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A swifter mind is a more efficient mind...a more useful mind...a more powerful mind, and of course a more desirable mind. There is actually no such creature (or feature) as The SWIFT MINDS Breakthrough [it hardly even qualifies as a Lingovation], but it is a neat term to describe the effect upon the improvement in your associative intelligence, creativity, spontaneity, speed of thought and sense of irony when you engage in reading or creating those adverbial oddities (distantly related to the Paraprasdokians, our second favorite family, the first being the Halogens -- they're a gas!) which are now called " Tom Swifties ." Here's Wikipedia's take on these hysterical swords of wordplay (this part is boring, but it gets better fast -- I swear [all of the time]): "The name comes from the Tom Swift series of books (1910–present), similar in many ways to the better-known Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series, and, like them, produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate...

In the interest of Search Engine Optimization and attracting more "Mainstream Readers" from a growing population of abbreviators , texters, phonic spellers, urbanizers, ("Yo! U 'Aight?") hashtag huggers, semi- literate souls, libertine Lingovators , and other denizens of the world's 'audience', bloggers and other writers have had to increasingly limit their formerly extensive vocabularies to reach a steadily declining " lowest common denominator " of practical literacy. Simplified, this means that if I want to get more hits (and more unique visitors ) on my website or blog, I must state my message in terms that are getting simpler and simpler. I must lower my vocabulary skills and writing style to conform to that of the general public. For example, if I've interviewed a person and want to mention something that he had said, I would not write " The Senator indicated.. ." I would write " He admitted... " --- not on...

Plasticity, specifically neuroplasticity , has to do with the brain's: 1) Ability to expand its capacity and capabilities; 2) The ability of neurons to continue to grow and adapt to environmental changes, both within us and outside of our physical bodies but perceivable to our senses, both acknowledged and being discovered; 3) The ability of one neuron to assume the responsibilities and functions of another neuron, should that second neuron be either damaged or otherwise compromised by an increased workload. 4) The longevity of a neuron's life and functioning; 5) The ability (in terms of speed and accuracy) of one neuron to signal or connect with its neighbor intersynaptically. Frankly, increased or enhanced neuroplasticity are highly desirable in terms of both brain functioning and anti-aging (i.e., maintaining a positive, youthful state. The following article excerpt appears courtesy of BigThink 's Weekly Newsletter, which is an excellent source of information and inte...

When I was merely a young lad (with very little promise), my elementary teachers would frequently inquire of me, "Douglas -- are you sitting on your brains ?" {for some reason, the the 1960s, each of us had "brains" - plural - but none of us actually had a brain - singular - or half a brain. While we are speaking etymologically, one of my favorites when when a teacher would observe, hands on hips, with bitter sarcasm, " If you had half a brain, you'd be dangerous! " They saw this as a clever way of saying that we (the underachievers, daydreamers and juvenile delinquents ) each had less than half of a brain. I saw it as something different -- to me, I knew that I had a whole brain (albeit impaired in functionality) -- I just thought it axiomatic that if  reduced to half-brain status , anyone might be dangerous. With this logic, I managed to avoid being personally insulted. My teachers likely thought that I was just too stupid to be rightly insulted. B...

Image via Wikipedia  - Rene Descartes : philosopher, mathematician, theoretical physicist, and a fellow with an unkempt but nonetheless fascinating hairstyle. Most individuals don't actually understand the distinction between teaching (a third-person exercise) and learning (a first-person exercise).  When a wise philosopher [ most philosophers are assumed to be wise -- this is principally out of respect, I believe, for any person with the wondrous ability to a ) survive without actually having to either earn a living by some sort of work, or b ) with the good fortune to be leisurely whittling away at a substantial familial inheritance while pontificating about whatever happens to be on his or her mind ] said to one of his disciples ( every successful philosopher worth his weight in either hemlock or horse manure must have disciples ): " I will teach you nothing. And you will learn much from me," he was not even stating a clever paradox. There actually is no puzzle o...

Imagine trying to get to a finish line where with each leap you halve the distance remaining between you and your objective. Sounds good at first – but after a short period, you will realize that you can never actually get all the way there. You get closer and closer, halving the distance with each leap, but you won’t quite make it. Close, but no cigar. Your approach to the finish line is asymptotic . A mathematical limitation makes the intuitively simple task into the impossible conundrum. No matter how assiduously you proceed, you can merely cut the distance in half – even after a (theoretically) infinite number of leaps you cannot bridge that gap. The early leaps are the most productive…however, with each successive leap, your dilemma becomes clearer, and you become more frustrated . You have come up against a limiting mathematical constraint. The irony of this predicament is that although the objective is fixed, it might just as well be a moving target… retreating in smaller inc...