Ainan’s curious sense of humour.

Tonight, as I walked through rain soaked streets, beneath neon lights, with Ainan, he observed:

“Humans have ten fingers. An octopus has eight tentacles. An octopus would be worse on the piano, than a human.”

My laughter lit up the drizzle, all around. It was such an unexpected remark, coming out of nowhere, that I found it immensely funny. Odd thoughts are typical of Ainan – he considers the everyday world and never fails to see something unusual in it. In this case, he looked at the number of appendages different creatures have and related that to the problem of being an effective pianist. How funny.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Self-deprecating humour of a child prodigy.

Some able people praise themselves, a few others do what Ainan does: be self-deprecating.

About a month ago, Ainan remarked: “If people learn from their mistakes, I must be the most knowledgeable person in the world.”

He smiled at the end, and snorted a little laugh. His eyes twinkled at me.

I laughed with him.

Now, it must be said that this is Ainan’s style – to underplay or downplay himself. It must also be said that his remark is not true – for he does not make an unusual number of mistakes, in fact, he seems to make many fewer than most. Yet, this remark of his, is certainly typical of the way he refers to himself. He is even able to bring humour into how he describes himself.

I suppose that this self-deprecating humour of his may actually endear him to people. There is nothing more irritating than someone who spends their days boasting about themselves. By the same measure, there is something disarming about someone who downplays their many achievements and abilities and even speaks of them in a humorous way.

I do worry sometimes, though, that Ainan is a little too self-deprecating, on occasion. It makes me wonder whether he is actually being humorous – or, in fact, cannot see himself as he is, in relation to others. I think a clear vision of one’s place in the world and relation to others, is most helpful in guiding one’s choices in life. I do hope that Ainan’s tendency to self-deprecate won’t get in the way of that.

Having said that, Ainan’s approach will probably win him more friends than the opposite tack would garner. He is not one to push people away with a massive ego...he simply doesn’t have one. If anything he has the opposite of an ego. He is a quiet boy, who does not impose a self-image on the world, but holds it in reserve. When he speaks of himself, it is occasionally to disarm what others might think of him. He also manages to do it with humour. Indeed, humour is one of his more notable characteristics and it leaks into most areas of his life. He even began to make scientific jokes as early as six years old – but that is another tale.

I like this new wittiness that I see growing in Ainan. He has become a fashioner of one-liners. Most of them are not self-deprecating however, and are neutral in content. I shall keep an eye on the self-deprecating side of him, though, because I would not like to see that become too dominant. It is dangerous to do that too much – for one day the person uttering such lines, might come to believe in them – and that wouldn’t be healthy.

In the meantime, I shall enjoy Ainan’s spontaneous humour and learn from the glimpses it reveals, of how he thinks about himself, and the world.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

The relativity of ability.

As long term readers will know, Ainan has an unusual perspective on himself, one that, perhaps, others would not agree with.

A week or two ago, I remarked to Ainan:

“Your ability has been growing in recent months...” I spoke softly and without any undue emphasis.

“No it hasn’t!”, he said most firmly. “I am not getting any better, it is just that the tasks are getting easier.”

I didn’t wish to argue with him, so I maintained my silence. I had seen versions of this attitude and belief before in Ainan. He refuses to believe that his intellect is growing. He sees himself as ever the same. If he gets better at a variety of task, he blames the task for somehow getting easier, rather than acknowledge that he is getting better, or growing in any way.

I know why Ainan believes this. It is a defence in him, against the notion that he is in any way unusual. Ainan wishes to preserve the belief – which he holds – that his way of being is the norm – anything that deviates from him, is not. For Ainan, the intellectual standard, for “ordinary”, for a 12 year old, is his own level. That is how he wishes to see the world and his place in it. Thus, the idea that he might be growing or developing noticeably, threatens that stable world view – so he rejects it. For him, it is the tasks which change, not him.

This puts me in a dilemma. Should I try to get him to see his true place in the world, in relation to others – or should I leave him be, to preserve his illusion of “everdayness”, which he so wants to preserve? For now, I have left him with his view that it is the world that is getting easier to deal with, than that, he is growing more capable in doing so. I will have to deliberate though, in future, whether this is the right thing to do, in the long term.

