Speaking of writing ...

Here's a link to a Tech Nation interview with Maryanne Wolf, author of Proust and the Squid, an account of the neurological processes involved in writing and reading, and, more finely, the different systems involved in handling alphabetic versus pictographic scripts, like those used by Chinese, Japanese, and some other Asian languages.

Poetry to the rescue

Scott Adams, the creator of the Dilbert strip, lost his speaking voice, but was able to remap the connections between his brain and vocal chords, and speak again. How, you might ask? Well, by using one of poetry's old tricks.

(Thanks to Ezra Klein)