By Ali Bouzari Published 10:14 am PST, Friday, December 21, 2018 At Chez Panisse, a perfect piece of fruit is at the center of the universe. At Chez Panisse, a perfect piece of fruit is at the center of the universe. Photo: Illustration By Christina Chung Photo: Illustration By Christina Chung Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 At Chez Panisse, a perfect piece of fruit is at the center of the universe. At Chez Panisse, a perfect piece of fruit is at the center of the universe. Photo: Illustration By Christina Chung Legend of the Chez Panisse fruit bowl explained 1 / 1 Back to Gallery At Chez Panisse, the Berkeley restaurant where Alice Waters once mined large chunks of the … [Read more...] about Legend of the Chez Panisse fruit bowl explained
Closed loop supply chain
Chained mixes virtual reality and live actors to tell a dark Christmas tale
I was wearing a VR headset, standing in the middle of a dark, gothic take on A Christmas Carol. A grisly Jacob Marley asked me what I missed most about my childhood, and I told him I missed the hope and optimism of youth, when it seemed like anything was possible. When the Spirit of Christmas Past subsequently visited me, he pointed out a pair of ghostly, shadowy children chasing each other a few feet away. The spirit leaned in close. “Look at them,” he whispered, “so full of hope and potential.” It’s an easy trick, drawing a response out of an audience member and using that response to personalize their experience. But it worked — my own words coming back to haunt me drove home the sad longing in that scene and made it specific to my own thoughts. As the experience moved toward its conclusion, I wound up in a cemetery with the Spirit of Christmas-Yet-To-Come. My brain knew that the thin, slightly pixelated figure in a shadowy cloak was just a … [Read more...] about Chained mixes virtual reality and live actors to tell a dark Christmas tale
Can This Tesla Alum Build the World’s Greenest Battery?
At Tesla, Peter Carlsson spent nearly five years at Elon Musk’s side, locating various parts of the Model S as the electric car company's global supply chain manager. "The overarching goal of Tesla is to help reduce carbon emissions, and that means low cost and high volume," Musk said back in 2006. "We will also serve as an example to the auto industry, proving that the technology really works and customers want to buy electric vehicles." Now, as Tesla builds its Gigafactory in the Nevada desert, the company is recapitulating that mission, aiming to reduce not just the energy consumed by its cars, but the energy used to build its battery in the first place. Tesla says the factory will employ rooftop solar and wind turbines for energy, along with a closed loop water system. But Carlsson, who left Silicon Valley in 2015 for his native Sweden, wants to make his own progress toward the goal of green batteries. In May, Carlsson and fellow former Tesla executive Paolo Cerruti announced … [Read more...] about Can This Tesla Alum Build the World’s Greenest Battery?
Amazon launches new solar power and recycling programs
Amazon has announced two major new initiatives that it hopes will move it even closer to becoming a company with an almost invisible carbon footprint.First up is a $10 million investment in the Closed Loop Fund, and the second is the purchase of a bunch of solar panels.The Closed Loop Fund is a “social impact investment fund that provides cities access to the capital required to build comprehensive recycling programs.” Its goal is to invest $100 million by 2020 to increase recycling rates in communities across America and build circular supply chains.Amazon claims that almost half of all Americans do not have access to curbside recycling pickup. That means tons and tons of cardboards and other reusable materials get thrown in the trash.“This investment will help build the local capabilities needed to make it easier for our customers and their communities to recycle and to increase the amount of material recycled across the country,” Dave Clark, Amazon’s … [Read more...] about Amazon launches new solar power and recycling programs
Automakers Take On More Responsibility
Chip and EDA companies are scrambling to deal with stiff safety regulations and harsh environmental conditions for automotive chips, but automakers are making big changes of their own to ensure all those components work together as expected. The result is a significant shift of responsibilities of companies in the automotive supply chain. Carmakers traditionally have left verification, validation and testing of chips and subsystems to their suppliers. In years past, it was enough for those companies—chipmakers and Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers—to certify that every component they deliver complied with required safety standards and could interoperate well enough to be plugged in with no further testing. But as the amount of electronic content increases and the complexity of these systems grows, not to mention the deployment of these devices in safety-critical systems, carmakers are taking on a much bigger role to ensure these components work in the context of other systems. … [Read more...] about Automakers Take On More Responsibility