Optimnem Blog: The Blog of Daniel Tammet

Ciudad de Las Ideas

2011-11-16T14:50:00.002Z

Just returned from speaking at the wonderful Ciudad de Las Ideas festival in Puebla, Mexico. Honoured to have been invited to take part alongside a wide variety of speakers that included the filmmaker Oliver Stone, Nobel economist Paul Krugman, neuroscientist David Eagleman, and Olympic swimmer Mark Spitz, among others. Enjoyed some very stimulating conversations behind the scenes with mathematicians Amir Aczel (origins of the zero, and computer-generated proofs) and Arthur Benjamin (combinatorics).

Beautiful weather for my first trip to Central America. 24C in November - for a European like me it was quite the surprise! Loved the colourful buildings, baroque churches, and eating tortillas with refried beans for breakfast.

You can find out more about the festival, and watch the presentations as they are uploaded at: http://www.ciudaddelasideas.com/

Portrait by Siegfried Woldhek for TED2011

2011-06-29T11:45:00.003Z

A fun portrait of me by the artist Siegfried Woldhek for my TED2011 talk. Find more examples of his work on the artist's flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/woldhek/

Ted2011 Talk Now Online

2011-06-22T08:09:00.003Z

My TED2011 presentation in Long Beach, California, filmed in March 2011, is now available to watch via the TED.com website:

http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_tammet_different_ways_of_knowing.html

Booking Me to Speak in the UK

2011-03-31T17:11:00.003Z

A quick note for those interested in having me speak at their company, conference, school, university, in the UK: I am now represented by the JLA speakers agency in London and can be booked directly through them. Here is my profile: http://www.jla.co.uk/conference-speakers/daniel-tammet

Speaking at TED2011

2011-03-06T18:28:00.003Z

I've just returned from a week in Long Beach, California, where I was invited to speak at the annual TED event. It was a wonderful experience and amazing to meet such inspiring people and share my own thoughts and ideas with a large and diverse public.

TED talks generally last no longer than 18 minutes, and my session's time limit was shorter still: a maximum of 12 minutes. Worried as I was as I prepared my remarks in the days and weeks beforehand, I actually came in nicely under the set limit with a whole ninety seconds to spare!

Beautiful weather on the West Coast of course, and delicious seafood too. Definitely worth the jet lag!

New Artwork

2011-01-17T13:16:00.003Z

The artwork page has been updated and now includes a new limited edition print (of how I visualise the sum 53 x 131 = 6943) as well as a series of number synaesthetic photos by the photographer Jerome Tabet. All prints and photos are available for purchase. Find our artwork page here: http://www.optimnem.co.uk/artwork.php

Brain: The Inside Story - Museum of Natural History New York

2010-10-27T15:48:00.002Z

I invite all New Yorkers to visit the fascinating new 'Brain - the Inside Story' exhibition opening November 2010 at the Museum of Natural History. My Pi recitation record forms part of the 'Memory' section and my books will be available for purchase at the exhibition's 'brain bookstore'.

For more information: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/brain/

Idea Festival - Louisville Kentucky 1 Oct 2010

2010-08-24T16:11:00.003Z

I will be a guest speaker at this year's fantastic Idea Festival in Louisville, Kentucky. My event at Kentucky's Center for the Performing Arts starts at 3pm on 1 October. For more information about the festival, and my lecture: http://www.ideafestival.com/

France's 'Most Read' Books of 2009

2010-03-25T19:15:00.007Z

France's Express magazine has named my second book "Embracing the Wide Sky" (Embrasser le Ciel Immense) as one of the country's 'most read' books of 2009. On March 16th I attended a ceremony at the Fouquet's restaurant in Paris. A photo of the authors was taken (I'm top right), and yes that is the former President Jacques Chirac in the middle! A very memorable day and a wonderful honour.

Click the photo (copyright Express magazine) to see in larger version.

Le magazine L'Express a nommé mon deuxieme livre 'Embrasser le Ciel Immense' l'un des 'plus lus' de l'année 2009. Le 16 Mars j'ai assisté a une ceremonie au Fouquet's a Paris. Je suis en haut a droite sur la photo des auteurs, et oui c'est le Président Chirac au milieu ! Une journée dont je me souviendrai et un grand honneur.

Cliquez sur la photo (copyright l'Express) pour l'agrandir.

A Tribute to Kim Peek (1951-2009)

2009-12-21T17:42:00.004Z

I would like to say a few words to pay tribute to Kim Peek, who passed away December 19th, at age 58. I was informed yesterday morning, but wanted to await Kim’s father Fran’s permission before making the news public.

For those who don’t know, Kim was the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar-winning movie ‘Rain Man’.

I met Kim and his father Fran in July 2004, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our time together was filmed for the documentary film “Brainman” (pun intended) and many viewers subsequently told me that this sequence was the highlight of the film. I also dedicated a chapter of my 2006 memoir “Born On A Blue Day” to our encounter.

Kim was a remarkable human being, blessed with astonishing mental gifts; he also battled numerous handicaps throughout his life. At the same time, he was funny, provocative, and down-to-earth. I remember fondly how he regaled me (and the documentary’s film crew) with all manner of facts and jokes, tunes and anecdotes. When I interviewed his father Fran, he was unsurprisingly extremely proud of his son, and vividly described Kim’s history and current life, which included much travel across the States with the important message that difference needn’t be a disability, because everyone’s different.

The memory I most treasure of Kim is of our mutual feelings of joy and excitement at finding someone who understood, in some small way, what it was like to think and feel and perceive the world very differently. We spent a long time swapping facts and figures with the kind of affection normally reserved for the gossip and reminiscences of old friends. And it really did feel as if we had known each other for years. There was a warm and wonderful ease and intimacy between us. I was and remain profoundly moved and inspired by the experience.

Meeting Kim and Fran helped me to learn much about what it means to be a savant, and a man. Kim faced his condition, its blessings and its burdens, with great courage, humour, and dignity. I must also pay homage to the tremendous and untiring dedication of Fran, on whom Kim depended and of whom he famously said: “We share the same shadow.”

Rest in Peace.

(If you would like to learn more about Kim's life and about Savant syndrome in general, please visit the excellent website by Dr. Darold Treffert, the world's leading expert on the condition: http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant_syndrome/whats_new)

New York Times Article

2009-11-03T08:46:00.002Z

Apologies for the long hiatus - I'm busy at work on my third book (more details on which to follow). In the meantime, I'm posting a link to today's article in the New York Times which references me and 'Embracing the Wide Sky' and includes a recent photo and some of my number drawings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/health/03asperger.html

Interview in Paris Match

2009-04-21T19:09:00.002Z

An interview with me appears in this week's Paris Match - for those who read French, it can be read in full online here: http://www.parismatch.com/Actu-Match/Societe/Actu/Autisme-Asperger-un-handicap-invisible-90878/

Interview in Scientific American Mind

2009-04-17T16:13:00.002Z

The April edition of 'Scientific American Mind' has an interview with me entitled 'Learn to Think Better: Tips from a Savant'. You can read it online here: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=think-better-tips-from-a-savant

French drawing for my book

2009-03-27T17:01:00.002Z

A great illustration in last week's 'Livre Hebdo' magazine in France for an article on my book 'Embrasser le Ciel Immense' (Embracing the Wide Sky). The mother is scolding her child: 'How does one recognise a precocious genius? He writes on paper, not the walls!' to which her son replies: 'I didn't mean to!'

Pi Poem

2009-03-10T13:37:00.003Z

Here is a new poem I just wrote, in English and French, for Pi Day (March 14th):

PI

Three, One, Four, One, Five, and On
The numbers recount their endless tale.
Three - Barefoot green, a silent voice.
White as hunger, One is twice
Bright like babies’ eyes.
Four is timid, envious of E.
Five, Punctuation or a pregnant sigh
Precedes proud Nine, colour of falling night.
Two, an unfastened knot,
A wayward wind, the hollow of Six resounding.
Nearby, Eight, a cloud of fireflies above a lake
Over which I skim Sevens
Remembering that Zero is nothing but a circle.

PI

Trois, Un, Quatre, Un, Cinq, et ainsi de suite
Les chiffres racontent leur histoire sans limite.
Trois – vert, les pieds nus, une voix silencieuse.
Blanc comme la faim, Un est vif
Comme les yeux d’un bébé.
Quatre est timide, envieux du E.
Cinq, ponctuation ou soupir lourd
Précède le Neuf fier, couleur d’une nuit tombante.
Deux, un nœud défait, vent rebelle,
Comme le creux du Six qui résonne.
Tout près, Huit, nuage de lucioles au dessus d’un lac
Sur lequel je fais des ricochets avec les Septs
En me souvenant que Zéro n’est rien qu’un cercle.

Embracing the Wide Sky German Edition

2009-02-21T09:33:00.002Z

I'll be in Hamburg, Germany, next week to promote the German edition of 'Embracing the Wide Sky' entitled 'Wolkenspringer' (cloud jumper!) Here's what the book looks like:

CBC Hour photos on Flickr

2009-02-10T09:51:00.003Z

A set of photos from my interview on CBC's 'The Hour' with George Stroumboulopoulos has been put up by the production team on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thehour/sets/72157613020564237/

Interview in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

2009-02-09T16:15:00.003Z

Here's an interview I recently gave on my book (German translation available by Patmos, entitled Wolkenspringer) and ideas:

http://www.faz.net/ (type 'Tammet' to find article - the link is too long to include in full here!)

