Tobacco Barns: Stately Relics of a Bygone Era [Real Player] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6536351 Celebrate Tobacco Barns http://www.hpo.dcr.state.nc.us/ctb/ctb.htm Vernacular Architecture of the World: Great Buildings Online http://www.greatbuildings.com/types/styles/vernacular.html Covers to Discover http://www.covers-to-discover.com/gb/ Traffic Signal Museum http://www.trafficsignalmuseum.com/ Around this time of year, most people are running around to meet up with family and friends for holiday gatherings and life is most certainly a bit more hectic. With all of these added responsibilities, it is no wonder that most people aren't probably actively thinking about those facets of the human-built world that seem quite mundane. Fortunately, there are people out there who are interested in these tiny details, and they are continuing to document these interesting, and sometimes overlooked, aspects of our world. One such person is Brian Hayes, who happened to be interviewed on National Public Radio this past week. Hayes is a student of industrial landscapes, and he has spent the past fifteen years researching fire hydrants, power lines, and of course the ubiquitous manholes. Along with others who are concerned with the fate of vernacular buildings such as tobacco barns, Hayes and his like continue to work to understand the roles that these features of the landscape play in our daily lives. The first link will take visitors to a National Public Radio (NPR) piece on the work of Brian Hayes, and it contains a number of insights into the things that one might encounter in an industrial landscape. The second link leads to another NPR piece from this Tuesday that discusses the long decline of the tobacco barn (and the accompanying farms) in Kentucky. Moving along, the third link leads to the "Celebrate Tobacco Barns" site offered by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources Office of Archives and History. Here, visitors can read about the different types of tobacco barns, and also view a map that indicates where the remaining barns in the state are located. The fourth link will take users to the Vernacular Architecture page at the Great Buildings Online site, where they can learn about everything from a yurt to the igloo. The fifth link leads to the Covers to Discover website, where visitors will learn about the great manhole covers of the world. Lastly, the final link leads to the Traffic Signal Museum, which serves as an online repository documenting the various traffic signals of the world, including such models as the four-way beacon and the stoic single face model.