It is so disappointing that the popular I Fucking Love Science website and Facebook page has run a story on the supposed acquired synaesthete and maths genius Jason Padgett that lacks the slightest whiff of skepticism! The story is basically book promotion. In many ways this shite mirrors the countless bulldust media stories about Daniel Tammet, another supposed acquired synaesthete and maths genius. It is exactly this type of situation that requires a good strong dose of common sense from our friend Tomas. Go Tomas!
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/brain-injury-releases-astonishing-mathematical-powers
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Next stop: the comments section in the Washington Post.
Tomas
A debunker's job is never done!
I've just been reading Medical Daily, a website that says it "strives to... provide accurately sourced information ... with thorough analysis and no ambiguity about its validity or accuracy." I was therefore a bit surprised to find that it reports on Jason Padgett and Derek Amato without a hint of skepticism.
I posted a comment suggesting that these were badly sourced, far-fetched claims, but unfortunately it disappeared; maybe their moderators feel such skepticism is inappropriate.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/rain-mans-concussion-4-cases-acquired-savant-syndrome-turned-regular-folks-geniuses-287426
Tomas
Jerks.
I noticed that Medical Daily also has an article about Derek Amatato, and they report some doctor from the Mayo Clinic taking his story seriously: http://www.medicaldaily.com/derek-amato-becomes-musical-genius-after-brain-injury-what-acquired-savant-syndrome-video-260369
A link leads to more nonsense. Note the disclaimer with this "news" report about Padgett:
http://youtu.be/yCvYKiNW4vQ
The correction on the Fox news report about the "Fractal Fusion Reactor" is amusing.
For further fun, see this YouTube video from Padgett himself, at 3:35.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-w7NKBKcp4
He has covered up the original text "Jason studies in Washington State and is helping scientists originally from MIT to design a Fractal Fusion Reactor" with a box with some meaningless but slightly more plausible-sounding pseudo-mathematical nonsense.
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