Globe and Mail bestseller!

2009-02-02T17:46:00.001Z

'Embracing the Wide Sky' has made the Globe & Mail bestseller list in Canada:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/v5/content/books/hardcover.html

Book Review in the 'Telegraph'

2009-02-02T16:36:00.003Z

A book review for 'Embracing the Wide Sky' was published this last weekend in the 'Telegraph' (UK). A few extracts:

"He tells us that people with autism can be abundantly creative. If we think of the condition simply as one that leads people to take in a whole world of information without editing the irrelevant bits, and making the connections necessary to make sense of, say, social situations, we’re missing something exciting. It’s the connections somebody with the condition does make that are important. After all, poets link the unexpected because they make associations between parts of their experience that are often disparate. Tammet quotes from the Borges story “Funes the Memorious”: “He remembered the shapes of the clouds in the south at dawn on April 20, 1882, and he could compare them in his recollection with the marble grain in the design of a leather-bound book which he had seen only once.”

Here, Tammet is telling us about the benefits of forgetting, but it serves his purpose about the links, too. The way he remembers so many numbers, or the succession of American presidents, or masters languages, is to make this information part of a coherent world, and he reminds us that “these dots of data make most sense when they contribute to something greater than ourselves”."

"The book is full of information such as this, packed with his clear summaries of fascinating experiments. Does the principle behind six degrees of separation work? Can babies count? Will computers ever hold a conversation? Can you think in two ways at once? At times the nuggets he gives us can seem like diverting trivia, and there’s a pleasing amount here that looks like digression but isn’t, so we can enjoy the splendour with which it all coheres, just as the author does."

"Recent debate has bumped up this book from delightful to vital, because we are learning that it is possible to scan babies in utero to see how likely it is that they have autism. If you read Embracing the Wide Sky you might well wonder what the point would be. For one thing, as Tammet points out, there are as many sorts of autism as there are people with autism, so perhaps these tests won’t tell us much. And for another thing, as the author demonstrates, the joys that a brain and its insights can bring, be it in Bach or prime numbers, can be intense and life-affirming, whether you’re ordinary, extraordinary, or both at once."

You can read the whole review here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/4398614/Embracing-the-Wide-Sky-a-Tour-Across-the-Horizons-of-the-Human-Mind-by-Daniel-Tammet---review.html

Interview in The Australian

2009-01-30T13:53:00.002Z

My interview with Australia's national paper 'The Australian' has just appeared online - you can find it here: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24986084-26040,00.html

I'm particularly humbled by the compliments of Australia's prize-winning neuroscientist Professor Allan Snyder (whose work I write about in 'Embracing the Wide Sky') who describes my book in the article as: "an extraordinary and monumental achievement...It is as if he has packed 12 years of research into this book, it is intellectually rigorous, insightful and beautifully written for anybody let alone somebody with autism."

UK and Canada Bestseller!

2009-01-30T12:48:00.002Z

'Embracing the Wide Sky' has just hit the UK bestseller list - no.8 in today's the Independent/Waterstone's chart. It has also made the amazon.ca non-fiction bestseller list (no.9). Thanks to all my readers for their fantastic support!

Swedish Article

2009-01-30T08:47:00.002Z

http://www.svd.se/nyheter/idagsidan/halsa/artikel_2382795.svd

French edition of 'Embracing the Wide Sky'

2009-01-26T14:34:00.003Z

The French edition of 'Embracing the Wide Sky' (Embrasser le Ciel Immense) is now available - I translated the book myself, with the kind assistance of my partner Jerome.

For any francophones reading this: Je serai sur le plateau du 'Grand Journal' (Canal Plus) mardi le 27 janvier a partir de 20h!

Articles in the Times and FT

2009-01-26T10:42:00.002Z

Here are a couple of articles that have just appeared in the Times and the Financial Times on my new book 'Embracing the Wide Sky' and its ideas:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article5575661.ece

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/35b1fd0e-e8db-11dd-a4d0-0000779fd2ac.html

Promotional tour photos

2009-01-24T17:09:00.009Z

Appearing on CBC's 'The Hour' with host George Stroumboulopoulos

UK edition of 'Embracing the Wide Sky'

Signing copies of 'Embracing' in Toronto

Giving a talk at London's Science Museum Dana Centre

With psychiatrist Dr. Norman Doidge and Canadian TV presenter Steve Paikin for the TVO show 'The Agenda'

In the hot seat for an interview for 'Good Morning America NOW' in New York

CBC 'The Hour' Interview

2009-01-16T16:20:00.002Z

On Wednesday I appeared on CBC's late night show 'The Hour' and talked with host George Stroumboulopoulos about my life and ideas, and put him to the test as you'll see in this link to the interview!:

http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/videos.html?id=999589223

Overcoming Information Overload

2009-01-16T16:18:00.001Z

Here's an excerpt (from chapter 8) from my new book 'Embracing the Wide Sky' that's appearing on the online version of the 'Advocate' magazine:

http://www.advocate.com/exclusive_detail_ektid70108.asp

Scientific American Interview

2009-01-08T16:47:00.002Z

I recently did an interview for Scientific American, discussing some of the ideas in my new book 'Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind'. Here's the link:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=savants-cognition-thinking

On Perception

2009-01-04T18:56:00.003Z

Here are a couple of extracts and an image from chapter 7 (on vision/perception) of my new book 'Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind':

"Color is a good way to illustrate the remarkable variety and subjectivity of our perceptions. The range of colors that we see when we look around us, though impressive, is in fact far from exhaustive. Humans are normally able to perceive colors with wavelengths of 400 nanometers (violet) through to 700 nanometers (red), with purples, blues, greens, yellows and oranges in between. Birds, however, can see what we cannot – ultraviolet range colors with shorter wavelengths (between 340 and 400nm). For every color that we see, our feathered friends see many more. "

(From a later section of the chapter:)

"Ambiguous images have long been a staple of optical illusions – images that are designed to demonstrate the vagaries of our perceptions. The ‘open book’ illusion, for example, invented by the German psychologist Ernst Mach, can be seen as either open towards or away from the viewer. Once both perspectives are seen, the viewer’s eye will oscillate between the two representations as our brains try to make sense of what it is seeing..."

On Creativity

2009-01-03T15:42:00.003Z

Here are a couple of short extracts from chapter 6 (on creativity) of my new book 'Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind':

"Like the philosophers of the past, today’s neuroscientists are seeking to understand what makes some people especially creative. Some believe the answer to this age-old enigma can be found in the biology of the brain. Synaesthesia, the scientific term for a mingling of the senses, offers a valuable window on how the brain produces original, creative thoughts, according to neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran who has been studying the phenomenon for the past two decades"

(From a later section of the chapter:)

"Linguists have long been intrigued by cases of healthy young children (usually twins) who invent their own languages between themselves, without any special assistance or training from adults...This exuberant invention of original word forms by young children has been documented in a range of languages around the world, suggesting that such creativity may be a natural part of the process by which some children acquire a full grasp of their native language."

The book is available now for purchase online at: www.amazon.com/Embracing-Wide-Sky-Across-Horizons/dp/1416569693

Interview in the New Scientist

2009-01-02T22:19:00.003Z

The 'New Scientist' magazine has just published an interview with me for their January edition. You can read it in full online here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126881.800-inside-the-mind-of-an-autistic-savant.html

Numbers in the Mind

2009-01-02T17:18:00.002Z

Here are a couple of short extracts from chapter 5 (about the relationship between numbers/math and our minds) of my new book 'Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind':

"How is this mental number line organized in the human mind? There are several clues. One is found when you ask people to think of a number at random between 1 and 50. Though it might be supposed that each response would occur around 2% (1 in 50) of the time, in fact, given a large enough sample of people, a systematic bias can be observed: people will tend to produce smaller numbers more frequently than larger ones. This suggests that numbers are mentally represented rather like the logarithmic scale on a slide rule where roughly equal space is given to the interval between 1 and 2, between 2 and 4 or between 4 and 8. Our ‘mental ruler,’ it would seem, compresses larger numbers into a smaller space, which is why smaller numbers are more accessible to our minds."

(From a later part of the chapter:)

"As many as 10-15% of people report some kind of graphic mental representation of numbers. Francis Galton, a psychologist and cousin of Charles Darwin, carried out the first of these surveys back in 1880. The responses he obtained offer a fascinating glimpse into the sheer variety of mental number representations... some of the number lines had twists and bends, some turned upside down or back on themselves. A physicist replying to Galton’s questionnaire described seeing numbers in the form of a horseshoe, with 0 at the bottom right, 50 at the top and 100 at the bottom left. Another respondent, a barrister, described visualising the numbers 1-12 as though on the face of a clock, with the following numbers tailing off afterwards into an undulating stream with the tens – 20, 30, 40, etc. – at each bend."

The book is now available for purchase online here: www.amazon.com/Embracing-Wide-Sky-Across-Horizons/dp/1416569693

On Language Learning

2008-12-31T09:15:00.004Z

Here a couple of extracts from chapter 4 of my new book 'Embracing the Wide Sky':

"A recent finding by researchers at the University College London Centre for Human Communication demonstrates that, given the right stimulus, the adult brain can indeed be retrained to accurately acquire the sounds of a second language...In one study Japanese subjects were retrained to hear the difference between r’s and l’s (something that Japanese students of English find especially difficult)...By the end of the 10-week training period the subjects had improved their recognition of the two sounds by an average of 18%."

