Inside the mind of an autistic savant

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126881.800-inside-the-mind-of-an-autistic-savant.html?full=true

A very interesting article on how an autistic savant looks at the world around him. This is specially unique as unlike the previous cases, he can tell you how he does that. The article is an interview with Daniel Tammet. Daniel Tammet is 29 and grew up in London as the eldest of nine children. He has Asperger's syndrome, synaesthesia and had epilepsy as a child. He has taught himself French, Finnish, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Welsh, Estonian, Icelandic and Esperanto. He works as a writer and linguist, and runs online language courses. In 2004 he set a European record for memorising the digits of pi (22,514 digits in 5 hours and 9 minutes). His new book Embracing the Wide Sky: A tour across the horizons of the human mind is out this month by Hodder & Stoughton (UK)/Free Press (US)

What I found the most interesting is the manner in which he sees numbers and language. Eg,.

“When somebody gives me a number, I immediately visualise it and how it relates to other numbers. I also see the patterns those relationships produce and manipulate them in my head to arrive at a solution, if it's a sum, or to identify if there is a prime.”

The same applies to how he sees languages –

“When there is an overlap between how I visualise a word and its meaning, that helps me remember it. For example, if a word that means "fire" in a new language happens to appear orange to me, that will help me remember it. But more significant is my memory and ability to spot patterns and find relationships between words. Fundamentally, languages are clusters of meaning - that is what grammar is about”.

“I like the word "kellokult", which means "clock debt". It's a way of emphasising that when you are late for something, it incurs a debt, you owe someone that time. There is also "rupuaigu", which means "bread time". It's a period of time, roughly an hour, that is the time it would take for bread to bake in an oven. What I like is that it is the same for everyone in the world. It's a more intuitive way of thinking about an hour.”

The Traffic Paradox - Do additional lanes contribute to overcrowding?

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE7D81530F936A15751C1A966958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

A very interesting article on how traffic congestion can paradoxically increase on the additional of additional lanes and vice versa. Essentially it implies that by suggesting that an additional option is available to people, the existing system tends to slow itself down as everybody crowds to the same route. Traffic is something I have begun to understand quite well in the past years and this brings a new perspective it all.

Getting Things Done- A review

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/05/06/review-getting-things-done/

A really nice review of this Iconic book on Productivity. Courtesy The Simple Dollar.

The Satyam saga

Satyam’s story is taking interesting turns of late now. And the repurcussions are going a bit beyond what I used to think as possible earlier. My earlier notions have been that the stock market and the share prices at best have a secondary effect on the parent company and companies are run based on what they bring home and not by the tribulations of the market. But this issue has made me reconsider my notions. Let me put it down in points:

• Satyam as a company has got its shares listed in the stock exchange and are driven by the general mood of stock market. Normal and boring.
• Then Mr. Raju decides to use some of Satyam’s cash pile to bail out his son’s companies and this has got the investor community up in arms. They start dumping shares en masse and this leads to a massive fall in the share price.
• So far, this is only a market issue with some repurcussions to the promotors but not the company as an entity. But then this changes. As it transpires, some of the promoter’s shares have been pledged to some institutions in exchange for cash and they have done the same further. The loss of share value means that the collateral is lesser in value than the loan. This forces the holder to start selling the shares to avoid any further loss.
• This changes the game completely, as the promoters might now have gone in minority and are liable to be ousted from the company. The company is now getting seriously affected.
• What happens next is to be seen closely……

Personally, it now looks out to be a long drawn out affair. I was hoping for a bonanza announcement this board meeting but the resignation of its directors has meant that such decisions will not be smoothly taken. Anyway, i still reiterate this stock to be a great buy at every fall. There are good short term rewards at the very least here.

The way the internet is moving

http://www.wired.com/software/webservices/news/2008/12/YE8_web

New developments in the web in 2008.