The Six Thousand

Zak Smith’s is famous for sitting down one day and illustrating every single page of Thomas Pynchon's massive Gravity's Rainbow.

His work moves from sharply rendered poignancy to candy-colored excess. Within a general atmosphere of a dazed freneticism, he offers uncanny and excessive portraits, synthetically luminous abstractions, and somewhat narrative compilations of drawings. Together, they exist in a world that can’t decide whether it’s awake or asleep, gorgeous or vaguely psychedelic.

Daniel Paul Tammet is an amazing savant. According to the Wikipedia, for Tammet, each number up to 10,000, has its own unique shape and feel, and he can "sense" whether a number is prime or composite and "see" results of calculations as landscapes in his mind. Tammet holds the European record for remembering and recounting pi.

One day, Tammet will be the Rosetta Stone for planet Earth. He can speak English, French, German, Spanish, Lithuanian, Icelandic, and Esperanto. Tammet is making a new language called mänti. Mänti has many features related to Finnish and Estonian.

Tammet can learn a new language within a week. For example, Tammet was challenged to learn Icelandic. Within seven days he was conversing well enough in Icelandic to undergo a live TV interview about his skills, and chat freely with the hosts. He is a avid golfer. He also created an online educational company named Optimnem. More information here, here, and here.

Kirsten Sanford is a black-belt wearing, radio show-producing grad student and science journalist. Her science radio show is This Week In Science. The kickass weekly science and tech show presents a humorous and irreverent look at our universe. Topics include genetic engineering, cybernetics, space exploration, neuro science, and a show favorite: "Countdown to World Robot Domination". The show is hosted by Kirsten, a Ph.D. candidate in neuro science, and Justin, a wisecracking professional washing machine salesman and armchair physicist. One of the top science radio shows on the web. Check it out and hear a science news program like no other. More info here and at the Wikipedia.