August 2010
1 post
Shutting Down
There’s only so many hours in the day, and so many days in the week. There are plenty of other folks keeping up with the world better than I was, so off you go now:
@Six16 BldgBlog Ideas are Awesome
You can find me from now on at maljones.com and maljones.tumblr.com.
July 2010
5 posts
1 tag
The Parking Lot as 'Solar Grove' →
“One day early in 2004, Robert Noble, an architect specializing in sustainable design, asked himself why parking lots in the United States weren’t covered in solar panels and used to generate clean energy….” Found on New York Times Green Blog via @rpinchera.
1 tag
First-Hand Look: One Family's Unforgettable... →
“Like many American families across the country, the Stern family of Colorado celebrated the Fourth of July holiday together on Sunday. But instead of a traditional barbecue or picnic, the family took to the skies for a novel weightless daytrip on a Zero Gravity Corporation (Zero-G) aircraft.” Found on Space.
Giant predatory whale named for 'Moby Dick' author →
“Scientists have discovered an ancient whale whose bite ripped huge chunks of flesh out of other whales about 12 million years ago — and they’ve named it after the author of “Moby Dick.” Found on Yahoo.
June 2010
4 posts
Japanese Spacecraft Deploys First-Ever Solar Sail →
“The unfurling of a Japanese solar sail, the first demonstration of a new space propulsion technology, went exactly according to plan. According toJAXA’s blog posts and photos from the event, the IKAROS spacecraft’s sail appears to be in place. It’s a big step in its attempt to travel driven only by sunlight.” Found on Wired.
SpaceX Rocket Achieves Earth Orbit on First Flight →
“Space Exploration Technologies launched its Falcon 9 rocket into earth orbit on its inaugural flight today, a key milestone in the startup’s plan to take cargo into space once the last of the retires.
The two stage, 180-foot rocket left the pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at about 2:45 p.m. Eastern. It achieved earth orbit nine minutes later.” Found on Wired.
Watch“Minority Report science adviser and inventor John Underkoffler demos g-speak — the real-life version of the film’s eye-popping, tai chi-meets-cyberspace computer interface.” Found on TED.
May 2010
5 posts
Flexible Sony Screen Can Be Wrapped Around a... →
“Forget the iPad, the HP Slate or pretty much any tablet. For true portable big-screen computing we want the roll-up screen that sci-fi has promised us since forever. That dream edges ever closer, and Sony is now helping it along with a flexible display that can be wrapped around a pencil.” Found on Wired.
Atlantis' Final Mission →
“After almost 25 years and more than 115 million miles, space shuttle Atlantis is down to just one final mission – but it will be going out on a high note. STS-132 will deliver to the International Space Station the Russian Rassvet Mini-Research Module-1, only the second Russian module to ever be carried into space by a space shuttle. It’s a fitting final payload for the orbiter that not...
Good and Evil Deeds Stimulate Surprising... →
“The mere act of kindness, or one of evil, can boost willpower and physical strength, a new study suggests.
The results, based on three experiments, show that those who performed good deeds, or envisioned themselves acting charitably, were able to hold a weight or squeeze a hand grip significantly longer than those who didn’t perform or think about such deeds.
But evil acts...
April 2010
2 posts
March 2010
2 posts
WatchThe LXD at TED 2010. Found at TED.
February 2010
11 posts
Ushahidi & The Unprecedented Role of SMS in... →
“What if we could communicate with disaster affected communities in real-time just days after a major disaster like the quake in Haiti? That is exactly what happened thanks to a partnership between the Emergency Information Service (EIS), InSTEDD, Ushahidi, Haitian Telcos and the US State Department. Just 4 days after the earthquake, Haitians could text their location and urgent needs to...
Man appears free of HIV after stem cell transplant →
drewgilbert:
theoriginaljoefisher:
Kaboom.
Already in the Global Spotlight, Vancouver's Skies... →
“A week before the torch arrived in the Olympic city, Vancouver’s skies were already illuminated, ready to greet the world with a warm welcome. Light artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and his team had installed 10 searchlights on both sides of English Bay for an interactive work he calls “Vectorial Elevation.”
The lights in this large-scale installation are visible within a...
Unplug Design →
“…Unplug Design, always think about better days of entire human race. Our design is not an element but an agent which makes things worthy. While making not only results of material production, but also spritual meanings, we are eager to participate in the changing process of our life.” Submitted by Six16.
Note from the Machine: Check out the Dream Ball project.
Why We Should Teach Design Early →
“Design education typically begins at the college level, but if we wait until then to teach design thinking we are missing critical points in the growth of young minds, whose ability to think creatively is boundless. Teaching high school students to think like designers would help shape the way they look at the world around them and positively affect their future endeavors.
Inspired by...
“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be...”
– C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity
Kickstarter →
“Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative ideas and ambitious endeavors…. Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.”
January 2010
7 posts
“…we have to define what people need rather than what people want. Which...”
– Massimo Vignelli at Thirty Conversations on Design. Found via Archinect.
Design fantasies for obsolete Bay Bridge span →
“It’s a safe bet that most Bay Area residents view the eastern half of the Bay Bridge as an aged structure that can’t be replaced soon enough. But a handful of designers see much more, an icon ready for a bold new life - such as a working farm that shares the deck with a hotel. Or a park stretched atop long blocks of housing. Or a hotel shaped like the prow of an ocean...
Haiti text message charity fundraising sets record →
“The charity notes that within 31 hours of launching its text message charity appeal on Wednesday (January 13th) it had raised in excess of $3 million (£1.84 million), a third of the total amount pledged to the organisation by American donors.” Found on the Charity Technology Trust.
December 2009
7 posts
Super-Earths found around sun-like stars →
“Four newfound planets orbiting two nearby stars add weight to the promise of detecting habitable worlds within the next few years, researchers said today.” Found on MSNBC via @pulphope.
I Sail the River Electric →
“The chemical process of osmosis has been put to work, generating power for a Norwegian utilities firm. “Sited on the banks of the Oslo fjord in southern Norway,” and using something called the “membrane rig,” New Scientist reports, “it generates electricity using the natural process that keeps plants standing upright and the cells of our own bodies swollen,...
There’s No Such Thing as a ‘Simple’ Organism →
“What may be the most thorough study ever of a single organism has produced a beta code for life’s essential subroutines, and shown that even the simplest creatures are more complex than scientists suspected.” Found on Wired Science.
November 2009
5 posts
900 Words About Sustainability →
“Defining our sustainability strategy as functional would be to ignore the scope and imaginative potential of the issue.” Found on Jargon, etc. via Archinect
WatchMathieu Lehanneur demos science-inspired design. Found on TED.
October 2009
10 posts
Stephen Wiltshire Draws Manhattan Skyline From... →
“wiltshire diagnosed with autism at the age of three displays an unusually powerful photographic memory that he has applied to rendering cityscapes. he can look at the subject of his drawing once and reproduce it accurately with photographic detail, down to the exact number of columns or windows on a building. he memorizes their shapes, locations and the architecture.” Found on...