How to Sleep like a Baby

It’s 3:00 a.m. where are you? Most people would probably be asleep. However, for a large majority of people, it is near impossible for them to get a good nights rest. Without it, they are unable to focus well, they have low energy, and let’s face it, they are usually in a not so good mood. Is there anything that the sleep deprived can do in order to help give their body the much needed sleep it needs? Aside from counting sheep, which rarely works, try some of the suggestions below.

First, start out by examining your bedroom for sleep distractions. Sleep distractions would be such things as clutter, the color of the paint, the noise level, etc. If your room is painted in bright, electrifying colors, you may want to consider painting it a soothing cool color. A pale green or a soothing blue would be good choices. You can’t expect to be able to sleep if the paint in your bedroom is so bright that it looks like an airport runway.

If your room is cluttered, consider scheduling a spring cleaning day and get rid of all those unwanted sleep thieves. If a room is cluttered, it gives our mind more things to focus on and think about during the night instead of sleep. Your bedroom is supposed to be your sanctuary, and let’s face it, who wants piles of bills or junk mail in their sanctuary? Not too many people.

As far as the noise level goes, this is different for each person. Some people enjoy some form of noise while they sleep and may even purchase a noise machine, while others have to have quiet. If you fall into the latter category, try purchasing some heavy drapes to see if they block out any of the unwanted noise. While the drapes probably won’t get rid of every unwanted noise, you will notice a big difference.

Next, try not to exercise before going to bed. I’m not saying don’t exercise at all, because exercise is good for us, but we all know that exercise releases endorphins which amp us up. You can’t expect to be able to go to sleep if you feel like you could run a marathon. Try to keep exercise to either early in the mornings or to around four hours before bedtime. This will give your body time to calm down and will help you to drift off to sleep much easier.

Another suggestion to help you get a good nights sleep would be to take a nice warm bath just before you are ready to go to bed. The warm bath will not only help you to relax physically, but it will also give your brain some time to unwind as well. It doesn’t have to be a long bath, just 10 or 15 minutes should do the trick. As you are letting the water out of the tub, picture your troubles and cares being washed down the drain. A mind that is not burdened with troubles is a mind that can easily drift off to sleep.

Lighting is another issue that effects sleep. If your bedroom window lets the light of a nearby street light into your bedroom, you might want to try some of those room darkening curtains to eliminate that problem. If you can’t find any or can’t afford them, try putting a quilt up instead. If your curtain rods are sturdy, they will usually hold up the extra weight of the quilt. Either of these two things will help darken your bedroom and help you drift off to what could be the best nights sleep you’ve had in a while.

Of course, don’t forget to flip your mattress every so often to keep it from getting worn. However, if your mattress is not in good shape and you can’t afford to buy a new one (because we know they don’t come cheap), consider buying a mattress topper. This will give you the sense of a new mattress, but will cost you a fraction of the price. Toppers come in a variety of styles, and it is up to you to find the one that suits your needs.

The last tip, try and keep the temperature in your bedroom at a comfortable level. You don’t want the temperature too hot or too cold. You want it just right. Again, it is up to you, as an individual, to decide what your perfect temperature is. Try these few tips out and see if they help you get the peaceful nights slumber your body has been missing. Pleasant dreams sleep deprived.

NASA approves first SpaceX milestone for Crew Dragon spacecraft

The milestone is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability program (Image: NASA)

At the moment, if you want to fly to the International Space Station, you're only option is to hitch a lift on one of Russia's 1970s-vintage Soyuz space capsules. That may not be the case for too much longer, with NASA announcing that it has approved the first milestone for the manned version of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft.

Executed under a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract, the milestone consists of a successful Certification Baseline Review of SpaceX's plans for the manufacturing, launch, flight, and recovery of its Crew Dragon (AKA Dragon v.2) and the Falcon 9 v.1.1 rocket, which will propel it into orbit.

One of 23 agreements and milestones under the space agency's Commercial Crew Program approved this year, it is the latest step in developing privately owned and operated US spacecraft to ferry crews to the ISS. These spacecraft are currently being developed independently by SpaceX and Boeing. When certified, the two spacecraft will be able to travel to and from the ISS carrying up to seven passengers or a mixture of passengers and cargo. Being capable of remaining on station for 210 days, they will double as lifeboats; allowing ISS crews to be larger than facilitated by the three-person Soyuz.

According to NASA, SpaceX and Boeing will have to certify that their spacecraft and launching systems can be integrated, launched from a site in the United States, dock with the ISS, and that their systems' performance meets specifications. If all goes as planned, the Crew Dragon will make a test flight with at least one test pilot on board ... though that is still a few years away.

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Love Christmas

Christmas is the gentlest, loveliest festival of the revolving year – and yet, 4 all that, when it speaks, its voice has strong authority.

Christmas is the one time of year when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.

At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year.

