David Lidsky's Blog, page 4804

If You Like the House So Much, Why Don't You Wear It?

What to do with the leftover bits of materials that inevitably end up in the scrap pile during the building process? Los Angeles-based Marmol Radziner took the fragments from their past architectural projects and transformed them into wearable art.

The ability to upcycle their company's industrial waste was made even easier by the fact that Marmol Radziner has its own production facility: They produced the pieces in the same Vernon, California factory where they manufacture their lines of a

James Beard Foundation Lauds Restaurant Designers for Their Good Taste

We've been singling out restaurants with recession-defying design over the last few months, and today the James Beard Foundation named several of those spots as design award nominees for their slick spaces and gorgeous graphics. Among the white tablecloth nods is one down-home coup: Nominee PieLab, a space created by design-for-good collective Project M in Greensboro, Alabama, whose mission to give neighbors in the economically-devastated town a neutral place to come together over pie...

Financial Problems Hit Masdar City, the UAE's Sustainable Mecca

Oh, Masdar City. We had such high hopes for you and your self-driving electric vehicles, giant geothermal facilities, and rooftop gardens. And the plan to generate all of your electricity from on-site renewable sources? It doesn't get more exciting than that. But alas, the United Arab Emirates and its zero-emissions cleantech hub of a city haven't been immune to the worldwide financial crunch. As a result, many of Masdar City's plans have been scaled back.

Greenwire reports that Masdar City...

PepsiCo's Designer Salt to Make Potato Chips Healthier

The masses have spoken, and they want healthy food. At least, that's what PepsiCo thinks--the company plans to cut down on sodium, saturated fat, and sugar in all of its brands, while whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and low-fat dairy will become increasingly present. Most intriguingly, the food and beverage giant has come up with a "designer salt" that reduces sodium levels in Lay's potato chips.

PepsiCo told the Wall Street Journal that the powdery salt contains crystals with...

Annie Leonard's "Story of Bottled Water" Should Make Fiji Nervous

Annie Leonard, the mastermind behind The Story of Stuff and The Story of Cap and Trade, has released the latest in her series of animations about environmental issues, just in time for World Water Day. The Story of Bottled Water breaks down the problems with our beloved water in signature Annie Leonard form, with juicy tidbits like: one third of bottled water comes from the tap! And enough oil and energy to fuel a million cars is used to make bottled water in the U.S. each year! Okay, so tap...

Google China's Hong Kong Work-Around

Google decided, after a protracted struggle with China over censorship and that all-too-suspicious hacking of email accounts belonging to Chinese human rights activists, to stop censoring their services in China, including Google Search, Image Search, and News. As this is contrary to China's stance that censorship is a "non-negotiable legal requirement," Google is providing an alternative for Chinese users--but it's not exactly the "complete pull-out" we'd heard rumored to be scheduled for...

Tracking a "Baby Killer:" Rep. Randy Neugebauer's Heath Care Burn Sparks a Tweet Firestorm [Update]

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During the final hurdles of the heatlh-care bill last night, tensions spilled over as Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) railed against his own Amendment, the anti-abortion "Stupak Amendment," which Republicans tried to use as a tool to quickly overturn the just-passed health care reform bill late Sunday evening. But it wasn't the political maneuvering or even the hard-grinding gears of government that made Stupak's speech the most buzzed about moment of the historic bill's passage. It was the...

Blu E-Cigarettes' Fruit Flavors Now as American, Tasty as Apple Pie

Blu, purveyors of e-cigarettes to non-Na'avi people, is teaming up with Johnson Creek to provide all its electronic cigarette e-liquids. Blu's alcopop-esque flavors of Cherry Crush, Vanilla, Magnificent Menthol, Java Jolt, and Vivid Vanilla--oh, and let's not forget Classic tobacco for all you wannabe cowboys out there--are now to be manufactured in the U.S. Johnson Creek's own flavors, Original, and Red Oak, will be available for Blu from next month.

Although marketed as a device for...

Flippity Shows eBay Listings Close to Home, for the Shopping Locavores

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A few years ago, I bought a new watch on eBay, for a much lower price than I deserved. There was only one shipping option, the slowest possible, so I waited a full ten days for that package to show up. When it finally did, the return address stared up at me, mocking me: It was an address in the town next to mine, a 10 minute drive at most. I paid $15 and waited ten days when, had I known (or paid attention to) the location, I could have hopped in the car and been wearing my new watch that...

Paul Rudolph Houses Preserved...But Only in Photographs

Chris Mottalini's photo project documents the brutalist master's houses before they are demolished.

It's been a hard few weeks for historic preservationists. Frank Lloyd Wright's L.A. icon, the Ennis House, is still for sale, after 10 months on the market and a $4.5 million price cut. (Meanwhile, Illinois preservationists race the clock to save another, less-known Wright home.) One of the only buildings New York Five member and influential Cooper Union Dean John Hejduk ever built is under...