Ganga’s post on thick yogurt got me salivating. I love shrikhand, especially from Parsi Dairy Farm, Mumbai, but I shudder just thinking of the calories it packs. I’d have to run 5 miles just to burn a cup of their nectarine shrikhand! No thank you! Here is my attempt at making a low-calorie, healthy, dessert. There is such a thing! Continue Reading »
News of the Haiti earthquake and related photographs have been so disturbing, that I skip headlines and scroll down to more mundane news.
If we adults can be so disturbed, what about children who are exposed to the same repeating news casts? Fortunately for us, Dr Paula Rauch, a child psychiatrist who heads the “Parenting At a Challenging Time” program at the Massachusetts General Hospital, (Boston, MA) has written an article on exactly how to talk with children about difficult events.
In this article, Dr Rauch and her colleagues give us several tips on the best ways to engage with children of different age-groups.
Dr Rauch kindly gave permission to share this entire article with you all. Please share this valuable resource with other parents.
Talking with Children about Upsetting News Events
All children are exposed to news via newspapers, radio, the Internet, and especially television. And they naturally turn to their parents with questions about what they have seen and heard. For a child whose family is impacted by the earthquake in Haiti, news about the tragedy can raise concerns about their own family’s safety. Discussing these issues poses a special challenge for parents to listen, understand, and answer their children’s questions in a manner that is both honest and reassuring. Meeting this challenge successfully strengthens your child’s inner strength, sense of security, and trust in you. Continue Reading »
Something about artists, they just blow me away. Look at this beautiful piece called Balsam Poplars! Not only is it pleasing to the eye, but as you dwell on the image, it draws you in. Did you notice the depth created by different media the artist uses? As I look carefully, I see more fascinating details. The colors play games with my eyes, and soon, I am in the midst of this psychedelic forest. I am expecting a tiny bird to take flight from amongst the trees and I watch intently to catch it flit away. Continue Reading »
From TEDIndia: Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop.”
More amazingly, at the end of the video during the Q&A, Mistry says he’ll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to allow others to work on the technology and realize its full potential. Verily, bring it to the masses! How very bold! MIT intellectual property personnel are groaning.
Several questions come to mind:
What are the challenges to bringing this to the masses?
Where do you think such a technology is most likely to be deployed first?
Will Mr Mistry himself benefit from this, or will it be the next tier of technology companies that will profit most?
Why did it take a kid from India, doing graduate work at MIT, to develop this?
Why didn’t a company like Microsoft, with billions of dollars of R&D funding, not come up with this?
And finally, how do we leverage this to help bring clean water to kids, or provide a decent education to girls in rural India?
What questions do you have?
In the video, Mr Mistry talks about kicking around a virtual ball on the floor of the Boston Red-line! One of these days, I hope to see him on the Red-Line! Yaay!
Here is the TED talk by Pattie Maes of MIT’s Media Lab, where Pranav is developing this technology. Pattie was kind enough to give credit to Pranav and did not try to hog all the credit. But she did want to be the first to ‘unveil’ this technology. She should have afforded that right to Pranav Mistry. Thanks to Sue (see comment below) for the link to this video.
You are not a Mumbaikar if you haven’t tasted the street-side Vada Pav. Not the sterile globs you get in a restaurant. You gotta eat from the street stall. If you haven’t, may I ask you to kindly turn in your Mumbaikar card!
During college days, the vada pav wallah near Fountain (Hutatma Chowk) was the best and my source of daily nourishment. This one is right across from Regal Cinema on Colaba Causeway, next to the entrance of Sahakari Bhandar. Look at that dynamite red chutney and those roasted green chillies! You know you want them on your vada pav! *smacks lips* After a couple of these, I rush down the street for ganna juice to put out the fire in my mouth! ha hA! Continue Reading »
