David Lidsky's Blog, page 4841

Japanese Company Produces Handcrafted Electric Cars

The sleek electric cars made by startups like Tesla and Fisker are prized for their good looks and high speeds. But the EVs made by the tiny Japanese company Takeoka Jidosha Kogei are coveted for a different reason: They're handmade.

The company's two-seater Eco Beagle is made by mechanics in a garage workshop. Everything is done by hand, but that doesn't jack up the cost too much--the Beagle costs just $9,600. Of course, the mini plug-in electric car can't go very far for that price. It...

Stools Made of Beef Tripe and Chairs Inspired by Race Relations

Self-taught Brazilian designer Rodrigo Almeida is a true original.

Designer Rodrigo Almeida has approached his career in way that's completely opposite from most designers. He didn't want to be bogged down by technology, so he skipped school altogether. The objects he makes are all about craft--but unlike his Dutch peers, Almeida's stuff isn't cutesy or arch. His work is steeped in Brazilian culture, and as a result, it possesses a rootedness that's rare in contemporary design.

One example...

How Much Green Innovation Does $100 Million Buy?

Earlier this week The Upswing brought you news--and a real purdy picture!-- detailing the five hottest cities in the country in terms of generating green jobs. Today, we'd like to offer yet more good news in this area.

Seems the Department of Energy just dropped a $100 million check on Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (or ARPA-E) to go toward three main areas of green technology production. The areas are:

Developing cost-effective, non-toxic means for energy storage.
Building...

No More CDs, Says Sony

What the hell are CDs again?

Remember those shiny circular things that could barely hold twenty songs?

Well apparently record labels are still using the prehistoric technology, but not for much longer. Sony Music delivered what some consider a knockout blow to CDs, announcing recently that on May 1, it will cease sending promo CDs to critics and journalists, and instead only provide them with digital previews. Sony is the second-largest music company in the world, and the first major label...

Microrings: The Tech to Make Everything Work Wirelessly?

Most things gadgety are seemingly wirelessly enabled in one way or another, and it's pretty clear that soon everything will be. Now physicists have worked out a way to make it all happen: Microrings, which are tiny radio systems. With lasers!

The image above is a representation of the microrings that boffins at Purdue University have created: Each is a miniscule (10 micron) radio transmitter, crafted into a solid-state device. The tiny circuits are actually activated by 100 femtosecond...

Seven Keys to Building Customer Loyalty--and Company Profits

A personal bond with customers lets your company escape the commodity pricing wars and provides you with a powerful new marketing arm: loyal customers who will promote and defend your company online and off--for free. Here are seven tips for getting the process started of building customer loyalty in a big way.

Where Will Our Electricity Come From in 2034?

We're constantly reporting on plans to build mammoth solar, wind, and geothermal installations. But in the end, will our increasing reliance on alternative energy even put a dent in overall power use? That's the question consulting firm Black & Veatch endeavored to answer recently. What the firm found is not all that surprising: the United States' primary source of electricity in 2034 will be natural gas--the least polluting fossil fuel, but a fossil fuel nonetheless.

There is some good...

Hollywood Hit: RealDVD Will Copy DVDs No More

Remember RealDVD, that famous piece of paid software that let you simply and easily let you make a fair copy of a DVD onto your PC's harddrive as a "personal" backup? It's been killed by Hollywood's lawyers, very finally indeed.

RealNetworks released the software back in 2008, and though there are many equivalent bits of shareware and freeware for Macs and PCs that do pretty much the same thing, RealDVD was instantly one of the most famous, and one that did much of the tricky DRM-bypassing...

Polka-Dot Plazas Re-Painted: New York Launches Art Contest to Redesign Times Square (For Now)

Times Square will get a temporary make-over as a stopgap before the pedestrian plaza there is permanently redesigned in 2012.

Everyone loves the new pedestrian plazas in Herald Square and Times Square in Manhattan--how could you not? Traffic moves faster, injuries are down, and eating lunch outside is easier. That said, their design has always seemed a little ... cheap. It's Times Square! The hub of New York, home to the awesome TKTS Booth, and we get colored epoxy gravel and dinky folding...

A Home Built Out of Trash and Millions of Beer Bottles

This home in Argentina puts to shame that epic Budweiser pyramid you built in college.

Recycled bottles can be turned into some pretty innovative things--World Cup jerseys or crude oil, for example. But what about bottles that roll around the sidewalk, destined to eventually end up in the trash bin? One man from Quilmes, Argentina has gathered up 6 million of those stray glass bottles over the past 19 years to build the home you see here.

According to artist Tito Ingenieri, La Casa de...