(From a later section of the chapter:)

"Examples like these suggest to many linguists that certain words are a more natural ‘fit’ than others for the things they describe. A number of experiments over several decades have supported this idea...the German psycholinguist Heinz Wissemann asked a group of subjects to invent words for various sounds. He found that the subjects tended to create words beginning with ‘p’ ‘t’ or ‘k’ for abrupt sounds, and words beginning with ‘s’ or ‘z’ for flowing sounds. In a more recent experiment involving natural language, the linguist Brent Berlin provided English speakers with fish and bird names from the Huambisa language (spoken in Peru). He found that they were able to distinguish the words for fish from those for birds significantly more often than chance, even though Huambisa bears no resemblance to English."

On Memory

2008-12-14T15:09:00.002Z

Here are a couple of short extracts from chapter 3 (on memory) of my upcoming book 'Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind':

"Remembering something from our past is not at all like pulling facts from our brains, but rather a reconstruction aided by our level of interest, knowledge, and emotion at the time of the event and the subsequent point of recollection. The neurologist Antonio Damasio contends that we remember in this way because there is no single area or location in the brain that contains the memory of a past experience. Rather, different aspects of an experience activate different parts of the brain so that remembering involves a process of pulling these distributed pieces back together. "

(From a later section in the chapter:)

"Elaborative encoding is how experienced actors are able to memorise lengthy scripts with very high levels of accuracy. Rather than attempting to learn their lines by rote, the actors analyse scripts, questioning the underlying meaning of the material in order to better understand the motivations and goals of their characters. Studies confirm that when students are asked to use “all physical, mental, and emotional channels to communicate the meaning of material to another person, either actually present or imagined” their line retention improved significantly, compared to those who read the script for comprehension alone."

For more information about the book, and/or to pre-order, visit http://www.optimnem.co.uk/book.php

Book Video for 'Embracing the Wide Sky'

2008-12-11T18:25:00.002Z

Here is a 5 minute video of me discussing some of the key themes of my new book 'Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind' - hope you enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIDMCC2SJek

Intelligence and IQ

2008-12-09T18:18:00.002Z

Here are a couple of extracts from chapter 2 of my new book 'Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind'. This chapter deals with the topic of intelligence/iq and the nature of talent/genius.

"If intelligence is, as I contend, a concept too subtle and nebulous to ‘prove’ in any scientific way, what are we then to make of the phenomenon of IQ testing? To help me answer this question, I decided to undergo the process myself – the first time I have ever had my ‘IQ score’ assessed. The test was supervised by a qualified educational psychologist, using a series of one-on-one tasks taken from the most commonly used evaluation of adult intelligence – the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)..."

(From a later section in the chapter:)

"Controversies over the nature of intelligence also extend to its origins: Are examples of remarkable talent or giftedness the result of nature or nurture (or both)? The debate has raged for decades, polarising public and scientific opinion in good part because the stakes are so high, with the different views leading to starkly different social and political implications. If, for example, a person’s talents are determined by his genes then there is little we can do to improve on the minds we are born with. On the other hand, if environmental factors are what count, then education, encouragement, and access to opportunity are more important than who an individual’s parents or grandparents are."

Visit http://www.optimnem.co.uk/book.php for more information about the book, to read reviews, or to buy online.

Embracing the Wide Sky Chapter 1 Extracts

2008-12-05T14:04:00.003Z

I'm going to be posting short extracts here from each of the 10 chapters of my upcoming book 'Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind'. New extracts will appear every other day or so up till New Year.

Chapter 1 is all about the brain and how much more adaptable it is than scientists and the public ever previously imagined:

"The realization that our brains can rewire themselves based on our experiences raises an interesting question: is it possible to tap the power of our brains’ plasticity to enhance our senses and even create new ones? Yes, says the Osnabrück cognitive scientist Peter König, inventor of the ‘feelSpace’ belt. Wide and lined with thirteen vibrating pads, the belt detects the earth’s magnetic field using an electronic compass. With each step of the user, the vibrator that points nearest to magnetic north starts to buzz. In time, the wearer is able to orient himself with ease. One subject who tried the belt out for six weeks described developing an intuitive map of his city inside his head."

(From a later section in the chapter:)

"Evidence that savant talents are rooted in natural (if unusual and extraordinary) brain processing comes from research carried out by the Australian scientist Professor Allan Snyder, director of the Centre for the Mind in Sydney. Autistic thought is not incompatible with ordinary thought, Snyder argues, but a variation on it – a more extreme example. To test his theory, Snyder and his colleagues used a technique called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), which involves sending a series of electromagnetic pulses via electrodes into the subject’s frontal lobes – the idea being to shut down temporarily the left hemisphere of the brain in order to boost the right side (the side most implicated in savant skills). They noted improved artistic and proofreading abilities in several of the subjects following the application of TMS. The improvements disappeared within an hour of the stimulation being stopped."

To find out more about the book, and/or pre-order a copy, visit http://optimnem.co.uk/book.php

My Open Letter to Barack Obama in the Advocate

2008-12-02T20:41:00.002Z

The December edition of the US 'Advocate' magazine has just appeared, with an open letter I wrote to President-elect Barack Obama. You can read it online here: http://www.advocate.com/issue_story_ektid66552.asp

Website Update and New Book

2008-11-22T18:30:00.003Z

Previous visitors to this site will have noticed that we've updated it to coincide with the upcoming release of my second book: 'Embracing the Wide Sky - A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind'. You can read the synopsis and Publishers Weekly's starred review for the book here: http://www.optimnem.co.uk/book.php

I'll be posting regular chapter extracts here over the coming weeks on several of the main ideas/topics discussed in the book. A short promotional video is also in production and will appear here at the start of December.

America is Changing

2008-11-05T10:43:00.003Z

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama! The Democrats have transformed the US's electoral landscape, winning in states such as Indiana and Virginia that have not voted blue in decades.

Impressive too is the list of states where the Democrats came remarkably close: Missouri (less than 6,000 votes separating the two candidates with 2.9 million ballots cast); Montana (50% McCain - 47% Obama); and Georgia (52% McCain - 47% Obama).

Elsewhere too, Obama's Democrats made impressive challenges on their opponents' home turf, such as in North and South Dakota (winning 45% in both - by way of contrast, Clinton won no more than 40% in ND back in 1996); Texas (44%); South Carolina (45%) and Arizona (45%). Several of these may well become swing states in four years time.

The Problem With Polls (and How to Read Them)

2008-10-28T12:34:00.002Z

The British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli is famously reputed to have said that statistics were worse than 'lies' or even 'damned lies'. That said, most modern politicians and journalists know that opinion polls can prove remarkably accurate indicators of how an election will play out.

The problem with polls is how they can often be misrepresented. Take the example of a journalist who writes that the White House race is 'tightening' because Obama's lead over McCain is (say) 50-44, when last week it was (say) 52-44. In fact, such numbers are often what pollsters dub 'statistical noise' - normal variation in how well a sample will represent the population it is taken from.

Most polls have a 'sampling error' of around 3 points (plus or minus). This means that if a poll shows Obama on 50 percent and McCain on 44 percent, the Democrat likely has the support of between 47-53 percent of voters, and the Republican the support of around 41-47 percent.

An eager McCain supporter might point out then that, according to these figures, his candidate might have as much as 47% and Obama as little as 47% - making the race a virtual tie. Yes, but the 47-47 split is only one possible outcome, according to the above figures, among many others:

Obama 47 - McCain 47
Obama 47 - McCain 46
Obama 47 - McCain 45
Obama 47 - McCain 44
Obama 47 - McCain 43
Obama 47 - McCain 42
Obama 47 - McCain 41

We could reproduce the same table above with Obama on 48, compared to McCain's 47, 46, 45, 44, 43, 42, or 41 percent share. And again with Obama on 49, or 50, or 51, or 52 or 53 percent. Taken all together, of the 49 possible combinations McCain ties Obama in just 1 and is behind in the other 48. Worse for the McCain supporter, 21 of the 49 possible combinations have McCain's deficit at even greater than 6 percentage points. In 39 of the 49 combinations, Obama still leads by at least 4 points.

McCain really might be neck-and-neck with Obama (47%-47%), but he could also really be as much as twelve points behind (53%-41%). The fact that the real figure is probably somewhere between these two extremes is not going to be any comfort for Republicans.

Photos from Stockholm

2008-10-27T20:46:00.003Z

Just returned from a flying visit to Sweden to help promote the Swedish edition of 'Born On A Blue Day' (Född en blå dag). Above is a photo from my interview for the morning programme 'Efter Tio Med Malou' (After Ten With Malou), which was a lot of fun. The other guest was from France, so we chatted afterwards in French.

The weather in Stockholm was predictably cold, so I had to wrap up warm for the photographers needing outside shots like the one above:

The city's library was wonderful to visit. Built in 1928 and constructed with round, red walls it looks rather like a lighthouse! If you look hard enough in the photo above, you'll see me walking among its shelves.

