Radiation contamination of Japanese food.

A few days ago, I was going to write a brief, pithy remark about contamination in Japanese food, but held off, because I thought it might seem premature and alarmist, to have done so. However, now, it seems, I would have been spot on.

Reports have come in, that Japanese food samples are showing alarmingly high levels of radioactive contamination. Milk, from cows living 20 miles away from the reactor – which, note, is OUTSIDE the area deemed “safe” by the authorities, has proven to be highly radioactive. Drinking it, will give the consumer the equivalent radiation exposure of one extra CT scan per year (if consumed throughout the year). That is a lot of extra radiation, given how much exposure a CT scan involves. So, too, and even more alarmingly, spinach grown up to 65 miles from Fukushiima, are rather radioactive too – giving the equivalent of one fifth of a CT scan per year additional radiation to a consumer.

Now, what is clear is that the contaminated area appears to be very large indeed – and that food grown within it, would cause long term cumulative harm to anyone who consistently ate food from such sources.

I worry about this. What will become of all the Japanese farm land involved? The time might come when only the Japanese will eat their food – and perhaps not even them. This has implications for food prices worldwide, if the Japanese start avoiding their own food produce and seek to import it, instead.

In understanding this situation, it should be noted that the half lives of some of the contaminants such as Caesium 137, are long enough (30 years), to make food grown there hazardous for centuries to come. If the Japanese are content to eat such food, one might expect a creeping up of national cancer rates and much long term misery.

There is a sharp lesson here, of course. It is an obvious one. No nation should build nuclear reactors in earthquake prone zones. To do so, is to invite centuries of contamination, of land far around, with consequent harm to generations of humans, plants and animals. The Japanese could have foreseen this. It was quite predictable. Yet, their own self-confidence got in the way of this understanding. Their misfortune should be instructive to all other nations, however. Don’t build nuclear reactors in seismic zones. Those that have been built in them, should be retired as soon as possible. Were this done, Fukushiima might be the last major nuclear “accident”, in the world.

Let us hope so. In the meantime: beware what you eat.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

How to sleep soundly.

Most people, I imagine, go to sleep in much the same way. Tiarnan, however, does not. Our little five year old has a way all of his own to approach the world of sleep.

A few nights ago, for instance, his mother went into his bedroom to tuck him into bed and found him laying there dressed in a rather peculiar fashion. He had swimming goggles on and was carrying a water pistol.

Tiarnan noted her curious gaze and observed, cryptically. “I have to protect myself.”

Tiarnan, was clearly, on one of his imaginary adventures. He was preparing himself to enter one of his personal worlds, fully equipped for what he would face.

At first, Syahidah was moved to take off his goggles, but she restrained herself. This was Tiarnan’s adventure, so she had to let him be.

Instead she lay beside him, until he fell asleep. When he was soundly asleep, she carefully took off his swimming goggles and set them to one side. His water pistol still lay beside him. She left it there and crept silently from the room.

Tiarnan had, once again, fallen asleep in his idiosyncratic way. Many a night, he dresses differently for sleep. This, however, is the only occasion he chose goggles and a gun.

It must be said, that of all the children I have had the chance to observe in my life, Tiarnan is the most likely to be an actor, that I have ever seen. Every day he constructs imaginary people and becomes them; imaginary worlds and enters them. I would say his most likely career choices are actor and writer, for they would best embody his character. In a way, I hope he does become an actor, for I fear he might be unhappy were this proclivity to imagine, not expressed, in some deep way.

Sleep on, my adventurous Tiarnan!

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Nostalgia for early childhood.

Tiarnan is but five years old. Despite this, he actually feels nostalgic, at times, or least fond of, his early childhood.

Yesterday, Tiarnan was reminiscing with his mum, Syahidah.

“You know, when I was three years old, I watched Primeval...”, his eyes were alight with memories of those first impressions of the TV series. “I was SO small.”, said our little boy.

His mind turned to other memories then. “I remember, when I was a little boy, I got stuck in the lift.”

Syahidah looked down on him, remembering the incident, too. Tiarnan had got stuck in the lift, on his own.

“Do you know WHY I got stuck?”, he asked his mummy, feeling a certain exasperation at the way things were.

She didn’t answer, but waited for him to speak further.

“I got stuck because I was too small to reach the buttons.”

He seemed to be in the lift, again, in his mind, unable to reach up far enough, unable to escape.

Tiarnan felt again the distress of his younger self.

Tiarnan quite often revisits his past. He frequently refers to distant past events, displaying both a clarity of memory and an inability to forget that which touched him.

What is interesting, for me, about this, is the way Tiarnan conceives of himself. He looks back to his younger self, and thinks of that younger version as “so small”...seeing his earlier self as a little boy, someone distant and distinct from his present “mature” state. He sees himself as big, as developed, as more sophisticated than he used to be only two or three years ago. He also thinks of that earlier time as “SO long ago”. To us, of course, it doesn’t seem long ago, at all. To us he has grown up, in an instant.

