Innovative innovation

In The Sorcerers and their apprentices, author Frank Moss introduces us to new fields like Biomechatronics.
personal robots
OPera of the future
Lifelong kindergarten
New Media medicine
Affective computing
Cognitive machines
Speech+Mobility
Tangible Media
'to create a better future for everyone'.
This book works at two levels. On one hand the reader learns of what makes innovation happen at the MIT lab - the coming together of minds in solving problems faced by many and on the other how the problems are solved with applications that are products of the lab. Its inspiring to know how some scientists are fueled with the experiences from their own life to work towards technologies that make life easier for others.
Some of the projects like the City car were hard for me to understand. There is some repitition in the text. Curiosity about the projects will get you to the end.

At the Media lab, the scientists 'build,test and demonstrate' their inventions. some projects like the MIT Red balloon challenge and Roy's Speechome project have received lot of coverage in the media.
The author finds that most of the discoveries are serendipitous by nature. But once an invention is in place, it is unthinkable how one ability leads to another. A technology used to capture movement of a music artist is used in automoives to figure if a passenger is a small adult or a child for purposes of airbag deployment. the same technology went into gait analysis.
Roy's Speechome project analysis led way to look at early detection of autism and empowering the affected with social abilities.
Othotics
Nephrolithiasis

Earth apples. The book as a whole does not leave a great impression. Most of the poems are written in or of places Arizona.

Hostel

A small room with a cement counter all around to place our metal boxes. A bundle of all of our posessions into the hostel. oe goturs were filled with cardboard boxes of new dresses. I remember one red dress with a blue lace in front and a midband. That room was just to store our belongings. There was a bigger room for sleeping.
Once my classmate wore his elder sister's nightie. Being big for a fourth grader and larger, he was stuck in it for a while. He seemed to know more than a fourth grader of things in general. One morning we went to drop off a sister at the railway station. That day we had idli there with the chutney reeking of green chillies. I dont remember who paid for it.

Listening to an upbeat Punjabi song, I feel that is how I could take farewell from the world.

Early evening

A child jumping
up and down two
steps of an
open staircase

waiting for his
mother

As a kid, I was
ready with milk,
tea powder and sugar
ready on the stove
to turn it on
as soon as I
found her few houses
far

Life in things

A sweet box with an assortment of sweets. Some were slabs of two colors brown over cream color sweet or green over cream color. All made from milk. These were our treats from Shankerpally town during our summer holidays spent in Fatehpur village.

Unposted letters

From daughters to mothers

- the vague delight of being a stranger in a strange place. - Lynn Freed

Joseph cornell boxes in David Gaylan's 'boxes' essay in this anthology. A story by her. Of another writer inspired by ' The Incredible Appearing Man' story.

Pipestone paperweight in 'Unnaming the flowers' essay by Sonia Gernes.
What you hear in the dark?

Susan Griffin's essay is a revealing letter, embracing the miry relationship of a mother and daughter who have shared love only towards the end of it.

The land where you are the chief

Writers dreaming
A review
I liked the essays by John Nicols, Jack prelutsky, Reynolds Price.

Dreams may seem chaotic, but one can always create structure. - John Nicols
I liked the persona of John Nicols.

Prelutsky's essay shows us how dreams work into his poems for children. Writing with Jack Prelutsky. His poem froma dream.

Sometimes when I finish writing a poem, I look at it and say, What can I do with this, can I write the opposite? - Jack prelutsky

Reynolds Price linked his early childhood - trapped in a narrow tunnel dream to his experience of breech birth. His interview
Dreams are obviously the art of the artless. - Reynolds Price.

At Starbucks

A new mom is on a single chair
table
walked in with a stroller in left hand
and a 2 month old baby in her right
the boy drinking his milk from a bottle
was slinking into sleep

A mom is mixing coffee
'Zucar or Splenda'
son answers 'Zucar'
for father who wants 'Splenda'.

Another mom with
a wide stroller
bulldozed the chairs
and people in her way

From the colour of it
I could tell the
white choc mocha wasnt good

Odd one out

The ear bud
looked extra white
It wasnt so every day
I opened the drawer
From a box of pink
ones I had picked a
spare white

Nightmares of a mom to be

A snake breaks the latch
of a big blue drum
theres another in a
cardboard box used to
deliver flowers
The mom was convinced
before ordering them
snakes that they were
easy to dispose with
The first snake didnt
seem vile
only curious about
whats going to happen
The mom walked into the
patio with her husband
to discuss their POA.

The next nightmare:
Hands with eczema
strangely no pain

The next nightmare:
Husband is lost in
a sea of relatives
back home

Mother knows - womanhood, motherhood, selfhood.
Frost: A love story

A review that includes this book.

Ackee in Coconut lady

Holidays in heck
Lava gull

Games people play

Transactional analysis

Today I saw a kid playing with an alphabetic caterpillar at Ross.
Marshalls has cloth diapers.