This year I have seen an efflorescence of Ainan’s mind. He has taken to music, taught himself the piano, overnight, it seemed, and is now composing music. He plays it most days, quite beautifully. He is also growing as a writer and a mathematician. His mind seems to be expanding again, with a marked velocity. Yet, Ainan does not wish to see it. For him, all is static within – it is the world which changes without.

I have left him to his worldview and did not stress him by taking an opposite stance. I will just have to enjoy his mental renaissance, in silence, savouring it for myself without any overt remarks to draw attention to it. 

Whether Ainan likes it or not, he is growing – and it is enough for me to observe this. I don’t need to convince Ainan of it.

Grow on, Ainan! Or should I say: shrink world!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

The brevity of life.

Recently, Ainan has taken to considering the brevity of life. It troubles him, somewhat, to look ahead and see so few years to come.

“Life is SO short,” Ainan, said, a few days ago, without preamble. He almost seemed to be cursing its brevity.

“I am 12.”, he continued, a little too soberly, “...and that took no time at all, to reach.”

I kept quiet at that point. I held in my mind a thought I knew he wouldn’t want to hear: that I am 44 – and that took no time at all, to reach either. However old a human gets, they will still feel the same: that it took no time at all to reach their present age. It is one of the odd facts of our existence – that we would feel even the infinite were but an instant.

“Your generation should live a lot longer than mine.”, I said, to comfort him.

“I don’t know about that.”, he countered, a little too sure of himself.

“You think the world is going to have a catastrophic future?”

He just nodded in answer. Ainan didn’t think much of the way the world was being managed by its “leaders” – and was well aware of the steadily accumulating environmental issues, energy problems, pollution, species loss, potential ecosystem collapse and the generally apocalyptic trend of human mismanagement of nature. He didn’t see much hope in the face of it, primarily because he didn’t think much of the competence of those making the relevant decisions.

“No. It won’t.” I said, not quite certain of it, myself.

He just shook his head, deflecting my words and walked off, his thoughts a little too sombre.

Not for the first time, I considered the connection between high intelligence and a sobering view of reality. Smart people tend to understand, too well, the problems Mankind faces and see, too clearly, the limits those could place on their own places – so they can tend to be a little pessimistic as to what is to come.  Dumber types, however, are quite content to be happily ignorant and dismissive of all the darker possibilities. They will live quite happily...until they finally realize how wrong they were to be so content about it all.

Ainan, however, cannot know the ease of the dumb. He sees what might lie ahead and knows the enormity of the challenges Mankind faces. He also knows, the collective dumbness of those charged with navigating what lies ahead. It is not a happy realization.

Think back to what you were like at 12. Were you concerned at the brevity of life and convinced of hard times ahead for the human race? Let me know what you thought, below, so that I might compare your perspectives to Ainan’s.

Thank you.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Individuality through verbal expression.

Ainan, 12, has his own characteristic style of expression. At times he is markedly associative, in his writing, linking ideas sometimes logically, sometimes elusively. This creates stories unlike those written by anyone I know. At other times, however, he is pithy, in a memorable sort of way. For instance, on the 4^th June, 2012, he remarked: “Yes is just distilled maybe. Yes is the part that doesn’t evaporate away.”

Now, these two sentences might sound poetic, but he had a serious point in there, too...he was stating his understanding that “maybe” contained an element of yes in it (and an element of no, too). He was counteracting my frustration that he wouldn’t give a yes or no answer to a question I had asked him (now forgotten). He did so in a mild though pedagogical manner, as if he sought, gently, to enlighten his father with what seemed obvious to him. It was also, of course, his way to win the “argument” of whether he should give a yes or no answer.

I enjoy talking to Ainan. He is resourceful in his argumentation, when it comes to debating a point – and somewhat unexpected in his means of expression. He is also decidedly determined to maintain his point, in the face of any counterargument. I think this is a strength, in that he will defend his ideas, in future and speak on their behalf.