For any Swedes reading this: Du kan finna mer information om boken och köpa den på: http://www.nok.se/nok/allmanlitteratur/titlar-allmanlitt/f/Fodd-en-bla-dag-ISBN-9789127100053/

The Probability of an Obama Victory

2008-10-17T11:12:00.002Z

An excellent statistical guide to the election's ongoing state-of-play is the website 'fivethirtyeight.com' - http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/ According to its latest calculation, the probability of an Obama victory is 94.7%, compared to just 5.3% for McCain.

There's an important qualification to make here, though: the percentages above are equivalent to predicting what would happen were there 1,000 elections held simultaneously on Election Day - Obama would win around 947 of them, and McCain just 53. But here's the thing: there aren't going to be a thousand elections on November 4th, just one. McCain's hope will be that one of those 53 possible combinations comes up for him on the day.

For Obama supporters then, the key will be voter turnout - ensuring that the swing states that are leaning his way at present go for him on election day, when the polls really count.

Is John McCain Too Old To Be President?

2008-10-15T11:56:00.002Z

Like many people outside the United States, I've been following this year's presidential race with considerable interest. The 2008 election is shaping up to be one of the most fascinating and important in history. I'll be sharing my perspective of some of the contest's key issues from a mathematical point of view in a series of pieces here up to Election Day on November 4th. Feel free to leave your own thoughts and comments!

One of the biggest points of debate so far in this election has been the issue of age - the Republican candidate John McCain is 72 years old; a victory in November would make him the oldest man ever elected to the office of President of the United States.

Some commentators argue that McCain is too old to be running for President. They point to actuarial tables which suggest that a 72-year American male has a 1 in 3 chance of dying in the next 8 years (the period that McCain would serve as President were he to be re-elected). The same tables suggest he has a 1 in 7 chance of dying before finishing a single term in office.

But the argument doesn't quite add up. For one thing, actuarial tables are used to estimate the average lifetime of large groups of people, but are lousy at foretelling how long any one person in particular might live.

For another, McCain is hardly an average 72 year old - after all, most septuagenarians don't have full-time, top-level political careers.

In fact, McCain's longevity prospects look pretty good. His mother, Roberta, is still active at 96, as is his aunt of the same age (Roberta's twin sister). His maternal grandfather, Archibald Wright, also lived well into his nineties.

A final note: Modern presidential candidates (from the 1930s on) appear on the whole to have above-average lifespans. Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan both lived to 93, while Herbert Hoover also reached his 90th birthday and Harry Truman lived to 88. Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush are both still active at 84.

Presidential runners-up fare well too: the 1972 Democrat nominee George McGovern is 86, while the party's 1984 nominee Walter Mondale celebrated his 80th birthday this year. The 1996 Republican nominee Bob Dole is now 85, while the Republicans' 1964 candidate Barry Goldwater lived to 89. The longevity prize, however, goes to the Republican's 1936 candidate, Alf Landon, who died a month after his 100th birthday in 1987.

In conclusion: There may be all kinds of reasons to oppose a McCain victory in November, but age isn't one of them.

Pi Postcards Now Available!

2008-08-01T14:10:00.002Z

We are now offering sets of 10 postcards (100x150mm) showing my Pi landscape painting - a great way to send a 'slice of Pi' to friends and family everywhere!

Limited edition (50 worldwide) A3 prints of the painting are also available.

Both can be purchased via this site (link below) and we deliver worldwide.

http://www.optimnem.co.uk/artwork.php

MSA Charity Appeal

2008-04-11T22:57:00.002Z

My editor at Hodder, Helen Coyle, will be running a 10 kilometre race on June 7th to raise money for the only UK charity supporting people with MSA and their carers - the Sarah Matheson Trust.

MSA (Multiple System Atrophy) is a rare degenerative neurological disorder, caused by the degeneration in nerve cells in different regions of the brain. You can find out more about the condition at the charity's website: http://www.msaweb.co.uk/msaguide.htm

The trust receives no funding other than donations from the public so every donation, whatever its size, really does make a difference. You can donate online at http://www.justgiving.com/helencoyle and give your support to this very worthwhile cause.

Experiment Results

2008-02-01T04:42:00.000Z

For the Number Beauty experiment: 60% of respondents said number 39 was more beautiful than 51.

For the Number Shape experiment: 75% of respondents said that 51 was pointed and 39 was round.

Thanks to everyone who took part.

Film Recommendation: Snow Cake

2008-01-19T19:30:00.000Z

I've been watching lots of films recently, including the 2006 independent drama 'Snow Cake' starring Signourney Weaver and British actor Alan Rickman. Filmed in Wawa, Ontario in Canada the story centres around Weaver's character Linda, a high-functioning autistic woman. I found Weaver's performance excellent and the film's story profoundly moving. I heartily recommend it.

The film's official homepage can be found at: http://www.snowcakemovie.co.uk/

U.S Speaking Tour - October 2007

2007-10-16T11:37:00.000Z

I will be speaking at the following events later this month - if you're interested in coming along to any of them, click on the link included to find out more information and obtain a ticket.

Agnes Scott College, Decatur Georgia - Tuesday October 23rd, 7.30pm-9.30pm
For tickets call the ASC Information Desk at 404 471-6430
http://www.agnesscott.edu/

Luhrs Center, Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania - Thursday October 25th, 8pm
http://www.luhrscenter.com/

Lorain County Community College, Ohio - Monday October 29th, 6.30pm-8.30pm
http://www.lorainccc.edu/Stocker+Arts+Center/mgm.htm

Adrian College, Michigan - Wednesday October 31st, 12pm
http://www.adrian.edu/news/07_08convo_calendar.php

Gullfoss (A Poem)

2007-06-26T21:00:00.000Z

I've just returned from a week's trip to Iceland, one of the many highlights of which was giving a talk at the University of Reykjavik (in both English and Icelandic). I also wrote a poem while I was there about the happiness I find being in Iceland:

Yesterday I went to Gullfoss
Appeared a rainbow there
I stepped on it by mistake
And climbed into the sky

Looking down I could see
The light-swept land
Wet moss and gleaming stones
Bathed in warm and rippling air

I saw my friends, like angels
Disappear into the shining spray
Wearing the waterfall
Close against their skin, against their hearts

Elsewhere I saw rivers, their floors coated
With travellers’ silvered hopes
Flung below like falling stars
Into the streaming darkness

In the distance I could see
Turrets of steam
Pulling at the horizon

And in the towns and cities
I watched people talking among themselves
Stitching their breath
With soft and coloured words

In a harbour “Sólfarið”,
A sunfaring man
With outstretched arms
Hugs time
Remembering the tide-washed dreams of men
Born and those still yet to be

Pi Print Charity Auction Now Live On Ebay

2007-05-31T15:24:00.000Z

The ebay auction for the first of a limited edition (50 worldwide) signed and numbered print of my Pi landscape painting is now live at: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110133129131&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:UK:31

The auction will run until 10th June with all proceeds raised being divided equally between the National Autistic Society, Autism Initiatives UK and the National Society for Epilepsy.

'Simplified Spelling' Is A Bad 'Eyedihr'

2007-05-31T13:45:00.000Z

Members of the 'Simplified Spelling Society' are currently in the news for picketing outside the ongoing US National Spelling Bee competition in Washington, holding up placards which read: 'Let's end the 'i' in friend'. The society claims that current English spelling worsens dyslexia and delays children's literacy by several years. However I disagree with the idea of simplified spelling for the following reasons:

1. Which pronunciation would we use to spell words like: tomato, aunt, status, tuna, amen? What about words with varying numbers of syllables depending on how you pronounce them, such as: athlete, every and chocolate?

2. How would sound-based spellings distinguish between homonyms (homographs) such as: weigh/way/whey, i/eye/aye, to/too/two, rite/write/right/wright and air/e'er/ere/err/heir?

3. Foreign languages with words found in English would be harder to learn. Currently easily recognisable French words such as conversation, succès, triomphe and idée would become something like: 'konvuhrsayshun', 'sahrkses', 'treyeahmph' and 'eyedihr' in 'simplified' English.

4. The spelling of many words in English tells us something of their history and origins. That would be lost under a system of simplified spelling.

5. Being a lover of words, I think there is a strong aesthetic case to be made for the present English spelling of words as compared to the equivalent 'simplified' spellings.

6. Finally, I dislike the implication in the idea of 'simplified spelling' that the best way to educate people is by lowering the bar. We should instead be focusing on the most effective ways to teach the hugely important skills of spelling, reading and writing.

Why I'd Vote No To Proportional Representation

2007-05-29T14:53:00.000Z

In the 2005 UK general election the governing Labour party won 35.3% to the Conservative party's 32.3% and the Liberal Democrats' 22.1%, yet Labour secured 356 parliamentary seats to the Conservatives' 198 and the Lib Dems' 62. Many people assume the result is unfair, but is it and would a system of proportional representation be any better?

I would argue that our system of 'first past the post' is fair, and in fact much more so than replacing it with one using PR.

In the United Kingdom we district our national election into (currently) 646 individual constituencies, making each national battle one comprised of hundreds of much smaller ones. A big advantage of this system is that - in theory at least - every voter in each of the constituencies has the chance of casting the winning vote for a party's representative. For example, in the 1997 election for the seat of Winchester the winning MP's margin of victory was just 2 votes. Another example from a country that districts its national election, the US, is Florida in the 2000 election where George W Bush beat Al Gore by just 537 votes.

