Chanel 5 Now - The boy with the incredible brian

[Twiglett]

no idea what this is like or whether you'd be interested but in case you didn't know its about a man with autism with mathematical kills (british rainman they said)

sorry might be cr@p

skill (not kills)

did brian sneak in, twig, or did you mean him to be there?

no I meant him to be there .. can't ever type brain on here

And Chanel 5 too?

no that's crap typing

what are you? the spelling police?

No, I thought it was an in joke I'd missed out on!

Keeping you bumped up anyway, chuck.

creeps in< Brian.... rofl.
creeps out

brian, oh I have laughed soooo much you couldnt even imagine

Just going to tell you all about it.

Amazing!

BTW is the doctor with him (Simon Baron-Cohen) Ali G's brother?

They are cousins.

I thought it was brilliant (channel 5???!!!). I could have done with seeing more of Kim Peak - the inspiration for Rainman, but never mind - he would warrant a programme on his own.

I thought it interesting that someone described autism as an "ability and disability".

Wow at him learning Icelandic in a week!

Message withdrawn

Amazing, amazing, amazing programme. My jaw is still on the floor.
Lovely quote from the "Rainman' guy - 'you don't have to be disabled to be different. We are all different."
I liked it particularly because, without wanting to sound arrogant or anything, the main man reminded me of ds. I've been - quietly - worried about ds because he has developed an absolute passion/obsession for numbers. He sits in bed 'reading' the numbers at the bottom of each page of his books, sees numbers everywhere, can count to a thousand, can count in French, is obsessed with things like odd and even numbers and I don't really like it - it's alien to me, and combined with his dyspraxia and tendency to be a loner, it's been freaking me out. This man seems really lovely, even if he is good at maths!

I only saw the last 5 minutes, about him learning Icelandic, but I must admit I thought the 'rainman' tag only applied to his genius skills and not an autism label - he seemed fine? Maybe other parts of the programme were more revealing, can anyone fill me in? Does he have Aspergers?

The first part where he remembered pye to 22,000 decimal places was unbelievable!!!!! It blew me away, took him something like 4hours to recite it and never made a mistake. I bet the people checking the numbers off were more nervous of making a mistake than he was! Absolutely facinating program, I was glued. How does it go.....3.141592............i forget the rest!!

Sorry...programme

I was also amazed how "normal" he seemed to act. He didn't seem uneasy with interaction with others, especially strangers, and it was so special to actually get an insight into how he saw his thoughts....if you can follow what I mean, it just made my day.... big up to channel 5...for once!!!

Brobb, did he talk at all about things he found difficult?

Beccaboo - yes he was dx as Aspergers some years ago. There was an article in the paper about him the other day.

He wasn't happy around crowds and flashing lights, which was amazing when he went to Las Vegas.....I mean....you can't get more crowded and flashy!!! I also liked the little bit where he said that he was so different at school that the bullies left him alone 'cos they didn't know what to make of him.....so they couldn't make fun of him!

What was his name? I'd love to google him. Or can anyone do a link to the article.
Did the programme say what he does now or anything about his life?

Got it and googled him. Definitely autistic - very shy, ritualistic, dyspraxic, can't drive a car or wire a plug, avoids the beach as he obsessively counts the pebbles! He runs a small online business as he couldn't cope with an office job. Oddly enough, he only got B grades in his A levels.