I do wonder at his creative writing though. It takes a certain kind of open mind to appreciate the way he constructs sentences, thoughts and observations. His peculiar combination of logic and association, makes for an unusual and challenging read. There is also a lot of humour in his work – both plays on words, and absurdities in the situations his characters encounter. It is not at all like anyone else’s writing that I know of...not even mine.

Anyway, it is in this individuality of verbal expression that much of Ainan can be found. Those privileged enough to read his creative writing, encounter an elusive thinker, laughing at the world, and its ways. Those who hear his pithy remarks, sense the beginning of an aphorist. So there are two competing means of expression in him: the logically condensed and telling and the diffuse, associative and elusive. It is as if there are two different types of writer in him, fighting for the right to “speak up”. Perhaps there are. Perhaps the secret of Ainan is that he is a chimera of opposites, each tugging him in a different direction simultaneously. The net effect of all these differing intellectual and dispositional forces, is the young, somewhat enigmatic, Ainan himself.

The question is: will one of these multiple influences prevail? Or will they always commingle? Will the associative or the logical win out, in Ainan?

I shall watch his writing and heed his words in the years ahead, to see how he develops.

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.) 

Ainan's favourite colours.

As anyone who is a regular reader of my blog will know, Ainan has a particularly acute memory for detail – for anything really that captures his interest. Sometimes, this amuses me.

A few days ago, Ainan approached me in the kitchen, as I contemplated matters inaccessible to others, in one of my reveries.

“Daddy,” he began.

I fell out of my reverie and focussed my eyes on my curiously alert son.

“I have found my favourite colours...the perfect colours!”, he announced, in the manner of an explorer returning from a long voyage.

I waited for him to describe them to me. This he then did, in his own inimitable way.

“Blue: 0, 135, 189; Pale blue: 0, 189, 255; Yellow: 255, 211, 0 and Red: 196, 2, 51”.

He said this strangely uninformative string of information in a very rapid patter – it came out almost as one long number, with the names of the colours as a kind of punctuation.

I looked at him intently for a second before speaking.

“Are those RGB numbers?”, I asked, fairly certain of it.

“Yes.”

“Can you show me what they look like?”

He did.

Now for those who don’t know, RGB is a colour coding system used on computers. So Ainan’s numbers were the colour codes for a particular colour displayed on a computer. What struck me about his utterance, was the speed with which he spoke, combined with the certainty with which he recalled the number codes. They seemed to be, to him, distinct objects in his mind, so tangible he could touch them with an inner thought. This was not a difficult task for him. He did it without even realizing that many people would not be able to do the same.

If you want to see his colours, go to a paint programme and check them in its colour palette. These are regarded by Ainan as ideal colours – all for reasons of his own, of course.

The other question this poses is: how long did it take him to find these “perfect colours”...out of all the millions of possibilities...and what made him remember them, when he did out of all the other number combinations he had tried?

It was very like Ainan not to try to describe the colours to me with words. He actually defined them as a computer would, or a scientist might, by giving them a precise definition and reference point. What he gave me was the actual colour – not a description of it. Yet, there was something missing in his description – any sense in me, of what the colour might be, without actually seeing it. However, Ainan achieved his aim, in communication: a precise definition of his thought – even if no-one else would be able to decode it without a computer to hand.

Not for the first time, I am led to wonder what Ainan will become, as he grows up. I hope I am around to see it – because that is something I would not miss. He still surprises me, and shows me new things about himself, even after all this time. In a way, I think he is a person that no-one will fully know – because there is so much to know about him. I have known him all his life – and yet it is still not enough to fully quantify and qualify, what is going on in his head. Yet, I shall try to know him as fully as I can and understand the curious person he is.

At least, now, I know what his favourite colours are – quite precisely!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

(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/11136175To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, 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 athttp://www.genghiscan.com/This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Art Singapore 2009 - The Contemporary Asian Art Fair.

Art Singapore 2009 has begun. We know, because Ainan was invited to the Gala Opening Party. Yes, that is right, he received his very own invitation. Of course, we accompanied him to the Art show!

