Kidding aside, this IS a cool story, bro. I loved this part:

The movie's popularity forced Peek to break out of his shell. He spent the next 21 years traveling the world mesmerizing audiences with his mental abilities. He has spoken to more than 64 million people and traveled nearly 3 million air miles, his father said. There have been 2,800 newspaper and magazine articles and 22 documentaries about Peek and his extraordinary capabilities.

While he always amazed people with his ability to recite facts, Kim Peek always encouraged his audiences to recognize and respect differences and treat others like they would want to be treated, said his father.

RIP

You know how we get songs stuck in our heads, stuff like that? I sometimes get Fark posts, of all things, re-running in my head for hours--I wake up in the morning and there they are, almost word for word. (Too bad I couldn't do that with college textbooks.) I wonder if this guy just had EVERYTHING running through his head constantly, everything he ever read or heard or said?

No wonder he was an "idiot." His internal monologue must have been deafening, practically blocking out the world.

I met him briefly in a hotel lobby one time - funny guy, really. Great sense of humor - would have been a good guest "star" on Big Bang Theory.

So he was born without Corpus Collosum ? Am I correct in thinking that when they did lobotomies, they cut the Corpus Collosum ? So made it posssible for this guy to remember almost everything, but for the folks treated this way, it removed their emotions ? How does this work ? Any neuro-savvy farkers want to enlighten me ?

20,160 minutes in 14 days, FYI. The more you know.

It never said if he was happy. =\

meh what a tard. Everything he ever knew could be looked up in a book. Could he create? Could he think? Could he convey any emotion?

balancing act: So he was born without Corpus Collosum ? Am I correct in thinking that when they did lobotomies, they cut the Corpus Collosum ? So made it posssible for this guy to remember almost everything, but for the folks treated this way, it removed their emotions ? How does this work ? Any neuro-savvy farkers want to enlighten me ?

The lobotomy cut the nerve connections to the pre-frontal cortex. It was introduced in the mid 1930's. They didn't really discover what the corpus callosum did until about 20 years later, sometime in the 1950's, I think.

balancing act: So he was born without Corpus Collosum ? Am I correct in thinking that when they did lobotomies, they cut the Corpus Collosum ? So made it posssible for this guy to remember almost everything, but for the folks treated this way, it removed their emotions ? How does this work ? Any neuro-savvy farkers want to enlighten me ?

Lobotomies, as the name implies, was supposed to sever the connection to the frontal lobes. Oftener than not, it destroyed the frontal lobes themselves. The corpus callosum connects the two halves of your brain; it is very infrequently severed in cases of people who have uncontrollable status epilepticus (people who have seizures more than once an hour) because it prevents the seizure from cascading from one side of the brain to the other.

vabeard: Heart attack?
Drugs.
well, it's not anorexia.

Probably swine flu. He wasn't autistic which means he didn't get the vaccine.

cretinbob: RIP Kim Peek

FTFA:

An MRI later showed that his brain lacked a corpus callosum -- the connecting tissue between the left and right hemispheres. Peek said his son's brain lacked the normal filtering system for receiving information. The condition left him able to retain nearly 98 percent of everything he read, heard or watched on television. The average person only retains about 45 percent.

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.

The movie's popularity forced Peek to break out of his shell. He spent the next 21 years traveling the world mesmerizing audiences with his mental abilities. He has spoken to more than 64 million people and traveled nearly 3 million air miles, his father said. There have been 2,800 newspaper and magazine articles and 22 documentaries about Peek and his extraordinary capabilities.


Pretty remarkable guy.

R.I.P. funny man.

So, I guess dying is all the rage now.

/Didn't get the memo

-1 Subby
-1000 to whoever approved this awful headline

About lobotomies (new window)

I don't know much about brain anatomy, but it sounds like nobody really knew what they were doing.

If you see some of those pictures where they're just jamming metal picks into people's eye sockets, that's not hard to believe.

What a sad tale, from start to finish.





RIP Corporal Peek

Britney Spear's Speculum: meh what a tard. Everything he ever knew could be looked up in a book. Could he create? Could he think? Could he convey any emotion?

I bet you're a blast at parties. I want to hang out with you.

555-FILK: Britney Spear's Speculum: meh what a tard. Everything he ever knew could be looked up in a book. Could he create? Could he think? Could he convey any emotion?

I bet you're a blast at parties. I want to hang out with you.

He's being a dick so hanging out with him might not be a good idea

Thank you Ball Zitch, Gyrfalcon and cryinoutloud for the info. So we are talking two different areas then ? Guess that makes sense. And cryinoutloud's link was really sad and disturbing.
Brains are pretty cool things.

Half Witt:
RIP Corporal Peek




RIP Corporal O'Reilly

Flakeloaf: cretinbob:

RIP Kim Peek

Holy crap nice reference.

I hope that his family donates his brain to science. No one understand idiot savants. Even the best minds of science have no clue as to how Kim was able to do the things he did.

This is a guy who memorized EVERY Zip code in the United States as well as their locations.

Try THAT the next time you are bored.

I love the RIP meme. It makes me laugh.

RIP Jim Varney

/hot

Rip Torn

Orbitoclasts look like this:

[Pic of transorbital lobotomy in progress] (slightly disturbing pic...Farker discretion is advised).

The thing sticking out of Howard Dully's eye socket is an obitoclast. It is being held by Walter Freeman.

I don't know which is more disturbing, the pic itself, or the amount of hair on Walter Freeman's forearm, or the lack of surgical gloves...so many choices.

very interesting article--thanks, subby

I have to agree with everyone else, the headline sucks, but I like where this thread is headed.

Kim Peek was amazing. I remember watching a documentary about him years ago. I would have loved to meet him and his father.

lindseyp: RIP Van Winkle

I lol'd

cretinbob:
...but could you imagine a world were everyone had that type of mental capacity?




You mean... a world without teabaggers?

BO-RING!

Paula_Deens_Spatuler: I don't know which is more disturbing, the pic itself, or the amount of hair on Walter Freeman's forearm

That picture was mis-labeled. It was actually his colleague, Dr. Zaius.

Don't worry, America. I'm sure that the mediocre and stupid Britney Murphy will hog all the spotlight this week for her "untimely" death brought upon herself by abusing her own body.

Kim Peek will be missed because he never had a pair of tits and isn't Entertainment Tonight worthy.

/rip America

veritas_aeternitas: I have to agree with everyone else, the headline sucks, but I like where this thread is headed.

Kim Peek was amazing. I remember watching a documentary about him years ago. I would have loved to meet him and his father.

I, for one, loved the "Time for Wapner" part of the headline.

The [ack] [thud] was sort of off for me since it probably was more a [wheeze] or [gasp] end given his respiratory infection.

/sad again
//window seat to count the pitchforks