Bells are ringing and everyone is singing, It’s Christmas! It’s Christmas! Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Bells ring and the birds sing, May you get all the happiness that Christmas brings! Wishing you and your family a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Bless us Lord, this Christmas, with quietness of mind; Teach us to be patient and always to be kind.

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.

Christmas Quotes

A wish for peace and happiness at Christmas and throughout the New Year.

The gift of love. The gift of peace. The gift of happiness. May all these be yours at Christmas.

 May the good times and treasures of the present become the golden memories of tomorrow. Wishing you lots of love, joy and happiness. Merry Christmas!

May the Christmas season fill your home with joy, your heart with love and your life with laughter.

May this Christmas end the present year on a cheerful note and make way for a fresh and bright New Year. Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

May this Christmas end the present year on a cheerful note and make way for a fresh and bright New Year.

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

May the good times and treasures of the present become the golden memories of tomorrow.

 Wishing you lots of love, joy and happiness. Merry Christmas!

May your Christmas sparkle with moments of love, laughter and goodwill, and may the year ahead be full of contentment and joy. Have a Merry Christmas.

As you relish the goodies, decorate every nook and corner of your home and enjoy the get-togethers... may the joy and festivities continue to radiate in your lives, long after Christmas is gone.  Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

With all Good Wishes for Christmas and the New Year.

New frontiers: Drones deliver a raft of surprises in 2014

2014 saw the emergence of some truly innovative drone projects

2014 wasn’t the year that drones first entered the consumer lexicon, but it did see the notion of using these unmanned vehicles to our advantage become much more palatable. Package deliveries and carrying out conventional robotic tasks are some concepts that have defined the progress of drones in the past 12 months, but, as is typical of emerging technologies, the more their potential is realized the more they find uses in unexpected new applications. Let’s have a look over some of the year’s more surprising, yet significant, drone projects that promise to shake things up in exciting new ways.

Getting on top of malaria in Southeast Asia

In the forests of Maylasia and the Philippines, a new type of malaria has emerged over the last decade. Known as Plasmodium knowlesi, this particular parasite was long thought to affect only long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques. But recently, reports have started popping up of human infections, with a number leading to organ failure and even death.

Researchers have had an inkling that deforestation in the region is changing the way people, mosquitos and the infected monkeys interact and how the disease is spreading. Now a team of experts from London’s School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine are using drones to monitor the terrain from above, collecting geographical data to gain new perspectives on the environment, the populations and movements of the monkeys. The program is still in its early stages and is expected to run for 5 years.

Delivering medicine to remote German islands

While drone delivery heavyweights like Amazon and Google um and ah, and grapple with a maze of red tape, courier company DHL has been testing out UAVs to deliver high-priority pharmaceuticals to the tiny German island of Juist. Running for several weeks starting in September, the pilot program saw DHL’s so-called Parcelcopter carry medication from the seaside village of Norddeich over 12 km (7.5 mi) of open water to a designated landing pad on the island.

This involved the craft taking off, flying and landing autonomously, though its path and other elements of the flight are monitored by staff at a control room in Norddeich. The Parcelcopter cruises at an altitude of 50 m (164 ft) at up to 18 m per second (40 mph). The pilot program was limited to high-priority pharmaceuticals, but marked the first systematic delivery of items to customers using drones.

Safely detecting landmines

Bosnia-Herzegovina is one of the countries most heavily contaminated with landmines, with an estimated 120,000 still leftover from war during the 1990s. While efforts to remove the mines using terrestrial robots and animals are ongoing, these are time-consuming and inherently dangerous.

Drone company CATUAV, space services firm Telespazio and the European Space Agency teamed up to try and detect landmines from above, a method that would be quicker and less risky. Using a purpose-built aircraft equipped with optical sensors and electronics, the team snaps images of the terrain from the sky.

These are then processed and algorithms are run, enabling the team to calculate the chances of land mine presence in the area. The Landmines Detection project is a semi-finalist in the United Arab Emirates Drones For Good Award, the winner of which will be announced mid-January and warded US$1 million.

Busting illegal fishermen along the coastline of Belize

Belize’s famed coral reef systems are under threat from unsustainable fishing, but tackling illegal activity proves difficult with much of the coast is obscured by leafy mangrove forests. Regulations are in place but have been tough to enforce, leading to the launch of a drone program in July that has given conservationists new hope.

The Belize Fisheries Department teamed up with the Wildlife Conservation Society and an organization called Conservation Drones to put UAVs in the sky above the coast. Capable of flying autonomously for more than an hour and up to a range of 50 km (31 mi), the drones capture high-res photo and video from above. Authorities then monitor the images for suspect activity, enabling them to more efficiently conduct searches and deploy patrol vessels.

Protecting rhinos from poachers

From the Caribbean coast to the arid lands of Africa, drones are proving their worth in a growing number of conservation efforts. Californian company Airware teamed up with Kenya’s Oj Pejeta Conservancy to run tests on a drone surveillance program that helps to preserve the ailing rhino population. Using fixed and gimbal-mounted cameras, the drones relayed digital video and thermal images to park rangers in control stations.

