David Lidsky's Blog, page 4835

Adventures in Virality: Jay-Z Spoof "Entrepreneur State of Mind" Namechecks Notable Blogs, Us

Where's Weird Al when you need him? The curly locked spoofmeister could have hit Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' "Empire State of Mind" out of the park, but instead, we're being treated to "The New Dork: Entrepreneur State of Mind."

It's a blatant bid at a viral video from Pantless Knights, the makers of the popular "Mac or PC" rap. A dreadlock bedecked singer in skinny jeans smooshes together a maelstrom of tech and entrepreneurship buzzwords with notable names and spits hot gems like this one...

Latte for Work? Cappuccino-Powered Car Puts You in the Espresso Lane

Forget the electric vehicle revolution--this car is juiced up by the same stuff that powers you in the morning. The "Carpuccino" car was built by a team from the BBC science show Bang Goes The Theory to prove the viability of cars powered by fuels other than conventional gasoline and diesel. The car, built from a converted 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco, was used by the show because it looks like the DeLorean from Back to the Future.

The idea of making biofuel from waste coffee grounds is a

iPhone Players: Prepare to Frag PC and Console Gamers

The Apple-vs.-PC war is about to get literal. Bigpoint and Unity Technologies are demonstrating at the Game Developers Conference a new version of the Unity browser-based software, which will now allow iPhone gamers to play against PC players.

The companies presented today a racing game demo, named "Uniter," demonstrating the technology. "This is our vision of the gaming industry in the future, independent of the platforms. Just imagine your friends are sitting around in the office or the...

Waterpebble Stops You From Taking Ultra-Long Showers

Even the most devoted environmentalist will likely confess to taking long, hot showers on occasion. One possible reason (besides the comfort factor) is that, unlike with electrical outlets, there are few products to help users gauge the amount of water being poured out of a showerhead. That's where the Waterpebble comes in.

The device is placed at the bottom of the shower, where it keeps track of all the water being poured down the drain. If users take ultra-long showers, the Waterpebble's...

BP: The Most Sustainable Big Oil Company?

Big Oil companies are inherently unsustainable. Petroleum is a limited and polluting resource, so any company that makes its money slinging gasoline probably shouldn't make it to the top of a list of green companies. Nevertheless, Two Tomorrows has attempted to rank the ten biggest fossil fuel companies in corporate responsibility using five categories: Strategy, Innovation and Leadership, Governance, Engagement, and Value Chain.

The results:

Rank
Company
Tomorrow's Value score


1
...

Google Really Wants to Monitor Where You Are: May Link Buzz and Latitude

Google's Buzz has hit the tech headlines in good and bad ways, but it's totally swamped other Google offerings like Latitude. Google's not forgotten it of course, and has revealed it may well intertwine Buzz with Latitude. LBS social networking FTW?

Google's mobile Buzz implementation has a location-based system built right in, which grabs your geocoordinates from the smartphone's AGPS system, whizzes it off to Google's cloud, and then drives location-sensitive data back to the app in the...

Eat-onomics: The Ten Most Inspiring People in Sustainable Food

Additional reporting/writing by Emilia Benton

The way America eats has to change, that's no secret. Thanks to the efforts of these ten trailblazers, that change might be closer than we think.

Dan Barber, executive chef and co-owner of Blue Hill Farm

Barber is the brains behind the "Know thy Farmer" philosophy embraced at Blue Hill Farms. He was recently honored at the USA Network's Character Approved Awards for his achievements in "green" food cultivation and preparation. A passionate...

Vitra Unveils Its Stunning New Museum [UPDATED WITH 3-D TOUR]

The German furniture-maker maker adds another jewel to its starchitect-studded corporate campus.

The Vitra campus in Weil am Rhein, Germany, is already a mecca for contemporary architecture, featuring a design museum by Frank Gehry, a conference center by Tadao Ando, and another building on the way by SANAA. And they've just finished what might be the greatest of them of them all: a new building, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, to showcase the company's home-furniture...

Infographics of the Day: Movie Madness!

Post Oscar, two infographics about the film industry.

How about those Oscars? The Hurt Locker! Avatar :(

We're still a little bleary-eyed from our Oscar viewing, so we couldn't chose between two infographics, both about Hollywood. One's serious. The other's silly.

The first: Hollywood by the Numbers. What's surprising about all these stats is that amid all the talk of Hollywood floundering, movies remain both a tremendous bargain--and an experience which, by audience, dwarfs any other form of...

Infographics Win! Obama Appoints Data-Viz Demigod to Chart the Stimulus

Edward Tufte is the newest guru on the panel advising the White House on the $787 billion economic stimulus.

Not too long ago, we were bemoaning the fact that the president still lectures at his State of the Union--rather than illustrating his points, like any good communicator, with some handy infographics. And we pointed out that infographics could sway politics mightily, given their unsurpassed power to convey messages that people remember.

Obama's coming around: He's just appointed the...