David Lidsky's Blog, page 4817

Edward Burtynsky Photographs the Culture of Oil

Edward Burtynsky's striking photographs in his book "OIL" document the different phases of oil consumption in the world, starting from its extraction and refinement, to its importance in our transportation culture, and finally to its symbolic end product.

Saving Colombia, One Building at a Time

And expansion of Medellín's Museum of Modern Art brings the city's history of brilliant public spaces into its wealthier neighborhoods.

By now, Medellín is synonymous with progressive architecture. The Colombian city has scrubbed out the stigma of war and drugs with aggressive urban design strategies, set up by its former mayor, Sergio Fajardo, and its former director of urban projects, Alejandro Echeverri. Their plan was simple: better buildings in poor areas. Attractive public spaces, they...

Sanyo's Solar Bike Sheds--Green Power, Healthy and Clever

Sanyo's just finished installing the bicycle sheds of the future: "Solar Parking Lots" that capture sunlight and turn it into electricity to charge up 40 electric bikes parked beneath. Shelter, green power, and the health-benefits of bicycling, all in one place.

The two sheds are found in Setagaya, Tokyo, and they're designed to work with Sanyo's own Eneloop bicycles. During sunny hours, the incident solar radiation is converted to electrical charge by photovoltaic panels, which either feed...

Jevons' Paradox and the Perils of Efficient Energy Use

It's a given among Peak Oilers and New Urbanists alike that the imminent and permanent return of high oil prices will send convulsions through the suburban American landscape. But it's one thing when professional Jeremiahs like James Howard Kunstler preach this to the converted week after week, and something else when the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers advise commercial real estate investors to "shy away from fringe places in the exurbs and places with long car commutes or...

Print Your Blog on a Broadsheet With The Newspaper Club

Tonight sees the grand winner of the Brit Insurance Design Awards 2010 announced (it's one of the most prestigious in the industry). And for all the usual hi-tech trickery--foldable plugs and the like--there was one cute little invention that is a bit of a throwback to Ye Olde Dayes Of Media. The Newspaper Club "democratizes the production of newspapers," in the judges' words, and it ran off with the honors in the Graphics section. Laugh all you like, but some of us out here actually like...

L.A.'s Funnest Funicular (!) Railway Is Back in Adorable Business

Angels Flight, a Los Angeles landmark and tourist destination, is back in business after a horrible accident forced the halting of service back in 2001. It's still quaint, but under the classic design is some serious modern security.

Angels Flight is a funicular railway, which is a cabled railway consisting of two cars that move simultaneously in opposite directions, counterbalancing each other, usually up a steep hill--so while one is at the top of the slope, the other is at the bottom...

Facebook More Popular Than Google? Let the Ad Wars Begin

According to the latest Hitwise analysis, Google's lost its crown as the most-visited Web site in the U.S. last week. The new king of web site traffic is, of course, Facebook. In the future, technohistorians may marvel at this event. 

During the Winter holidays there were a few momentary spikes in traffic which placed Facebook on the top, but if you check out the graph of the long term trend shown above, you can see Facebook's meteoric rise is now on target to meet or beat Google. And if that...

Print Your Blog on a Broadsheet with The Newspaper Club

Tonight sees the grand winner of the Brit Insurance Design Awards 2010 announced (it's one of the most prestigious in the industry). And for all the usual hi-tech trickery--foldable plugs and the like--there was one cute little invention that is a bit of a throwback to Ye Olde Dayes Of Media. The Newspaper Club "democratizes the production of newspapers," in the judges' words, and it ran off with the the honors in the Graphics section. Laugh all you like, but some of us out here actually...

5 Ways Netflix Could Have Avoided an Ugly User Backlash

Netflix offers a case study in how not to implement a major redesign. Here's what you can learn from their mistakes.

A couple weeks ago, Netflix quietly rolled out a redesign of its website that included some much-needed improvements in the user interface, such as streamlined movie listings and easier-to-browse categories. But it wasn't long before things got very, very ugly. In the post announcing the changes, 567 subscribers weighed in, calling the company everything from stupid to...

WANTED: Astro A30 Headset

With its new follow-up to its successful A40 headset for tournament players, Astro Gaming tries to bring the pro-gaming audio experience to the masses.

In 2008, Astro Gaming, the fledgling video-game-focused spinoff of San Francisco industrial design firm Astro Studios, released a headset, the A40, pitched specifically at professional tournament players. By the end of that year's Major League Gaming season, most teams had adopted the headset, thanks not only to its superior sound quality but...