third places: neutral, convenient, and comfortable public venues (e.g., coffee shops, bars, hair salons, bookstores, parks) where people regularly gather for conversation and companionship (i.e., "first place" is home; "second place" is work). The term was coined by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg in his book, The Great Good Place. *** TROVELOG *** At issue, in essence, is whether [...]
escape room: a space where a team of users pays fees to work through numerous clues, puzzles, lock combinations and stories to successfully solve or discover something in order to "escape" the room within a time limit. *** TROVELOG *** Up a flight of stairs in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, dozens or even hundreds of people a week [...]
breach fatigue: the apparent lack of significant responses and countermeasures by consumers regarding safeguarding their information in the wake of well-publicized reports of huge data breaches by major companies. *** TROVELOG *** The news has been dominated lately by the failure of one company, Facebook Inc., to safeguard customer data. But Facebook isn't alone. In just the [...]
rage room (aka: “anger room”): a facility that charges customers fees to smash objects: household items, office machines, electronics, furniture, human effigies or any of the customer's personal items. *** TROVELOG *** Donna Alexander, proprietor of the Anger Room in Dallas, can barely keep her business stocked with printers for customers to crush. “Rage rooms,” as they’re [...]
"Authenticity is like authority or charisma: If you have to tell people you have it, then you probably don't." --Andrew Potter "Whenever you find something described as authentic, you know that you are already in the realm of fake authenticity," says Andrew Potter in his recent book "The Authenticity Hoax." It's not unlike [...]
a popular fast food dish in Germany made from pork sausage, ketchup and curry powder. [C]urrywurst [is] the most popular fast food in the city [Berlin], some say the nation. The dish, generally eaten from a paper plate with a tiny disposable fork while standing up, is itself a culinary contradiction: a greasy pile [...]
11.9: The percentage of American workers in unions last year, the lowest proportion in more than 70 years, according to the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of workers in unions fell by 612,000 last year, to 14.7 million. About 20 percent of workers were in unions in 1983; the figure was [...]
a low-income urban, suburban or rural area where there are limited vendors of fresh produce but often numerous fast-food outlets For cities, one particular problem is "food deserts" – low-income areas where the prevalent food options are chips and soda at corner stores instead of leafy green vegetables at supermarkets. See article at: CSM 14Feb11 - The rise of the [...]
