The Nose Knows

The nose knows that you can't humwhen you hold your nose closed.
Be honest now..You just tried it, didn't you...Yeh you did...

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Water water everywhere, especially in the air

We are the water planet, our oceans cover 70% of the earth, and if we, as humans, could survive on salt water, we'd be in great shape.  Unfortunately, salt water just doesn't do a body good, as far as I know anyhow.  There is, of course, desalinization, but the plants to produce drinking water from salt water are costly and complicated.

Another source of fresh drinkable water is the air, the same air we breathe every day, the same air that has those billowy white clouds up in the sky, the same clouds that darken when the moisture they are comprised of gets too heavy, and starts to fall as raindrops.

Rain, yes!  Rain, of course!  The same rain that replenishes our rivers and streams, the same rain that in the winter falls as snow, and runoff from spring melting fills our reservoirs.  The same life sustaining rain that charlatans used to promise with their rain maker machines during periods of drought in the old days.  But, rain is not what we're talking about here.

There is now, thanks to science, 'real' science and technology, a way to extract that water from thin air without waiting for a cloudburst to appear, and that from a new startup called Source Global.  According to CNBC, and Bill Gates among others, Source Global has found a way, using sun powered hydro panels, to take water vapor from the air, compress it 10,000 times its normal concentration in the atmosphere, and convert those molecules to liquid water.  Clean, fresh, drinkable liquid water, and do it relatively cheaply to boot, for an individual home, or clustered for a small community.

How 'bout that now... ain't that somethin'.

Link: CNBC

#water #science #technology

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You are living in the past... that's how your brain works.

I once read an article about blind spots caused by the movements of your eyes.  It seems, for the brain to make sense of what is transmitted to it through the lens of your eyes, the eyes first must focus.  When your eyes move left or right, up or down, they are not focused, therefore creating a blind spot.  We see and comprehend what was there before they moved, and what is there after, but not during the movement itself.

Ok, I thought, what's the big deal?  So I can't see for that millisecond, less than the proverbial blink of an eye, and I let it go at that, until... I read a more recent article about what we actually see and assume we see.  How about, it takes 15 seconds for the mind to actually cobble together a series of images from eye movements, and 'then' it decides what's in front of us.

Huh?  What?  Wait... 15 seconds?  Yep, 15 seconds.  That's how long it takes for the brain to process the enormous amount of information that it's flooded with just from the blink of an eye.  It's just too much info, and no matter how amazing the human brain is, it can't handle all that data at once.

Think about it.  Stare at a picture and take note of all that you absorb, every little detail in that picture.  Now, move your eyes ever so slightly.  Same picture, but from a different perspective, so although the image is the same, the info we get from it is now completely different.  Multiply that by how many times your eyes moved while just reading this sentence.

Researchers have found that the brain makes a lot, a... lot..., of assumptions about what it sees, and from the first image it focuses on, to the last that it uses to make a final decision, takes about 15 seconds.

How scary is that?

The article at Science Alert gives an in-depth explanation, and I may never drive, or walk, or get out of my chair, again.

Link: Science Alert

#vision #science #sight #eyes

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You're going how fast?

 

This is a great little time waster, even though it only wastes a couple of minutes.  Interesting, informative, and pretty cool :)

[click the link below]

Link: Neal.fun

#fun #science #speed

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Elon Musk wants to plug-in your brain

 

Elon Musk [Tesla, Space X, etc] wants to delve into the realm of mind control.  Not in the sense we might initially think of, such as our minds being controlled, but instead, have our minds be the control mechanism.

This is the goal of a company he founded called Neuralink.  The immediate objective is to enable a human to control a computer through thought.  It's been done, you say?  You've seen Stephen Hawking on TV?  Well yes, to that extent, it's been done, but in Musk's world the idea goes much farther.  For instance, the ability to play video games just by thinking about each move would be little more than a transitional step in the process.

An intermediate goal [and intermediate in this case seems to be lacking] would be to have the Neuralink implant control the effects of Alzheimer's disease, Dementia, and Spinal cord injuries.

Now, about that implant... yes, all this would be accomplished by an implant inserted into your brain.  And which surgeon could perform such a task?  None, apparently, because the micro-scale threads that would be attached to prescribed areas of the brain are so small that no human hand could place them accurately.

That could be a problem, right?  Yep, except in Muskville it's no problem at all.  You just create a robot to do the surgery for you, and the robot part of all this is what takes us to the long term goals of this endeavor, human symbiosis with artificial intelligence.  Read that again... human symbiosis with artificial intelligence.

Do you remember this guy from Star Trek?

We are him and he is us.

To get a whole lot more information on the subject

follow the links below, so you can say

"Wow!"

"Amazing!"

or

"Oh sh_t"

 Whichever your preference may be.

Link: Teslarati

Link: Google search - Neuralink

Link: Interfacing with the brain

#elonmusk #science #neuralink #brain #implant 

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You have no willpower

 

No really, you don't, you have no willpower at all.  None, nada, zilch.  You can't decide to make changes in your life, or even your daily routine, and expect to be successful based on willpower alone, because willpower is a myth, it doesn't exist.

That's according to the scientists at the Brown University School of Medicine.  Their research shows, from a neuroscience perspective, willpower doesn't fit in with the way our brains work, with the way we're hardwired right from day one.  The brain actually makes decisions based on the primitive idea of rewards.

We may want to do things, based on emotion, but our brain digs a little deeper into the facts of the matter, and even if not immediately, it will eventually take us down the path that offers the most reward, whether we realize it or not.

Am I losing you yet?  Are you giving me the kind of smirk that says BS to all of this?  That you know you're a Strong Willed individual?  Well follow the link below and read on.  We've been told a lot lately to "Follow the Science", so go see what the science says.  You might even find out how to really quit smoking, stop overeating, or even keep a couple of those New Years Resolutions that never seem to pan out.

Link: Inverse.com

#willpower #science #brain

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