Democracy isn't only about giving people equal power in an election (after all, in a dictatorship each voter has equal power of 0) but about giving each person as large an equal share of power in deciding the outcome of an election as possible. The people of Winchester or Florida would have had virtually no chance of having the sort of impact on their respective elections they had if their votes had been diluted into a sea of many millions of other votes, as would happen under a system of PR.

Elections are always lopsided, and the power an individual voter has to make a difference to the election's result goes down the more uneven an election is. Breaking a nationwide election down into lots of smaller localised elections balances out some of this lopsidedness, maximising the individual voter's power.

There are other reasons to support a system of 'first past the post' over PR. Labour may only have won 3% more of the national share than the Conservatives at the last election, but they won seats all over the country, whereas the Conservatives relied on the South of England for much of their support doing particularly badly in the North, Wales and Scotland. First-past-the-post prevents politicians from simply wooing a majority bloc at the expense of minorities.

What's more, PR almost never results in a majority government meaning that the parties have to go behind closed doors and haggle with each other over forming a coalition. The public have no say in these backroom negotiations. With no constituency link between members of parliament and the voters, the real power lies with those parties who can successfully jockey for position in a coalition government.

Pi Print Charity Auction Starts May 31st

2007-05-21T10:44:00.000Z

We will be auctioning number 1 of the limited edition (50 worldwide) series signed print of my Pi landscape painting to raise funds for epilepsy and autism charities. The auction will be hosted by ebay and begins on May 31st at noon (GMT). Here is a link to a poster for the event:

http://www.optimnem.co.uk/images/danielposter3.jpg

'I don't get 27 votes on Election Day'

2007-05-21T09:24:00.000Z

Last night on TV I watched a repeat of one of my favourite shows, The West Wing, during which the character Sam Seaborn makes the following assertion:

"Henry, last fall, every time your boss got on the stump and said, "It’s time for the rich to pay their fair share," I hid under a couch and changed my name. I left Gage Whitney making $400,000 a year, which means I paid 27 times the national average in income tax. I paid my fair share, and the fair share of 26 other people. And I’m happy to, ‘cause that’s the only way it’s gonna work. And it’s in my best interest that everybody be able to go to schools and drive on roads. But I don’t get 27 votes on Election Day. The fire department doesn’t come to my house 27 times faster and the water doesn’t come out of my faucet 27 times hotter. The top one percent of wage earners in this country pay for 22 percent of this country. Let’s not call them names while they’re doing it, is all I’m saying."

Incredibly, neither 'Henry' nor any of the other characters in the room replied to Sam's argument. How about something like:

"Sam, you paid more than 20 times the national average in income tax because you were being paid more than 20 times the national average in income. You're not 20 times a better person than the average man. You're not 20 times smarter and you didn't work 20 times more hours. You paid a lot more tax than most people because you got a lot more money than most people."

Falsifiability and the God Hypothesis

2007-05-09T11:24:00.000Z

I've recently enjoyed reading the online debate between the atheist writer Sam Harris and Catholic blogger Andrew Sullivan at: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/209/story_20904_1.html
At one point Harris asks Sullivan what kind of evidence he would require to abandon his belief in God; something that Sullivan doesn't subsequently address.

As a Christian myself, I thought I would give my own answer to Harris's question here by listing five scenarios, any one of which I would consider strong enough to falsify my belief in God:

1. If the Universe were shown to be eternal - however the vast majority of scientists accept the Big Bang hypothesis which says that the universe had a beginning (around 13.7 billion years ago). Many scientists (including Einstein) were originally extremely unhappy with the theory that the universe might not be eternal, yet all the evidence indeed points to it having had a beginning.

2. If the properties of our Universe were shown to be non-significant - I'm familiar with the argument that even if our universe had only a (say) 1 in a million chance of existing in the form it does, it doesn't demonstrate anything significant about our universe.

The argument goes that it is equivalent to a person throwing a ball in a field and then arguing that the blade of grass it lands on is special because it had only a 1 in a million chance of being landed upon. However our universe is peculiarly capable of complex, intelligent, self-aware life - dependent on many extremely low-probability factors - so that the correct analogy would be if the ball landed on a blade of grass which was coloured blue while all the others were green.

3. If the Universe were shown to be only one of an infinite number of 'multiverses' - So far, we have zero evidence for any universe but our own.

4. If our Universe were shown to have other complex, intelligent life forms without religion - Although decades ago the belief among scientists was widespread that our universe was teeming with intelligent life, currently we still have no evidence whatsoever for the existence of any other intelligent life in the universe. Some scientists have calculated that the probability of such life existing is in fact close to zero. Humans may well be alone in the universe.

5. If it was shown that our ideas and beliefs are exclusively the result of biological and cultural processes entirely beyond our control (and therefore their content immaterial) - or, to put it another way, if it were shown that there is no such thing ultimately as 'Truth'.

However one such well-publicised attempt - Memetics - has largely failed; its Journal ceasing publication in 2005 and many of its advocates having moved away from it.

On Learning Icelandic

2007-05-03T13:24:00.000Z

Shortly after the week I spent learning Icelandic for the documentary 'Brainman' in 2004, I wrote down some of my thoughts on the experience. I reproduce an excerpt from them below:

"Though some might complain about the Icelandic grammar, that isn't the point. Icelandic is not grammar, Icelandic people don't speak grammar. If you learn the language, the grammar will follow. I find that the complexity of Icelandic mirrors the complexity of human thought and nature, and the rich tension within the fabric of everyday life. When paint is cast within a portrait, it becomes something more for being part of something bigger than itself. Blue and grey becomes a sky, green and white becomes a landscape, pink and orange and black becomes a human face. So it is with words which become sentences, like raindrops which form a sea. Why shouldn't 'bók' become 'bókin' at the start of a sentence and 'bókina' at the end. Icelandic sentences are composed of more than just words."

Pi Landscape Prints Now Available!

2007-04-13T09:54:00.000Z

Apologies for the delay, but following many, many, many requests from visitors to the website we've finally arranged a limited edition of high quality art prints of the Pi landscape painting seen on CBS's 60 Minutes programme in January. Each of the prints is individually numbered and signed by myself.

For more information, and/or to purchase online: http://www.optimnem.co.uk/artwork.php

A Message from a Parent

2007-03-05T15:09:00.000Z

I have been receiving many wonderful emails over the past weeks and months, including the following extremely touching note which I reproduce below (with permission):

"This is not an inquiry, just a thank you. I am the mother of 2 boys with aspergers. My 5 year old has had a very difficult time learning the concept of numbers. I saw you on the tv, and to tell you the truth, at that time I didn't even remember your name. I did however, remember your connection with colors textures and numbers. Inspired by this, I made my son some flash cards that same day, assigning colors to each number with the corresponding dots one to ten under each. He said, "no mommy,this one is softer, pointing to the 3". I redid the flash cards this time letting him color and decorate them. Almost immediately he began adding them - only as colors! Blue (2) and soft green (3) makes sunny warm yellow (5). To anyone else, this would make no sense. Only then did I realize he knew them all along! I was the one who had to learn how to understand him! Listening to his older brother's heart beat one day he had said, "listen mommy, daniel is blue!" I had been so confused until we played with the flash cards. His brother's heartbeat had 2 pulses! Thank you so much for sharing your story! I plan on reading your book to glean more ideas on how to help my beautiful boys! Again, Thank you, Stacey Clark"

Born On A Blue Day Now Out in Paperback

2007-02-19T21:38:00.000Z

The paperback edition of 'Born On A Blue Day' is out now in the UK - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Born-Blue-Day-Daniel-Tammet/dp/0340899751/ref=ed_oe_p/202-2824593-0947815

BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week is featuring excerpts (read by an actor) from the book all this week: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/book_week.shtml

Feature in Today's New York Times

2007-02-15T15:05:00.000Z

There's a great article about my home and day-to-day life in today's New York Times's 'Home & Garden' section, including photos of my house and cat! You can see it online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/15/garden/15savant.html

60 Minutes

2007-02-01T11:39:00.000Z

Last Sunday, CBS aired an interview with me on their popular '60 Minutes' programme. The response was overwhelming: the book shot straight to No.1 on Amazon.com and I received literally hundreds of emails from people from all across the United States. I wanted to write here to say a big thank you to everyone who wrote to me and/or purchased the book. I'm extremely touched by the sheer scale of the interest in my story and in what I have to say.

The 60 Minutes interview with Morley Safer was originally taped last summer at my home in Kent. Several people have written and asked about the large number of CDs in the background during the interview - they are from our music collection, both mine and my partner Neil's, as we both enjoy listening to music frequently. One eagle-eyed viewer even detected correctly that I'm a Carpenters fan!

For the segment, I painted one of my numerical landscapes - of the first twenty digits of Pi - and many people have written to ask whether they can purchase a print of it. I'm working on this at present, so please check back in the coming days for an update.

In case you missed the broadcast, you can view it online until the end of this week at CBS's website: http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml

'Born On A Blue Day' Out Now in the US!

2007-01-10T14:38:00.000Z

My book 'Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant' has just been released by Free Press in the US. It recently received a starred review in 'Kirkus' saying among other things: 'a riveting account of living with autism...he is quite poetic, especially when he writes about numbers...transcends the disability-memoir genre.'

Temple Grandin, the autistic author of 'Animals in Translation' and 'Thinking in Pictures' has kindly reviewed my book and is quoted on its back cover: 'This book is a must-read for anybody who is interested in how the mind works.'

