David Lidsky's Blog, page 4849

Hydrofloors: A Vertically Retractable Swimming Pool (Finally!)

I don't know what took so long. It's just so obvious, you know? A swimming pool that doubles as, wait for it...a floor. Tired of swimming? Feel like walking? Then you need the Hydrofloor.

Basically, the pool's floor slowly moves up and down, either up to ground level (where it's indistinguishable from the surrounding patio) or down, forming a more traditional pool. The best part might be the stairs--they retract from typical stairs into a kind of grooved flat surface.

The pool fills up with...

Norway's Incredibly Luxurious Halden Prison: $1 Million of Art and Flat-Screen TVs in Every Cell

A lesson for all the budding criminals out there: if you're going to commit a crime, do it in Norway, because the country is soon to open Halden Prison, possibly the world's most ridiculously posh prison.

When it opens on April 1st, Halden Prison will hold 252 inmates, making it the second-largest prison in Norway. It's a gorgeous, ultra-modern structure right near the Swedish border, comprised of cells that are arranged in units of 10-12, much like a college dorm. Except these cells are...

Intel Executive Sean Maloney Taking Medical Leave After Stroke

Intel said today that Sean Maloney, executive VP and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, will be taking a medical leave of absence due to his suffering a stroke. Maloney's prognosis is "excellent" after a period of recuperation, thought at this point to last a few months, and he is expected to resume his duties once he is able. In the meantime, his colleague Dadi Perlmutter, who holds the same title, will be taking over his responsibilities.

Maloney is one of the most visible...

Google Poaches Flickr's Photo Editor by Acquiring Picnik: It's ON! (But Not Really)

According to a blog post from Picnik, Google has today finalized the purchase of the online photo-editing startup. There's no word on the exact terms of the acquisition, but judging from the enthusiasm positively bursting from this interview with Picnik's chief executive, it worked out to a pretty tidy sum for Picnik's 20 employees.

It's also got some interesting implications for Google and online photo services as a whole, because Picnik (no relation to the similarly-spelled weekly Canadian...

Today in Most Innovative Companies

Daily news of note about our Most Innovative Companies, including Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and Apple

Amazon: New technology will soon improve the speed, battery efficiency, and price tag of the Kindle and other e-readers. Manufacturing firm Freescale Semiconductor announced today that their new chips will lower the cost of e-readers to roughly $150, a whopping drop for products that usually run anywhere from $200 to $500. The chips will significantly widen the price gap between the Kindle and...

Most Innovative Companies - Architecture

Sponsored by

by Linda Tischler (additional reporting by Zachary Wilson)

Photo by Tim Bies

1. Diller Scofidio + Renfro

The New York-based firm transformed public space in Manhattan last year with the renovation of Alice Tully Hall, the master plan for the redevelopment of Lincoln Center, and the opening of the High Line, a...

Design on a Roll: Bread Chairs Perfect for Loafing (You Knead Some of These)

Enoc Armengol is a pioneer in the field of edible Baguettechture.

We've seen chairs by Tokujin Yoshioka inspired by baking bread, and chairs designed be totally green and totally recyclable. So why not up the ante, with a chair that's 100% edible?

Here's Enoc Armengol, a talented young Spaniard, describing the Panapaati:

Panpaati. Every piece forms a living, organic, natural structure, which suffers the alterations on having interacted with the environment, humans, animals...This is food! It ...

Want to Share a Message on Twitter? Talk About Twitter

If you're trying to improve how far your Tweets get shared, try talking about Twitter itself in those 140 characters--it'll boost your chances according to some new analysis. But Facebookers seem to hate Twitter--its mention is a sharing killer.

There're a million ways to investigate the social trends exhibited in the status streams from Twitter and Facebook, but Dan Zarella has been examining "meta mentions" on the two social networks--instances when the system's users mention the system...

Project GreenVax Makes Vaccines Out of Tobacco Plants Instead of Eggs

Did you get a H1N1 flu shot? You can thank unhatched chicken eggs for that. But a new venture dubbed Project GreenVax aims to take animals completely out of the equation by making vaccines with tobacco plants.

In traditional influenza vaccine production, scientists inject the virus into fluid surrounding a chicken embryo. After many days of incubation, the eggs are opened and the virus is removed and purified to make a vaccine. It's a slow process--it takes two weeks to make an egg-based...

Floating Architecture Docks in Shanghai

SPARCH Architects adds a floating pod city to its giant cruise-ship terminal.

SPARCH Architects, in charge of the master plan for Shanghai's new cruise-ship terminal, has released renderings of its crown jewel: a collection of pod-like restaurants and bars suspended by cables from a 130-foot-high, glass-clad archway. The so-called "Shanghai Chandelier" was designed in part in response to some Shanghai city planners' desire to open up the notoriously jam-packed city in anticipation of the