David Lidsky's Blog, page 4786

Geoengineer Floats Climate Change Scheme: Blowing Bubbles in the Sea

We've seen more than our fair share of geoengineering schemes concocted to halt climate change in the past year, including algae-lined buildings, forests of synthetic trees, and ships that spray climate-altering clouds into the sky. The latest proposal comes from Harvard physicist Russel Seitz, who thinks we should pump tiny bubbles, or microbubbles, into the ocean to lower temperatures and increase reflectivity.

ScienceNOW explains:

Natural bubbles already brighten turbulent seas and...

eBay Trys to Snag Online Designer Clothes Market With Fashion Vault

Ebay is launching its Fashion Vault service today, officially, after running the system as a trial for several months. The store, as its name suggests, sells clothing at cheap prices, but not just any clothes, as FV offers real designer labels.

According to eBay's site, the vendors are "trusted sellers and designers you know and love," and they have items on sale for a limited window--somewhere between 48 to 72 hours. Initially this included names like Hugo Boss, DKNY, Cole Haan, Max Mara...

This is What An Electric FedEx Truck Looks Like

The U.S Postal Service has long flirted with electric vehicles for its fleet. Now it's FedEx's turn. The company debuted the first all-electric FedEx delivery trucks this week--all four of which will navigate the streets of Los Angeles beginning in June 2010.

Like USPS, FedEx has decided to test out EV technology from a few different companies. Navistar is providing two of the EV trucks (pictured), which are based on a design currently being used by FedEx in London. The other two trucks will...

Breaking Rumor: Two New iPhones, One Heading to Verizon

This is still unconfirmed, and it's worth noting that we've seen this rumor pretty much since the release of the original iPhone in 2007. But this is the first time a major publication has published new information pertaining to the rumor of a Verizon iPhone, and it's the best indication yet that this might actually be happening.

The Wall Street Journal reports that for its next iPhone, Apple is actually splitting production into two separate tracks, to be completed by two separate...

Apple Posts Eleven Soothing Guided Video Tours of the iPad

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The videos don't tell us a whole lot more than we already knew, but they do flesh out the iPad's actual use better than all the arguments over capability in the world. And some of these videos, especially Numbers, Pages, YouTube, and Keynote, haven't seen much action so far--nobody really knew all that much about how they'd work.

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The videos are, as always, simple and beautiful, and focus on the features. They don't go particularly in-depth (you won't hear any musing on...

Teri Hatcher Gets a Bit of Gwyneth's Goop on Her

News that Teri Hatcher is to do a Gwyneth Paltrow and launch her own lifestyle website--apologies, it's not a website, but an "online destination"--courtesy of the Disney Family is slightly lost on me. It is, apparently, a "chick's guide to life," but I am a little unsure of why Walt's successors might want to choose Ms. Hatcher for the job. And, it has to be said, I'm a little confused as to why Teri Hatcher would want to market herself in such a way.

I know that the actress's talents run to...

Reinventing the Automobile

Three experts believe we need to update the way we think about moden transportation--particularly the automobile. William Mitchell, Christopher E. Borroni-Bird, and Lawrence D. Burns have created blueprints for transforming the current automobile landscape into one that's more appropriate for our social, city-based, interactive society. Their book Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Centurysees a future of cities filled with smart cars driven by electricity...

Sweet Stank of Innovation Wafts Across Parsons' Scent Symposium

Black balloons, filled with the scent of "Sexy Time," a potent mix of chocolate, condoms, candles, post-coital bed sheets, sweat, nail polish and lipstick --  in short, the smell of a college student's dorm room -- filled the lobby of a Parsons auditorium on Friday, sending conference attendees off with a smelly jolt to their own weekends.

It was the climax (sorry) of an extraordinary day in which an international array of speakers gathered in a very fragrant auditorium at Parsons The New...

The Impact of Google's "China Syndrome" on Your Business Strategy

Google's short-term decision to redirect Chinese searches may feel like a huge commercial meltdown. In reality, they are paving the way for more companies to courageously lead from our values, not our wallets.

In the 1979 award-winning thriller, The China Syndrome, a reporter (Jane Fonda) and cameraman (Michael Douglas) discovered safety violations at a nuclear power plant. The term "China Syndrome" reflected the belief that if an American nuclear reactor plant experiences a meltdown, the...

Geoengineer Floats Climate Change Scheme: Blowing Bubbles in the Sea

We've seen more than our fair share of geoengineering schemes concocted to halt climate change in the past year, including algae-lined buildings, forests of synthetic trees, and ships that spray climate-altering clouds into the sky. The latest proposal comes from Harvard physicist Russel Seitz, who thinks we should pump tiny bubbles, or microbubbles, into the ocean to lower temperatures and increase reflectivity.

ScienceNOW explains:

Natural bubbles already brighten turbulent seas and...