Simplified slide design
Do Your Slides Pass the Glance Test? – 5 design points that will make your slide presentation more effective. This is part three of a five-part series; links to previous two posts at the bottom.
Winners 2012 – World Architecture Festival
Winners 2012 – World Architecture Festival – categories are Award winners (includes World Building of the Year: Cooled Conservatories at Gardens by the Bay, Singapore – shown here), Completed projects, and Future projects. Worth a look.
Smart city lighting
Creating a City-Wide Energy Internet – A joint report from Philips and Cisco for “an intelligent, networked public lighting infrastructure” involves moving from fluorescent city lighting to an interconnected system based on LED technology. “An independent, global trial of LED technology in 12 of the world’s largest cities found …
India’s root bridges
Post on the Blog of the Long now, India’s Living Bridges, is about traditional bridges grown from roots in Northeast India. Check out the 4:30-min clip and the link to more images on Atlas Obscura’s website (a site that’s definitely worth a look). The root bridges, some of which are …
High strength, low weight wood pulp CNCs
Wood pulp extract stronger than carbon fiber or Kevlar – Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) made from wood pulp are not only strong, they’re far less costly to make than either Kevlar or carbon fiber. These qualities have attracted the interest of the military for use in lightweight armor and …
Google’s data centers
If you’re like me, you’ve always wondered how all that data gets to your screen. Now we get to see what Google’s eight data centers look like on their Google Data centers page. Here’s an overview with a selection of Connie Zhou’s great photos, Peek inside Google’s data centers …
APOD – Mammatus clouds
Next time you need a break, take a look at APOD, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. Most of the images are of objects in space – stars, planets, galaxies – but some, like yesterday’s Mammatus Clouds Over Saskatchewan, focus on ‘the heavens’ in a more general way. All …
People love blue / Structural blue
Fascinating article from The New York Times, True Blue Stands Out in an Earthy Crowd, with observations of interest to designers: In healthcare: Sick children like their caretakers in blue: A recent study at the Cleveland Clinic found that young patients preferred nurses wearing blue uniforms to those …
The invention of LED
How Lasers Inspired the Inventor of the LED – Wired interview with Nick Holonyak Jr., the inventor of the LED 50 years ago. There are a number of additional links on the LED’s history at the bottom of the post.
Walking power
What if Your Footsteps Could Power Your City Sustainably? – Post on UrbanTimes about Pavegen Tiles, made from recycled rubber, that generate electricity when you walk on them. Here’s a quote from Pavegen‘s CEO: “When you stand on a tile it flexes just 5mm in the centre, which is actually imperceptible …
The most walkable cities
Check out The World’s Most Walkable Cities, with brief suggestions for seeing 10 world cities on foot. Via 21st Century Tech Blog.
Value of basic cultural awareness
Thoughtful piece from Design Management Institute (DMI) – The Value of Design in Developing Markets: An Indian Insight (8-p PDF) – offers examples of how incorporating an understanding of a culture into the design of products for that culture results in a better product and better profits. It starts out with …
Locally sourced, locally built projects
World-Class Buildings For The Underserved, At Under $10k – Co.Design post about the work of Norwegian firm TYIN tegnestue Architects, winners of this year’s European Prize for Architecture. “The four-year-old firm’s principals, Andreas G. Gjertsen and Yashar Hanstad, work from a simple prerogative: Architecture is pragmatic, and should help people …
U.S. geothermal database
National Geothermal Data System (NGDS) from the U.S. Dept of Energy allows you to “search for data from 50 state geological surveys and a number of geothermal research centers and build mashups of maps or search through thousands of scanned reports.” Read more about it on Arizona Geology. Via ResearchBuzz.
Compete in emerging markets
McKinsey Quarterly video has four experts offer advice that highlights a number of business disciplines where global companies need to raise their game in order to compete effectively. These include resource allocation, innovation, brand building, sales and distribution, and the development of local leadership. See it at Winning the $30 …
Eco-Health Relationship Browser
Interactive tool from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “illustrates the linkages between human health and ecosystem services—benefits supplied by Nature.” It shows the relationship between an ecosystem (say, a forest), the “service” provided by that ecosystem (air filtration), and its health benefits as described in studies. Saw it on …
Latitude / longitude photo project
In 16,345 Photographs, Capturing The Entire Planet – Co.Exist post on the Degree Confluence Project. Great idea, wonderful photos.
Work from home calculator
Want To Work From Home? Calculate How Much You’ll Save Your Company And Yourself – new telework calculator from Govloop and HP tells you how much you’re saving in commuter costs by working from home. See the sidebar for more links.