Digha diary

We have started from Kolkata on Saturday early morning. Then at Kolaghat we had our breakfast then moved to Digha. We already booked hotel at Old Digha. After a long journey it was pretty relaxing on the beach side

 

 

We had our lunch at beach shack, yeah you can trust the food quality. Then we moved from beach to Old Digha market and then New Digha.

We were returning from New Digha and suddenly realized the beautiful twilight Sky on Beach

After buying little stuff we were heading to our hotel, cause after 10pm local security/police would not allow you on the beach.

had a good time with friends and good sea food in hotel room.

Oh its time to sign off

..good night

Robot Bees on Mars

“Each Marsbee would carry an integrated video camera and the swarm could construct a 3-D topographic map of the local surface for rover path planning,” Dr. Chang-kwon Kang, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and one of the researchers working on the robotic bees, told NBC News MACH in an email.

Dr. David Weintraub, a Vanderbilt University astronomer who is not involved with the project, said the Marsbee concept made sense. “I would imagine you could learn an awful lot about the atmosphere, certainly in terms of wind patterns and circulation patterns,” he said. “It could be an incredibly cost-efficient way of learning about Mars.”

One of the Marsbees primary objectives would be to take air samples for the detection of methane emissions (since the Martian atmosphere is mostly made of carbon dioxide, detecting other gases like methane or carbon monoxide is potentially a sign of life, and thus, incredibly exciting). The Curiosity rover previously found extremely low levels of methane on the surface of Mars, but their presence was mostly chalked up to seasonal patterns, not biological processes.

“Our preliminary numerical results suggest that a bumblebee with a cicada wing can generate sufficient lift to hover in the Martian atmosphere,” writes Chang-kwon Kang, Assistant Professor at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of The University of Alabama in Huntsville in a NASA blog post. Since the Mars environment is so thin (only one hundredth to one thousandth that of sea level atmospheric pressure on Earth), there is not much air for wings to push a flapping robot along. But luckily, gravitational pull is only a third on Mars. NASA scientists are hoping to take advantage of this, and are planning to recoup wasted energy with a sophisticated energy harvesting mechanism.

The advantages of having a rover like Curiosity be swarmed by robo-bees are plenty: a swarm of mobile flapping robots would be far more flexible and resilient — a single bee getting swept up in a dust storm, in other words, wouldn’t be a big deal. Navigating the rocky and mountainous surface would also be easier exploring the planet by air. Multiple bees could also form a network of sensors, improving the accuracy of their findings.

The Huntsville team is proposing to link up with a Japanese team of researchers to make the Marsbee a reality, and given the fact that the Japanese team has already developed a hummingbird Micro-Air Vehicle that’s “one of only a few robotic flappers in the world that can fly on Earth,” the swarm might be a reality sooner than you think.

taken from external source...

Neck Excercise

Prerequisite info

1. Make sure that you are standing or sitting in a relaxed, mid-line posture, i.e. sitting with the spine straight and not leaning to one side or the other.

2. Perform the exercise slowly and smoothly.

3. Only move your head in a horizontal or vertical plane when performing the exercises.

4. Never perform rotating movement of the head.

Those exercises help you to increase flexibility and reduce muscle tension

Head up-down exercise

 

How to do:Start with your head facing forwards.

Drop your jaw so that your mouth is held open slightly in a relaxed posture.

Moving only in a vertical plane, allow your head to drop gently so that your chin is resting on, or is nearly resting on, your chest. Don’t force your chin onto your chest if it does not reach.

Then gently raise your head so that you are facing forwards again.

Now, moving only in a vertical plane, gently put your head back as far as it will go without forcing or straining.

Then bring your head back so that you are facing forwards again.

Repeat the whole of the above 10 times.

Head side-side exercise

How to do: Start with your head facing forwards.

Then move your head gently so that your chin moves towards your right shoulder, as if you are looking to the right.

Don’t allow your head to drop – keep it moving in a horizontal plane.

When you have reached your limit, stop and return your head so that you are facing forwards again.

Then repeat by turning to your left, stopping at your limit, and then returning to face forwards.

Repeat the whole of the above 10 times.

Head ear-shoulder exercise

How to do: Start with your head facing forwards.

Then tilt your head gently so that your right ear moves towards your right shoulder – keep looking forwards – do not be tempted to twist to the side.

When you have reached your limit, stop and return your head so that you are facing forwards again.

Then repeat by tilting your left ear towards your left shoulder, stopping at your limit, and then returning to face forwards.

Repeat the whole of the above 10 times.

Once you complete 1st set of above 3 exercise, take few seconds rest. Start 2nd set of above 3 exercise and take rest similarly complete 3rd set.

Smart Fork

FAST we eat. Meet HAPIfork, the world’s first smart fork! This connected device knows how fast you're eating and can help you develop healthy (or smart) eating habits, improve your digestion and also reduce your weight.

Anyone who has struggled to be healthy is intimately familiar with the counting game. They've counted calories, carbs, Weight Watchers points, their heart rate, steps and miles.

Now a new smart eating utensil called the HapiFork will help them count bites during meals, and maybe shame them into eating slower and potentially losing weight.

Technology has made it easier to track the minutiae of everyday life, with smartphones, pedometers and small sensors that can fit in wearable devices such as wrist bands. The self-tracking hobby has blossomed into the quantified-self movement, which reaches far beyond the health conscious.

People are tracking their sleep patterns, heart rate, mood, air quality and work habits, often in a bid to analyze enough data to correct problems with their health or lifestyle.

"Whatever we can measure, we can improve," said Fabrice Boutain, CEO and founder of HapiLabs.

In the case of the HapiFork, what can be improved is how fast people eat. It takes 20 minutes for the stomach to tell the brain it is full and that it's time to stop eating, putting speedy eaters at risk for being overeaters. The HapiFork team says there are many potential health benefits to eating slower, including decreasing acid reflux, obesity and diabetes.

How it works

The fork can be used to passively track eating habits and automatically sync that information, including duration of meals and frequency of forkfuls, with a smartphone. The HapiFork mobile app will also include a coaching program and tools to connect with friends and family.

The device can also be set up for behavior modification, vibrating any time the diner is eating too quickly as a gentle reminder to slow down. By default it is set to allow a bite every 10 seconds, though the exact time is customizable.

When the metal tines of the HapiFork touch the mouth, a circuit is closed and a bite is tallied. The data is automatically transmitted to a smartphone over Bluetooth or can be uploaded using a micro USB port in the base. The fork, which can stay charged for 15 days, has a thick plastic handle that houses the electronics. The core pops out so the fork can be washed by hand or run through a dishwasher. You must hold down a button to turn it on before each meal, but it powers down automatically after you stop using it.

Origin of the smart fork

The fork was invented seven years ago by Jacques Lepine, who compares the retraining to techniques used by habitual nail biters to cut down on their nibbling. Such as coating nails with bitter-tasting polish, for example.

Last year Lepine connected with 5-year-old health and fitness content company HapiLabs, which is based in Paris and Hong Kong. The two joined forces just in time to take the first prototypes to CES in Las Vegas, where it was an instant hit.

HapiLabs has 120 employees, only 10 to 15 of whom are currently working on the HapiFork project. But that ratio could change soon if the fork takes off.