David Lidsky's Blog, page 4878

Architecture Zombie: Brighton's Burned-Down West Pier Rises From the Dead...With Lasers!

Lighting designers at Creatmosphere bring a skeletal building back to life with a century-old technique.

Brighton, England's 1,115-foot-long West Pier has had a tough run lately. Built in 1866, it closed in 1975 and was burned to a crisp by a series of fires in 2003 (arson, say the experts). Plans to rebuild it have been batted around for years, but they've always been too expensive. The most ambitious of which includes a 600-foot-tall observation tower called the i360, designed by Marks...

Nature's Path Leads Consumers Through Complicated Grocery Shelves

Organic and natural foods have exploded into our supermarkets at an astonishing rate: There has been an estimated 20% growth in volume each year for the last six years. That's a good problem to have if you're a consumer who wants to have a range of healthy options to feed your family, but for a marketer who has to help educate consumers about those options and make their brand stand out, it can be a natural disaster. Marty McDonald, creative director of Seattle-based agency egg, was charged...

Huawei Adds Smartphones to the Android Army, Challenges HTC

Huawei has just outed four new Android phones at Mobile World Congress, all set to swell the growing ranks of the Android Army some time this year. Illustrating how flexible Android really is, Huawei has specced each phone very differently.

While you may never have heard of Huawei, you may well have used one of their devices--the company is behind many 3G roaming broadband USB sticks which often get re-branded by the particular cell phone network in question. They're also one of our former

Inspired Ethonomics: Seoul Reengineers a Freeway Into a Stream [VIDEO]

Most metropolis' are so busy building the future that they don't have time to re-think the past. Not so with Seoul, South Korea. In 2003, the city demolished a downtown freeway to restore an ancient stream that once flowed beneath the thoroughfare. More than 75% of the scrap material from the demolition was re-used to reconstruct and rehabilitate the stream banks and create a commercial corridor. In this episode of e2, we'll see how the Cheonggyecheon is now a thriving tourist destination...

Work Smart: Stop Multitasking and Start Doing One Thing Really Well

A human's ability to do several things at once is a wonder of biology: it means we can eat a burrito while we walk down the street and listen to music and daydream about the weekend all at the same time. But some kinds of multitasking costs you more time than you save.

Doing two things at once, like singing while you take a shower, is not the same as instant messaging while writing a research report. Don't fool yourself into thinking you can multitask jobs that need your full...

The 9-Minute History of Charlotte, NC, in an Animated Pop-Up Map

Rob Carter's Metropolis is a video pop-up book for urban history nerds. Or a history lesson for pop-up book nerds.

Rob Carter's Metropolis is a trend trifecta: cartography, cut and folded paper, and urban history. Architecture videos--when they're good--can be jaw-dropping. But that's usually because they look so fantastic: realer than real, whether renderings or film, they turn buildings and cities into exaggerations easier to love or hate.

Carter (British-born, Brooklyn-based) took a...

Inspired Ethonomics: Seoul Reengineers a Freeway Into a Stream

Most metropolis' are so busy building the future that they don't have time to re-think the past. Not so with Seoul, South Korea. In 2003, the city demolished a downtown freeway to restore an ancient stream that once flowed beneath the thoroughfare. More than 75% of the scrap material from the demolition was re-used to reconstruct and rehabilitate the stream banks and create a commercial corridor. In this episode of e2, we'll see how the Cheonggyecheon is now a thriving tourist destination...

Can Nokia and Intel Conquer the Embedded Devices World With MeeGo OS?

Intel and Nokia have announced what seems to be an extremely odd partnership: They're melding Intel's Moblin mobile device OS with Nokia's Maemo into a new Linux affair called MeeGo. Odd? Yes. But it might just work.

The companies' joint press release to announce the news starts out, with no messing around, by drawing out the goals of the new venture--and they're impressive: MeeGo, a "Linux-based software platform" will support "multiple hardware architectures across the broadest range of...

TerraCycle's Next Venture: Turning Trash Into Trash Cans

TerraCycle has grown significantly since its inception in 2001. The upcycling company went from selling plant food made from worm waste products to repurposing packaging from brands like Frito-Lay and Wrigley's into everything from cell phone holders to messenger bags. Now the company is getting into more utilitarian products--starting with trash cans made from trash.

As part of a partnership between TerraCycle, Sharpie, Paper Mate, and EXPO, the newly-formed Writing Instruments Brigade

Aliens Vs. Predator: A Decade-Long Grudgematch Revived

With today's release of Aliens Vs. Predator, Rebellion Games completes a decade-long journey. Designer Tim Jones reveals the ups and downs of bringing the established film franchise back to life.

For the games industry, sequels and franchise spinoffs are the standard modus operandi--even more so than Hollywood. British company Rebellion Games, for example, has thrived by making videos games based on established game franchises (Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lone Wolf for PlayStation 1) or film...