When he speaks of his earlier self, he seems fond of what he sees there, but also apart from it. He sees himself as Other, as More, than he used to be. It is curious to see how he monitors his own growth and change, over time. He is very much self-aware, not only of his self now, but the self he used to have.

I wonder, now, if he will remember his early childhood, when he becomes an adult. Will he recall his own inward, backward gaze to earlier times? Will he remember his own fondness for his littler self within? I hope so. I would like to talk to him, one day, about how he used to reminisce, on his earlier days. In a way, he is like a little old man, looking back on his life – yet his life has just begun. He considers his past, in the way the elderly do: considering again, important times, highlights, moments of greatness and moments of revelation. Come to think of it, we seem to specialize in little old men. Our house if full of them. It would be funny to see what they will be like when they are actually old men. Sadly, I am unlikely to be around, then, to make the comparison for them. My words, here, shall have to serve in my place. Perhaps they will then be able to make the comparison on their own.

Happy reminiscing, Tiarnan!

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Nobel Laureate Douglas D. Osheroff

Today, I had the privilege of hearing Nobel Laureate Professor Douglas D. Osheroff talk. His public lecture, “How Science Changes Our Lives”, was held at the Pusat Sains Negara – or the Science Centre, in Kuala Lumpur.

I attended the talk along with Ainan, 11, Fintan, 7 and our friends Zuhairah Ali, of the NAGCM and her son, Ismael.

For me, the talk itself was as I expected it to be: “Science Light”. It was an overview of some of the major figures in science and the major creative works, with, in the view of Professor Osheroff, the most impact. It was a personal tour of the highlights of science, by Osheroff. It was interesting to note, however, a strong environmental thread throughout it, in that he went to the trouble to present the evidence, graphically, to the audience, of how CO2 levels are affecting global temperatures. This could have been interpreted as an anti-science remark, in that use of fossil fuels and the attendant technology had led to global warming. Osheroff deflected this conclusion by saying: “Scientists are not to blame for global warming: Mankind is.”

For me, the most interesting part was the question and answer session at the end. I was the first to ask him a question, which was rather good in a way, since it encouraged the more customarily shy Asian audience to step forward in a long queue, after me.

I asked the grey bearded Professor Osheroff: “What do you think are the most important qualities in a scientist?”

He smiled at that, as if about to joke. “Well, you have to be pretty smart, for a start.”

The audience laughed.

“I would say, intelligence, curiosity and persistence.”

“Which of those three is the most important?”

“Well...”, he looked off into the air, as if struck by the difficulty of such a choice, at first.

“I would say curiosity”.

That is kind of what I had thought he would say, but it was good to hear it from a man who had already made the kind of journey through life that he had.

Another remark he made, which didn’t surprise me. He complained, at one point, that “Since getting the Nobel Prize, I have had a lot less time to do the kind of work that got me the prize in the first place.”

This is similar to Doris Lessing’s complaint of a few years back, that all she could do after the Nobel Prize, was to answer questions from journalists. So, perhaps it is merciful, indeed, that Nobel Prizes usually come late in a career, long after the work was done that won it.

Yet, it wasn’t all complaints. He observed that winning the Nobel Prize had afforded him many opportunities that he would never have been offered otherwise. He received offers from all over the world, like the one today. He could “pick and choose” which to do. He had chosen to come to Malaysia three times, for these Nobel Laureate lectures. He noted that before the Nobel Prize, he would fly about 30,000 miles a year. After the prize, he now flew about 150,000 miles per year. (Hence, “I spend my time doing all these things, and not thinking about my next experiment!).

However, he declared that he enjoyed speaking about science, in fact, he said: “The most important thing I can do now, is to stimulate young people to go into science.”
So, Professor Osheroff’s presence at the talk was part of his ongoing mission to excite interest in science in the young. Many in the audience were quite young: there were many secondary school students present. They seemed pretty sharp about science too. One boy asked: “Why does superfluid helium move towards warmer places on its own?”

“Are you an undergraduate?”, he asked of the boy in school uniform, with a white shirt and red tie.

“No. I am in secondary school.”, he said, with a proud little smile.

"How do you know THAT?”, asked an amazed Professor Osheroff.

“I did some research into it,” said the boy.

“Well, I don’t know how to answer you without a lot of maths, but it has to do the Gibbs Free Energy.”

One question received a particularly intense answer from Professor Osheroff.

“When you started out in science, was it your goal to win a Nobel Prize?”

“No.” He countered, a little worked up about it. “I think the people who go into science wanting to win a Nobel Prize are going to end up bitter men, because they are mostly men, in science. Bitter because they didn’t reach their goals in life. No. I think you should choose realistic goals and go after them. Choose good goals – but they have to be achievable.”

“What were your goals then?”

