Finally got a chance to read John Graham-Cumming’s Geek Atlas. Its subtitle is 128 Places Where Science and Technology Come Alive.  Published by O’Reilly, it is a tour book of the world’s most interesting science tourist sites.
The most compelling? The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, Ukraine. There is actually a tour of it. It is proof that [...]

Is there anything more boring than a visitor center? This is especially pitiful as travel is one of the more exciting things that people do.
Pictured here is the Sitka Visitor Center, part of Sitka National Park. The photo is part of the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress, and the architecture embodies some [...]

The house museum was once the center of pop culture history in the U.S. But today, once notable places like Colonial Williamsburg’s Carter’s Grove have been shut down and de-accessioned, and house museums across the U.S. and Britain are struggling or closing.
I do not share the doom. I see the damage as entirely self-inflicted. Overly [...]

To the American, Scotland has been seen as a happy land of Scotch, golf, castles, Sean Connery and Braveheart. (At right, 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, 1854, by R. Poate. That’s what Americans think of when they imagine Scotland).
But the recent issues with Lockerbie could do damage, as Americans just cannot begin to understand the decision. Perhaps [...]

Hint: It’s about finding the cool stuff, and making cult favorites out of the mundane
Everyone has to brand these days. It started with product brands, then service brands. Now we all have to have a personal brand. And cities now talk about “branding” themselves. Good earth. Can’t we just go to work?
In the old days, [...]