I'm flying out to New York this weekend to appear on several TV and radio shows to help publicise the book's launch. I'm really looking forward to the whole experience!

You can purchase 'Born On A Blue Day' at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Born-Blue-Day-Extraordinary-Autistic/dp/1416535071/sr=1-3/qid=1168440740/ref=sr_1_3/102-4613360-2394514?ie=UTF8&s=books

Amazon.co.uk's 'Best Books of 2006'

2006-12-07T12:01:00.000Z

Born On A Blue Day has been selected by the editors at Amazon.co.uk as one of their 'Best Books of 2006' - http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/1000028703/ref=amb_link_36813265_3/202-1067643-4453426

Hooray!

Public Speaking

2006-11-29T09:48:00.000Z

Since the launch of Born On A Blue Day this past summer I've been invited to speak in a wide range of places. I've been as far west as Devon and as far north as Edinburgh, spoken in front of both a few dozen people and several hundred, in schools and libraries and theatres.

I have quite a quiet voice so the first thing I always have to remind myself to do is speak up. I introduce myself and my book and talk about my life. Afterwards I'm asked all sorts of questions by members of the audience.

The most enjoyable part of this for me is speaking in schools for children with special learning needs, including autism. The parents and teachers who attend my talks are always very complimentary about what I have to say.

My main message in them is that difference needn't be disabling, that it's ok to be different and that everyone is unique in some way and should feel it possible to live out that uniqueness. When we do that, autistic or not, we give ourselves the chance of happiness.

Trivia Quiz

2006-11-21T14:15:00.000Z

I was recently invited to join some friends at a local quiz evening and very much enjoyed myself. I have a good memory for facts and figures, which is very useful for remembering all sorts of trivia.

Here's a short quiz of my own for blog readers to try:

1. What is a baby goldfish called?
2. 'Dans Le Temps' was the French version of which famous 60s hit song?
3. An iatrophobe is frightened of going where?
4. What was President Harry S Truman's middle name?
5. Which common vegetable is a member of the nightshade family?
6. There are 5 words in English that start dw- name them.
7. What is the name of the oldest continuously occupied city in the US?
8. Which religion's governing members are known as 'hands'?
9. What is the collective noun for collective nouns?
10. In which sport do you throw stones at houses?

The Ballad of Tammet

2006-11-13T09:01:00.000Z

I got an email this morning from someone in a band who have recorded a song about me. The band's name is The Madrigals and the song title is 'The Ballad of Tammet' - you can have a listen to it at: www.myspace.com/themadrigals

Very interesting sound and of course I am flattered!

Public Libraries Are Important

2006-10-26T13:43:00.000Z

In today's Times journalist Helen Rumbelow argues for the replacement of public libraries with millions of 'personal' ones. The fact is, she says, that books are a lot cheaper to buy than in the past and with the Internet information is far more easily accessible with a few mouse clicks than a trip to your local library. Her article (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1072-2421353,00.html) also points out that book-borrowing has declined by 40% in the past decade.

I love books and I love libraries. As a child I would spend hours after school reading in them. When I worked as a volunteer teacher in Eastern Europe I frequently visited the neighbourhood's library as a place where I knew I could sit and read and think in peace and quiet and for free. My mother visits her local library most days to catch up on the day's news and to browse community event notices among other things.

The fact is that a lot of people can't afford to buy books and build up their own 'personal library'. The internet is a remarkable innovation, but it's not without its flaws: it can be difficult to navigate, is filled with a lot of junk information that isn't peer-reviewed or fact-checked in any way, and it costs money. There's still a fairly large percentage of the UK population who don't have a computer or internet access at home.

Then there's the fact that bookshops are subject to commercial pressures that public libraries aren't - bookshops stock what titles they think they can sell and ignore the rest. Mass-market fiction and self-help manuals take precedence over most kinds of reference books, classic literature or poetry for example. Public libraries on the other hand can stock the widest range of books: browsing the average library shelf can be a fascinating experience.

Perhaps most importantly of all, public libraries in every high street - rich and poor, modern or not, urban and rural - remind us of the fact that learning is for everyone and that it is as much a community activity and interest as it is a personal one. A mind is best used when it is linked up with many others.

Why I am a Wingnut

2006-10-23T17:11:00.000Z

Perhaps my favourite TV programme of the past few years has been the American Presidential drama 'The West Wing', starring Martin Sheen as President Josiah (Jed) Barlet.

I've always been fascinated by the United States - a nation founded not on a common language or religion or culture, but an idea - and fascinated too by its office of President. I can only begin to imagine what it must be like being the leader of the free world: to make life-and-death decisions on a daily basis, be the subject of intense media attention and speculation and to be the human face of what it means to be American.

Unlike so much on television, the 'West Wing' wasn't afraid to address complex issues and contentious debates. It made room for multiple points of view and highlighted both the gifts and the flaws of President Bartlet and his administration. As a viewer, I respect and appreciate that very much.

British v. American English

2006-10-20T09:19:00.000Z

My book 'Born On A Blue Day' is currently being edited for its US release in January and it's fascinating to compare the two forms of English - British and American.

A lot of it comes down simply to spelling, to 'z's instead of 's's as in 'realize' (where I would write 'realise') and absent 'u's ('color' and 'harbor' instead of 'colour' and 'harbour'). Words of foreign origin are also spelled differently: 'synesthesia' where in Britain it is 'synaesthesia'.

More interesting are the different words, some of which I didn't realise/realize were used in that way. For example the American for 'pram' is 'carriage' (an old-fashioned word to British ears), a 'conker' is a 'chestnut' and a 'plaster' is a 'bandage' (something a British hospital would only use for serious wounds, not just a scratch or bruise).

George Bernard Shaw was perhaps right when he observed that England and America were 'two countries separated by the same language'.

How Much Of The World's Water Is Contained In A Cow?

2006-10-13T22:27:00.000Z

This is one of the questions asked by interviewers of applicants for a place at Oxford or Cambridge University. It's claimed that with more and more students obtaining A grades at A-level universities are finding it increasingly difficult to choose between candidates, so make use of 'lateral thinking' questions like the one above.

I wonder if any of the readers of this blog would like to attempt an answer? I can contribute that a cow must hold quite a lot of water, because of the French expression: 'il pleut comme vache qui pisse' (It's raining like a cow pissing).

French Course Now Available

2006-10-06T17:01:00.000Z

The Optimnem French course is now available. Find out more and try the first lesson for free at http://www.optimnem.co.uk/french.php

Debt As Negative Money

2006-10-05T10:37:00.000Z

Recent media reports have highlighted the growing problem of personal debt levels in the UK. According to one, the average household debt is £7,754 excluding mortgages and £48,209 including them. The average owed by each adult in the UK is £25,545.

Part of the problem is how easy it has become for people in the UK to borrow heavily with loans and credit cards. Other countries, such as France, have much stricter rules regarding borrowing/lending money and a culture which is naturally suspicious of banks and their advertising.

Thought of most simply, debt seems bizarre - a form of money that makes you poorer. Imagine eating a food that made you hungrier. Yet borrowing is going up and up - the UK's total debt is rising by a million pounds every 4 minutes.

The effects of this can be devastating, including family breakdown, homelessness and suicide. More, such a culture deemphasises the virtues of thrift and self-control and makes it easier for society to ignore the plight of the most economically vulnerable for whom debt is often the only way they can make ends meet.

I think of debt as 'negative money' - a person with a debt of £10,000 has minus 10,000 pounds. Such a person would probably have to work for a couple of years just to pay off the debt and get back to '0'. Imagine that, working and earning for years just to reach the point where you have a fortune of zero!

The answer is to avoid debt as far as possible. Use a debit card instead of credit and save for things rather than take out loans. Overpay on your mortgage to save thousands in interest long-term. Spend within your means and discover the creativity in thrift. After all, any one can simply spend money but it takes skill and thought to save and use it wisely and carefully.

Richard Dawkins and 'The God Delusion'

2006-09-25T23:27:00.000Z

Professor Richard Dawkins is currently giving media interviews for his latest book 'The God Delusion'. In a recent one with the BBC's 'Newsnight' programme, Professor Dawkins made several erroneous comments. He spoke about a religious person's belief in a universe containing a god, whereas Christianity (the religion the professor singles out for criticism) explicitly argues for a God *outside* of the time and space He created. It is like asking where the poet is in his/her poem or to expect an artist to be in his/her own picture. All creation is an act of separation.

Secondly, the professor said that religious people did not give their beliefs much thought. This implies that religion and thoughtfulness cannot go together, something I disagree a great deal with. I came to Christianity only after a very large amount of thought and reasoning. So did and do many other religious people.

The interviewer Jeremy Paxman likewise made a distinction between a 'religious culture' and a 'rational culture' but this is only a false distinction. Religion can be rational - some of the greatest thinkers and scientists throughout history were deeply religious (Sir Isaac Newton for one). It is true that religion asks ultimately for a 'leap of faith', but no leap is possible without first some firm foundation from which to jump.

Again Professor Dawkins erred when he stated that Christianity was an invention of Saint Paul's. Paul taught at a time when many still lived who had been eyewitnesses to Jesus and his original teaching. The early Christian community would not have tolerated the misrepresentation of ideas and beliefs that many among them had themselves been witnesses to.

In the course of the interview Professor Dawkins refers to people with religious beliefs as 'faithheads'. The professor knows better than this. Name-calling is no substitute at all for rational and sincere debate.