It was, to me, a pleasant surprise to see the diversity of art and artists on show. Perhaps, an annual event like this, will give Singapore's nascent art world, the impetus it needs to become truly alive. The artists and galleries showing, come from all over Asia, and some appeared to be from Europe (there was at least one German gallery present). It is good to see this interconnectedness of Singapore's art world, with the wider world. Perhaps, through this mutual exchange, some Singaporean artists might make it on to the world stage - just as the world makes its way to Singapore.

It is quite possible that Ainan was the youngest person to be invited - and that led to a comic moment, which I shall not recount - I mention it here only to remind myself, in years to come, of how he was greeted.

Ainan enjoyed the evening rather more than he expected. He seemed to wish to interact with the works and did so when permitted: touching them, to feel their textures and peering closely at them to see how they were made (which he would then comment on perceptively, sometimes debunking the artist's work, once the method was revealed). It was rewarding to watch him think about something outside the realm of science, and see how he perceived it, processed it, and understood it. At times, he even laughed at pieces - in a positive way. So, it was a good evening.

Thanks to Art Singapore 2009 for their invitation. It is definitely a worthwhile exhibition and all who can, should get along to Suntec City to catch it before its close on October 12th. You will be as pleasantly surprised by the range of work on show, as we were. There are, without doubt, interesting artists at work, in Asia. See it!

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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The birth of scepticism

The very young do not doubt, but, at some point, the first signs of scepticism creep into their minds. Ainan, 7, has already past that point.

Yesterday, Ainan came to me with a question: "Daddy, do you believe everything you read in the newspapers?"

"No, I don't. Sometimes they get the facts wrong."

"Me neither.", he began, more sure of himself now that he had found a fellow non-believer in the truth of all newspaper articles.

"You see, there is this girl, in the newspaper...", he began, quickly and quietly, in a rapid explanation of what he doubted and why.

The particular story is unimportant. What is important here is that he has begun to assert the primacy of his own judgments over the reports of others. To him, a news story is not to be accepted without question: it is to be judged against an internal set of criteria to determine its likelihood of truth.

Perhaps this is part of the process of becoming a scientist: the forming of independent opinions as to the truth of matters; the testing of information against what one knows and understands as well as, where it applies, experimentally.

I do not know when he formed this idea that newspapers were not to be trusted without examination. This is the first time he has mentioned this view to me - so it might have been resident in him for some time. It is, however, further evidence that the tendency to think for himself, in matters of science, has become more generalized: he is thinking for himself, in all areas - even in the simple reading of a newspaper.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Ainan's recipe for Fish and Chips

Unusual knowledge, gives rise to unusual perspectives - and, it seems, an unusual sense of humour.

It is Saturday. In England, where I once lived, on a Saturday night, one would often see people queuing outside Fish and Chip shops across the land. It was, in some strata a tradition, to "down a pint" with their Fish and Chips, of a weekend. The most modest of outlets was often able to attract quite a crowd, if they had the fatty flavour just right.

The other day, Ainan jested about a recipe for the flavouring of Chips (as in Fish and Chips). For those who don't know, chips are "french fries" - but thicker and generally softer than the variety sold in MacDonald's, Burger King and the like.

In England, most people added vinegar and salt to their chips, for flavouring.

Ainan looked at this situation and laughed to himself, before remarking:

"Why not add HSbF6 and CsF, to them?"

He thought this was hilarious. Perhaps I should explain. Vinegar is actually a 5% solution of ethanoic acid, salt is actually sodium chloride. What Ainan was proposing was that the Vinegar be replaced by Fluoro-Antimonic Acid. It is still acidic and therefore sour in taste. The only problem might be that this acid is 10 to the power 19 times stronger than Sulphuric Acid. Anyone eating it would be somewhat inconvenienced. The other suggested chemical, Cesium Fluoride, is also a salt made in the same way as Sodium Chloride - a combination of an alkali metal and a halogen. However, in this case he chose the most extreme readily available elements of their kind for the combination. By all accounts Cesium Fluoride has a truly awful taste, being far more flavoursome - in the most negative of ways - than sodium chloride.

Thus, Ainan's recipe is an analogy to the traditional one. It is still the adding of a salt and an acid, as flavouring - though with rather different effects!

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and one month, or Tiarnan, eighteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)