Pre-Ramble:  I love hearing stuff about kids who are crazy good at science. Yesterday’s NY Times   Magazine (Sunday, 2/27) featured ”Youth.”  Two of them, Matt Fernandez and Akash Krishnan, friends from Portland, Oregon, had built a computer program that can recognize “feelings” in human speech patterns for their high school science fair.

In a nut-shell, the very cool algorithum that they came up with determines emotion in spoken words by measuring 57 different aspects of an audio signal as compared to a signal that has been pre-defined as a specific emotion - such as ”fear, anger, joy and sadness.” 

“Computers have become very good at parsing an audio signal into specific words and identifying their meaning. But spoken language is more than just semantics… it’s far from clear what elements in an audio signal indicate happiness or anger as a quality of voice. Trying to figure that out quickly consumed them. Matt stayed up late reading research papers, ignoring his other homework … Akash was up until 3 a.m. many nights reading and programming… The research paper they submitted for the [science fair] was 30 pages of code and 60 pages of writing to explain it.”

Matt and Akash ended up taking first place at the science fair; went on to represent their school at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose; entered the Siemens Competition (one of two premier science competitions in the country); won the team grand prize at the national competition in Washington; and their program has been linked to practical applications such as a way to help autistic children recognize emotional cues in speech, and to provide emotion recognition capabilities for cell phones and other interactive devices. 

Nice going, boys!! …

But, I digress … The work of these gifted young scientists harkens me back to reflect upon the efforts of another young scientist … less brilliant perhaps, but toiling away nonetheless in her Environmental Living 101 class at the University of Michigan in the late 1970′s. 

As you can imagine, in this nearly pre-historic time, there were no computers … no internet … really no “technology” to speak of, unless you want to count calculators (ha!).  We were practically using the stone and chisel.

The scientific challenge was to create a “parabolic reflector” (an umbrella lined with aluminum foil, poked upside-down into the grass to catch the sunlight) which would harness solar power in amounts strong and focused enough to cook a standard cupcake.  (I blame my parents for the selection of this particular research topic, as I was never allowed to have an Easy Bake Oven … Curiously, years later, when faced with this scenario with my own young daughters, I forbade them from owning or consuming the disgusting packets of chemicals that foamed together under the heat of a light bulb as well.)

The archived project notations are sketchy, however, as I recall, the strength of the sunlight in early April in the northern Midwest left much to be desired, (not even a boost of global warming to help it along).  Due to either the ravages of radiant temperatures in the precisely calculated “hot spot” of the reflector, or simply drying out in the air, the cupcake (chocolate) ended up being barely edible. 

The Take-Away:  My point here, is that there are lots of curious, talented kids out there just waiting for an opportunity to explore some odd notion that crosses their mind.  Matt and Akash were obsessed in their quest to get to the bottom of the emotion recognition challenge … Every kid, even the ones who aren’t pre-inclined to math and science geekiness, has to be wondering about something?  Whether their inquiry results in a patent-worthy method of digital emotion recognition or a petrified cupcake, we, as a society, need to foster both the curiosity and the opportunity for kids to engage in exploration of ideas. 

Post-Note: I want more of my tax dollars to go into the “curiosity and opportunity”/education bucket and less to go into the “get involved in another foreign war” bucket.

Pre-Ramble:  On the occasion of Elizabeth Taylor’s death, the following is a post I wrote for my other website, Big Bling. (A gal can’t be pondering innovation and writing up goals and objectives 24/7 … there needs to be some distraction by bright, sparkly objects now and then!)

Multi-faceted icon - Considered one of the great actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age, Elizabeth Taylor was known for many things — her stunning beauty, violet eyes, multiple marriages, three Oscars, business ventures, humanitarian works, and also her jewelry.

Taylor’s jewelry collection contains some of the most exquisite pieces in history, among them the 33 carat Krupp Diamond; the heart-shaped, yellow Taj Mahal Diamond; and the flawless, pear-shaped 69 carat Taylor-Burton Diamond, first worn publicly at a party in Monaco for Princess Grace’s 40th birthday and sold by Taylor in 1978 to fund a hospital in Botswana.

In her book, “Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry,” (2002) Ms. Taylor shares her remarkable collection of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires, confiding that,

“I’m fortunate to have some very important pieces of jewelry. I don’t believe I own any of the pieces. I believe that I am their custodian, here to enjoy them, to give them the best treatment in the world, to watch after their safety, and to love them … I want to give others a glimpse of the thrills and pure happiness that these beautiful creations have given me.”

The Take-Away:  Clearly, the complex actress loved and was inspired by the extraordinary jewels that she had the privilege of “watching over” in her unique, often tumultuous world. In fact, Elizabeth Taylor was an extraordinary jewel herself.  As though under glass in the rarified context of Hollywood, her sparkling, preternatural beauty and ultimately unshakable spirit was on display … a multi-faceted aura … both admired and scrutinized throughout her drama-filled lifetime.

