Fascinating Stories: Daniel Tammet

The Boy with the Incredible Brain

This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world’s few savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He also meets the world’s most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film Rain Man. [2005, Length: 47:32]

Watch video free online: video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4913196365903075662
Daniel’s Web site: www.optimnem.co.uk/media.php

Laugh of the Day

Again from my friends Bill & Rob:

Get Out of the Car!

An elderly Florida lady did her shopping and, upon returning to her car, found four males in the act of leaving with her vehicle. She dropped her shopping bags and drew her handgun, proceeding to scream at the top of her lungs, “I have a gun, and I know how to use it! Get out of the car!” The four men didn’t wait for a second threat. They got out and ran like mad.

The lady, somewhat shaken, then proceeded to load her shopping bags into the back of the car and got into the driver’s seat. She was so shaken that she could not get her key into the ignition. She tried and tried, and then she realized why...it was for the same reason she had wondered why there was a football, a Frisbee and two 12 packs of beer in the front seat.

A few minutes later, she found her own car parked four or five spaces farther down. She loaded her bags into the car and drove to the police station to report her mistake. The sergeant to whom she told the story couldn’t stop laughing.

He pointed to the other end of the counter, where four pale men were reporting a car jacking by a mad, elderly woman described as white, less than five-feet-tall, glasses, curly white hair, and carrying a large handgun.

No charges were filed.

Moral of the story? If you’re going to have a Senior Moment, make it memorable.

Editing Tip(s) of the Day

The Apostrophe. The apostrophe has three uses:

1) to form possessives of nouns
2) to show the omission of letters
3) to indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters

Apostrophes are NOT used for possessive pronouns or for noun plurals, including acronyms.

The apostrophe should not be confused with the right closing single quotation mark (usually rendered identically but serving a quite different purpose).

’ or ’ notice the direction? ' You may use a straight single quote, but be consistent in your document. Never use ‘ or ‘ which is a left single quote.

Examples:

If you have one cat: The cat’s water bowl needs to be filled with clean water.
If you have more than one cat: The cats' water bowls are dirty.

To omit letters: Don’t (do not), ’cause (omitting ‘be’), should’ve (should have omitting an ‘ha’), it’s (it is), I’ll (I will).
To omit numbers: ’90s means the 1990s (omitting ‘19’) NOT 90’s (used for temperature) or ‘90s (notice you don’t use a left single quote, never!).

Plurals of lowercase letters: Mind your p’s & q’s.

Here are two references: owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_apost.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe

T-Shirt of the Day

Thanks to my friend Brian for this great find!

These t-shirts are only $18.00 + $2 Shipping. Click on the image to order. A portion of the proceeds help GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)!

No one saw it coming, but J.K. Rowling surprised the world by outing one of her characters in her highly popular Harry Potter fantasy series of books. The fictional character Dumbledore is the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

“My truthful answer to you...I always thought of Dumbledore as gay,” said Rowling.

After prolonged ovation Rowling repied, “If I’d known it would make you so happy, I would have announced it years ago!”

Show your wizardly pride, visit www.dumbledorepride.com and order your t-shirt today!

I have no affiliation with dumbledorepride.com.

Photo of the Day

Cloud Gate on the AT&T Plaza in Millennium Park, Chicago

According to www.millenniumpark.org:

Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor’s first public outdoor work installed in the United States. The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect the city’s famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a “gate” to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives.

Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high. Cloud Gate sits upon the At&T Plaza, which was made possible by a gift from AT&T.

What I wanted to do in Millennium Park is make something that would engage the Chicago skyline…so that one will see the clouds kind of floating in, with those very tall buildings reflected in the work. And then, since it is in the form of a gate, the participant, the viewer, will be able to enter into this very deep chamber that does, in a way, the same thing to one’s reflection as the exterior of the piece is doing to the reflection of the city around.

~Anish Kapoor

The locals in Chicago call it The Bean. According to blogger, Cory Doctorow...after AT&T (now SBC) donated the sculpture, the city hired security guards to keep professional photographers from photographing the mirrored sculpture unless they first obtained a $350 permit. Well, the city has since reversed its position and anyone can photograph this beautiful piece of art.

Millennium Park is located in the heart of downtown Chicago. It is bordered by Michigan Avenue to the west, Columbus Drive to the east, Randolph Street to the North and Monroe Street to the South.

The park is open daily from 6 A.M.–11 P.M. Admission is always free.

Visitors to the Millennium Park are encouraged to make the Millennium Park Welcome Center their first stop. The Welcome Center is located at 201 E. Randolph Street in the Northwest Exelon Pavilion.

The Welcome Center has information about the park, including maps and program schedules or you could download a map of Millennium Park now. You could also click here to download the Millennium Park Brochure, which contains detailed information about the park’s art and architecture.

For more information about Millennium Park, you can also download the new Millennium Park audio tour AT NO CHARGE for your computer or MP3 player.

Next time you’re in Chicago take a picture and send it to me. I’ll post it here! Thanks.

Today's Words to Define

fatuous
feckless
fiduciary
filibuster
gamete

fatuous: \fāch'ōō-əs\; devoid of intelligence; foolish or silly, especially in a smug or self-satisfied way; inanely foolish and unintelligent; stupid.
feckless: \fěk'lĭs\; not fit to assume responsibility; generally incompetent and ineffectual; lacking purpose or vitality; feeble or ineffective; careless and irresponsible.
fiduciary: \fĭ-dōō'shē-ěr'ē, -shə-rē, -dyōō'-, fī-\; relating to or of the nature of a legal trust (i.e. the holding of something in trust for another); a person who holds assets in trust for a beneficiary.
filibuster: \fĭl'ə-bŭs'tər\; a legislator who gives long speeches in an effort to delay or obstruct legislation that he (or she) opposes; (law) a tactic for delaying or obstructing legislation by making long speeches.
gamete: \gām'ēt', gə-mēt'\; a mature sexual reproductive cell having a single set of unpaired chromosomes; a reproductive cell having a single set of chromosomes, especially a mature sperm or egg.