“Just to do experiments I was interested in.” His simple answer was set beside, in many of the audience’s mind, the magnitude of his success in doing so.

“It is OK for a nation, like Malaysia, to aspire to a Nobel Prize. I think that is doable. Although you have to be aware of the statistics. America has...oh...(eyes glazed in calculation), about 50 times the number of scientists as Malaysia, and we only get a few Nobel Prizes here and there.”

“There is hope.” He observed. “After all, this auditorium is full – and there is another room out there, with people watching on TV screens. So, there is a lot of interest in science, among the young, here, in Malaysia.”

He finished off his lecture with a call to action: “I hope some of you will choose to go into science!”

It was a rallying cry, and he clearly enjoyed giving it.

Professor D. Osheroff became a Nobel Laureate for being one of the three co-discoverers of the superfluidity of Helium 3. He has spent his life researching into low temperature Physics. He is presently a Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University, though, interestingly, he refers to himself as “not an applied scientist” but a basic scientist.

Nobel Laureate Professor Douglas D. Osheroff’s talk was part of Malaysia’s National Nobel Laureate Programme, which proposes to inspire an interest in science in Malaysians by flying in Nobel Laureates to speak every year. I think the programme is a good idea and a lot of kids had glowing eyes, today, at the chance to hear a real, live Nobel Laureate speak. We enjoyed it, too and I hope the National Nobel Laureate Programme remains a permanent fixture of the Public Lecture circuit in Malaysia.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

A "Green" blog, on Technorati.

Today, I checked Technorati, to see what its assessment of my blog was. I was both surprised and pleased at what I found.

Apparently, my blog is thought of as a Green blog, in the sense of environmentally concerned. I have a Green Authority of 88, as of today and I am placed at 2,544 on the list of all blogs in the world with a Green theme. That, to me, seems quite a good placing, considering that I only write about Green themes, occasionally and not each and every day, as some Green blogs do.

As an overall assessment, my blog today has a Technorati Authority of 92 and a placement at 27,851 out of all the world's blogs. Again, that is surprisingly good considering how many blogs there are in the world. (Note: according to Wikipedia, there were 156 million public blogs, by February 16th 2011). My blog is accounted, by Technorati, to be in the top 0.0178 %. That is it is 1 in 5,601.

Technorati comes to these assessments by monitoring the linking activity of the whole of the internet in response to a blog. So, my "Green Authority", for instance, comes from the response of the Green community in the blogosphere, and the internet in general, to my blog postings. So, too, for my Technorati Authority: it measures how the internet is responding to my blog posts.

In a way, it is helpful to learn this, from Technorati, since it tells me what I am doing well and how I am affecting the wider world. Without such a monitoring tool, it would be very difficult to know one's impact on the wider world. The only clues I have, other than that, are comments on my blog and my traffic data.

Thank you to all my readers and, in particular those who are linking to my posts. It is heartening to come to understand that my words are having an effect, somehow, somewhere, or at least, some influence.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Underestimating nature: Japanese hubris.

Nature should never be underestimated, nor human prowess overestimated. The Japanese are guilty of both. Indeed, their hubris may yet lead to a kind of disaster and human tragedy that has not befallen a developed nation in modern memory.

The Japanese mistake comes, in a very deep way, from their national personality. Their own mythology and culture, so evident in their manga comics, is that technology can triumph over all. They seem to believe that not only is there a technological solution for all problems, but that the Japanese are themselves equipped to deliver it. This attitude has led to some successes in certain fields of engineering and electronics, but it has also led to foolish decisions on a national level. One of those is the placement of 55 nuclear reactors, in Japan, within the influence of the “Ring of Fire”, seismically active zone.

Japanese decision makers, rather puzzlingly, from an objective point of view, ignored the fact that Japan is one of the most seismically active places on Earth, and ordered a dense network of nuclear reactors to be built. They believed that their engineers could make their reactors entirely earthquake proof, eliminating the dangers of having fission reactors in a seismic zone. Indeed, they planned for earthquakes of a particular seriousness – but this particular quake seriously surpasses their design limits. In short, the Japanese underestimated nature.

There is a lesson for all nations here and all politicians. The Earth is entering a time of ever greater extremes in natural phenomena, such as weather. This means that events once thought rare, will become increasingly common and, unfortunately for us (and the world’s insurers) ever more savage. Those planning against such eventualities, should try their best to OVER-estimate the seriousness of events. They should plan for the worst possible imaginable circumstances – and then some. The only safety, in the face of the “natural” disasters to come, will be in what may seem like excessively cautious preparation. However, when the time comes, it will not seem excessive at all. It will seem like the wisdom it is.

So, let not the world make the Japanese mistake. Plan ahead for the worst of all possible scenarios, in all areas of natural disaster. Overengineer everything that needs to be protected. Such preparations are the only measures that can reduce the impact of the many disasters to come, which we shall all see in our lifetimes.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page. To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.html
and here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here: http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)