David Lidsky's Blog, page 4882

Bill Gates-Funded Super Laser Targets, Destroys Buzz [VIDEO]

Oh, not that Buzz. This Gates WMD (weapon of mosquito destruction) obliterates mosquitoes--one by one--and the Malaria they spread in developing nations.

We have been anxiously awaiting video of the Bill Gates-funded Weapon of Mosquito Destruction (WMD) ever since first learning about it this past March. The handheld laser, developed by astrophysicists and former Microsoft exec Nathan Myhrvold, locates and kills individual mosquitoes by detecting the audio frequency of their beating wings...

Logo Hail Mary: Landor Unveils the NFL's New Brand Strategy

A new logo system will wipe away the year-to-year changes in the Super Bowl logo design.

You know how every year the NFL changes the logo for the Super Bowl? No more.

Coming next year, the NFL is installing a sweeping new graphic system designed by Landor and the NFL's in-house designers. So far, only the logo for Super Bowl XLV has been released, but the look and feel will carry across all of the individual playoff logos--from the wildcard game to the divisional finals. "The NFL realized...

How to (Almost) Get Into Fast Company [VIDEO]

Last night I got an email from a one Daniel Odio, co-founder of a service called AppMakr. He told me a little bit about his service (they make turn-key iPhone apps) and paid a couple of compliments--ostensibly in hopes of ginning up some good press.

Then our tireless Executive Editor found this: a video Odio posted on his blog detailing how he has automated the process of tracking down and soliciting reporters for coverage. Lo and behold, the video uses me as the test case. In the video...

Job Growth Expected This Year: And Other Relatively Happy News From the Obama Administration

Perhaps chagrined after presenting too optimistic of an economic report last year, yesterday the White House offered a more sober, but still optimistic look ahead. The administration is predicting that this year's average job growth will hit 95,000 new positions a month--though other economists are expecting a rate closer to 250,000 per month--but unemployment will remain high until 2012, when they predict it will drop to 8.2%.

The annual economic announcement coincides with efforts by...

Today's Vision of Tomorrow: Tiny Robots Doing Your House Chores

Forget the robocalypse: Remember the robot-laden utopian home of the future, as portrayed in the Jetsons and a thousand sci-fi shows? It's on its way, and surprisingly soon you'll find many a household task in the hands (claws?) of a robot.

At CES this year, Evolution Robotics wowed many a person in the crowd with its unbelievable cute little Mint robot. This diminutive machine, which is now available on pre-order, takes a leaf out of the Roomba's product manual, but instead of zig-zagging...

The Nine Best Packages, Picked by Design Guru Andrew Gibbs

Andrew Gibbs is the founder of The Dieline, the web's best package-design blog, and he's been trawling for cool packaging designs for years. Now, he's gathered his favorite designs into book, Box Bottle Bag. Gibbs offered Fast Company a peek inside, and selected for us nine of his favorite designs.

Malawi Gov't Justifies Madonna's Love, Moves Squatters Off Site of Her Green School

Remember Madonna's grand plan to build an ultra-green school for girls in Malawi? It turns out that it's a bit of a sore spot for locals, who are refusing to move off the plot of land where the pop singer's school is supposed to be located. Because, yes, Madonna is kicking locals out of their homes, however meager, to build a state-of-the-art school.

One family, for example, is receiving $1,500 from Madonna to abandon three homes and buy some mango trees. The family has supposedly been...

Rebranding Valentine's Day: Design Firm UnderConsideration's New Look of Love

Hopeless romantics, you have a new way to express yourself come Sunday. And for all of us who can't bear to face this most ooey-gooey of holidays, here's a more contemporary way to celebrate it. Studio 360's Redesign Valentine's Day Challenge, which I helped launch a few weeks ago, unleashed hundreds of both warm and not-so-fuzzy solutions, but the show also enlisted married graphic designers Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio of Austin-based UnderConsideration to create an entire branding...

Sweet Jesus Crystal! A Japanese Design Master's Stunning "Rainbow Church"

An 80-foot tall window made of crystal prisms, which will bathe a room in rainbows.

Tokujin Yoshioka--one of the most influential Japanese designers alive--has unveiled a beautiful new project that'll be exhibited next May at MUSEUM. beyond museum, a exhibition in Seoul.

Called "Rainbow Church," the project gives Superman's Fortress of Solitude some stiff competition. It was inspired during a trip Yoshioka took over 20 years ago, to the Chapelle du Rosaire, which features stained glass...

Thunderous Boom in a Perfect Storm of iPad Apps

Here's one in the eye for iPad doubters: According to Flurry's analytical app-developer tracking skills, January saw the single biggest peak in developer activity ever registered in its system. It's the iPad.

Flurry's tracking code is embedded into iPhone apps by developers, so while it's not a completely fool-proof measure of how much developer excitement there is about a device, but it's a damn good indicator. Throughout the second half of 2009 the app development rate for the iPhone had...