Personalised & Autographed Copy of Book Now Available Worldwide

2006-09-20T22:19:00.000Z

We've restructured the webpage offering personalised copies of my book 'Born On A Blue Day' to accept payments worldwide. Makes a great Christmas gift idea!

http://optimnem.co.uk/auto-book.php

Probability Problem

2006-09-15T11:27:00.000Z

A person is tested for an illness that affects 1 in 10,000. The result is positive, however it's known that the test gives an erroneous positive result in 5% of cases. What is the percentage chance that the person really does have this illness?

Sracmbeld Wrods

2006-09-13T11:13:00.000Z

A fienrd rcnteley snet me a msgaese sohiwng how it's psblosie to raed sracmbeld wrods so lnog as the fsrit and lsat ltretes are in thier rghit psitonios. Tihs is bcuseae radineg ivlonves wrod rgcoentioin and ctxonet.

Hovewer tihs efceft is at laest prtaly rliaent on the coiche of wrdos and dtrsitibuoin of ltertes. For empxale, how esialy can you raed the fllownoig sntnecee:

'gldnraiee aattiinpecs mieduuttls ciinnnaotg eeoornrus amptttes'

Summer's Obituary - The Autumnal Equinox

2006-09-05T10:12:00.000Z

The British Summer will officially end on Saturday 23rd September at 4:02am. This is the Autumnal Equinox, the point where nights reach the same length as days.

I personally like autumn very much - the fall of fruit, leaves and conkers from the trees, the crackling of log fires, the peeling and pickling of fruit and vegetables to store over winter, the cooler weather ...

Will Humans Soon Live 1,000 Years? The Answer is No.

2006-09-02T11:08:00.000Z

There have been a flurry of news reports in the past few days about the possibility that one day soon humans will be capable of living up to 1,000 years.

It's certainly true that the average life expectancy has risen dramatically in the past 100 years: in 1901 life expectancy for newborn babies was 45 for boys and 49 for girls. By 2000 life expectancy was 75 and 80 respectively.

However much of this improvement has come from large reductions in infant mortality due to better living conditions and access to medicine, and not because of any fundamental change in how humans age. There are in fact many reliable reports of long life spans throughout history: Plato (80 years), Augustus (76 years), Pope Celestine III (91 years), Isaac Newton (84 years). The ancient Greek philosopher Democritus of Abdera is reputed to have lived to the age of 109.

Indeed the maximum life span for humans has not really changed throughout human history; remaining around 115-120 years. The oldest-ever person was a French woman, Jeanne Calment, who lived 122.5 years (1875-1997).

It seems that with a healthy diet and regular exercise most people in the developed world today can expect to live somewhere between 70-90 years, with a small number living to or past 100 years. But claims of massively increased life spans in the near future are no more than pure speculation.

And, anyway, isn't quality of life more important than quantity?

10 Consecutive Hads

2006-08-31T09:20:00.000Z

As a follow-up to yesterday's post on unusual words, a grammatically correct sentence submitted by a reader with ten successive uses of the word 'had':

John, where Janet had had 'had', had had 'had had'. Had 'had had' been the correct answer.....

Unusual Words

2006-08-30T09:00:00.000Z

On the way home from Edinburgh last week I discussed the subject of unusual words with my friends. Words like 'queueing' which have 5 vowels in a row, or 'catchphrase' which contains 6 consecutive consonants.

I particularly like words that have repeated letters or dots (as in 'hijinks' or 'Fiji'). Such words include 'wallless' (having no walls) and headmistressship.

Some words seem not to fit what they describe - for example: the word 'long' is short, and the word 'short' is longer. Same for the words 'big' and 'small'.

Edinburgh Festival

2006-08-24T16:39:00.000Z

Just come back from several days in Edinburgh, attending the annual International Book Festival there. My event on the 22nd was with the journalist and TV presenter Joan Bakewell. I really enjoyed the whole experience. I gave a podcast interview for the festival's website which you can listen to at: http://web.mac.com/nfraser/iWeb/EIBF/Edinburgh%20Book%20Festival%20Podcast/4E6F0992-5FA9-4575-AE58-65E229A779A3.html

Afterwards I attended events by the Scottish Society for Autism and the Autism Initiatives charity. It was a privilege to meet some of the people who work so hard and give so much to help those on the autistic spectrum, as well as several parents and grandparents of autistic children.

Before leaving Edinburgh I had the chance to watch several street performances by jugglers, acrobats and magicians and a comedy gig - 'Funny Women' - which I would definitely recommend as being very, very good.

The Benefits of Self Sufficiency

2006-08-16T10:52:00.000Z

I try to live as self sufficient a life as possible. For example, we grow many vegetables and some fruit in our garden. We make soup from the tomatoes and cider from the apples. I've even attempted to make oat milk on a few occasions and we regularly eat sandwiches made of freshly baked bread and our own peanut butter.

I don't own a single credit card or have even one loan. I budget our grocery shopping weeks in advance and spend carefully, mostly in small local shops rather than the big supermarkets. We have saved tens of thousands of pounds in interest by saving enough over several years to pay off our mortgage a decade and a half early.

One valuable thing I learnt a long time ago was to have a way of looking at the world which gave a means of forming ideas about your life and how you want to live it. Then it's a question of actually putting those ideas into practice.

For me, independence from bureaucracy, banks and big business is very important. That way a person can have real control and freedom in his or her life. I choose what time to wake each morning and what goes into the food I eat. I select what work to do and when. I don't care about buying the next 'big thing' because possessions alone can't make a person happy.

I like listening to the birds singing as I work in the garden. I like the taste and flavour of home-made food. I like the creativity of making my own birthday cards for friends and family. I like having enough free time to spend with the people I love. I like not having to worry about sales targets or board meetings or the risk of redundancy.

The control and rituals of a self-sufficient way of living are reassuring and satisfying to individuals on the autistic spectrum. I find anxiety is much less a problem for me than before. An attention to detail helps when fixing a budget, planting seeds or darning socks. Personalised routines are easier to stick to and leave enough free time for hobbies and individual interests.

Try sites such as http://www.selfsufficientish.com to find out more about living a more self sufficient way of life.

G K Chesterton and the Wisdom of Fairy Tales

2006-08-11T18:06:00.000Z

I loved reading fairy tales as a small child and it was with great pleasure when many years later I read that my favourite author and thinker, G. K. Chesterton, had had very much affection for them too and believed them a source of great wisdom:

"According to elfin ethics all virtue is in an ‘if.’ The note of the fairy utterance always is, ‘You may live in a palace of gold and sapphire, if you do not say the word "cow"’; or ‘You may live happily with the King’s daughter, if you do not show her an onion.’ The vision always hangs upon a veto. All the dizzy and colossal things conceded depend upon one small thing withheld. All the wild and whirling things that are let loose depend upon one thing that is forbidden."

Chesterton believed that all people were specially shaped to experience the joy of being alive, but that happiness was ultimately something that had to be accomplished. It is conditional on our capacity to experience it - a capacity that can be naturally trained like any other.

Fairy tales teach us to feel wonder for ordinary things - rivers running with wine remind us of the marvel of rivers running with water, talking flowers reflect the beauty of all flowers and golden apples are as wonderful for being apples as for being made of gold.

In the end, the test of all happiness is gratitude - an appreciation of the little, everyday things that make up the fabric of each human life.

Claim of UK Overpopulation is Bad Maths

2006-08-10T19:38:00.000Z

Journalist Rod Liddle writing in today's 'Spectator' magazine claims that the UK is catastrophically overpopulated:

"If you live in the south-east of England you will already be familiar with the iniquities imposed by overpopulation: the railway network which collapses under the weight of numbers... the waiting list for treatment at your local hospital; the bulging school rolls... the incessant angry growl of traffic during the day, the eerily pale mauve night sky, deprived of its right to darkness by the street lights; the queues everywhere, for everything... You cannot water your garden because there is not enough of the stuff to go around... the strange re-occurrence of TB in our inner cities...the lack of community in your town... and the sense of alienation which this engenders; the loss of habitat for our indigenous wildlife."

He then goes on to state:

"We can be sure that Britain is one of the ten or 15 most crowded countries on earth..."

But this just isn't true - a brief search on the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia reveals that the UK is in fact ranked 48th in the world for population density
(Wikipedia: List_of_countries_by_population_density)

Furthermore, the article is wrong in my opinion to blame 'overpopulation' for various social and environmental problems. The UK has 60 million acres, 1 for every person in the country. The 2001 National Census gives a figure of 21 million UK households - that's almost 3 acres per household (equivalent in size to an entire football pitch per household).

The real problem is the poor distribution of land ownership throughout the UK: 90% of the population of Britain live on just 10% of the land, with 69% of the UK's acreage owned by just 0.6% of the population (people like the Duke of Buccleuch who owns 270,900 acres).

The fact is that people naturally cluster together in cities, towns and villages - many like 'hustle and bustle', others prefer greater quiet and seclusion. The lack of community and sense of alienation, cited in the article as a consequence of overpopulation, has probably more to do with factors such as family breakdown: the 2001 census reported that 30% of all UK households are occupied by a single person.

