Mechanical Capital Collapse

Converging hotel death rays singe your hair
and melt your plastic shopping bags.
Your teetering teenage daughters

prefer the streets of Quito to riding the bus alone.
College kids, befuddled by can openers,
are working on solutions.

(A government spokesman said several were wounded
but did not offer any details.)
And do we only have ourselves to blame?

-- Scott Stoller

Ecuador declares emergency as police protest
Vdara visitor: 'Death ray' scorched hair
Are we raising a generation of nincompoops?