Savant Syndrome & Extraordinary People

Savant syndrome is not a recognized medical diagnosis but researchers define it as a rare case where a person has developmental disorders but has one or more areas of expertise, abilities or brilliance.

A well-known case is Kim Peek the real person behind the character played by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rain Man. Around 50% of savants are autistic and the other half suffer from various disorders. Kim Peek is a savant but is not autistic. He has a photographic memory and can read a book in about an hour (speed reading) and remember about 98.7% of everything he has read. He can recall the content of 12,000 books from memory :D. He is also a natural calculator. The fame he received due to being the "real rain man" has improved his social skills.

There are other well-known savants including writers and musicians. Some people develop their abilities later in life as a result of an accident, illness or trauma. Alonzo Clemons was a normal boy until he suffered brain damage as a result of a fall. After that he could build accurate animal sculptures from clay using his photographic memory. Some scientists believe the potential to become a genius is actually in all people but is hidden by normal functioning intellect. Savants suffer from damage to the brain which disrupts normal functioning and allows the brain to access these hidden skills.

There are some extraordinary people out there. I saw some documentaries about these people. A young boy who lost his eyesight due to disease could actually "see" using sound waves. A man that can survive unbelievably cold temperatures. A woman that can see sound in the form of color ribbons. Rudiger Gamm is a mental calculator who gained his amazing ability at the age of 21. He can calculate complex math in his head. He can also speak complete sentences backwards :D. He can also calculate calenders and has proved mathematic theories due to his remarkable ability. Rudiger Gamm gained his ability almost overnight as he was reading a book of numbers which had a table of the powers of numbers. He says that anyone can do what he does, "There is just a table of numbers to learn then anyone can do it". His case was examined and he was not classified as a savant but rather as a case of genetics. You can see a clip about him here. You'll find more links to extraordinary people from there.

This is interesting stuff!

Types of Intelligence

Psychologist Howard Gardner proposed a "theory of multiple intelligences" to more accurately define the concept of intelligence and to address whether techniques of measuring intelligence were scientifically sound.

He classified intelligence into the following:

1. Bodily-kinesthetic (intelligence linked to physical activities)
2. Interpersonal (intelligence in interaction with others)
3. Verbal-linguistic (spoken and writing intelligence)
4. Logical-mathematical (intelligence in logic, abstractions, reasoning and numbers)
5. Naturalistic (nature, nurture and relating info to one's natural surroundings)
6. Intrapersonal (introspective and self-reflective capacity)
7. Visual-spatial (visual and spatial judgment)
8. Musical (intelligence in rhythm, music and hearing)

The classification was originally seven but Gardner later added an eighth (Naturalistic intelligence).

Gardner also suggested and explored other intelligences including spiritual, existential and moral but excluded them from the classification because they overlapped with the 8 above and were hard to determine compared to the other intelligences.


So which is your strongest intelligence?

Full article: here

Movie Mania: Benjamin Button and Slumdog

I've watched two movies this past week and both have blown me away.

The first is The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and the second is Slumdog Millionaire.

My advice is go watch them both! They're both intriguing films.

The first one started me thinking about how if we had experience in life at a young age, how different we would live our life - in other words - If I had all the experience of years of living, how different would I live my life as a youngster. It also got me thinking about how similar our lives are at the beginning and near the end. We need to be taken care of and nursed on both ends of the line. We loose control over our brain. We no longer become conscious of our memories.

The Slumdog movie was thrilling! It's a symbol of love and hope. Lots more in there by the way, so you should check it out.

Pretty interesting films!

Farewell of Fury

Farewells...I hate them but we can't live without them. Unfortunately we have to bid farewell sometimes and take alternative paths in life. Today is my first day in that alternative path and I'm caught in a nostalgia of the past year and eight months. I'll miss is, but after all, changes are the spices of life. Without them life would be dull and monotonous. A change is needed every once in a while :D.

I was given a farewell fit for the famous :D. I was beaten up, written on, pushed around, sat on, poked with a fork, chased around, given a beautiful and tasty cake and was about to be put in the shower with my clothes on. There was even an attempt to take off my shoes and tickle me to death :). What a farewell!!!! :D. It was fun.
All in the name of fun and the expression of joy to see me leave...lol.

This is what I looked like after the farewell. Unfortunately i didn't have my camera that day so you'll have to accept the primitive quality of the cake-picker's iphone :P.

Facebook Withdraws New Terms

Facebook, after much opposition, has reverted its terms to the old one prior to the recent changes. Thank goodness!

See the previous post for information regarding the changes Facebook made to its terms of service.

Facebook Owns You

I just heard the news that Facebook has updated its terms of service.
Now it claims that it owns or at least shares your uploaded content!!!
It gives them the right to use and sublicense your uploaded content in anyway they see fit (though they claim fairplay!) even after you "delete" anything. They can use your photos in ads for example. They can use your name, image and likeness for commercial purposes and advertisement.



Of course a reaction has been boiling up against this change. 80,000+ users joined a group protesting these new terms ("People Against the new Terms of Service (TOS)"). What happened to Facebook! It is no longer the little innocent startup; they have transformed into another evil empire :S. They even hold the right to use content you have deleted from their network!!!!! This is outrageous! The other social networks are not like this. Twitter has no intellectual right to your content. Myspace can use your non-private content for myspace services only and this right is deleted with the deletion of the content. Youtube also claims a limited license to your uploaded videos and this halts after deletion.

This is an insidious move by Facebook!

For a detailed description, visit here

The Slow Suffocation

I was on my way to a shop in a populated district of Cairo one day. I usually try to avoid this area due to its packed streets and traffic-jams. I had to circle a number of times around my target destination to find a parking spot. The streets were unbelievably packed, either side. Rows and rows of cars lining the tiny streets. In many cases there were two rows of cars parked and cars parked on the sidewalks. Sidewalks literally do not exist in most of Cairo. This left only one tiny lane for cars to move through, and in many cases for the cars to move through both ways.

Its an absolute disgrace and should be at the top of someone's priorities. In some cases in Haram (a Western district of Cairo which contains the Great Pyramids of Giza) there are roads that to me look more like a mountain range of dusty asphalt than an actual drivable road. I seriously can't believe that there is governance that have overlooked this for a very long time. Its more like the place is governing itself and the people are struggling along.

There are two vital roads that are traffic arteries in the Haram area. They decided to build a flyover connection which goes along one of them. Fair enough. This has been going on for a long time now and has literally blocked the this artery. I try to avoid it altogether. To make things worse they have decided to also start construction on the other vital road. They are doing something about the rubbish-filled Nile tributary which runs along the middle of the road. They are filling it up or something. So now you have two critical routes blocked with construction. I spent a hell of a long time in one of them a few days ago. Unfortunately I'm going to have to make that same trip again so I'm praying for a skycar or something to get me passed the hordes of cars, trucks and lorries.

Hoping for the best...