Word: peeks
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Office for the Arts at Harvard presents "Poets for Haiti" on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Askwith Lecture Hall at Radcliffe Quad. With a suggested donation of $10, this is a great way to help Haiti, support the arts at Harvard, and finally sneak a peek at Robert Pinsky...
...When Kim Peek was 9 months old, doctors pronounced him so mentally retarded that he would never walk or talk. One physician suggested he be institutionalized; another later recommended a lobotomy. Peek, who died of a heart attack Dec. 19 at 58, was indeed riven by disabilities throughout his life. Born without a corpus callosum--the nerve tissue that connects the brain's hemispheres--he never learned to brush his hair or button his shirt without help...
...buried beneath these afflictions was a mighty intellect unique in the world. Peek was a so-called megasavant, a man with such dazzling recall that he seemed to have ingested encyclopedias whole. He could read both facing pages of a book--one with each eye--in seconds and could instantly tell you everything from the day of the week for a bygone date to esoteric facts about sports history or Shakespeare's canon...
...Peek's skills floored screenwriter Barry Morrow and helped inspire Dustin Hoffman's savant character in the Oscar-winning drama Rain Man. Peek became an overnight star and spent the rest of his life showcasing his gifts to more than 64 million people. Had he chosen to, he might have memorized every name...
...says Shah, authorities have been "passive," favoring only "defensive measures" such as checkpoints - the layers of concrete blocks and razor wire at the entrance of each of Pakistan's major cities and athwart all their major thoroughfares, where a handful of policemen peek into vehicles and perfunctorily inspect trunks before waving them through. At best, these checkpoints are a visible deterrent designed to reassure the public. But for months now, they have for the most part failed to keep out gunmen, suicide bombers and vehicles laden with explosives. (See pictures of the aftermath of an October 2009 bombing...