Wednesday, 24 December 2003

Santa Fe In September of 2002, Santa Fe was rated in the Conde Nast Traveler magazine's "Readers Choice Awards" as one of America's top 10 travel destinations for the eleventh straight year. The city was ranked fifth after San Francisco, New York, Charleston, SC and Chicago. Santa Fe has been included in this poll of well-traveled readers each year dating back to 1992 when the city first appeared as a write in nomination and was voted the number one travel destination in the world. Also in 2002, the readers of Travel + Leisure voted Santa Fe their fifth most popular North American travel city, in the magazine's "World Best Awards." This time Santa Fe followed New York, San Francisco, Vancouver and Chicago. This is the third time in the six years that the poll has been conducted that Santa Fe has been included and it appears that Santa Fe will appear again in the 2003 World's Best list according to the magazine's staff. Santa Fe appeared in the "10 Best Places for Business and Careers" as determined by Forbes magazine in the May, 2003 issue. The business publication ranked Santa Fe as 9th best among 168 small places for business potential. Among the attributes cited were a high number of advanced degrees and educational attainment within the population as well as a lower cost of doing business. If all of that wasn't enough, Santa Fe was named as one of the slimmest cities in the country and Men's Journal named Santa Fe its number 5 Best Place to Live. A pitch for Santa Fe....town is unusually empty right now. 9:12:52 AM    comment []; Ambient virtual co-presence My sister calls it "ambient virtual co-presence" in her paper (pdf) about Japanese mobile culture. She talks about this in the context of texting and talking on the mobile phone. She discusses how the value was not always in the content being exchanged, but in the fact that people felt connected when they were constantly exchanging traffic. The "connection" can be IM, voice, text messages or just about anything that allows you to feel someone's presence. [Joi Ito's Web] 8:46:15 AM    comment []; Printable flat-panel displays Researchers at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center say they've figured out how to "print" a flat-panel display using a modified ink jet printer and special semiconductor "ink". The research is still at an early stage, but they say that it could eventually lead to wall-sized televisions, unbreakable cellphone screens, and rollable computer monitors. [Gizmodo] When you look at recorded music the bigger the display the better....bring it on! I imagine we can do away with the famous giant viewing window between control room and recording room and replace it with a giant flat display. Then you put one or more little cameras in the recording room and watch the musicians on the display, when you need to. This would also reduce the fishbowl effect of having somebody stare at you while you are at your most vulnerable, trying to create. Like these voyeurs for example.... 8:33:12 AM    comment []; Inside-outside 6:35:37 AM    comment []; Bendywood This flexible wood is compressed natural wood - without any chemical additives. As long as it is damp, this material can be bent by hand, thus allowing smaller radii and three-dimensional shapes. The wood does not become rigid until it dries. Mainly made of European beech, it is supplied in a sealed container in order to preserve the flexibility of the wood until it is used. Marketed under the name "Bendywood", it is highly suitable for building models and furniture, for interior furnishings and for trade-fair stands. 6:11:13 AM    comment []; Architecture Hale County, Alabama - workers' estate, random arrangements of mobile homes surrounded by rusting cars, dilapidated huts and "an almost supernaturally beautiful landscape".* This is where architect and professor Samuel Mockbee (1944 - 2001) and Dennis K. Ruth, deacon of the faculty of architecture at Auburn University, Alabama, established the Rural Studio architect's office in 1993 as a component of academic education. In the Rural Studio, students of Auburn University plan and build single-family houses, community centers, churches or sports grounds for underpriveleged inhabitants of Hale County. They use donated and recycled materials such as railroad sleepers, corrugated cardboard, colored bottles or balls of hay. Here is the Rural Studio's web site. 6:09:26 AM    comment [];

© Copyright 2003 Ottmar Liebert. Last update: 31.12.03; 8:54:49.