bodner088

By the way, the two fellows mentioned in the last post were 15 and 18 years old, respectively. Are you partially "Brain Blind ?" Is it far easier for you to recite the alphabet forwards than backwards? Much harder to count backwards down from 100 than up to 100? A struggle for you to carry on a present-moment conversation when you hear a favorite song playing in the background? Seemingly impossible to remember the names of three individuals to whom you've just been introduced? Very tough to remember the names, in order of seven or more random items within two minutes after you've had them, recited to you? Painfully difficult to recite the names of seven random items mentioned to you...even if reiterated three times in a row? You're not alone. We are, each of us [even those who faithfully read The Braintenance Blog ] handicapped to some extent when it comes to doing things with our minds which we would think to be easy. This is really a function of how we learn, ...

Several observations -- and do not look at your watch because you will be wasting valuable, irreplaceable time by the act of tracking it! Since you've been kind enough to stay with me for this length of time, I will attempt to add some "party conversation starting quotation" value to this post, with a quote from my closest associate, Mr. Douglas E. Castle : "Prepare for the future, because the present moment becomes history all too quickly." More Quotes follow, invoking paradoxes or infinitely self-recursive statements which provoke deeper and more expansive thought. The Human Mind, when challenged by a concept that warrants analysis (actually "validation" or acceptable analogy). "You cannot make up for lost time. No matter how expediently and ambitiously you accelerate the pace of your work, the unproductive present moment is permanently gone, except for its persistence in memory." "You cannot change the speed of the passage of time ...

Image ( somewhat distracting and annoying ) via Wikipedia Progress, from the starting line to the finish line , can occur in many different ways. Some start the race slowly but speed up toward the end, using reserves of strength; some jog along at a steady, even pace; still others virtually go into orbit at the start and burn out quickly to a vomitous, spleen-gripping, huff-and-puff walk. Since we are Braintenance , we will choose a five kilometer race, in which three mathematicians are competing. Each has a distinct running pattern, strategy or (ulp!) formula for spanning the distance. The question to answer regarding each runner is simply this: "How long will it take him (in minutes ) to reach the finish line to receive his souvenir Tee-shirt?" Of course, these Ts are only available in one size...XXL. Here's the lineup of our contestants : Racer 1 :  This fellow runs (on average) one kilometer every 18 minutes. Racer 2 :  This fellow starts the race at a rate of one ki...

Image (somewhat distracting and annoying) via Wikipedia Progress, from the starting line to the finish line , can occur in many different ways. Some start the race slowly but speed up toward the end, using reserves of strength; some jog along at a steady, even pace; still others virtually go into orbit at the start and burn out quickly to a vomitous, spleen-gripping, huff-and-puff walk. Since we are Braintenance, we will choose a five kilometer race, in which five mathematicians are competing. Each has a distinct running pattern, strategy or (ulp!) formula for spanning the distance. The question to answer regarding each runner is simply this: "How long will it take him (in minutes ) to reach the finish line to receive his souvenir Tee-shirt?" Here's the lineup of our contestants : Racer 1:  This fellow runs (on average) one kilometer every 18 minutes. Racer 2:  This fellow starts the race at a rate of one kilometer every 12 minutes, but his pace declines by 10% per kilom...

While you look at the above photo with doubt, aren't you just the slightest bit envious? We defragment our computers. We take our automobiles in for servicing after we've driven them for a while. We have blood drawn and go to doctors for all sorts of tests. Why is it that we each tend to put our own state of psychological and emotional health last on our list of life-maintenance priorities? We need to rest, re-set, re-calibrate and refresh our perspective from time to time... and we actually damage our incredibly complex and delicate inner workings by this 'customary' neglect. We burn out. We break down. We make bad decisions and say things that we regret. When we fail to maintain our brains, we do damage to ourselves, to those around us, and possibly (to those of you who are excited by theosophy , Rosicrucianism , collectivism, and the Celestine Prophesy sort of thing) even the Collective Consciousness . It would seem that we do a great deal of unintended harm by no...

Analogies are the tiniest components of thoughts and communications. Constructing good analogies is a skill. Seeing the logic in partial analogies presented to you (i.e., where a term is missing) builds your associative intelligence, pattern recognition skills, cause and effect reasoning and your verbal acuity. Analogies are mental muscle builders. Here are several simple ones to give you a small jolt of electromagnetic and biochemical stimulation today. Enjoy them! Fill in each blank with the best possible answer . 1. Century is to __________ as dollar is to dime. 2. __________ is to bottom as up is to down. 3.Hawk is to _____________ as war is to peace. 4. Cat is to kitten as lion is to ______________. 5. Tree is to forest as star is to _____________. 6. _____________ is to stage as chemist is to laboratory. 7. Inventor is to Edison as _________________ is to Columbus. 8. China is to __________ as Canada is to North America. 9. __________ is to moon as day is to night. 10. Hand is ...