A trio of completely useless talents
1. I can remember the lyrics to any song after only hearing it once. Not that impressive but good fun on a road trip when the same annoying song is on the radio four or five times during the drive and you can drive your travelling partners mad with it.

2. I can do all sorts of complex math in my head, whether I want to or not. Can't grasp algebra or trig or any of that useful stuff for building bridges or planes or massive killer robots, but I can put together a set of numbers or analysis in my head in an instant and blurt out the answer. Makes me feel that I'm living a Tyler Durden style crazy double life, except instead of being a depressed office slave with a super cool fighty alter ego I'm a coffee-addicted zombie office clunge with a shouty Rainman style alter ego who surfaces in the presence of math problems.

3. I used to know if the tv was on in my mum & dads house, with no sound on, by the tingle I used to get in the spiney part of my neck. Doesn't seem to work with flatscreens, so another skill lost to modern technology!
(Mmmmminty all the beatles are aliens except for George, Mon 22 Nov 2010, 21:57, 6 replies)

The TV thing...
... is because you could hear the 15.625kHz whistle from the scan coils. Or, of course, 15.734kHz in the US.
(gordonjcp, Mon 22 Nov 2010, 23:58, closed)

Also static electricity
Which flatscreens don't generate.

That would only be close-up, though, so the whistle is more likely. And kids hear higher frequencies, of course.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Tue 23 Nov 2010, 9:15, closed)

I have wondered about this for years.
Thanks.
( Wet-chinned bag shanker Cannot parse Wogan, Tue 23 Nov 2010, 10:30, closed)

I can still hear it.
Drive me potty. Thank God for LCD.
( jim_bob can herd cats., Tue 23 Nov 2010, 12:20, closed)

Drives me mad too
I used to really piss off teachers because I'd walk into classrooms and go straight up to the TV on standby and turn it off. They couldn't hear the noise so they thought I was exaggerating how irritating it was.
I can still hear it now and still go around turning off other people's TVs, but I like to think I'm more tactful about it (though probably not).
(xanthine, Tue 23 Nov 2010, 12:24, closed)

Well you learn something new every day
thanks for that!
(Mmmmminty all the beatles are aliens except for George, Tue 23 Nov 2010, 18:28, closed)