenes of An Explosive Photo Shoot

In the era of Photoshopped everything, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the picture of an exploding oil tower that topped our story about Iraqi Kurdish oil fortunes was a digital rendering. But as you'll see from this video, Fast Company hired a pyrotechnics crew in Texas to explode the real thing.

There is an estimated 60 billion barrels of crude lying beneath Iraqi Kurdistan, and tens of billions more in the disputed oil fields around Kirkuk. But the rush to tap these reserves is...

The Tokyo Baby Cafe is a Mommy-Baby Wonderland

Tokyo Baby Cafe--a mother-and-baby shop set to open in Japan--is somewhat redolent of Lewis Carroll's Alice in
Wonderland, with its pale blue-and-gray color scheme. Add the fact
that it caters for both adults and children, and all that's missing is a
cake labelled Eat Me and a bottle marked Drink Me.

Everything in the space works for both adults and kids. The nursing sofa doubles as a playroom and diaper-changing table, and there are
even paintings on the undersides of the tables, for...

Most Innovative Companies in the Red Dot Design Awards

Since 1955, the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany has marked the world's best product design with its signature Red Dot Awards. Although the 2010 winners won't be presented until July 5, we got a sneak preview of the winners featuring products designed by or manufactured for our Most Innovative Companies.

Infographic of the Day: Eating the Right Fish

What fish can you eat regularly, without fear of wiping out the species?

If the current rates of overfishing continue, our grandkids will probably look back with a mix of anger and bafflement at the fact that you could readily order up bluefish tuna or red snapper at your local sushi restaurant. In fact one major studied showed that if overfishing continues unabated, we might have no fish stocks at all by 2050.

But seafood eaters don't have to abstain--there are actually dozens of species...

Desirable Rumor: The Space Shuttle May Still Have a Future

Here's a tantalizing but hugely exciting rumor for human spaceflight geeks: NASA and the government are rumored to be talking quietly about extending the Shuttle's technology into the future.

The news has popped up on Spaceref.com as a product of the discussion preceding the big April 15th Space Summit meeting at NASA Kennedy Flight Center, where more details about the future of human spaceflight in the U.S. are going to be thrashed out. Right now the status of manned space flight is stalled...

The Home Energy Management Market Heats Up

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Ready, Set...The explosive potential of smart-grid-friendly products is inspiring devices like OpenPeak's Home Energy Manager. | Photo illustration by Matt Hoyle

From startups to heavyweights, companies are betting that energy management will be the next big thing--a market worth $171 billion by 2014.

Talk to people about using less energy--and saving money--and nearly everyone thinks it's a great idea. So it stands to reason that home-energy management systems will be a hot item for 2010...

Google Gives Buzz Control Back to Its Users

Barely two months after its launch, Google has rejiggered Buzz.

The platform, which marries social networking and collaborative working--or rather, sets the two ideas on a collision course--was originally set up to automatically add friends to its users' pages without their say-so. This attracted a lot of complaints, since it essentially showed your contacts to the world even if you didn't want that to be the case. Take, for example, the case of Andrew McLaughlin, Deputy Chief Technology...

A Brightcove IPO: Perfect Timing With iPad Web Video?

Web video engine Brightcove has just completed a $12 million round of funding from investors who see Web clips as tomorrow's money-maker. Now iPO rumors are swirling. One question remains though: Can Web videos turn a profit?

The new $12 million means that since 2004 Brightcove has raised $99 million in funding--an impressive figure, given the somewhat "lightweight" feel of the Net video business. And what's Brightcove done with its $0.1 billion dollars? Amassed an impressive client base...

Is Haiti a Laboratory for New Urbanists? What the Country Really Needs Is Old Urbanism

Last Wednesday, Haitian president René Préval asked the international aid community for $3.8 billion to rebuild his shattered country after January's devastating earthquake. In what amounted to a fund-raiser at the United Nations, he received pledges of $5.3 billion over the next eighteen months. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton promised $1.15 billion on behalf of the United States. Most of the money will be spent on rebuilding schools, hospitals, roads, and basic...