The myth of overpopulation has a long history going back centuries. But the fact is that fertility rates in the UK (and across Europe) are falling: there were 1,014,700 births in Britain in 1964 compared with 716,000 in 2004. 1 in 5 British women do not have any children at all (compared to 1 in 10 a generation ago). The UK's low fertility rate ranks 153rd in the world
(Wikipedia: List_of_countries_and_territories_by_fertility_rate)

The UK has many problems and faces many challenges, but overpopulation isn't one of them.

On Being A Christian

2006-08-09T11:32:00.000Z

I think many people are surprised to hear that I believe in God and that I am a Christian. I think this is because many assume that autism and belief in God are somehow incompatible. In fact other autistic writers, such as Temple Grandin, have written about their own spiritual beliefs and practices.

I struggled for a long time with the concept of God - I wasn't interested in something that I could not see or hear or touch directly. As a teenager I began to read the writings of G. K. Chesterton, an early-20th century English journalist who wrote at length about his own journey into faith and defence of Christian ideas - and found myself gradually more and more receptive to the possibility of faith.

I became a Christian at Christmas 2002, aged twenty-three. At that point in my life I had arrived at the conclusion that Christianity was true. Extremely challenging and puzzling concepts (for many if not most people) such as the Incarnation and the Trinity made a lot of sense to me. It seemed right that God would choose to come into the world, to reveal Himself to us, in a way that we could all of us relate to - as a man among men, a human life lived like other lives: as a child, a worker, a friend, a teacher, a Son.

In the Trinity there was the idea of God as being both a mystery and a reality that each person could in their own way relate to: the living, breathing personification of Love and of Relationship. God wasn't something unknowable or untouchable but a tangible presence: the idea of Trinity was something I could picture in some way in my head, and understand and accept.

Faith isn't easy - but I consider it a blessing and a gift. Quite often, in sudden unconscious moments like an awakening, I realise that I am a member of the mystical body of Christ - something far bigger and greater than I can begin to comprehend, but nonetheless something in which I do not feel a stranger, but at home.

Advice for Parents with Autistic Children

2006-08-06T22:19:00.000Z

I am regularly asked for advice by parents with children on the autistic spectrum. Because autism is such a profoundly complex condition, and very personal in how it affects each individual, it is not possible to offer advice that will be equally insightful or helpful to everyone. From my own experience, I suggest the following:

Ensure good basic hygiene skills, particularly tooth-brushing (which I had considerable problems with over many years into adolescence) and which I've subsequently read is a common problem because of the sound or texture or both of the brushing action.

Help teach your child core skills to function in society: how to dress themselves, tell left from right (perhaps use 'L' and 'R' labels as my parents did with me), maintain eye contact, understand and respect the concept of 'personal space', how to ride a bus etc.

Nurture any special interests, while finding ways to use them to help your child learn more about the wider world (for example, a passion for spelling can be used to discuss the names of family members or neighbours etc).

Discourage tantrums by identifying triggers and finding ways to avoid them (for example, supermarkets can often be overstimulating, try using smaller local shops).

Have patience - progress, if and when it comes, can often be sudden but is the result of many months or years of incremental steps forward.

Most importantly of all, know that your child is capable of great depthes of feeling and of love, even if it isn't much or often demonstrated.

Cxu vi parolas Esperanton?

2006-08-04T10:07:00.000Z

Mi esperantigxis unue antau kelkaj jaroj, de leganto frazojn esperantajn rete. Gxi estas interesa lingvo kaj facilega lerni, kun multaj vortoj de la lingvoj europaj. Kelkafoje mi ricevas e-posxtojn skribata esperante de uloj de tutaj partoj de la mundo. Esperanto estas lingveto, sed vere internacia! Se vi volas lerni pli pri la lingvo esperanto, skribu la vorto 'esperanto' en sercxilo kaj vi trovos multaj mil de pagxoj.

I first found out about Esperanto several years ago, from reading sentences in Esperanto on the internet. It is an interesting language and hugely easy to learn, with many words from the languages of Europe. Sometimes I receive emails written in Esperanto from people from all over the world. Esperanto is a small language, but truly international! If you want to learn more about the Esperanto language, write the word 'esperanto' in a search engine and you will find many thousands of pages.

Prime number years

2006-07-29T10:12:00.000Z

I was born in 1979, which is a prime number (as are both 19 and 79). Coincidentally, Albert Einstein was born exactly one hundred years before in 1879, also a prime number. Your best chance of being born in a prime number year in the past millennium was to have been born in the 15th century (17 prime number years, from 1409 to 1499) while the lowest chance would have been the 14th century (just 11 prime number years, with a 34-year gap between the years 1327 and 1361). The next prime number year will be 2011.

A few of my favourite words

2006-07-28T16:53:00.000Z

Some words are really beautiful to me, particularly nouns such as teapot and buttercup. I think in the above two examples it's because the first and last letter/sound in each word is identical or near-identical. I also like it when tall letters - like b, d, h and l - occur in the middle of a word: ode, shy, polio etc. There are even words that look like the things they describe, such as dog (imagine the d as a face and ear and the g as a tail) and look (where the two successive o's remind me of a pair of eyes). Because of the way I experience words in different colours and textures I especially like it when a word's colour matches the object it describes: raspberry is a red word for a red thing, while tan is an orange word for something that often is that colour.

Book is Top-5 at Waterstone's

2006-07-28T16:49:00.000Z

The Independent's Arts & Books Review today has a chart for the best-selling hardcover non-fiction at Waterstone's for the past week. Born On A Blue Day is at #4.

Sunday Times Bestseller !

2006-07-26T10:53:00.000Z

My book 'Born On A Blue Day: A Memoir of Asperger's and an Extraordinary Mind' has gone to #9 in the Sunday Times Non-Fiction Hardcover Bestseller list after its first full week of sales.

Purple Mondays, Blue Wednesdays, Aubergine Fridays...

2006-07-24T13:46:00.000Z

A poster to this blog asked me to describe the different colours and textures I experience for the days of the week. This point arose from the title of my memoir: 'Born On A Blue Day' - where the blue (a rich, dark blue) refers to a Wednesday.

Mondays are purple, Tuesdays are a much warmer, orange colour, Thursdays are a bitty light yellow, Fridays are aubergine-coloured, Saturdays are curvy and Sundays are very bright and shiny.

When someone asks me to calculate the day of the week he/she was born on, I see the colours and textures in my head and translate them into the answer.

Book is on its 4th print (after 1 week!)

2006-07-22T07:21:00.000Z

Sales for my book 'Born On A Blue Day: A Memoir of Asperger's and an Extraordinary Mind' have been crazy good - for the first time today Amazon.co.uk are finally showing 'usually available in 24 hours' after initially running out of stock almost as soon as the book came out (after it hit #1 last Friday). I've been told that it's currently on its 4th print after one week - incredible. The talk in Dartington sold out, as has the one upcoming in Edinburgh next month. I think this must be the dictionary definition of an author's 'dream start'!

Thank you to everyone who has bought my book - feel free to send me your feedback via this site. I've had some really wonderful comments so far.

A hectic few days

2006-07-20T15:49:00.000Z

I don't know that I've ever been so busy in my life, but I wouldn't want it any other way. The Ways With Words event in Devon was amazing - beautiful countryside and wonderful food and a sell-out talk! I even ran out of books to sign afterwards. After a rest day in Cornwall we (my partner Neil and I) drove to London for interviews. I appeared on Radio 4's 'Midweek' programme with other guests actor Tim Healy, comic Shappi Khorsandi and folk singer Julie Felix (if you missed it, you can hear the show here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/midweek.shtml) After the show Julie gave me a copy of her latest CD. I've been listening to it today and it sounds great.

Appearance On Richard & Judy on Channel 4, Friday July 14th

2006-07-13T08:56:00.000Z

I'm appearing on Channel 4's 'Richard & Judy' programme tomorrow - Friday July 14th.

Mänti

2006-07-13T08:31:00.000Z

'Mänti' is a created language I have worked on since I was a child. I have a fascination with words and language and this is one form of expression for me that is very personal and creative. Quite often I have a sensation or feeling that I can't find a word in English (my native language) for, so I create one in Mänti.

The name of my language comes from the Finnish word for pine tree. I chose this word because I love trees and they grow copiously in parts of Scandinavia, and I have a particular fondness for the languages of Scandinavia. Many of my words have a Scandinavian or Baltic look to them.

One of my favourite Mänti words is kellokült which means 'lateness' or 'tardiness'. Its literal translation is 'clock debt' or 'clock guilt'.

I also use a concept known as 'word pairs' to describe certain abstract words such as 'footwear' which is kõet saapat in Mänti (literally: 'shoes boots').

Though very different from English, some Mänti words are recognisable enough: nööt (night), buss (bus), kuppi (cup) etc.

I've written a whole chapter in my book 'Born On A Blue Day' about how I experience words and learn languages (I know ten currently) and include some of my Mänti words.

I'll try and write something about Mänti grammar soon...

Appearing at Ways With Words literary festival July 16th

2006-07-11T15:35:00.000Z

Ways With Words is an annual literary festival held in Dartington, Devon every summer in July. I am appearing this coming Sunday, July 16th, to give a talk about my life and book 'Born On A Blue Day'. You can find out more about the festival at http://www.wayswithwords.co.uk/dartington.html

Interview in today's Daily Telegraph (10th July)

2006-07-10T09:23:00.000Z

There's an interview with me in today's Daily Telegraph newspaper by Cassandra Jardine. It can be read online at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2006/07/10/hsavant10.xml&page=1