The original "angry" atheist! lol!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70vuRnnPIzE

I am fascinated of late by how language relays information to us. How it transmits data about factual states every bit as clearly if not moreso as our own senses can. Take the sentence: "There's someone standing behind you." Now that's a revelation to our awareness of an actual physical situation we did not perceive. It is easily confirmed by turning around and seeing someone standing behind you. But the fact of someone standing you is not contained in words. It is contained in atoms, and photons, and molecules, and space, and the neurons of your body. It is a geometrical construct of matter and space and light. How does language represent this state to us without us even previously knowing about it? I can think of nothing more UNLIKE a person standing behind me than the sentence written on a piece of paper, "Someone is standing behind you." And yet we know that fact the moment we read the sentence. We know it as certainly as when we turn around and confirm it.

Or do we? The truth of the sentence depends on whether what is says is actually the case. So this slipperiness of language, it's conditionality of truth, raises the disturbing question, does language ACTUALLY inform us of anything? A sentence is only known to be truly informative after it has been confirmed. But by that time, it no longer informs of us anything. It merely represents a description of our sensory confirmation of it. We now know the sentence "There's someone standing behind you." describes a factual state. But we didn't really know it till we turned around and looked. Does language inform us of anything then, if it's truth must always be confirmed perceptually?

A number of supplements tout their benefits for improving mood. I can vouch for one. Folic acid, or Vitamin B12, has significantly improved my mood on the days I take it. I take about 1600 mcg (4 400 mcg pills) and feel at peace and exuberant all day long. I also take effexor, which folic acid has been shown helps the body to absorb better. I wouldn't take folic acid every day though. Over time it seems to build up, and you start getting cranky and irritable. So only take it every few days, or only on days you feel really down. Here's a rundown on some other popular suplements used to treat depression. As usual, consult your doctor on this.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/06/11/sup...epression/

Pretty cool. But will you really want to go to work now?

https://youtu.be/j7FioTdZaEk

CARLSBAD -- "On sunny afternoons, this stretch of beach 35 miles north of San Diego offers a classic Southern California backdrop: joggers, palm trees and surfers, flanked by waves rolling in and pelicans soaring overhead.

But just across the road, another scene, unlike any other in the state's history, is playing out: More than 300 construction workers are digging trenches and assembling a vast network of pipes, tanks and high-tech equipment as three massive yellow cranes labor nearby.

The crews are building what boosters say represents California's best hope for a drought-proof water supply: the largest ocean desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere. The $1 billion project will provide 50 million gallons of drinking water a day for San Diego County when it opens in 2016.

Since the 1970s, California has dipped its toe into ocean desalination --talking, planning, debating. But for a variety of reasons -- mainly cost and environmental concerns-- the state has never taken the plunge.

Until now
.
Fifteen desalination projects are proposed along the coast from Los Angeles to San Francisco Bay. Desalination technology is becoming more efficient. And the state is mired in its third year of drought. Critics and backers alike are wondering whether this project in a town better known as the home of Legoland and skateboard icon Tony Hawk is ushering in a new era....===http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25...es-up-near

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/...iscovery0/

EXCERPT: [...] Does this footage offer anything new for our understanding of Earhart's Amelia’s last flight?

You do notice differences in this moment at the beginning of the flight versus photos that we see throughout the [final] flight with the plane. You start to notice that she had been making changes specifically to radio equipment in the antennas. And you ask, why did she do these things? Because looking back, we see that these choices inhibited her communication ability. It significantly shortened the range that she was able to communicate with. It could have been the difference between a success and failure....

http://www.science20.com/news_articles/i...sue-156028

EXCERPT: Electronic devices that can be injected directly into the brain, or other body parts, have been a staple of science fiction for decades - and they seem a little closer to reality if you visit Charles Lieber's chemistry lab at Harvard.

A team of international researchers, led by Lieber, has developed a method for fabricating nano-scale electronic scaffolds that can be injected via syringe. Once connected to electronic devices, the scaffolds can be used to monitor neural activity, stimulate tissues and even promote regenerations of neurons.

In an earlier study, scientists in Lieber's lab demonstrated that the scaffolds could be used to create "cyborg" tissue - when cardiac or nerve cells were grown with embedded scaffolds. Researchers were then able to use the devices to record electrical signals generated by the tissues, and to measure changes in those signals as they administered cardio- or neuro-stimulating drugs....

https://omnireboot.com/2015/philip-k-dic...-festival/

EXCERPT: Calling all sci-fi video enthusiasts! The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival will be returning to New York City in January 2016, and they are in need of some new submissions. [...] They are looking for films that push the cinematic form to new levels of creativity and originality without sacrificing narrative cohesion and with an eye to the ineffable. They look at films that challenge the viewers reality with ideas and concepts not normally found in conventional stories. If you think you have the winning video for the Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival, then start your submissions now!

[...] The mission of the Philip K. Dick Film Festival is to promote original or adapted material inspired by the works of Philip K. Dick, Jorge Luis Borges, Italo Calvino, Robert Anton Wilson, Franz Kafka, and others who have explored the metaphysical, the eerie in all its manifestations.

[...] Philip K. Dick wrote mind-bending stories that explored sociological, political, and metaphysical themes. Dick published 44 novels and over one-hundred short stories. Numerous Philip K. Dick stories have been turned into films. One of his most famous books, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, was recently released as a graphic novel for a new generation....