Pre-Ramble:  I want to understand it, but I just don’t. Several tech-savvy folks, including my kids (one of whom is an IT major), have patiently tried to explain to me how Twitter works.  It makes sense when I see Ashton Kutcher tweeting stuff on TV …

I mean, I can do facebook and text-messaging and blogging (sort of) … I even have a Twitter account of my own.  But, something just isn’t lining up for me yet, so I guess I’ll just have to hang out in the nest until the light bulb goes off.

Meanwhile, in way more than 140 characters, a piece in Sunday’s NY Times (3/20/11) describes the emergence of Twitter as a promising literary format on the collective anniversary of the very first Twitter message ever sent and World Poetry Day. 

The article cites ”Twitterature,” a book featuring “eighty works of Western literature boiled down into Twitter messages” published in 2009, that sets the stage for the next Twitteration (heh-heh … I could sit here and think up Twitteritives all day … ) of the short form style and invites poets of all ilk to try their hand at a 140 character Twitter poem.

“The Twitter haiku movement appears to be well underway … and linguist Ben Zimmer said he thought the growing popularity of the service (Twitter) as a creative outlet could be ascribed to the same [challenge] that goes into writing a sonnet … of accepting those kind of limits.”

Some of the poems submitted to the Times appear alongside the article; fine efforts by actual poets.  For me though, a Twitter poem is going to have to go a LONG WAY to beat out my favorite poetic form of all time — the Limerick. 

The Take-Away:  Like any endeavor that challenges us to work within parameters, I definitely believe that Twitter has a place in the pecking order of creative communications media. We’ll have to wait and see what linguistic innovations the nascent Twitterati can come up with.

Pre-Ramble:  While I was out of town a whole bunch of stuff happened in the world. Big stuff.  Almost too big to blog about. 

My experience with earthquakes while living in California is enough to help me understand how truly devastating Japan’s 9.0 quake was … even without the tsunami or the threat of nuclear radiation.  Unfathomable. 

As I unpack my crinkled travel clothes and run my mindless errands, I can’t help but think about the faces on the front page these past several days.  These photos of the horrific event are certainly real, but they don’t resonate with anything resembling familiar … There is no category in my mental filing system to put them, so the images just keep bouncing around in my mind.

Children cowering under spigots of water, rinsing off who knows what.  Elderly women sitting on steps staring vacantly out.  Dubious plumes of steam rising into the sky. Hunched figures searching over piles of snarled debris.  What can they possibly hope to find there? 

The Take-Away:  I suspect that people all over the world can feel the aftershocks of the scenario in Japan.  In another circumstance, I would delight in sassy insights and flip remarks, but here, this situation commands nothing but respect and reverence.  

I’ll deliver my chirpy blog post on Twitter another day.

Pre-Ramble:  Gary Shapiro, the techy, geeky guy who hosts the International Consumer Electronics  Show in Las Vegas, just wrote a book about America’s lagging performance in the global competition to “win the future” called, “The Comeback: How Innovation Will Restore The American Dream.“ 

I guess he’s got a pretty interesting vantage point given his professional proximity to the designated arch nemesis — China  (… as in, “Made in” … ).

Like local big-dog, 3M CEO George Buckley, Shapiro asserts that the U.S. corporate tax rate (one of the highest in the world) “stifles entrepreneurship and innovation … And, rather than encouraging innovative global companies to make their home here, America’s high tax rate pushes them away.”

Well, that doesn’t sound good, particularly since entrepreneurship and innovation are widely regarded as the magic bullets of economic prosperity … ”… the nation’s competitive advantage … the source of American exceptionalism.”  In his book, Mr. Shapiro tries to zero in on the exact formula:

“Innovation is the fortunate result of our nation’s rich and unique stew of individual liberty, constitutional democracy, limited government, free enterprise, social mobility, ethnic diversity, immigrant assimilation, intellectual freedom, property rights, and the rule of law.  I can’t deconstruct how each factor makes its individual contribution, but I believe each is vitally important.”

The Take-Away:  Well, phew! … I’ll tell you what … either Mr. Shapiro is on to something BIG, OR, … he’s just assembled the longest list of gratuitous, politically-correct buzz-words ever to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the same sentence. 

You forgot three, Gary: … ”American,”  “hopes,” and “dreams.”  Oh, wait … if you’re playing along at home, he gets a couple of extra points for including “American” and “dream” in the book title.

Pre-Ramble:  There’s a special irony associated with being too busy with writing work to keep up with the blog that was supposed to be a showcase for your writing work.

This isn’t the kind of thing that I am usually hired to write … at least not yet.  But, if you happen to come across a venue that needs writers who write about being too busy to write, please pass that along.

Well, so,  meanwhile, my blog-idea-starter-news-clipping-pile is getting closer and closer to the ceiling …

Before I get back to work, I’d like to share a recent truth I’ve learned … DON’T BE FOOLED by that cute little word “tweak.” 

Technically, it is supposed to mean “fine-tune” … make minor adjustments … minute modifications … etc.  …

But really, when someone says,

“I just made a few tweaks to the draft … ”

… it means they totally ripped the hell out of it; no phrase was left unscathed.

The Take-Away:  Consider yourself warned.