RIP, Kim Peek (Who?)

Traubert · #1 22.12.2009, 09:27

We've had a spate of x and b-list celebrity death announcements recently (Whacko, Britanny Murphy for example).

For some reason we remain fascinated with them for no real reason, for some reason we feel touched by their pallid Hollywood lives. Perhaps we like our celebrities, like our artists; dead.

Wikipedia reference-link

Kim Peek, the Übersavant who was the inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbitt, played by Dustin Hoffman, in the movie Rain Man passed away on 19 December.

	Quote:
	As both a child and adult, Peek’s favorite place was the library, where he devoured books at a confounding rate. At the time of his death, Peek is believed to have committed at least 9,000 books to memory. He could recite so many gigabytes of facts that people often called him Kim-puter. NASA made him the subject of MRI-based research.

Now he must really have been interesting.

22 yards · #2 22.12.2009, 09:31

Well said, that man. (This is in lieu of Thanks!)

Lou · #3 22.12.2009, 09:34

I read the news a lot & watch 3 different news channels at home. I never saw this reported. At all. Anywhere. Is it not amazing that someone of note like Kim Peek can pass unnoticed whereas an actor or actress fills up column inches and has wall to wall coverage on TV. Thanks for positng Traubert.

Glendyn · #4 22.12.2009, 09:38

"His reading technique consisted of reading the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye and in this way he could read two pages at time with a rate of about 8-10 seconds per page."
WOW!

sygirl101 · #5 22.12.2009, 09:42

	Quote:	Glendyn
	"His reading technique consisted of reading the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye and in this way he could read two pages at time with a rate of about 8-10 seconds per page." WOW!

Gods, if I could do that, my studying would be such a trivial effort. Granted though, being a savant has other limiting factors.

PaddyG · #6 22.12.2009, 09:45

	Quote:	Glendyn
	"His reading technique consisted of reading the left page with his left eye and the right page with his right eye and in this way he could read two pages at time with a rate of about 8-10 seconds per page." WOW!

Most probably related to agenesis of the corpus collosum, the connection between the 2 brain hemispheres. Meaning each hemisphere can effectively act as an independant brain. Neurobiology is bloody fascinating.

krlock3 · #7 22.12.2009, 09:48

my two brain hemispheres must have upset each other in the past, they rarely seem on speaking terms these days.

Angela-74 · #8 22.12.2009, 10:09

Heres a link to the complete news article in yahoo:

http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies....in-man-dies-ap

simon_ch · #9 22.12.2009, 10:13

There was an extremely fascinating documentary about him on BBC once, will try to find it at at home. RIP.

sygirl101 · #10 22.12.2009, 10:26

I bet for his aging father who took care of him for his entire life, this will mean that he has to completely restructure his life. As a full time caretaker for almost 60 years, that must have been a long and difficult life.

But I think he was also very proud of his son, and would have happily continued to do so for as long as he was able to.