Called the ‘Sheriff’s Brigade’, the students from H.R. College have been assisting Sheriff Dr (Mrs) Indu Shahani, who is also the Principal of their college. It all started when the First Year Students of the college’s Bachelor in Banking Insurance Course were hunting for Internships. That’s when Mrs. Indu Shahani asked interested students to send her their CV’s so that they could do their internship under her. So instead of doing an internship with a bank or a corporate, they chose to do something that will make a difference to society.

Already they have accompanied the Sheriff to three events since March 21. They have interacted with the inmates of the Byculla jail and attended an eye camp where they learned to test people’s vision. Of course doing an internship with the Sheriff was not a cake walk, yet they are confident that this exposure will stand them in good steed when they finally land a job. And since many of them are interested in going abroad for further studies, the certificate that they will be awarded will sure holds a lot more weight as compared to a sales and marketing internship.

As part of their internship, the students attend meetings along with the Sheriff and then prepare a report on it. At the end of two months, Shahani plans on evaluating their work. She will then grade them on their leadership and team skills, their ability to think fast, their sensitivity and independence.

According to Daryoush Bazargani, the professor who invented the pillow, the pillow shifts the person’s head until the snoring stops. This is a really good solution because it does not involve any medication and actually supports the head of the snorer and is therefore more effective in controlling snoring.

Daryoush Bazargani is a professor of computer science at the University of Rostock.

Bazargani unveiled a prototype of his pillow at a health conference in Germany. He explained to Reuters that

“The pillow is attached to a computer, which is the size of a book, rests on a bedside table, and analyses snoring noises. The computer then reduces or enlarges air compartments within the pillow to facilitate nasal airflow to minimize snoring as the user shifts during sleep.”

An added bonus for all the snoring sleepy heads is that the ergonomic pillow can also be used for neck massages.

According to Bazargani, already several U.S. firms have shown interest in manufacturing the pillow. And who wouldn’t want to take advantage of such an invention when according to some statistics on snoring, at least 30% of adults and as many as 50% people in some demographics snore. That seems like a huge amount of people and perhaps a good market for the professor’s new invention. More than the snorers, it’s their partners who will be thankful to Bazargani for his invention, which come to think of it, makes a really nice gift idea!

The Ram Sethu bridge or Adam’s bridge is a natural formation of calcium deposits that was formed by natural sedimentation over millions of years. However, in Hindu mythology the bridge holds an important position. It is revered as the bridge which Ram built to reach Lanka and fight the famous battle with the demon king Ravan in an effort to save his queen Sita. Hindus around the world have united to save the ancient structure. If you want to save Ram Sethu, you can visit the Save Ram Sethu website at http://www.ramsethu.org/.

The Indian government plans to build a Sethusamudram shipping canal, which it claims will boost the economic and industrial development of coastal Tamil Nadu. The canal is supposed to reduce time and distance and provide a cheaper trade route. However, environmentalists are worried about other pressing environmental issues that the destruction of the bridge would bring about.

Keeping an open mind about it the Prime Minister of India has said that India would be ready to consider changes if it was found that the bridge adversely affects the environment.

A few days later, when I thought I had given the workers enough time to get the machines installed and working, I once again landed at Andheri with the hope of getting my first automatic ticket from the vending machine. I really felt proud to be an Indian. Thoughts of ‘What has India done in 60 years‘ rang in my head, and I thought well now we are going somewhere. I went straight in the direction of the ticket machines, I saw no queue, so I thought wow this is really working out; we are progressing, until I saw why there was no queue.

The machines were standing there all prim and proper with their plastic covers intact. People continued standing in queues to collect their tickets from the ticket windows, while the machines stood like some futuristic hope candy, which no one knew or even cared about. I was too heart broken to think. Why can’t we have new ticket vending machines? Were those machines installed only to tease people like me, who dream of no queues at the ticket counters? I sighed and took out my coupon booklet. As usual the coupon validating machine never failed to disappoint me. Once again it was out of ink and I saw myself, like my fellow travelers assaulting the only coupon validating machine that still had a few drops of ink in it. I punched my barely legible coupons and rushed to catch my train. Since then I just ignore those automatic ticket vending machines.

I reprimanded myself for being so selfish and wanting those swanky new machines to be working. Perhaps this city likes things looking like junk I thought. How else can you explain freshly painted walls with pan stains or shiny new trains with vegetable stalks on the floor? Perhaps this city likes the imperfect, so who am I to want something freshly installed to work immediately? I need to give those machines time enough to rust, perhaps then they will start working and be accepted by the mass of travelers that descend on Andheri station everyday.

