Aging happily with a tour of the world

February 26, 2009 at 10:03 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Today I’m aging again and big changes are on the pipeline…

I sadly moved out of Lugano today, after almost four years in the sunshine canton.It was good life in Lugano, I’ll miss it and I’ll especially miss all the people and friends… but it’s time to move on!

My “academic” tour of the world will start in a couple of days, I’m so excited!!! First stop: Harvard.

Linz, Austria

February 15, 2009 at 9:54 am | In Uncategorized | 1 Comment

It is the European capital of culture 2009 and I was lucky to have a workshop there right now that it has been fully renovated and cleaned up. Linz the third largest city in Austria with almost 200.000 inhabitants and is a neat city on the Danube. The city center is quite small and can be seen in half day, while another half day can be dedicated to the two important (and new) museums of the city: the Lentos modern art museum, and the Ars Electronica Center, one in front of the other on opposite sides of the Danube. The highlights of the city are its churches, and especially the “new cathedral” or Mariendom, a massive gothic church with eclectic style inside (antique next to modern stain glasses and gold mosaics of byzantine style). Well I’m not an art or church expert so I have no clue why it is such a mix of styles, probably for historical reasons, anyway it’s unique and I strongly suggest a visit. It also seem to be veru much up to date with digital technologies, both for dissemination purposes and for rising money!  There is also a castle (established by the romans originally) but I didn’t have time to see it.
I was in Linz to attend the Scent of Information Workshop, a two-day meeting on information visualization. The discussion has been vibrant and intense, creating a very nice learning atmosphere. I’m so full of input now that I need to download all the information from by brain to make some more space in it!

Amsterdam

February 5, 2009 at 7:38 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Last weekend I visited the Netherlands and I have been very fascinated by this unique country. I visited my friend Silvia who is spending a semester in Eindhoven. We enjoyed the discovery of Amsterdam and its peculiarities such as the red light area, in the picture, where ladies are at the windows selling themself and calling clients in… I was very surprised that this area is vey big and very central, just near the main turism sports! I expected something more “hided”, how to say. And they must make a big business judjing form the quanity of ladies!
The other famous oddity of the city is that Marjuana is legal, and you can see many coffe shops in the city where you can buy it (although i haven’t been able to spot any in other cities). Dutch people have been also very creative in making it a commercial success for sovenirs: all souvenir shops offer cannabis candies, cannabis tea, cannabis bisquits… however i doubt there is any majuana inside since you are allowed to take them abroad…
There is also a cannabis museum, which we couldn’t miss ;) it was actually quite interesting, showing how this plant can be exploited for terapeutical uses (to cure depression, anorexia, glaucoma, migrane, etc.), as biofuel and as material for several items such as paper, cloths, shoes, etc. The museum is also keen on drawing the attention on the punishment for people selling drug: it seems that people have to spend more time in jail if they marjuana than if they rob or rape a woman: well, I agree with them, it should be the other way around!
Another very interesting museum is the Tropenmuseum or museum of Tropics: despite the name is nothing like a botanical garden, it’s rather an ethnographic museum of the dutch ex-colonies. I was impressed by the intereactivity of the museum, really well done, with several videos, interactive screens, reproduction of typical settings and houses of variuos countries. A very good example of edutainment, excellent place to bring children.
We took a very nice boat tour, which gave us a great view on the city from the canals. It’s a unique atmosphere, very relaxing. I saw hundreds of houseboats and i got really exited, i would love to have one! Silvia told me there are 2500 houseboats in Amsterdam, awesome! Some are very creative, with a little garder on the roof, or with a veranda in the front, or artistic colors, and of course a parking space for the bike :)
We also slept in aboat, but in a very big one, called Botel, like a ferry transformed in a hotel, it was cool!

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