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• dropout factory
  dropout factory n. A school or educational system with a high dropout rate.

  Example Citation: 'More than a half-century after Brown v. Board of Education, we still have two school systems, separate and unequal,' Mr. Edwards said. 'There are nearly 1,000 high schools where more than half of the students won't graduate — they're called 'dropout factories.''
  —Julie Bosman, "Education And Schools Are a Focus For Edwards," The New York Times, September 22, 2007

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  Posted on December 6, 2007

• fixie
  fixie n. A fixed-wheel bicycle that has only a single gear since the pedals are chained directly to the rear wheel.

  Example Citation: The choice of buying a fixed-wheel bike or "track bike" for city use appears to defy common sense, convenience and considerations of personal safety. Noninitiates to the so-called "fixie" consider their owners to have a few screws loose as well as missing a few gears. The disadvantages of fixed-wheel bikes are obvious — you can't freewheel down hills, you can't change gear going uphill, you have to time stopping to perfection otherwise you land on your rear and, without mudguards, you get soaked every time it rains.

  Yet fans of the fixie swear that nothing can beat it for urban riding. Indeed, the majority of Britain's urban cycling professionals, the couriers who ride for a living all day, choose to ride fixies. What's more, the latest bicycle fashion is spreading from couriers to health enthusiasts to commuters. At Condor Cycles, the central-London shop, fixed-wheel bikes are a top seller — accounting for half the sales of the Condor brand.
  —Tom Bogdanowicz, "In favour of the fixie," Financial Times, November 17, 2007

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  Posted on December 5, 2007

• sharp number
  sharp number n. A precise or unrounded number.

  Example Citation: You're selling your house. You set the asking price at a nice round figure—$420,000, let's say. But if you had chosen to list the house for $420,399—almost $400 more—your chances of finding a buyer just might improve.

  This finding, and others like it, derives from studies undertaken by marketing professor Manoj Thomas and colleagues at Cornell University's Johnson School. Thomas and other consumer marketing researchers have found that people have an innate tendency to downplay the magnitude of precise numbers, such as $325,437, also known as "sharp" numbers, compared to imprecise figures ending in one or more zeros—the familiar round numbers like $325,000.
  —Dirk Hanson, "'Sharp' Numbers Sell Houses," Blogcritics, October 3, 2007

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  Posted on November 9, 2007

• lifestreaming
  lifestreaming n. An online record of a person's daily activities, either via direct video feed or via aggregating the person's online content such as blog posts, social network updates, and online photos.
  —lifestreamer n.
  —lifestream v., n.

  Example Citation: Facebook have now made it possible to load all these other websites directly into your Facebook profiles. Now users can display their blog posts from their blog, they can display the drunken pics that they uploaded to Flickr, show the embarassing videos they have from their YouTube profile and so much more. In the world where people never pledge full allegiance to one site, it made sense to drag display them all in a single scrapbook. This is the idea behind 'lifestreaming' and is a dream come true for those that gloriously show off every facet of their life and the millions of lurkers who are willing to tune into such dross.

  Lifestreaming, like the movie Being John Malkovich, will allow you to climb inside the head of someone and experience their day via a digital smorgasboard of public text messages, blog posts, GPS-tagged photos and (thanks to mobile broadband and tiny videocameras) a live video stream of them as they move around their world.
  —Damien Mulley, "Being Damien Mulleyvitch," Sunday Tribune, July 22, 2007

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  Posted on November 6, 2007

• stroller envy
  stroller envy n. Feelings of envy directed at high-end baby strollers owned by other parents.

  Example Citation: McCavanagh is one of many new parents surprised by a flood of new parental instincts, one of which is stroller envy. It is a curious affliction that makes otherwise sane and secure parents feel woefully inadequate in the presence of hefty-priced prams - the $500 Phil and Ted's e3, the $800 Bugaboo Frog, the $1,000 Stokke Xplory - and ashamed of themselves for wanting one.
  —Kate M. Jackson, "Coveting thy neighbor's stroller," The Boston Globe, October 4, 2007

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  Posted on October 25, 2007

• mockbuster
  mockbuster n. A low-budget movie with a title and plot similar to a current blockbuster film. [Blend of mock and blockbuster.]

  Example Citation: Well, TMZ is not the only assault on Hollywood`s way of life. There`s something worse. It`s called the Mockbuster, as in mock Blockbuster. It`s a cheap send-up of a Hollywood hit done by wannabe filmmakers on a shoestring budget. It`s outrageous because passing off cheesy recycled material as art should be reserved for only the big movie studios.
  —"Countdown," MSNBC, July 28, 2006

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  Posted on October 15, 2007

• upcycling
  upcycling n. A process that takes used or recycled materials and creates a new product with a higher quality or value than the original materials.
  —upcycle v.

  Example Citation: Mr. Kalin is big on 'upcycling,' a process whose name was coined by William McDonough, an architect, and Michael Braungart, a chemist, in their 2002 book, 'Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.' They used the term to describe the process of taking something that's essentially waste and moving it up the consumer-goods chain. 'I love upcycling,' Mr. Kalin said. 'I love this idea of bringing something from lower down and elevating it.'
  —Penelope Green, "Romancing The Flat Pack: Ikea, Repurposed," The New York Times, September 6, 2007

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  Posted on October 11, 2007

• multi-dadding
  multi-dadding pp. Having multiple children with multiple men.
  —multi-dad v., n.

  Example