Skyscrapers that stick out like needles on the New York skyline.

The haunt of the well-heeled crowd.

Looking for the perfect address in the middle of the swankiest neighborhoods.

But large vacant spaces were hard to come by.

And so, architects designed dazzling needles going as high as 1400 feet into the air.

Promoted as marvels of design and engineering.

The needles would tower over the older remnants of the neighborhood.

And they got across zoning locations that limited the height of buildings by going around a loophole - if the floors have structural and mechanical equipment, they are not counted.

So a building with nearly 90 floors has about 25 floors filled with equipment and structural artefacts - and the rest could be sold

Gleaming palaces of glass and metal priced at tens of millions for a single apartment within.

But nature's forces have their own rules.

The buildings face unexpected water damages and plumbing issues due to the immense height.

High winds cause the buildings to sway and while the design accounts for certain tolerances, it's deeply unsettling.

The view is incredible. And being on top of the world should feel absolutely great.

That's the whole point, isn't it?

Will smart cities be built around street lights?

It's an enduring image in film plots.

Students without means studying under a street light.

We don't pay much attention to them in the normal course. Except when they aren't there.

Then the darkness seems to paint frightening shadows.

So what do smart cities have to do with street lights?

Its early days but the plan is to make light poles the central point of a smart network

The new LED lights save a a considerable amount of power compared to Sodium vapour lamps.

However, that's just the beginning.

A whitepaper from Intel sees street lights as the core around which smart cities can be built.

They are already placed at a defined distance from each other.

Now, they can be networked to do far more.

Image sensors can measure the volume of traffic passing at different times of day

Parking violations can be caught from cameras mounted on the lights

Air and water quality measured with another set of sensors.

Even emergency responses coordinated by showing public the way to exit the city. Much like the pre-flight announcements by the hostess.

And of course, outdoor advertising on the poles could subsidize the expense to be incurred.

Smart thinking?

'V' and 'W'

They are right next to each other on the alphabet lineup.

But in primary school, we had a teacher who built a wall between them

She would pick out words starting with each of the letters and make us say it with emphasis.

At that age, we didn't see any difference between 'verb' and 'word'

But she underlined it with the expressions on her face.

All words starting with 'v', she would bite her lower lip and blow out her breath.

All words starting with 'w', she'd purse her lips like today's duckfaces for selfies.

Imagine a whole class of little kids with pursed lips trying to form 'world'. Or biting their lips to say 'very'

She persisted.

Almost like a drill sergeant making men out of boys.

Pronunciation  was her passion, not just grammar. It didn't matter if you spelt the words right. You also had to say them right.

We'd realise why only much later. Catch people routinely stumbling on 'world' and 'very' and 'went' and 'vent'. Or 'won't' and 'vault' - there was no difference.

Try this with words from the dictionary. And then, see how it impacts the way people understand what you say.

Thank you Miss Doctor. 

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