ideometric

Article about Kaiser focusing on design to improve the health care experience.

Though hospitals will end up looking better, these efforts aren’t about decorating, they’re about outcomes. Numerous studies point to the benefits of the design strategies and environmental interventions KP has proposed and implemented. Factors like the quality and intensity of light, access to natural light, the noise level in a room, the privacy afforded by single-patient rooms — all of these affect patient health, satisfaction, soundness of sleep and speed of healing. Views of nature have been shown to decrease depression, pain, stress and even length of hospital stays.

I’ve visited a few hospitals in Seoul and designs vary – some feel very institutional, and look like something from the Soviet Union with dull steel, beige equipment, and dark green walls covered in dark stains. Others, like Severance hospital, feel more like a shopping mall or airport terminal with bright lights, modern design, comfortable waiting rooms, Starbucks cafes and other amenities that make the whole experience a lot more pleasant. I particularly liked the flower gift shop right outside the emergency room at the Gangnam Severance. That’s entrepreneurship.

I like this idea from a temporary cafe in Japan: you get what the person in front of you ordered. As a concept it’s fun, but working something like that into a normal brick and mortar cafe might be tougher — generally you’d just want to go in and get whatever you want, no hassle. But I could see it working at specific low-volume times as a quirky way to encourage interaction with strangers in line and pop the antisocial laptop bubbles people get stuck in.

I like the design of this Melitta pot for pouring water over a manual drip coffee filter. You’d buy something like this for the spout design, which makes it easier to control and maintain a steady pour over the coffee grinds.

So far I’ve only been able to find a wood-handled version for $90 in Korea, and a synthetic handled one for $45 in Japan. Maybe if I’m feeling spendy I’ll get one someday.

“Hand-drip” coffee is really popular in Korea and Japan, but less so in the American cafes I’ve visited. Instead, machines like the Clover or siphon pots have gotten the most attention from both customers and press.

However, there’s something about the performance of drip coffee that I find appealing, especially when taken to the extremes of technical fanaticism that the Japanese (and subsequently Koreans) have gone. Most coffee geeks here in Asia seem to obsess over the intricacies of pouring methods, timing, etc. as if this is the height of coffee production. It is indeed more active and engaging than a french press, and the careful pouring styles have a finesse and theatricality that I appreciate in the coffee ritual – even if it might be a bit superfluous to the results in the cup.

A few music links…

(See also: Mulgrew Miller Live at Yoshi’s)

This is the most elegantly designed folding bicycle I’ve seen. Unfortunately it sells for over $2000.

Designed by Thermaltake and BMW, this computer case looks like the future (and costs $700).

This is the main reason I’ve never seen the point of joining twitter. There’s no content there that I’m interested in. That is, until the Iranian protests. But even then it was difficult to find what I was looking for.

…the top 10% of prolific Twitter users accounted for over 90% of tweets. On a typical online social network, the top 10% of users account for 30% of all production. To put Twitter in perspective, consider an unlikely analogue – Wikipedia. There, the top 15% of the most prolific editors account for 90% of Wikipedia’s edits ii. In other words, the pattern of contributions on Twitter is more concentrated among the few top users than is the case on Wikipedia, even though Wikipedia is clearly not a communications tool. This implies that Twitter’s resembles more of a one-way, one-to-many publishing service more than a two-way, peer-to-peer communication network.

Source

Interesting NYT magazine article about datacenters and the infrastructure that runs the internet.

Tukwila is less a building than a machine for computing. “You look at a typical building,” Manos explained, “and the mechanical and electrical infrastructure is probably below 10 percent of the upfront costs. Whereas here it’s 82 percent of the costs.” Little thought is given to exterior appearances; even the word “architecture” in the context of a data center can be confusing: it could refer to the building, the network or the software running on the servers.

I like guitarists that take saxophone as their inspiration. Here’s Fredrik Thordendal from Meshuggah doing a short demo.

Saw this at Lotte mart today, I kind of like it. But I’m not sure I like how narrow the glass is compared to the size and design of the base — creates a little disproportionality that I don’t like. I wonder if there’s a better example of the concept? Maybe if the glass part widened to be the same size as the base…

How much sugar is in the stuff you’re eating? Kind of gross.

http://www.sugarstacks.com/

Caffe Artigiano in Korea has a new location near Gwanghwamun  subway station on Line 5 (광화문역). Take exit 7 and head West (I think that’s a left). The tiny, unassuming espresso bar is a minute or two walking distance.

The space is dominated by a huge four group espresso machine. They have a grinder that automatically doses and tamps, which seems to ensure shot quality. Haven’t tried any milk drinks yet.  Sadly they only have paper cups, no demitasses for espresso. This is a tiny space for grabbing a drink to go, not for lounging.

See my post about their Gosok Terminal cafe here.

This is quite an attractive little container, I love the clean lines of the handle and lever, and the overall proportionality of the piece. Why do things like this have to be $50?

DWR

There’s an article in the Korea Times detailing some of the current issues in Korean internet policy. The government is expanding its regulation of internet use, mandating the collection of personal data (equivalent of social security ID) for sites with over 100,000 visitors and increasing the powers of law enforcement to intercept data and invade privacy. This is coming up against companies like Google that refuse to comply with demands for personal information gathering (actually the article states that Google is the only major site that refused…interesting). The end result being a counter-productive incentive to ditch restrictive native web services in favor of foreign competition. Good job.

I’m curious how this is being sold to the public. What rhetoric is being used? Or is it just unashamedly clamping down on political freedom of speech vis-a-vis anonymity online?

These photos by Peter Funch are pretty genius. Looks like multiple shots from the same angle used to create a composite scene amplifying certain features of the urban landscape and life therein.

http://www.v1gallery.com/artist/show/3

South Korea narrowly avoided falling into recession during the first quarter of this year, supporting hopes that the economy may at least be bottoming out as stimulus measures take hold.

The South Korean economy, among the biggest in the region, grew 0.1 from the previous three months, rebounding from a previous 5.1 percent quarter-on-quarter contraction, and surprising many analysts who had expected the recent quarter to show another, though slight, decline.

NYT

Here’s to hoping that this will start to boost the value of the Won, which has been depressingly low ever since I got here.

From Yglesias:

Strong IP is usually branded as “good” for “creators” but the main impact of the digital revolution has been to advantage non-commercial producers relative to commercial producers, and the main impact of strong IP law is to shift the balance of power back to the commercial world. We’re accustomed to thinking of capitalism in opposition to socialism, state-direction production, but in the information realm the main opposition is between capitalism and activity that is simply non-commercial in nature.

There’s not enough abrasive jazzy saxophone in music these days. About 2 minutes in it gets interesting.

“About 15 years ago I went to a Metallica concert. I felt the energy released by this type of music and fell in love with heavy metal.”

Hahah, right on.

The question of how much caffeine is in a cup of coffee is more complicated than it seems. One question I get a lot is: doesn’t espresso have more caffeine than a regular cup? I’ve read mixed answers, but this article in the Atlantic suggests that, given an all arabica blend (preferable), the caffeine content would be considerably lower than a cup of coffee.

So drink up.

Nice. Retro-futuristic throwback synth & crunchy 8-bit sounds. Joker & 2000F — I’m not gonna lie, I don’t know how to talk about this kind of music, but I dig it all the same.

This graph from the NYT makes it very clear how big the wage gap is between men and women in various professions. In some, like surgeons, it’s as much as 40% less.

It would be nice if there was more detail exploring the varied reasons for male-female wage gaps.

Citroen GT concept car. It looks like the Mach 5 turned into a spaceship, awesome retro+future styling.