People were urged to stay at home and not venture outside except for extremely important work. Places like Andheri, Vakola, Goregaon, Malad are prone to flooding, but this time even Matunga, Sion, Dadar, Worli, Chembur, Lower Parel were flooded. Luckily because it was a Saturday, many offices and businesses had a holiday. So people remained at home. However, staying indoors was not such a great deal for people living in low lying areas. Rain water entered the houses of those staying on the ground floor of areas close to subways. For some it was the second day with indoor floodwater because of which they were not even able to cook food.

If you were to compare the statistics, on 26/7/2005 the city received approximately 944 mm of rainfall in a single day, but today’s rainfall recorded for last 24 hours till 08:30 am (IST) on Saturday — at Colaba observatory in south Mumbai was 146.8mm, while Santacruz observatory recorded 174.1 mm. So what is the reason that Mumbaikars had to undergo a deja vu of 26/7.

And it’s not just today that Mumbai has seen flooding, it happens every time there is a heavy shower. Is this another adjustment that Mumbaikars will have to make for the rest of their lives? I don’t know whether Mumbaikars want the city to become a Shanghai, but I’m sure they don’t want it to become another Venice. Is anyone listening?

Not too many people like seeing windmills, yet it could be argued that they are the cheapest way of generating energy. Earlier wind turbines that were at sea had to be built in shallow sea water so that their foundation could be laid in the sea bed. So of course people could still see these turbines. With the idea of a floating wind farm, this could be placed away from the shore, and does not require construction work to be carried out on the sea bed.

According to Alexandra Bech Gjoerv, the head of the energy division at Norsk Hydro, the Norwegian firm spearheading the project,

“It’s attractive to have windmills out at sea. We can produce a lot of energy, out of sight.”

As I see it, these wind farms could be a good way of generating energy, without damaging the sea bed and delicate aquatic life that occupies the shallow waters. However, these pioneers of the floating wind farm have forgotten one very important thing. If climate changes continue, and I’m sure they will, then these people are actually building something on water. The farm could easily be destroyed by a storm.

According to them, they plan on anchoring the farm with three cables much in the same way that oil platforms are anchored to the sea bed. However, the North Sea can become very violent; waves can reach 30m in height. Added to that is the fact that the farm will be constantly attacked by salt corrosion. Repairing such a wind farm will be very difficult. But if this is done for the sake of green energy it could be worth the risk and trouble. After all, if wind energy becomes the norm of the day, we could get our planet back on track, and wind storms and climatic changes could become a thing of the past.

This has forced the Environment Secretary, David Miliband, to take a defensive stance about the Government’s record on flood defences. However, the problem cannot be so simple. Environmental organizations all over the world have been crying themselves hoarse about the rising sea levels, but no one seems to be listening. Now with a second wave of heavy rains looming over the horizon before the weekend, a high alert has been sounded in all the appropriate agencies.

While holding talks on climate change at Downing Street with the California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tony Blair has described this week’s storm as an “extraordinary and very serious event”. But that is still putting it very mildly because the threat has not passed as yet.

Another challenge being faced is the pressure on the Ulley dam. Firefighters and engineers in South Yorkshire have been struggling to prevent the Ulley dam, near Rotherham, from collapsing. Wisely however, the residents around that area, some 700 odd people have already been evacuated from there to prevent any further loss of human life.

The Environment Agency has already issued 26 severe flood alerts on rivers and waterways, it remains to be seen though whether countries will take up this issue to solve this problem to which everyone has contributed in some way or the other.

The gadget named Puchi Puchi (at first I thought it was a toy dog), has been created specially for all those people who enjoy bursting the bubbles on bubble wrap. The device gives the user the feeling of playing with bubble wrap, and at the end of a 100 pops it gives out a special sound. This could be a ‘door chime”, “barking dog”, “fart”, or a “sexy voice’.

Puchi Puchis are really nice and tiny. They weigh just 25 grams a piece and the size dimensions are 44 mm x 41 mm x18 mm. When they are launched in September this year, Puchi Puchis will be available in white, blue, pink orange and black. Now if you’re wondering how much it’s going to cost you, well you can own a Puchi Puchi for as less as 819 Yen (around 6.6 US dollars). That’s really economical considering that you don’t have to buy a costly gadget just to get the bubble wrap. Also when you have finished running through a piece of bubble wrap, what you are left with is a sad piece of plastic paper that goes on to become bin lining. With the Puchi Puchi you will have a kind of pet in your pocket. You won’t ever run out of bubble wrap with the humble yet addictive Puchi Puchi. All you will get is hours of fun, and bubble wrap that never ends!