The rangers were able to program flight paths and have the drones fly autonomously from take-off to recovery. The idea being that when the images indicated the presence of poachers, they could deploy a security team to deal with the incident. Oj Pejeta said the program surpassed all their expectations.

Cutting response time for heart attack victims

Every second is critical when treating a patient who has suffered a cardiac arrest, with longer response times relating directly to lower chances of survival. Having quick access to a defibrillator and knowing how to use it can be the difference between life and death. Alec Momont, a graduate student at Holland’s Deft University of Technology, has developed a prototype of a so-called Ambulance Drone with a view to cutting down these response times.

Once emergency services are contacted about a heart attack, they deploy the drone carrying a defibrillator. Using GPS, the drone travels to the location of the call at speeds of up to 100 km/h (62 mph). An integrated webcam gives the emergency services a live stream of the scene and allows them to guide the people on the ground through the process of applying the defibrillator to the patient.

Momont posits that his solution can get a defibrillator to a patient in a 12 sq km (4.6 sq mi) radius within a minute. He is hopeful the Ambulance Drone will take flight within 5 years.

Tracking action sports heroes

Videography that simply wasn’t possible before the proliferation of camera-wielding drones has got to be one of its most eye-catching capabilities (check out this surf video, for example). While the mounts become more stable and resolution of the cameras continue to improve, there is one particularly useful function that is starting to feature more heavily in the drone photography market. Commonly referred to as Follow Me, this sees the drone automatically track an athlete from above as they ski, board, ride, run and somersault their way through their adrenaline-fuelled exploits.

Though a bunch of drones are touting this as their primary feature, none come as well-credentialed and market-ready as the Iris+. This drone can be bought now for $750 (you’ll need to mount your own GoPro) and can fly above and follow a user carrying a GPS-enabled Android device. It uses a Tarot T-2D motorized gimbal mount to pan, tilt and keep the user in the center of frame.

High-stakes, Star Wars-style drone races

In October, the Airgonnay drone club took to a dense forest in the French Alps to pit vehicles against each other in what it hopes will be the first of many high-stakes drone races. 24 pilots raced their drones through a 150 m (492 ft) course, weaving through trees and low-hanging branches while streaming a first-person view to their goggles from built-in micro cameras.

This year’s field was made up of quadcopters and multicopters that were optimized for speed and agility, darting through the trees at up to 50 km/h (31 mph). The club plans on live-streaming next year’s event over the internet and hopes to attract a higher caliber of competitors with drone pilots flocking from overseas.

Onwards and upwards

Drone technology is perceived as being in its early stages in terms of what could be achieved. That we are already seeing it have a positive impact in such diverse ways is pretty darn exciting, and you do get the feeling that 2015 has even more unimagined, pioneering ideas in store. We’ll be doing our best here at Gizmag to keep across all the developments, but judging by the rate of advancement so far, it certainly looks like we'll have our work cut out for us.

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BiCi smart bike offers electronically-enhanced cycling

The Basic Version of the BiCi smart bike

If a new crowdfunding campaign is successful, yet another "smart bike" will soon be available to consumers. Called the BiCi, it was designed by a team from Shanghai-based AOAO Studio after a four-month period of focusing on "what the perfect bike should be." The end result certainly looks unique, if nothing else.

The distinctive appearance of the BiCi (short for Basic Conception ... sort of) comes courtesy of its carbon fiber frame and smallish-but-peppy 22-inch wheels.

What makes it smart, however, are its onboard electronics. These include sensors that track parameters such as current speed, cadence, altitude, location, calories consumed and heart rate (it isn't clear how that last one is measured). All the data is displayed and recorded on the rider's paired iOS or Android smartphone, which sits on a handlebar mount.

Additionally, users can map a route to their destination on the BiCi app before setting out, then receive left- and right-turn cues through buzzes in the handlebars as they ride. Those haptic alerts are backed up by running lights at either end of the bars, one or the other of which blinks when a turn is required.

On the topic of lights, the bike also has head- and tail lights, which automatically come on and turn off via an ambient light sensor.

When the BiCi is left unattended, its sensors will detect if it's being moved when its owner's phone isn't nearby. Should that happen, it will send an alert to them, plus its GPS module will allow them to track its location.

Power is provided by an integrated battery, which is in turn charged while riding via a front hub dynamo.

AOAO is currently raising production funds, by offering 140 BiCis for preorder through crowdfunding site Pozible. A deposit of US$49 will put you on the list for a Basic Version model, which features a flat bar and Shimano Tiagra drivetrain components (despite the fact that the supplied photos show a single-speed). Assuming it goes into production, you'll have to pay an additional $594 to make up the total cost of $643 – which is pretty decent for a carbon fiber, geared bike. It's available in five frame colors.

If you'd prefer the dropped-bar Shimano 105-equipped Expert Version, a deposit of $81 towards a total price of $965 is required.

The BiCi can be seen in action, in the video below.

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