A bit of news slipped passed me until today; on December 19th, at the age of 58, Kim Peek passed away from a heart attack. Peek was the inspiration for the movie “Rain Man” and possessed many unique talents. Of them included:
“• He could read two facing pages simultaneously, one with each eye.
• With that ability, he read 12,000 books and remembered every one of the pages.
• He knew so many plays and music pieces with absolute precision that he would be able to tell if an instrument was a note off in a philharmonic orchestra.
• He could remember every day in the calendar, area codes, ZIP codes, maps, countless classical compositions, a zillion trivia bits across dozens of fields in human knowledge and the arts, and give GPS-like directions for any city of the US.”
I have watched a few videos on Peek, he was quite an interesting person. I highly suggest that everyone take the time to watch this documentary on him.
Also, there is a well written obituary done by the NYT.